 |
|
|
|||||
Sixteen years ago, I received a phone call that was both unexpected and surprising. On the other end of the line was Lisa (a pseudonym) who had previously been the leading applicant for an open job position at our agency. Lisa had learned about our agency from some of her peers who worked with us and who had encouraged her to apply for a position in the firm. But, halfway through the interview process, Lisa informed us that even though she really wanted to work with us, she had received an offer from a competitor that she just couldnt refuse. At the time, we were a start-up agency that was bootstrapping its way forward. We simply couldnt match the salary that the competitor was offering Lisa. Believe me, if we could have, we would have. Lisas portfolio of work, CV, and recommendations were more than impressive. Although we were disappointed, we thanked Lisa for participating in the interview process and genuinely wished her all the best in her career. This is a scenario that many start-ups find themselves inwanting to attract their industries best and brightest but being unable to compete with the big guys in the area of compensation. But, back to the phone call. In a faint whisper, Lisa asked if the position at our agency was still available. I replied yes, it was, and asked why she was whispering. As it turns out, Lisa was whispering because she was in her new workplace and didnt want her colleagues to overhear the call. I reminded her that we wouldnt be able to match her current salary, to which she replied: Id rather be working with you guys at a lower salary than be working here in a toxic culture. (Lisas peers who worked at our agency had told her about our fun and often quirky culture.) So, we offered the position to Lisa, who immediately quit her job and came to work at our agency, where she excelled in her role. Lisas story should be good news for any company seeking to attract top talent, but especially those that cant afford to compete on the basis of salary. Here are five ways to compete for talent without having a huge budget for salaries. 1. Build a highly engaged company culture A study conducted by Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest recruiting sites, found that 77% of employees consider a companys culture before applying for a job, and that 56% of applicants rank company culture as being more important than salary when it comes to job satisfaction. If you want to attract top talent, prioritize building a highly engaged company culture where employees are excited about the work they do and are committed to helping their organizations succeed. Let your culture act as a magnet to attract top talenteven if you arent exactly hitting the top of your industrys salary scales. 2. Prioritize work/life balance Of respondents in a FlexJobs Career Pulse Survey, 64% stated they would choose better work/life balance over better pay. And no wonder! Workplace stress has been linked to physical, emotional, and mental health challenges, including high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, anxiety, depression, and substance abuse. If your organization cant compete for top talent on the basis of salary, try competing on work/life balance by offering generous time off opportunities like Half-Day Fridays, flexible working hours, and work-from-home opportunities. 3. Provide opportunities for professional development Ambitious employees often forego higher salaries in favor of professional development that could fast-track their careers in the long run. Thats why a great way to attract top talent is to provide candidates with opportunities for professional development that they would not otherwise find at your competitors. But, what professional development programs would attract the type of employees you would want to apply at your firm? Research conducted by PayScale found that nearly a third of all respondents reported that they would be most interested in management/leadership training. Other coveted training opportunities included professional certifications and technical skills training. 4. Offer non-monetary benefits Cold hard cash isnt the only thing that can motivate an individual to want to work at an organization. In a study conducted by Randstad US, 61% of respondents indicated that they would be willing to accept a lower salary if an organization offered a great benefits package as part of their compensation. And, in a survey by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, 80% of respondents reported that they would choose a job with benefits even if an identical job offered 30% more salary but no benefits. If you cant go toe-to-toe with your competitors based on salaries, consider offering benefits like workplace wellness programs, gym membership, health insurance, and access to mental health resources. 5. ‘We grow, you grow’ programs When Lisa left a higher-paying job to come to our agency, we promised her that as the company grew and became more profitable, her salary would likewise growa promise that we were able to keep. Sometimes, all it takes to win over a candidate is to demonstrate that you value their contributions and that as the company grows, they will reap the benefits. If your company simply cant offer top-tier salaries, consider using these strategies. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that you can compete effectively for top talent without having a huge budget for salaries.
Category:
E-Commerce
This nondescript piece of home decor is about the size of a narrow bookshelf, and it looks like a vertical soundbar speaker. In reality, it’s a new home fitness deviceand it hides a gym’s worth of workout machines. Amp is a $1,995 home fitness device that streamlines the clunkiness of a cable-based workout machine into the form of a thin, wall-mounted home accessory. It’s now available to pre-order for $99. Just six feet tall and one foot deep, Amp consists of a vertical mounted bar with a movable arm that pivots off the side and serves as the main workout interface. Unlike the typical gym machine with a stack of weights attached to a cable, Amp’s single cable interface connects to a magnetic resistance motor and electrical driver and can be adjusted to different heights to accommodate everything from bicep curls to squats to lunges. [Photo: Amp] Amp was founded by Shalom Meckenzie, a fitness enthusiast and tech entrepreneur. In 2020, he merged his betting software company SBTech with the sports betting company DraftKings for an undisclosed sum. Driven by the impact of losing his father when he was just 18, Meckenzie knew he wanted his next venture to focus on wellness and fitness. He scoured the market and came upon the idea of creating a workout machine that was more accessible than the large, complex and often ugly devices found in gyms. The starting point for Amp’s fitness device was to build something that “would look like a premium, luxury product,” Meckenzie says. “Not like a fitness device but more something like furniture that will blend into any house.” [Photo: Amp] This is a particular challenge for the multi-functional workout device known as a cable crossover machine, which Amp is intended to replicate, and is among one of the most used devices in any gym. Users can do a wide variety of exercises on this machine, but it’s often an elevator-sized metal cage strung through with cables, pulleys, and large stacks of weights. The solution would need the versatility of a crossover machine without the clunkinessMeckenzie wanted Amp to sit in people’s living rooms, not get tucked away in their basements, while still being useful. “We’ve looked into all of our competitors and we chose one thing. We said we don’t want to look like any of them,” Meckenzie says. [Photo: Amp] About three years ago, he convened a team to devise a different approach. They holed up in a villa for two weeks and started designing prototypes out of cardboard. “I think we built about 25 different mock-ups,” says Shahar Cohen, Amp’s CEO. At the end of this campout design sprint the team members voted on their favorite version of the device. Their selection was unanimous. This prototype became Amp. Amp’s magnetic motor has between five and 100 pounds of resistance, which may seem low for those accustomed to straining against hundreds of pounds of metal weight. Meckenzie says the team designed Amp to optimize how a user works out, not how much weight they can pull. It operates on three different modes that alter the way weight and resistance are used in any given exercise. A fixed mode uses the same amount of resistance for both pulling and releasing the cable. A rubber band-like mode increases the resistance the longer a user pulls on the cable. And “eccentric” mode adds more resistance as the user returns the cable back to its starting point, meaning a 20-pound curl will feel like 30 pounds during the release. [Photo: Amp] With custom-built motors, integrated artificial intelligence, and a companion smartphone app, the device can mimic some of the most common machines found in gyms, and also create entirely new types of workouts based on the needs of the user. “We have a lot of opportunity for different types of resistance that you actually cannot perform with standard mechanical systems,” says Cohen. About 1,000 of Amp’s fitness devices have shipped to customers and installed so far, mostly in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York, and the company expects to ship to other regions in the coming months. The full $1,995 cost includes shipping as well as installation, which Cohen compares to mounting a television. Hitting a relatively low price point was important to Meckenzie, who developed the idea for Amp during the pandemic when people were buying up smart home fitness devices like Peloton, which sell for between $1,495 and $2,495. “For me, it wasn’t interesting to sell a device for $5,000 or $10,000 which will not be accessible to people,” Meckenzie says. “I wanted to do something that has a big impact.”
Category:
E-Commerce
As the geographic center of Indianapolis, Monument Circle is in many ways the heart of the city. The 284-foot Soldiers and Sailors Monument towering in the middle is a beloved local landmark, and the plaza and fountain around its base has been a gathering place since it opened in 1902. But the way most people experience it is through the window of a car. Monument Circle is technically a traffic circle, which means the center of the city is little more than a place for cars to drive. The past couple of years, however, have shown another possibility. Since 2023, from June through November, part of the traffic circle has been closed to cars and converted into Spark on the Circle, a pop-up park that has activated the space and brought tens of thousands of pedestrians downtown. Created by the nonprofit art and design organization Big Car Collaborative in partnership with several local agencies, Spark on the Circle turns a quarter of the circle into an activated public space, with Astroturf covering the roadway, shade structures, games, vendors, and stages for performances. Now the landscape architects who designed the park are working on a plan that could make the pop-up permanent. Merritt Chase, a firm based in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, has been involved in shaping Monument Circle for several years through its work on the downtown resiliency strategy launched by Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett in 2022. One plan arising from the strategy calls for a renewed focus on improving walkability downtown and creating more public space for an emerging residential population. Spark on the Circle, and Merritt Chase’s design for it, was created to turn Monument Circle into a destination rather than something most people simply drive past. Historic Monument Circle: Soldiers and Sailors Monument, circa 1950 [Photo: W.H. Bass Photo Co., Indiana Historical Society] There’s been so much history there, protests and demonstrations, parades, festivals, and just the everyday life of the city that passed through that space. There have always been questions around the identity of the circle, the use of the circle, the future potential of the circle, says Chris Merritt, cofounder of Merritt Chase. Over the last couple of years, the temporary park we’ve put out there has definitely been a successful case study of new ways to reimagine and use the circle. So we’re building on that to continue to think about what a future permanent plan might be for the circle. [Rendering: courtesy Merritt Chase] Merritt Chase has just been awarded an 18-month fellowship to further explore ideas for redesigning or reusing Monument Circle. The firm is one of 10 fellows supported by Emerson Collective, a philanthropy started by Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple’s Steve Jobs. The 2025 cohort of fellows, announced this week, is focused on local leadership and community-centered place-based work, according to Patrick D’Arcy, senior director of fellowships at Emerson Collective. We really respect [Merritt Chases] community-centered approach. They believe that successful public projects require more than just really beautiful design; they also require community trust and collaboration and relationship building, says D’Arcy. Their vision for a more utilized and joyful Monument Circle is really inspiring. [Photo: courtesy Merritt Chase] A circle for the city Preparations for this summer’s iteration of Spark on the Circle are still underway, but its expected to open in June. Megan Vukusich is director of the city’s Department of Metropolitan Development, and though she says there is currently no funding or official plan in place to make the pop-up park a permanent one, the visitation numbers suggest strong community interest. According to a report from Big Car Collective, the 2024 iteration of the park saw more than 71,000 visitors, with more than 400 on an average day. More than 80% of visitors spent 30 minutes or more at the park, and 30% went to a restaurant or did shopping downtown after leaving. [Photo: courtesy Merritt Chase] We don’t want people to come and snap a quick photo. We’d like them to stay, maybe check out some of the local shops. These metrics are showing us that it is having an impact on the larger community, Vukusich says. Having activations such as Spark gives us a little bit more insight into what the community is looking for. It’s also a reflection of the changing shape of downtown Indianapolis. Like many city centers, it was deeply affected by the pandemic, with many companies shuttering offices or allowing employees to work remotely. But downtown development is coming back, and officials estimate more than $9 billion worth of projects are in the pipeline, including a convention center expansion and a new 40-story hotel tower. This is happening as downtown’s residential population has grown to more than 29,000, more than a 46% increase since 2010. [Photo: courtesy Merritt Chase] Merritt Chase has two other ongoing projects that feed into this growth. One is a pedestrian conversion of three blocks leading up to the convention center; the other will add a new park to the site of a historic downtown food hall, with construction beginning this summer. Spark on the Circle is the pop-up version of these larger projects. This is a way of leveraging a lot of that private investment and connecting it all across the city to create better everyday livable experiences, Merritt says. Projects like these and the way they connect will give more of a reason to not just visit but hopefully encourage more people to live downtown. Though some local commenters have bemoaned any street closures, downtown Indianapolis has a very tight downtown grid with city blocks that are smaller than those in other big cities. The closure of part of the circle, or even the entire circle, would require only a short driving detour. [Photo: courtesy Merritt Chase] Merritt Chase will use its 18-month Emerson Collective fellowship to expand its community outreach, research, and planning for the future of downtown centered around Monument Circle, using Spark on the Circle as one of the primary use cases. Chase Merritt cofounder Nina Chase says the 2024 visitation numbers show there’s a big appetite for this kind of unconventional public space in the city. That’s been really lovely to see, she says. We as landscape architects, we think yes that’s what you should do, but sometimes you never know. So it’s good to see it in action. Merritt says turning the pop-up park into something more permanent is one option, but it’s not the predetermined goal of the plan Merritt Chase will produce. They’re more interested in finding out how people in the city want to use the space and then designing around that. Whether it’s parklike and still open for cars or completely closed to cars, I think that’s still to be determined through lots of conversations with folks downtown and residents.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||