The Best & Worst in Employer Branding: January 2022
I’ve vowed to make 2022 a year of learning. I won’t call this a New Year’s resolution because then I’ll have to abandon it yesterday.
There is knowledge to be gained from the best among us and the worst, so as I embark on a mission to learn more about employer branding in 2022, I will look at the shiny and the shady—the best and the worst in the field every month.
In the first edition of Best & Worst, we’ll look at Coinbase’s new employee perk and watch as the dumpster fire at Better.com continues to burn.
The best: Coinbase introduces “recharge weeks” to make employees take time off already
Coinbase announced that it will (pretty much) shut down the company for a week every quarter to give employees a chance to recharge. We imagine most Coinbase employees will spend those four weeks explaining to friends and family what crypto currency is.
The company’s chief people officer L.J. Brock announced the new perk in a blog post where he also acknowledged the long hours and demanding schedules Coinbase employees work.
What’s working here?
Coinbase identified a cultural problem: Employees we’re taking their PTO because they didn’t want to fall behind or ask colleagues to cover for them. Offering unlimited PTO and encouraging employees to use it wasn’t enough.
Tested a solution: One recharge week in 2020 and two in 2021 where no one had to worry about falling behind or becoming a burden.
Asked for employee feedback: “52% of employees said recharge days were the primary tool that helped them rest and recover in 2021,” reads Brock’s blog post.
Then rolled out a more permanent policy: Four recharge weeks per year.
Employees and job candidates are watching for measurable and documentable changes in what it’s like to work for your company. Smoke and mirrors will no longer be tolerated, and when improvements aren’t made, your workers will talk about it publicly.
Coinbase is calling these recharge weeks an experiment, which is a bit of a non-committal red flag, but we’re hoping they follow through, and if this doesn’t work, iterate until they find something that does.
The worst: Vishal Garg returns as CEO of Better.com
We learn nothing.
A quick recap of the current dumpster fire at mortgage company Better.com: Right before the 2021 winter holidays, CEO Vishal Garg called a large Zoom meeting and fired everyone on it. Then he threatened the remaining employees: “You will not be allowed to fail twice. You will be encouraged to fail once. But not allowed to fail twice. Not meeting deadlines will not be acceptable.”
Within a week of the mass-firing, the company’s board of directors announced that Garg would be “taking time off effective immediately” and that a third party had been hired to do a “leadership and cultural assessment.”
Garg has a history of alleged bad behavior at the company. Outlets like The Daily Beast, Business Insider, and Forbes have reported on his verbally abusive ways. (He once told employees in an email that they’re “TOO DAMN SLOW” and are “A BUNCH OF DUMB DOLPHINS.” Zero points because of bad behavior, but also five points for a really original insult cast in all caps.) Forbes has also reported on the many lawsuits he’s facing re: possible fraud.
Well, this month, The Daily Beast reported that Garg is on his way back to Better.com. After taking time to “reflect on his leadership, reconnect with the values that make Better great and work closely with an executive coach,” he will return as full-time CEO.
It’s a worker’s job market, and guess what workers don’t like: toxic leadership.
While it looks like Garg is getting away with something, the reality is, Garg and Better.com, and likely its board, will suffer. Potential customers will notice the pillar of black smoke billowing from the dumpster, so will potential employees.
Garg’s behavior in late 2021 already rendered the company untouchable, so his reinstatement—after just a few weeks—is a baffling move. It’s hard to imagine the appeal the company could make to job seekers at this point. Should they try to use their recent $750 million cash infusion to make new hires in the coming year—what do you think those conversations will look like?
Better.com employees aren’t allowed to fail twice; let’s see how many times the CEO is allowed to fail, publicly, and still get paid.
Launched in 2016, Uncubed Studios is a full-service creative agency with a client list representing the most influential employers on earth along with the high growth tech companies.
The team that brings the work of Uncubed Studios to life is made up of award-winning experts in cinematography, journalism, production, recruitment, employee engagement, employer branding and more.
Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza writes about workplace culture, DEI, and hiring. Her work has appeared in Fast Company, From Day One, and InHerSight, among others.
ABOUT UNCUBED STUDIOS
Launched in 2016, Uncubed Studios is a full-service creative agency with a client list representing the most influential employers on earth along with the high growth tech companies.
The team that brings the work of Uncubed Studios to life is made up of award-winning experts in cinematography, journalism, production, recruitment, employee engagement, employer branding and more.
Interested in speaking with Uncubed Studios? Email us at studios@uncubed.com
