The fish rots from the head - Anonymous employee Shoelace Employee Review

This is very unfortunate to read, we really appreciate your review and would like to address the various concerns you have laid out. In the meantime, please feel free to reach out to your HR member so we can work on making Shoelace a more supportive and enjoyable place for you to work. 1. In regards to management, they have been taking many steps to become a more approachable management team. This includes making a number of key, experienced hires or promotions to improve communication and provide more bandwidth. In addition, we’ve engaged external HR consultants to take steps to work towards change. Managers encourage/expect feedback of this nature from their direct reports to be able to work on solutions. I can understand how this feedback would be hard to share 1:1, but I hope you will feel empowered to express this to a member of the leadership team you are comfortable with so this can get resolved. 2. Without going into detail about terminations, they are always unpleasant and at times can be unexpected, however Shoelace has taken big strides towards feedback and when a member is struggling they are given warnings (both written and verbal), guidance, and coaching on ways to improve to avoid termination. Regular 1:1s are used as a weekly/bi-weekly check in to help employees and managers align on expectations, provide constructive feedback, and develop regular coaching. We encourage all employees to address any ill feelings with your manager during 1:1s, HR, or a member of the leadership team you are comfortable speaking with. 3. Salaries are compared to industry standards twice a year and corrected based on performance, market adjustments, and inflation. Our last full market salary comparison was done in late 2019 by an outside HR consultant and moving forward (including this current review cycle) managers will additionally conduct their own market research for each performance review to give recommendations on salary corrections and raises. 4. With our latest product idea, the CEO and Product Designer conducted many hours of market research into helping form a new product that people have expressed a need/want for. With our most recent product offerings (including prospecting and add-ons) we saw a lot of success due to the needs of the clients and the knowledge that these were offerings they were interested in. Shoelace takes concrete steps on ensuring our product ideas have market fit.