The Unique and Fun Way Our Company Shows New Hires Some Love

At Lever, the moment a new hire signs an offer letter is the best part of our day.

We have the same high bar for everyone who joins our 70-person team, so whether we built a relationship with a candidate for months or we sped them through a whirlwind, week-long process, we’re never less than completely pumped at the prospect of welcoming a new member on board. By the time an offer letter goes out, employees from all corners of the company are eager to know whether we’re about to add one more Leveroo to our ranks.

We all know that finally getting the “yes” from a dream candidate is a huge win. But in my experience at previous companies, hiring managers oftentimes miss the opportunity to reaffirm the new team member's decision and celebrate with them. Deflating conversations like these are common:

We want candidates to know that the enthusiasm they felt during the interview process didn’t only exist to get them to join the team and fill a seat. We’re seriously stoked to be working with them and can’t wait for them to start.

That’s why candidates get these in their emails after they decide to join Lever.

The GIF creation

We have so. much. fun. creating these GIFs. The hiring manager or recruiter will let out a “whoo!” from their desk and yell out “GIF Time!” (or announce it in Slack).

The team gathers and there’s a flurry of “I’m so excited about Sean!”s and “Congrats Paolo!”s and “When is she starting???” as well as, “What’s the choreography?” See, the GIFs used to be pretty straightforward. But in the spirit of making each one unique, they’ve become quite elaborate and a far more creative endeavor!

An evolution of Lever welcome GIFS

2014

Early 2015

60+ GIFS later...

But the GIF madness doesn’t end there. The hiring manager cc’s the entire team on an email thread containing the “welcome gift,” where we all add our personal welcomes – which of course, include more GIFs.

Now it’s your turn:

The best recruiters I know love their jobs because it allows them to create and enjoy life-changing moments for others. The best hiring managers I know take their jobs as seriously as they do because they truly love developing others and watching them succeed. We know it’s all worth it when recent hires are invited to join in on their first GIF-making and say things like, “Oh my gosh I loved my GIF so much!” and “I was in a Lyft when I saw my GIF and totally freaked out!”

We’re excited to share these as just one of the many ways companies can improve this pivotal point of the candidate experience. Lever is a recruiting tech company after all, and our mission is to help all companies transform the way they hire, by providing a more engaging process for the candidate and the hiring team alike. We’re excited to see your Welcome GIFs - if you’ve got good GIF game, tweet your best ones @Lever. (This is our go-to GIF maker, good luck!)

Oh, and sometimes we send GIFs to customers too…

And they respond!

But that’s a whole different story.

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