Lightrun is ready to “swipe-right” on talent… even in a pandemic

“As a fast-growing startup, we are always looking to swipe-right on the best candidates to join our team,” explained Gal Shor, HR & Operations Manager at Lightrun. “We are totally committed to candidates and people in general.”

Gal Shor, HR & Operations Manager at Lightrun. Photo: Tomer Rotenberg

Company’s summary:

HR Leader: Gal Shor, HR & Operations Manager

Field of Activity: Our product allows developers to get a firmer grip on their production services without breaking development flow, by enabling them to understand how their applications “behave”, code line by code line. Customers adopting Lightrun consistently reduce their customer-facing issues time-to-resolution by 50-60% and boost their developers’ productivity.

I’ve always been interested in people and what makes them tick, but my original path was a little bit different from that which I'm on now. In the beginning, I moved into investment banking and studied economics.

During my studies, I undertook a couple of organizational behavior courses and discovered that this was my passion. Everything came intuitively to me. My aunt, who is a business anthropologist, aided me in moving forward in this profession and pointed me in the direction of a few interesting studies on the subject. One of these studies left a lasting impression on me.

I learned that more than 70% of people were looking for new jobs while being employed, and I found this statistic sad yet intriguing. I wanted to make a difference and create a community where staff could realize their personal ambitions as part of a team working towards one goal, where they would feel satisfied, and where we could forge a sense of loyalty and togetherness.

I decided to start my new vocation in startups and joined CHEQ as one of the first members of the team. I found the job and the challenges that came with working at a startup incredibly stimulating and I loved seeing how an individual would contribute to the company and vice versa. After an enlightening experience at CHEQ where I helped to build the company’s DNA and increase employee engagement and happiness, I joined the incredible team at Lightrun: a team built upon extraordinary personality, modesty, and professionalism. My debut at Lightrun coincided with the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic which has brought with it a plethora of challenges, but ones that together we’ve enjoyed overcoming.

In terms of people and logistics, our company is highly organized and we really care about each other. During the first nationwide quarantine, we immediately adjusted to the new situation by having personal catch-up meetings (with Zoom obviously) with the direct manager and the CEO, adding weekly gatherings for our staff to share their feelings and thoughts (really), and providing online workout classes for the employees and their families.

Inspired by the study “The Experimental Generation of Interpersonal Closeness” (Aron et al., 1997), I tweaked a questionnaire from it and then asked our crew different questions in our weekly meetings.

In the beginning, the questions were relatively simple and straightforward; things such as, “Tell me one thing you like about one of your colleagues”, and “Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest?” but gradually as the weeks progressed these questions became tougher and more thought-provoking. The idea was that throughout the weeks in lockdown that the team would get to know each other on a deeper level, helping to foster a stronger culture that we all felt a part of.

Now, we have a weekly gathering that we coined “The Bitching Hour” where each one of us shares what we are going through because let's face it - the Covid-19 pandemic has affected our personal lives and many people have had to learn to cope with newfound struggles and frustrations. We created a place for our teammates to share their frustrations - you feel better when you talk to friends after all.

The recipe we’ve conjured up to create a company culture is a delicate one, with ingredients that we’ve picked carefully to ensure they enhance the flavor of the final outcome. For this reason, even before we look at budding candidates' technical backgrounds, we need to ensure they are the right person for our Michelin startup.