Epoch hosted a Happy Hour focused on employee and workplace experience, featuring a panel discussion with industry experts. Moderated by Keith, Epoch's COO and Co-founder, the panel included insights from Staci, Director of Employee Experience at Bluebeam, and Farida, Senior Internal Communications Manager at HashiCorp.
Staci is the Director of Employee Experience at Bluebeam, a software company that provides tools for project management, collaboration and markups specifically designed for the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries. With over 600 employees, Bluebeam has six office hubs around the world and operates with a flexible work environment. Leading the charge in creating engaging and supportive experiences, Staci leverages her diverse background in non-profit management and HR to foster an inclusive, healthy, diverse and engaging culture that values mental health, professional development, and collaboration.
Farida is the People Communications Lead at HashiCorp, a remote-first tech company with over 2,300 global employees across the Americas, EMEA, and APJ. Supporting the Chief People Officer, she focuses on internal communications and employee experience, ensuring that HashiCorp’s employees feel connected, engaged, and valued. Farida brings her extensive experience in teaching and communications to the forefront, guiding HashiCorp through change management and promoting an inclusive, remote-oriented culture.
The conversation opened with a discussion about how both Staci and Farida's companies have adapted to the changing landscape of remote and hybrid work. Staci shared that Bluebeam largely operates in a flexible environment, with around 50% of their employees working remotely post-COVID. Bluebeam is continuously adapting its engagement initiatives to accommodate this shift. For instance, Staci highlighted that the company offers well-being challenges, virtual talent shows, and leadership summits to maintain a sense of community and engagement among employees, regardless of location. These initiatives aim to foster a supportive culture that prioritizes mental health, professional development, and collaboration.
Farida echoed this sentiment, explaining how HashiCorp also prioritizes maintaining a connected culture despite being spread out. One of the programs introduced at HashiCorp is the Global Meet-Up Program, which encourages employees to gather in co-working spaces in their cities. Employees can book these spaces through an app and even expense lunch to incentivize participation. By combining in-person and virtual events, HashiCorp fosters a sense of community while respecting individual preferences for remote work.
Both speakers touched on the challenges of managing change within their organizations. Staci mentioned that Bluebeam recently experienced significant shifts, such as a new CEO and a company acquisition, leading to a need for strong change management strategies. To support employees through these transitions, Bluebeam offers coaching and training around leading through change, helping employees build resilience and adaptability in uncertain times.
Farida shared a similar experience, as she joined HashiCorp shortly before they announced that they were undergoing an acquisition. This brought about a great deal of uncertainty, but Farida emphasized the importance of consistent internal communication to help employees navigate the change. By focusing on messaging that reinforces their company culture, values, and global community, HashiCorp has been able to maintain a sense of stability. Farida believes that leaning into internal communications and employee experience programs has been vital in helping employees feel connected and supported during these times.
When discussing how they measure the success of their engagement programs, both Staci and Farida agreed on the importance of regular feedback. At Bluebeam, Staci mentioned that they use a combination of annual engagement surveys, mini pulses, and employee lifecycle surveys to gauge the effectiveness of their initiatives. One particularly interesting method they recently employed was asking employees an open-ended question about what makes a "great place to work," allowing the company to align its engagement strategies with employee expectations.
Similarly, Farida emphasized the value of pulse surveys and informal feedback mechanisms to capture real-time insights. At HashiCorp, they track participation rates, survey responses, and water cooler conversations to assess the success of their programs. Both speakers stressed that feedback is an ongoing process that requires consistent attention to ensure employee needs are met.
Staci highlighted that at Bluebeam, they’ve seen success in combining both virtual and in-person engagement activities. For instance, while remote work has been normalized, they still hold connection events at local offices. However, she noted that it's harder to get people to come into the office post-COVID. They’re working on initiatives to bridge this gap, aiming for a balance between flexibility and fostering in-person connections.
Farida shared how HashiCorp embraces their remote-oriented culture by hosting regular team offsites. This helps maintain a strong company culture and provides opportunities for employees to meet face-to-face. Additionally, they’ve found that incentivizing in-person meetups by offering to cover lunch expenses has been an effective way to encourage participation.
Both speakers agreed on the crucial role of top-down support in fostering an engaging employee experience. Staci emphasized the significance of having buy-in from leadership to elevate the employee experience to the same level of importance as customer experience. She highlighted that Bluebeam’s Chief People Officer has a seat at the executive table, ensuring that employee experience is prioritized alongside other business goals.
Farida also stressed that internal communications should come from senior leaders to be truly impactful. At HashiCorp, they ensure that communication around engagement programs is driven by executives, which helps reinforce the importance of these initiatives. When employees see their leaders actively participating, it encourages them to engage more fully.
As the session wrapped up, both Staci and Farida shared their excitement for the future. Staci is looking forward to the opportunities that come with harmonizing Bluebeam’s practices with their parent company, while Farida is eager to see the return of HashiCorp’s "Season of Connection" program, a Slack campaign where employees receive $100 to spend on an activity that helps them connect with their community or loved ones. This program fosters organic connections and brings a sense of joy and engagement to the workplace during the holiday season.
Use Epoch to plan your employee events and programs, then track analytics on how the events went! Epoch is an employee engagement platform used by people teams at Salesforce, Reddit, and more. Epoch supports any internal event that needs email, Slack announcements and reminders, calendaring, and reporting. On top of impactful engagement and feedback analytics, Epoch provides a simple way to communicate and promote events to your workforce, helping events reach employees where they prefer to receive messages.
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