EXPERT CONVOS: Talking Employee Experience + Culture on The EX Podcast
This week our founder Robyn Ward sits in on The Employee Experience Podcast with Stephan Vincent to talk about employee experience, startup culture, and the value of self-care, emotional intelligence and transparency in the workplace.
It’s important to understand the difference between company culture and perks or benefits. And according to Robyn, it's easy for busy founders to fail to "walk the talk" of their company's culture and give culture the attention it needs to evolve as the company grows. But that doesn’t mean she’s not hopeful. Robyn believes the tides are changing, with startups like Warby Parker focusing on “extraordinary employee lifecycle” just as much as killer product. There seems to be more conversation and understanding of the positive impact of designing culture and employee experience from the earliest of days. This is helped by the fact that VCs like First Round, Union Square and Backstage Capital are also talking and writing about the people side of the business - meaning steps are being taken in the right direction from both sides (even if there are still many more to go).
Later in the podcast Robyn goes on to discuss why culture starts and stops with the CEO and how the successful modern leader must practice candor and transparency from the beginning. She also highlights that employee experience is something that is designed with, not for employees. In addition, she emphasizes that, as the future of work continues to progress, culture and employee experience will have an even greater impact on growth, employee retention, and, yes, the bottom line.
So the question is how much time are you spending designing and cultivating your culture and employee experience?
Listen to the full discussion on the EX Podcast to get Robyn’s insights into building, cultivated and evolving quality employee experiences and strong cultures that will scale.