Work Culture

At Ecartic and in all our ventures we love to be at the forefront of new initiatives and ideas. And we absolutely love new technologies and anything that can make our lives easier, add excitement to our lives or connect us to our community better. That is why this week we will look at our team’s favorite apps and new technologies. 

1. Mischa – Chief Analytics Officer

“I’m not a big fan of grocery shopping. While I like to go to markets and buy fresh products, Bolt Food market delivery has become my favorite way of taking care of most grocery shopping. I love gaming and my PS5 – on mobile Virtual Regatta Offshore is my favorite game. It’s a real-time real weather ocean racing game with a great sailing community worldwide.”  

2. Kimmo – Head of Development 

“I absolutely love taking notes of everything, and currently I’m flooding all of my thoughts, ideas & plans to notion.so – Doesn’t matter whether it’s some technical implementation details or just about life in general, I just like to have everything in writing. In my free time, I like playing all sorts of video games on my PC, lately, I’ve spent a good amount of time with Red Dead Redemption 2, a great game with a great storyline!”

3. Miko –  co-founder and Chief Executive Officer

“I’m a big fan of the DuckDuckGo search engine as it lets you take back control of your online footprint and stops you from being profiled by advertisers and other entities. It also provides a more balanced and unfiltered search result, without trying to turn you into the product. I think BlufVPN and DuckDuckGo is a great combo.”

4. Juha – Head of Acquisition

“I use so many different apps and softwares on a daily basis that it’s difficult to “identify” the ones that have the biggest meaning for me. Mostly I’m married to Google, and I like that the documents are accessible on GDrive, also the overall Google SSO ecosystem helps with being able to access any other Apps fast. I also use Bitwarden to manage all my passwords, credit card info, and private notes.”

5. Miikka – Full-Stack Developer

‘‘For me, quite recently emerged AI solutions like DALL·E 2 and Midjourney have been a breath of fresh air! While those applications are exciting to play with, it also makes me think about how similar kinds of applications can (and will) be integrated into our businesses and everyday lives in the future. Getting familiar with said applications has also inspired me to dive deeper into AI development, and start my own AI-based hobby project.’’

6. Eloora – Work Culture Manager 

‘‘There are two things that come to mind, firstly Bolt but more specifically the Bolt Drive function. I don’t own a car and really don’t see the need for one on a permanent basis, but Bolt Drive gives me the opportunity to use a car when needed or when I feel like throwing a sing-a-long concert for one in the car. And on the other side, it’s the Smart-ID app/function, it just makes your life so much easier and more secure!”

7. Miika – Chief Financial Officer 

”The food delivery apps like Wolt and Bolt have been lifesavers at various times. Long days at work, empty fridge when coming home and no energy left. The best feeling is when you can make the order and just sit, relax and get your meal shortly. Otherwise, I use apps quite randomly, maybe I could mention the news apps which are quite handy to stay up-to-date on recent developments.”  

8. Advait – Sr. Digital Media Buyer

‘‘LastPass‘ followed by two-factor authentication. I can’t imagine my digital life without it, I always need these handy wherever I go, since I use those auto-generated strong passwords. It’s tough to remember any of it. Lastpass is a life savior. Tech-wise I would always need my gaming console with me, not like I am addicted to gaming but when I feel like playing it has to be, so I carry it around even when I travel somewhere.”

Maybe you discovered something new or maybe you found that you have the same favorites that our team does. Let us know, what are your favorite apps or technologies right now!

Happy Friday from Team Ecartic!

Last People and Culture blog post we discussed the tips for finding a job. This week let’s look at the other side, more specifically, what companies should keep in mind when in the hiring process.

The recruitment process is a look into the work culture of the company. From the job post to the first interaction with the candidates to onboarding. The right hire will help you grow your company, but how to find and recognize the right talent?

1. Job post and application process 

A job post is possibly the first interaction the potential employee will have with your company. And as we all know first impressions matter. It’s important to stand out, but make sure the tone of the job post is accurate to your company culture. And to save your and the applicant’s time the job post should be informative. Make sure the duties, educational prerequisites, and abilities needed to succeed in the role are completely and clearly described in your job description. Additionally, the advantages of working for the company, the location of the job (or whether it is remote employment), and the primary prerequisites or qualifications are all listed in job listings.

The application process should be smooth and easy for the applicant and helpful for the recruiter. There are many options on what it can look like, be it a typical CV and Cover Letter, CV and basic questions, or CV and Video introduction. Depending on the company and the role, choose the one that gives you the best information on the applicant. 

As a final note in the process, make sure to outline the application process to the chosen applicants on the first interview. Some companies have 6 stage application processes that can take months and not everyone is willing or has the possibility to go through these. So be clear and honest about what they can expect.

2. Recruitment marketing

Social media and technology have shifted the way employees look for jobs and the companies they want to work in. The information about your company is available to consume before they apply for the job. Do they like your social media presence, does your online presence accurately represent your company values and culture? In many ways, you have to sell your company and your brand to future talent. Especially now, where the possibility of remote work has opened the doors for the talent to work from anywhere in the world. 

That is why it is smart to approach recruitment from a marketing angle. That will give you a better result in attracting applicants through employer branding and reaching the appropriate audience. Collaboration between the HR and marketing teams can bring innovative ideas and higher chances of success.

3. Diversity

A diverse workforce is proven to be more innovative, it increases your workforce’s range of skills, talents, and experiences. A diverse workforce does not only mean race and gender, it includes disability, educational background, religious affiliation, and sexual orientation. 

Many companies state in their job posts that they are an equal opportunity employer and believe in diversity. But it takes more than that to achieve it. What needs to be thought of is hiring bias, making sure the recruiter or the hiring manager doesn’t overlook candidates because of their own bias. Here are just 3 examples of bias:

Similarity Bias 

Candidates and interviewers may talk about shared interests or exhibit comparable tendencies during the interview. Similarity bias may lead to hiring decisions that are focused more on these similarities than a candidate’s qualifications. 

Stereotyping bias

A stereotype is a judgment of a person based on real or imagined group features rather than the person’s attributes. When a candidate’s impression is based on stereotypes, there is stereotyping bias in interviews. 

Cultural noise bias 

Communication in an interview may be impacted by how interviewers and candidates perceive attitudes and ideas that are deemed socially acceptable. This frequently happens when a candidate gives responses that, rather than reflecting their genuine ideas, they feel are more generally acceptable.

To concur against any kind of bias it’s important to train your recruiters and hiring managers. Use multiple interviewers, have a structure in your interview processes and standardize your questions, etc.

4. Relocation 

The recruitment world is a lot more open now, we get job applications from all over the world, with the majority of them interested in relocation. It’s expensive for the new hire to relocate and the company to support the process, therefore it’s even more important to make sure the transition is smooth and supportive. However much hard work and stress relocation seem to you as a company, it’s ten times harder for the person who needs to start their life in a whole new country. Many times not just by themselves but also starting over with their families. This is where you can come in by making the process more fluid and less stressful. Starting from supporting them with finding accommodation, registering to get an ID code, or helping to get a family doctor. Many little things can be done to support, even if your company doesn’t offer a relocation package.

In Estonia, most things can be done online which makes relocation a lot easier. Also, there are many great resources for companies and employees to get help and quick information from. For example Work in Estonia has all the essential information and if you ever have a question you can call or email. Work in Estonia also offers International spouse career counseling, for partners who have moved to Estonia due to relocation. There are also companies that offer support when relocating to Estonia. As do we in Ecartic Agency, we give support with recruitment, onboarding, and essential relocation support. 

Essentially, hiring from a different country broadens your talent pool significantly, but make sure to think through how are you willing to support your new talent within this process.

5. The Importance of onboarding

The onboarding process is the key element of making sure the employees will be successful and happy in their new roles. A structured and thought-through onboarding helps the employee settle into their new role and the company. Many think onboarding starts with the first day, but in reality, it should start from when they accept the offer. Here are things you could do before the first day:

• See or call your new hire at least once before they start, especially if they are relocating
• Get all the documentation done before they start
• Send a ‘Welcome to the team’ email, let them know about the onboarding process structure, what is going to happen and who is their onboarding buddy
• Set up their email/Slack etc 
• Announce their arrival to the team 
• And you could send them company swag unless you want to give it on the first day. 

Companies with great onboarding programs see 2.5% more revenue growth and 1.9% of a profit margin than companies with poor onboarding processes. And yet, 63% of companies don’t extend their onboarding programs beyond the first month. This is a huge mistake, considering new hires take eight months to become fully productive. 

Onboarding can be divided into 4 stages

Use these 4 stages and create a clear timeframe when each stage would kick in. As a bare minimum the onboarding should last at least 3 months, but strongly recommend extending it to 6-months with regular check-in meetings.  

Recruiting and onboarding a new person takes time and money, so make sure to think through your onboarding process to lift employee retention and have a better work environment. End of the day the better the environment the company has the better results the company will see. 

These were my top 5 recruitment tips! If you have any recruitment-related questions or concerns then don’t hesitate to contact us through the Ecartic Agency.

I am a Work Culture Manager at Ecartic and do all the in-house recruitment for all our ventures. So I see hundreds of job applications (CVs, LinkedIn profiles, Portfolios, Cover letters), so I definitely have a few recommendations to give. Here are 7 top tips for job applications from me. 

1. Know what you want and what your strengths and values are 

Whether you are thinking about a career change or just looking for new opportunities to grow, really think about what your strengths are, and what have you enjoyed doing in your previous roles? What do you want from your new role? And give yourself time! I truly recommend writing it down and staring at it. We tend to forget what we have done over the years. Unfortunately, for a lot of us, it’s not until we have lost a job or want to start sending out our CVs that we update our CVs. And then it’s not the easiest task to remember all the cool, amazing, influential things that you have done. So an inside tip, when you do get your next role, or if you are already in one, start writing down your successes, small or big, things you have taken on – projects and achievements. Firstly, it’s a great tool to use when you need to apply for a job or prepare for an interview, but it is also something that shows you your growth.  And lastly, what do you want from your new role and company? Now that you have done that, you can make sure that the new role or company is the right fit for you.

2. LinkedIn, LinkedIn, LinkedIn – it isn’t going anywhere

There are still people who have not jumped on board, but LinkedIn, if anything, is evolving and getting bigger, rather than disappearing. But I still get these quotes like: ‘I just don’t get it, why do I need it?’ ‘It feels fake!’, quite often about LinkedIn. But my answer is simple, you don’t need to be fake. Follow the people, causes, and pages you are interested in, and interact with the content you believe in. LinkedIn can be a very genuine social media platform that connects you with like-minded people. At the end of the day, it is a social media platform and your experience depends on how you use it. It has also turned into one of the main recruitment platforms, either to advertise job applications or to source talent. It’s a great tool for recruiters to match the right company with the right talent. This means it’s important, seeing an amazing CV, and then a not-so-great LinkedIn profile, where the information doesn’t match (especially when applying through LinkedIn) is not a great sight.

Therefore, the top tip: dedicate some time and get your LinkedIn accounts looking sharp. If you need some support, reach out to a friend or colleague whose account looks good and ask for help. No one is going to say no when you start with a compliment to them.

3. Use your resume as a marketing tool

Firstly, sending the same resume to different companies and jobs won’t work. Customize is the keyword here. It might seem like a lot of hard work, but that’s where my first point comes to play. Know what you want from your new job, what are your values, and what you have to offer. Quality over quantity in sending out job applications. Make sure to sell yourself, a lot of CVs are all about listing responsibilities. What about what impact did you have on the role or the company? What have you achieved? 

Depending on the industry you are applying to, have some fun with how your CV looks, a great and easy tool for creating CVs is Canva. And finally, make sure the resume is formatted correctly and the spelling is correct. Get a few different people to review it or use Grammarly. 

4. Network, use social media to your advantage

Network and make sure you make your social media you, follow what you like and what you want to be surrounded by. Join social media groups, for example, I am a part of 5 HR groups (Estonian and UK) and they are super useful, helpful, and charming. There are so many different social media platforms nowadays, so there’s something for everyone. Just keep active, you never know when an opportunity might come. Interact with companies you like, if it’s a smaller company, then probably your name would be noticed even before applying for a new role. 

 5. Communication!

Good communication is needed in most jobs, it’s a rare occasion when it’s not listed in job requirements. But it’s something that you can showcase in your job application, your first email, and your first interview. Every communication is an opportunity to showcase who you are. This is where LinkedIn can be to your advantage, it can showcase a lot more of who you are than what a CV can. Communicate well and stand out! 

 6. Don’t just have that one question to ask

Gone are the days, when we went to an interview and asked one question in the end cause that shows we are interested. Be present, and have a conversation, it’s a two-way interview. As much as the hiring manager is trying to find out who you are and if you are the right fit. You should be finding out the same things. Do you like their vision for the role and the company? Is this what you want in your new role? 

Not only will you learn a lot more about them, but because you are invested in finding out more about the company and the role, they will learn more about you!

7. Send that follow-up email 

No harm in sending a follow-up email, thanking them for their time, or letting them know you truly like the company and can see yourself working there. You can also use the follow-up email when you haven’t heard back from them. Sometimes things take longer, but that is your opportunity to show your interest in the role or learn more about them.

And there you have it, feel free to reach out with any questions or insights!

Happy Ecartic Thursday and enjoy the sunshine!

‘’In here, clean and untouched nature co-exists with the world’s most digitally advanced society.

It is a place for independent minds where bright ideas meet a can-do spirit.’’ – Work In Estonia 

At Ecartic we have 5 different nationalities working in our team, and we are working from 3 different locations at all times (sometimes more, if someone decides to use the perks of hybrid work and the borderless work environment it creates), but the centre of Ecartic is still Tallinn. 

What do people from our team think? Why Estonia?

Since we are running multiple ventures where each has a different focus but also a lot of overlap in terms of required specialist skills, we’ve also decided to build a great place to work here in Tallinn, Estonia. It’s a fun place to live and has the most Unicorns per capita in the world! Who would have thought? Maybe you’ve heard of companies such as Skype, TransferWise, Bolt, and PipeDrive? Yeah, all founded in Tallinn. This means that there’s a relatively large pool of talent here when it comes to developers, marketing specialists and generally speaking, all things digital. Just don’t expect beach weather in November. But that is okay because the Estonian summer is beautiful!  

Some thoughts from our team:

Startup facts

If you are looking for a new adventure, and want to look into what Estonia has to offer, then check out https://www.workinestonia.com/

If you are thinking about starting a company in Estonia, then have no worries, it is easy. If you are quick and efficient then you can create your startup from scratch within 15 minutes. Like they proved at the London tech week. Estonia is also the first country to offer e-Residency, a government-issued digital identity, and status that provides access to Estonia’s transparent business environment: a new digital nation for the world.  And mostly thanks to the ease of doing business in Estonia, there are 10 unicorns per 1.3m people here, which is beyond impressive. So think about it and come along for the ride, who knows maybe you’ll be the next unicorn?

So all is there to say is why not Estonia? It has everything you need and more!

But we are now off to celebrate Midsummer, also known as Jaanipäev or St. John’s Day, it’s one of the oldest and most important celebrations in Estonia.⁣⁣ Like most people living in Estonia, we will take a chance to head to the countryside, beaches, forests, and Midsummer celebrations. And enjoy the beauty Estonia has to offer.

Happy Victory Day and Midsummer to everyone celebrating and be sure to enjoy the beautiful nature and culture in Estonia during Midsummer!

I am currently writing this blog post from my grandma’s kitchen, so you would assume this post will be about the benefits of remote work, but that’s not the case. Maybe the discussion shouldn’t be about office vs remote work or the number of days in the office. Maybe the discussion should be about flexibility, trust, and the possibility to choose? 

Let’s get into the statistics

89% of European companies plan on having a hybrid workforce post-pandemic, with only 11% expecting employees to return to the office full-time. 

The statistics vary from country to country and between industries. But the shift is happening, the pandemic paused everyone’s everyday lives to a certain extent, and made people re-evaluate their choices and their priorities. Having the option not to spend precious time commuting to work, but to spend more time with family. Or even simple everyday tasks, having the option to work from home when waiting for a package or a handyman. It has given people flexibility and an option to plan their life with more ease.  

But there are still companies now that are desperately trying to get their employees back to the office, the tactics are different, some more firm and demanding, some more manipulating and bribing. Neither will give a long-term positive effect. So what will?

We did a quick poll in our company Slack channel

Quick office poll, which one do you like the most (add the emoji):

🏝Remote work/Home office

☀️Office work

🔥Hybrid work 

The winner by far was hybrid work, the more flexible choice. A possibility to work from home, a cafe, office, garden – whichever works for you!

They are not saying no to the office, they are saying yes to flexibility, and the option to choose, because the company trusts them to deliver what is needed and to be part of the company’s success. But there were also people who chose office work or remote work, that is just a reminder again that we are all different. That is why as an employer it’s about adapting to the new ways of working and making sure everyone has what they need to enjoy their work and what they do.

But to answer the question about long-term success in seeing your employees in the office, then my answer is this: 

• communicate;
• trust;
• and create a work culture where they want to see their co-workers;
• where they want to see their manager face to face and brainstorm;
• where they are excited about the projects that they are working on.
• and where they feel that their input matters, so they want to be present. Take care of your employees and your employees will take care of you!

Flexibility is set in the Ecartic DNA 

We support super flexible ways of working – we’ve been set up to be 100% digital from the very start of Ecartic. This is amazing as currently, our employees are working from 4 different countries, not counting anyone who decides to go work remotely from a sunny beach, that is an added bonus to being 100% digital. All the essential meetings are held online and you can take them from your grandma’s apple garden (if she has stable 4G), or in my case grandma’s kitchen. Going 100% digital supports us in many ways, it gives us the freedom to work from anywhere, but it also gives us the opportunity to hire talented people from anywhere. Which is a huge benefit in the start-up world, where the competition for talent is increasing. 

56% of leaders say that access to better talent due to wider talent pools would make them more profitable

Hybrid and flexibility go hand in hand 

My personal take on remote vs office, if I had to put it in percentage, it would be 95% office and 5% remote – so still hybrid, but I lean towards office life, as I enjoy the routine of going to the office. But I would never choose office work alone because hybrid work gives me the opportunity to fly to Saaremaa and spend time with family.

A similar mindset is throughout the company, for example, our CEO Miko, who has taken advantage of a couple of rare sunny and hot days over the past two covid summers and headed to the resort town of Pärnu for some remote working opportunities in a relaxed atmosphere. 

Hybrid work allows us to plan our life and still be successful and excited about our jobs. Communicate and trust, and you can enjoy a fully flexible work culture.