In Tech Culture Club, a new podcast from GrepBeat sponsored by Vaco, HR leaders from the Research Triangle in North Carolina discuss their approaches to maintaining high-performing workplace culture. In the first episode, host Melissa Phillippi, CEO of software startup WorkDove, spoke with Hilary Lerner, SVP of People and Culture at Teamworks.
As two leaders in the Triangle’s tech industry, Phillippi and Lerner touched on a number of timely topics during the inaugural episode of the Tech Culture Club podcast.
Listen to the full episode today:
The importance of authenticity during recruiting
Lerner emphasized Teamworks’ commitment to authenticity during the recruiting process, as well as in branding and messaging on their website and on social platforms like LinkedIn.
“The fact is you are going to attract people who are going to love and perform well and stay at your company if you’re projecting who you truly are,” Lerner said.
“We are a very high-performing, fast-moving, innovative, intense culture. We operate like a sports team. And when we’re interviewing people, we make sure they know that. If we’re talking to a candidate who wants a slower pace…they might not be happy with us. And that’s okay,” she said. (9:25)
Tackling the insider-outsider mentality after an acquisition
Having gone through two acquisitions with Teamworks over the past two years, Lerner is acutely aware of some of the culture clashes that can occur when two separate teams are suddenly working together as a single unit.
“When we acquired both INFLCR and Notemeal, they were both much smaller. They were where Teamworks was after just a few years, and so there’s even just that ‘we’re a tiny startup’ mentality versus ‘we’re a hundred plus people’. You have to be really intentional,” Lerner said. (23:00)
Predictive indexes as a tool for effective recruiting and employee self-awareness
In a segment about how she approaches inner-office conflicts, Lerner pointed to the use of predictive index behavioral assessments. Learner noted that every candidate who interviews with Teamworks completes a PI assessment, so that when they join the company, they’re coming in with a completed toolkit that can function as a communication resource in the face of conflicts or misunderstandings. (28:40)
Attracting and retaining top talent amid the new employee experience landscape
Phillippi and Lerner also touched on how important it is for companies to adjust their recruiting and retention strategies for the post-pandemic work world. Lerner pointed out that the realities of the pandemic introduced a dramatic shift in what matters to the foundation of organizations: their people.
“The employee experience has become redefined because it is much more employee-centric now than for companies that used to be in limited locations and were workplace-centric,” Lerner said.
Lerner divulged just a few ways Teamworks has adjusted their own employee experience strategy since the onset of the pandemic: higher salaries and benefits, better flexibility, and an innovative employee referral program. (33:30)
Check out the Tech Culture Club podcast below:
Listen to new episodes of Tech Culture Club every week. Episodes premiere on Tuesdays on Grepbeat. You can also listen wherever you get your podcasts.
Teamworks is a Durham-based software company that provides athlete engagement tools for more than 5,000 elite athletic organizations around the globe. Most recently, the company acquired athlete branding app INFLCR and athlete nutrition platform Notemeal.
WorkDove, formerly Performance Culture, is a cloud-based performance and talent management software company headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.
