HRTech Interview with Jeanne Leasure, Chief People Officer at OpenX

Jeanne Leasure, Chief People Officer at OpenX shares more about workplace trends impacting the SaaS ecosystem and what the modern workforce looks for from Chief People Officers in this HRTech Series Interview:

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Hi Jeanne, what’s the best part of being a Chief People Officer in today’s modern SaaS workplace set up?

In my experience, the Chief People Officer is not just an HR leader — they’re a business strategist who ensures that people, culture, and leadership align to drive the company’s long-term vision. From the very beginning of my time here, I’ve felt that OpenX holds a real competitive advantage through its people and culture. In my role, I focus on developing strategies to attract, nurture, and retain high-performing teams, driving organizational success for the long term. Chief People Officers make sure that people are always part of the business strategy conversations. I mean without our amazing people, we are nothing.

How do you focus on building high-performance teams for SaaS businesses?

Last year at OpenX, I led the launch of our company traits — ‘Humble, Driven, and Smart’ — and we are continually integrating our traits into hiring, onboarding, coaching, and recognition programs. This initiative has created a shared language for what high performance looks like here. It’s helping us align expectations across the company for what the ideal team player means in our culture, and is helping us build a strong sense of purpose across the organization. 

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What, in your view, does it truly mean to have empowered employees, and why is it critical to business today?

Empowered employees are those who feel trusted, supported, and connected to the company’s purpose and they’re given the autonomy and resources to succeed. When people feel empowered, they’re more engaged, more innovative, and more accountable, which directly translates into a better customer experience and a thriving business.

That is why I believe that business success is closely tied to workplace culture. I’m committed to championing a culture where employees are engaged, satisfied, and held to high standards. This is especially important within remote or hybrid work cultures, where fostering a strong sense of connection and shared purpose requires intentional effort to maintain communication, trust, and alignment across distributed teams. 

Can you share five fundamentals of a people-first culture and which top tech brands come to mind for sporting this well?

A people-first culture isn’t just about offering great perks — it’s about how you lead, how you communicate, and how you make people feel. When employees are cared for, heard, and trusted, they become the company’s greatest engine for success. Here are five fundamentals I believe are essential:

1. Psychological Safety – Creating space for honest feedback, risk-taking, and vulnerability without fear of repercussion.
2. Growth & Development – Ensuring employees have access to learning, mentorship, and mobility to build meaningful careers.
3. Transparent Communication – Building trust through clear, open, and frequent communication, especially in uncertain times.
4. Inclusive Leadership – Cultivating leaders who are empathic, listen well, and lead with curiosity.
5. Flexibility & Autonomy – Letting teams decide how and where they work best. We’re not mandating office returns — and it’s working. Engagement is high, and our access to diverse talent has grown. Flexibility isn’t a concession, it’s a strategy.

When I think about tech companies who do this well, Salesforce stands out. They’ve built a culture anchored in values, and they live those values in measurable ways.

While not a SaaS company, I also love Zappos for this reason. They live their values and make them a core part of their business strategy. It makes me feel really good to do business with them, and it works well for me because I really love shoes.

A few ways in which you feel HR leaders in SaaS can add more value to business growth as hiring, retention, and employee onboarding trends change amid evolving market changes.

In today’s fast-moving tech environment, HR leaders drive growth by creating clarity, alignment, and connection — especially as talent expectations shift. That means hiring with purpose, onboarding with intention, and reinforcing a culture that supports both high performance and belonging.

At OpenX, we’ve operationalized our company traits across the employee experience, which has helped us achieve high performance across teams. And in a remote-first, global setup, we view flexibility not as a perk but as a strategic lever that fuels engagement, innovation, and retention. When employees are empowered and aligned, they deliver better outcomes — for the business and for our customers. 

Some thoughts on the future of HR management in SaaS before we wrap up?

We’re living in a time of constant change: economic shifts, evolving market expectations, tech disruption. It’s a lot. And it can be super distracting and disorienting for people, even the most high-performing ones. In environments like that, HR leaders add value by helping people stay connected to what matters most: their team, their purpose, and their sense of stability.

It’s all about how we show up during tough moments. Sometimes that means setting aside policy and just doing the right thing — reaching out, stepping in, offering support without hesitation. That human response goes a long way. It builds trust, emotional commitment, and resilience — which, in turn, keeps people engaged and moving forward with the business.

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