A Panel with the Cheer Partners' Leadership Team

Here at Cheer Partners, we value every employee’s voice and opinion. Our belief in sharing knowledge and helping each other grow has manifested itself in our regular blog series. Every member of the Cheer team has the opportunity to write their own pieces as frequently as possible and share them both internally and across our sites.
 
For the month of January, we have decided to create our own Cheer Panel with the leadership team. This is an opportunity to ask our Managing Partner and Directors the questions that are inspiring them as we enter a new month, new year and new decade! 2019 was a year of immense growth for our organization; now is the perfect time to reflect on what 2020 can bring!
 
What is your vision for Cheer Partners and the Employee Experience for 2020? 
 
Cat: I think we will see three trends in Employee Experience in 2020: Deeper metrics and analytics, the role of purpose driven leaders will need to be crafted intentionally, and communicated clearly and regularly, and reinforcing employee experience and candidate experience through trust.
 
Carrie: We hope to help people understand that everything is a communication, in fact, we often counsel that no communication is actually the loudest communication. It is table stakes that you will join a company for their place in the industry and what you hope to contribute to their work. However, the intangible reason someone becomes an employee is the feeling they get when they walk through the door, the energy the feel as they walk the hallways and the desire they have to come back the next day.
 
Lisa: That we will continue to help bridge the gap in the onboarding experience and the day to day experience, as well as overall internal communications for employees. We are here to help foster that change and I believe that our creativity, our experience and our voice will continue to extend to companies who value and put value on each employee that makes a difference at their company.
 
What do you think makes Cheer Partners the best place to work? 
 
Carrie: Cheer Partners values talent over geography, which means that by being a remote company, we are able to scoop up the best and the brightest talent and support clients from a local vantage point. 
 
Cat: We are intentional in everything we do - our work styles, best practices, colleagueship and partnership with our clients. And it is intentional that we live the remote work experience.
 
Lisa: It is our extremely collaborative environment and our truly connected remote culture. It allows us freedoms – creativity, true partnership and time. Of course, what really makes all of this a best place to work is our colleagues.
 
What’s your favorite piece of advice for people trying to affect positive change to the Employee Experience?
 
Lisa: Listen to your employees. Create programs that help you keep your talent engaged and be daring enough to change the way they experience work.
 
Cat: It has to begin with measurement. Once you know where you are, then you can plan in accordance to what your employees are looking for. Focus groups, Cultural DNA assessments and the like all play a role in creating the foundation for a successful strategy.
 
Carrie: Take a step back and look at the experience from the other person’s point of view. For example, if you are developing an onboarding program for new employees, but have been with the company a decade, you need to consider what it is like to not know where anything is, how the organization is structured or what you need to succeed. You should survey recent hires and the departments that support onboarding to find the points they receive positive feedback on and the potential pain points of the process.
 
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Personal and/or professional
Cat: They align. To finish my book and be more reflective.
Lisa: Learning to make time for the things that make me happy- and learning to pause, breathe and move forward.
Carrie: My resolution straddles both the personal and professional, but as a “still new” working mom, I need to find a stronger integration of my professional and personal lives. Not a balance, as that means that one outshines the other for a portion of each day, but an integration.
 
What are you reading or listening to that keeps you motivated? 
Cat: Arianna Huffington, Tim Ferris, Pat Mitchell, Ann Lamott, Derek Sivers.
Lisa: I always go back to Sonia Sotomayor’s book, My Beloved World.  My childhood and teen years are very similar to her life story and as a fellow Latina, it’s important to be connected to those who understand the importance of never forgetting where you came from. Her offering of inspiration, her testimony to hard work and pursuing her dreams remind me every day to take those same measures in my every day infinite possibilities. 
Carrie: Cheer Partners provides employees with access to LinkedIn Learning, and I love using that to learn things I wasn’t expecting to know I should learn, like right now, I am taking a class titled, Leveraging Neuroscience in the Workplace. What a fascinating spin on the employee experience! I’ve also been asked to create a curriculum for our team to enhance their learning, which is a creative exercise for me to increase our own learning and development.
 
What’s on your 2020 Book List? 
Cat: Re-reading all the Jane Austen novels, again.
Lisa: In the Land of Men, by Adrienne Miller and Taína, by Ernesto Quiñonez.
Carrie: Measure What Matters by John Doerr, The Age of Agile by Stephen Denning, and  Talking to Strangers  by Malcolm Gladwell.
 
Favorite podcast? 
Cat: Tough one! So many I love but I have to say Girlboss overall.
Lisa: Creating Espacios – which is dedicated to elevating the voices and stories of trailblazing Latinas.
Carrie: I know this is different, but I don’t listen to podcasts.
 
What are you most looking forward to this year?
Cat: Reducing operational complexities and taking time off, really.
Lisa: My niece’s High School Graduation!
Carrie: I am looking forward to growing our capabilities with rich client experiences. For example, although we have done it organically for years, we just officially launched the Cheer Partners Cultural DNA Assessment to help leaders understand what makes their organization unique, helps their employees go above and beyond in their effort and what derails those efforts.