today, i’m still proud to work at magoosh and for all that we’ve accomplished in the last 7 years i’ve been here, but i’ve also learned in the last year that we have a long road ahead. this article will share how and why we decided to dig deeper into deib (even when the data ‘looked good’), what steps we took, and what our specific action plan and roadmap ahead look like.

if you’re interested in going straight to our deib audit results, click here.

background: why did we dig deeper into deib?

in q4 2019, we created an annual plan for 2020. that plan centered around the theme of creating more cohesive strategies–if our processes were built from the ground up (instead of scrappily put together like we had done for years past when we had fewer resources), what would they look like? as a natural step one to that plan, it made sense to thoroughly audit all of our processes including hr, business operations, and dei.

as we were thinking about our annual plan, trish and nicole on our recruiting team encouraged us to take a more intentional approach to deib. at the time, we were honestly a bit dismissive, pointing to our strong engagement data across all demographic groups. what we failed to realize at the time was that when two people — particularly women of color who interact with all of our prospective employees — say we should focus on deib, that in itself is a critical data point. thankfully, they continued to push.

it can be hard to call out that data might be missing, that just because our engagement data looks good doesn’t mean it’s fully capturing all the deib factors– it can be especially hard to voice that when you’re at a company that values “data>intuition.”

in february 2020 (q1), we took on a project around diversity, equity, and inclusion—specifically, to collect more data as it relates to our people operations processes. that was step number one.

how did we go about it?

1. finding the right people

going back in time to q4 2019 (november/december), we were originally planning on collecting this data ourselves internally. our goal was to find a way to conduct a thorough deib audit to figure out where there were gaps in our systems and where we had room to grow.

we hoped to do this by applying a dei lens to our internal practices. however, we realized while investigating past practices (the internal surveys) that we weren’t getting the information we needed. we were sorely lacking the expertise needed in this area.

luckily for us, trish, our recruiting lead, had already previously vetted peoplism for some recruiting specific work we had halted in 2019. everything clicked into place and peoplism signed on to take on the work of providing us with an audit.

2. running the audit

so what do we mean by audit? this process involved a few different pieces:

• group sessions: first, this included group ‘office hours.’ peoplism representatives hosted sessions that anyone could join (minus leadership) that centered around specific topics (what did people like the most, did they feel seen, etc).
• individual interviews: next this also included individual interviews with an assortment of folks across the company with peoplism. the hope was that folks might feel more comfortable being completely honest given they were talking to someone outside the company.
• data analysis: then, in addition to the in-person discussions, we also gave them access to the raw data in cultureamp so that they could conduct further analysis—something that we don’t have access to within the company to protect the anonymity of our employees.

so all in all, there was a lot of information for them to collect and dive into.

3. getting the results

we got the results from peoplism over the course of two, three-hour meetings. truly the meetings could have been much, much longer if we’d all had the time, given the passionate discussion, the great insights, and the countless questions on how to put all of their ideas into practice and decide how and what to prioritize.

4. communicating the results to the team

one of our values is communication>efficiency and, given our learning that we could have communicated our processes better, we wanted to ensure we communicated our findings well and with the whole company. we wanted a solid foundation on which to take the next steps.

we shared a cleaned up, shortened version of what peoplism had shared with us. in addition, we had a live, recorded zoom meeting where folks could ask questions. they could share these questions either live or via an anonymous google form, whichever format felt most comfortable.

we also created public tasks around the plan with due dates and assignees, so if anyone wants to ask a question or see where we are at, they know how and where to follow up.

the feedback we’ve gotten here has been positive.

5. taking action/building the roadmap

to recap:

1. in q1 2020 we founded the team to help us in this charge to get more data around dei.
2. in q2, we got that data, developed a plan of action, and communicated it.
3. and now, here we are in q3! here is the link to our action steps roadmap mentioned above. we have made some progress but have quite the road ahead!

so far, we have:

• collected information for our eeo-1 report which has also enabled us to track our internal demographics better and ensure we’re applying our processes equitably.
• shared out a process for creating employee resource groups and have some of our amazing magooshers have already set a few ergs up (bmat- black magooshers all together, aapi- asian american and pacific islander, and an lgbtq+ one in the works, and more to come).
• added our part-time employees to our team page which is really exciting as well.

what does the future hold?

i’m really excited about a number of these action items that we have ahead, in particular the underrepresented minority mentorship program as well as the employee referral program.

but i also know that this is only scratching the surface and only focused on our operations efforts and there’s more to be done not only in this space but for our students and for the community we work in as well. my hope is that i can write an update to this article a year from now to show how far we’ve come, how much learning we’ve done and will continue to do, and what more we have to work towards.

the post peoplism roadmap: how we examined deib at magoosh appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

update as of 9/10/2020:

we’re taking an additional paid week off as a company (rotating by team) in the month of september and early october! we are naming this time off “fall leaves”, because 1) they’re days off in fall and 2) we’re leaving work! given the stress of the pandemic and 2020 craziness has continued, folks have continued to take on a lot and we want to make sure folks have time to recharge and avoid burnout.

update as of 4/28/2020:

we’re taking one paid week off as a company (rotating by team) in the month of may! peter, our vp of operations, proposed a company week off, aptly named “may days,” because 1) they’re days off in may and 2) that’s the message you send out when you need help! given that everyone is working in addition to balancing the stress of the pandemic, taking care of their health, and supporting their loved ones, folks have been taking on a lot and we wanted to give everyone some time to breathe.

here are some of the other ways magoosh is supporting our employees and extended community during this uncertain time:

strong leadership through the times of covid

one of the keys for supporting our team has been to ensure that there is centralized messaging and clear communication. our leadership team has been vocal and unified in providing magooshers with a sense of direction during this time.

• one of the first messages about covid after shelter in place began in the bay area was from our ceo, bhavin parikh. he shared how the expectations were that everyone would be at a reduced capacity—whether due to childcare needs or taking care of their mental health, and that was not only ok but also encouraged
• additionally, peter started an internal weekly covid newsletter to share how the business is doing, new policy information, and updates to our office and remote work situation. this has provided our team with a level of consistency during an otherwise very uncertain time.
• finally, while we would normally have a monthly meeting to discuss the specifics of our work, bhavin used our last meeting to instead to provide reassurance to our employees, to share how magoosh as a business may or may not be impacted by this crisis, and as a townhall to answer any questions folks might have and to alleviate concerns.

adapting our sense of community to a remote world

one of the reasons i have worked at magoosh as long as i have (currently 6 going on 7 years!) is because of the sense of community and camaraderie that we have. we’ve worked together to translate that sense of kinship to an all-remote setting and facilitate that feeling of togetherness during these otherwise isolating times.

• we set up additional communication channels such as a covid specific slack channel to provide folks a space to get updates, ask questions, and share advice and learnings with one another.
• morgan, our amazing associate office/operations manager, has planned some incredible social events from a kids talent show to virtual pet happy hour to matching folks for 1:1 coffee chats.
• we have a watercooler google meet link where folks can hang out and just chit chat as they would have in a normal office environment.
• we’ve provided calendly links to our hr to make it easier for folks to get in touch.

providing accessibility and security to our employees

making sure people have what they need—from time off to flexibility—has been critical to ensuring folks can focus what bandwidth they have on the work at hand instead of spending their precious mindspace on worrying about logistics.

• iris, our senior hr manager, has gone above and beyond to set up our processes for remote work, such as creating a remote onboarding process for our incoming new teammates.
• our operations team has made trips to the berkeley office to grab equipment folks might need and drop it off at their homes.
• we immediately provided additional sick days for anyone who needs the time during this period as well as the hr support to facilitate that.
• we’ve provided additional flexibility and enabled folks to take advantage of, and encouraged, more time off and reduced schedules.
• we’ve created exceptions to our policies such as enabling folks to reschedule their sabbaticals if they were interrupted due to covid.
• we’ve sent out resources—for both mental and physical health—to help folks cope with the anxiety and stress, as well as any physical ailments during this time.

delivering on our values of passion and wow

ultimately, one of the ways in which magoosh has been so lucky with this crisis is not only due to our business but also due to our amazing, driven workforce. they have gone above and beyond to support one another, and have found ways to work more creatively and strategically during this time.

• most video calls i’ve recently had have involved at least one parent in the meeting having a child with them or interrupting at some point. this is the norm and is not to be apologized for. it is incredible to see parents balancing their additional childcare responsibilities with passion for their work.
• folks have been more strategic in their prioritization of projects and found ways to structure their time so that they are able to make the most of the limited time that they do have devoted to work
• we’ve had employees going above and beyond for one another—whether dropping off groceries or equipment, or providing a listening ear and links to resources. it’s been incredible to see magooshers stepping up in support of one another.
• morgan added some surpise and delight to our weeks by getting everyone some incredibly cozy slippers to add some comfiness to our new wfh normal.

helping our students and our communities

ultimately, our mission is to make the world more accessible which means not only supporting those who work for us but going beyond that and providing support to our students and our communities during these difficult times.

• our students: magooshers have found ways to go out of their way to help our students. from tireless efforts to test out the experience of remote exams to providing webinars on how to deal with studying during such an uncertain and unstructured time, from blog posts with advice on how to handle test cancellations to proactively providing product extensions—i’ve been blown away by how all of our teams have quickly focused on ways to be there for our students.
• our community: magoosh has had a large presence in the berkeley community for over ten years and as such has donated $50,000 to the berkeley relief fund. iris found masks that we had from the fires and donated those along with our office hand sanitizer and cleaning wipes. morgan donated the money we would have spent on a team dinner this month to a charity helping fund meals for essential employees working to save lives right now.

when times are tough, a real spotlight shines on how companies and individuals react. my hope is that we as a company can look back on this response and feel good about the responsibility that we took and the togetherness and sense of safety that we were able to foster. it is times like these that i feel most proud to work at magoosh.

the post covid-19: working through the new normal appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

we wouldn’t.

at magoosh, we make every effort to avoid a situation like the one above, but we don’t negotiate on salary. bhavin, our ceo, already wrote about our rationale here. now i’d like to give you an inside look into how we approach raises.

research shows that people—depending on factors such as current position in the company, gender and race—are not equally likely to ask for raises, and that managers are not equally likely to evaluate raise requests from different people.

while employees may reevaluate and reconsider their value and respective compensation, some are able to voice these concerns much more easily than others.

on the other end, even with a strong intent to value employees throughout their careers, managers can be susceptible to unconscious biases and, therefore, may not be providing credit where credit is due.

to solve this problem, we created a comprehensive performance framework to determine the appropriate salaries of magooshers over time. the framework—which we continually strive to improve—mitigates the issues with negotiation, such as how some employees are more likely to ask for raises, or push for their team members to get raises, than others.

our end goal is to make sure that people are compensated fairly throughout their career at magoosh.

while we could write multiple posts diving into each of the steps below—and we likely will—this article is meant to give you an overview of how we do it.

step 1: find reliable market data and create salary tracks

our approach: we looked into a number of ways to find reliable market data from sources such as angellist postings, glassdoor, and a number of salary surveys. while salary compensation surveys certainly have their pros and cons, we currently use one from radford because of recommendations from others, the large dataset, and their focus on job level as opposed to job titles.

one issue with a large set of salary data from any source is that it’s just data, not a salary track. so, as a next step, we take this data and smooth it out to create tracks with logical increases between the steps. if there aren’t enough data points for one particular job description, we look at related fields to compile better, more reliable data. what we end up with is something that looks like this:

step 2: match internal jobs to market data based on job duties

our approach: beyond a large set of data, another key determinant in deciding on a salary compensation survey was looking for salary mapped to level of work as opposed to title.

titles at bay area companies fluctuate greatly. a vp at a large company with lots of hierarchy, etc., for example, may do very different work from a vp at a small company with a lot of funding—and the two should be compensated differently.

this difference was important to us. we didn’t want to do a disservice to our employees and accidentally mismatch them to a salary that didn’t capture the complexity of their work.

you can see a quick example of the difference in salary for the same titled position at differently sized companies below:

step 3: create a set of examples that make level matching tangible to managers and employees

our approach: at this point, we have the salary tracks for each job family, as seen above. and we have a leveling chart with general examples, provided to us as part of the survey.

however, the examples are very generic. they are enough to map to the right salaries, but they are not magoosh-specific, nor are they enough to create a performance path from. examples based on internal work here at magoosh are at the heart of what enables us to match internal roles to their equivalent market rate pay.

these examples have been painstakingly curated through thoughtful conversation between all of our team leads to determine what type of internal work matches the generic language that’s provided. for instance, if a general example referred to “difficult conversation,” we would determine what that language would refer to specifically at magoosh.

here is an example of what this might look like:

step 4: calibrate

our approach: steps 1 through 3 encompass the steps that enabled us to create the basis of our framework.

market salary data → leveling structure tied to market data → company-specific examples tied to leveling structure → role-specific, non-negotiable salaries tied to market salary data

calibration is a quarterly check on all departments to ensure that every manager is thinking about examples in the same way. it protects employees from managers who might be resistant to promotions while also helping to reign in others who may be too eager.

deep dive into step 4: calibration process

mid-quarter evaluation
every quarter, we have a recurring structured task for company-wide leveling—what we call the system of performance increases at magoosh.

mid-quarter, managers write up notes and have holistic discussions with employees on where folks currently stand based on the scope of the work they are doing, the complexity of the projects, and the amount of supervision they require (or are providing, in the case of those on the manager track). managers and employees refer to both the salary track for that position as well as the examples for each section, as described above.

calibration notes
if, based on an employee’s progress, their pay should be matched with a higher level, their manager will write up specific examples of their team member’s work. this write up includes:

1. how the employee has been doing the work,
2. the employee’s goal setting,
3. the success of their projects, etc.

these examples—as well as their ties to our leveling examples—are shared as a proposal with all other managers.

calibration meeting
all department managers comment on the proposal with questions, thoughts, and concerns. afterwards, they all meet to further discuss each proposed level change.

this process is arduous and, at times, reveals issues or areas in which our examples might be lacking. however, this is also a critical step that enables every situation to be provided its due time and thought. there are no rash changes, and every change has the buy in of folks from different departments.

if there is someone on a team whose work has increased in scope but their manager hasn’t brought it up, another team lead involved in the project will ask about it. on the other hand, if a proposed change isn’t in line with the examples at that level, that will be discussed as well.

it is in this step that we are able to deliberate and clarify what changes are being made.

having a process delineated enables us to be thorough and thoughtful each quarter. no steps are missed and there are no random raises that don’t follow process.

drawbacks to consider

this evaluation process does have its drawbacks:

• it’s time consuming—we’re still working on ways to scale it.
• at times of disagreement, it can be frustrating.

however, it is through these very conflicts and open dialogue that we are able to create clearer examples and better systems of thinking for the future.

the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks

all that said, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. working on this salary structure will hopefully continue to promote compensation fairness and consistency between different roles, genders, backgrounds, departments, and more here at magoosh.

for example:

• with a purely market-based framework and a no-negotiations policy, the shyest introvert is afforded the same opportunity for raises as the most persuasive self-aggrandizer.
• if an employee is unsure whether their manager is reviewing their performance fairly— a situation they are encouraged to bring up—they also know that their manager’s evaluation is reviewed by others at the company.
• if a person in one department is worried that their peers in other departments are moving up more quickly, they can count on examples for different roles and departments all being calibrated against one another and similar examples being set at the same level.

it is our hope that building upon these structures will foster further pay equality as we grow as a company, increasing inclusion and diversity as a whole.

the post how to reduce biases when giving raises appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

lunch and learns: lunchtime lessons on world religions, liqueurs, and nigerian culture

lunch and learns are in some ways the epitome of “magooshiness.” the basic concept of a lunch and learn is to have one team member teach all the others about a topic that he or she has some expertise in (over lunch). but at magoosh, we really go beyond that. there are so many topics that magooshers are passionate about that they often go the extra mile and bring in materials and powerpoints to make these lunches really amazing learning experiences. from fractals to sql to liqueurs, we’ve had lunch and learns on all sorts of topics. they bring out the most inquisitive sides of us and let our curiosity and creativity shine. by fostering a culture of constant learning, we are able to further our empathy for magoosh students who are experiencing their own educational challenges.

in the interest of making our lunch and learns as accessible as possible, we’ve also invited the startup we share an office space with to join us for them. and we occasionally bring in people from outside our company to come in and give talks on topics like investing that we want an expert for. it’s all completely flexible – teach whatever you want, whenever there’s time, to whomever you want! at the end of the day, our lunch and learns are just like our product: making education fun and accessible for everyone

team dinners: when campaign season arrives at magoosh

magooshers are a pretty diverse bunch. that’s wonderful for working, but near-catastrophic for planning events. despite this – or maybe because of it – the enjoyable part for me is getting everyone involved in the planning. i like to make it a collaborative process, and, well, it’s just more fun this way. we have a simple voting system: people pitch their ideas for where to go, and then everyone votes using asana.

there usually end up being at least three major frontrunners, people choose sides, and then campaigning begins! flurries of gchats are sent back and forth, appeals are overheard in the kitchen… it goes on for days. obviously, there are clear merits to a team dinner – the bonding, the casual atmosphere, the chance to let loose. at magoosh, though, it’s not just about the dinner itself, but also the “game of dinners” that unfailingly precedes it.

classes stipend: helping magooshers become pro ballerinas and skiers on the side

this one is pretty self explanatory: we have a monthly stipend for employees to use toward taking classes, again, a perk that many other companies have also. what makes our version “magooshy” is that we use this stipend for absolutely whatever kind of class we want to take – it doesn’t have to be related to our profession; it doesn’t have to be career-related at all. we fully appreciate art, gardening, cooking, dance, bartending, any and all classes out there that make us expand our horizons. at the end of the day, that’s what the classes stipend is really all about: stretching ourselves to try something we never thought we would. i’ve used the stipend for skiing classes, which were an absolute blast, and other magooshers have used it for krav maga, ballet, and ceramics. the world is our oyster; we try anything and everything!

activity fund: playing outside the box

the activity stipend enables us to organize and attend our own fun events and was created to allow ourselves to really take advantage of our diversity. here are the rules:

1. everyone must be invited

2. there must be at least two magooshers attending (including the organizer)

3. the event must be approved by the office and operations manager

thanks to this stipend, we’ve had trips to warriors games, the exploratorium, nerd nite, monty python screenings, and more! and it’s given me the chance personally to explore things i wouldn’t necessarily have experienced had it not been for the interests of my colleagues.

at the end of the day, we should always be striving to understand what works best for our respective company cultures. free tailoring services, a myriad of always available puzzles, and yoga classes could each be valued differently by different sets of people. for me, it is important to send out surveys every quarter and collect data on what’s working and what’s not and why. getting continuous feedback and input from the team is a surefire way for me to ensure that i always have the data needed to improve our current perks. what’s perfect for our current team of seventeen might not remain so as we grow — after all, at magoosh, change > status quo, and that applies to our perks as well.

the post going beyond foosball: startup perks with meaning appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

the post meet a magoosher: kevin appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.

we have a new addition to our magoosh family! meet rita, our new inbound marketer!

hey there rita! what is one of your favorite hobbies?

i’m not sure how strange this is, but i love to bake. i think i was born with a 6th baking sense … i rarely follow a recipe and never believe my kitchen timer, but my culinary experiments tend to be very successful. i love to collect recipes, try new ingredients, and then share (and eat) the end product. i really should have been a pastry chef, but i could never get up that early.

if you could time travel, what time period would you go to?

ok, two answers:

the post meet a magoosher: rita appeared first on magoosh 2022年足球世界杯举办地.