Building Human Connection At Work

We can't lose sight of the human side of the experience. Sometimes it's as simple as just stopping and asking, what would make this experience meaningful to me? How would I want this to look like? And that mindset keeps us grounded, and empathy reminds us that everything we do ultimately comes down to human interaction. Don't conduct your analysis in isolation, because data is so incredibly powerful. Not defending just the tribe, but defending the organization. Those creative people that you really want to keep empowered, keep excited, keep motivated, keep thinking. A good experience pays dividends down the line. Your experience tends to break down by proximity. Welcome to We're Only Human, a podcast about human resources, business, technology, and the workplace. My name is Ben Eubanks, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. Hey everyone, this is Ben Eubanks, host of We're Only Human. I'm so excited to be here with you today, and looking forward to a fun conversation today with Emma Belkonis. She's the director of people and organization at WellFit. And we're gonna be talking about how she tries to create an environment around her team there that's positive, that's supportive, this employee experience that lets everybody show up and do their best work. And I'm so excited to dive into these things with Emma. Welcome, glad to have you. Thanks, Ben, thanks for having me. We're gonna have a blast. You and I were chatting a minute ago about some of the fun common ground we have, and I'm sure we're just gonna have some good energy here. I know the audience is gonna get some good takeaways, some good ideas, and I can't wait to learn from you as well. So before we get into that fun stuff, would you take a minute and tell us more about who you are and what you do, please? Yeah, I'm Emma Belkonis. I serve as your director of people and organization at WellFit Technologies. WellFit is a healthcare fintech company, and we're really trying to modernize how patients, providers, and payers interact in that dental space. So making treatment more accessible and affordable through technology and financial solutions. In my role, I oversee all things people and culture, everything from recruiting, performance management, engagement, benefits, and organizational strategy. Over the last few years, grown from a really small tight-knit team to over 100 employees across multiple states, and it's really been exciting to help shape that growth in a way that keeps our culture strong and our employees connected, which that's really where I'm passionate about is building an environment where people can do their best work, they feel valued, and then in turn see the impact that they have. So you said exciting, I think, was the word you used there. That can also mean stressful, challenging, lots of things as you're growing quickly, you're trying to figure out how to manage that piece. Talk about the people side of that growth and what it feels like trying to make sure that you're keeping people connected when you are expanding to multiple states, things like that, for the first time. Yeah, so I joined WellFit about three and a half years ago, and I was actually employee number 20 and the very first full-time HR team member. So fast forward, we're over 100, we're about 120 employees now, we're still growing, and it's really been fun, exciting. I think for me and for us at WellFit, the key to navigating that growth has really been agility and mindset. When you're scaling quickly, things are gonna change quickly and they're gonna probably change daily, priorities are gonna shift, new challenges are gonna pop up. Sometimes it feels like you're building the plane while you're flying it. So it really takes a team that's willing to be flexible, roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty. And I've really been intentional with myself and try to model that as well. So being open to learning, acknowledging when I don't have all the answers, and then taking those moments as opportunities to add new skills to my tool belt. So curiosity, willingness to figure it out as you go is really what keeps a growing company moving forward. Equally important is gonna be having a team that shares that mindset. We want people who are excited about what's ahead, not intimidated or scared by it. And that energy and shared resilience are really what allowed us to evolve quickly while still keeping that sense of unity. So figuring things out, I have this picture in my head of, I wanna create a shirt for HR people that says everything is figureoutable because that's a big part of our job is just, hey, there's a problem, no one else is gonna take it. Sure, HR is gonna take it on. We're gonna just figure it out. It's a big part of what we have to do, it feels like day to day. You talked about mindset being really important as part of this, right? The agility piece, the mindset piece. How do you find people that have that mindset? Is it asking questions and interviews to figure out do they have that curiosity component you were talking about? Is it something else? We're looking for a certain track record that they have that tells us they have the right mindset to thrive at WellFit. Talk about that if you don't mind. Yeah, so we have a pretty in-depth recruiting process. I think that's where it starts. Typically, we're looking at people who've maybe had experience in smaller organizations. They know what they're getting into, right? Smaller organizations are gonna have that similar fast-paced environment. We don't just discount people from larger organizations, but we're gonna have more pointed questions for people who come from larger organizations. There's less, what do we always say, red tape, right? We're able to move much more quickly. Are you able and willing to do that? Can you give us experiences of how you've done that? I mean, really dig in on those spaces where maybe their experience doesn't show it, so we're just gonna dive in a little bit more and try and understand that with them. But we're really gonna try and get a feel for that. We have about three rounds of interviews, so we'll ask that question in each of those interviews and see what each of those experts in that space are feeling. How can we really assess that you're gonna be the right fit? And also ask that question for them. What is your best environment to work in? Are you going to be successful working in a really fast-paced environment? Sometimes we just have to come out and ask it. Part of our job, recruiting, onboarding, setting people up for success is making sure that people are aware of what they're getting into as well. So is this the right environment for you? And it's okay if it's not. There's no harm in that. Let's find someone who is. Let's set you up for success. And if the environment isn't gonna set you up for success, then let's part ways. That's a very probing question to ask someone because you're saying, how can we make sure that the environment we have here is gonna match up to those things? Because if it doesn't, then we're gonna frustrate everybody trying to shoehorn that in. I had an incredible guest about a year ago. She's the HR leader for a healthcare organization. And she was saying that they do, as part of that onboarding part you talked about, they do a manual, a user guide to how to work with Emma or a user guide to how to work with Ben. And I'm like, listen, in a meeting, here's how I interact. I don't wanna be the first to speak up. I wanna be the last to speak up. I need to sit and ponder a little bit. Or, hey, I'm gonna have an idea and then another idea within 10 seconds. And some of them may be terrible. Let me just get it all out and then we'll figure out which ones are right. But everybody's a little different. Taking the time to ask those things up front really is an incredible way to level set. And the other part you touched on is, I've seen that so many times where someone comes from a large organization who are successful to a smaller organization. I know that's part of your track record and your history there. You're a builder. You love to do those things. But some people struggle because, I can't delegate to someone else. That's just on my plate. And I've taken this hat off and put another one on to just do that work. And so, just being willing to step up when there's not someone else to do it. That's a different kind of mindset too. So, I'm enjoying all these pieces so much. This is great. All right, let's go back to the story here. So the company's growing rapidly. There's all these new opportunities, new challenges, things like that. Talk about what's top of mind for you as you're seeing this growth happen, as you're helping to onboard and bring these people in. How are you thinking about creating and maintaining this positive employee experience that you've already done well up to this point, but now it's probably putting that under some strain because you've got to do it at scale, essentially? Yeah, so I think one thing that's been really important for me and really just reiterating to my team, as well as to managers, is we can't lose sight of the human side of the experience. Sometimes it's as simple as just stopping and asking, what would make this experience meaningful to me? How would I want this to look like? And that mindset keeps us grounded in empathy, reminds us that everything we do ultimately comes down to human interaction. I also, I want to give a lot of credit to our executive team. They are extremely visible and intentional about staying connected. And that really sets that foundation and mimics and mirrors kind of what's expected within the organization or accepted as well. So they're out walking the floors. They know employees by name. They genuinely take time to say hello. They'll stop and ask questions and have real conversations. Sometimes it's about work. Sometimes it's about what you do this weekend or how is your family? How are your kids doing? That kind of accessibility and authenticity sets the tone for the entire organization. So Quilter's huge at WellFit. The other thing I'll call out, that twice a year, we host a company-wide onsite. We bring all of our team members together. So both those that are local, as well as those who are remote and these events are all about collaboration. So spending time working side by side, we check out, we clock off for the day. We go to an offsite team building activity and we just stop and reconnect as people. So we've seen how investing in those moments can build that trust and that rapport, which in turn ultimately drives that higher performance. So when employees feel valued and can show up as themselves, they're going to give their best. And that's really the heartbeat of what we do at WellFit. I'm soaking it all in, Emma. I love the story there. And I'm thinking about, I just had a conversation maybe two days ago with a handful of HR leaders. And we're talking about the benefits and the challenges of having a team that is distributed, right? We're able to move quickly. We're able to tap into people we might not otherwise be able to tap into. But the downside is we don't get those moments to connect both on a, hey, let's dream of something crazy together and let's go solve this big problem. Or, hey, let's build some connections, some rapport, some trust, so that when a hard thing comes, I've got your back because we've taken the time to do that. It's not just about all the tasks lists and what things you're trying to accomplish. So talk about that piece a little bit. And if you don't mind, you gave me some ideas there around, yes, we collaborate. Yes, we do some social things. Yes, we're trying to get people connected and together. But is that a thing that from the beginning, the WellFit leadership team was like, this is important enough to us to invest in because that takes, you're pulling everybody away from their families for a little bit. You're pulling people into, and they're not doing work when they're here on site. So talk about that a little bit as a priority for them, because I think other people that are like, no, we can just do it all remotely, they are missing something, I feel like, in that context. Yeah, and initially, which is maybe a little kind of funny because when we were smaller, we actually attempted to do more of the remote items, which obviously were a lot smaller. It would have probably been a lot cheaper, less expensive for us to do some of this stuff. But we still stopped and took the time to do team building activities that aren't necessarily work-focused because really that connection is important. But what it came down to, and I'm sure a lot of other organizations and companies can relate to this, is we just felt disconnected, right? No matter how many fun and cool things that we did, whether it's remote, in-person, there was some piece that was just missing. And I proposed it to my CEO. I put my neck out there, essentially, and said, let's give it a try. Let's try it one time. And if we don't see the value, then we don't do it again. But I think it's worth at least attempting and trying to. We also started on a smaller scale. We brought just our leadership team in and we did offsite. So we went away from the work environment. We spent two and a half days. Two of the days were around the organization, the company, what do we need to do. We still did a team building activity, but we felt so much value there that it was easily translated. And let's give this a go in bringing all of our employees onsite. I can't tell you, we actually have one coming up in November. I am so excited for it. And also, it's probably one of the more stressful and exhausting times for my team because we host and we put it all on and we're putting it all together. But what I can tell you is just the energy that is in the office, people connect, seeing people that have never worked together or talked to each other ever, having a conversation and making those connections. That is what is the whole purpose of this. If you don't create those spaces, as much as we think it's gonna happen, it's not gonna happen. We have to be intentional about creating those spaces for people to make those connections. I'd love to think in the remote world during COVID, we all found a way to work remotely, but what's the biggest piece of learning that we're learning about from that is that human connection and that piece is just gone and people are struggling, right? And so bringing people together, making those connections, again, big or small. Sometimes you're gonna meet someone you've never interacted with and you might not know when you need to meet them again, or you may need to reach out to them for a work project. You now already have that relationship, have some sort of connection. It's gonna be a lot easier for you to extend that and say, hey, Ben, I need help with something because we've already made those connections and had those interactions here. Yes, whether it's let's build something together, I need to extend some grace because I know your heart's in the right place, but you're in a tough time right now. There's all these different situations there. I'm gonna say something that may be a little bit controversial, so fair warning. I love it. I was at a dinner the other night, we're talking about some of these challenges and one of the people sitting there said, I have not had a good friend that I've worked with in probably five years. And I was like, that is, to me, I was like, that's so sad. I feel bad for you for that. Especially as someone who works in the HR field, we have to be friendly with everyone. It's tricky with the friends at work, but I did have good friends that I worked with that we ran together after work. We did other things socially because it was that important to me. And I couldn't imagine being like emotionally attached from everyone, just seeing everyone else as a job title or seeing everybody else as whatever tasks they're doing. There have to be human connections there or what's the point overall. The other thing too is that energy, right? Like you feed off the energy from other people and you don't get that energy through a team's call, usually, unless you're really intentional about it. But when you're like, I get so much energy just being in the office and seeing other teams interact. It makes me excited. And it makes me that much more connected to what WellFit is doing. And I wanna step in and say, how can I be a part of that? I wanna be on that team or I wanna be that champion for that project or I wanna go out and tell the whole entire world about what WellFit is doing because I've now gotten this energy and people are getting me really excited about what we're here and what we're doing. I'm with you. Oh, goodness. I told her at the beginning, we're gonna have some fun. There's gonna be some good energy and I'm feeling it so much. One of the reasons that you and I actually got a chance to connect here together is because we're partnered with Insperity on some things. And I know that you guys have been working with Insperity as well. Talk about what that relationship looks like, what they're making possible for you and for the team at WellFit as you're trying to grow quickly, if you don't mind. Yeah, I can't speak loudly enough about Insperity and really what they've done for us. And specifically, I'll call it out for my team and allowed us to be successful. So they're really, I look at them as a trusted partner. I have direct points of contact for experts in payroll, in employee relations, time in attendance. I have experts I can go to when I need that help and support. I really feel they're an extension of my team. So what that has done in being able to leverage Insperity, they've taken on a lot of the administrative burden that comes with HR, keeping up with the changes in laws and regulations. We have how many different state leaves have sick policies and they help not only make sure the system is set up for each of those sick policies, but do we have a policy in our handbook? They are taking on a lot of that and helping facilitate that, which in turn allows me and my team to get to spend more time on the overall employee experience and build on that culture. And I really can't speak highly enough of just that opportunity has given to allow us to create a really awesome place to work for our employees. And a lot of that is because they are handling a lot of that day-to-day administration, payroll. They provide us reporting and analytics. Because of that, we're able to go out and really make Wealthit an awesome place to work. You used the word culture a couple of times. Talk about what that means at Wealthit. What's that feel like? Do you have certain values? What does that feel like as an employee when you walk in there? Yeah, so I feel culture is probably my favorite part of human resources. I love it. It's probably where my heart and soul is. And I'm thankful I have a team that feels very similarly. And I think culture starts day one. You walk in the door, actually probably starts beforehand in that recruiting process. And a lot of it comes down to, people a lot of times think of culture as all the fun activities. Maybe it's some of those perks and benefits. We do everything from weaving our core values all the way into our culture. So our core values are a huge part of what we do. Our core values are literally artwork within our office. We have them displayed everywhere. We also have a recognition platform called Nectar HR. In order to recognize someone, you have to tie a core value to them. What core value was that person showcasing in this moment during that recognition? We also tie our core values back to our strategic initiatives throughout the year. So we typically have a theme for the year. Last year was move fast, which is one of our core values and how we can tie that in throughout each of those strategic initiatives. And it's just, it's really important. One more I'll call out is, we also do employee of the quarter. And so peer nominations and part of that is, how does that person contribute to the culture and embrace those core values that we have? So it's really being intentional and intertwining and interweaving what's really important to the organization. For us, it's core values. So let's intertwine that. Let's weave it in. So it's not all about just fun and perks and benefits, but it's really aligned. It's intertwined within the strategy of who we are and what we do. So if I'm hearing you right, Emma, it's not enough to decide some core values in a vacuum and put them up in the lobby of the office and assume it's all gonna work out, right? That is correct. I would agree on that. If you want people to embrace them, you gotta live by them. I'm having so much fun listening to some of the parallels between the last organization I worked for in HR capacity and some of the things that you're doing at WellFit. Some of the things are very aligned. Like when we had our HR plans for the year, our strategy for the year, our overarching goals, which one of the key core values does this tie into? And so the things you're talking about, whether it's within that space as a sort of meta concept or all the way up to, hey, we're setting our goals for our employees from a performance perspective. How does that tie to move fast this year? How are you gonna do that as part of your job? Because it rolls all the way up to the top as an organization, we're trying to do this overall. So I'm enjoying this so much. I'm listening to your story here, all the incredible things that WellFit's been able to accomplish. And to me, I would argue that a strong, passionate, well-equipped HR team is critical to a company's success overall, but especially when they're trying to grow as fast as WellFit has over the last few years. And if you agree with that, why do you think that's so critical? People are gonna show up to do work because we need a job, maybe we need to make money. But if we really wanna get the most out of that time that they spend with us throughout the week, we have to make it meaningful to them. I can come in, I can do my work and leave and not be connected to anyone, but I'm probably gonna get maybe three quarters of what I really could get out of Emma if I had just stopped and got her buy-in and made her want to be connected to the organization and to what we're doing. I think a lot of it is just really being intentional and getting people connected to the mission. That's another one, we talk about values. Don't just put them up in a, assign them in a vacuum and put them up on a wall and expect people to know it. It's the same with the mission and the vision. We gotta get people connected to it. We gotta get people excited about it. When you get people excited about what we're working for and working towards, that's when you're gonna get them to want to show their best selves. We've heard a lot about, what is it, quiet quitting? And it was calmed down a little bit, but quiet quitting became a thing because people were just so burnt out. They weren't connected. We weren't having those human interactions. When you pour into people, when you show that you care about them and that they are a huge value and wouldn't be successful, we wouldn't have never been able to do this without you, that in turn, you're just gonna get more and more people to want to come work for your organization. They're gonna want to do more for your organization. They wanna stay at your organization longer. It's just really important to take care of your people, pour into them, give them the tools, the skillsets, the things that they need to be successful. And in turn, they're gonna do a lot of work for you in the organization. Whether it's marketing, whether it's getting referrals for positions, whether it's coming up with new ideas that maybe someone hadn't thought of. If you create that space where they feel comfortable sharing, you're going to only go bigger, faster, and just really become an amazing organization and achieve what you're really looking and striving out to achieve. I'm gonna put you on the spot a little bit. I want you to speak to the Emma that started three years ago or something like that. Someone's just stepping into an organization that's gonna be on the cusp of this. How does that new HR leader in their first 90 days, how do they get aligned to the leadership? How do they make sure that they're coming in and really soaking things up and knowing how to start this? Because it's common to want to jump in and say, okay, these three things worked from the last company. Go, do, do, do, do. And you're like, you haven't even, do you even know the culture here? So talk about that person that's where you were three years ago. How do they start getting aligned to the leadership? How do they make sure that they grasp the nuances of the culture so that when they start making recommendations, they start taking action, it's gonna land versus this friction, struggle sort of challenge. Does that make sense? Yeah, 100%. And it's maybe a little funny that I say that. I'm actually hiring an HR leader on my team here shortly. And I've been thinking a lot about this. So it's actually been top of mind for me. And one of the things, as I was talking to this individual, I told them like my first 30 day goal for you is to go talk to people. Just go get to know people, get them comfortable with you, build the trust. That's probably one of the most important things you can do. It sounds a little counterintuitive because you wanna come in, you wanna hit the ground running, you wanna show your worth, you wanna show your value. And I think you can, but when you're more intentional about what ideas you're bringing forward, because you've heard the people, it's gonna land and it's gonna be that much more impactful. So getting to know the team, getting to know individual contributors, having conversations with them, understanding what is working, what do they like, what don't they like, get them to open up to you. And then being able to champion for those teams will then get that buy-in from that leadership team as well. So I'm a firm believer is just stop and slow down, take this opportunity to get to know people because if we're not intentional, I said that about a hundred times today, Ben, I'm sorry, but if we're not intentional about it, it just won't happen. And another thing for HR leaders is that trust is so imperative in what we're doing. And it's been one of the things that I've really focused on as I built up the HR department at WellFit. And that's really is you need to build that trust so that in those times of need, those people are able and willing to come to you. We don't want HR is a lot of times seen as the big, scary, big, bad wolf. And when you stop initially and come out the gate, you build those relationships and those rapport. When something does happen, you're much more likely to hear about it. And you're going to hear about it straight from the person, or you're going to hear about it earlier and you're going to be able to handle and manage that. And that's ultimately what we want. I have not thought to think about it this way, but you talked about themes for the year. One of my big, this year, the big theme has been going from reactive to proactive because so much of the stuff we do in HR is just putting out fires. Everyone says that we all wear that like a badge of honor. And I had a leader on earlier this year that, listen, HR is not just fire extinguisher. We have to do so much more than that. And so I've had to build a fire prevention plan versus just trying to put out fires all the time. And you're talking about this trust piece and it's our inclination, especially me, I am action oriented. I have a bias towards doing something, whatever that thing is. I'll just make some noise and move things around. I've just got to do something. It's a lot harder to say, I'm going to go slow. I'm going to ask questions because ultimately I do take action. As you said, you've greased the skids. It makes it easier. People know that you're making that action from the right perspective. And you had the double challenge, not just of coming in alongside this growth curve, but also you said you were the first true HR person on staff and anyone else who had an HR person in their background, that was the no police. That was the hall monitor that was always looking to squish any fun. Oh, we are here to work, darn it. They had that picture and you had to break that whether consciously or unconsciously in how they saw you. And so I think that's such a great way of positioning that. You talked about the trust piece. And one of the things I wrote down, I paraphrase you a little bit, but I think you take it. It's like being a champion, not just of the people, but for the people. Yes, 100%, 100%. And I think you said to them being intentional, maybe. That might've come up. Again, that goes back to be proactive. Yep, be proactive. Okay, all right. So this has been such a blast. I have enjoyed this thoroughly. I am sure the audience has taken so many notes because we keep just scrolling and keep adding because there's so many good things I've gotten from you. Good one-liners, good ideas, good takeaways overall. I'm going to let you like wrap it up one minute or less. You right now have a chance to speak to all of our friends out there doing the work of HR every day. Any last things you want to either double down on, do these things, or hey, I didn't say this yet, but this is one of the things that's been so essential for me. How would you like to wrap up? Yeah, I think it's, I mentioned it a little earlier, but I want to reemphasize it is a lot of times we think connection is just going to happen on its own, or maybe that leaders are going to do it. And not everyone thinks like HR professionals. Not everyone can see the whole people experience. That's why we're good at what we do. So making those opportunities for connection. Sometimes it feels like you're forcing it, but once you get it going, then that natural progression will happen where those connections are happening. One example, it actually happened recently, and it was a really kind of prideful moment for me, is we have remote team members. We have in-office team members. We try and get everybody engaged. One of those tools we like to leverage is Slack. We try and do fun engagement activities in there. And one of our customer success team got decorations for Halloween. They were decorating. It's looked great. It's been exciting. The team I probably would have least expected, our data and analytics team, they come in with bags of decoration, and they are hanging things from the ceiling. They have bowls of candy. They have tablecloths. And now there's this little competition going around the office of who can decorate their space more. And it was just creating that space where it can happen. And now it's starting to happen authentically. Now it's just really ingrained into the culture. But to get there, you have to create those spaces. You have to show them that it is okay, and it can happen, and let's do it. Because again, not everyone thinks like us. And so you can't always leave it to the managers. They've got a lot of other things on their plate. Help them create those spaces in the moment. Teach them those skills. Give them ideas on small scales and large scales. And then it'll start to happen organically, and it's gonna grow, and you're gonna have this really awesome place. And people are gonna wanna continue to work for you. They're gonna wanna stay, and they're gonna wanna bring other people to the organization. As you're sharing on that, my flashback to you is we did some research over the last year around creating a culture of learning, but I think it applies broader than just learning. We found that, everybody talks about, oh, you have a culture of development, a culture of learning. And the thing we found when we looked into that is we found there are two key parts that make it successful, or if only one of them's there, it doesn't work. And I think this applies here too, where you're giving them the opportunity, the white space, as you're talking about, giving them that chance there, creating this intentionally, but also the autonomy. Choose how you wanna participate in this. Like this example's a great one. You know what? You can show up with a funky mask on, great, or you can blow it out, candy bowls and everything else, all the decorations. You have the autonomy to choose how you wanna participate in this, but we're giving you those things, and that pair of opportunity, that pair of connections there, those elements lead to a culture where people can take some ownership of it, feel like it's part of who they are, feel like it's how they're working, all that kind of stuff. All right, so Emma, this has been so great. I've enjoyed it. I know the audience has. Are you okay if the audience reaches out, connects with you on LinkedIn? Absolutely. Okay, perfect. I'll make sure. 100% would love that. Good deal. I'll put that into the show notes here for the episode. Again, thank you to our friends over in Sperity for connecting us. They had no idea you and I were gonna hit it off as well as we did. This is like lifelong friends. That's how I'm seeing this probably for the future. So to all of you out there, I hope you took as many notes as I did. Got some great ideas from Emma in the conversation today. Whether you're in a company that's stable, a company that's growing, whatever the circumstances are right now, some of the key things that she talked about, building trust, really leading with that as an HR team, looking for ways to connect people, the power of that to help them want to show up to work and want to do their best work, not just to do a J-O-B, but to really contribute in a meaningful way. All those good things and more. Emma, thank you again for joining us. And everybody else out there, we'll catch you again next time on We're Only Human. Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I'm honored to have you as a listener. If you enjoyed this episode, please take 10 seconds to rate it in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, if you know a friend that could benefit from today's conversation, please pass it their way. After all, a rising tide lifts all ships. To see show notes, sponsor information, and our full show archives, visit onlyhumanshow.com.