TecHRseries Interview with Natalie Morgan, Director of HR at CareerPlug

Focusing on a strong candidate experience has helped companies like CareerPlug and HR Directors like Natalie hire the right talent in an uber-competitive environment. Catch this complete interview where Natalie shares interesting snippets from her journey into the role of an HR lead and what it takes for a startup to create the right work culture and experience.

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Tell us a little about yourself Natalie, what inspired your journey into HR/People Management in the SaaS Industry? What are some of the biggest learnings/highlights you’d like to talk about?

I fell into HR by happenstance. After pursuing writing and publishing in college, I worked in sales and marketing for CareerPlug – a small SaaS start-up at the time. I wore many hats as we continued to grow and realized – to my surprise and enjoyment – that I was acting as HR well before we formalized the role. When I reflect back on growing up as a camp counselor and then working as a Resident Assistant throughout school, HR felt like a natural next step for me. The common thread has been serving others and building a community.

Above all HR has taught me the importance of putting people — your employees — first in the business. The unique perspective, creativity, and talent that your team brings is your one true differentiator. While I work as an HR generalist, I’m most proud of the hiring process and corresponding employment brand we’ve built at CareerPlug to hire not only smart and capable people, but people who live our core values and bring their authentic, whole selves to work every day.

Given your time being in the HR segment, we’d love to know about some of your most common workplace challenges you’ve faced over the years. How have you used HR Tech to help distance those challenges?

The first one that comes to mind is attracting the right people as a smaller company in a city (Austin) of tech companies, especially software engineers who typically have their pick of the crop. We don’t have the same name recognition as our talent competitors, so we’ve had to be very intentional about establishing our employment brand. Using our own software to host and customize our careers page to reflect our culture and values (as well as share employee testimonials and a video detailing what to expect during our hiring process), helps us hold people’s attention when they come across our job postings.

Focusing on candidate experience (added by the power of an ATS to communicate quickly and make sure applicants don’t slip through the cracks) has helped us stand out and hire a team of talented people.

Could you share a little insight on how you see the typical role of an HR leader in the tech marketplace evolve, given the current dynamics in the industry?

Utilizing technology and making data-informed decisions is becoming a requirement to be a successful HR leader, especially working in the tech industry. It’s important to keep up as tools evolve — using more AI in hiring, for example. HR leaders aren’t called to just think about efficiency in their own world, though, but to support all employees in becoming more productive and engaged. To do that you need to stay close to employee roles as they evolve, as well as the pulse on new technologies and best practices in our space.

Read More: SalesTechStar Interview With Tom Addis, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) At Kinetica

What are some of the most common differences and common overlaps you see when it comes to people management/HR best practices in B2B versus B2C?

The fundamental role of HR is the same: managing people operations, keeping communication smooth between leadership and employees, and protecting the culture. Those processes look different in every company and industry, but as HR you’re always going to be the bridge between helping the company meet its goals and advocating for the people who make that happen.

If you could change 5 (mundane) things about HR practices in B2B/tech companies, what would they be?

1. Paying for a fancy wall mural and thinking that means you’re living your core values
2. Defining culture by common demographics/interests (i.e. “we’re a young company”) that masks biases and lack of diversity and inclusion
3. Beer-on-tap!
4. Imbalance in systems for prospect/customer management versus employee management/experience
5. Unlimited PTO without enforcement or minimums (so it becomes a race to the bottom)

Tag (mention/write about) the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read!

#JasonFried

Can you talk about some of the newest HR or Employee programs you plan to pursue at CareerPlug, given the current world situation, in order to boost productivity and morale?

After our first week of moving remote due to COVID-19 we took advantage of the Qualtrics remote work pulse survey to gather feedback on what our workforce needed along with a measure of how they were feeling. We’ve consistently done employee engagement surveys but we’re interested in continuing to use tools like this to more frequently poll our team so we can quickly respond to their needs with the goal of improving morale and productivity.

What are the top 5 points of advice you’d give SaaS teams struggling to cope in times of global uncertainty?

1. Put people first. Ask your employees how they are doing and what they need from you as a company right now. Listen.
2. Be transparent from the top down. There’s enough uncertainty in the world without leaders adding to it. Deliver the truth even when it’s hard.
3. Over-communicate. Whether it’s in the form of a weekly email, daily standups, or a check-in at an all-hands meeting, don’t hold onto information when decisions are happening rapidly.
4. Solicit ideas from everyone. If your business needs to be more creative right now, don’t rely on all the ideas to come from the top table. Look at how you can open feedback channels and get all levels of your staff involved in coming up with innovative solutions.
5. Focus on what you can control.