Alloy

People Team · Internal Use Only

Alloy Manager Handbook

Each part of this handbook is self-contained. Go directly to the section you need.

Key People ResourcesQuick Reference: Who to ContactDownload the Handbook (PDF)
Alloy team members in a collaborative meeting around a table in a bright office

Resources

Key People Resources

Effective management starts with knowing where to go for support. Use this handbook as your foundational reference, and the Manager Resource Center in Notion for detailed policies, process checklists, and templates.

Essential Contacts

HR Business Partners (HRBPs)

Your strategic partners for performance, team health, and leadership challenges.

Talent Acquisition

Partner for all open roles, candidate pipeline, and interview process design.

Employee Experience

Team events, onboarding logistics, recognition programs, and office operations.

People Operations

Systems, total rewards, and compliance.

Tech Support

Submit tickets via your team's #it-support Slack channel.

Partnering with Your HRBP

Your HR Business Partner is your strategic ally. They help you align team goals with company priorities, navigate leadership challenges, and access tools to lead confidently. You don't need to wait for a problem to reach out.

Great times to involve your HRBP:

  • Planning team reorganizations or skills gap analysis
  • Navigating performance issues or team conflicts
  • Coaching and growth planning for direct reports
  • Handling complaints or legal concerns
  • Managing hiring, restructuring, or leadership transitions
  • Preparing for performance review cycles

Key People Systems

Rippling

System of record for all employment data: titles, levels, compensation, PTO requests, org chart, and benefits enrollment. Managers should switch to Admin view to approve time off and view direct report data.

Lattice

Performance management system. Run 1:1s, document feedback, set goals, and complete annual performance reviews here.

Greenhouse

Applicant Tracking System (ATS). All candidate pipeline, interview scorecard, and hiring guide templates are available here.

Easy Llama

HR trainings, including on management and leadership skills.

Notion

Knowledge base for all HR policies, templates, and resources. The People Place is your primary reference for benefits, PTO, leave policy, and compensation philosophy.

The Journey

Managing the Employee Lifecycle

  1. 01

    Hiring with Intent: Recruiting Essentials

    Kickoff → Formal Acceptance

    Strategic hiring is one of the most important things you'll do as a manager. Great hires make your team — and Alloy — stronger. Before a role is posted, two documents must be completed: the Job Description and the Hiring Guide.

  2. 02

    Onboarding for Impact

    Offer signed → Day 90

    A thoughtful onboarding experience helps new hires become productive quickly, feel connected to their team, and commit to long-term success. Employee Experience runs a standardized Week 1 for every new hire. Your role is to complement this with team-specific context, not duplicate it.

  3. 03

    Fostering a Strong, Inclusive Team Culture

    Every day

    Culture is not built in all-hands — it's built in the daily interactions you model and enable.

  4. 04

    Coaching & Performance Management

    Weekly cadence

    Regular 1:1s are your primary tool for coaching, feedback, and relationship-building. Use Lattice to run them. Schedule them consistently and protect them — canceling signals low priority.

  5. 05

    Giving and Receiving Feedback

    Continuous

    The Radical Candor framework identifies two axes: caring personally and challenging directly. The SBI model (Situation, Behavior, Impact) gives feedback a repeatable structure.

  6. 06

    Supporting PTO, Leaves & Life Events

    When life happens

    PTO requests are submitted in Rippling at least 2 weeks in advance (max single request: 2 weeks). Sick/Safe days: 56 hours per calendar year, available immediately upon hire — no details required.

  7. 07

    Managing Offboarding & Transitions

    With HR support

    Whether voluntary or involuntary, departures need to be handled with care, consistency, and partnership with HR. How you manage endings shapes your team's trust in leadership.

Leadership

Peer to Manager

Moving from peer to manager is a structural shift, not just a title change. People who used to see you as a teammate now look to you for direction, decisions, and fairness. What tends to matter most early on is how predictable you are — are expectations clear? Are decisions applied evenly?

What Changes

Your role

Your impact is less about your individual contribution and more about how effectively you set direction, create clarity, and enable others.

Your relationships

You are now responsible for setting expectations, giving feedback, and making decisions that may not always align with prior dynamics.

Your impact

Your words and actions carry more weight. What felt like a casual comment before can now be interpreted as direction.

Your credibility

Trust is built through consistency. How you apply expectations and make decisions will be closely observed, especially early on.

The Transition

Making the Transition

A team collaborating around a table in a modern office

  • Acknowledge the shift — have a simple, direct conversation that recognizes the change in role.

  • Reset your 1:1s — move them into a consistent, structured space for coaching, feedback, and alignment.

  • Ask how they like to be managed — understand preferences around feedback, communication, and autonomy.

  • Be explicit about expectations — clarify priorities, ownership, and what good looks like.

  • Follow through consistently — trust builds from what you do repeatedly.

What Great Managers Do

Google's Project Aristotle studied hundreds of teams to find what makes them effective. The answer wasn't who was on the team — it was how the team worked together. Project Oxygen identified the behaviors that distinguished their best managers — nearly all relational, not technical. The manager's job, distilled: create the conditions for your team to do their best work.

Be a good coach

Ask before telling. Use questions to help your team solve their own problems (GROW model). Build capability, not dependency.

Empower — don't micromanage

Give people real ownership with real authority. Define the outcome clearly, then get out of the way.

Create psychological safety

People do their best thinking when they aren't afraid to speak up, take risks, or admit mistakes.

Set clear goals and priorities

Ambiguity is expensive. Use SMART goals. Ruthlessly prioritize — a team with ten priorities has none.

Give consistent, specific feedback

Don't save it for reviews. SBI: be specific, behavioral, and focused on impact.

Invest in development

Know each person's strengths, growth edges, and career goals — and connect their daily work to both.

Remove blockers

Identify what's slowing your team down and resolve it. Often the highest-leverage thing you can do in a day.

Communicate with clarity and context

Share the “why” behind decisions. Silence breeds rumor; transparency builds trust.

Practice

Manager Tips

Manager Best Practices

Manager in a one-on-one conversation with a team member

  • Set a regular cadence with your HRBP — don't only loop them in when problems arise. Bring ideas and solutions, not just problems.

  • Before your kickoff, search LinkedIn for 2–3 profiles that represent the ideal candidate — share these with your Recruiter to accelerate sourcing alignment.

  • Share the 30–60–90 plan on Day 1 and review it together. Make it a living document, not a set-and-forget.

  • Document behavioral (not emotional) observations in Lattice. Note the impact of behavior, not your interpretation of intent.

  • Block protected time weekly for strategic thinking, and protect 1:1 time — it's the highest-leverage hour of your week.

  • Use the RACI framework to reduce friction: clarify who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for major decisions.

  • Look for trends in people data, not one-offs. A single data point doesn't tell a full story.

Scripts

Common Scenarios & Sample Scripts

Discrimination or harassment report

Whistleblower / ethics concern

Accommodation request (disability or religious)

Relocation request

Conflict of interest / outside employment

Constructive feedback (SBI)

Frameworks & Decision Tools

“Output of manager = Output of their org + Output of neighboring orgs they influence.”
— Andy Grove (Intel)
“Type 1 decisions are irreversible and consequential — go slow. Type 2 are reversible and lower-stakes — decide fast and iterate.”
— Bezos' Type 1 vs. Type 2
“I'm aware there are things I don't see clearly. I'm fallible. I need your input.”
— Edmondson's posture for leaders
“Becoming a manager is, in many ways, a career change. It requires investing time and energy in not only continuously developing yourself, but in developing your people. Sometimes you'll fail and sometimes you won't make the best decision. Knowing that, and taking time for reflection, will always allow you to grow.”

Questions

Quick Reference: Who to Contact