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November 20, 2018
Buffer
Buffer: The Joys and Benefits of Working as a Distributed Team
Below is an article originally written by Joel Gascoigne, the founder and CEO at PowerToFly Partner Buffer, and published on September 16, 2018. Go to Buffer's page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
Buffer is a fully remote team.
It's a decision I made at the end of 2012, when Buffer was in its infancy, and it's interesting to reflect on that decision now. I am happy to report that I am in love with the choice we made to be distributed all across the world.
When I say that we're a remote, distributed team, I mean that we're literally spread across the whole world. Buffer is a team of 79 right now, and we have teammates on almost every continent and across timezones worldwide.
The sun never sets on Buffer!
6 reasons why being a remote, distributed team is so exciting
I think the distributed team discussion is often focused around the challenges. I wanted to share from our experience the fun side of being distributed, which I think far outweighs the challenges:
1. Our team is super productive
The thing about hiring people for a distributed team is that they need to be self-motivated and productive working at home, coffee shops, or a co-working space.
During the hiring process, we look especially for people who have worked as freelancers or on startups. Everyone on board is incredibly smart, and it's humbling to work with them.
2. Team members have incredible amounts of freedom
Have a family event coming up and need to travel on Friday? No problem.
Want to take off to Bali or Gran Canaria for a few weeks and work from there? Awesome – please share photos :)
These things have all happened and are regular occurrences within our distributed team.
It's the little things too, like being able to avoid a commute and spend more time with family. We don't have working hours, and we don't measure hours at all. We're all excited about our vision, and we focus on results, balance, and sustained productivity.
3. It feels like the future
Even being able to share the locations of all my co-workers when I meet others and chat about Buffer is so fun and exciting. I think it provides a great story, rather than all of us being in the same office each day.
People ask how we manage it and I share our workflows and remote work tools. We call Slack our office, and Zoom is our conference room. Here's a look at some of the team in a recent Zoom call:
I genuinely believe that how we're set up will be very normal in a few years. There are certainly challenges and we're still figuring a lot of it out. It's fun and a huge privilege to be able to be part of this innovation and experiment and share our learnings.
4. I'm learning so much about the world
People within the team speak lots of different languages, and talking with each other we learn about what it's like to grow up elsewhere in the world. We think carefully about shaping our culture further and how our choices might affect the various cultures within the team.
5. We travel the world to work together multiple times a year
Part of the DNA of Buffer is that we traveled all over the world for much of the first two years. This is something that has been sustained and is part of our values (and many in the team have lived up to this value by traveling as part of the team).
In order to have deliberate face-to-face time together to bond and have fun, we have regular teamwide Buffer retreats each year where we gather the full team, and we hold mini-retreats throughout the year for smaller teams and areas of the company.
On our all-company retreats, we spend a week working together and also do activities like sightseeing, boating and safaris. Most recently we gathered in Singapore!
6. Timezones make you awesome
Finally, you can look at timezones as an inconvenience, or you can embrace them and discover the magic of the time difference.
A key part of our vision is to set the bar for customer support. We obsessively track the happiness of our customers and our speed to respond to them. We have more than a million users and we reply to 80% of emails within 1 hour. We couldn't achieve this level of service without being spread across multiple timezones.
Timezones are a huge help for our development cycle too – with engineers in the US, UK, Asia and Africa, we literally never stop coding.
Beyond the positives of having a fully distributed team, you can also learn about our list of perks and team benefits that all employees receive at Buffer.
September 18, 2020
Work-Life Integration
8 Questions to Ask Yourself to Determine If You’re Burning Out—And What to Do If You Are
I thought about writing this blog piece like one of those quizzes that used to be on the back pages of Seventeen and Cosmo where each question would offer several answers of varying point levels and you'd pick one answer per question, tally up your points at the end, and match your score to one of several possible results.
<p>But then I realized that someone suffering from burnout (or on the cusp of it) probably didn't need more busywork added to their plate.</p><p>That's especially true during a pandemic that's already stretching our mental resources thin. An <a href="https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-mha-mental-health-workplace-pandemic/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">August FlexJobs survey</a> found that 75% of people have experienced burnout at work and 40% have experienced it specifically during the pandemic.</p><p>So instead, I've done away with the addition.<strong> Here are eight simple yes-or-no questions to ask yourself about burnout.</strong> If you respond "yes" to more than one or two of them, proceed from there to the second half of this article, where I've shared tips for healing from burnout and preventing it in the future. If most of your answers are "no," I congratulate you on finding the elusive work-life balance and/or having built a career that works for you and/or finding a supportive company and boss and/or being impervious to the stress that wrecks us lesser beings. In all seriousness, if that's you, please do leave tips for maintaining calm and avoiding burnout in the comments before you close out of this tab and go on with your day.</p><h2>8 questions to ask yourself about whether you're burning out</h2><p>Per<a href="https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http://id.who.int/icd/entity/129180281" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> the World Health Organization</a>, burnout is a work-specific issue defined as a "syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed." It goes farther than having a rough day or week and refers to a general sense of exhaustion, cynicism, and ineffectiveness at work.</p><p>Based on a<a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/burnout/art-20046642" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> guide to burnout from the Mayo Clinic</a>, here's what to ask yourself about whether you're burning out:</p><ol class="ee-ol"><li>Have you been feeling less capable at work?</li><li>Are you feeling more exhausted than usual?</li><li>Would your coworkers or clients say you've been acting more irritable or impatient than normal?</li><li>Do you feel less motivated to do work?</li><li>Have you found it hard to concentrate on your work responsibilities?</li><li>Do you feel less satisfied by your achievements than you have in the past?</li><li>Do you find yourself wanting to call in sick more often?</li><li>Have you experienced physical symptoms like fatigue, headaches, or stomach issues?</li></ol>
<h2>What to do if you're burned out</h2><p>You can approach burnout in one of two ways. The first focuses on treatment and the second focuses on prevention. For the highest chance of successfully reducing burnout over time, you should work within both approaches.</p><p><strong>First, you can seek to cut it off at its source by fixing the root cause of burnout. </strong>Some of those causes and ways to address them include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>Unclear job expectations</strong><strong>.</strong> If your role has changed recently or you've gotten a new manager, you might not have a clear idea of what it is that you need to do to succeed, making work feel like an ambiguous mess of stress. To fix it, sit down with your boss and go over what you understand that's expected of you, including key responsibilities and the metrics that will measure how you're doing on them, and ask your boss to correct your understanding or to fill in any gaps.</li><li><strong>Unreasonable pressure. </strong>Whether you're regularly asked to complete tight-turnaround work, forced to make do with less resources than you need, or given more work than you can complete, feeling sustained pressure at work can be one of the major factors behind burnout. Flag your situation to your boss, and, if they don't engage well, to your HR liaison, and ask what changes to timelines, processes, schedules, or workflows can be made to make things a little less stressful. This might not be possible in all fields, like for paramedics, for whom no amount of workflow magic will reduce the time pressure they sometimes face, so keep that in mind, too.</li><li><strong>Unfair treatment. </strong>If you're facing workplace issues like bullying, favoritism, or being underpaid for your work, it's not surprising that you're having a hard time feeling fulfilled by it. These are some of the thorniest issues to unpack at work, but if you think you can do so without further endangering your mental health or job security, you owe it to yourself to try. Bring it up in your next one-on-one with your manager or consider going directly to another manager in your department or to HR if it's your manager that is the problem.</li><li><strong>Overall lack of job satisfaction.</strong> Have you ever felt fulfilled at work? If not—if this bout of burnout is just a more intense version of the malaise you've long felt upon starting your workday—<a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/should-i-quit-my-job-quiz-2625762726.html" target="_blank">consider switching your job</a>. Do some serious reflection on what kind of work has made you feel satisfied and look at<a href="https://powertofly.com/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> job boards</a> to see what else is out there. If you're going to spend the majority of your waking hours working, try to make sure you're not stuck in a role that drains your energy and gives you nothing in return.</li></ul><p><strong>Second, you can reduce feeling burned out by changing how you react to stress.</strong> Even the best job will include some tough moments, and you need to have a robust mental toolkit for responding to them. Keep this advice for approaching stress in mind:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><strong>Set boundaries. </strong>You're paid to do a specific job—not to worry about that job for every second of every day. Utilize notification settings for Slack, email, and work calls to make sure that you're not getting dragged into work updates after work hours. Set up a system that works for you and don't feel bad about using it. The email can wait.</li><li><strong>Prioritize activities that give you energy,</strong> especially if your work doesn't. It's not enough to just stop working and expect energy to flood your system anew. You need to identify the things that bring you that sense of excitement and joy, whether that's cooking, reading, talking with a friend, working out, meditating, or being creative. Set up your day so that you always have time to do something just for you at the start or end of every work day.</li><li><strong>Treat yourself like you would a baby.</strong> No, not with mobiles and pacifiers but <em>yes</em> with serious commitment to your basic human needs. It's maddeningly simple: getting enough sleep, eating healthy foods, being connected to loved ones, and taking care of your brain (like via meditation and therapy) are the building blocks for a stable mental and physical state that lets you respond to stress without it taking over your life.</li></ul><p>Note that <strong>neither approach includes advice like "take a vacation."</strong></p><p>Getting a few days' respite from your problems won't make them go away, and even if two weeks off was enough to soothe your stress and re-energize you, you'll just feel depleted and burned out all over again when the vacation high has faded.</p><p>To really address burnout in your life, you need to find a healthy work environment with clear expectations, good communication with your manager and team, and fair treatment, and cultivate a personal approach to work and life that prioritizes your mental and physical wellbeing. It might seem like to fix work burnout, you have to put in even more work. That's true. You do.</p><p>But let me tell you: it is so thoroughly worth it.</p>
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September 17, 2020
Surescripts, LLC
Applying & Interviewing at Surescripts — Technical Recruiter Michelle Baker Shares Her Tips
Meet Michelle Baker, a technical recruiter at Surescripts. She shared her top tips for applying to Surescripts.
Get a behind-the-scenes look at the company's interview process, culture, and values, and learn how you can best prepare for interviews!
To learn more about Surescripts and their open roles, click here.
June 25, 2020
For Employers
How Leaders Can Support Their Black Employees
A five-step framework for addressing systematic racism at work
The world has changed in the past few weeks.
We're watching corporations and organizations across the world come out in support of Black lives in droves. Many of those organizations are doing so for the first time in their history.
<p>But supporting Black people goes beyond sharing a mission statement or putting out a press release. It requires dedicated, ongoing work and resources.</p><p>As leaders in the Diversity and Inclusion space, PowerToFly has been getting questions from business leaders on what else they can do. How can they make Black employees feel supported at work? What kind of analysis should they be doing on their own processes and policies to root out systematic racism they may be perpetuating? And how can they keep these conversations about race and racism going even after the media coverage has died down? </p><p>A few weeks ago, in my role as PowerToFly's Director of Global Diversity and Inclusion, I held a chat-and-learn two weeks ago focused on how individuals could be better allies to their Black colleagues and friends. (You can watch a recording of our conversation <a href="https://powertofly.com/career/live-chats/276535-being-an-ally-to-black-colleagues-and-peers" target="_blank">here</a> and read my summary of takeaways <a href="https://powertofly.com/career/webinars/277594-how-leaders-can-support-their-black-employees" target="_blank">here</a>.) Two weeks ago, I held another webinar, this time focused specifically on what leaders—whether CEOs, executives, HR managers, or frontline team leads—can do to support their Black employees. You can<a href="https://powertofly.com/career/webinars/277594-how-leaders-can-support-their-black-employees" target="_blank"> watch a replay</a> or read on for my summary of key points and advice on the subject. </p><p>A reminder: none of what's going on right now is a Black problem. This is an American problem and even a global problem. Black people cannot end systematic racism or white supremacy, and we need white Americans and other allies to work together to end it. We need everyone in the boat with us, rowing together, if we're to see any real change. I know that fighting for that change isn't always comfortable or easy, but it's vital that we do it. It's especially important that all of you leaders, who have seats at the table to change policy and be actively anti-racist in your organizations, do it. </p><p>Thank you for joining the fight.</p><h2>A five-step framework for addressing systematic racism at work</h2><p>Most of us were taught not to discuss race, politics, or religion at work. But times are different now, and ignoring how race and racism impact work is the wrong thing to do. It's vital to address racism in the workplace not just for your employees, but also for the general public, who are noticing which companies are speaking up for what's right and which companies aren't. It'll be increasingly important in the future for leaders to commit to this change as workers and consumers alike seek to align themselves with organizations that share their values. </p><p>To aid you as you start doing that work, here are five steps you can take to start addressing racism at the workplace.</p><h3>1. Get comfortable with having candid conversations about race.</h3><p>There's no such thing as being colorblind. Saying so is problematic. We can't address the things that need to be fixed if we don't see color. Start by acknowledging that there are certain groups of people who are treated differently or haven't had the same opportunities. Start by accepting that you don't have all (or even any) of the answers, but that you're committed to working towards them.</p><h3>2. Do regular, mandatory training on inclusivity, sensitivity, and other race-related topics.</h3><p>Most workplaces have certain courses that are required, at least for managers and leaders, like sexual harassment courses or compliance training. If you want to make it clear that race is important and that racism won't be tolerated at your workplace, you need to invest in mandatory inclusivity training.</p><p>It has to be more than just a check-the-box activity. Your approach can't be, "Oh, everybody took unconscious bias training, we're good to go."</p><p>Just like anything else in your business that you really care about, you'll need to devote money and time to actively dismantling systematic oppression. That looks like monthly or quarterly workshops, having a speaker series where you invite SMEs to take on diversity topics, and investing in a D&I leader or in a resource group and partnering with them to regularly train and educate your workforce.</p><h3>3. Address systemic issues in how you hire, pay, and promote employees.</h3><p>A Black Lives Matter press statement is necessary but not sufficient when it comes to addressing racism at your company. It's a great first step, but if you don't start addressing and making changes beyond the company values section of your website, it's all for naught.</p><p>Start by looking at your salaries. Is there equity in what you're paying Black employees compared to white employees? Don't assume that there is without taking the time to analyze the situation.</p><p>Do the same for employee promotion rates. Who is moving up into bigger management jobs—and who isn't?</p><p>Look at project allocation, too. Are the same people getting the same chances to appear and present in front of executives? Are your Black employees getting opportunities to work on stretch projects?</p><p>Once you understand where the inequities are in your business, address them. These issues have deep-rooted causes and won't go away overnight. You'll need to come up with an action plan and start working against it.</p><h3>4. Review your employee referral program.</h3><p>While employee referral programs can be great, they are often not the best way to attract diverse candidates. If you have a mostly male white workforce, then your employee referrals are going to reflect that. The majority of companies don't have diverse workforces, which warrants a closer look at how these programs are implemented.</p><p>Consider running specialized referral programs through employee resource groups for underrepresented minorities. If you have a Black or Latinx group, for instance, work with your HR or Recruiting teams to source referrals from those pools.</p><h3>5. Create executive sponsorship opportunities for Black employees.</h3><p>Sponsors can make or break a career path. They can fast-track someone to a leadership role, create opportunities, and give an employee cover to try something new. But if Black employees haven't had a chance to get in front of executives—if they aren't playing golf with them, going out to dinners and lunches with them, or working with them on high-priority projects—they won't get those benefits. Add an explicit diversity focus to current sponsorship initiatives, and if none exist, create them in partnership with ERGs.</p><h3>Tips and guidance to inform your approach</h3><p>In implementing the above five steps, you may find yourself feeling unsure or uncomfortable. That's natural, especially if discussing race is something you haven't done before. Remember that to do this work well, you need to be willing to listen and to learn. Below, I've provided answers to some community-sourced questions on how exactly to do that.</p><p><strong>How can I navigate a conversation with Black employees in a way that makes them feel supported?</strong></p><p>As business and HR leaders, you might be wired to be very solution-oriented and to want to fix things for your employees. But you can't immediately fix racism or fix an employee's experience with it at work.</p><p>When talking about race with employees, do not make it about you. If an employee is talking to you about what they're feeling or going through, you can say things like, "I'm so sorry you're going through that" or "I hate that you're feeling that way" or "I care about you." Do not say "I know what you're going through" if you don't. Do not apologize on behalf of the white race or in any other way make it about what you're feeling, whether that's guilt or frustration or anything else. Just listen.</p><p><strong>How can I—or should I—check on Black employees without disrupting their privacy?</strong></p><p>Keep in mind that Black people have been taught to assimilate and blend in as much as possible, especially at work. Being called out at work specifically for being Black is not going to be a comfortable thing for many people. Do not zero in on the one Black person on your team in a meeting, for instance, and ask them how they're doing with everything that's going on.</p><p>If you are going to do a check-in, do it in a one-on-one setting. Give your employee an opportunity to give you cues. Are they bringing up what's happening in the news? Are they sharing that they went to a protest? If not, maybe they don't want to talk about it.</p><p>If you decide to check in anyway, don't direct the conversation. Tell them that you're there to help if they want to talk and that you want to know how they're feeling. But if they don't want to engage, let it go. Remember, this is not about you and what you think you need to do to be a good or inclusive leader. This is about your Black employees and what they are feeling.</p><p><strong>How can I address colleagues who have implied or explicitly stated that they are not allies?</strong></p><p>Be conscious of your energy. There are policies to create at work. There are protests to attend in your neighborhood. There are kids to raise and jobs to do. Investing time in someone who does not care or opposes who you are or what you believe in is not good for you, so minimize those debates and focus on what you can change.</p><p>That being said, don't change your message to make people comfortable. Now is a time to take a stance. If your colleagues aren't willing to do that, it might be time to leave them behind. </p><p><strong>How can a primarily white team or organization support the Black community right now, especially if financial levers like expanding hiring aren't available?</strong></p><p>It's important to move towards creating a more equitable workplace and culture even if you don't have a Black employee on your team. It's the right thing to do. Remember that allyship is essential, and that white allies can have huge influence within organizations and communities. So start with the five steps above. If you have a budget beyond that, invest it in additional D&I training. Provide resources for doing anti-racist work in-house. Dedicate time every week in your team meeting to talk on topics relevant to the Black Lives Matter movement, whether that's defining what being an ally is, learning about systemic oppression, or brainstorming ways to get involved in your local community.</p><p><strong>How can I use levers to make sure my internal and external recruiting is as diverse as possible without being discriminatory?</strong></p><p>First of all, there's nothing discriminatory about asking for a diverse slate of candidates, whether you're asking an external recruiter or an internal team. You're not promising anyone a job based on their identity; you just want to make an effort to see a range of candidates. Hiring diversely doesn't happen by chance. You don't post a job and then just see a flood of resumes that perfectly represent all races and identities. That's called the "post and pray" approach and it's destined to fail.</p><p>If you're hiring internally, start by going to employee groups and encouraging group members to apply. Ask if they have anyone they'd recommend for the position. Make an effort to ensure that people know about open opportunities and what you're looking for.</p><p>If you have a recruiter or sourcer working with you, tell them that you want to look at a diverse pool of candidates.</p><h3>Going forward</h3><p>These are tough subjects to tackle and doing so will require sustained focus and resources. Thank you for doing this work. If there's anything we at PowerToFly can do to help as you continue down the path towards becoming an actively anti-racist organization, please feel free to reach out to me and my team at answers@powertofly.com!</p>
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September 15, 2020
Career Advice
How Viasat’s Jasmine Harvey Architects Her Own Career
Jasmine Harvey is pursuing her MBA while working full-time as a buyer for Viasat, a global communications and satellite internet company. Balancing home, work, and school while maintaining a 3.9 grade point average has been quite a challenge. Jasmine had a perfect 4.0 until she took one of the hardest classes in her program, Managerial Economics and Global, during this COVID pandemic. She finished a full 15 percentage points above the class average, but was still 0.6 points away from an "A".
<p>"I was devastated after receiving my first B," she says. "I have two more classes remaining, and I know I am going to hit this out of the park. I'm speaking into existence that I will complete my MBA with only one B."</p><p>I don't doubt that she will.</p><p>Jasmine applies that level of drive, determination, and focus to everything in her life, whether it's launching a Black Professional Alliance (BPA) chapter at Viasat's Duluth campus or advancing her career and plotting her way towards her dream job. We sat down to discuss her career journey, what it's like being a Black woman at Viasat, and how she optimizes her development at work, in the classroom, and beyond.</p><h3>From government to private industry</h3><p>Jasmine spent several years working as a purchasing specialist for the United States Army, at Fort Benning, Georgia. She enjoyed the work, but realized that her opportunities for growth were minimal, particularly since leadership positions were seldom vacated. "I became uninterested with the repetitiveness and was determined to expand my career," says Jasmine, who spruced up her LinkedIn profile and later contacted by a Viasat recruiter.</p><p>Highly impressed with the interview, Jasmine quickly accepted Viasat's offer to come on board as a Procurement Specialist. "I researched the company and saw that they received several awards for being one of the best places to work," she notes. "It appeared that Viasat is not just a place of work, but they actually care for their employees. Not to mention, I've never been employed with a company who offered tuition reimbursement."</p><p>Although her responsibilities are similar to her previous work at Fort Benning, the challenges she endured were the complete opposite. Jasmine was unknown to the satellite industry. "In the beginning, it was like being at a new school; surrounded by unfamiliar faces and learning from a new teacher. At times, I became very frustrated trying to grasp the information." Now, two and a half years into her career at Viasat, Jasmine is mentoring and answering questions from other new buyers.</p><h3>Leaning into her career development</h3><p>Jasmine knows exactly where she'd like to be in a few years: achieving the goal of being promoted into a leadership or management role at the Duluth location. She's already chasing after that goal by enrolling in Viasat's mentorship program.</p><p>Jasmine matched with Ron Rhodes, Director of Operations, who is listed as the most compatible mentor for her career goals. Jasmine is preparing for her first meeting with Ron. "I'm excited to hear about Ron's career journey and the challenges he faced along the way. Ron came on board as an Operation Program Manager and worked his way to the Director's position, and that's the typical goal for me also," says Jasmine.</p><p>Thrilled for the opportunity to obtain advice from people sitting in seats she one day hopes to occupy, Jasmine plans to select the director of purchasing, as her next mentor. "His extensive knowledge with Viasat is a perfect fit for my career guidance," she says, with poise.</p><p>Jasmine credits her success to the opportunities offered at Viasat and supporting cast. Formal programs, tuition reimbursement supporting her MBA, and the opportunity to visit Viasat headquarters for training (after which Jasmine developed a presentation to share her learnings with her team in the Duluth office) are just a few tools available to help move oneself to the next level.</p>
<p>Her coworkers have also played a critical role in her development. Jasmine says that she is grateful for Charlotte White, who has been at Viasat for over 40 years. Charlotte provides calmness, techniques, and workarounds to unique situations. "I wouldn't be in the place I am today if it wasn't for her," says Jasmine. "She often reminds me that this is not a sprint, but more like a marathon. It takes time to grow and you will never know it all," says Jasmine.</p><h3>Supporting women and minority groups at work</h3><p>When Jasmine joined Viasat, her desire was to get involved and become active throughout the organization. As a member of Viasat Women in Technology Alliance, which is an Employee Resource Group that supports women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Jasmine is continuing her goal to collaborate with peers and leadership.</p>
<p>During strains of the current pandemic, and recent world events centered around racism and police brutality, Jasmine insisted on being part of the change to make the world a better place. Deliberations amongst other employees, they created and launched a Black Professional Alliance (BPA) at Viasat's Duluth campus a few weeks ago, with the goal of creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. </p>
<p>The BPA's first meeting was a huge success! Jasmine is receiving feedback from others who also want to be involved. "BPA is not just providing opportunities for Black people, but we want to give an opportunity for everyone to have a sense of belonging within the organization." </p><p>Jasmine, <a href="https://blog.powertofly.com/how-companies-can-actually-change-2646733177.html" target="_self">like Viasat's Chief People Officer Melinda Kimbro</a>, wants the company's renewed focus on diversity to last. "Speaking about race in the workplace can be uncomfortable sometimes," she says, "but cultural diversity and inclusion must be a round clock practice within our organization."</p>
<h3>Looking forward</h3><p>You know how people get homesick when they're away for a while? Well, Jasmine says she's getting "worksick" as she continues to work from home—she misses the face-to-face interaction with her teammates and coworkers. But for now, she'll continue to keep doing what she does best—striving ahead despite the constraints of an ongoing pandemic.</p><p>"Unexpected challenges may come, but I've learned to adapt and overcome all obstacles. Confidence and inspiration give me the motivation to keep striving for excellence to make any mission a success," she says. "I've always been taught with the proper application of time and effort…anything can be achieved"</p>
<p><em>You can learn more about careers at Viasat </em><a href="https://careers.viasat.com/?_ga=2.231335449.740560624.1598298964-2034158666.1598298964" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>here</em></a><em>.</em></p><em></em>
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September 14, 2020
Career Advice
How CSL's Kristen Krebs Applies Her Psychology PhD at a Biotech Leader
If you had asked Kristen Krebs what her dream job was when she was studying for her PhD in Industrial/Organizational psychology at DePaul, she might not have known exactly what title to give, but she would've described a role within a thoughtful organization where she got to make people's work experiences more positive, build a team with talented people, and feel connected to an overall mission.
<p>As it turns out, that's exactly what she's doing right now as the Senior Director of Global Talent Development at biotechnology company CSL Behring.<br/></p><p>"It feels like a dream role in that it covers a broad range of the talent development areas I love and I get to work on a global scale," says Kristen, who didn't know much about CSL Behring when their recruiters reached out. But as she learned about CSL's commitment to saving lives and improving quality of life for people with serious rare diseases, as well as their HR group's ongoing transformation, she knew she had to accept their offer.</p><p>We sat down with Kristen to learn more about her career trajectory, how she got into Industrial/Organizational psychology in the first place, and what it's like working at CSL, including what's changed at work as the world adjusts to living in an extended pandemic.</p><h3>Finding her passion academically and in the job market </h3><p>Kristen's work in talent development would be meaningful even if she didn't have an incredibly personal connection to it—but she does.</p><p>Her dad worked on Wall Street during the 80s in a very stressful job, and Kristen connects his untimely death at the age of 47 with the demanding environment he faced at work. "I've always felt that the stress of his job had a lot to do with the tax paid on his heart," she says. "That was a critically defining moment in my life"—she was a sophomore in college at the time—"and I realized through that traumatic experience that if I could dedicate myself to increasing the satisfaction and reducing the stress people experience at work, that would probably be pretty meaningful and rewarding to me."</p><p>She majored in psychology during undergrad, and after taking a class in Industrial/Organizational psychology her senior year, Kristen realized she wanted to continue studying in that subset of the field and applied to grad school. "I/O focuses on human behavior at the individual, team, and organizational levels. That's everything from putting somebody through a hiring process and onboarding them, to motivating them and helping them improve their performance. At the team level, it involves all aspects of helping teams become high performing. At the organizational level, it focuses on areas such as company culture, organizational design and change management," she explains. "It's a super degree that trained me to think big picture and work at both the macro enterprise level and micro individual level. It's also a very versatile degree in that I could have gone into many different areas of the HR function – I just chose to specialize in Talent Management based on what I'm most passionate about."</p><p>As Kristen worked to finish her dissertation, she joined a consulting firm and worked with various clients on their management practices and employee engagement issues. She loved the diversity of problems and people she worked with, but over time the travel began wearing on her and she realized she didn't like not being able to see the long term effects of her projects. "I got sick of going into companies, making lots of recommendations and getting new things started, and then not getting to see how the changes and improvements actually played out in the company after the project was finished," she says.</p><p>Kristen knew she wanted to find an in-house role, but her particular area of consulting made it clear that she didn't want to work just anywhere. "I was doing employee engagement work so I really saw the underbelly of every organization I worked with. I knew all of their pluses and minuses. And there were really no clients that I would want to work for, except for one that stood out above all of the rest," she says.</p><p>She called that client, a joint venture pharmaceutical company that is now part of Takeda, to let them know that she was looking for a new role and asked if they had any positions she could apply for. As it turned out, they were just creating a new position focused on leadership development. Kristen went in for the interview, got it, and stayed at that company 8 years until she and her husband decided to move back to the east coast to be closer to family. She found a job leading leadership development at another pharmaceutical company and stayed for several years, taking on new roles that expanded her responsibilities globally into performance management, career development and succession planning. Although she loved the work, during that time the company was acquired and as the culture changed for the worse, she realized she needed to move on. That's right when CSL Behring came calling.</p><h3>Directing global talent through a global pandemic</h3><p>Kristen says that interviewing with CSL felt like she'd found a dream role that brought together many of the areas she is passionate about. "When I was meeting people and hearing them talk about the position, the company and CSL's strong patient focus, it really aligned to my values and the work I like to do. The organizational culture felt more familial rather than corporate," says Kristen.</p><p>The role itself, which involved leading an internal transition to create a global Talent Development team, was a perfect complement to Kristen's experience and ambition. "It was just a phenomenal opportunity to come into HR at a time when they were still building. I could really help shape what the talent development space would look like and create a global function for the organization," she says.</p><p>Kristen spent the first few years in her role shaping that transition, which officially went live in January 2020. She had just a few months to enjoy it before a whole new priority took over: preparing to transition CSL's workplace and their talent development programs into a completely virtual world.</p><p>"Our team sprang into action—we have a fantastic team across the globe who are highly collaborative and always willing to go the extra mile—and the way they handled everything when the pandemic hit was impressive," says Kristen. We quickly pulled together online resources and delivered virtual courses on timely topics such as working remotely, managing virtual teams, dealing with change and uncertainty, and emotional intelligence, to name a few. </p>
<p>We also needed to quickly convert existing training to virtual, which was relatively straightforward to redesign, she explains; they just had to figure out how to adjust their in-person programs to fit a virtual setting, and in fact had already started experimenting, pre-COVID, with ways to do that, in order to offer more scalable and flexible training opportunities and achieve better ROI. Previously, they had experienced a problem with participant cancellations when other work priorities came up that would often leave facilitators teaching to half empty classrooms. Now, explains Kristen, CSL facilitators in Switzerland, Germany, Australia, and across the U.S. offer trainings at various times for employees around the world. "This gives employees more class options to choose from and it's ultimately a better learning experience, because participants hear from each other and learn about different parts of the business, different cultures and different perspectives. It's also great for the facilitators to be exposed to that," says Kristen.</p><p>Kristen's team is also responsible for all of CSL's onboarding, but that wasn't as straightforward to transition to a virtual experience in some parts of the world, particularly in the first few days after everything shut down and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security hadn't revised the stipulations for how a new hire's legal documents needed to be handled in a virtual world. "That was a little trickier," says Kristen, smiling.</p><p>In the end, the U.S. stipulations were revised and Kristen's team was able to adapt to digital processes for now. As the return-to-office date continues to shift for CSL and many other companies, Kristen and her team have stayed agile, updating their training playbooks and creating plans for whatever future awaits.</p><p>"It's important to keep all of what's going on in perspective," says Kristen. "We will come out fine on the other side. We just have to stay focused and flexible."</p><p><em>If you're interested in learning more about CSL, visit their PowerToFly page </em><a href="https://powertofly.com/companies/csl" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>here</em></a><em>.</em></p><em></em>
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