HRTech Interview with Louise Willoughby, Chief People Officer at Beekeeper

Louise Willoughby, Chief People Officer at Beekeeper shares a few thoughts on how SaaS companies can enhance the entire candidate and HR experience in this HRtech chat:

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Hi Louise, take us through your HR journey and the biggest learnings you’ve come away with over the years?

I’ve learned valuable lessons at every stage of my HR career. I started in the hospitality industry, where I learned how to keep things calm and collaborative in a highly stressful environment. I then transitioned to tech, where I internalized many of the lessons that still guide my work today. For instance: really getting to know your employees and their needs, which was a big part of my work at CERN, the Swiss research organization. Or being sensitive to the nuances of different company cultures, a lesson I picked up while working for Iomega International as they merged with EMC. Or the importance of effective, visionary leadership—which I witnessed firsthand as head of EMEA HR at Pivotal Software. 

At Beekeeper, where I’ve worked as VP of People since 2020—leading a global HR, Talent, and Workplace Operations team—I’ve had the pleasure of putting all of these skills to work—while learning quite a few new ones. Beekeeper, of course, is all about optimizing HR, and facilitating communication between HR and employees. In a sense, this raises the pressure: if we’re going to purport to help other HR teams, ours needs to be in top shape. 

To that end, I prioritized a robust learning program, one that ensured feedback was at the center of our workplace culture. And I came to learn, through our Employee Value Proposition project, just how much employees care about working for the greater good—in our case, helping frontline workers to do everything they need to do the best possible job. This sense of purpose became a unique driver of retention at Beekeeper.

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How should modern HR leaders across the SaaS and tech marketplace revisit their core policies in view of the changing workplace dynamics globally?

In my opinion, the key workplace dynamic today revolves around purpose. Employees are no longer willing to compromise on their values; they seek a deeper alignment with the company’s mission and vision. A fancy compensation and benefits package can’t camouflage a lack of purpose or misalignment with personal values.

I think we’ve seen a broad shift in the last decade or so in how employees perceive their work: put bluntly, fewer and fewer people are simply in it for a paycheck. People want to feel—want to know—that their work is meaningful, that it is contributing to the greater good. And they are less likely than ever to compromise on those values. Accordingly, I think people are seeking out companies whose mission and vision align with their own. Fancy compensation and benefits packages still have their appeal, of course, but more and more often we’re seeing people willing to take a pay cut to advance a mission that matters to them. 

What are some of the top challenges that plague modern CHROs and Chief People Officers, in your view?

In a frontline context, the problems here are manifold. Part of it stems from a simple lack of contact: frontline workers often work miles from company HQ, encountering HR personnel only rarely. Accordingly, CHROs and Chief People Officers can lack an intimate sense of just how their employees are thinking and feeling. Dissatisfaction can build and build, with CHROs being none the wiser—until a wave of resignations triggers generalized panic.

In my opinion, this speaks to the importance of anticipating and understanding employee needs long before these problems can spiral out of control. HR personnel need an active, daily grasp on how their workforce is feeling, in a macro sense as well as on an employee-to-employee level. They need to be able to chart these kinds of sentiment shifts, and keep a close ear to what is happening on the ground. Doing so allows for the kinds of quick, targeted interventions that can spare employers a lot of trouble down the line.

How can HR leaders in SaaS create better employee journeys and experiences that meet evolving workplace trends more seamlessly?

The first step here, I think, is to really internalize that each employee really is on a journey with your company—and that every stage of this journey counts. Whether it’s onboarding, day-to-day work, or even offboarding, your employee’s interactions with HR at each stage of the employee lifecycle can have an outsized impact on their job performance and satisfaction-levels, as well as your company’s’ future recruitment efforts. This is a two-way relationship, and the only way to sustain it is through close, meaningful contact.

To that end, recurring pulse surveys can be tremendously helpful: simple questionnaires that employees can easily fill out on their phones. Surveys like these allow employers to continuously monitor workplace sentiment in real-time: they lend a fluidity to the process that is very difficult to achieve through other means. With pulse surveys, instead of allowing negative sentiment to build up in silence over time, leaders can generate rapid insights into potential sore points and take instant action to adapt strategies and foster a more responsive culture.

Take us through some of the HRTech you’ve often relied on to drive HR workflows and processes?

I’ll say I’ve come a long way since Kenexa, which was one of the first systems I used—reliable, yes, but very clunky and not remotely intuitive, at least when I was using it. But in the HRTech space it is, of course, all about finding a balance. Workday, for instance, was revolutionary when it came to managing things like benefits—but it was harder for our HR team to set up in an optimal way.

BambooHR is perfectly adapted for the needs of small-medium sized companies, but lacks advanced reporting capabilities. In general, though, I’ve had excellent experiences using Greenhouse (to streamline the hiring process); Zendesk (for managing HR-related queries and support tickets); and Trello and Jira (for tracking and managing HR projects).

Can you share a few thoughts on the use of AI across HR and how modern HRTech as a landscape is being redefined by advances in AI?

Some have floated the idea that AI will replace HR personnel. This is, of course, laughable—because HR is all about people. But AI does show significant potential in enhancing the daily work lives of HR professionals, in a number of ways. First, of course, there is the time freed up by AI automating repetitive tasks—allowing HR teams to focus more on big-picture strategic and value-adding activities. Then, of course, there is the tremendous potential AI has already shown in helping HR personnel get a clearer grasp on the state of their workforce. Those pulse surveys mentioned earlier, for instance: AI can process these and present HR teams with easily-digestible reports tracking sentiment trends and overall team morale, and identifying potential sources of concern.

In general, I believe it’s important not to approach this technology with fear—instead embracing the potential it has to benefit all of us. Right now AI is holding out the potential for increased employee face-time and more personalized employee interactions—and that can only be a good thing.

Five thoughts on the future of HR and HRtech before we wrap up?

I have been working in HR for a long time now, and can confidently say this is one of the most exciting periods I’ve witnessed—attitudes, conventions, and daily practices are all in flux, with emerging technologies opening new vistas of possibility for the field at large. If I had to summarize where I think things are heading, I’d emphasize five main points:

• Purpose-Driven Workplaces: Employees are increasingly seeking alignment between their personal values and the company’s mission. HR leaders must prioritize creating and communicating a strong sense of purpose to attract and retain top talent.

• AI Integration: Sensible use of AI can revolutionize HR by automating repetitive tasks, freeing up HR teams to focus on strategic initiatives. The key is to utilize AI to enhance, not replace, human interaction, providing employees with more meaningful engagement and support.

• Continuous Feedback and Real-Time Data: Implementing pulse surveys and real-time feedback mechanisms will become standard practice. These tools allow HR leaders to monitor workplace trends, drive motivation, and quickly adapt to evolving employee needs.

• Flexible and Inclusive Work Environments: The future of work is flexible. HR policies must support remote and hybrid work models, promoting inclusivity and ensuring that all employees feel connected and valued, regardless of their location.

• Mental Health & Wellbeing: The focus on mental health and well-being must go beyond providing tools and placing the onus on employees to build resilience. It’s time for leaders to step up and take accountability for creating sustainable workloads and detecting potential burnout early. HR leaders should shape work environments that support mental health proactively, ensuring a balanced and supportive atmosphere for all employees.

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