““Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.””
Faced with an increasingly open world and more choices, employees' expectations for a workplace are changing.
We used to be content with decent pay and benefits, but no longer. We're now looking for career growth, inspiring colleagues, and meaningful work. As an employer, you can adapt to provide these factors – or find yourself falling behind.
I believe in the potential of People orgs to facilitate personal growth and create meaningful moments, from the smallest appreciations to company-wide traditions. Below are the stories and the "how" behind just a few of the initiatives I led at Lever.
Note: Given some of my work is in the HR space, I can't share them openly since the processes and materials I developed are still in use at Lever. Feel free to ask me about it though!
A new hire's experience at Lever is unlike any other – it starts off with a *bang*!
“I got to be inspired every day [being] part of the culture Jen built. Early Lever was truly unique in its thoughtfulness, cohesion, and drive, all attributed to Jen.”
Building trust and caring is critical to team success. Here's how to inject them into the culture, a little bit every day!
Small things can have a big impact.
Giving back is important to me, and I found fantastic partners in Juma, a nonprofit serving URM, first-gen college-bound students.
Video project capturing moments from spring 2015, the special and the ordinary. Here's the 2016 version.
Every new hire at Lever was taught Design Thinking skills by me. One employee's take: "How I became a designer in my new sales job."
Forget fancy offsites. When it comes to retreats, the scrappier the better. Photo blog of the camping trip.
Given that most workplace conflicts can be attributed to communication (rather than malicious intent), a little bit of framework, training, and team-building exercises can go a long way. I led Insights Discovery workshops from when Lever was in the single digits. It evolved to become the pinnacle of a new hire's experience!
As a certified practitioner, I offer the workshop to other startups looking to invest in emotional intelligence development in their teams. Reach out if you're interested in hearing more!