How are you comfortable with almost all of your legacy employees quitting?

As we let go of the last member of our legacy team, a lot of people are curious as to why and how we are okay with it. Here’s my take.

1. This was, for the most part, intentional and curated. Family businesses suffer due to their loyalty-obsession. It not only stagnates the organization, but also ensures that the management lives in fear of stepping out of its comfort zone. Pratik and I were clear about the why – we wanted to build anew.

2. The legacy team may have brought us here, but for where we need to reach, we need a young team that doesn’t know enough, that is curious, impatient, and ambitious. Fresh minds and hunger can have rippling effects for the organization’s culture.

3. Implementing change is a cakewalk when you have a team that’s accepting towards it. Fighting the change battle with legacy members is an uphill task that can often caused fatigue for the management.

4. As for the how – creating a new HR role ensured we had someone scouting for talent 24×7, a comprehensive training program reduced the onboarding time for new joinees, and lastly, an intern program combined with our buddy program ensured roles and responsibilities were distinct, clear, and ramp up time for the inexperienced folks was and is negligible.

5. How we are okay with this, you wonder? We thrive on it. It reduces leverage for those who intend to cause trouble, it helps us shape the culture ground up, it promotes meritocracy and devalues seniority, it also instils new energy in those who had been troubled by legacy employees’ bureaucracy and mediocracy, and lastly, it ensures everyone falls in line to follow the SOPs outlined for future scaling.

6. Challenges? Hell yes. Months of anxiety as those around you gossip about the ‘Why?’, and you wonder how you will replace experience with young energy. What helps? Standing your ground. I’d rather fail by trying to build a team of like-minded and mission-aligned people, than stagnate with a legacy team that’s standing in the way of change.

This is not to say that long-term employee retention isn’t valuable. But I dont think it’s a substitute for meritocracy. My simple message: If you believe you can get through the transition phase, you will. Give it a shot because whatever awaits you on the other side is relieving and exciting.