Get Reworked Podcast: An Inside Look at WWT's Award-Winning Employee Experiences
In this episode of Get Reworked, World Wide Technology's executive vice president of global human resources, Ann Marr shares lessons learned delivering award-winning employee experiences over her 25-year career with the company. Ann was the recipient of Reworked's 2022 Employee Experience of the Year award.
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"I've been such an advocate of parents who work to make sure that there's a balance there. And that pendulum can swing, maybe, you know, if you're working on a really important project, you maybe have to spend a lot more time at the office. But on the same pendulum, maybe you have a sick kid, or maybe you have a kid who's in a sporting event and you want to see them compete in a sporting event, you have to balance that," said Ann.
Highlights of the conversation include:
- What it takes to create a consistent employee experience across 15 locations around the world.
- How WWT approaches onboarding.
- Where career development fits in WWT's employee experience.
- What to do to ensure employees remain engaged.
- How supporting employees who are caregivers pays off for everyone in the long run.
Plus, host Siobhan Fagan talks with Ann about how employees can gauge if an employer is a good fit for them, where supplier diversity fits into the company's EX strategy and how she feels on her 25th anniversary at the company. Listen in for more.
Have a suggestion, comment or topic for a future episode? Send it to [email protected].
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Show Notes
Episode Transcript
Note: This transcript has been edited for space and clarity
Ann Marr: I want to walk into an office, all over the world, and I walk in and I feel like yes, this is World Wide Technology. Because we have made an effort to make sure that we're all a part of the culture, the organization, we all own it, we all have to make sure we embrace that culture. And that's what I want to feel and I want to believe in and I want to experience when I walk into any location.
Siobhan Fagan: That was Ann Marr, Ann is the VP of global human resources at technology services provider World Wide Technology (WWT), and more importantly for our conversation today, Ann is the winner of the Reworked IMPACT Employee Experience Leader of the Year Award for 2022, which makes her our second ever winner.
In her role at WWT, Ann oversees all human resources functions, including talent management, policy development, benefits, administration, training, leadership, development and employee relations, as well as managing the company's supplier diversity program.
I am so excited to bring her on to talk about the efforts that she's doing for employee experience at World Wide.
So let's Get Reworked.
Siobhan: Welcome to the podcast Ann.
Ann: Thank you. It's so great to be here. Really appreciate it.
Employee Experience Starts by Rolling out the Red Carpet
Siobhan: So we're here today to talk about the work that you're doing World Wide Technology and employee experience. And I was hoping that we could just start with sort of a base question, which is, how does WWT approach employee experience? How do you view it?
Ann: You know, that is the most important thing when you think about the employee experience. And when people are coming to your organization, or even before that, when they are anticipating joining your organization. It's all about rolling out the red carpet and really making them understand our culture, our values, our core values, and really their job and how that is so important and how that fits into everything that we do as an organization.
But the experience starts with, also, your leader, and making sure that you have the tools and the skills that you can be successful in your job. I mean, that's a really important thing as well, and connecting to the company, connecting to the team, connecting to what's bigger than all of us. And it's the mission and vision of the organization.
Siobhan: That's a great point. So I'm wondering at what point in the employees journey with WWT, when do you start connecting them to that vision?
Ann: We start immediately, when we are going through the interview process, we make sure that the individuals understand the company's mission vision core values, as well as our leadership philosophy, our IML, which is our Integrated Management and Leadership Program, which is steeped in so many things within the organization.
But we also want them to understand the impact of the culture of the company, and our core values. And that starts immediately, we talk about that in the interview process. We want to make sure that when we are bringing people on board to the organization, that it's a fit for them as much as a fit for us.
It's a two way street. And I've always said that about recruiting when you are looking to join an organization. Yes, they're evaluating you and your skills and your experience and what you can bring to the job, but you should be doing the same thing. Does it fit with your personal goals and aspirations?
So that's the engagement, the engagement works both ways. And that's really impactful.
Building Global Employee Experiences Starts With Core Values, Core Culture
Siobhan: That absolutely makes sense. So when you look at these parts, I mean, we've already touched a little bit about the onboarding.
But when you look at all of these different time periods in an employee's journey with a company and specifically in the case of WWT, what do you view as sort of the foundations of employee experience? What different elements do you have to have in place to create this wonderful experience for your employees?
Ann: Well, I think you know, really, for us, it starts with the core values, it really really does, it starts with understanding the impact that the core values have on every employee within the organization. So I think just connecting to that, and understanding you know, the other thing I say every job in this organization is important from a VP to an accountant to someone who works in our integration lab or the warehouse. And I think if you can make people understand, really that vision and how they can impact the outcome of the business, but yet, that engagement that they have, and the importance that they play within the organization.
You know, it's like connecting all that together, makes that robust employee experience. And I tell you, if there's anyone who knows how to do it, I think we do, because we've had a lot of success in that over the years. And when you think about the landscape of how things have changed over the last couple years, with COVID and a lot of emphasis now on either virtual work or hybrid work, that becomes even more important, really does, you have to really lean in to make sure that you are engaging with employees, even though they're not always physically in the office.
Siobhan: So I love that you raise all the different employees who you are working for, for all intents and purposes. WWT is a global organization, you have locations in six different countries, you have over 8,000 employees.
So how do you establish that great employee experience across the board, while still sort of recognizing and being respectful of different local and regional differences?
Ann: Yeah, you know, and that is a challenge. And it's 15 locations all over the globe. And this is what we tell employees, it's, and again, like I said, it starts with the culture. But it's not just me, it's everyone else who is a part of evangelizing that culture, because it's important to us as an organization, but it can't just stay with me or our CEO, you know, we have to all be a part of that.
And wherever you are in the world, you have to believe that that culture is going to exist, if it's in St. Louis, if it's in DC, if it's in, I was just in Singapore a few weeks ago, I want to walk into an office, all over the world. And I walk in, and I feel like yes, this is World Wide Technology. Because we have made an effort to make sure that we're all a part of the culture, the organization, we all own it, we all have to make sure we embrace that culture. And that's what I want to feel. And I want to believe and I want to experience when I walk into any location.
And someone, when I was in Singapore recently, and I walked into the facility, one of the managers said, so Ann if you close your eyes, and then you open your eyes, what do you see, I said I see World Wide Technology. I said, I'm in a different country, in a different city. But the vibe is the same. You know, I feel the culture, I feel the teamwork and the camaraderie, I feel employees engaged with each other, engaged in the mission. We're just in a different country.
And he said, that's exactly what I wanted you to say. And I said it just for the time I may have, I didn't even know what he was going to ask me. But that's how dynamic it is for us. And that's what employees want to feel. They want to feel that I don't have to be in St. Louis to experience the culture and really be engaged, I can be anywhere in the world.
And that is so very powerful. And that's what people want to be a part of. They want to be a part of something that's bigger than themselves, but they also want to feel like they're impacting it. And that's what we're doing.
Doing Employee Experience Before It Was Called Employee Experience
Siobhan: Can I ask how long has this been a focus for you? I mean, employee experience as a study, as a practice is relatively new, human resources, people operations that's been around for a while. So when would you say the focus on employee experience at WWT started?
Ann: Well, I think it's always been a focus for us. Maybe we didn't call it an employee experience, like I think a lot of people do now. But we've always known that engaged employees, as we were growing the organization, was really going to help us scale as a company.
Siobhan: And can you give a few examples of what you do to maintain employee engagement?
Because obviously, when somebody starts, you've got the red carpet rolled out, people are excited. It's the first day at work. And then inevitably, no matter how wonderful a company is, there's going to hit a point where it's a little bit of a lull, what sort of efforts do you do, what kind of outreach or what kind of programs do you have in place to keep that engagement up?
Ann: Yeah, we do, obviously, like a lot of other companies do we do an orientation and on-boarding for all new employees, but then You know, after someone's with a company for a period of time, at least 90 days, we invite them back. And we do we call it, the pathway. And it's another deep dive in the culture, and it's a day-and-a-half. And we get executives to facilitate these sessions. And we talk about the business, we talk about how the company started, just a little bit of a historical perspective of the company, and then we focus a lot on our core values, sort of what that means to us as an organization, then we look at from the company in terms of the growth of the company and, and where we were, where we're going, what other initiatives we have.
And then we continue to look at from a company perspective, how are you impacting what you're doing? Keep in mind, this is people from all over the company would be in a session like this, we try to keep it somewhat manageable in terms of size. But we have people all over the world that could be an a session like this, and we could have our president of our company talking about the culture of the company, we can have our VP of business development, talking about some of the initiatives that we're doing. So that is very impactful, because we get out of that, employee said, wow, you know, I had executive that spent time with us for a day-and-a-half, just talking about the impact that I can make on the company, based on me being here and what I can do as much as what the company can do. That's really powerful.
And then we have great programs for people based on what you want to do, we have accelerated training, we have, if someone wants to go in a leadership track, we have a program called Aspire so they can explore whether or not they want to be a leader within the organization. But then we also have kind of foundational things that we want our employees to be exposed to things about your job, a lot of on the job training that they'll do.
But we also have other ways in which employees can continue to learn about the company. And that's a big thing. Because you know, we're, we're a technology company, and things change pretty fast. But we want to make sure that they are grounded in all the things that we have to offer as an organization.
But I tell you that pathway, after they've been with the company, maybe three to six months, and they come back, because we make them wait a little bit of time, so that we don't overwhelm individuals with some of the things that they're going to be exposed to. It's really powerful.
Siobhan: I'm glad that you brought up that you're a technology company, because obviously the technology that you provide your employees is going to be a very important part of their experience. And the fact that they are then interacting with customers. And being proponents of technology is obviously like you want to provide a great experience.
So can you talk a little bit about how you work with your partners in IT to deliver that digital employee experience.
Ann: Yeah, and that's a really important thing, you know, that digital experience, the digital workplace, and the digital workforce, and workspace. And we saw that with COVID. And we were a company that really took advantage of that. Because when you think about the criticality of business, and when everyone went COVID, some companies did it well, and other companies didn't.
We felt like we really did it well, not only because we're a technology company, but we really invested in things to help our employees become successful as they work virtual. If it's comprised of applications, or platforms or tools that employees can use to interact with each other on their daily job, some of the solutions to ensure that they have the flexibility to access some of our applications that they need to use to do their jobs.
So that digital workplace for us was really, really important through COVID. But it was something we had already invested in. So for us, it was, you know, it was still an adjustment like it was for a lot of other companies. But I guess because we started to invest in a digital workplace early on, we knew the importance of that, and we knew that it was going to help us as our employees went virtual.
And now even though we're back pretty much to the office, employees have done a hybrid approach. So they still have access to a lot of those tools. We want them to come in, you know, a couple of days a week to get solidified with the teams, but they do have access to that digital workspace, which makes their job so much more robust and easier because of that technology.
Siobhan: I'm curious, I know that you've been with WWT for quite a few years.
Ann: Twenty-five years tomorrow.
Siobhan: Twenty-five years? Happy anniversary!
Ann: It's very exciting, 25 years, that's a milestone.
I Will Run Through a Brick Wall for You
Siobhan: That is, that's huge. So congratulations on that milestone. I am curious, because clearly they are doing something right. You've been with them for 25 years, you're talking about all of the different employee engagement efforts that you've been doing.
Have you ever had an employee experience before you started at WWT that was negative? And did you learn from that, so that you could take it to your next job?
Ann: Oh, certainly, oh my gosh, certainly many experiences that were not so great that I learned and I brought to my job.
And you know, the one thing about those experiences, and I've told my team this, you learn from those negative experiences, or you learn from the mistakes that you made.
And so when you have the opportunity to change things, you reach back and the lessons that you learned and pull those forward, as you move forward.
Siobhan: Can you share one of those lessons?
Ann: Well, you know, when I was, I worked for several other companies, and I don't to name the companies but one of the companies that I worked for was not very favorable in terms of working mothers. And if you had a sick child, you couldn't say you had a sick child, you hade to call in and you know, I'm coughing, I'm not feeling good, because they just didn't support women who worked and had children.
So I have been such an advocate of making sure that working mothers have ample opportunities that everyone else has, and what are we doing to help support the mothers, or fathers really, either one, because it was a challenge, it was stressful, you know, you get torn, you feel pulled one way or the other, you have your job, you have your family. And you really never felt like you were doing any of those really well because of the stress and the strain. And you couldn't really openly say, hey, I need to support my family right now, or I need a support my job right now.
So I've been such an advocate of parents who work to make sure that there's a balance there. And that pendulum can swing, maybe, you know, if you're working on a really important project, you maybe have to spend a lot more time at the office. But on the same pendulum, maybe you have a sick kid, or maybe you have a kid who's in a sporting event and you want to, you want to see them compete in a sporting event, you have to balance that. And that's what I made sure I wanted to bring to the next company I worked at, to balance that, what do we need to do to support our employees, because, you know, they're gonna support us when we need them, we need to support them when they need to be supported.
Learning Opportunities
And I have always been such an advocate of that, because it it alleviates the stress, right, on the individual. But it also makes you appreciate the fact that the company is supporting you. And that issue is like a weight that lifts off you.
You talk about engagement, when you get that kind of support, I will run through a brick wall for you. Because I know you're going to do the same for me when I need to spend time with my family or if I have a personal emergency. So for me, that was huge.
Siobhan: It's amazing how motivating those negative experiences can be when you figure out the lesson from it. So thank you for sharing that.
I'm curious listening to you, what somebody can do who's potentially looking for a new job or transitioning into a new role, like, can you share any kind of signs that they can look for, to identify that the company is going to be the kind who will run through a brick wall for them?
Ann: Yeah. Well, you know, it's what I said earlier, it's both ways, as they're evaluating you and whether or not your skills and your experience and the culture is a fit for the organization. You should be doing the same thing. You should research the company you should understand what their values are, you should understand who are the leaders in the organization? You know, what's the tenure of some of the leadership in the organization? How have they handled certain policies or practices, what have they done to advance their own businesses and look at the longevity of the company?
There's so many things you should look at. Sometimes people don't realize that and they jump to an organization and I've heard people say this before, you know, I've jumped to this organization I'm gonna get paid so much money and they neglect to look at the company and see whether or not is this the kind of company, I want to work for these the kind of people that I want to be associated with? Will they help me from a professional perspective? Are they going to support me from a personal perspective? What is the company's mission? What are they doing? What's their success? And all those things are really, really important.
And I know people who maybe neglected to look at that, because they were motivated by something else. And I would say grass is not always greener, and they've gone to make these moves, and then they've regretted it. And they either want to come back, or they know they can't, because wow I got this huge, big increase, and now I kind of got myself increased, so high out of a market of maybe another job.
So you got to look at the whole picture of things, you know, you really do have to do your research, but talk to people, you know, we have people that we've hired. And when we do some of these orientations or the pathway, they've said, I go out and I look on Glassdoor, I want to see what the ratings are in the company, I want to see what employees say about the organization.
Now, sometimes you got to take that with a grain of salt. But for the most part, what is the rating for the CEO? How is he respected and thought of in in the industry? Some people really do. And we've heard that a lot that people go out on Twitter and read the Twitter feeds for some of the leaders within the organization. So there are ways to find out whether or not you think that company would be a fit for you. And you would align with their values and the mission and what your role would be, and how that would interact in the outcome of the company. And that's what you need to do. I mean, you know, it's a two way street. And you have to really look at that.
And I'm a result of that, I've been with the company for 25 years. And before I joined the company, I mean, it was a little different back then you didn't have as much access as you have now. But I still talk to people that I knew knew some people at the company just to get an idea of the leadership team. And what were they doing? And how were they motivating people? What were they doing? So it's possible? And I think that's what you really should do before you think about either leaving your current company, or going to a new company, if you're starting a new search?
Siobhan: No, that absolutely makes sense.
Embrace Diversity of People and Thoughts
Siobhan: So I love that you are so passionate about so many different aspects of your job. And I know that one area that you are particularly passionate about is diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
So I was hoping that you could talk a little bit about how organizations can best support DEI. And I know that in your case, you actually are part of a supplier diversity efforts there.
So where are the areas that businesses can really focus on to move their diversity, equity and inclusion efforts forward?
Ann: Part of our core values, it says, embrace diversity of people and a thought.
So think about that. It's not just how people look, it's how people think, because that's as much diversity. You know, sometimes people I always use the iceberg principle, sometimes they look at how you look, you know, gender, race, ethnicity, but you got to go deeper than that.
Think about all the other characteristics of an individual, you know, your communication style, your experience, your background, your education. There's so many things below that surface. And I think companies are starting to realize, that's very impactful.
And those DEI initiatives provide such diverse outcomes, diverse experiences, you think about a diverse team is going to just be more dynamic, interactive and they're going to result in a better outcome.
You got all these different things going for all these different experiences, all these different cultures that are providing input to an outcome. And I'm thrilled when I see companies. I mean, we've done it for many years, but embracing diversity of not just people, diversity of thought, and that's really as important it together it's very powerful.
And for us, it's it's creating a culture of inclusion. You can have all the diversity initiatives you want. But if you really don't feel like you're being inclusive of individuals, then it's going to start and stop. You have to really embrace someone's differences.
I remember one time we hired an individual, a Black female, and she was great. And she came on the company. And after she was with a company for a couple of months, and I saw her and she looked at me she says I had my braids now, I said, oh, great. She says, you know, when I was interviewing with the company, I straightened my hair because I wasn't sure what the culture of the company was. But after I started, I realized I can be my authentic self. And she says, that was so powerful for me, that I felt after I was with a company for a couple months, I was looking around, and people were being who they are, the company was not stifling who I am, and they embraced me, not just how I look, they embrace my ideas, my thought and I felt included. And that is really, really powerful.
And we use the same kind of concept when we think about supplier diversity. You know, we're the largest minority owned company, it was always important for us to reach back, and help other small women and minority owned businesses, reach back and pull forward. Because we, you we started out as an ad company, and we worked with lots of customers when we were small, and they gave us great opportunities, but they also gave us some great insights and guidance. So that's what we want to do with some of these small women and minority owned businesses, you're helping them grow and develop their own companies, giving them coaching and mentoring and making them understand it's important to invest in technology, and is important to have a good financial wherewithal to make sure you hire the right people. Helping them get to where we feel we were at one time, the company is now 32 years old, but we had ups and downs, you know, along the way.
And so those types of things are important to us, not just from an employee perspective, which is huge, creating that, really attracting the very best diverse talent and keeping them but also taking the responsibility to help other small women and minority owned businesses.
Siobhan: There's this idea that when you create corporate culture, that it is often sort of cookie cutter, and everybody has to be the same. And you're arguing for the strength of the culture that you've built at WWT, through all of the diverse thought and the diversity that you have brought into the company. And I'm hoping that you could just speak briefly to any company who believes that diversity cannot equal a strong corporate culture.
Ann: I would have to say it is really paramount to really creating the right culture for your organization.
I mean, that diversity allows different thinking, different outcomes that you're going to have based on those different teams.
It's very dynamic, in terms of we have people all over the world. So understanding someone's culture, and really respecting someone's culture, even celebrating someone else's culture, you know, is really important to us as an organization. We just had, we have a lot of employees from India, and we just celebrated Diwali, because that was an important cultural celebration for our teams, we're looking now forward to other events that are coming up.
I mean, so the diversity of cultures, the diversity of thought, having people that are not all from the same background, and who didn't have the same experiences.
The other thing we've done is, you know, we hire a lot of people from out of college, and we have a great college internship program. But we also have programs that we are looking outside of the box, multiple pathways to get to World Wide.
Think about technology. And not everyone is college bound, but that doesn't mean that they don't have skills and experiences to bring to World Wide. That's diversity. When you think about, we hire people from the military, we hire people that have gone to trade schools, we hire individuals that have gone through other technology programs, EmPower is one of them that we use, and all those different experiences. And all those different ways to come to World Wide are really robust, and they just bring so much energy and enthusiasm and a different way of looking at things.
I always tell my team look at things from a different lens, that's looking from a different lens, not staying true to the traditional way, thinking outside the box a little bit, because you're diversifying your workforce in ways that are going to be so much more, the outcome is going to be so much more robust. And you're going to have people that are so loyal to the company because of the opportunities that they've had, that some companies may not offer them.
You know, I know companies like this, you know, they're very strict on, you know, hiring people from certain schools or from certain disciplines. But you know, I know in some cases, maybe that's good, but really thinking out of the box, and really thinking about someone's skills and what they can bring to the table. That's what we're always looking for, multiple pathways to success.
Siobhan: Well, and I have to say that it has been a pleasure speaking with you, you talk about the energy and enthusiasm that the people who you hire bring in, but I think that you are leading by example. So thank you so much for joining me.
Ann: You know, it's just passion for what I've done for the last, gosh, many, many years, and just so privileged to work at a company like World Wide Technology for the last 25 years, it has been just the pinnacle of my career. And it's been to just see the people that we've brought on board. And when you see that, and you see people fly like a rocket, and you see how you've impacted the success of the company. And, you know, we still have a long way to go. We always say that, but it's really exciting. And it's humbling, but it makes you really proud to be a part of this organization.
Siobhan: Well Ann, if people want to find out a little bit more about you, if they want to see your thoughts online, is there a good place for them to find you?
Ann: They can find me on Twitter, I'm on Twitter, they can certainly reach out to me on LinkedIn, I'm on LinkedIn as well. So if anybody has any questions, or they'd like to contact me, I would be happy to spend some time with them.
Siobhan: Wonderful. And what is your Twitter handle?
Ann: It is @AnnCuiellette.
Siobhan: Perfect. We will have it in the show notes. But thank you again Ann, thank you for sharing your enthusiasm and your energy with our audience.
Ann: Thank you so much. Look forward to talking to you next time.
Siobhan: If you have a suggestion or a topic for a future conversation, I'm all ears. Please drop me a line at [email protected]. Additionally, if you liked what you heard, post a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you may be listening. Please share Get Reworked with anyone you think might benefit from these types of conversations. Find us at reworked.co. And finally, follow us at Get Reworked on Twitter as well. Thank you again for exploring the revolution of work with me, and I'll see you next time.
About the Author
Siobhan is the editor in chief of Reworked, the premier publication covering the r/evolution of work published by Simpler Media Group, Inc. Siobhan leads the site's content strategy, with a focus on the transformation of the workplace.
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