In any business setting, there runs an undercurrent of knowledge we sometimes call “culture.” At its broadest, this term may refer to tangible things like workplace perks and employee benefits, but that’s not what I mean here. In the most direct sense, a company’s “culture” means something intangible: the feeling of what it’s like to work there.
In other words, company culture is how people behave. It’s not a full fridge of beer or a ping pong table—it’s how your employees behave in the presence of these and other variables, including one another.
Recruiting Is A Maze of Advertisements
The always-changing quality of a company’s culture puts both prospective employees and hiring managers in a bad spot. Hiring managers routinely make judgment calls on people without having seen them in action. Likewise, prospective employees have to decide whether they “like” this or that company without having worked there first.
It’s a catch-22 that puts both sides in an awkward position—one where only positive attributes seem to count. As a result, both employers and employees tend to portray themselves in the best possible light (even if it means lying).
Take the resume and the “About Us” page, for example. Rarely if ever do you see both pros and cons on a resume document or on a company’s “Careers” page. These spaces, along with most LinkedIn pages and social networks generally, have become billboards—outmoded spaces for one-sided advertisements.
Trials Are Tribulations
Traditionally, there are only two main ways for employers and employees to cut through the flak of recruiting advertisements. One is to put hopeful employees through a trial. While this allows the company to better evaluate candidates, trial periods tend to be unfair, even exploitative of these candidates (wouldn’t you rather feel integral to a company than interchangeable?).
The other way through the flak of advertisements is to check for employee references. Again, we see a practice that is unfairly balanced against job seekers: the idea is that only people new to a company have something to prove. The boss or manager of a company, on the other hand, often acts with impunity knowing that their place in the corporate ranks is secure.
At the same time, though, job seekers can manipulate references so that only positive reviews surface in the application process. Social networks like LinkedIn are like so many cakewalks that reward the person with the fattest bundle of peer affirmations.
Our Solution to Corporate Charades
No single metric encapsulates company culture. Rather, management itself is the strongest indicator that a company is healthy or unhealthy. Until now, employees had to piece together clues and anecdotes, like so many detectives or poker players, in order to decide where to work.
So: what if there were a platform where everything you wanted to know about your current or future boss was out in the open?
Completed.com empowers everyone involved in business networking. Employees can freely choose to work at companies with strong management; managers can work to uphold or improve their standing; and hiring managers can better mix and match based on cultural fit.
Case in Point: The Vengeful Employee
The radical transparency of the Completed platform empowers employees by making their managers accountable. For each instance of unfairness, there exists the possibility for it to be documented online. So as a boss, no amount of corporate insulation can make your profile invulnerable to a chilly comment.
So what’s to prevent a disgruntled employee from leaving a vengeful review?
Even as it calls corporate hierarchies into question, Completed itself must answer to a unique slew of criticisms. In the case of the vengeful employee, we enforce a policy for constructive criticism, and we take into account the trustworthiness of each review based on several factors, such as profile verification.
Our Vision for Completed.com
Our goal is not to “level the playing field” between bosses, recruiters, and employees. Rather, we want to ensure fairness among all these different participants in business.
At its best, our platform lets candidates showcase their successes in business, their unique talents, and their cultural affinities—then match these variables to certain characteristics of managers at companies. Completed.com ensures managers and recruiters share the burden of the proof with employees. In doing so, we’re working to re-establish the ideal of meritocracy in workplaces around the globe.