Eighth Generation

Indeed compensated this small business professional for sharing their Indeed hiring story.

A Native-owned art and lifestyle business needed to hire textile manufacturing employees to bring authentic Native arts to the marketplace. To reclaim a market that non-Native companies had long dominated, the company’s CEO turned to Indeed to hire five new employees helping grow the company’s made-in-house wool textile line.

Background: Protecting Native culture and uplifting tribal voices

Eighth Generation is a Native-owned and operated art and lifestyle brand based in Seattle, Washington that produces and sells 100% Native-designed blankets, jewelry, art prints and other gifts. Proudly owned by the Snoqualmie Tribe, the company focuses on creating opportunities for Native American, First Nations and Indigenous artists, while also educating the public about the harmful effects of cultural appropriation—and how it’s different from cultural appreciation.

“We bring traditional Native art and design and contemporary Native art and design into people’s homes, working with Native artists all over the country who trust us to bring their art and design to the marketplace,” explains Colleen Echohawk, CEO and enrolled member of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma.

The company’s tagline is “Inspired Natives™, not ‘Native-inspired,’” and in 2015, became the first Native-owned business in the United States or Canada to offer authentic wool blankets designed by Native artisans, reclaiming a market that had been dominated for over two centuries by non-Native companies.

The hope is that the powerful stories woven into these Native-crafted blankets will be carried forward, celebrating Native excellence and keeping Native history, traditions and art alive.

Challenge: Finding people with expertise in textiles and a shared appreciation for Native culture

Eighth Generations isn’t just the first Native American business to sell authentic wool blankets, they’re the first ever to produce 100% Native-designed wool blankets in Seattle.

“One of the things that has been very important for us is to be manufacturing ourselves right here in Seattle,” says Colleen. “We’ve had a very difficult time finding the right employees to do that.”

With online orders to fulfill and a flagship store in Seattle’s iconic Pike Place Market to stock, Colleen needed to hire people fast. But she didn’t just want to find candidates with the right textile manufacturing expertise, she also wanted to find people who shared the company’s values and could contribute positively to the culture.

That’s when Colleen and her team turned to Indeed’s customer support team for assistance in making her job postings stand out. “We made sure that we had a wonderful job posting and shortly thereafter we had some amazing candidates,” says Colleen. “Candidates who felt so excited to be able to use their expertise in textile manufacturing and also work for a Native company that really aligned with their values.”

"I can’t imagine hiring employees without Indeed."

Colleen Echohawk, CEO
Eighth Generation

Solution: Speeding up the hiring process with time-saving tools

As the CEO of a small business, Colleen doesn’t have much time to spend on the hiring process — but that doesn’t mean she has to sacrifice candidate quality. With Indeed’s suite of hiring tools, she’s able to optimize the process and attract the best candidates for her open roles.

For instance, she uses Indeed’s screener questions to confirm important information with applicants upfront, like skills, experience and availability. “Screening questions really help us save time and that’s so important for us as a small business,” she explains. “We need to get this work done quickly and efficiently. Having those screening questions helps us make sure that we’re going to be interviewing people that really are qualified and going to be the right people for this job.” Jobs with screener questions are 50% more likely to result in a hire.^[1]

Colleen also uses Indeed’s virtual interviewing tool, Indeed Interview, to interview promising candidates right on the Indeed platform. Virtual interviews are often accessible to more applicants and take less time to schedule. This means that they can take place sooner, rather than later. In fact, on average, interviews with Indeed’s hosted jobs take place just over 3.0 days after scheduling them, sooner than in-person interviews or virtual interviews with a third-party app.^[2]

“[Indeed Interview] is really incredible and we’ve been able to use it very effectively to talk with folks around the country who have since become employees,” says Colleen. “And one of the things that’s really nice about it is that you can have the resume right there, you can talk with your team, you can share notes. It makes it easy and fun to be able to do it in that way.”

Results: 5+ new employees with shared values

By partnering with Indeed in hiring, Eighth Generation can continue its mission to elevate Native artists and their stories and reclaim control over the market for products featuring Native art.

“We have hired over five different folks from Indeed who have those skills that are going to help us move into the next phase of growth,” says Colleen, “It would have been truly impossible to find those qualified people who understand our values as a company without the Indeed platform.”