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Building Culture That Lasts (Part 1): Monique Jackson on DEI, Engagement & Community at Gusto
10 Plays1 month ago
In this episode of MustardHub Voices: Behind the Build, Curtis talks with Monique Jackson, Senior Director of People at Gusto, about building an engaged, inclusive, and connected workforce at scale. Monique shares how her path from accounting to people strategy fueled her passion for culture and community, and dives into initiatives like Gusto’s Total Rewards Survey, Community Building Framework, and Affinity Group Summit. From creating micro-moments that matter to tying engagement directly to business outcomes, she offers practical, scalable ways to align culture with impact and turn employees into your strongest brand ambassadors.
About Monique:
Monique Jackson is a senior people strategist with over a decade of experience leading inclusive, cross-functional programs at scale. As a Senior Director of People at Gusto, she oversees DEI, benefits, and engagement strategy for 3,000+ employees, aligning culture with business impact. Her work includes launching Gusto’s Total Rewards survey, Community Building framework, and the Affinity Group Summit to improve retention and engagement. Previously, she led global ERG strategy and workplace experience at WeWork, supporting culture transformation across the Tri-State region. Monique holds an MBA from the University of Florida, a B.S. in Accounting from Rutgers, and multiple certifications in DEI and intercultural development.
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Transcript
Introduction to Mustard Hub Voices and Guest
00:00:06
Speaker
everyone, welcome again to Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. In these fireside chats, we speak with the people building, backing, and running better workplaces. I'm your host, Curtis Forbes.
00:00:18
Speaker
My guest today is Monique Jackson.
Monique Jackson's Role at Gusto
00:00:21
Speaker
Monique is a senior people strategist with over a decade of experience leading inclusive, cross-functional programs at scale.
00:00:31
Speaker
As a senior director of people at Gusto, she oversees DEI benefits, an engagement strategy for 3,000 plus employees, aligning culture with business impact,
00:00:43
Speaker
Her work includes launching Gusto's Total Rewards Survey, Community Building Framework, and the Affinity Group Summit to improve retention and engagement.
00:00:55
Speaker
Previously, she led global ERG strategy and workplace experience at WeWork, supporting culture transformation across the tri-state region,
00:01:06
Speaker
Monique holds an MBA from the University of Florida, Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Rutgers, and multiple certifications in DEI and intercultural development.
00:01:17
Speaker
Welcome to Behind the Build, Monique. I have really, really been looking forward to our conversation today. Hi, Curtis. Thank you so much for ah having me today. It's always interesting when you hear someone else talk about you. You're like, oh yeah, I think that's what I do, and then that's where I've been.
00:01:36
Speaker
Well, it's always funny reading somebody's ah bio and thinking, gosh, i i wish i had I wish I had all that experience.
Disney's Influence on Employee Engagement
00:01:45
Speaker
so you you are a Disney adult and hold the Disney's approach to employee engagement certification.
00:01:55
Speaker
I have been dying to know before I get into other things. Yes. What is that? Yes. So, well, why am what is it a Disney adult or what is the certificate? Or you want me to tell you a little bit about both? Okay.
00:02:08
Speaker
So a Disney adult are adults that still go to Disney, right? People that don't have children, but you are going to see them um at the parks. They're going to have annual passes. They're going to be there for all the fit the official um additional events, the after dark, the Mickey's not so spooky Halloween party. So That is me. I am a Disney adult. No one usually goes to the park with me under the age of 18. And we love it. It is so fun.
00:02:36
Speaker
So layering onto that, being a Disney adult, one of the things that I've always admired um about Disney is the internal and external way in which they build experience. ah So this certificate is part of the Disney Learning Institute, where you actually get not only some tangible and tactical approaches to enhancing the employee experience, but you actually see behind the scenes how they do it, how they think about that, and how they've actually had to do it differently time over time.
00:03:05
Speaker
um So getting that certificate, I was able to actually do it with my entire team. um And we were able to really dive in and learn. That's really, really cool. So um I was at Disneyland a couple of months ago with my little girls. I am a big fan of Disney.
00:03:21
Speaker
um And when I get to see it through their eyes, it makes me even a bigger fan. i I'm actually not even sure the last time I saw a movie that wasn't animated.
00:03:34
Speaker
same Life. ah Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's life sometimes. Before we dig in um you know, to some more specific things about, ah about, about Gusto, let's talk about where you work.
00:03:47
Speaker
What is Gusto? Let's describe it to everybody who's, who's listening.
Gusto's Mission for Entrepreneurs
00:03:51
Speaker
Yeah, so how I always describe that, so it's the one-stop solution for an entrepreneur.
00:03:58
Speaker
And the reason I say entrepreneur, it's because if it's just you or you have a small team, right, are we focus on small and medium businesses and take away all of the the headaches, the hassles, those things that can sometimes be very time-consuming so you can focus on what matters, which is your product, whether that be tangible or that be a service.
00:04:17
Speaker
You can spend your time there growing your business and And some of those administrative woes and frustrations we're able to remove for you. Um, I can definitely say it's the truth.
00:04:29
Speaker
I did run other businesses before we did use Gusto. So that is 100% truth. So tell me a little bit about the kinds of clients and customers that work with Gusto, you know, beyond making sure people get paid.
00:04:45
Speaker
um you know, what are they trying to achieve? What problems are they trying to solve for these entrepreneurs? Yeah. so I think that one of the parts that I really appreciate and attracted me even to Gusto is that all in one solution. So, yes, payroll seems like the easiest thing, but there are are other things that are important to running a business, such as engaging with your team.
00:05:07
Speaker
performance management, ah some of those more, also I'll say compliance issues. So when we think about the type of trainings you need to take, when you have people in different states, those the type of steps that Gusto is able to help you manage, um whether that's integrating with one of the platforms that Gusto has available ah for you, but it's all in one place.
00:05:28
Speaker
And then I think the the favorite thing for most of our, what we call Gustomers is we have Penny, ah So Penny is this little pig. It's our mascot, for lack of a better way of explaining it, that bounces across the screen, whether they you sometimes maybe you're having a problem or when you're getting paid. But it's just a friendly reminder that there's people behind the platform. So ah in addition to, yes, those the platforms and the resources that you have, you also have access to gusties.
00:05:56
Speaker
You have access to people. um So we always want to make sure that there is that technical solution, that self-serve model. But when you do need someone, we also make sure that there's someone there for you.
00:06:09
Speaker
it it um Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this, but it just dawned on me because I saw that little piggy there. Every time I logged in it's like a piggy bank. you call i didn't know that the piggy's name was Penny, and it's all sort of coming together with me for me right now. I'm having a little bit of moment.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah. I think, you know, those are the I will tell you, so I obviously work a lot with our employees, um but part of that is also getting to meet a lot of our customers. And whenever we say meeting a customer in the wild and and the pig comes up and we're like, her name is Penny.
00:06:48
Speaker
and we tell them, they're like, oh my goodness. And it just connects them in a whole different way to the platform. And I think that that, those are those little moments where that are really meaningful, whether it's you know your internal customer or your external customer that you want to you want to make happen as frequent as possible.
00:07:05
Speaker
that's a That's so funny that it just hit me. Well, all right. So back to you. yes you are You are all about culture, community, engagement, equity, inclusion.
00:07:16
Speaker
And you have had this focus across your whole career. Where did your passion for these important values, i mean, where did they come from? How did how did these guide your career path?
00:07:27
Speaker
You know, it's interesting, Curtis, because it took me a while into my career to actually remember where it originated. um So as you shared, my background is in accounting. And most people, when they think about accountants, they're not thinking that they're people people.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:48
Speaker
they's still the visor with the beam counter that's somewhere happening um but ah part of my career as i was pursuing my and nba i actually started working a nonprofit And part of that, you know, I'm in operations, I'm in that space, but because I was at the YMCA at the time and part of our engagement survey for our members is as leaders, we were responsible for coming up with initiatives.
00:08:14
Speaker
And during my time there, i came up with an initiative for um high school students in the community in which we served, in which it was actually an extension of their high school learning where they would get additional credits,
00:08:28
Speaker
And it actually helped a lot of students graduate. It was sometimes that little thing that got them over the curve. um And that was my first time when I look back on my career where I really tapped into that skill set.
00:08:39
Speaker
I tapped into what it meant to build community, what it meant to understand a community, build a culture around it and make impact. And from there, there's a little moments within my time, whether the title said it or not, where those were always important parts of how I showed up.
00:08:55
Speaker
Whether that was building a community or strengthening it or defining what impact I wanted to see and being a part of making it happen. So I would say that would be the moment where like the light bulb probably turned on from a more tangible way of showing up in my career.
00:09:12
Speaker
That's really neat. Did, did ah just out of curiosity, those initiatives, did they did they survive after you left the organization? do you know? They did for a couple of years. They did. And when I went, I moved to another association, another city, did a different iteration. um But love that question, right? Because you can always do things once, right? But does it scale? Does it stay? um Does it iterate? Otherwise, you know, it's just a distant memory.
Developing Engagement Strategies
00:09:38
Speaker
So as as, you know, senior director of people at Gusto, you play this this leading role in enhancing like the overall employee experience there, which is, you know pretty pretty tall order.
00:09:51
Speaker
How does one even think to begin to make a successful strategic employee engagement and experience happen?
00:10:04
Speaker
Yeah, I think for me, what's really important is understanding who the client is or the customer. So Gusto, like a lot of companies, we have hourly and salaried populations.
00:10:18
Speaker
I think that that in and of itself, knowing the landscape was really important because experience is different for everyone. So first, understanding the population that you're serving. Next is understanding what's working.
00:10:30
Speaker
Where do you see moments of inspiration? Where do you see people gathering? um Where do you see people getting excited? ah And then fortunately enough, I'm at a mission-based company.
00:10:43
Speaker
So I know that our mission in supporting small and medium businesses is important and resonates with most of our employees. So understanding those elements first,
00:10:54
Speaker
was important in in being able to just get something on paper. I think that the next step is being honest about what you can and cannot do. A lot of times when you're trying to improve an employee experience, you want to do all of these things.
00:11:10
Speaker
You want to spend all of this money and whether people realize it or not, that's not actually what often gets people excited. It's it's not the the the blowout you know bash that you have.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah, maybe that gets some people excited, but it's usually more so those micro communities that you're actually able to build. So being that I have um experience in the DEI space, I understand how much community means.
00:11:37
Speaker
And community spans, that word spans so many different things, whether that's race and ethnicity, where you grew up, you know, you like to ride a Peloton bike, whatever it is.
00:11:48
Speaker
Community can mean different things to different people. So getting a pulse on those communities and then figuring out those micro moments. And then what are those staple moments that we want to create?
00:12:00
Speaker
I love a good theme. As I shared, I'm a Disney adult. So I love anything that is going to rally people around something where you can thematically have it flow throughout the year. And it could also be my, you know, I danced for a really long time. So theater is a part of how I think about things.
00:12:17
Speaker
um So yeah, it's understanding your audience and then figuring out those small moments. And then what are those big moments you want to create? And you have to remember that employee experience is the side of the business that spends the money.
00:12:32
Speaker
We help our employees help the business make money. But at the end of the day on the P&L, we are not a revenue generating part of the business. So that leadership buy-in connection and engagement is gonna be, I would say that that last thing, Curtis, that's gonna be extremely important for you to even start to chip away at building an employee experience for it to be scalable and strategic.
00:12:59
Speaker
And the last and one of the prior organizations that that i that i worked with and ran, we called it internal member marketing. So you know oftentimes it's this kind of experience, right, is ah is is a cost center.
00:13:13
Speaker
um you know And there's a lot of schools of thought out there that you know innovation and marketing are really the only two things that drive ah the drive revenue. um But as an organization, we still have to market to our own members, to our own employees. um you know and And in a lot of different ways, this this you know potentially could be one of those one of those ways. um You have to get that leadership by and so they understand that this is something that will translate into um into revenue, right? Because yeah those employees are the people who are doing your selling or doing your marketing or doing your product development, right? Who are creating all of that innovation. Yeah.
00:13:53
Speaker
So 100% agree with that. yeah A lot of people forget, you know, there's a lot of different quotes and studies around employee engagement and the more engaged your employees are, right?
00:14:06
Speaker
The higher retention, but the higher sales numbers are. They are your marketers. They are your walking billboards. So if they are not happy... It will come through and your numbers. So I think that, you know, it may not be as direct one-to-one as folks are used to seeing when you're thinking about ah r ROI. But if you actually take a step back, you can you can see the correlation of highly engaged teams, what they're able to produce um on the revenue side of the house. Oh, 100%.
00:14:32
Speaker
hundred percent Oh, i mean... Without a doubt. So you've also been involved in some really interesting, you know, and exciting initiatives at Gusto. and And I want to know more about these. Like, for example, I want to know about the total rewards survey, right? We talk a lot about total rewards here at Mustard Hub and how organizations can you know build ah an effective total reward strategy. We're also all about data and metrics. I guess I'm really curious, like what kind of things did you set out to measure in that survey? And can you share any of the more interesting insights that kind of came out of that?
00:15:11
Speaker
Well, I think one of the interesting parts of my role is I have the internal benefits part of total rewards. But as everyone knows, there's other parts of total rewards. There's compensation, there's equity.
00:15:22
Speaker
So I will start by saying that even with this type of initiative driving it, that collaboration of getting alignment on it being an understanding that all of these things together actually make up a total rewards package.
00:15:34
Speaker
any of them standing alone don't really matter. It's really a person understanding their full package. And because it was something that we were doing for the first time, And this is where, you know, Curtis, I try to be honest with myself. i try to be honest with stakeholders.
00:15:49
Speaker
We're just trying to get that baseline introductory information. Oftentimes when people are doing surveys of any type, they're asking questions to get data across different things. How much someone likes something, they don't like something.
00:16:03
Speaker
But a lot of times they can't do anything about it. So you're actually setting yourself up for failure by asking people for all their opinions about all of these different things. And you're actually going to do nothing with that information. Right. And then you you start to build the muscle within your organization where people don't want to be honest.
00:16:19
Speaker
For what? Why am I giving you feedback? You're not going to do anything with it. So and thinking about it through a three year strategy, the first year was really like, what is the general sentiment? of what we're currently offering. How does that measure up, right? This is the data that we do have access to is benchmarking data, right? What is what does good quote unquote look like out there comparative to the an organization of our size, our tenure, our industry?
00:16:45
Speaker
So really understanding how our populations feel about what we currently offer. How does that measure up to those, you know, our competitors, right? Often we'll talk about what percentile of talent we want to attract or retain.
00:17:01
Speaker
Well, what are those other companies that they're looking at? What are their packages look like? The other piece that was really important, and we talked about this a little bit before, is we have different types of populations.
00:17:12
Speaker
Yeah. So when we think about how you analyze this data, for me, what was really important is that exempt versus non-exempt population. There's millions of cuts that we could have taken, but that was very important because of the distribution of those populations, as well as when we think about how we may externally market from an attraction perspective.
00:17:35
Speaker
Are we telling everyone about unlimited time off? and that being a benefit, but not everyone actually gets to experience it when you join, right? So I think that those are the type of pieces where gathering from a sentiment perspective, how we measure it from benchmarks perspective, and what are some of those low hanging fruits that we can do something about? So taking that example, for instance,
00:17:59
Speaker
Understanding that, and this is not unique to Gusto, um but for most organizations, what's important to your salary population from a total rewards perspective and what's important from your hourly is very different.
00:18:13
Speaker
just by nature of the roles, the industries that they're in. But now that we have that, how do we then, from a programmatic perspective, build in such a way that our language speaks to both populations?
Insights from Total Rewards Survey
00:18:24
Speaker
How do we ensure that the touch points and answers that we're providing actually are answering what folks are looking for? And I think that that really set us up for the long-term implementation of a survey of this type, where we did not set ourselves up of saying, hey, we want to...
00:18:40
Speaker
you know We want everyone to be extremely happy. right When we do an NPS type of question, um they would recommend these benefits and we want to you know have only promoters.
00:18:52
Speaker
Yeah, that's not going to necessarily set us up realistically. But year one was really building on that sentiment, understanding programmatically what is those low hanging fruits with things that we already know we're going to be doing or changing that we can implement right away.
00:19:05
Speaker
And then as we continue to build on the surveys and years two and year three, leaning into asking questions that we actually can do something about. Yeah. That's great. There's even going to be audiences for some organizations that include contractors, which is maybe a whole other set of you know things to consider. Yeah. yeah And I think if what i' what I've learned um is there's a lot of great information out there. right Someone may listen to this conversation and other conversations that you've you've had and say, oh my goodness, I'm going to do that.
00:19:43
Speaker
But they never ask where they work and what they're trying to accomplish and what's important to their organization. And if you don't ask those type of questions, or even you go from organization to another organization and you just take what you did and you don't apply the new organization to that thought process, you could be setting yourself up to not be, we'll use the word successful, right? Or be, make an impact I'll say.
00:20:08
Speaker
um So I think it's really important to, before you even get started, because and data is one of those things you can make it tell the story you want it to. Yeah, this is true. So if you're doing it for data sake, there's a lot of data out there that's very easy to capture.
00:20:24
Speaker
But what's the purpose it's serving? I think that those are some of those questions that, you know,
00:20:31
Speaker
speed, right, or or or iterating and and continuing to just get things across the line, you could be missing some really critical steps in the beginning by asking some of those questions where going to have to go back and do it again.
00:20:43
Speaker
So spending some time there, I think, is really important before you think about gathering any type of data so you're not doing a survey just for survey's sake. like that. And I think that that, you know, it kind of touches on something that I like to even discuss later about the data that you're collecting and and um you know, if you find that that people are, well, we can get into that a little bit later, but I think that it really, it makes a really good point that data for data's sake, right. Isn't necessarily, you know, it's not, it's not great because we can, you know, we, it can, it can shape whatever narrative we want to, we want to tell.
00:21:19
Speaker
Right. So I think that you make a really great point there. Now you are also part of um a real integral part of building the community building framework. what what ah What is that? if I mean, if you can tell me. And why was that why was that created? What yeah problems was that designed to solve?
00:21:36
Speaker
So I think um community, and we we talked a little bit about this, is such a broad word. But community in other companies, it may be called culture. In some companies, it could even be called DEI, right? Or belonging or inclusion.
00:21:51
Speaker
um Community was really the way of how do we connect our gusties or our employees, no matter where they're located through what, how do we do that? How do we bring people together? Right. Whether that be in person, whether that be virtually, um whether that be a hybrid approach, how do we get people connected?
00:22:11
Speaker
We're not different from any in the other organization of hiring remotely during the pandemic. So you have people everywhere. Yeah. And there's, schools of thought that if you're not in person, you can't be productive, you can't build community. And then there's schools of thought that are like, it doesn't matter. Right. But there, there is a,
00:22:33
Speaker
specific middle ground there, right? Some people do need in person, some people don't need it, but as an organization, you have to be consistent about everyone having an equitable experience.
00:22:44
Speaker
Not equal, not one for one, just because you do a pizza party in the office, you can't send everyone a personal pan pizza, right? And I think it's difficult for people to translate you know, that equity piece. um So the community building framework was first starting out with how do we want people to feel? And I know that's a, you know, controversial word in the workplace. And I don't mean feel like joy every day walking into the office, but feel in regards to what ah what is the reaction you want to have to different moments that you create for your employees.
00:23:17
Speaker
um So through that, the community built framework is What is that feeling? And then how do we create it in different spaces, whether that be in the office, whether that be in a specific hub or city, whether that be through an intersectional group, such as our affinity groups, or on the company-wide level?
00:23:37
Speaker
So really understanding and building out how frequently we want that to be and what would be those metrics that we would be measuring against. Now, this is where data for data's sake, um being mindful of if you do have a recurring employee engagement survey, which which we do, when you have the ability to access it through those intersections, you can see If you're in Orlando, for instance, how those employees are engaged compared to the company overall and really looking for parity. So first building out that framework of how often, what are the feelings we want to achieve?
00:24:15
Speaker
How do we make sure that everyone has a point or an ability to connect and then measuring that against the baseline or the benchmarks that we've created for the company? So for us, what that looks like is yearly, my my team and I, which...
00:24:29
Speaker
They're amazing. We're a small but mighty little squad.
Building Community at Gusto
00:24:32
Speaker
um Come up with the theme and then interweave that theme into not only those moments for our employees, but company moments.
00:24:40
Speaker
Because again, we talked about that leadership buy-in. where where's you know if you're doing something at the leadership level, how do they feel connected? If you're going to a city, how do leaders get connected to that?
00:24:51
Speaker
So making sure that there's a balance of those feel-good, fun things, um but that there's also a tie back to some of those business moments as well built into community.
00:25:04
Speaker
I love that. And, you know, there definitely there's different challenges when you bring that to a sizable workforce, you know, when you're working with 3,000 plus employees versus ah you know, small business of 50 to 100 or even fewer than that, right? So, you know, I would imagine that these questions that you're talking about asking yourself when you're sort of, you know, at that jumping off point, um really sort of influence, I guess, how you go about Applying all these, all these things.
00:25:36
Speaker
I would say too, I think um one, one time I had someone ask me ah what, what stage do you need to make culture or community ah thing?
00:25:51
Speaker
And what was your answer? um yeah what Do you have an idea? Maybe I'll say, do you think you have an idea of what I may have said, or do you have an idea of like what stage at a company you may want to do that?
00:26:05
Speaker
You know, I can say that that as a founder myself, right, um you know, I think that in small organizations, well, first of all, in any size organization, right, um you know, your leadership really does kind of set the tone, right? But culture also grows from the middle.
00:26:21
Speaker
um You know, I think that, you know, as a leader as at an organization, right, you know, no matter how big they are,
00:26:32
Speaker
you're going to want your values, I think, instilled, or you're going to want to see those values that that you have, right, instilled in those people with whom you're working.
00:26:43
Speaker
And sometimes I think the how ah person might deliberately go and hire somebody, you know, according to certain values, right, or the culture that they're looking to build it changes really, you know, as an organization of one, when you're hiring that next person, right. Or if you're building a startup or if you're running a small business and you bring on one person, i think inherent in how you, um,
00:27:13
Speaker
maybe work with that person through their interview process, right? There are so many things that are so personal um and maybe there's less process put towards that culture building.
00:27:26
Speaker
um It's a little bit filed back ah in in in the brain because there's so many things I think as either a small business owner or as a founder you're focused on. And as the organization grows, I think when is when it becomes more front and center, because I think then leaders start to see the fractures, right? And so it becomes a response to the way that they see that culture growing from the middle, right? If you're not deliberately building the culture that you want, it will create itself. And you might not like that.
00:27:58
Speaker
So, you know, i'm i'm I'm sort of thinking through my answer, but it's a reason why I think at early stages of business, whether you're running a small business with only a few people, whether you're a startup founder that's bringing on, you know, each marginal employee, you know, very, very, hopefully slowly, you know,
00:28:17
Speaker
um there's So there are considerations, right, that you should be mindful of as you're bringing bringing people on um at at the early stage. You know, that way you're not just having to play catch up, right, and having to implement these things as a response to what you see growing within your organization.
00:28:34
Speaker
I don't know if that's the right answer. You could probably tell me. No, I mean, I agree. So this is what I will say. i love that you said this. if If you don't build it, someone it will be built.
00:28:46
Speaker
And you may like it and you may not like it. I think it really is around a founder understanding their true span of control. Of influence.
00:28:56
Speaker
And for me, what I have seen is once an organization gets between, I would say 500 to 1000 is where they need to explore that there's someone that's actually paying attention to what culture is being built.
00:29:11
Speaker
And the reason I say that is usually that's also the space when you're going to start to, I'll say, grow up. You're going to want build processes. You're going to want to build programs. You're going to want to build in a very thoughtful way.
00:29:25
Speaker
And if you have not, if you don't have someone saying, hey, how are we embedding our culture, our principles, our values into these programs, then that's when you start having programs that just don't align.
00:29:40
Speaker
And then you hyper growth and then you're 2000 people and then you're 3000 people. And then you're so far yeah that you start to pull things away and it makes people confused.
00:29:50
Speaker
There's almost like a shock, right? Those people that have been there with you from the beginning, you have the ability to spend time and as a founder maybe be in in every interview and do meetings and do all of these things, but you can't do that forever.
00:30:04
Speaker
So that's why i always say, right, you you build it from the beginning, but are usually around that 500 to by a thousand people. It doesn't have to be like one person that's just your head of culture, but there there should be someone that has that part of their scope, their responsibilities.
00:30:21
Speaker
you You made a really good point about as a founder or a business owner or really, you know, in that leadership position, what your really, um you know, that that that span of of of influence, right?
00:30:37
Speaker
For example, in a small business, bringing on one person, the next person, you know a dozen people, you have such a strong influence on every person. You can have those daily connections daily connections with with people.
00:30:50
Speaker
And at a small business, you know we're talking location-based small businesses and things like that. you know the business owner is going to be able to have that opportunity for regular daily interactions with all of their staff, from their frontline workers right to their general managers and leadership.
00:31:10
Speaker
And that you know that influence extends to everybody. Sometimes you know two dozen, three dozen, 50, even 100 people, you have an opportunity to engage with them directly in a variety of different ways. When you get to that level you're talking about,
00:31:24
Speaker
you are pretty removed now from so many of the folks that your influence is somewhat mitigated to the a lot of those frontline folks. And so there have to be some kind of of processes in place. And so i I really like that as sort of a litmus to help a leader understand when they need to start implementing some know more processes and systems, I guess, to address some of those things so it just doesn't get out of hand.
00:31:52
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, it's it's all about the intentionality, right? Just like anything else in a business. What do you want your sales numbers to look like? What do you want your customer growth to look like? That is another thing that you have to be just as intentional about. And I think what often gets folks caught up is,
00:32:09
Speaker
You know, when you're in a couple of hundreds, you can get everyone together. Yeah. Yeah, you can fly everyone out and it feels great, but you're not going to be able to replicate that. So that goes back to the, how do you want people to feel? So you want to feel, you want people to feel connected. How do you replicate that feeling versus the exact event or the moment? So I think that that's one of the the pieces when you start to really think about scale, you have to start, you're not building for today. You're actually building for,
00:32:39
Speaker
a thousand more employees. You're building for five years from now. And if you start building your programs with that thought at that thousand person mark, you won't be necessarily playing catch up.
00:32:50
Speaker
You've already started building for that end versus the thousand people you have right now, which I think is just more of a mind shift um but when you're starting to build and plan.
00:33:03
Speaker
I think it would be really helpful for you to share a little bit about the affinity group summit.
Affinity Group Summit at Gusto
00:33:10
Speaker
The concept affinity groups might be new to some of the audience. So if you can share what these are and what the way they look like at Gusto, that would be awesome.
00:33:20
Speaker
Sure. So affinity groups can also be referred to as business resource groups, employee resource groups, employee community groups. Gusto, we refer to them as affinity groups. So we have nine um with within Gusto.
00:33:34
Speaker
And they are probably similar to what you've seen at other companies. I'm going to be counting on my fingers because I always want to make sure I don't miss anything. So we have 40 plus, we have Asians with gusto, we have awareness of visible and invisible disabilities, which is also AVID, Black with gusto, families with gusto, juntos con gusto, pride with gusto, military with gusto, women with gusto.
00:34:02
Speaker
So groups that you normally would see and in some form or fashion at companies and our affinity groups, just like most companies, they had very organic roots, um you know, employed, built and driven for quite a while. So um a part of my tenure, um being able to absorb them as part of, you know, what I do and I have a ah great affinity group program manager, what we really identified is,
00:34:31
Speaker
going back to anything that's not revenue generating has to be tied to the business, right? What was the impact or what were we really looking to achieve with our affinity group program?
00:34:43
Speaker
And one of the things that we know is often folks that take on additional responsibilities, these are volunteer opportunities, they are usually your leaders of the future.
00:34:55
Speaker
So if we actually start to think of this program as a place where folks are actually building their skills, both soft and hard skills, how do we build and reframe the program in that way?
00:35:07
Speaker
So we have had had affinity group summits that were virtual, um really focused on building community and the what you would may mainly see in, I would say, most affinity group or ERG programs where it's tied to how are you supporting your, you know, the people in your group?
00:35:26
Speaker
um How are you coming together? But knowing that we really wanted to lean into leadership, we and also knew that bringing folks together was an important part of elevating the program.
00:35:38
Speaker
So we can talk all the time about people going in the office, but what's really important or what we talk about in this phrase many people may use are moments that matter.
00:35:49
Speaker
And a summit is a moment that matters. And to really elevate that experience is to bring those folks together. um So in the first in-person, not only was it in ah a way of these, a lot of these employees who had been with the company for a number of years actually had never been to one of our offices.
00:36:08
Speaker
Really? Just by staying, right? Like you get hired remotely at a company. How often are teams really, right? Like if you're not a senior level employee, you're not traveling, right? So a lot of them, this is their first time they met members of their team.
00:36:26
Speaker
But then it was a very intentional three-day agenda with a daily theme, external speakers. Now, could myself and my affinity group program manager lead the sessions? Of course.
00:36:38
Speaker
But to elevate, the value of it was to bring in external folks, right, that are experts, they're SMEs in their space, to talk through everything from actually leading your affinity group program to other soft skills such as um public speaking or leveraging the skills that you are gaining while leading an affinity group into your day-to-day role.
00:37:03
Speaker
And, again, making sure that we're being considerate and conscious of our employee population. Every morning there was a three-hour work block so that if we had our hourly folks, they were still able to do their daily responsibilities for the three hours in the morning. Now, for our salaried folks, you know, they have a little bit more flexibility on what, you know, what their manager may be okay with.
00:37:25
Speaker
um But it it was really the thoughtfulness of elevating the program to become more of a leadership experience. And as we're planning, we'll be having our next one in this coming August.
00:37:36
Speaker
um Again, how do we bring that up one more level? Right. Consistency for scale is very important to me. My team hears me say it all the time. But having that framework allows us to challenge ourselves on what's missing.
00:37:52
Speaker
What is the gap we're looking to fill and how does it tie back what's the priority and the focus of the business and high performing teams and leadership? and just like most companies right now, ai all of those things are on the tip of everyone's tongue. And it's something that if you don't learn how to do, you'll be left behind.
00:38:12
Speaker
So how do we make sure that that's being built into this upcoming summit as well? So really just elevating that, the program intention and purpose. i um I love that. I feel like I have so many questions now. well i mean How does one within the organization join an affinity group?
00:38:32
Speaker
So, and I will tell you, Curtis, this is one of those things that I'll say and my, the field with my peers is a, what do you say debated question so for us joining simply means you join the slack channel you involve and you engage in the monthly events that may be had the programming that may be had during a heritage month that's what it means and and the reason we take that approach is community and how people engage in community looks different to everyone
00:39:09
Speaker
Right. Some people want to be active. Some people want to be in the conversation. Some people just want to sit back and observe. It's like a family barbecue.
00:39:20
Speaker
everybody's not doing everything all at the same time. You have the kids that might be in this room. Then you have the parents that are here. You have some people cooking. Everyone wants to play their own role as the part of their community, but they want to know that they're able to join. And that's open to people that identify or are allies or want to just learn.
00:39:39
Speaker
So we don't put too many, um, I'll say roadblocks from someone joining or not joining, but the best way for us to track ah the engagement of those or who's an active participant, Slack is our main medium of communicating with these communities, and then we have events, tracking that participation. so There's some great formulas out there that have been created by the ERG Homegirl that allow you to measure engagement in a really thoughtful way for Slack.
00:40:11
Speaker
And then obviously for event attendance and then looking again, employee engagement survey. When we think about filters or we think about how we're allowed to, we can look at different intersections, being able to use some of that tapping into that DEI space of understanding also community belonging value mean different things to different communities.
00:40:32
Speaker
So are we actually tapping into that um through the way that we're doing our program for a different groups? Wow. And do you bring everybody, where is the home office? So we have a couple of them in the U S we have one in Denver, New York, San Francisco, and Arizona.
00:40:49
Speaker
And then we have a space in Canada. So we don't have like a, I'll say our largest is in Denver. um But we don't have one that's like, Hey, this is our headquarters.
00:41:02
Speaker
um That's not the approach, which actually makes it easier too. When we think about building community engagement, because it's more so where you are um and how you're able to engage people. And so for this upcoming this upcoming summit this year, give us an idea. What are what are some of the general aims you know and and results that we're looking to to see?
Themes and Outcomes of the Summit
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. So this particular summit, oh my goodness, and my AG program, and they're like, how did you not remember? Hold on. I'll remember. um or last year, if we want to use that as a new camera. Oh my goodness. I can't remember the... Oh, purpose?
00:41:36
Speaker
Action impact is the theme. And hopefully I put them in the right order. But this was the actual year theme. Again, I told you I'm a very thematic type of person. And that's how we try to move with our programs. But that was the theme that um our AG program manager, like we really honed in on.
00:41:52
Speaker
So each day is going to take our leads through that purpose, understanding your purpose, tying that purpose to the organization, tying that purpose to um your current role.
00:42:05
Speaker
The next day is around action. What do you do with that? You got your purpose. You know what that is. How do you act? It's great to have an idea. It's great to know who you are, but how do you put it to action? And then how do you get impact and how do you measure that?
00:42:19
Speaker
So that's what the three days are going to be about. And we have a mix of internal and external speakers. One of the my favorite sessions, and selfishly, it's because i I got to lead it last year and hopefully she'll listen to this and let me lead it again this year. But um it really is.
00:42:35
Speaker
tying our affinity group program to our company OKRs. How do they see themselves and what's important to the company?
00:42:46
Speaker
um And that is that's up to us as program owners, right? My affinity group program owner having OKRs of her own. Me as a leader of our, you know, of our of the teams having OKRs and then that subsequently rolling up into the people team and subsequently rolling up into the organization.
00:43:03
Speaker
But how do i make sure that they're able to see that so that they're also, when we think about leadership, they can speak to how what they are doing is actually impacting the organization. So. Really, that through line, I think, is one of it was the first time we did it when we did the in-person session last year. And it was one of the favorites of the attendees. So it's something that we again, we talked about some of those earmarked questions you need to ask or think about when you're building any program being mission based. How do you tie people back to the mission in everything you do?
00:43:36
Speaker
I think that those are the type of questions that um myself, my team, we constantly challenge ourselves on to make sure that the programs that we're building, yeah, they may feel good, but what's the impact?
00:43:48
Speaker
What are we actually really trying to achieve and how do we tie it back to the larger vision and purpose? I love that. um I have... So much that we need to get to This has been perfect to set the stage maybe for round two when we when we get back together because I want to talk about leadership. I want to talk about you know what you see not even really just in in in gusto and the organization that you you work in right now, but even prior ones or with a lot of the customers, right? Some general things that you see about business owners, you know, what works, what doesn't work, right? What's going to set people up for some success and where do you see a lot of pitfalls? I want to talk also a little bit about technology and how people are leveraging those things to make better decisions, but also,
00:44:41
Speaker
you know, when, when it gets in the way, when it gets in the way, uh, because it does right. When it gets in the way of being human. yeah Um, and, uh, and I want to talk a lot about maybe, um,
00:44:54
Speaker
or I should say I want to take an opportunity to look towards the future, right? and um And talk a little bit about maybe what leaders should know for what's coming, maybe what some leaders are doing now that might need to change and what are some things that we're doing now that we need to make sure we keep doing, right? um You know, in the days ahead as...
00:45:15
Speaker
AI takes over the world and you know everything else that we have to look forward to. So um you have to come back. Okay.
00:45:26
Speaker
and and talk with us again. this has been This has been really incredible, Monique. I mean, I know that just in this short time where we talked a lot about your background and what you've done at Gusto and what you're doing at Gusto and how you're creating such an impact there has been um has been really incredible to learn all those things, you know? And I think it's something that you know everybody really needs to ah to hear and to listen to. And so I can't wait to kind of take that to our next conversation.
00:45:51
Speaker
No, I appreciate it. and I will say two things. One, those topics so that that the will be for round two are are great ones. um They are interesting ones. They are ones where I will just give everyone the little headline now. i am not ah on the front lines of ai but I have learned how to make it work because it is important. So I don't want to be left behind.
00:46:15
Speaker
um So if anyone's out there like, oh no, here we go again, believe me, I've been there. can help you figure out how to make it work for you. And then no, it has been great. And I just would be, I wouldn't be me if um I didn't make sure to say that i'm I've been privileged. I have a small but mighty team.
00:46:32
Speaker
um to help support me with these 3000 employees. So Kevin, Kane, Laurentia, Rhi, and Ivan, they are amazing. um So I just want to make sure that, you know, people know that it would be easy for me to talk about all of these great things and and not acknowledge how important they are to help make these things happen. So that small but mighty team supports all 3000 of our Gusties in all the ways. So i'm I'm also very thankful to have them as a part of my squad.
00:47:01
Speaker
I love that. We'll have to make sure that we tag them on social media. So thanks ah thanks for for tuning into Mustard Hub Voices Behind the Build. um This is episode one with Monique. So please like, share this episode, subscribe while you're at it. Be sure to visit mustardhub.com to learn how we help companies become destinations for workplace happiness and turn culture into a competitive edge. Until next time.