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Unique Value Proposition and Idea Proposal

The University of Arizona
ENTR 485
Carolina Oliva-Martinez
Ben Barber
Olivia Lawson
Max Jackson
Kevin Teto

Company Description

Overview of Idea
 Mind the Gap

An issue many individuals face is if they are getting paid fairly based on their skills and
background compared to their coworkers. That is why Mind the Gap would operate as a third-
party salary comparison platform that would focus on salary transparency between all
backgrounds and demographics. Through this platform an individual would be able to input
their: prospective company, prospective role, age, gender, education (major and degree level),
race, ethnicity, sexuality. The more of these identifiers that an individual chooses to input will
only help them further evaluate what is fair compensation for them by being able to compare
what individuals with similar backgrounds are making in the same field. Mission, Vision &

Values

Mind the Gap’s mission is to create salary transparency through collaborative anonymity. We
value honesty, inclusivity, and equality. Our vision for Mind the Gap is to grow to become an
industry standard and seal of approval for companies to market themselves as being salary
transparent, therefore attracting more applicants who are looking for a better work environment.

Industry & Competition

Industry Overview

Since the early 2000s, the demand for online business operations has experienced significant
growth as the internet has evolved. As a company offering a niche operation of service to the
online recruitment site industry, the concentration size of the market share is medium. The four
largest competitors in the online recruitment industry accounted for 68.4% of revenue in 2021
(Ross, 2021). One reason that the industry has not been dominated by larger competitors is
because of many unique niches that continue entering the market space. The emergence of new
and unique competitors has had such a strong presence in the market that veteran recruiting
companies like Monster have even lost market share, while new competitors such as LinkedIn
and Indeed continue to grow.

Figure 1: Market Share of Companies in Online Recruitment Industry

 Mind the Gap

Amidst the pandemic, online services became an integral component for businesses to continue
operations. This shift in momentum has driven an increase in the number of companies looking
to create more meaningful online experiences for businesses and consumers. This rapid
evolvement in technology has inflated consumer expectations for businesses to continue
providing services that go beyond ordinary job listing services. The online recruitment site
industry is expected to grow 9.1% over the next 5 years, which is a favorable indicator for Mind
the Gap to enter the industry (Ross, 2021). Key drivers that encourage new companies and
services to enter the industry are low costs associated with creating a third-party website along
with low barriers to enter. The industry is expected to grow faster than the overall economy at
around 13.9%, which claims to be driven by rapid technological change (Ross, 2021). Third-
party salary services are becoming increasingly adopted by businesses as they intend to reach a
wider range of potential job candidates. Mind the Gap is determined to become the next
competitive entity for employee salary transparency due to a unique integrity-designed platform.

Key Industry Trends

To analyze the risk and opportunities in the industry, a PEST Analysis was created to show an
objective view of the current market. The figure below highlights some key trends in the online
recruiting site industry that cover political, economic, social, and technological movements.

Figure 2: PEST Analysis of Recruiting Market

 Mind the Gap

2022 Industry PEST Analysis

Political Economic Social Technological
Federal and state Corporate profits Competitors are charging Benefits from the
governments are expected to grow 7.9% for premium services evolution of web services
tightening regulations on over the next 5 years with
Low startup costs are Shifts in technology from
the use of personal data the anticipation of
lucrative for new players desktops to mobile
businesses expanding
Industry has experienced to enter the industry devices, reducing
workforce
minimal shutdown from production costs
Increasing social media
government policy in Unemployment rates
exposure has significantly Large companies
response to Covid-19 expected to decline over
increased demand developing data analytics
the next 5 years, which
Use of AI may violate and software-as-a-service
will introduce a larger Fraudulent software and
existing employment laws improvements
labor market applications are hindering
growth
Market dependent upon
changes in unemployment
rate
(Ross, 2021) (Fortune Business Insights, 2020)

Porter’s Five Forces

Mind the Gap’s main competitors are global online hiring giants like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, as
well as the reputable EQUAL-SALARY who certifies companies in Europe and overseas that
combat the wage gap between men and women. Below is the Porter analysis for Mind the Gap
and how the company aims to carry out its goal.

Figure 3: Porter’s 5 Forces Analysis

Porter’s Five Forces Description

Threat of New Entry Since we are one of very few companies offering such services, entry is
open as of now. If our service becomes more popular, there may be more
private data companies looking to provide similar services. Threats of new
entry should theoretically increase in the future as salary transparency
becomes more common and accepted.
Supplier Power Because we aim to offer free information and salary data to individuals
looking to better gauge their value or salary negotiations, the supplier
power is low. If we decide to charge companies for salary transparency
certifications, then our supplier power will increase regarding the ability to
certify.
Buyer Power In terms of buyer power, since the service is free but reliant on employee
salary data, the consumers have all the power. As salaries are input and
transparency increases, the power of the early salary data increases and the
website users benefit from it.
Threat of Substitution As of now, there are little to zero other companies offering such services. If
EQUAL-SALARY were to expand their services to the United States, we
 Mind the Gap

may see increased competition for our respective certifications.

Furthermore, if online hiring giants such as LinkedIn or Indeed begin
offering a similar service/certificate for a premium, we could see a loss of
potential profits we ignored as a non-profit.
Rivalry Amongst Competitors such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor could begin offering salary
Existing Firms transparency services or features, which would damage our reputability
and usage rates. As of now, EQUAL-SALARY is the primary company
offering specialized wage and salary information certification/information,
so differentiating our service from them is crucial

Competitive Landscape Analysis

The competitive environment in the hiring market is shared by many popular and reputable
online job platforms, however, still shows room for improvement. Many job postings fail to
include salary or wage details on websites such as LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed. These
websites are great tools for finding available jobs and careers but lack features and functionalities
that could help applicants even greater. Below is a chart detailing the positives and negatives of
five main competitors in the market, and how Mind the Gap would differ from our competitors.

Figure 4: Competitive Landscape Analysis

Competitors What’s Good? What’s bad? Best Feature Our Product

Reputable Give input to get Offers insights Will add more specified
Large variety of input into employee search filters
companies, Hard to navigate experience Will have a leaderboard
owned by Must have and more job of companies with best
Recruit account transparency ratings, certificates of
Holdings transparency
Established with Quantity of job Posting jobs Adds demographics and
many options, offers over quickly and shows salary information
also owned by quality of offers, for free for every job possible
Recruit too many options Best for (state laws permitting).
Holdings and hard to find constructing
right job, job postings
interface issues

Shrinks gender Limited to mostly Improves the Will shrink both gender
wage gap and European and image and and race gender gaps,
certifies foreign attractiveness provide service in the
companies that companies of companies U.S.
do so that get
certified
Provides self- It can be difficult Social media Won’t require personal
exposure and a to get noticed and features and info or the need to build
platform to get offers, more an online profile.
 Mind the Gap

build you and/or premium account customized Program will remain free
your brand costs money posts, for consumers
promotional
opportunities
Summary of Top 3 Competitors

Both Glassdoor and Indeed are owned by the Japanese human resources company Recruit
Holdings. They are similar in the fact that they are both job sites, where one can look at potential
opportunities in their respective fields. What differs Indeed from Glassdoor is that they do not
require an account to search for jobs, whereas Glassdoor does because they offer employers
branding options and the chance for current and former employees to review their companies.
While both platforms have their differences, they are top options when it comes to a job search
and continue to assist people in finding jobs and furthering their professional careers.

EQUAL-SALARY is a Swedish non-profit organization created in 2010 by entrepreneur and

equal pay advocate Veronique Goy Veenhuis. The company verifies and certifies companies that
pay their male and female employees equally and fairly. They first collect employee salary data
securely and anonymously, then it is analyzed to see if the wage difference is less than or equal
to 5%. If the analysis returns an R-squared value more than 90% they move forward to an on-site
review where an auditing team assures CEOs and management are committed to equal pay and
how the employees view the company’s pay rates/practices. Then, pending results of the audit,
the company is awarded a certificate from the E-S Foundation and the company can now
advertise the certification. The certificate is valid for three years, in which two monitoring
reviews are conducted to show commitment. EQUAL-SALARY have certified notable
companies such as Ferrari, UBS, and Cartier.

LinkedIn was launched in 2005 and is now owned by Microsoft. They offer an online interface
used for hiring, marketing, sales, and learning. Users can create an account and make an online
profile for hiring and marketing. LinkedIn’s mission statement is to “connect the world’s
professionals to make them more productive and successful”. The company’s goal is to provide
every member of the global workforce with the tools to create economic opportunities for
themselves and their affiliates. Employers can create job postings directly on the company’s
profile page and connect with potential employees through the instant messaging feature. They
also offer a paid premium version of LinkedIn, where users can see who visited their profile and
 Mind the Gap

expand their network. LinkedIn boasts having the largest professional network with 810 million
members in 200+ countries worldwide.

Target Market Analysis

Needs Description & Analysis

Developing a platform that allows users to compare salaries between companies would both help
people in entry-level positions determine whether they are receiving an appropriate salary based
on their educational background and would encourage companies to be as equitable as possible
with wages and salaries. This is a niche in the Job Search industry as there is no platform that
provides more than job descriptions, expected salaries, and employee reviews. Mind the Gap

For a better understanding of the type of person that might help this platform useful, imagine the
following situation:

A student in their early 20s has just graduated from their local university with a degree in
Business Management and accepted an offer as a Regional Manager for a small Fortune
500 company. After working there for almost a year, this person starts asking around
about what other or past regional managers have been paid at this company and they
realize that they are receiving a much lower salary than everyone else. This person
wonders whether this gap is due to their educational background or ethnicity. Shouldn’t
all regional managers receive the same salary since they all do the same work regardless
of background or previous experiences? How was it not apparent earlier that this person
was getting paid so much less?

As can be seen from the scenario above, there can often be some insecurity and uncertainty
around whether a company is paying its employees an appropriate salary for the work they do.
This is mostly due to the wage gaps based on gender, educational backgrounds, race, ethnicity,
and other types of identifications that have been present in the history of the United States. For
example, when it comes to the gender wage gap in the US, a Forbes article states that in 2021,
women got paid around 87 cents for every dollar that men got paid. The article also lists ways in
which we can reduce the gender pay gap, including having employees share salary and benefits
information with each other, discouraging employers from using historical salaries to determine
 Mind the Gap

current/future ones, and implementing a diagnostic control system that reviews wage gaps within
companies.

SWOT, Positioning and UVP

SWOT Analysis

Below is a SWOT Analysis that identifies the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of
our company.

Strengths Weaknesses

· Provides easy convenience for the · Difficulty to differentiate between

consumer by being able to easily input
personal data and quickly gain results
through the use of filters
· Offers a wide variety of jobs and
positions through the crowdsourcing of
data inputs
· Through companies encouraging
employees to report salaries, they would
then be marketed as a company who
fairly compensates their employees, thus
putting themselves in a better position to
receive a higher quantity of applications
being a job review website as opposed
to salary reporting website
· Tough to crowdsource/survey
individuals in order to gain statistically
significant data
· Difficulty to ensure accurate reporting
of demographics and job role
· Difficult to incentivize employees to
disclose demographic and salary
information

Opportunities Threats

· Opportunity for growth in the future and
market Mind the Gap as a “Best in Show”
criteria as companies aim to market
themselves as being salary transparent
· Potential to capture a large audience as
this could apply to almost any age group
after the age of 18.
· A bigger company with more resources
could imitate the general idea which
could lead to more competitors
· Could be individuals who would try to
hack the data
· Some companies may encourage
employees to input false information to
improve company image

Unique Value Proposition

Mind the Gap would be the only competitor in the salary reporting industry that will dive deeper
into the issues that cause pay disparities through the anonymous reporting of an individual’s:
prospective company, prospective role, age, gender, education (major and degree level), race,
 Mind the Gap

ethnicity, sexuality. Through this platform, individuals will be able to get the salary they deserve
by being able to reference what individuals similar to them are earning for their skillset.
 Mind the Gap

References

A-38. Persons not in the labor force by desire and availability for work, age, and sex. (2022,
February 4). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from
https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpseea38.htm
Employment status of the civilian noninstitutional population by age, sex, and race. (2022,
January 20). U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat03.htm
Jinks, P. (2017, September 14). Why Nonprofits Should Rethink Their Strategy. Forbes.
Retrieved February 9, 2022, from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/06/07/why-nonprofits-should-
rethink-their-strategy/?sh=9106ff3eaf18
Online Recruitment Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Permanent
Online Recruitment, Part Time Online Recruitment), By Application (Secretarial/
Clerical, Accounting/ Financial, Computing, Technical/ Engineering, Professional/
Managerial, Nursing/ Medical/ Care, Hotel/ Catering, Sales/ Marketing, Other
Industrial/ Blue Collar) and Regional Forecast, 2020 – 2027. (2020, October). Fortune
Business Insights. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/online-recruitment-market-103730
Ross, G. (2021, March). Online Recruitment Sites: US Specialized Industry Report OD4590.
IBISWorld. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://my-ibisworld-
com.ezproxy1.library.arizona.edu/download/us/en/industry-specialized/4590/1/0/pdf

Spiggle, T. (2021, December 10). The Gender Pay Gap: Why It’s Still Here. Forbes. Retrieved
February 9, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomspiggle/2021/05/25/the-gender-
pay-gap-why-its-still-here/?sh=762b792c7baf
V. (2022, February 10). EQUAL-SALARY Certification. EQUAL SALARY - Let’s Close the
Wage Gap Together. Retrieved February 8, 2022, from
https://www.equalsalary.org/equal-salary-certification/