1y
Hi, thank you for your review! We know it’s not easy to share constructive feedback, so we appreciate your honesty about your experience at EasyLlama.
I would love to address some of the growing pains you mentioned
1. Changing directives and priorities leading to challenges in cross-functional communication
a. This has been a significant challenge for our team, managers, and ICs alike. We've started to address this by introducing bi-weekly leadership meetings for the entire exec team and functional teams. This ensures leaders are informed, accountable, and that directives and priorities are communicated to teams promptly, reducing confusion and stress.
b. We have also invested significantly in structured planning; not only for the second half of the year but also for 2025. We have an exciting vision for the future of the organization and a defined path to execute that vision. At multiple milestones in the planning process, goals have been vetted cross-functionally so no one is surprised, and cross-functional dependencies are addressed consistently.
2. Work/Life Balance not always prioritized and leadership pushing a different agenda
a. We are a lean team, and occasionally everyone works more than the standard 40 hours. Managers are always encouraged to take time off and ensure their direct reports do as well. Our PTO policy requires all team members to take at least five consecutive days of vacation to rest and recharge. Managers are reminded to take PTO and watch for burnout among their reports during leadership meetings. We also track PTO usage annually and address significant remaining balances with the appropriate manager.
b. We will continue to revisit our benefits and how we uphold them, annually. We are always committed to ensuring our team members have the best experience during their time with us.
3. Changes to our product
a. The company is changing and shifting our vision. It would be a disservice to our team and customers not to pivot and provide the best products in our market and the best experience to our team. Pivoting means becoming THE compliance platform for the everyday workforce, which includes adding additional tools to our product suite and updating our current offerings.
b. Specifically, you are referring to changing diverse content in our courses for our customers' needs. There is a lack of consistency in how we customize our courses for customers and how we write courses that include diverse content. We are addressing these inconsistencies by defining what diverse content entails and creating a philosophy for how our content is written. We are dedicated to living our value of Strength Through Diversity through our products and company culture. We hope our team can give us the grace to examine where we are missing the mark and correct course.
4. Room to grow in your position and salary
a. Last year, the company created a leveling framework that provides a path for career growth. This year, we are focusing on career growth through development goals as part of individual development plans. Every team member should have development goals heading into H2. That being said, growth doesn’t always mean promotion as there isn't always a business need for a more senior role. We will always do our best to balance employees’ needs with business needs. We are excited to develop a program to upskill or reskill our team to support their professional growth as part of our H2 and 2025 goals.
b. Part of nurturing professional growth is manager enablement. Managers are responsible for understanding their direct reports' professional and personal ambitions and helping create a path for growth. We will be investing in manager enablement to equip them with the tools to identify skills to nurture, skills to expand, and how to support upskilling.
c. Compensation: We just completed a compensation strategy for the company. This includes an internal audit of salaries to ensure our current team’s salaries align with market pricing. For employees who are not within the newly defined salary bands, their compensation will be adjusted in the next quarter or so.
I hope this sheds some light on how we are addressing the feedback you shared. Growing pains are normal but they don’t resolve overnight, so course correcting will take some time. However, we are committed to internalizing the feedback we receive from our team, current or past, and working to find solutions.
Wishing you the best in all your future endeavors and adventures!
