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Hi! I'm Nate, another one of the Lever founders here. Have any questions about our efforts here? I'd be happy to respond.

by nateps 10y ago

towlejunior 10y ago
Did any employees express skepticism re the worthiness of this as a goal?
- nateps 10y ago
  Yes. The skepticism was less around whether the goal of D&I is a good thing and whether it might be more important for us to invest in other things for the success of our business. We believe that inclusion is worth the investment. At the core, creating an inclusive environment is about employee engagement. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement) One company that studies the importance of employee engagement consistently is Gallup. Here is an interesting article on the intersection of diversity and engagement: http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/190103/using-employee-engagement-build-diverse-workforce.aspx http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/190103/using-employee-e... "Engagement and inclusiveness are closely related. Gallup has also found that engaged employees are more likely to say their company values diverse ideas."
what2_2 10y ago
How do you start these conversations with the team, especially as far as wanting to reach more underrepresented groups? When our company was very small it felt reasonable to say "We need to hire more women and underrepresented minorities", but after the team grows a bit I worry people might view that as "affirmative action" of some sort in a negative way - and I don't think I know how to handle that conversation. Not to mention how this might interact with US employment laws around discrimination - I think I'm misguided in worrying about this because so many tech companies (like Lever) are vocal about their desire to hire more people from these groups, but it does feel a bit like there are landmines when discussing this topic. I feel like I don't know what kind of language / goals I should be using. I DO feel like there's a distinction between good diversity efforts and accidentally shutting out some over-represented groups that don't deserve it - but I don't really know where that line is drawn.
- nateps 10y ago
  What Lever did from the beginning was focus on building an inclusive culture first and let diversity follow. My recommendation would be to check out Project Include; they've invested a ton in putting resources together: http://projectinclude.org/ http://projectinclude.org/
rand83746 10y ago
It seems like, to achieve diversity like this, especially in the Engineering team, you'd have to have a bias and preference to candidates that "increase diversity". How are you not passing on many people better qualified to do the job? To me, such a bias is, itself, discriminatory. Why judge candidates based on such shallow considerations as gender?
- nateps 10y ago
  We think one action that raised diversity of our engineering team was raising the bar to include evaluating for soft skills in addition to technical skills. In general, raising the bar and having a more rigorous process tends toward more diversity: https://medium.com/inclusion-insights/want-to-hire-more-diverse-people-raise-your-bar-b5d30f91cbd9 https://medium.com/inclusion-insights/want-to-hire-more-dive...
  - krakensden 10y ago
    How do you evaluate soft skills in a standard way? My experience with that has led me to believe that it's just crypto-culture-fit.
    - nateps 10y ago
      We have designed interview formats that specifically test for them. This actually isn't that revolutionary, as manager interviews have always weighted heavily on evaluating soft skills. We took some inspiration from interview formats used to evaluate managers and we also added a project interview that is about how people get work done in teams. By creating detailed interview guides with expectations and evaluation criteria, this skill is absolutely teachable. It does require significant investment in interviewer training.
troisx 10y ago
I'd like to know what your response it to the claims of ageism. The median age of American workers is 42, what percentage of your employees are over that age?
- nateps 10y ago
  "Raise the bar" is one of our values at Lever, and it applies to the work we do, our own personal growth, and hiring. Just 4 years in, we are far from done building our culture and achieving our values. In truth, we will never be done; there will always be more room to improve and grow. Yes, we currently have many younger workers. However, we already do take steps to welcome all workers, such as healthcare plans that include dependant coverage, maternity and paternity leave, and clearly defined work expectations. We also increase opportunity for experienced candidates to demonstrate what they can bring to the team with bar raising interview formats like our engineering project interview and career trajectory interview.
BurningFrog 10y ago
Is diversity in opinion and philosophy part of what you aim for? How many of the Lever employees are openly Republican or conservative?
- nateps 10y ago
  Yes, diversity of opinion is valued where it leads to better decision making. However, our focus on diversity and inclusion has more to do with employee engagement and making sure that individuals are able to bring their full selves to work and be their most effective. We do not ask employees about their political affiliations.
anon987 10y ago
Hi Nate, tell us about your efforts to hire people over the age of 40.
thisnotmyacc 10y ago
I have a question. > For two years, Sarah Nahm was the only woman at Lever, the company she co-founded and now runs as CEO... has roughly 100 employees... has a roughly 50–50 In any company, the first X hires are likely doers - e.g. for different companies, all software developers, all plumbers, all landscapers, all accountants, all lawyers. Then the roles you hire for start to change. Lets say hire say 5 is a sales person, 6 is an accountant, 7 a marketer. Then a company starts to hire lower-skilled support staff like personal assistants / people to answer phones, a gopher maybe, then say cleaners. These lower skilled jobs are easily filled with either gender, but pay a lot less. So my question, in a company with a female founder, and a proud 50-50 gender ratio, this seems the best chance to hit pay parity, and I wonder, has that happened? Is the ratio of pay $1-$1, or does Lever have the classic $0.77 on the dollar pay gap?
- lykron 10y ago
  You forgot an /s when you said the pay gap. If you didn't, then they pay gap you refer to is a statistical figure that is observed when you compare every worker across every profession across their entire career. The pay gap (as you assert it) doesn't exist (nor is legal to have) at a company level.
  - richthegeek 10y ago
    I think it can exist at a company level. Sum the wages of all male employees and compare to the sum for female employees. The parent comment is basically asking "do you have men in higher-paid positions (Software devs) and women in lower-paid positions (receptionists, secretaries, etc)?"
- nateps 10y ago
  As they begin to scale, startups also hire many of their highly paid workers, especially experienced executives. Our executive and management teams also have a roughly equal number of women.

Hi! I'm Nate, another one of the Lever founders here. Have any questions about our efforts here? I'd be happy to respond.

by nateps 10y ago

Hi! I'm Nate, another one of the Lever founders here. Have any questions about our efforts here? I'd be happy to respond.

towlejunior 10y ago

Did any employees express skepticism re the worthiness of this as a goal?

nateps 10y ago
Yes. The skepticism was less around whether the goal of D&I is a good thing and whether it might be more important for us to invest in other things for the success of our business. We believe that inclusion is worth the investment. At the core, creating an inclusive environment is about employee engagement. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_engagement) One company that studies the importance of employee engagement consistently is Gallup. Here is an interesting article on the intersection of diversity and engagement: http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/190103/using-employee-engagement-build-diverse-workforce.aspx http://www.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/190103/using-employee-e... "Engagement and inclusiveness are closely related. Gallup has also found that engaged employees are more likely to say their company values diverse ideas."

what2_2 10y ago

How do you start these conversations with the team, especially as far as wanting to reach more underrepresented groups? When our company was very small it felt reasonable to say "We need to hire more women and underrepresented minorities", but after the team grows a bit I worry people might view that as "affirmative action" of some sort in a negative way - and I don't think I know how to handle that conversation. Not to mention how this might interact with US employment laws around discrimination - I think I'm misguided in worrying about this because so many tech companies (like Lever) are vocal about their desire to hire more people from these groups, but it does feel a bit like there are landmines when discussing this topic. I feel like I don't know what kind of language / goals I should be using. I DO feel like there's a distinction between good diversity efforts and accidentally shutting out some over-represented groups that don't deserve it - but I don't really know where that line is drawn.

nateps 10y ago
What Lever did from the beginning was focus on building an inclusive culture first and let diversity follow. My recommendation would be to check out Project Include; they've invested a ton in putting resources together: http://projectinclude.org/ http://projectinclude.org/

rand83746 10y ago

It seems like, to achieve diversity like this, especially in the Engineering team, you'd have to have a bias and preference to candidates that "increase diversity". How are you not passing on many people better qualified to do the job? To me, such a bias is, itself, discriminatory. Why judge candidates based on such shallow considerations as gender?

nateps 10y ago
We think one action that raised diversity of our engineering team was raising the bar to include evaluating for soft skills in addition to technical skills. In general, raising the bar and having a more rigorous process tends toward more diversity: https://medium.com/inclusion-insights/want-to-hire-more-diverse-people-raise-your-bar-b5d30f91cbd9 https://medium.com/inclusion-insights/want-to-hire-more-dive...
- krakensden 10y ago
  How do you evaluate soft skills in a standard way? My experience with that has led me to believe that it's just crypto-culture-fit.
  - nateps 10y ago
    We have designed interview formats that specifically test for them. This actually isn't that revolutionary, as manager interviews have always weighted heavily on evaluating soft skills. We took some inspiration from interview formats used to evaluate managers and we also added a project interview that is about how people get work done in teams. By creating detailed interview guides with expectations and evaluation criteria, this skill is absolutely teachable. It does require significant investment in interviewer training.

troisx 10y ago

I'd like to know what your response it to the claims of ageism. The median age of American workers is 42, what percentage of your employees are over that age?

nateps 10y ago
"Raise the bar" is one of our values at Lever, and it applies to the work we do, our own personal growth, and hiring. Just 4 years in, we are far from done building our culture and achieving our values. In truth, we will never be done; there will always be more room to improve and grow. Yes, we currently have many younger workers. However, we already do take steps to welcome all workers, such as healthcare plans that include dependant coverage, maternity and paternity leave, and clearly defined work expectations. We also increase opportunity for experienced candidates to demonstrate what they can bring to the team with bar raising interview formats like our engineering project interview and career trajectory interview.

BurningFrog 10y ago

Is diversity in opinion and philosophy part of what you aim for? How many of the Lever employees are openly Republican or conservative?

nateps 10y ago
Yes, diversity of opinion is valued where it leads to better decision making. However, our focus on diversity and inclusion has more to do with employee engagement and making sure that individuals are able to bring their full selves to work and be their most effective. We do not ask employees about their political affiliations.

anon987 10y ago

Hi Nate, tell us about your efforts to hire people over the age of 40.

thisnotmyacc 10y ago

I have a question. > For two years, Sarah Nahm was the only woman at Lever, the company she co-founded and now runs as CEO... has roughly 100 employees... has a roughly 50–50 In any company, the first X hires are likely doers - e.g. for different companies, all software developers, all plumbers, all landscapers, all accountants, all lawyers. Then the roles you hire for start to change. Lets say hire say 5 is a sales person, 6 is an accountant, 7 a marketer. Then a company starts to hire lower-skilled support staff like personal assistants / people to answer phones, a gopher maybe, then say cleaners. These lower skilled jobs are easily filled with either gender, but pay a lot less. So my question, in a company with a female founder, and a proud 50-50 gender ratio, this seems the best chance to hit pay parity, and I wonder, has that happened? Is the ratio of pay $1-$1, or does Lever have the classic $0.77 on the dollar pay gap?

lykron 10y ago
You forgot an /s when you said the pay gap. If you didn't, then they pay gap you refer to is a statistical figure that is observed when you compare every worker across every profession across their entire career. The pay gap (as you assert it) doesn't exist (nor is legal to have) at a company level.
- richthegeek 10y ago
  I think it can exist at a company level. Sum the wages of all male employees and compare to the sum for female employees. The parent comment is basically asking "do you have men in higher-paid positions (Software devs) and women in lower-paid positions (receptionists, secretaries, etc)?"
nateps 10y ago
As they begin to scale, startups also hire many of their highly paid workers, especially experienced executives. Our executive and management teams also have a roughly equal number of women.