FNDN

FNDN exists to empower startup success through strategic pay practices that drive growth and create clarity for your people.

We transform compensation into a clear, strategic advantage by ensuring fair, budget-aligned pay practices that drive your business's growth.

Director

Kindred Minds Advisory Board

An advisory group of HR/People leaders who are helping build the future of People tech. Learn more: kindredminds.com/

Advisor

Oyster®

Senior Director of People Experience

An expanded remit taking on responsibility for both people operations and employee experience of the end-of-end journey that all each professional undertakes in their employment with Oyster.

Director of People Experience

Leading the People Operations function for Oyster:
• Enabled Oysters scale from 200 to 700+ (across 70 countries) within 12 months
• Led establishment and roll-out of compensation philosophy through detailed communication campaign. 
• Led team in the construction of a global pay calculator - delivering an ability to benchmark any Oyster role across 140+ countries within minutes.
• Led pay transparency efforts in support of values. This included building our own compensation tool and launch to internal employees. Comprehensive reporting and enablement efforts on understanding philosophy and basis for mechanics of comp benchmarks.
• Development and rollout of Oysters job levelling framework to provide career paths to all and standardise roles and salaries internally and for candidates coming in to the business.
• Delivered implementation and rollout of a performance enablement platform based on a continuous feedback framework, providing an objective capability for progression and internal mobility.
• Led the growth and development of a globally distributed team of People Ops professionals, delivering an Operating Model to dedicate our team specifically towards service and project delivery.

Director of People Operations

Rheinmetall

• Responsibility for; Talent Acquisition, HR Business Partnership and Workforce Planning.
• Led national workforce planning, reporting and analysis in line with national capital projects and secondary defence contracts.
• Established and led the annual performance and compensation merit cycle. 
• Led team accreditation and adoption of Korn Ferry job evaluation methodology.
• Implemented market dataset in TA benchmarking and merit cycle process. Training talent acquisition, hiring managers and leaders broadly in compensation methodology and uptake.
• Led talent acquisition team in hiring ~250 people over 10 months, as well as key initiatives including the launch of RDA’s referral program.

SilverRail

Procured and implemented a global HR system (HiBob), replacing myriad expensive and non-integrative systems. This provided a single system for employee data, leave management, onboarding, performance, analytics and surveys across our global workforce.

Led development and implementation of a global job levelling framework across four global sites.

Procured and leveraged market benchmarking data for to enable offer benchmarking. Further utilised this dataset to establish market relativity and in developing and leading SilverRail's first global compensation cycle efforts.

Senior Director, People Operations (Boston, London, Brisbane)

Delivering a people agenda focused on creating a workforce of unrivalled growth in capability across initiatives such as; global job levelling, benefits and remuneration; talent identification and selection; organisational value and behaviours; leadership development; and, day-to-day stakeholder engagement across business and corporate executives.

People Operations Manager

Various Companies

Mid-Senior People Operations roles across tech, FMCG, legal and professional services industries.

Mid-Senior career roles

People | Tech | Community

I help startups know what to pay their people.

If you’re leading a People function, I’ve been where you’ve been.

I know you have a thousand things to do, and working out how to do compensation is just one of them.

I know this because my experience isn’t just compensation. I am a career People Operations expert — I just really like nailing comp strategy. 

When I establish and implement practices, I do so with the experience not just of a comp specialist, but someone who's been responsible for the manager conversations, the employee experience and the commercial wellbeing of my company — like you are for yours.

My experience spans small and large tech-scale ups. From seed startups in a small office, to multi-country, to hundreds of people fully remote and globally distributed across 70+ countries. I’ve supported companies that grew to acquisition and that achieved unicorn valuation.

I like to help scaling technology businesses get comp right and get it out of the way — so that you can be the commercial leader your company needs you to be.

My most recent experience was scaling the unicorn and hyper-growth company, Oyster.

Results:
• Oyster scaled from 200 people to 650+ across 70 countries, enabled by the precision and agility of our compensation strategies and operations.
• Underpinned by our compensation strategies Oyster ramped hiring to capture market share that achieved a 390% growth in revenue.
• Our global compensation strategy enabled us to scale and expand the company while achieving an average salary cost reduction of 23%, and maintaining a candidate closure rate of >80%.
• Established Oyster's inaugural pay equity review, closing identified gaps through role-based benchmarking and a newly implemented job level framework.
• Won an employer of choice award from the prestigious HR Transform awards.

Today I help Heads of People and Chief People Officers of scaling technology companies build and grow their company through their compensation strategy.

To work with me, reach out via my website www.fndn.com.au or send me an email at matt@fndn.com.au 

I have deep experience within the tech domain:
→ Global compensation strategies
→ Pay transparency strategy and rollout
→ Career frameworks and job levelling
→ Executive compensation
→ Pay reviews and pay equity audits
→ Salary benchmarking and market pricing
→ Sales compensation & incentive plans
→ Pay for performance

Matt McFarlane

I don't care who you are.

You're never important enough that people need an email to send you a connection request.

If I have to be spammed as soon as I accept a connection request from a random, so do you. 

It's called shared trauma. 

We're all in this together.

Building startup compensation practices 👉 Compensation Philosophy + Job levels + Salary bands.

The role of the People professional has never been more important, or more uncertain. 

Here to help make every people pro successful, is In Good Company. 

A community for People people that want insights into the conversations about culture, AI, leadership and the future of work — without the spin.

I'm stoked to be an ambassador of IGC, joining incredible leaders such as: Adam Weber, Jessica Z., Hebba Youssef, Angela R. Howard,Christine Song, Johannes Sundlo and many more.

I'd love to see you in there: https://lnkd.in/gbUWzCZu

Everyone says they want to be rich, but they're using outdated goals like 'I want to earn six figures'.

Not me.

I want to be the kind of rich where I can buy a *new* Aesop hand soap, instead of refilling that one I bought 12 months ago with cheap stuff.

That's true wealth.

I just got off a call with a Head of People, and they're dealing with something we've all faced, repeatedly. but often don't know how to solve.

The moment when a manager storms in, desperate to save their top performer, and the data shows they’re already sitting at the top of their salary band.
 
No room to move. No obvious lever to pull.
 
They've got a high-impact employee at risk...
... and you've got a framework you spent months building, which suddenly feels like the thing holding you back.
 
This is where People teams can often collapse into reactive decision-making:
– stretching bands to “just make it work",
– throwing cash at the problem without a strategy,
– or holding the line so tightly that you lose the very people your system was meant to retain.
 
But a top performer at band maximum isn’t the real problem.
 
It could be symptomatic:
– Of outdated bands,
– Of unclear levelling,
– Of weak promotion pathways,
– Or of a business case you haven’t articulated strongly enough.
 
And while managers will always push hard (“we can’t lose them”), you’re the one who has to defend fairness, avoid precedent, and keep your comp philosophy from crumbling under pressure.
 
It usually feels like a no-win scenario. Unless you reframe the problem.

Fortunately, there's a straightforward playbook for tackling everyone's most common problem, and there are ways to recognise and retain your best people without blowing up your structure or creating inequity.

And the timing couldn't be more perfect, because it just got published.
 
In this piece with comp platform Ravio, myself and Ekaterina Potter share a few of the ways to handle this challenge.
 
We give step-by-step guides, with practical examples and decision paths you can actually use.
 
And it's one worth saving, because if you've ever faced the “top performer at band maximum” dilemma, you know it's never a once off.
 
Grab the article here: https://lnkd.in/gtH-84md

And let me know below — how many times have *you* dealt with a high performer at the top of their band?

Ok LinkedIn friends, I have a relatively vain ask of each of you. 


I’m 100 people away from 20,000 followers, and I wanna see if I can hit it before I get back to Australia (on Saturday). 

But I’m not just going to ask for you to follow me (I'm not *that* vain).

Instead, I want to use this as an exercise for uncovering some of the best people to learn from on this platform.

The people you might miss because sometimes this platform isn't as great at uncovering them.

So, who are the 100 people you think I should connect with?

Let’s see if we can’t fill these comments with the best people, posting the best content on being a startup People professional.

I'm sure collectively we can unearth some amazing professionals and give them the recognition they deserve.

I’ll even kick things off with a few legends I adore following:
- Jessie Schofer - doing the lords work finding and sharing the best in the world of HR tech
- Luke O'Mahoney - leading the charge on people as a product with amazing content and events
- Melissa Theiss - some of the most pragmatic and commercial People content you can find
- Matt Bradburn - for everything at the intersection of people and AI
- Vanessa Monsequeira - चित्रलेखा - incredible leadership and org design and amazing build in public.

Now, just reply back with the 1 (or more) people you thoroughly enjoy (and why) and I’ll connect with them. 

Then by Saturday, if I’m at 20,000 people, I’ll be able to enjoy my jet lag just that little bit more easily. 

Thank you for your service.

LinkedIn is making it harder to find the best voices in HR. So I curated the most important list of people to follow if you're a HR professional.

I'm sure you're feeling it, too.

Every week I see only a limited, narrow segment of my full network.

And I feel like I'm losing the chance to learn from fresh names and faces, who are doing important work.

So I did something about it.

Last week I asked my network for help identifying the top 100 people I should connect with.

What happened next created a chain reaction of hundreds of the most important people to follow in the people profession.

My amazing network recommended the best people to learn from.

Then those same people recommended who they learn from.

It was a who's who of the best
- Thinkers
- Leaders, and
- Doers

All helping to lift the profile of our profession with their thought leadership.

They say you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

I believe the same can be said of the network you build around yourself.

Level ourself up and check out the full list here:
https://lnkd.in/gjwCCehP

Who's the most important person *you* learn from on LinkedIn?

2025 might be winding down, but on the FNDN Series, things are only heating up ﻿🔥
﻿
And we're closing out the year with powerhouse guest, Sarika Lamont. Chief People Officer at Vidyard.
 
We've got three incredible episodes, tackling three incredible topics.
 
This coming Sunday we'll be dropping episode 1, on everything to do with leading AI adoption from the People team.
 
(Fun fact, that's what Sarika is doing at Vidyard)
 
She shares a thing or two on the challenges facing people teams and how she's overcoming it.
 
For the final two episodes, we focus on my favourite theme: comp
 
In episode 2, we're covering how to personalise comp during a downturn. 

And how you can continue to make it meaningful and impactful despite a difficult business environment.
 
(Which might be particularly relevant given the bubble everyone thinks we're in...)
 
Then we hit a fun one in episode 3, with 'How to have the tough pay conversations'.

All three of them are bangers (promise).
 
First one is coming Sunday, and you can read, watch or listen (link below).

We’re in the most challenging era of salary progression of the last decade. And there's two compounding factors I see that are reducing how to grow your pay.

Pave has just published their 2026 Compensation Budgets & Trends Report, and it's a detailed snapshot of the market.

(grab the report here btw, well worth a read: https://lnkd.in/gnErrHN9)

But here's the two things that stood out to me:
 
1. Salary growth has stalled, with companies budgeting a pitiful 3.5% merit increase for 2026
 
2. Job hugging is growing, with turnover plummeting (especially in public companies) and people staying put for longer.
 
So why does this matter?
 
For those playing at home, a 3.5% increase on a $100k salary is $3,500...
... or $67 a week. 

*Before tax*
 
Not great for anyone who’s already absorbed record-high inflation. 

Prices may not be rising as fast, but they’re still elevated.
 
But sure, salary increases have sucked for a little while now, who cares?
 
Well I can tell you both from first-hand experience, and report data, the biggest pay increases you will get in your career will likely come from switching employers.
 
– The data shows an average 15% pay increase from switching companies,
– I've personally experienced closer to 30%.
 
That's anywhere from $11,500 to $26,500 you're leaving on the table by accepting your companies 3.5% pay increase.
 
And the gap compounds in years 2+
 
Which is why the rise in job hugging matters.

It represents the biggest impact to salary growth we’ve seen in years.
 
Now I'm not advocating for everyone to up and quit their job every 12 months.
 
But I am advocating for being clear-eyed about what’s driving this, and it's impact on you.
 
Job hugging is being driven by fear.

Months (years?) of high-profile layoffs and hiring freezes, have lead the majority of employees (55%) to state they're now prioritising job security over ambition.
 
And that creates a perfect storm:
 
We’re in a market where the two biggest levers for salary progression (annual increases and job mobility) are collapsing at the same time.
 
The result?
 
Professionals are experiencing the weakest real earnings progression in a decade, largely because fear is keeping them in roles where pay growth has flat-lined.
 
People aren’t earning more because the mechanisms that normally drive meaningful pay growth simply aren’t functioning.
 
Low salary budgets + risk-averse “job hugging” = stalled earnings.
 
So I'm not telling people to job hop.
 
But I am telling you the current environment is structurally stacked against your salary growth.

And you need to understand the forces at play so you can act deliberately, not passively.
 
Because staying put and hoping for a better pay increase isn’t a great strategy.

Not in this market. And probably not for a long while.

One of the biggest unlocks of my entire career has been the mantra 'ask and you shall receive'. Here's what I mean and how it worked for me just last week.

There's a famous quote I love, that is a little cliched, but perfectly sums up my approach to life.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" 

So many people let the fear of rejection prevent them from ever asking someone for something.

And they reject themselves from the opportunity before anyone else is given the chance.

But asking for something has been the biggest unlock for my entire career:

- Can you help me with this
- Can I get involved in this
- Can I do this piece of work

Whatever it was, 'simply asking' can be the biggest hurdle between yourself and opportunity.

Here's an example that worked for me even just last week.

I was at 19,900 followers on LinkedIn. I wanted to be at 20,000.

I asked my network for help recommending 100 people I should connect with that would help me get there.

A few hours and 100+ comments later, a post curated with some of the most amazing people that I and others could follow was generated.

So ask the question.

Don't let the fear of rejection reject you before someone else can.

Because even if they do, you're no worse off after the ask than you were before it.

What's one thing you've been wanting to ask for that you've been putting off?

I get it, you're tired. But if there is one thing that is the most tiring part of being a Head of People, it's headcount planning.

Luckily for you - this weeks guest author on the FNDN Series is Melissa Theiss. 

A 4x Head of People that drops some of the most sage wisdom on being a commercial people leader getting around.

And this week's article (you guessed it): 'How to Build a Headcount Plan That Actually Works.'

Melissa shares a straight-forward 3-step process for taking the most stressful part of the year, and turning it into a process that works for you (and the business).

So hop on over to the FNDN Series newsletter and subscribe to get this article and many more nuggets of wisdom, straight to your inbox 📫

Despite the feeling, AI isn’t a threat to HR. It’s an opportunity to grow your responsibility (and yourself).
 
Most Heads of People are scared to say it out loud, but when I speak to them, their fear is real.
 
- Fear of being replaced.
- Fear of stuffing it up.
- Fear of one more responsibility dumped on an already overloaded team.
- Fear of not being “technical enough”.
 
But AI is already reshaping the People function. And it will do it whether we lead that charge or ignore it.
 
The fastest-moving leaders I’m speaking with aren’t waiting for permission.
Instead, they're claiming AI as a lever for culture, productivity and influence.
 
Not a risk to be managed, but a mandate to lead.
 
And the shift is simple: Instead of seeing AI as a tech project, view it as a people project (because it is).
 
It's a shift in mindset, a focus on adoption, and a need for behaviour change.
 
This and more came out clearly from my recent interview with Sarika.
 
In the latest FNDN Series interview, Sarika Lamont (CPO at Vidyard) shares how she not only placed AI squarely within the People remit, but why it worked.
 
And the outcome every HR leader (and Founder/CEO) wants?
 
She was able to avoid an entire People Ops Coordinator hire because automation reduced a full workload of admin.
 
These outcomes weren't just theoretical, and not just "future state". This was a present day impact.
 
That’s what leaning in (not stepping back) can look like.
 
In the latest episode, Sarika even goes into detail on how the hurdle to getting started isn't as high as everyone worries.
 
Don't be intimidated by starting with “transformation”.
 
You can start with something as simple as a low-stakes workflow:
Employment letters,
Policy retrieval,
Pre-boarding.
 
You just need one experiment that proves the point.
 
If you want the playbook for leading this shift, this episode is it.
 
The latest episode of the FNDN Series is live now, and Sarika dives deep into how she's taking AI by the reins and seeing real benefits at Vidyard.
 
Jump into it in the comments.

“Employer of choice” awards can unfortunately have a bit of a credibility problem.
 
Too many rely on opaque scoring or pay-to-play models.

The result is predictable: companies buy an accolade instead of building a workplace worth celebrating.
 
What cut through for me with Inspiring Workplaces was the opposite dynamic.
 
The process is transparent.
The bar is clear.
 
And my favourite part 👉 the award recognises progress over perfection. 

Organisations doing the work to build better workplaces, not just the ones polishing a submission.
 
It’s also why I agreed to join the judging panel for the 2026 awards.
 
And not just me. My co-judges are even more incredible. People like Nicole Karagiannis GAICD, Melanie Cole, Charlotte Anderson and Alex Pusenjak (and many more)
 
A who's who of those who have been in the trenches, pushing for the same people-first outcomes.
 
So if you’re a Head of People, ask yourself: what's that one thing you've delivered this year that deserves recognition? The thing that others could benefit from, even if it's not perfect.
 
PS: Early-bird pricing runs until 5 December. So jump online and get involved.

A guilty pleasure of mine when travelling is checking the internet speed wherever I go. Here’s the speed everywhere I went in Europe over 5 weeks. 

- Madrid Airbnb: 92 down, 50 up (bad start)
- Malaga Airbnb: 487 down, 450 up (😍)
- Malaga airport: 25 down. 17 up (tragic)
- València Airbnb: 287 down. 184 up. 
- Lisbon Airbnb: 519 down. 372 up (hello)
- Lisbon to Porto train: 9 down. 4 up (🤮)
- Porto Airbnb: 38 down. 8 up. 🙈
- Porto Airbnb 2.0 (didn’t like the other one): 737 down. 371 up (🔥🔥🔥)
- Turin Airbnb: 327 down. 155 up. 
- Lucca Airbnb: 67 down. 55 up (😞)
- Cagliari Airbnb: 83 down. 20 up. 
- Rome hotel: 368 down. 129 up (acceptable)

What’s the weird thing you do when you’re in the vacuum of holiday travel?

I know a lot of Australian People teams are grappling with how to improve the way they do work. If you're looking to implement Product-led thinking into your people practices, I can't think of anyone better to help you than Megan.

🐝 | UXer turned PXer | Speaker, Coach & Facilitator | Empowering leaders to unlock team performance through HCD

Years ago, when I was still in UX, I kept talking about wanting to work in teams that felt like intellectual beehives. 

🐝 I come alive when I’m working with collaborative, innovative and adaptive teams who are working towards something bigger than themselves.

If you've followed my journey as a UXer turned PXer, you know I've spent years advocating for people functions to adopt product-led, human-centred approaches. 

Before moving back to Australia, I told a friend about my dream of setting up a business to help founders and people leaders design organisations where people could do the best work of their lives.

 ➡️ 💬 He replied “Sounds like you’re a pollinator of design thinking”...

In the last two months I've been running my own discovery & design phases to get PollinateXD off the ground.

Now, what I'm working on is:
 • Sharing insights and ideas on how to design impactful & human-centred people experiences
 • Partnering with founders and leadership teams to build high-performing organisations
 • Coaching people leaders to build their confidence in moving beyond traditional approaches

I've got capacity for a few projects and coaching clients in the new year, so for those who have asked how you can help, I'd say:

♻️ Engage with posts that resonate. 
Likes, comments, shares - they help build community

📬 Subscribe to the collaborative newsletter I'm writing with Mark Lewis from Crewmojo. 
Every other Sunday, you'll get practical insights on how to adopt a truly people-centred approach to performance. (Link in comments)

☎️ Get in touch if you or someone you know is wrestling with adopting a truly PX approach to building organisational performance. 

and a MASSIVE thank you to my wonderful community across the globe for all your support so far!

Moving home, getting married and starting a business all in one year has been no small feat. But it's been nourishing for the soul and I'm excited for what's to come.

#PeopleExperience #OrganisationalDevelopment #CultureDesign #HumanCentredDesign #Leadership

Open Org

Every month, over 12,000 startup people teams across the world use one of our memberships, products, resources, or services to build better culture & PX. 

💡 Here's how you can use us:

For Free...
🌐 We built www.openverse.fyi in Jan 2024 to help people teams globally discover & share incredibly open-resources (guides, templates, handbooks etc) from us, and others too. Free to use, forever. 
📚 We have our own personal Open Resource Library on our site - www.openorg.fyi/resources
💌 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter (Open Works) where we take, and solve a real people problem from the community each week. (🔗 https://news.openorg.fyi/subscribe)

For Deeper, More Actionable Content & Playbooks...
🚀 We launched our content platform & membership in June 2025. £120 / year, giving startup HR folks access to more relevant:

📔 Content 
🎯 Playbooks
🧠 Resources
🎓 Personal Development Opportunities
🤝 HR Tech & Services Recommendations 

🔗 Check it out here: www.openorg.fyi/membership

For Peer Connection & Support... 
🖤 We have a small, paid Slack community capped at 500 members for daily support, help, advice; one of the most generous out there. Perfect if you are a lean/lone people leader in a 10-500 FTE org (UK/US/Europe)
🔗www.openorg.fyi/community 

For Hands-on Help, Advice & Roadmap Acceleration...
🎯 Via our Culture Support service we bolster ~15 people teams at any one time via a blend of sync & async support. You get a mix of live time with us every month to soundboard, spar and get support, plus async time from us to build, accelerate and progress work alongside you too. 
🔗www.openorg.fyi/culture-support

So that's us! Take come take a look, become a member! 🤘, and DM if you need anything 🙏

🖤 www.openorg.fyi

Co-Founder

DreamTeam

Super excited to be working closely with the folks at DreamTeam on helping them to further shape & develop their product for startup & scaleup People teams

Openverse.fyi

Openverse.fyi is where people teams go to share & discover the best open-source people & culture resources on the internet. There are 1000's of incredible open& public resources out there for people teams operating on a low or zero budget. We want to bring them all into one, simple place which we also hope will become the place for folks to share & launch their own work too

Creator

peoplemetrics.fyi

From the team at Open Org, meet Peoplemetrics.fyi; People Metric Benchmarking For Data Informed People & Talent Leaders.

Get the people metric benchmarks you need to secure internal budget, make the case for change and give your investors the context they want. Currently in private beta, launching March 2024.

Join the waitlist to unlock priority access and an early bird offer of £500 per year (60% discount).

www.peoplemetrics.fyi
www.openorg.fyi

Pay Transparency Alliance

“Proud member on the Pay Transparency Alliance. We are a coalition of forward-thinking companies committed to addressing the complexities of Pay Transparency.”

Member

Scout

Having launched Scout in 2020, mid-pandemic, my role has quickly moved from one that involved being a hands-on Talent & People Consultant for up to 3 clients at a time, to setting the People & Operational foundations as CPO in 2021/2.

As Chief People & Operations Officer I've overseen our growth from 2 to 68 in under 2 years, putting in place everything across our EVP & Talent proposition, from Mission/Vision/Values, to Culture, Career Development, Compensation Framework, and everything in between, as well as setting us up for success operationally from a tooling and budgetary perspective, and leading on our foray in the US market too.

Chief People Officer (Co-Founder)

Callsign

Talent Consultant (via scout)

WeGift

KingMakers

r2 is on a mission to become the No.1 partner in Specialist Search for Disruptive Tech companies globally. 

Our current capabilities see us focus on 4 core markets, across 3 locations. We operate in London, New York & Singapore, focusing on People/Talent, Compliance, Tech and Commercial roles. 


I work in two ways. One the one hand, I work closely with some of our core clients on active search requirements for their teams. But I also work proactively with candidates in the London market who are looking for new roles, making introductions on their behalf to companies in the FinTech/RegTech market. 

Anyone in the FinTech space looking for a new role can get in touch on the below for a coffee! 

0203 744 0425 / 07818088146
adam.horne@r2search.com

12,000+ startup HR teams use Open Org each month to build better culture & PX.

Whether you need resources, playbooks, community or hands-on support we can help:

💡 Free Resources to Inspire 

🌐 Openverse.fyi
A forever-free hub of the best open-source People & Culture resources - curated by us, sourced from across the internet.

📚 Open Resource Library
Our own free templates, tools & frameworks

💌 Open Works Newsletter
Weekly emails solving real People problems- actionable advice straight from us at Open Org

——————

📘 Go Deeper with Premium Content & Playbooks

£120 annual subscription

Access exclusive content and our most impactful playbooks for people people- ideal for startup HR folks who want a more actionable, practical toolkit to work with. 

	•	Playbooks & templates
	•	Practical content for real-time needs
	•	Partner discounts & curated tools
	•	Personal development cohorts & courses

🔗 (www.openorg.fyi/membership)

——————

💬 Connect with Peers Who ‘Get It’

Our Slack Community – £20/month (rolling)
Capped at 500 members. Real-time support, generous advice, and people who get what it’s like to be a solo People lead in a 10–500 FTE startup.

Spaces are limited 

🔗 (www.openorg.fyi/community)

——————

🤝 Work With Us Directly

Culture Support (Limited Capacity)
1:1 and async support to help you design, build, and execute on your People & Culture roadmap.

Get sparring, second brains, and hands-on help from us, every month.

🔗 (www.openorg.fyi/culture-support)


Come check us out! 🖤

Adam Horne

HR aren't responsible for recognition ❌ 

It's on everyone. 

👉 Leaders
👉 Managers
👉 Peers
and yes, HR too. 

For me, HR set the foundations around recognition. 

But others are responsible for owning those 'moments that matter' day to day. 

I’m loving the open resources Huggg have just added to Openverse.fyi on this topic- you should check them out!! 👀🔥

Recognition Ownership Diagnostic: https://lnkd.in/e9-B3zsC

I love a Notion Diagnostic! 😍

Recognition Ownership Guide: https://lnkd.in/e7TC9Cqt

Very cool, and super useful for HR folks working out how to make recognition more of an org-wide reaponsiblity and practice. 

Awesome work Huggg  🔥 👏

We’ve built the AI Co-Pilot for Startup HR. Plan, Build, Spar & Research with Gandalf ✨ - Try it at openorg.fyi

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Last night was AMAZING! 🔥 Thank you DreamTeam! 

What an awesome meetup. No pitches or panels. Just great food, drinks & conversation with some of my favourite people people ❤️‍🔥 

Loads of familiar faces, and plenty of new ones too! 

It was awesome to get to meet Matt McFarlane, all the way over from Australia for one night only! But also to finally meet all the incredible folks at Dreamteam in-person (Shirley, Arnon, Roni, Shiri 🙌 )

And of course getting to see SO many folks from across our Slack community and team that we support day to day was as always special. 🖤 

The predictions pocketbook that the DreamTeam team printed was also very, very cool, and the polaroids were an awesome touch! 

Loved seeing everyone! 

Until next time 🫶

♾️ Open Org - Changing How Startup HR Teams Learn & Execute in the AI Age

Ok, I f*cked up just now... Apologies if you just tried to join our Onboarding webinar with Nadia & Rafael Guper 🙏 ... I'll explain why I'm an idiot...

We had an unusually high number of signups (~600) so decided to switch from our usual platform to Zoom to avoid issues with capacity and limits. 

Stupidly, I didn't check the limits on Zoom (#epicfail). I assumed they were higher. They were not. 

Thats on me. Im sorry if you tried to get in, and couldn't. 

I've replied to a few folks who emailed 🙏 

If you did try to join but couldn't I'm working on pulling together the recording an takeaways now so will share those asap with you all on here, and on email 🎁 

And if you're feeling particularly annoyed, please drop me a DM /email and vent. I will find a way to make it up to you 🙏 

Sorry for the epic fail. Will do better next time 🖤

Helping startup HR discover, plan & execute faster with The Content Pass ✨ - Try it at openorg.fyi

Ever feel like culture is hard to articulate? manage? improve? 😫 

You're probably focusing on the emotional level. Not the operational one. 

Culture IS tangible

It's how we work. Not how we feel about work. 

There's a big difference. 

And if you want to manage culture in a more tangible way you need to take it beyond values. beyond emotions. beyond buzzwords. 

I had the joy of talking about this topic at the We hustle HR conference yesterday. 

Here's the takeaway doc, resources, deck and a little gift I shared with the folks there if anyone else is interested in this topic! 

👉 https://lnkd.in/eWUzP3TB

There's a really busy few weeks coming up for HR Events, conferences and webinars 🔥 We're lucky to be involved in a few too! Here's your latest rundown of what's coming up so you don't miss out 🖤 ...

📅  TOMORROW at 6pm -  It's the DreamTeam people meetup! In-person (London) on a rooftop. No pitching or panels. Just great conversation, food and drinks 🍸 - Spaces may be limited now but DM me if interested last min. 

📅  Nov 17th- It's HR Week 2025! 🔥 This is a free, virtual, 5-day global conference which attracted 10,000 attendees last year! Im hosting a panel on 17th at 3.45pm UK time with Thomas Forstner, Shirley Baumer and Glenn Martin. Join us! Register here: https://hrweek.global/

📅  Nov 19th- It's We hustle HR's 1-day virtual conference ! It's free, I'll be running a short session, as will some incredible speakers like Dajana Berisavljević Đakonović, Missy S. and Lavinia Mehedințu. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eG9gXUjE

📅  Nov 26th- I'm hosting & moderating a session on onboarding in the AI Era! Joined by Rafael Guper and Nadia Vatalidis (she/her/hers)! You can register here: https://luma.com/jzd7smsy

📅  Nov 27th- Another Open Org session! I'll be moderating a great discussion on how we retain human connection in the AI Era! Joined by Alys Peart, James Hems BEM and Lewis Quick of Huggg. Register here: https://luma.com/lz3amfvk

Heading into December we've got a few more awesome sessions being planned with others too! Keep your eyes peeled 👀 

If you don't want to miss out on future events you should register to our Luma calendar (here: https://lnkd.in/easZuTCY) and bookmark the People & Events calendar too (here: https://lnkd.in/eR62KPgv)

Have a cracking week folks! ✨

HR folks, don't head into the weekend without making sure you have the below  events in your calendars! 📅  We've got you covered for the next couple of weeks! 🔥 👇 

📅 On Monday (Nov 17th)- It's HR Week 2025! 🔥 It's free. It's virtual It runs for 5-days! On Monday I'm hosting a panel at 3.45pm UK time with Thomas Forstner, Shirley Baumer and Glenn Martin. Join us! Register here: https://hrweek.global/
p.s. once the event starts you can only join with premium access so signup now if you want it free! 

📅 Nov 19th- It's We hustle HR's 1-day virtual conference ! Also free, I'll be running a short session alongside some other incredible folks too. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eG9gXUjE

📅 Nov 20th- For folks in Boston, US, our good friends at Incompass Labs are hosting a breakfast workshop for people leaders- “Mastering Time: Unlocking Balance and Impact in Work and Life.”. You can sign up to that here: https://lnkd.in/e_pUZShJ

📅 Nov 26th- Open Org (that's me!) are hosting a session on onboarding in the AI Era! Joined by Rafael Guper and Nadia Vatalidis (she/her/hers)! You can register here: https://luma.com/jzd7smsy

📅 Nov 26th- Busy day for Open Org - and one for our Slack Community members - We're welcoming Naomi Trickey from Mews around our campfire to share some incredible insights and stories with us - check out the #events channel in Slack for that! 

📅 Nov 27th- Open Org session! I'll be moderating a great discussion on how we retain human connection in the AI Era! Joined by Alys Peart, James Hems BEM and Lewis Quick of Huggg. Register here: https://luma.com/lz3amfvk

There is SO much happening... 

If you don't want to miss out on future events you should register to our Luma calendar (here: https://lnkd.in/easZuTCY) and bookmark the People & Events calendar too (here: https://lnkd.in/eR62KPgv)

A couple of weeks ago I got to join Nelson Sivalingam, CEO of HowNow on the L&D Disrupt podcast, and I loved every second of our conversation 🔥 🎧 
Sneak peek, and full episode (& blog) below! 👇 

We talked:

✨ AI (Obvs)
🌱 Manager Development
🚮 Ripping up traditional L&D 
🪜 The end of Career Ladders as we know it
and more

I loved every minute and there's A LOT going on out there right now for people teams working out how to shape things like progression, learning, career frameworks etc. 

🎧 Full episode on Spotify here: https://lnkd.in/e_a_W8gk
✨ Blog post here: https://lnkd.in/e54579C4

Worth a watch/listen if you can! 🍿

There's been some OUTSTANDING resources shared by the HR community on Openverse.fyi recently... here's some of the latest & greatest you should know about:

🎁   Huggg recently shared their Notion-based recognition diagnostic & guide, two awesome resources well worth seeing if this is a topic on your radar right now. 

Diagnostic: https://lnkd.in/e9-B3zsC
Guide: https://lnkd.in/e7TC9Cqt

♾️ Marina Horner keeps bringing the gold to the HR community. Her latest share is a walkthrough on automation in PeopleOps. If you're unsure where to start here it's perfect. She explains how to map a process, identify dependencies, isolate one friction point, and fix it using existing tools.

View it here: https://lnkd.in/e2Pr_VKe

🧑‍💻 Pinpoint Applicant Tracking System shared their handy guide to selecting the right ATS, including how to identify what requirements you actually have, and how to ask the right questions in demos. I see a LOT of people & talent teams getting this decision wrong- this is worthy of a peek 

Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eFi-K3Z9

🤖 The ever amazing Deb Haas ✨ shared her HR Automation Advisor, Providing diagnostic guidance to determine if your challenge needs process redesign, automation, or AI. Very cool. Like Marina above, well worth a look if you are stumbling here! 

Find it here: https://lnkd.in/eMzYwUYt

Thank you to ALL of you folks for continuing to build & share in the open for the HR Community. 

We need more of you! Who's got something for Openverse.fyi?

There's so much advice about how People teams should work. 

I'm more interested in what they are actually doing: the tools, fails, experiments and rituals that don't usually get talked about 🔍

In recent weeks Ive spoken to Thomas Forstner & Katie Burke! Next up...

Andy Turnbull, Head of People Services at Bolt 👇

💡 Favourite new tool?
I have been really impressed with BrightHire. Searchable interview recordings help hiring managers improve consistency, stick to competencies and create a better candidate experience.

I am also excited about automation tools:
 • Zapier and Make for HR and personal workflows
 • n8n for cross-functional automation

🧰 People Team Tool Stack
Workday, Greenhouse Software, Lattice, Docebo, One Model, Carta, Box, Enboarder, ReloTalent, Atlassian, and heavy use of Make, Zapier and n8n for automation.

💥 Last epic fail?
Buying new tech that did not work the way we needed. We ended up with manual workarounds while pushing vendors for fixes.

Lesson learned: do not rely on demos or light testing. Pilot tools in real conditions before committing.

🤖 Most useful thing built with AI or automation?
The biggest wins still come from automation. We are on track to reduce workload by 5 percent this year and aim for 10 percent in 2026. These improvements compound over time and create real, sustainable impact.

🪩 Most impactful People Team ritual?
Taking quarterly or bi-annual time out to review where we are versus our north star KPIs. It forces us to zoom out, recalibrate and reconnect as a team. It is amazing what you can accomplish in a focused few days.

🧭 What are you feeling stuck on right now?
I am not stuck on anything major. I have a fantastic team and if option A does not work, there is always B to Z 😄

A common challenge I discuss with peers is collaborating with Legal and Privacy teams on automation. People Ops works with the most sensitive data in the company, so we often face extra scrutiny and slower access to the tools other teams already use.

🔥 Advice for first-time Heads of People?
There has never been a more exciting time to be in People. The most forward-thinking leaders are stepping into a combined People and AI Transformation role.

People leaders influence who joins, how talent grows, which skills matter and what work is augmented by AI. That puts them in a unique position to lead company-wide transformation. If you are curious about this space, lean in. It is a career-defining opportunity.

Loving some of these shares, thank you Andy! 

Who should I speak to next? 🙋

Big few days ahead for Open Org events! If you haven't signed up to some of these yet, this is your last chance...

📅 Tomorrow (Weds 26th) - Onboarding in the AI Age with Rafael Guper & Nadia Vatalidis (she/her/hers) - We have over 500 signups for this! 🔥 
🔗 https://luma.com/jzd7smsy

📅 Tomorrow (Weds 26th) - Campfire Q&A with Naomi Trickey from Mews. This is specifically for Open Org Slack Community members. If you haven't signed up yet, get on it! 
🔗 https://luma.com/ynfcy26a
✨ P.s. if you're not in the community, apply here: www.openorg.fyi/community

📅 Thu 27th- Remaining Human in the AI Age: Why Recognition & Rituals are more vital than ever with Alys Peart, James Hems BEM and Lewis Quick - We have over 150 signups for this too! 🔥 
🔗 https://luma.com/lz3amfvk

📅 Thu 27th - I'm excited to be co-hosting a live demo of hackajob with the incredible Jessie Schofer from Stakkd! thank you for inviting me along! I love a good demo! You can register and join here: https://lnkd.in/e3nVDqYb

Now... I'm working on our 2026 webinars & events - What topics do you want to hear about? tell me! 👇

My last Q&A post with Thomas Forstner blew up 🔥 - so here's another, with Katie Burke, CPO at Harvey (+ ex CPO at HubSpot) which I think you'll love! Enjoy... 🍿 

---------------------------

💡 Favourite new tool?
I've been trying Ideogram and Gamma to play with creating imagery and presentations with speed without sacrificing quality; pretty cool to see slides created from raw notes in just a few seconds, and as someone who takes a while to create decks, I love having the help.

💥 Last epic fail?
 I'll give you two, the list is long.
1️⃣ Not taking the time to gather and deliver context on a key announcement. When you know in your gut you're passing on confusion, it's your obligation as a leader to speak up.

2️⃣ Not hiring fast enough. In hyper-growth, hiring too slow can be just as risky as hiring too fast.

🤖 Most useful thing your team has built with AI?
Custom GPTs for drafting leader communications tailored perfectly to each exec’s voice. Using them has saved our marketing team a considerable amount of time and I think can also be really useful for HRBP teams crafting internal messaging for leaders they support.

🪩 Most impactful People Team ritual?
At our monthly meetings, we ask new hires to share their first impressions of Harvey. When you’re growing fast, it’s critical not just to recruit people but to create space for them to speak and help us learn what’s working.

🧭 What are you feeling stuck on right now?
Omissions. As leaders we talk a lot about what needs to get done, but it’s just as important to be clear about what doesn’t. I need to give my team more clarity on what’s okay to deprioritise so they can focus where it really matters.

🔥 Advice for first-time Heads of People?
 Don't be the "no" police. Your job is to limit friction, increase business velocity, and reduce risk. Find ways to enable great work, or people will go around you.

-----------------------------

So much to love here 👆 and super interesting to see how other teams are using AI & GPTs too! 

Who should I ask next? 👀

Tag them below or drop me a DM 💌

"I wish this existed 5 years ago!" - HR Leader

👆 I've been lucky enough to hear this from a lot of folks about Open Org over the past 2 years 🖤. 

We didn't exist 5 years ago... but we do now 🙂, so here's a refresh on what we're doing to help startup HR teams to thrive right now....

🎟️ The Content Pass; guided HR playbooks, and effortless AI search across our 1000+ resources, as well as an HR tech marketplace. It's paid, but incredibly accessible at £120/year. You can try it for free first too :) - https://lnkd.in/eVKsZU5Y 

🫶 Community; Built on Slack, capped at 500 startup HR pro's worldwide, we've built an incredible space to enable genuinely relevant peer to peer help & support. If you're in a people role, in a 10-1000 FTE org, come check it out - www.openorg.fyi/community

🎯 Advise & Build; Not promoted heavily, but we work at any given time with ~10 people teams on their people & culture goals & roadmap as a sparring partner & external sounding board, but also as an execution partner- building, drafting, reviewing wherever you need us. https://lnkd.in/eTqwHprP

🌐 Open Resources; And of course, we continue to curate & create 1000's of templates, resources, guides to help continue fuelling this open-source HR movement. You can find what you need by starting here: www.openorg.fyi/resources 

No, we didnt exist 5 years ago, but over the past 2 years we've evolved a lot, and we will continue doing what we can to give startup HR the support & resources they always deserved but never had 

🖤

Here's a list of useful resources & tools if you're working on performance in your org right now... 💡 

📌 Open Org's performance handbook template
📌 Competency Framework Builder (GPT Tool)
📌 7-Step values & behaviour evolution blueprint 
📌 Juro's Performance Handbook Page 
📌 Dune's Performance Handbook Page 
📌 Sourcegraph's Handbook page on high performance culture
📌 Toggl's Handbook page on measuring performance 
📌 QuantumLight's high performance playbook 
📌 Learnerbly's performance hub
📌 Pandria
📌 Crewmojo
📌 Incompass Labs
📌 Pensero AI

Links to all these and more here: https://lnkd.in/eM6Dkdb9

Enjoy 🖤

3 Design Principles People Teams Could & Should Steal From Product Teams:

⚖️ Balance Wants vs Needs
🧪 Embrace Experimentation
🚧 Build With, Not For 

I dive deeper below, enjoy! (~2 min read) ☕

Traditional HR has long been accused of missing the mark when connecting their own work to the needs of the business. For too long we’ve quietly built

Open article: 3 Design Principles People Teams Should Steal From Product Teams by Adam Horne • 4 min read

3 Design Principles People Teams Should Steal From Product Teams

Metaview you have nailed it! (again!) 🔥 👏 They've launched their new AI sourcing agent, and it looks very, very cool 🤘 . What I love:

✨ Makes sourcing feel seriously easy
✨ UX / UI is 🔥 
✨ It's very clever, the results were genuinely relevant 

I went from vague conversational human brief to a shortlist of 5-10 interesting profiles in under 5 mins ⏱️ 

If you're in Talent Acquisition & Hiring, or a People Leader who owns that, you should check it out. And if you already know Metaview you will know how awesome their products are. 🤘 

FYI, added bonus, you'll see on their site if you sign up before end of November they will double your paid seats for 6 months 👌 

🍿 Video below of me getting stuck in 

And go have a play for yourself, link is in comments! 👇

HR Folks! Another date for your diary! 📅 

On Thu 27th Nov at 12.30pm UK I'll be diving into how we keep recognition and rituals as human as possible in this increasingly AI dominated world! ✨ 

Delighted to be joined by Alys Peart (Octopus Electric Vehicles), James Hems BEM (Bluewave Technology) and Lewis Quick (Huggg) on what I know is a really top of mind concern for a lot of HR teams right now. 

AI presents a lot of opportunities, but also some threats to loss of connection and human touch. Can't wait to hear more about how these folks are tackling that! 

Come join us if you can! 

Sign up here: https://luma.com/lz3amfvk

🎄 HR folks, what are you putting on your Christmas wish list? 🎅 

I'll start us off 👇: 

💊  Aspirin
☕  Coffee
🫂  Teammates 
👻  An unbreakable soul
💰  A budget that goes beyond 4 digits 
⏱️  Time
🎟️  Access to the best, AI-powered HR knowledge base in the world, effortlessly finding you the resources you need in seconds, saving you hours and helping you accelerate your work and execute more modern people practices? 

Sound magical? That last one's not as unrealistic as some of the others... 

If you haven't tried out our Content Pass yet you really should.. and you don't have to wait until Christmas 🌲 

🎁 Here's what's inside:

📒 A Treasure trove of HR playbooks & how-to guides covering some of the most challenging and common people initiatives and problems we see teams face. All battle-tested, and broken down step by step. 

✨ Gandalf, Open Org's custom AI who makes searching our ENTIRE ecosystem of paid, and unpaid resources effortless for you, and is there to coach & guide you through whatever people challenges or projects you might be facing

🛍️ A curated marketplace of 60+ partners in HR Tech & services. Trusted, tested, and startup/scaleup specific. Including discounts from folks like DreamTeam, More Happi, HowNow, UJJI AI ✨ and loads more)

I believe...In 2026, this is how solo startup HR folks will get access to the resources, advice, support, and partners they need to power their people team 🚀 

You can play around with it here first, for free by heading to Open Org.fyi 

Have a play, and then tell your CEO what they need to buy you for Xmas 🎁

Traditional manager training does. not. work. ❌ 

But Communities of Practice do ✅ 

I've been that Founder & People Leader, sending Managers on a crash course. 

It's money down the drain 💸 

What works better? 

👉 Building self-sustaining communities of managers within your org. 

Here's how, in a nutshell 🥜...

1. Recognise the need
💡 Find the biggest pain points, bring them to live with data & story-telling and get the sponsorship & excitement you need to kick off 

2. Mobilise
⏩ Share a memo, gather questions, arrange a kick-off call 

3. Establish
🎯 Run your first session. Either build a charter & establish ways of working or agree & align on what your first win will be 

4. Sustain
🌱 Support on content & accountability loops 

If you don't believe traditional manager training works you will love the Community of Practice Model 🖤 

We've built our own playbook guiding you step-by-step on how to do this end-to-end. If you have our Content Pass you can access it as one of the 14+ playbooks on www.openorg.fyi ✨ 

If you don't have the content pass, go grab one! You can try it out for free first here: https://lnkd.in/eVKsZU5Y 

Good luck! 🍀

I need help 🙏   Which of these would be most helpful in your HR role? 

We're taking Gandalf beyond search & coach capabilities

We want People teams to actually plan & execute with Gandalf 🎯 

Imagine using him to: 

👉 Build your roadmap
👉 Create better surveys
👉 Analyse those surveys & build beautiful reports 
👉 Build competency frameworks
👉 Help you design offsites & workshops
👉 Create handbook pages 

Sound helpful? 

🪄 Magic wand time ... what I want to know is:

1. Which of the below 6 are most interesting to you?
2. What else would you LOVE an 'HR co-pilot' to do?

Would appreciate thoughts so we can make sure we keep building useful things for the HR community 🫶

💬  CEO: "Go now People Leader... transform us into an AI-first company"

💬 People Leader: "Ummm...Ok?!" (Breathes heavily into brown paper bag)

A lot of companies are trying to feel their way through AI transformation right now, led by the People team (rightly so 🎯 ). 

But it's hard. 

Which is why it made my day yesterday to see that Instant Impact have build, and added an AI transformation playbook to Openverse.fyi! 🔥 

It is absolutely brilliant too! 🔥 

🧙‍♂️ Guided
👣 Step by Step
📋 Simple diagnostic tools included. 

If you're in People/HR and potentially navigating AI transformation (That should be all of you), then you should bookmark this and check it out asap 

Thank you to the folks at Instant Impact for building & open-sourcing this. You are incredible! ❤️‍🔥 

🔗 Link in comments folks!

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