Hi, I’m Kevin Lawver, the CTO at Planted. Today is Black Out Tuesday, and instead of posting a graphic, or writing a press release, we thought it would be more appropriate to talk about some of the things your company can do today to help make sure that Black Lives Matter in your organization beyond just today.
While the unwelcome impact of the pandemic has the entire nation transitioning into a new reality, many of us are facing circumstances we never imagined. The economic impact is hitting quickly, and one of the first things companies have done to preserve their budgets is cutting employees from their payroll. In March, an estimated 10 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits and The New York Times estimates that the current national unemployment rate has risen to nearly 13%. So, if you’re among the droves of Americans facing unexpected layoffs due to COVID-19, you’re not alone.
During this unprecedented time, it’s easy to start feeling empty-handed when thinking about what to do next; but we want to remind you that while you may be down, you’re not out. Like all things — this too, shall pass, and in the meantime we want to offer our support and let you know that you do have options. But where to start? Take a breath, regroup, and consider these steps for moving your career forward.
This Black History Month, we wanted to highlight four startup founders of color whose ideas are changing the game from wearable tech to sustainable energy. They’re making major strides to bring changes to the industries they’re in and the world we live in, so check out their stories below!
Someone wise once said, ‘If you want to catch a big fish, you’ve got to use the right bait.’ Similarly, if you want to attract top candidates, you’ve got to write a great job description.
Often times, your job posting is the first introduction a candidate has to your company — so it’s important to optimize your writing to ensure you’ll get the right candidates to apply. Back to our fishing analogy: if you want to attract the best talent, you’ve got to lure ‘em in with a job posting that stands out. It may take a little extra time to perfect, but we put together this 5-step guide to help you get started. Sound familiar? We covered this topic back in 2015, but times are a-changin’, so we’re back with an update! Check out these tips for writing an all-star job description to attract the type of candidates you actually want to hire.
We’re excited to announce that our ATS (Applicant Tracking System) lineup just got a lot more inclusive with the integration of JazzHR! Earlier this year, we integrated with Greenhouse, and now we’re expanding our ATS compatibility even further. JazzHR is a powerful, user-friendly recruiting software, built to help growing companies exceed their recruiting goals. JazzHR’s software replaces time-wasting manual hiring tasks with smart software designed to help recruiters and hiring managers recruit and hire top talent, fast.
Our co-founder Connie Wong sat down with startup leaders from Zocdoc, KeyMe, and The Drone Racing League to gather insights on how to take the best, most decisive actions for maximum growth. Check out their tips on scaling your team for success.
Mapping out your 2019 hiring plan is an exciting process, but all of the legal jargon that you have to read through during it? Not quite as thrilling. But fear not: we’ve put together a list of some of the most major labor law and policy changes coming to NYC and San Francisco in 2019 in layman’s terms so you can push your hiring goals forward.
Disclaimer: Keep in mind that list is not exhaustive, and it’s important to keep up with all of the labor laws and policy changes that have just taken or will take place that may affect your organization whether you’re in New York City, San Francisco, or beyond. Be sure to reference official government documents for complete descriptions of the current labor laws, policy changes, and rulings described below.
A core part of any candidate’s offer package is the salary figure. In today’s competitive market, the salary is key to attracting and retaining top talent and represents what candidates’ varied skill sets, experience levels, and responsibilities are worth to your organization.
But figuring out salary ranges isn’t always an easy process—and we want to help. We’ve worked with thousands of innovative and growing companies over the years, and we’re excited to announce that we’re rolling out our very first Planted Startup Salary Guide in early 2019. To give you a sneak peek of what we’re working on, we’re sharing the average salary figures for the most in-demand business roles on Planted in 2018.
As much as hiring managers hate to admit it, ghosting is a natural part of the process. It can be time-consuming and overwhelming to reach out to every single applicant for the roles you’re interviewing for. Not to mention that it can be hard to find the proper words to let someone down gently, especially if they’ve been eager about following up with you throughout the process. It sucks enough to be the bad guy, so why be the bad guy AND directly reject someone on top of it?
But there’s a new phenomenon that’s come about recently: candidates are starting to ghost employers at rapid rates—even after the offer letter is signed, sealed, and delivered. In fact, a recent study conducted by Clutch, a B2B ratings and reviews firm, found that a whopping 40% of candidates find it reasonable to ghost employers during the interview process. This statistic begs us to question: should you be changing up your hiring process, or is this a trend that you simply can’t control?
In this busy, digital age where everything is “go, go, go,” keeping yourself healthy is more important, yet more difficult, than ever. While some of us are content lifting weights or going on long runs, others look for new and different ways to get fit. That’s where startups like these come in. Many of these companies help the general public find inspiration, stay motivated, and get healthy in all sorts of unique ways. Check them out: They’re all hiring for non-technical roles and they all include fitness benefits!
The first thing I do when I’m reviewing a potential candidate for a job I’m recruiting for is check who I might have in common with that person on LinkedIn. It’s a really valuable exercise - especially if I see the candidate is connected to the hiring manager for the open role, for example. I might even reach out to that hiring manager to get an opinion prior to putting that person into the interview process.
Candidate experience is a popular buzzword in the recruiting world, with tons of articles and blogs giving tips on how to improve candidate experience, suggesting everything from story boarding the candidate experience to hiring a Candidate Experience Manager. While these tips are mainly good, they make candidate experience seem more complicated than it is. At its core, candidate experience is about making sure your candidates are treated with respect during the interview process.
Luckily, there are many easy fixes that will help you win over candidates, even if you don’t have a ton of resources or time to dedicate.
Social media is great for documenting some of the best and coolest moments in our lives. But while we might look back at our photos and tweets and laugh at the things we did, potential employers might look at them and go “aw HELL no.” We’re talking about that photo of you when you were clearly plastered at 11pm in the pub, or that snarky tweet you sent mocking that one company or celeb after a PR blunder. Believe us, we’ve all been there, and it’s okay if you’ve done these things. The problem is that first impressions matter, and if your employer’s first impression of you is negative, they’re not likely to spend any more time on your application. Employers aren’t like your friends who understand what your lifestyle was like. They don’t know that you’re a very kind and helpful person 99% of the time. All they know is what they saw online when they went to see if you were a real person.
When you're hiring for technical roles, the rules are pretty clear. You know the hard skills you need, and you can test for the abilities that will make someone successful. Of course there are other factors that may play into your decision, but at the end of the day, you’re looking for someone who has a specific set of concrete skills. If you're searching for non technical employees, however, it can be a little bit of a trickier ball game! There’s more room for subjectivity and more of a grey area when considering desired skill set and potential. It makes sense then that the question we get most often from CEO’s and hiring managers alike is "how do we hire for intangible skills?!"
It isn't easy, and there's no one way to ensure you're doing it right. After helping hundreds of companies find smart, awesome non tech folks for their teams, we do think we've figured out a way to identify that startup je ne sais quoi.. If you know the right things to look for and create a culture that attracts it, we don’t think it’s that hard at all to hire for hustle.
Harvard. Yale. Stanford -- The only schools I'd hire recent grads from when I worked at LinkedIn and other tech startups, right? Wrong. In reality, I actually rejected a ton of Ivy League and Stanford candidates in favor of those from different educational backgrounds. Here are the schools that I ended up hiring from:
San Francisco State. Tufts. Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.
Yep, you read that last one right. “High School” – as in no college whatsoever. Say what??? Was I hiring people to clean off the ping pong tables after a company bender? Nope. These were for a Product Marketing position on one of the sexiest teams at LinkedIn and for the founding sales team at an edtech startup with $10MM+ in venture funding. OK, so what gives? To understand why I hired who I did – and rejected the rest – you first have to understand why hiring is so different in tech than for old-school industries.