Welcome to Part 13. In Part 12, we introduced the benefits this Level UP Employment App provides employers and applicants. 

In this section, we cover a real-life story that highlights some benefits of a different approach to employment.

This is an example of bringing Level UP benefits to employees and how this boosted company profitability, safety, and sustainability.

My friend Jeremy runs a large European factory for an American parent company. They make specialized equipment for use in high tech. This U.S. parent company has 5 similar, almost identical, plants worldwide.

Jeremy has worked at this factory for 12 years and has been the GM (CEO) for the past 6. In the recent few years, his factory has won most of the parent company’s annual achievement awards. 

These include repeated awards for:

• safest work environment 

• outstanding product quality

• most profitable factory

• most diverse workforce

His factory has developed a diverse work community that’s approximately 70% native population with the balance being immigrants from Eastern European, Mediterranean, and African countries  - and there are multiple languages in use on site.

Many of these immigrant workers have faced difficult choices, made dangerous journeys, and learned a new language as an adult. These are achievements that a traditional “job portal” would not uncover. Yet, these are real-world examples of planning, endurance, adapting to change, and leadership; all under intense pressures.

Contrary to the American HQ preference, Jeremy pays the highest worker wages and provides the most time off and better benefits compared to his sister companies around the world. He himself is actually paid less than his American counterparts – which in itself tells another story.

Jeremy guided the emergence of this diverse, engaged, and effective workplace culture using empowering strategies that he developed throughout his long career. One of these is his commonsense approach to recruiting new staff. 

When a position opens in his plant, his HR team identifies the minimum requirements necessary for that job. They do this by consulting with the 3 or 4 workers who are most closely associated with the open position. These are the very people who will be most reliant on this new employee, and they know the requirements best. They deliberately include no unnecessary requirements such as training, education, or work history unless the workers decide these are necessary.

Jeremy invites these affected workers (always a small group) to participate in the recruiting and interview processes and leaves selection to them. After selection, they will also be responsible for training during a trial period – for both the new employee and the company. 

Compare this to traditional recruitment where non-relevant history and educational achievement are used as the measurement of quality, which sadly often misses the target of good-fit candidates. Jeremy’s practices, on the other hand, get strong-fit candidates almost every time – and at far less cost and less time lag than many of the usual “template” approaches. 

In addition, as an associated strategy, Jeremy has cross-trained staff available to join and boost any team for their new person’s training period, which period is flexible. This helps this team keep their production on track while the new person learns the ropes. This unique support strategy, which reduces stress on the team and on the new member, emerged from floor workers using his open-door policy to come to him or his assistant with plant problems and/or suggested improvements. 

Jeremy similarly delegates responsibility to the lowest level possible and trains his people likewise. And he gets input in plant decisions from the people most affected. He runs his facility from the bottom up.

We can imagine how much better these practices are for everyone - and how much more ownership and connection the workers feel – and as Jeremy says often, “One less thing to worry about”.

Not surprisingly, his plant has by far the lowest turnover. Jeremy’s average employee stays for close to 7 years (and growing) compared to less than 4 years average across the other locations.

That’s a great story that seems to back up the App benefits you described earlier.

It does, I agree. 

So, you're saying that your Level UP Employment App and Jeremy's approach are similar? 

Yes. All the Level Up Apps follow similar guiding philosophies. Starting with putting people first – and building on that. By putting people first – and meaning it - Jeremy builds trust. He trusts his workers and they trust him.

How do you build trust in an App?

Good question. 

To illustrate let’s jump back to Jeremy’s story.

If you think about it, lack of, or loss of trust, is a big stressor in many people’s lives. In fact, unless repaired, loss of trust is the beginning of the end for any relationship - including our relationship with our workplace.

If workers lose trust, they become disinvested and care less for the quality of their work outcomes. From there the workplace culture erodes.

His approach makes trust important, starting with him. And higher levels of trust create more “job stability” which just happens to increase all the metrics that his HQ measures and monitors. 

One outcome is that his factory consistently wins those safety and other awards. Not because he’s trying to, but because these are a natural outcome of a high-trust environment.

And in the Level UP Apps?

For Jeremy, we can see that building a trusting environment means:

• no hidden agendas, 

• it means including people in ownership of their work environment,

• treating them as equals and with respect,

• giving them the direction, support, information, and tools they need to succeed. 

These same steps and practices equally apply to how an App is designed. 

By “ownership” you mean participation in decisions that affect them, right?

Correct, like Jeremy does, but further, when it’s in our power, it includes sharing traditional ownership in the companies we found, work for, or assist. We can cover this when we discuss our “Company Share App”, which makes it easier for companies to share physical ownership with employees and/or their community.

That sounds great. 

So, companies seeking a different experience with recruitment could adopt your Level UP Employment App?

Yes – as we have described, we have overhauled the existing application system to create a more friendly and more successful experience for both the company and its applicants.

And as well as the 5 benefits previously covered – here are 3 others:
We have 20 years of experience in HR systems – and our App plugs right into most HR software.

• Secondly, our price point is below the median across this marketplace – and on principle, we do not penalize smaller companies.

• Third, we are establishing an in-app, employee-first diversity network that is somewhat similar to but different from Linked-In, and this is a welcoming environment for groups and individuals that were once outliers.

“People-first Diversity Network” - united by our uniqueness.

Yes – we are all unique.