Background Check: Cart vs. Skio
In our first Background Check of the new year, we’ll look at two emerging tech companies.
Cart.com and Skio are ecom software companies, which means they support the less sexy, invisible part of online shopping. Obviously not as hip as online retailers like Net-a-Porter or SSENSE, but the work these companies do is indispensable to our global economy and to my need to get my chihuahua a new parka right now.
Cart.com
The portal to most career pages can be found in the top navigation or footer of the company website. In the case of Cart.com, it’s in the drop-down menu under Company and in the footer. The easier it is to find the careers page or microsite, the better.
Cart.com does a good job right there on the home page. In its footer, the company notes their physical office locations (Cart.com employs both remote and in-person staff) and flags that they’re hiring. These aren’t requirements, but they’re certainly details that earn the company some employer branding credit. Check check.
So let’s click on that Careers link in the footer, and—
Holy Mother of God.
This is their careers page. A long list of jobs, filterable by location, team, and work type. That’s all.
Cart.com does list the company’s core values at the bottom of each job posting, like an afterthought. But unless a job seeker scrolls past the massive wall of text, they won’t see them.
Why this doesn’t work
Any company should make it easy for job seekers to see open positions and apply for them, and filters like the ones Cart.com uses are helpful when the list of jobs is long. But there’s nothing to be gleaned from this careers page about what it’s like to work at Cart.com, why someone should apply, or how they might contribute to the organization.
And before you say pish—a list of core values doesn’t tell the candidate anything about what it’s like to work at your company. It just tells them what kind of PR strategy you have going.
Skio
Cart.com competitor Skio also links to its careers page in the main navigation and in the site footer. It’s easy to find. Check check.
OK, then a quick click-through, and—
I’m so tired.
This wall of text is trying to convey the company’s attitude (hardworking and irreverent), and what they look for in a candidate, but it’s hard to follow the writing, and to be honest, it sounds like a horrifying place to work. They consider good employees ones who can, and I quote: “can take vague requests,” “can eat shit,” and are “comfortable parting ways.”
(Have we learned nothing from toxic workplaces?)
A small glimmer of hope
At the time of writing, Skio is hiring for four roles (plus an anything category). For two of them, they list the salary range. We’re big fans of this practice, which advances pay equity and can boost your reputation for having ethical business practices. (But we still haven’t forgotten you told us to eat shit.)
But…we can’t help but notice that these positions come with single-line job descriptions. I have had one of these jobs, one where responsibilities were nebulous and open-ended. You know what happened? They made me eat shit. That’s what.
The winner is…
We’re not comfortable awarding either of these career pages at the moment. Both are in dire need of improvement.
In lieu of awards, we offer unsolicited advice.
Start small
Build a simple career page that includes information about employee benefits, business goals, team structure, work policies (for example, remote vs. in-person vs. hybrid) and open positions.
Need ideas? Here’s some employer branding work we love:
Look at the monster within
Strong employer branding begins inside a company. We recommend Skio reconsider its company culture. Maybe they actually operate a pretty healthy environment and just went a little overboard trying to be edgy. Maybe they’re a Verge exposé waiting to happen. Whatever the case is, understand that job seekers care about your company culture. And that reporters are just a phone call away.
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.
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