This episode features an interview with Annette Reavis, Chief People Officer at Envoy. Annette is an HR and business leader with over 20 years of experience. After spending 10 years at Facebook as the Vice President of HR, Annette retired. But not for long. She soon became the Chief People Officer of Root Inc. and now, Annette holds the same position at Envoy. In this episode, Annette and Amanda dive into work-life blend versus work-life balance, the modern employee experience, and how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion functions can improve.
This episode features an interview with Annette Reavis, Chief People Officer at Envoy. Annette is an HR and business leader with over 20 years of experience. After spending 10 years at Facebook as the Vice President of HR, Annette retired. But not for long. She soon became the Chief People Officer of Root Inc. and now, Annette holds the same position at Envoy.
In this episode, Annette and Amanda dive into work-life blend versus work-life balance, the modern employee experience, and how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion functions can improve.
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“I know it’s controversial to say, but I truly believe that if you are 100% remote, it is going to be harder and that you have to work harder. The company can only do so much. You have to work harder to make sure that you are making the right connections because people in the office will be able to do it over coffee, over lunch, and all those experiences that you won’t have. [...] We are really focused here at Envoy on the hybrid experience, so that you get a little bit of both. We do have talent that is 100% remote, for example. We’re going to bring them into the office and do an all hands once or twice a year, so that at least they can have that exchange, understanding. They can have that experience working in the office with people and sitting across from them at the desk. But, it’s something that we’re going to have to continue to work harder at for that talent that’s remote because I do believe it’s just a little bit harder.” – Annette Reavis
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Episode Timestamps:
*(01:55): Annette’s background
*(06:45): Segment: Storytime
*(06:55): How Annette handled the pandemic at a new company
*(10:46): The value of “unstructured skill-building”
*(12:27): Annette’s journey as a Black woman in leadership
*(15:00): How DE&I functions can improve
*(17:18): How Annette handled COVID and social justice issues as a leader
*(19:08): Segment: Getting Tactical
*(21:09): Why Annette loves coaching leaders
*(23:19): The modern employee experience
*(28:40): Work/life balance vs. work/life blend
*(34:27): Segment: Asking For a Friend
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Links:
Connect with Annette on LinkedIn
Amanda Berry: Annette thanks you so much for joining me today. How are you?
Annette Reavis: I'm doing well. Thanks, Amanda. I'm excited to be.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, I'm super excited to have you here. I've got a lot of, a lot of good topics, just knowing what you've been talking about. A lot of topics I want to hit on. So let's start with your background.
Amanda Berry: Talk a little bit about your professional background and what led you to a career in HR.
Annette Reavis: So I actually started my career as a tax accountant, which is hard to imagine going from a tax accountant to an HR professional, but I always touched the people side of things. So I was out in recruiting. Doing holiday parties.
Annette Reavis: I was doing engaging. And from there, I went out and spent a bunch of time in industry, again, doing taxes and accounting. And I realized that that was not fully wanted. I wanted to focus on for the longterm. It was crazy time because we were in the middle of the second dot boom. And I had been late. To literally where I was bringing these blue humble Lopes into the room every single time.
Annette Reavis: And the last time I actually said to everyone, I've got my own blue in an envelope today. And so it was having lunch with a friend of mine who was a doctor. And she said, well, come and work for us. So I spent a few years managing a doctor's office and there's nothing more important than taking care of women and bringing babies in the world.
Annette Reavis: And it was really purposeful. And there, I knew I wanted to really focus on people. And so from there, I spent a bunch of times talking to different companies and started my career in HR. And I was able to go back to public accounting, where I started my accounting work, but do it from the HR side. I did that for a few years and then got lucky and was at Yahoo and HP, always being an HR business partner, coaching and mentoring and helping leaders.
Annette Reavis: And. I was truly blessed and spent 10 years at Facebook. When I started at Facebook, we were 1400 people, which was still startup mode. And when I left, we were 40,000. So really spending 10 years there, helping the leaders grow. I would say I'm really good at getting people from good to great, great degrader.
Annette Reavis: And I did that with a bunch of different leaders and focused on the HR business partners side of the job decided after 10 years I was going to retire. I'm a widowed mom of two boys. I got my oldest in college. My youngest was on his way and a friend of mine said, no, you now want to go be a chief people officer, because what you can do.
Annette Reavis: At the next level, you know, you've really focused on that HR business partner coaching, but now you actually can build a team and help the whole organization thrive. And so spent a year in Columbus doing it there. I'd never lived anywhere else and then came home and was lucky to join on voice. So here I am, the chief people officer, where I lead a team of about 35 people, a chunk of that is recruiting.
Annette Reavis: We also really focus on employee experience. What does that experience from the first time we talked to them as the recruiter to when they have a career here to even when they leave, we get to touch that full cycle myself and my team, which is just a great experience and really a passion of mine to, again, take that talent from good to great and great to.
Amanda Berry: You have such an interesting story. It's very common to what I hear in great leaders. It's almost, you are just open and you change directions, you know, somewhere in the middle of your career and found this amazing opportunity. I think that's just so important. I hear, like I said, I hear from
Amanda Berry: leaders constantly.
Annette Reavis: Yeah. I think it's really, for me, it's about the underlying passion. What was always around helping people through. Learn grow and then thrive more. And I was able to do that every step of the way, even though I did it in different roles and different opportunities. So when I coach others, that's what I talked to them about.
Annette Reavis: What's most important to you. What brings you joy? And I feel really lucky to have kind of self-coaching and done it for myself in order to change different careers and just to continue to work and help. Yeah. What an
Annette Reavis: amazing opportunity for your children to have a mom. Who's such a good people, coach, as they're turning into adults and they're starting their own
Annette Reavis: journeys.
Annette Reavis: Yeah. It's fun. When they call and ask advice, my youngest is having a crisis right now and he called me three different times. What should I do this? Should I do that? And I can actually help them both from just being their mom, but also other things I've seen with other young people that I've coached over the years.
Annette Reavis: It's great to really be able to give them that.
Amanda Berry: So you retired from Facebook. Is that right? I did. I did. And then you joined, you joined? I think it was roots. Yeah. What really inspired you to come out of retirement? So
Annette Reavis: for me, it's about doing a job that Annette needs to do, not just any. Friend of mine called and said, and that you've got to go, they need you in Columbus.
Annette Reavis: It was a combo, a tech company and insurance company. And so really being able to bring my tech experience to Columbus was what it was. And then when I met the talent there and knowing, again, those young leaders being able to take them to the next level was really why I decided that was the right next experience versus spending time on the beach, which is what.
Amanda Berry: I don't know. I think some of us would rather be on the beach. Well, I live in Wisconsin, so I think I'd almost always rather be on a beach, right. Especially in the winter. Correct. It's still snowing here. All right. Let's move into our first segment. Storytime.
Amanda Berry: You became chief people officer at root. The same day, the pandemic started a March, 2020. Yep. So how did you do that? I'm just so curious. I imagine. Did you go in that day and they're like, we're sending everyone home and then you had to immediately start shifting. What was that like for
Annette Reavis: you? Actually, even though that was my first day of work, I actually started helping them before, because we knew the pandemic was coming.
Annette Reavis: Your example of did I go in and send everyone home? We actually had done that a few days before. Technically, not an employee because it was coming. And so I was able to coach and mentor the team on the decisions they were making. I did that first day moved to Columbus though. I was actually going to go on vacation with my children, but I knew I was needed to be in Columbus to really help with that transition.
Annette Reavis: And luckily. I had already had an apartment there that I'd set up earlier. And so we really became a sweat team from that day forward, myself and my people leadership team on all the things that we needed to do to help people be successful. At first, we thought the pandemic was going to be after. So people took their computers home, which was great about route was everybody was on a laptop.
Annette Reavis: They took their computers home. We started doing small things. Like how do you have a zoom meeting? How do you have lunch together? Over zoom? We're coming back on the. A couple of months in though, Amanda, we knew this was going to be a longer experience for our talent. So we started writing processes and procedures and giving managers coaching on how to manage their team over zoom.
Annette Reavis: We also did some work around understanding in the community, where could they go outside and have lunch together, for example. So it really was soup to nuts service from the people team in order to help those organizations manage on the. When it got a little bit longer, six months in, we actually had people who needed chairs and desks.
Annette Reavis: And so we organized a day for them to come into the office and help get those chairs and desks. My team was there actually handing things out from monitors. So again, they could continue that work yet. As the pandemic wind, we had to get stronger and stronger through all the different phases, as we knew it was going to last a bit longer.
Amanda Berry: You talked about lunches and how to manage yours. And I love that. I've honestly not really heard much of that come out of a lot of places. And I think that's really valuable. Are there other changes that you made that's really helped keep employees engaged and build culture during this remote experience when you were at roots?
Annette Reavis: At the beginning, it was, how do you stay engaged with your talent? You now have to do one-on-ones differently because before you could, you'd see them in the office. So you'd know over the week, for example, what would happen? How do you start your one-on-ones? Because again, you're going from seeing someone every single day to seeing them maybe once a week, maybe twice, but mostly once a week.
Annette Reavis: So you start by saying, hello, how are you? What's happening? We talked about having those one-on-ones that. Thirty-five minutes taking a 10 minute break doing the next one. How are you doing your scheduling so that you're not on zoom back to back to back. How are you making sure that what we used to do in the hallway, you now have to include more cross-functional people in your actual meetings.
Annette Reavis: So all hands we did stand-ups every single day for our team, for the people team, because we had so many changes going on. So we instilled 10 minute stand-ups for. Um, the social side, how are you going outside to have lunch together? Are you scheduling that once a month? For example, we set up vendors so they could ship things to home.
Annette Reavis: So you could have Friday happy hours. What we're really focused on was making that transition from the day-to-day engagement, because that was the biggest thing. And I think it's still the biggest thing lost today is that day-to-day engagement to really structured engagement. And so we tried to give them tools and processes in order to do that.
Amanda Berry: I completely
Amanda Berry: agree. It's hard for me to really articulate well, why I love working for home, but what I'm missing in the office, I know you started roots Inc during the pandemic. So you were a remote, but you miss that risk, that regular engagement, right? I don't know how to do something. I can peek into an office.
Amanda Berry: Can you show me how to do that? Now I have to schedule time with either my boss or one of my. Everyone's in meetings all the time. You, you had already mentioned the zoom. So now I've scheduled an actual, like formal meeting to ask them a question. There's something missing. We need a word for that. And the English language of that human interaction.
Annette Reavis: I have a word for you. What is it? It's called unstructured. Skill-building you now no longer have unstructured skill building. You don't have unstructured problem solving and you don't have unstructured joy. Everything has to be structured. And what is missing is what you just said, peeking over and asking someone a question.
Annette Reavis: Or for example, today I use a PC and a Mac on the Mac. I didn't know how to. Take a picture of my screen. I literally opened the conference room door and said, Hey, who can show me how to take a picture on my screen? But if I was at home, I would have had to stop. I wouldn't have had to look it up. I would have had to figure it out.
Annette Reavis: And that engagement, that unstructured skill building is what is missing along with unstructured problem solving and unstructured. Well,
Amanda Berry: and even just the relationships that's helping build, right? You don't know who would be outside the door. It could be an intern, it could be someone new. And all of a sudden you've now built this connection with you, who is a leader at the company.
Amanda Berry: And you have this connection that you, I wouldn't, let's say it was me. I wouldn't have with you if I didn't have that opportunity. Exactly. Yeah. I think that's such a missed opportunity. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask this, you've never really shied away from getting personal. And I'm wondering if you would talk about your journey as a black woman, who's a leader in the, in the tech industry or any industry you've been.
Annette Reavis: I'll go way back to my public accounting days. I loved it. I loved serving clients. And the only reason I left that business was because I knew they were never going to make a black woman, a partner. And I can remember the day Amanda, when I realized that when basically I was told you're only going to go so far in this business.
Annette Reavis: And so. It started from that perspective of really knowing that there was a ceiling for me. And although I knew it growing up because TV and all that, my father taught me, I could be anything and do anything as long as I worked hard enough. And so that was really the first experience where I had to stop and say the color of my skin.
Annette Reavis: It wasn't even the woman part, it was being black, was going to stop me from getting to where I wanted to go. And so. It sent me on that different journey. We already talked a little about, about going out in industry, but it still was always harder for me in order to really break through. I think part of that has to do with people, see you and see a person of color, and they already have their own stereotypes in their mind.
Annette Reavis: And I may do something to even reinforce that stereotype, which in their mind is bad. And in my mind, it's being. Being pushed forward. Instead I would be called aggressive or unfriendly when I was at Facebook. Someone said to me, well, in that you smiled too much. So then people don't trust you. And I said, you're saying that because you don't really know me.
Annette Reavis: And you've got some stereotype in your head of what a person of color should be. And we had an honest conversation around that. It was my manager. I've always had to work a little harder. I've always had to push a little further. Now, I'm so lucky that I have the foundation, Amanda, from my father, who said, you can do anything.
Annette Reavis: You can be anything. And so more times than not, I'm the only one that looks like me sitting around the table in tech more times than not even on the leadership team at Facebook, I rose to be a vice-president there of HR business partners. I was the only one with my manager and when I left, she didn't replace me with the person of.
Annette Reavis: In those moments, you know, that there are some things, but that you have to be strong and push through and really have to have your own confidence internally, because you're not going to get it from those around you. Because again, there was no one at the table that looks like you or things like. Right.
Annette Reavis: Diversity is not the color of our skin only. It's really how we were raised in so many other pieces.
Amanda Berry: Do you think that DE&I function at businesses are doing enough to help build up top change this, I guess, in lack
Annette Reavis: of better term. So that's a two-part answer for me. I think that they are doing enough to bring awareness.
Annette Reavis: And I do think more people of color are getting hired than before. As far as bringing that talent is part of it is. Quite honestly, where you won't hear, but truly it's, this is what we need to do to target how many and bringing in more people of color. So I absolutely think it's helping that. What I don't think it's helping is inclusion and acceptance because I think the I part gets missed.
Annette Reavis: By just pure definition of what does inclusion mean? It means you have to create an environment where everyone feels safe. I don't think that's happening. I can tell you from many of my own experiences that's not happening. The expectation is I'm going to be recruited and be like all the people around the table.
Annette Reavis: That I'm actually going to change versus people at the table, understanding the differences and accepting those and blending with those. It's always meant that I've got accept the difference and then be, you know, different than myself. And to me, that is where I think it's falling short. Do you have any thoughts on what,
Amanda Berry: what, what business might look like in five to 10 years?
Amanda Berry: Do you think that there's an opportunity to really start to change that mindset of, I love that that you're expected to change to be like everyone. Do you think that, do you see an opportunity on the future where this might be different?
Annette Reavis: So I don't think it's going to be that different unless the world changes we're in a world right now where we have a war going on across the world, because somebody wants to take something from someone else.
Annette Reavis: I do think it's going to take a lot more than business putting those programs in place. I actually think it's going to have to start in schools and education because we actually need to change how people are raised. You didn't get to that table with the mindset until someone taught you that, whether it be society, whether it be your parents, whether it be where you went to school.
Annette Reavis: And so actually that foundation needs to change at home before people even get to be grownups in business for things to truly move forward.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. I agree. I always think that people who have, who lead with unhappiness and maybe hate, so it'd be the right word. There's something going on there that needs to change.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. I know we talked about the last two years being difficult because the. But there's been a lot of other difficulties, the racial injustice and social issues going on. How did you as a leader at a company handle those alongside the pandemic? It's been a rough two years for a lot of people. And I'm just wondering how you ran it with those in parallel
Annette Reavis: at root insurance.
Annette Reavis: It was interesting because when I was at root. During the riots. And we had an example I shared with you about when they were coming and getting the furniture and the monitors in order to take home. And we had a person of color say, well, I can't do that. I can't go downtown and grab a monitor and start walking to my car.
Annette Reavis: I could end up getting arrested or worse. And honestly, that was very humbling because I didn't even think of. Once he said it I'm like, well, of course, sure. Cause I also teach my son, if you get pulled over hands on the wheels and you have to be safe and careful, but yet I didn't even think of that in business.
Annette Reavis: Right. Very humbling. And so during that time, we just really try to increase awareness and we had actually trainers come in and train our organization, especially our managers. We did managers trainings around inclusion because I do think that moment in time got people to listen. To being more open to training.
Annette Reavis: And so we took advantage of that. There's lots of more work that has to be done in order for it to.
Amanda Berry: Well, that's an incredible story that really sort of hit me. That's very, very humbling. Clearly. I wouldn't have thought of that either, but I thank you for sharing that. I know that as I've worked on communications at other companies, I always partner with my D&I partners, where we have an HR business partner, a D&I partner to make sure we're trying to be really inclusive and thoughtful on those and you know, in, in different communications and tactics.
Amanda Berry: So thank you for sharing that. I appreciate you sharing your personal journey as well. I want to move into our next segment. It's called getting tactical.
Producer: I'm trying
Producer: to figure out tactics and it'd be prevalent, honest, and I didn't have to worry about tactics too much. Here I am in charge and driving to see why didn't you sleep?
Producer: So tactics tactics.
Amanda Berry: What advice would you give an HR professional? Who's struggling to get buy in from leaders who won't address this DE&I issue that we're seeing across the world across businesses.
Annette Reavis: So first it really depends on how you show up when you're trying to get that buy in. If you're doing it in a way that is really around, I know better here's education focused on this.
Annette Reavis: You've got to pull to their heartstrings telling you that story. For example, that just happened that week. Was a Caucasian male and he had, he didn't think of it. So that was an experience. I tell that story, not to make people feel bad, but so they can understand why we need to think about this more. And so what I say to those leaders that are struggling is find real examples, find real stories, build the relationship, make it real, because if it's only just about hitting numbers or if it's only about what media thinks is good, or if it's only about all those.
Annette Reavis: Then it is just harder for those that are not feeling that level of empathy towards what they should do. Let's talk about why they should let's share stories with them. Let's try to pull things out of their past. That means you've got to build a relationship with that leader. So you understand who they are.
Annette Reavis: Even for myself. I would say to leaders, I know you don't see me differently, but let me talk to you about my journey. Let me tell you why I care about. It's not even for me, it's for my children. It's for your children, your children are going to be sitting across the table from mine. How do you want them to show up?
Annette Reavis: How do you want them to impact the world? And if you can go that level deeper, then you can start having real conversation. Kind of,
Amanda Berry: well, I mean, I love that you're very passionate about coaching leaders, whether it be D&I stuff or how to be good managers, can you talk about how you see leaders being able to affect real change within a
Annette Reavis: company?
Annette Reavis: Do you think there is a lot of coaching involved, which is fun? Um, it keeps me employed and I think it's about helping leaders go from good to great, great to greater. And what they need to do is really influence. First of all, understand what's important to the business. Leaders need to show up. I think in a way that helps resonate, what's important to the business and then decide when they're going to need to be good managers versus good leaders.
Annette Reavis: And for me, that difference is when you talk about a good manager, they are doing the tactical, right? They're doing the day-to-day. They are sitting down across from you. You mentioned you do communication with others. What is your plan? How are you studying? What are you trying to, what are you trying to get across?
Annette Reavis: That is the piece around managers and coaching you and helping you be a good individual contributor. And I'm your manager. Leadership is about inspiration. What is your vision? I get the tactical piece of what you're going to do for the next two, three weeks, but Amanda, let me help you think about that vision and what it's going to, and that vision is actually what then should roll up into the bigger company vision in order to take again, everything to the next.
Annette Reavis: I also coach leaders on don't take it personal. It's about a relationship or you are not their boss. You are not here to tell them what to do, unless it's crisis. You are here to help them go from good to great, great to greater. So then again, collectively, we can all come together to take the company to the next level, because if the company gets to the next level, we're all winning, whether it be financial winning, but most importantly to me, what I care about is legacy.
Annette Reavis: What mark are we leaving on the world? And I talk to leaders a lot about that. I want to
Amanda Berry: switch gears a little bit, because as you're talking, I want to go back to something we started with was that employee experience. And I feel like when you have good leaders, to me, that is the ultimate part of the employee experience.
Amanda Berry: Having a good manager. Who's a great leader, got me to thinking about like Envoy and how you're doing the employee experience there. So I want to talk about that. I've read some of the interviews that you've done and seen some of the work you have out there. I want to talk about what you mean by the model.
Amanda Berry: Employee experience. Can you elaborate what you mean
Annette Reavis: on that? Right now we live in a world where we're just coming out of this pandemic. We've already talked about that. We hear believe strongly, and I believe personally strongly that hybrid is the way to go. And what hybrid means is we have employees in the office some days of the week and employees work at home some days of the week.
Annette Reavis: I believe that collectively together. You have the best experience and you do your best work when you're collective together, working cross functionally, and then you go home and you do focus work, and yes, there's meetings and things in that, but you're, it is a different experience when you're home versus at work.
Annette Reavis: And so for that modern employee experience, we need to give them the opportunity to do their best work in both places. We need to really help them understand when they're here. What does hybrid mean? We offer breakfast and lunch. Yes. We have a video game area so that you can learn and grow and be friends and build relationships together when you're in the office.
Annette Reavis: But then when you're working from home, you've got zoom, you've got other meetings and you've got focused work. And so that really the modern experience has to take in both. Because in the old days, we only had to worry about you being in the office five days a week, and your experience was all in the office.
Annette Reavis: Now we have to think about what is it when you're at home. We also offer a credit here, for example, so that you can get great equipment so that you can have a great earphones or speakers or whatever you need at home. When we look at benefits, we're looking at. What do you need in the office? What do you need at home again, in that Hartford workplace?
Annette Reavis: So everything that we think about now for that modern experience is really that balance of when you're in the office and when you're home and how can we as a people team, make sure your experience is as high as possible. I E 200% good when you're in both of those.
Amanda Berry: As you're saying that it almost, it leads me to have this feeling of you're focused on this really, this human experience of people who are also employees, which I absolutely love.
Amanda Berry: It's something that I felt very passionate about. I know, because I work remote. I am now have human things. I have. My husband, the doorbell is ringing things, trucks come back and immune. It's just, I love that. You're doing that. Where does that come from? Where are you getting this inspiration to do this for boy?
Amanda Berry: I think
Annette Reavis: it's incredible from an inspiration perspective. I just believe it strongly. I really believe strongly that we, as humans have to, we are on this earth to create like, We are on this earth to look at what we've done and what we leave behind. And that to me is what experience means. And so work is part of that.
Annette Reavis: And home is part of that. I will tell you this, every night I go to bed and say, did I change someone's life today? Did I touch someone's life today? And that is just from how I was raised. My father was a counselor at community college. The lives that we were able to watch him touch as we were growing up was pretty phenomenal.
Annette Reavis: We'd have people at our house all the time. When he passed away, we actually had 800 people at his funeral and it had to broadcast it out into the parking lot so that people could experience his life with us. And so I've always been taught that people matter a lot and that touching those lives matter a lot.
Annette Reavis: And that what we leave behind is what's going to be as important. If not more than what we do. And so I try to live my life that way. And that includes how I think about work. Yeah. That's
Amanda Berry: interesting. I always think about what do I want written in my obituary? Is it going to be that I worked until 10 o'clock every night?
Amanda Berry: No, but right. It's it's those about those experiences? So thinking about the people, it sounds like you have people coming in and out, working at a home different times. How are you thinking about creating that equitable employee experience so that if you're home, you've got a similar culture and connection to the.
Annette Reavis: So I will be honest and say, I think for employees that are a hundred percent remote, it is harder. I do think that there is something about being near those that you work with being near those that evaluate you and being near those that you need to do cross functional work with. I know it's controversial to say, but I truly believe that if you are a hundred percent remote, it is going to be harder and that you have to work harder.
Annette Reavis: The company can only do so much. You have to work harder to make sure that you are making the right connections because people in the office will be able to do it over coffee, over lunch, and all those experiences that you want. How am I trying to help our team think about this? It goes back to, are you having lunch, having remote lunches with people that are at home?
Annette Reavis: Are you doing that unstructured time? As much as you can, with people that are at home, we are really focused here at Envoy on the hybrid experience so that you get a little bit of both. We do have talent. That is a hundred percent remote. We're going to bring them into the office and do an all hands once or twice a year.
Annette Reavis: So that at least they can have that experience understanding, right. They can have that experience working in the office with people and sitting across from them at the desk. But it's something that we're going to have to continue to work harder at for that talent that's remote. Cause I do believe it's just a little bit of.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, absolutely. How are you focusing on work-life balance? So now I know this has come up before you have, you have this work-life blend that I'd love to hear more about and, and understand that. Can you first tell me the difference between work-life balance and work-life blend
Annette Reavis: Ken? So for work-life balance, it means everything is balanced.
Annette Reavis: It means you. Probably half your day, nine to five and you go home and you have the evening as you want it every single day. And that there's some balance work life blend means that you understand when your life is more important and you've got to spend more time doing those life things, or when you've got a project and a deadline that you're going to be in the office, maybe 10, 12, 15, depending on what the role is, and that you might not be able to have dinner with your family every single day, depending on what's happening at work.
Annette Reavis: When I was at Facebook, for example, I was responsible for leading the calibration session, which is employee evaluation. My oldest son was a sophomore in high school and he was on the soccer team. And so I was team mom and I was there every game with coffee for the coach that meant during the busy cycle that those were scheduled around.
Annette Reavis: When I could go watch my son play. Now did it mean that I was doing those at six o'clock at night with the rest of my team that were in other places? Absolutely. But I never missed a game. And it's because I blended my time that day in order to be able to do both just like during, there was times when I had to work until eight o'clock at night or even 10 o'clock at night now I would drive home.
Annette Reavis: I would pop the TV dinner in the oven and I would get back on my computer to finish my work. It is work-life blend every single day, even now. Yesterday's another example where our CEO was messaging me saying, are you still here? I want to work on this project. And I said, no, I had to go home because I had to watch my friend's children.
Annette Reavis: I'll call you. We'll get on tonight when they go to bed and sure enough, nine o'clock we were back on it is blending that day and understanding what's important and what you need to get done and really thinking of your clock is 24 hours in order to get everything done and fitting it all in. But you're choosing.
Annette Reavis: What is more important that you have to work on for that?
Amanda Berry: I feel like that's such an important distinction because people that I know love that work-life blend, I can stop and go do laundry. And you tack like an extra 20 minutes on the end of your day. So I love that distinction cause I've been calling it work-life balance.
Amanda Berry: So I, I thank you for, for bringing that into my vernacular. How are employees responding? Sounds like you're doing a lot of amazing stuff to improve culture, really get that employee experience. To what all the stuff that Envoy is
Annette Reavis: doing. Great work life blend with my own team. I'm very clear. And I lead by example and it's, it's great to get the feedback that to watch people grow and actually thrive because they can make their own choices.
Annette Reavis: And I think here what we're trying to do. Manage that across all the managers. So for example, last month we kicked off our manager session. We'll meet with the managers quarterly and talk to them about how some of these different I'm going to call them practices. Cause they're not policies. You don't have a policy on work-life blend, but it's practice.
Annette Reavis: It's practice what you preach, what are the practices around that? And so we're trying to coach and educate our managers so that then we can see the benefit of that throughout the organization for hybrid work. For example, we're doing that and doing it well. Again, have that two day requirement for people to come in the office, which Tuesdays and Thursdays, our office has about 80 to 90 people in it.
Annette Reavis: We offer again, breakfast and lunch. So we know that that's working because we're watching our engagement scores, stay strong for some of those things that we're doing and implementing. And that's really a measure for us as those engagement scores. We do what we call 15 five every single week. And we asked folks, how are you feeling?
Annette Reavis: And you rate it on a one to five. And if you're not a five, we ask. And then we figure out what we can do to adjust that. So we're monitoring all the time to make sure what we're doing is working. So say that again, there they
Amanda Berry: rank how they're feeling on one to five.
Annette Reavis: Yeah. I'm on a one to five scale and if you're not a five, then you write why you aren't a five, but what I'm looking for is the one to threes and what do we need to do differently to raise those scores up and managers see them and we ask, we actually have a mechanism where your managers have to check that they reviewed.
Annette Reavis: So I look at that too. Cause I know managers, which managers are being engaged when there's things that we need to do better. And sometimes we can't change what they're upset about, but at least we can acknowledge and say, we understand why that was a bad week for you. And we can't change that, but here's what we can do.
Annette Reavis: And so I read through those, honestly, it's up on my computer all the time, because I want to make sure that I stay on top of what's happening and how people are feeling in the organisms.
Amanda Berry: Wow. That's an incredible way to gauge how employees are feeling. Do you say that's weekly?
Annette Reavis: You can take it any time, but every Friday we also do a show and tell where we get in front of the company every Friday.
Annette Reavis: And we share about what's happening with customers and product and people and roles that we're trying to recruiting. For example, and I have a slide in there every week. Do your 15 five. I need you to be engaged and tell me what you're feeling. And so that happens every year. It
Amanda Berry: feels like a lot of what you're doing.
Amanda Berry: And I really love this. You're not putting words on paper and saying, this is who we are. This is our culture. You might be putting on paper, but you're saying we also have to live that practice. What you preach. I see that a lot with values, like company values. These are our values, but we need to see them in action that has such an impact on culture.
Annette Reavis: And one thing is speaking of our values every week in show and tell we bring up our values and then we give an example of how someone has lived that value. We have someone host show and tell, and they talk about the value. So it's really important to us that we are living our values because that's the only way we can truly be the company we want to be is practicing what we preach, but also holding people accountable to live to the values in a really positive.
Annette Reavis: Yeah,
Amanda Berry: that's amazing. I want to go into our last segment. It's called asking for a friend
Producer: was destined for a
Producer: friend,
Producer: asking for a friend
Amanda Berry: Would you give to a first-time chief people officer to make sure they're doing they're building good, equitable employee experiences that involve inclusion and empathy and leadership and managing, like what would advice would you give a new person?
Annette Reavis: Yeah. The first thing is just build relationships and understand that people, because what you've said, values are great on the wall, but if you don't come in and try and understand really the best situation, the best experience, try and do all of your homework on those things to understand what's already.
Annette Reavis: And then figure out, start tackling a little bit by bit on the things that you want to take to the next level. So we did the same here. For example, the first thing I wanted to do was have a real fair compensation philosophy, which is a big thing to tackle at the beginning and very controversial because everyone loves their pay and how they get adjustments.
Annette Reavis: But I knew that if I could do that as my first thing as a foundation, That was something that would help take us to the next level. And so for that first time, chief people, officer building those relationships is key, but also understanding I did a road show with everyone in the company and ask them a bunch of questions again, to understand how people were thinking and feeling, and then using that as a foundation to drive change.
Annette Reavis: I think the second thing I would say is get in and understand your own organization, understand your own org chart and what you're trying to build, and then try and do those things within the first year. Of when you're there, so that you've got a strong foundation to build from.
Amanda Berry: I have to ask you this question.
Amanda Berry: I feel like there are probably listeners out there who don't put a lot enough stock into that. What are you feeling about this? And I think this is so important. I love having open-ended survey questions. How do you feel things are going, or it feels like that's what you do. How would you convince HR or internal communications employee experience professionals to really take that as part of a foundational understanding of the employee experience?
Annette Reavis: I think the first thing is ask yourself, do you want someone to ask you that, like at the end of the day, my job is to also know that I'm a human and if I want someone to ask me how I'm feeling well, that means that other people around me want that I also would suggest that they just expect. Because it is a little bit tricky when you ask someone how they're feeling, because you might not get enough information.
Annette Reavis: And so what are the, you know what I mean? I feel good. I feel bad. You've got to go to the next level of those questions and get really specific, but understand that humans want to know how each other are feeling. That's what we do every single day and just try and take your life and what you care about with your own relationships and bring that into this.
Amanda Berry: Everyone I know is constantly getting better at their jobs. I'm very curious. What's next for you? And that you you've had an amazing career. You're an amazing leader. What is next for you?
Annette Reavis: My goal is to leave a strong legacy behind it. Envoy. I really think that we have an opportunity to change the world with respect to how people think about hybrid work and why I feel so blessed to be able to chat with you and others about this subject.
Annette Reavis: Because if we can nail hybrid, we have set the foundation for the future. Again, what's important to people around that flexibility around having high impact at work. People want to stay home because they want work-life blend. Not because they don't want to work hard, but how can we give them that work-life blend while they're coming in the office and building those relationships?
Annette Reavis: So really for me, it's about continuing down this year. And having the opportunity to leave the legacy behind so that I can go retire on the beach. That's the ultimate goal.
Amanda Berry: It feels like you, you really have a good handle on this work-life blend and hybrid work. I really think you should like write a book and get it out there because there probably aren't many right now because it's still pretty new.
Amanda Berry: People are still figuring it out.
Annette Reavis: I think about it a lot. It's a personal passion, but I also want to build this world for my. I know that my boys don't want to come out of college, sitting at my kitchen table, looking at a computer on zoom all day. And that in itself is the future. My boys are the future.
Annette Reavis: Their kids are the future. And if we don't do something now I'm worried about what it will look like. And so that's another thing that I really, really, really care deeply about is making sure we're setting that foundation for the future. It's really.
Amanda Berry: Do you have any thoughts on what that future could look like?
Annette Reavis: I think what it will look like if we get this right, is a world where there is hybrid where people will be going into a office. I actually think it's going to be a more structured hybrid right now. We're giving the flexibility of picking. I think companies will figure out we need people in the office Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Monday, Wednesday, Friday, whatever that is.
Annette Reavis: It'll be a structured. Where the work very closely together during those days a week. And that then they'll work at home. I think the days in the office long-term are going to get a little bit longer. And I think the days at home are going to get a little bit shorter so people can have again, more flexibility.
Annette Reavis: And then I think what's going to also happen is some of the things that we think are important now, even around those. Are going to morph a little bit around like lunches and breakfast and dinner and all of those things. Because I think when we give flexibility around even dry cleaning at Facebook, we have direct cleaning every day.
Annette Reavis: The reason we had dry cleaning wasn't for a benefit, it was because you didn't have time to go to the dry cleaners and we didn't want you to work on the weekend. Well, when flexibility comes and you can go up to the dry cleaner on Wednesday, because you've got work life blend, we may offer something.
Annette Reavis: Because we're figuring out what benefits and what the future needs to look like in a hybrid world.
Amanda Berry: Well, Annette this has been a lot of fun and I thank you so much for coming on. I've learned so much and I'm really excited to hear. More about Envoy through news and read more, you know, things you're doing out in the public sphere.
Amanda Berry: As you continue your career, before I let you go, would you like to let our listeners know where they can find you? And if there's anything else that you want them to
Annette Reavis: know? So you can always find me at annette@envoy.com. And I think just keep pushing to get people back in the office in a hybrid way. Really just know that.
Annette Reavis: Even if you think you want to be home five days a week, the relationships that you can build will bring more joy to your life. And so finding a way to do that, work-life blend and finding a way to get back in the office for part of the time, I think is the future. And, you know, if you ever want to chat about it again annette@envoy.com,
Amanda Berry: Great, thank you for joining me today and that I wish you nothing but the best.
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