This remote startup had no HR function but needed fair compensation fast. Here’s the framework they built instead.
What’s happening: A fully remote startup without formal HR successfully implemented a transparent compensation framework across 40 employees, turning a trust issue into a structured system that improved budget planning and employee confidence.
Why this matters: Many Australian startups delay building people processes until they hit 100 employees, but waiting that long often damages trust and makes scaling harder, particularly in today’s competitive talent market.
We didn’t have an HR department, but we had to bring structure to how we managed performance and pay. It wasn’t just a policy issue. It was a trust issue, and a leadership challenge.
Galina Novikova thought she was fixing a payroll problem. The co-founder of digital startup Petggle quickly realised she was actually untangling something far more complex: a trust issue that was quietly undermining her growing company.
“In fast-moving tech companies, innovation isn’t the hard part. It’s change,” says Novikova, who previously worked as CFO and strategic planning lead across global marketplaces before launching her Australian-based startup.
Her 40-person, fully remote team was facing rising pressure to bring structure and fairness to salary and bonus decisions. Without templates or an HR director, they had just one budget cycle to get it right.
Start with trust
The initial symptoms looked straightforward enough. Employees didn’t know when to ask for raises. Team leads lacked consistent ways to recognise performance. Executives found budget planning felt more like guesswork than strategy.
“As we listened across the company, the story became clearer,” Novikova explains. “We weren’t just missing a compensation framework. We were missing shared expectations.”
Rather than rushing to implement a rigid system, the team focused on understanding the real problem. They benchmarked salaries across peer SaaS companies and marketplaces, but recognised that data alone rarely changes minds.
“So we framed a narrative,” says Novikova. “One that connected fairness to financial predictability. One that showed how a more transparent process could support, not replace, the human side of leadership.”
That narrative approach helped people step into the change rather than resist it.
Build your coalition
Without an HR director, Novikova pulled together a cross-functional group from product, technology, and finance. These weren’t token representatives but respected peers who could think critically and advocate within their teams.
Crucially, they also included early sceptics.
“Not to convince them, but to learn from them,” she says. “They helped us see the friction points before rollout and shaped a solution that felt more grounded than top-down.”
This approach reflects broader challenges facing Australian startups around talent management and retention in competitive markets.
Test before announcing
Before any company-wide announcement, the team built and tested quietly. They created draft frameworks, ran simulated scenarios, and pressure-tested edge cases across different roles and countries.
Key questions included whether team leads would feel supported rather than micromanaged, whether the model could flex across diverse job roles, and whether it aligned with existing budgeting rhythms.
“The feedback was clear, candid, and sometimes uncomfortable,” Novikova admits. “But it helped us avoid costly missteps.”
The testing phase revealed practical concerns about international compliance and role-specific performance metrics that wouldn’t have emerged in theoretical planning.
Launch with intention
The final rollout came with three clear promises: performance reviews would link to 2024 salary planning, each role would have clearer expectations, and team leads would receive structured tools for feedback conversations.
Early signals proved encouraging. Q1 budget planning ran smoother, and employees reported increased confidence in feedback discussions.
“We knew we’d built something meaningful,” says Novikova. “Not perfect. But functional. Trusted. Better.”
The framework addressed immediate pain points while establishing foundations for continued growth. Team leads gained clarity around performance discussions, while executives could plan budgets with greater confidence.
For Australian startups navigating similar HR technology investments, Novikova’s experience suggests that structured approaches to compensation can deliver benefits beyond just fairness.
“Many startups delay building people processes,” she observes. “But if you wait until you have 100 employees to start aligning performance and pay, you’re already late.”
Her advice for other founders centres on starting small, staying human, and avoiding perfectionism.
“You don’t need a big team or big tools to lead meaningful change,” she says. “What you do need is curiosity, a willingness to listen, and the discipline to turn insight into structure.”
The transformation ultimately opened broader conversations about fairness in scaling companies, changing how the team worked together beyond just compensation decisions.
“Change isn’t just about solving problems,” Novikova concludes. “It’s about creating the kind of environment where good people stay, grow, and lead.”
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