The employee experience is a hot topic in the human resources space, but what does it actually mean? My guest today has the answer.
Zach Beegal is chief operating officer at Strive, which focuses on reimagining the employee experience. In this episode, I ask Zach what the heck employee experience is and what technology has to do with it. We also discuss personalization in employee experience and how to take a different approach.
This conversation is the result of my curiosity about how HR can leverage platforms to make their jobs easier and improve employees’ lives. From what I see on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn, many of you are also curious about this topic. Get ready to nerd out a little about EX and the power of tech to really make work better.
Punk Rock HR is proudly underwritten by The Starr Conspiracy. The Starr Conspiracy is a B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. For more information, head over to thestarrconspiracy.com.
Winning the Employee Experience
Zach explains that employee experience encompasses all the interactions, communications programs and benefits a person has in the workplace. Getting this right is more difficult than many companies realize. For example, many leaders have good intentions in providing a catered lunch or virtual happy hours, for example, but that’s not really part of employee experience.
“I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve taken away as well is, when you say the 30,000-foot view of employee experience, everyone’s like, ‘Yes, we care about that. That’s important.’ It’s a buzzword, just like ‘culture.’ But are you actually dedicating the resources to figure out what your employee experience is?” Zach says.
Everyone has their own idea about what employee experience means. And that makes sense, because one person’s employee experience isn’t going to be exactly the same as someone else’s. Zach says you must be willing to look deeper to understand the employee experience your workers want.
“The first thing you have to do is assign people, dedicate resources to understand what employee experience your employees really want, and then start to curate it and optimize it and track the data and information,” he says. “The first step is the hardest step, but it’s also the easiest step in the sense that you need to just start thinking of it as a critical initiative.”
You Have All the Data. Now What?
When you audit your current employee experience, you’ll see that most employees want something different than what the workplace is offering. They have many ideas for what can improve their experience and about what’s lacking or should be removed.
Collecting these insights and data can tell you what people want in the aggregate and also what you need to do to improve each person’s experience.
“The critical thing that you need to do is encapsulate what you’re trying to push and your values to them,” Zach says. “So it’s targeted communication. It’s personalization. It’s not hitting them with everything. It’s hitting them during the moments that matter and ensuring they have the right tools and processes.”
Don’t try to perfect, Zach says. When there are complaints, use them as an opportunity to listen, adjust and support your employees.
A Different Approach to Personalization
Early in my career, my parents told me that I had to pay my dues at work. Work was work, and you get a paycheck because it’s uncomfortable, and if I wanted to have fun with what I’m doing, then I should get a pet. So my expectation around work was that there was no room for personalization. Many people in the workforce today have a different perception, however.
Zach has written about the different stages of the employee experience and about finding the biggest overlap of values and personalizing from there. At Strive, this approach has three components: unity (connection), growth and wellbeing.
Personalizing the employee experience doesn’t mean that every employee is the right fit for every company, however.
“So I think the critical thing that leaders and executives need to start thinking about is, how do I find the gems? How do I find the people that fit my culture, align with my values and drive it?” Zach says. “It’s less of catering to exactly what the individual wants, but more promoting what you have to offer and what you think is critical and finding the people that align with it.
[bctt tweet=”‘Changing the way people experience their work and get the most out of their jobs just gets me so excited.’ ~ Zach Beegal, COO at @STRIVEBenefits. Tune in to the latest episode of #PunkRockHR!” via=”no”]
People in This Episode
- Zach Beegal: LinkedIn, Strive website
Full Transcript
Laurie Ruettimann:
This episode of Punk Rock HR is sponsored by the Starr Conspiracy. The Starr Conspiracy is the B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. For more information, head on over to thestarrconspiracy.com.
Hey everybody. I’m Laurie Ruettimann. Welcome back to Punk Rock HR. My guest today is Zach Beegal. He’s the chief operating officer at Strive. Strive is focused on employee experience. And in today’s conversation, I ask Zach what the heck is employee experience and what does technology have to do with this? I’m so curious about how HR can leverage platforms to really make their jobs easier and to improve the lives of employees, and I know you’re curious about this, too, because I see you on Twitter and Instagram and LinkedIn talking about this topic. So if you’re interested in nerding out with me a little bit about EX and the power of tech to really make work better, well, sit back and enjoy this conversation with Zach Beegal.
Hey Zach, welcome to the podcast.
Zach Beegal:
Hey Laurie. Thanks for having me.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Oh, dude. It’s my pleasure. Before we get started, why don’t you tell everybody who you are and what you’re all about?
Zach Beegal:
Hey everyone. My name is Zach Beegal. I’m the chief operating officer at Strive, and I’m here today to talk with Laurie about employee experience. That is what our company focuses in every day, and the one-size-fits-all mentality needs to go away. So I’m here to talk about why.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, I love that. Let’s get started by defining employee experience because I’m 47 years old and I have heard 247 definitions. So what is employee experience?
Zach Beegal:
So employee experience at Strive is really, the way we interpret it, is all of the interactions, communications programs and benefits that you have in your workspace. So basically, you wake up, you go to work or you log into work — every experience from that moment till the day, hopefully you clock out at the end of the day, is your employee experience. Lots of technologies and tools out there today focus on very small fractions of it. Us at Strive, we want to ensure we’re encapsulating the entire experience end to end and really driving beneficial experiences for our users.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, you wrote an ebook that really dives into the world of employee experience and really puts some rigor around it, like sets some important stakes like this is what it is, and this is what it isn’t. So tell me a little bit about the ebook.
Zach Beegal:
Yeah, absolutely. So we’ve been working on this ebook for several months. What we found is most of our clients and most employers and HR out in the market space don’t know what employee experience is, don’t know the value behind it. So we really wanted to make a simple book about explaining what’s our definition of employee experience, why is it important and what value do you have by really curating an employee experience. People think if you throw all these cool widgets, gadgets, benefits, programs, all of this at an individual employee, they’ll be happy. No, they need a seamless experience. They expect Amazon, they expect no friction, they expect an optimal experience for them that you took time to curate. And that’s what the ebook’s all about — explaining it and really showing the value behind nailing that and being successful.
Laurie Ruettimann:
So how do I nail it? Give me some ideas, because I think so many people are struggling, which is why you’re in business, why you do what you do. I think leaders have good intent around the employee experience, but you’re right, they think, “OK, we’re going to do pizza, and we’re going to get to get together for a virtual happy hour,” but that’s not employee experience, not in and of itself.
Zach Beegal:
No, absolutely. And I think that’s the biggest thing we’ve taken away, as well, is when you say the 30,000-foot view of employee experience, everyone’s like, “Yes, we care about that. That’s important.’ It’s a buzzword, just like ‘culture.’ But are you actually dedicating the resources to figure out what your employee experience is? A great employee experience for me, Zach Beegal, a 30-year-old man in Philadelphia, versus someone else is going to be completely different. Even the same age and demographic is going to be different, so the first thing you have to do is assign people, dedicate resources to understand what employee experience your employees really want, and then start to curate it and optimize it and track the data and information. The first step is the hardest step, but it’s also the easiest step in the sense that you need to just start thinking of it as a critical initiative. It’s just like revenue, it’s just like retention, it’s anything else — you need to start capturing it and move forward with it.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, anybody who goes on an employee experience journey and audit is going to quickly find out that they have maybe 50, maybe a hundred employees, and they all want something different, and many of them are whiners. So what do you do with the data once you get it?
Zach Beegal:
I think the data’s going to probably — and we do employee experience assessments as well — and the data does show, everybody wants something different. The critical thing that you need to do is encapsulate what you’re trying to push and your values to them. So it’s targeted communication. It’s personalization. It’s not hitting them with everything. It’s hitting them during the moments that matter and ensuring they have the right tools and processes. There’re always going to be complaints, there’s always going to be opportunities to optimize. The critical piece is listening, adjusting and ensuring that they have the proper support. It’s not about making every moment perfect, it’s about making the moments matter very impactful.
Laurie Ruettimann:
So I’m old enough to remember my first couple of jobs, and my parents and their advice to me with my first couple of jobs. And they clearly told me — they were boomers — I had to pay my dues. Work was work, and you get a paycheck because it’s uncomfortable, and if I wanted to have fun and enjoy what I was doing, I should get a puppy or a kitten. So the expectation for me around work is that work was not going to be personalized, and I was given a paycheck for that inconvenience. When did that shift, and is that shift even appropriate? Because I think we’ve swung the other way now, where we’ve got a lot of disaffected people walking around because their individual experiences are not being met — and they, Zach, quite honestly could never be met. What do you think about all that?
Zach Beegal:
Yeah, actually in the ebook, we go through the different ages of employee experience. You start in really the bare essentials, kind of what your parents were describing and told you of, “I walked uphill both ways to school. I had it tough.”
Laurie Ruettimann:
Oh yeah, we did.
Zach Beegal:
I had it harder than everyone else and that’s true. That’s their perspective. That’s what matters. We’ve moved then into the informational, the compensation, all the way to now where we’re at the experience level. The critical thing is you need to hit what’s important to the employees or they’re not the right fit. If you’re not having fun and enjoying yourself at work, you’re not doing the right thing. So let’s instead of, forcing a square peg in a round hole, let’s find what you’re supposed to do. Let’s get you in that right experience and figure that out quicker rather than later. No, is every task you’re going to do at your job going to be great? No. But should I feel a sense of purpose, should I feel a sense of recognition and camaraderie? Absolutely. If not, you’re wasting, I don’t know, 60% of your life at a job that’s not loved.
Laurie Ruettimann:
So I totally get that, and psychologically, I’m on board with that. The power of motivating someone is so important, and you can’t motivate them by saying here’s a paycheck, because they’re going to be like, dang, I can get a paycheck at Domino’s Pizza, right? There’s no difference there. Money is money at the end of the day, I get that. On the other hand, I wonder if we sometimes overcomplicate the conversation. There’s probably 60% on the Venn diagram that overlaps that everybody wants out of their employee experience. So do you have any advice on what those common things are? Even though everybody’s different, everybody wants something different. What are the core things that people want at work?
Zach Beegal:
Absolutely. So the 60% is actually what we call our three pillars, and we hope it’s closer to 70. We hope we’re getting closer to 70, 75. Connection. We call it unity at Strive. So it’s all about feeling that camaraderie, that connection. Recognition, rewards, how do I connect and feel a sense of purpose, not only for my company, for the people I work with and our overall vision? So unity’s one. Two is growth. How do I grow? How do I feel like every day I come in, I’m learning something, I’m becoming a better version of myself, I’m expanding my horizon. That’s growth. And then the last one’s wellbeing. I could have unity and growth out the wazoo. Without wellbeing and without feeling good, mentally, physically, socially, financially, you’re not going to get the best version of me. So how do I promote these three critical pillars? And the key piece is, how do I personalize it to each and every employee without somebody spending all day every day doing that?
That’s where we come in and we allow the employee to say, “Yeah, I’m interested in financial wellbeing and 401(k) retirement. I’m not so interested in telemedicine. It’s not my thing.” Or, “I really care about these challenges and physical wellbeing. I’m not so into the mental health side or speaking to someone.” You need to provide options, a marketplace, and let them pick and choose and curate what works for them. And just listening to them, it’s going to make a world of difference across those three pillars.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, back in the day, that was the role of the HR business partner, the old HR generalist. And instead of your manager having those wishy-washy, touchy-feely conversations, they’d stick HR in there and HR would ask, “What’s important to you? What motivates you?” And that was totally inefficient and really backwards. But what’s the role of technology? Is there really a use case for improvement in the organization, higher levels of engagement, better retention? What is it? Why am I going to have that HR business partner, but also going to buy tech to do this work?
Zach Beegal:
It was a lofty task to ever expect a single person or a couple team members of a 1,000-person organization to achieve that. And that’s why it comes across so flat is because you’re just skimming the surface. “Yes, I like benefits. Yes, I wish I had more PTO.” Like you’re not getting deeper, and you’re not allowing the person to give that instant feedback. So what we focus on at Strive and our critical differentiators are personalization, integration and impactfulness.
Personalization, and this is where tech comes in very handy, of what is the company offering? Let me show you the a la carte list of everything available to you based on your company provided experience. You pick and choose what works for you, and then you can update it over time. As I get older and people get older, my priorities are going to change. Week to week — I have a child — things are going to change. I need something as agile as my life, and I need it personalized to me. No human can do that. That’s where technology and AI comes in place.
Integration. 90% of the time, the tool probably exists or the capability or the information is out there, but it’s not in one place. I have to go all over the place to find it. I get frustrated because my expectation is Amazon, and I’m at something very low level, something not working. And then impactfulness is, what can we drive with this? What can we look to say, “Are we getting it right?” We track a couple critical metrics of Net Promoter Score, overall wellbeing, internal promotion rate, unity growth wellbeing, et cetera. So we’re really tracking what’s important to you. We don’t want to say what’s critical, because you can’t be everything. Pick and choose the core competencies of your company, and get the technology in place to help drive those values.
Laurie Ruettimann:
I love that you’re tracking these individual outcomes to figure out what’s going right within the organization, what needs improvement. I think one of the things I hear from executives all the time is like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. We know where we can get better.” Even though they don’t. “Tell me how to keep this employee.” So where is that line with predictability with your software? Does the software really help with retention? Does it help with making sure someone has a pathway to learn and grow if they’re disaffected? Because at the end of the day, leaders don’t necessarily want to hear what’s wrong with the company’s culture, with the employee experience, but they do really want to focus on this person that they hired for a bajillion dollars during the Great Resignation — and this person’s thinking about leaving, they want to know as soon as possible. So does Strive help with that?
Zach Beegal:
Yeah. I think we couple that in a few different ways. One, you can’t retain everyone. Everyone is not the right fit for your company and culture. That’s not the goal. The goal is never a 100% retention unless you have the perfect team. I haven’t met a company yet with the perfect team. So I think the critical thing that leaders and executives need to start thinking about is, how do I find the gems? How do I find the people that fit my culture, align with my values and drive it? It’s less of catering to exactly what the individual wants, but more promoting what you have to offer and what you think is critical and finding the people that align with it.
And then you can see, through our backend and our tools, who’s connecting in unity? Who’s completing these tasks around commenting, giving recognition to peers, who’s into it? Who’s completing growth programs or plans? Who’s doing their personal development or not and who’s interacting in wellbeing? Who’s running the leaderboard on activity tracker, or who’s driving physical or mental wellbeing or organizing events? We’re not going to give you the tool that keeps 100% because you don’t want keep 100%. You want to keep the employees that fit your culture, fit your values and want to be a part of something special that you’re building. You want to let the other ones go. They’re not the right fit.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, do you have any case studies that you can talk about, organizations that you work with that really turned it around, made a difference in their organization and really started to find those individuals who wanted to stay, who really felt like there was an opportunity in the organization — and your technology helped the company have a better conversation with them?
Zach Beegal:
Absolutely. So we’ve worked with — and this is one of our older clients, so they’ve been through all the evolutions of our product. It was a nursing facility home, multi-state across the nation, decentralized, blue-collar workers, very focused, paycheck to paycheck, very much the old model. Through implementing these capabilities, they were able to see who is interested in taking this company to the next level, who truly cares about providing the best care to the individual patients that they get to work with on a day-to-day basis. And we were able to really drive finding of those critical resources and promoting them — and promoting the right people to move forward.
We were able to increase Net Promoter Score by 50 points. We were able to increase wellbeing participation by 50%. And we were able to increase enrollment of both their tuition program, their tuition reimbursement program, as well as of internal trainings, by 80%. So we really were able to drive, across the board, the critical things that they wanted to see of their employees. And again, you can’t drive everything at once. The critical piece is what’s important to you? What are those, that North Star vision that you want? And driving it. And for that group compared to somebody, listening to the podcast might be completely different. You just need the technology and the infrastructure in place and the passion to do it to be successful.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, and you also need resources, whether it’s an account rep who’s your partner or a consultant to really help you understand, in those early days, “What am I actually doing with this technology?” So I wonder what your implementation process is, because so many organizations say, “Oh, it’s great. We’re going to be your partner. We’re going to help you through this.” And then they direct people to online training resources and seem to disappear. So what’s it like if I become a customer of Strive? I really want to take my organization to that next level that you just described, and we partner up. What next?
Zach Beegal:
Yeah, absolutely. I’m very much in the partnership mentality. So we have a dedicated client success manager to every account. That person is going to be there to help you run annual campaigns, update the experience and really create that game plan that you need to curate that experience that you want. That person’s going to be with you from day one till forever, as long as you’re with them. The piece there is the tools are so intuitive that they become less and less needed over time. You understand what your employees need. We typically just have one or two counterparts per company and client we work with, and they’re able to handle a load because there’s a lot of automation, there’s a lot of templates and tools to be leveraged.
We don’t throw you out there by yourself. We get you started, we get you 80 to 85% the way there, and then we let you play with the tool to figure it out, and we’re always there to support throughout the time. The only thing I would say, as well, that we’re a little different is we do ROI guarantees. What metrics do you want to drive with your company? We’ll tie our fees and our profit to that, and if we don’t achieve, we’re going to lower that until we achieve the goals and results that you want. So we’re in it together.
Laurie Ruettimann:
I love it. You drink your own champagne. That’s amazing. Do you use it at your own organization? I think that’s always interesting when I talk to founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, chief operating officers, and they love their product, and they don’t use it at their own company. I’m like what? This is so weird. So are you customers of Strive yourself?
Zach Beegal:
Absolutely. We are the testers and the absolute front leaders. So every new feature goes through our Strive team, through all of our employees. We get all the feedback from the product team, and we keep making it better. Because you design it, you mock it up, you prototype it, it’s not the same as getting 30, 40, 50 people trying it, testing it, breaking it, seeing what really works. So we are the first testers, and usually we find most of the critical things that need to be improved. And then anything we miss, that’s where we love our great partners that we work with giving ideas, suggestions — how do we improve this and really knock it out of the park for them?
Laurie Ruettimann:
Yeah. Interesting. The other thing I think about with the implementation is that everybody says, “Oh yeah, we integrate. We integrate. We integrate everywhere.” And then it’s like, “Oh man, this is sticky and awkward.” And sometimes it’s the fault of the customer with their janky data, but other times it’s an overpromise on what the tech actually does. So what’s that experience like? If you’re a UKG customer or a Workday customer, what’s the integration experience like?
Zach Beegal:
Definitely varies partner by partner. So the critical thing is it takes two to tango. We have our own internal Okta API SSO team that can build just about any integration in two to four weeks. So we build tons of integrations, they’re customized to even internal employer-level integrations to their capabilities. We have the UKGs, we have the UltiPro, we have all of those different integrations. The key piece is, what level of integration does the partner want? You have the holy grail API SSO, you have the next level down of deep integration, and then you just have a landing page. We try and push our customers to get things that are going to be used at least once or twice a week by the majority of employees to that highest level. So two- to four-week project, we just switch what credentials people are able to access, and we really can integrate to any tool or capability that drives your employee experience. And that’s, again, we’re not a one-size-fits-all, you guys are going to have different employee experience expectations compared to some of our other 1,500-plus clients.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, I used to work at a shampoo factory in the HR department and there was this chick, Elaine, who is in charge of all employee data, and she had one of those Lotus 123 things going on. So I want to hear about integration with that kind of system, cause I know that stuff still exists here in America. You find some interesting ways of managing employee data when you get into the heartland, as I’ve discovered in my own career. So, Zach, you mentioned that you’re a 30-year-old guy, and I just wonder you could be doing anything. You could be working at, I don’t know, some sexy AI startup with black ops and things going on. You can be working at TikTok. I don’t know what kids do these days, but you’re doing this in the HR technology space. So tell me why you do what you do.
Zach Beegal:
Yeah. I actually started at Deloitte Consulting, and throughout my time there, people initiatives and people transformation was always what got me fired up. The ability to not just create a product that’s going to impact people on a personal level, on a daily level, their families as well, that just excites me. Changing the way people experience their work and get the most out of their jobs just gets me so excited. I could be doing AI, Bitcoin, different things like that. They’re cool. Those are very cool things. That’s not what jazzes me up. The fact that I can help people making those technologies and doing everyday tasks from blue-collar work all the way to AI, that gets me excited. And I think everyone deserves in the world the ability to have an employee experience curated to them that makes them excited, makes them happy to go to work and makes them feel valued and a part of the overall group.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, I also know that we’re both Pfizer alum, and I think that is amazing and interesting. So one of the things I wanted to ask you about is, what is it like to see your former employer in the news every single day, almost? How does that feel for you?
Zach Beegal:
It’s very interesting. All of the different things going on over there and seeing them in the news, it’s great. There’s lots of people there, but as you know, in pharmaceuticals, almost everyone I worked with there is somewhere else now.
Laurie Ruettimann:
For sure, yeah.
Zach Beegal:
So, it’s kind of a give-and-take of — that was actually my internship as a senior in college, and so I worked throughout the year, had great experience, great mentors. It’s awesome to see the different things that they’re doing and all the capabilities, but the tides change, and I don’t have that connection. I don’t have that unity with them anymore because of all the turnover — and maybe that’s the right turnover for them, but there’s always opportunity to improve turnover and to keep those critical resources. I think pharmaceuticals is a fascinating industry.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, for sure. It’s one of those industries that does turn over quite a bit, but the people who are there are there forever. And I either worked with people there who had bled blue for the past 30 years and may still be bleeding blue now, I mean, quite a few are, and then others who were like me — 36 months and they’re like, “How do I get out of here?” So I think that segment of the economy is so fascinating and I love that we share that. And as we start to wrap up the conversation, I have heard this passion for improving work, for fixing work from you, and I just wonder, you talked about how it emerged early in your career, but where did it come from? Were there any early lessons that taught you the importance of fixing work or making work important for people?
Zach Beegal:
It’s a great question. I actually had a very difficult first job and internship. First job, I was busboy, caterer, restaurants throughout high school, but my first real professional experience was actually at a basketball program and working for that basketball program. And I had one of the worst managers of all time. Would rank us against each other, different people verse each other, would berate us, thought making fun of us was good. And I just had such a terrible experience that I really vowed from that day moving forward that I want to help fix this problem. I want to help be a great manager. I didn’t know I’d go into the HR tech space, but I knew I always wanted to make those improvements where I could. And when I got the opportunity to join Strive and hopefully make this on hundreds of thousands, hopefully millions of people impact, compared to a team of 50 or a hundred, I had to jump at it and ensure that people have the opportunity to give feedback, get feedback and really create the experience they want or move on.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Well, Zach, I’m betting on you to change the world here. I’m excited about your enthusiasm. So thanks again for talking to me a little bit about Strive and your journey. If people want to learn more, where can they go?
Zach Beegal:
Absolutely. www.onestrive.com. Please reach out. Myself or one of our amazing colleagues at Strive will be more than happy to help. You can start with employer assessments, you can start with our case studies, we can get you referrals. Whatever you need to start drinking the Kool-Aid and jump in on the great curating of an employee experience. I’m your guy, and Strive is the team to get it done for you.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Amazing. Well, thanks again for being a guest.
Zach Beegal:
No problem. Thank you so much for having me, Laurie.
Laurie Ruettimann:
Hey everybody. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Punk Rock HR. We are proudly underwritten by the Star Conspiracy. The Star Conspiracy is the B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. For more information, head on over to thestarrconspiracy.com. Punk Rock HR is produced and edited by Rep Cap, with special help from Michael Thibodeaux and Devon McGrath. For more information, show notes, links and resources, head on over to punkrockhr.com. Now that’s all for today and I hope you enjoyed it. We’ll see you next time on Punk Rock HR.