HR Tech Interview with Rebecca Keating, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at TeamViewer

HR leaders need to prepare themselves for uncertainty because no one knows what will come next. But with the right technology in place, basic processes and company fundamentals can stay intact despite evolving external dynamics. To share a few thoughts on building strong people and culture practices in tech we had Rebecca Keating, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at TeamViewer join us in this quick conversation:

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Tell us a little about yourself Rebecca…we’d love to hear a little about the global team at TeamViewer (work culture, the diversity in the team, top team engagement practices for a distributed team, employee wellness and culture, etc) and your experience and highlights running the HR and Employee practice at TeamViewer.

I have worked in HR for my entire career within the Insurance, manufacturing and IT sectors.  I joined TeamViewer four years ago in our Adelaide office and shortly thereafter relocated to our German headquarters to lead the entire HR group.

As an organization, TeamViewer has a well-documented vision, mission and set of beliefs.  Our goal is to provide the technology to empower people to help people, and we are passionate about connecting people and devices, friends and family and businesses of any size.

One of our beliefs that I am particularly proud of is our focus on diversity and inclusion.  We have over 70 nationalities in our workforce and we have maintained a 35 percent female-to-male ratio, which is extremely high for a technology company.

We have a really strong culture which we have been able to maintain whilst growing very quickly.  Our employee engagement scores are high and people are very proud about working for TeamViewer and there is great sense of camaraderie within the teams.

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The last few months, as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, how has TeamViewer adjusted to the new normal? What were some of the policies put in place to help teams cope or manage their remote work better?

TeamViewer by nature understands the challenges and advantages of remote work. Managing remote teams can be difficult, but there are tools that can make it easier. We all understand how remote connectivity solutions such as video calls, chat and email have made working from home possible, but at TeamViewer we take remote connectivity and support solutions to another level. We support the IT needs of our teams by using augmented reality solutions on physical objects or devices, remote connectivity to handle software issues and much more.

At TeamViewer, we also deeply understand how video conference fatigue and a lack of separation between home and workspace impacts the mental health of our remote employees. Therefore, we encourage our staff to take breaks, walks, lunches and mental health days as needed. We introduced virtual ‘take a break’ sessions 3 times daily, offered yoga on line and to stimulate some social interaction arranged virtual ‘pub quizzes’ which were very popular.

Can you share your observations on how you’ve seen global tech companies respond to the Covid-19 pandemic? In what ways are you seeing the pandemic cause a complete shift in the way work cultures in tech are being shaped today?

Prior to the Pandemic, many companies were already developing and adopting remote work capabilities, and the technological infrastructure that supported it was already fairly mature. When businesses made the quick shift to remote work during the pandemic this year, a range of collaboration technologies such as video conferencing, chat and remote connectivity solutions successfully united a distributed workforce. Tech companies have relied on their IT leaders to keep everything moving forward and many IT leaders rely on TeamViewer’s services. I think that the work culture as we know it will shift dramatically and that we may go back to in-person but that schedule will be flexible and we will continue to lean on the remote access tools discussed. These tools have boosted productivity and communication across companies so I don’t think they will be going away anytime soon.

What are the five best practices you feel every HR leader in tech and B2B should follow today?

1. Trust – Trust your employees to manage themselves.
2. Training – Provide opportunities for employees to digitally transform by offering training courses, webinars and more to help them excel in their positions
3. Organization – Now more than ever, the success of the workforce relies on strategic organization. Offering the right infrastructure helps garner productivity and success
4. Invest in employee experience – Encouraging employees to be seen and heard during these new challenges will foster growth, offer opportunities for them to voice their opinions and concerns and feel a sense of belonging.
5. Leadership matters – Leaders need to be accessible, show empathy and understand everyone member of their team may have differing needs and they need to balance these needs with the needs of the business.

In what ways have you used new HR Technologies to drive change and new processes / policies or employee management over the years?

Employee feedback tools have become really valuable and allows us to gather feedback in time which helps us make the right decisions.  Recruiting tools such as ATS has become increasingly important to us to ensure we attract the right people and help build our talent pool as we continue to grow and expand in all regions.  Our Learning and Development online platform allows us to roll out global trainings, encourages self-driven development and helps us build out high quality programs across the group.

When it comes to optimizing the role of HR with HR Tech: what are some of your top thoughts?

I think it comes down to the “H” in HR. Even though we have all of these key tech tools at our fingertips, we still want employees to be able to connect with a person at the end of the day. As an HR leader, I use HR tech tools to optimize the employee support, not eliminate any interactions which I think is key in the evolution of HR as we look forward. HR’s role has changed in the pandemic, we are even more critical but on a digital level and need to continue to make ourselves and all of the information available and transparent moving into 2021.

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A few general thoughts and quick tips for HR leaders to keep in mind as they prepare for 2021?

As we get set to flip our calendars to 2021, HR leaders should not wait to prepare themselves for what comes next. They should be looking at gathering teams and strategizing on how to position their organizations to ride out the pandemic. In order to do this, HR leaders need to focus on the importance of resiliency and agility, as well as giving elevated attention and resources to support team members as they deal with the aftershocks of the pandemic. This includes providing training for executives on leading through difficult times and providing more mental health support resources for your team members. It also means advising your organization on how to best pivot when social, cultural and economic paradigms shift as we have seen multiple times in 2020.