6 ideas
Most HR policies exist to control the few who abuse trust, but they insult the majority of competent professionals and signal distrust. Eliminate rules like formal vacation tracking and expense bureaucracy, and instead expect adults to exercise judgment in the company's interest.
Managers should ask of each employee: if this person told me they were leaving for a similar job elsewhere, would I fight hard to keep them? If the answer is no, that person should be given a generous severance now, so the role can be filled by someone the manager would fight to retain.
A company is not a family but a high-performing team, where every position should be held by the best possible person for the current needs of the business. When someone is merely adequate, the honest and respectful move is a clean exit with severance, not a place on the bench out of loyalty.
Feedback should be continuous, direct, and given in real time rather than saved for formal annual review cycles that arrive too late to be useful. Practicing fierce, fact-based honesty — even when uncomfortable — respects people more than softening or hoarding criticism.
Hire and structure your workforce around the capabilities the business will require six months to a year from now, not the skills that got you to today. This means accepting that some people who excelled in an earlier phase may no longer fit the company's future needs.
Compensation should be set by what an employee could command on the open market, not by rigid internal salary bands or fixed annual raise percentages. Pay people what they're worth to keep them, and tell them to interview elsewhere periodically so both sides know their true market value.