How 3 HR Leaders Are Transforming Their Employee Experience

3 employee experience leaders recently joined Cooleaf for a special conversation around best practices, which metrics they use to track success, and their overall vision for the future of work.

Blog Author
Ariam Tesfaye
May 5, 2023
Blog main image

“Company culture” and “employee experience” have become HR buzzwords. While these two things are integral to any great organization, they can feel elusive, hard to understand, and even harder to create.

For Jenn Franklin (American Auto Shield), Karen Beggs (Wacom), and Walt Till (Shipt), creating an incredible employee experience is what they do every day. As people leaders at their respective organizations, each is dedicated to creating a balance between work, life, and health for employees.

Despite being a part of three uniquely different organizations, Jenn, Walt, and Karen found themselves in their roles for similar reasons; a pivotal moment in the company which made employee experience a top priority.

Jenn came to American Auto Shield because of their renewed commitment to employee experience, brought on by COVID. Walt stepped into his role at Shipt when the company was acquired by Target, which spurred massive growth across the organization. Structural changes at Wacom led to a shift in thinking around values, which found Karen in a position to transform their culture.

Now, after several years of creating a beautiful employee experience, each of these leaders has more than just a few tips for enhancing company culture.

They recently joined Cooleaf for a special webinar to share their best practices, which metrics they use to track success, and their overall vision for the future of work.

Watch the full recording and highlighted clips to hear what they had to say!

1. Employee engagement metrics: How do you track success?

"Do people tell other people they want to work at your organization?"

In this clip, Karen Beggs shares which metrics Wacom is tracking to make sure that its employees are happy and engaged. Among the top ones are retention, employee Net Promoter Score, and sense of belonging.

2. Everything should not be for everyone.

"No two people are the same. Everybody's going to connect with the organization in a different way."

In this clip, Walt Till shares why it's important to take a personalized approach to employee experience. Walt says that it's not about creating one experience for everyone, it's about creating different ways to interact with company culture so that everyone can find their own point of connection.

3. Employee engagement is brand awareness.

"We've been able to take a lot of the things we get out of Cooleaf and turn them into ways that we showcase our culture. It's a great way to source new talent."

In this clip, Jenn Franklin shares how American Auto Shield turns employee engagement into brand awareness by putting small wins into action and repurposing special moments on social media.

4. Employee engagement on a budget is more than possible.

"Not everything takes money. It's not all about big parties. It's a lot of the little things. It's about asking yourself, how does it feel to work at our organization?"

In this clip, Karen, Walt, and Jenn share which little things help them create big culture. They share some of their favorite resources like Google, Etsy, and Gartic Phone, which offer a spark of creativity for HR leaders with a limited budget.

Want to learn about the employee experience software powering engagement at Wacom, Shipt, and American Auto Shield? Talk to our team!

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See How Top Workplaces Use Cooleaf to Put their People First

"When we introduced the values and purpose statement, we encouraged everybody to go on Cooleaf and recognize someone who lived the values for them. The platform helps you reinforce those values and helps your team understand what it really means. We wouldn’t have that without a public, very intentional platform like Cooleaf."

Walt Till
Director of Employee Experience at Shipt

Improving employee engagement at top companies