On MT/Sprout, we read a post about how Techleap wants to ensure more top talent for high-growth scaleups. How do you find and retain top talent? Especially in this Brainport region, this is a challenging task. Many startups and scaleups are inhibited in their growth ambitions because they encounter challenges in the area of talent and culture within their own organization. Consider the optimal design of the leadership team and attracting and retaining top talent. InTechleap's People & Culture Scaleup Guide you will find tips on Leadership, culture, reward opportunities and how to create a winning team.
Too few startups can scale
'The Netherlands is fertile ground for startups. We have a lot of them,' says Marloes Mantel of Techleap. 'What we lack, however, are enough startups that eventually grow into unicorn, companies worth 1 billion euros. Too few startups and scaleups manage to scale hard.' One of the stumbling blocks, she says, is finding talent. Many IT vacancies in particular are hard to fill. If it were up to Techleap, that percentage would drop to just a quarter by 2023. Besides developers, startups and scaleups also involve people Marloes calls scalers: Experienced workers who have already scaled within their own domain. That could be marketing, sales or HR, for example.
Making stock options more attractive
To make that happen, she is pushing for, among other things, an internationally competitive share option scheme. It must become more attractive for startups and scaleups to pay employees in share options. Often these companies do not have enough money for hefty salaries. By issuing shares, they can entice scarce talent, including talent from abroad, to come and stay.
The conditions for stock options are not competitive in the Netherlands compared to other countries, Mantel says. 'Even now, employees have to pay tax as soon as the options are converted into shares. Even though the shares are not yet marketable. Moreover, the rate is high.'
'We often hear from companies that want to hire talent from other countries that this tax arrangement is seen as a weakness in the Dutch offer. If the Netherlands wants to play Champions League and attract top talent from home and abroad, it is essential that this arrangement becomes more attractive for both top talent and entrepreneurs.'
People & Culture Scaleup Guide
Recently, techleap launched the People & Culture Scaleup Guide, a practical guide to all things talent development and culture within scaleups. In it, the topics include key leadership issues, rigging a compensation house and defining culture. For the latter aspect, they interviewed Patty McCord of Netflix, field hockey coach Alyson Annan, Pieter Zwart of Coolblue and Steven Schuurman of Elastic. This guide helps high-growth companies put the right structures in place. This prevents every entrepreneur from having to invent the wheel themselves. So take a look at this guide!
