Preparing For the Future of Work: Liz Hall of ‘Splash’ On The Top Five Trends To Watch In The Future Of Work

An Interview with Phil La Duke

…Mental Health & Wellbeing. With everything that happened in 2020, it’s no surprise that the topic of mental health came to the forefront. Families, friends, and colleagues finally started openly talking about it and breaking the stigma surrounding it for so long. To support the mental health toll that 2020 took, we started offering our employees two Mental Escape (ME) Days per month. These are two full days where employees can unplug entirely from work — no Slack, no email, no texts or calls.

There have been major disruptions in recent years that promise to change the very nature of work. From the ongoing shifts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the impacts caused by automation, and other possible disruptions to the status quo, many wonder what the future holds in terms of employment. For example, a report by the McKinsey Global Institute that estimated automation will eliminate 73 million jobs by 2030.

To address this open question, we reached out to successful leaders in business, government, and labor, as well as thought leaders about the future of work to glean their insights and predictions on the future of work and the workplace.

As a part of this interview series called “Preparing For The Future Of Work,” we had the pleasure to interview Liz Hall.

Liz Hall is a founding member of CPOHQ and Chief People Officer at Splash, a next-generation event marketing platform that provides event marketers and field marketing teams the tools they need to design, create, and execute virtual, in-person, and hybrid event programs. At Splash, Liz leads the business’s Recruiting, L&D, Employee Engagement, Total Rewards, DEI, Performance Management, Culture, and HR functions. She believes success comes from leading with empathy, acting intentionally, and being equitable and inclusive. Before joining Splash, Liz was VP of People at Cadre and, before that, at Trello. As a founding member, Liz grew the team through Trello’s $425 million acquisition by Atlassian, obtaining a 100% retention rate during the integration. She also led People Operations at Fog Creek Software for over a decade alongside co-founders Joel Spolsky and Michael Pryor, including the creation of Stack Overflow. She lives in Astoria, NY, with her children, husband, and quarantine-adopted dog.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers like to get an idea of who you are and where you came from. Can you tell us a bit about your background? Where do you come from? What are the life experiences that most shaped your current self?

My childhood weaved economic poverty with educational privilege creating a constant juxtaposition of life experiences. I was raised by a strong-willed single mother in New Jersey alongside an older brother, sister, and too many dogs. Our house was equally the go-to gathering place for friends, filled with lots of laughter but also where someone might injure themselves falling through the rotting deck.

During high school, I lived in the darkroom picturing a career in photography. In college, that switched to the editing room, where I was sure I’d have a career in film. Or, if not that, then definitely in the music industry, most likely producing music festivals. My internships and first out-of-college jobs were at record labels or production companies. It was a long winding unexpected road that led me to the world of tech and People. But, looking back on the journey, it’s unsurprising that after my experiences of working in the entertainment industry as a young woman, I ended up leading HR, DE&I, determined to create cultures that provide psychological safety and equitable opportunities for all employees.

What do you expect to be the major disruptions for employers in the next 10–15 years? How should employers pivot to adapt to these disruptions?

The startup world changes rapidly, making it hard to predict a few years out, let alone 15, but I think the swing towards creative employee retention strategies will most likely continue. The competition for talent will only get more intense as candidates can cast a much larger net when job searching due to the shift in companies staying either remote-first or remote-friendly. Strategies used to attract top talent will also be used to then retain that talent. I predict it will become more common to see tenure-based extensions of the window to exercise equity along with more frequent evergreen grants. Benefits and perks will also need to be enhanced, showing a genuine commitment to mental health and wellness.

The choice as to whether or not a young person should pursue a college degree was once a “no-brainer.” But with the existence of many high-profile millionaires (and billionaires) who did not earn degrees, as well as the fact that many graduates are saddled with crushing student loan debt and unable to find jobs, it has become a much more complex question. What advice would you give to young adults considering whether or not to go to college?

My oldest son is about to enter high school, so this topic is on my mind a lot these days. I’ve told him that we won’t force him to go to college nor push any particular school on him but that we recommend he attend to be part of a community where he could build a network of friends and support system. The social element of attending college can be so critical to personal development. That said, the state of education is in so much flux that there is no way to know what the norm will be in a few years. The price to attend has skyrocketed, creating even more disparity within the education system. I suppose my advice would be that the college’s name matters less and less and that there are plenty of other ways to develop professional skills these days like attending a boot camp, etc. I can’t speak for all companies, but I personally care more about one’s experiences than the name of the college listed on their resume.

Despite the doom and gloom predictions, there are, and likely still will be, jobs available. How do you see job seekers having to change their approaches to finding not only employment, but employment that fits their talents and interests?

Our current market has been dubbed everything from “The Great Resignation,” “The Great Reshuffle,” “The Great Awakening,” “Turnover Tsunami,” to “YoLo Economy.” It’s a candidate market. I think it is less about fitting talents and interests and now more about fitting one’s lifestyle. Candidates will look for companies that match their values and goals of daily living. They will (and should) ask more about work-life balance, parental leave policies, remote work, mental health benefits, and DEI initiatives. The pendulum may swing again in favor of employers, but for now, candidates get their pick.

The statistics of artificial intelligence and automation eliminating millions of jobs, appears frightening to some. For example, Walmart aims to eliminate cashiers altogether and Dominos is instituting pizza delivery via driverless vehicles. How should people plan their careers such that they can hedge their bets against being replaced by automation or robots?

Admittedly, I am not an expert in this area but what comes to mind is any job that includes the need for empathy and the ability to manage change effectively. People should focus on soft skills that reinforce what makes them irreplaceable: their humanity (negotiating, empathy, communication, critical thinking, leadership, management, collaboration, creativity, etc.) Their cognitive skills, more so than mechanical skills, will be what sets them apart. Additionally, people need to prepare themselves for lifelong learning because the “one career for life” mentality is becoming more and more obsolete. Hopefully, future automation will produce new opportunities but, in the meantime, sharpen those irreplaceable skills.

Technological advances and pandemic restrictions hastened the move to working from home. Do you see this trend continuing? Why or why not?

I very much see this trend continuing. Of course, it depends on the company and their culture, but I think overwhelmingly, there will be more acceptance for work from home or remote employees. Before COVID, Splash had many physical offices where employees worked from including NYC, Philadelphia, Madrid, Seattle, and Phoenix. We decided to go fully distributed on May 13, 2020 and were unsure what would unfold and how those events might change the nature of how we work. Throughout our experience working distributedly, we noticed how not being in the office together did not hinder our work output; in fact, in some instances, it enhanced productivity. Since then, we have shut down all offices except our NYC headquarters and announced our decision to remain remote-first.

This decision, along with the additional benefits associated, helped us both in employee retention and recruiting. We can cast a wide net to find top talent, and candidates looking to remain remote are responding positively. When most company offer rates have plummeted, ours has increased to a 93% acceptance rate, and we have successfully hired 65 employees across all roles within 2021.

What societal changes do you foresee as necessary to support the fundamental changes to work?

Society needs to continue to embrace a more flexible work schedule. For the last two years now, employees have had to work with children remote learning, caring for elderly or sick family members, and life upheaval like moving to a state. Folks have worked odd hours and days outside the traditional 9am-5pm. Additionally, with staff located around the world, working the same hours is not practical. Providing reasonable accommodations will be necessary for retention.

We will also need to collectively truly learn what it means to ‘work’ in different cultures. Understanding those differences will be the differentiator for companies to succeed or fail. How are decisions made? When is it acceptable to self-promote? What is the style of communication? How does one collaborate? I recommend reading or listening to anything by Erin Meyer to start thinking in a global mindset. I found this podcast interview with her enlightening.

What changes do you think will be the most difficult for employers to accept? What changes do you think will be the most difficult for employees to accept?

An interesting change for employers will be the need to accept and lean into asynchronous learning. Managers need to get comfortable with emails instead of meetings, chat tools instead of the watercooler, better documentation of employee processes, and flexible work schedules. Depending on the industry, this may be a tough change. Another challenge might be for employers to realize burnout is real. More and more employees are leaving their jobs without another in its place. This phenomenon will most likely continue until we truly have the pandemic in the rearview mirror.

Potentially the most difficult aspect for employees might be that change isn’t taking place fast enough for their liking. Not all companies will be quick to modernize their benefits, accept remote or take mental health seriously.

Despite all that we have said earlier, what is your greatest source of optimism about the future of work?

My source of optimism comes directly from the conversations that have taken place on our leadership team. The openness to change, the understanding of employee needs, the tough conversions, and the vulnerability has been refreshing.

Okay, wonderful. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “Top 5 Trends to Watch In the Future of Work?” (Please share a story or example for each.)

1. Competitive Compensation Philosophy: As employees scatter throughout the country, employers need to decide how to compensate those who have moved away from their office location. There are tax and financial budgets to consider and impact on culture depending on the company’s decisions. That has proven challenging for many organizations. Those with employees who once worked in a major metropolitan area, and are now living and working in smaller towns, are trying to identify how or if they adjust their approach to compensation. Do they still use localized compensation data, even if it means a pay decrease? And the opposite question applies to the reverse. At Splash, we will no longer use compensation data localized to an individual employee’s home location. Instead, we are level-setting every single role in the United States to the Northeast (New York City) compensation band. That will support pay equity, retain our high-performing team members, cast a wider recruiting net, and build workforce diversity. Meanwhile, we continue to embrace remote working across all our departments. We encourage them to live where they thrive, even if that’s not in the same location as one of our offices.
2. Intentional Culture. We understand our employees value autonomy; hence we have decided to give them the option to work from wherever they feel best, whether that’s at home or an office, it’s up to them to decide. That helps with both recruitment and retainment of top talent. It’s surprising to me when I hear other companies pushing for only in-office work, and it usually comes with the fear of losing their culture. To uphold our culture, we decided to create a Culture Book that outlines how we communicate, celebrate, work, meet and gather, include inclusion, grow, and live our core values. We held multiple workshops that considered all employees and ensured the book was not created top-down or only by one department. Anyone could attend these workshops to co-create the book, and everyone is aware it will continue to be an iterative process. Having your culture explicitly laid out for all potential new hires and current employees to review and create guarantees that everyone continues to be on the same page when it comes to culture.
3. Mental Health & Wellbeing. With everything that happened in 2020, it’s no surprise that the topic of mental health came to the forefront. Families, friends, and colleagues finally started openly talking about it and breaking the stigma surrounding it for so long. To support the mental health toll that 2020 took, we started offering our employees two Mental Escape (ME) Days per month. These are two full days where employees can unplug entirely from work — no Slack, no email, no texts or calls. That continues to be the top benefit employees speak to when talking about what makes Splash’s culture different. Companies need to think about their benefits, programming, guest speakers, and workshops with mental health and wellbeing in mind. Without this focus, your employees will burn out and give that resignation notice.
4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Resources & Transparency. Similar to mental health, the political/social unrest of 2020 mixed with the continued unknowns of COVID has put DEI at the forefront of 2021. Splash is a team of change agents on a mission to be the change we wish to see in the world. We know change starts within our company, and we’re not here to just “check the boxes.” We continue to champion progress over perfection because we know real change takes time. Since 2020, we’ve instituted the following changes:

• Partnered with Hello Collective (DEI Consultancy agency), which takes that deeper dive into our current employee base to analyze each department, not just the overall organization. Transparency is provided to the entire company once results are in where we take a look at areas where we have moved the needle and the areas where we need to focus.
• Created a ‘Together Apart’ monthly gathering designed to be a safe space for folks to practice empathy and vulnerability, learn through sharing and listening.
• Established ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) with our first ERG SPLGBTQ hosting their first employee-led, company funded event, Sangria Secrets, in 2021 to celebrate PRIDE.
• Enabled EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) data within Greenhouse candidate self-reporting to better track within the pipeline.
• Invited experts to talk about best practices of DEI within Recruiting to hiring managers.
• Sent employees ‘Take Care Packages’ with intentional swag and partnerships that gave back 25% of every purchase to Black Girls Tech.
• Launched our Recruiting DEI strategic anchors that we hold ourselves accountable to:

Intentional Efforts — change doesn’t magically occur; we need to be proactive about providing equally distributed opportunities.

Data Not Feelings — no hunches, no guesswork, we need to measure what matters, set progress goals, and hold ourselves accountable.

Progress Over Perfection — we’re in this for the long haul; we commit to measuring quarter-over-quarter progress within the entire candidate process versus fixating on a magic diversity number.

• To recognize, honor, and support our employees and community, both persons of color and their allies, Splash now acknowledges June 19 (or Juneteenth) as an official holiday.
• We’ve begun offering several diversity and inclusion resources throughout the year to support our employees’ desire to be and do better. Among these resources include:
• Ally skills workshops, where we bring in experts to help us understand how to be the best allies we can be for marginalized communities
• Leading with empathy workshops, where we discuss ways to be more inclusive and compassionate in our personal and professional lives

5. Creative Retention Strategies. As mentioned above, we are currently living in “The Great Resignation” / “The Great Reshuffle” / “The Great Awakening” / “Turnover Tsunami” / “YoLo Economy.” Companies across all industries are being hit with higher than usual turnover rates forcing them to get creative with retention strategies. Employees are motivated in different ways, so you need to know what drives the person you are trying to retain. One might consider a retention bonus, additional equity grant, leave of absence, flexible working hours, or more generous benefits.

Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how this quote has shaped your perspective?

I believe it was Babak Ghahremanpour who once said to me in 2005, “You’re not good with change, huh?”. It had never occurred to me that any type of change had a significant impact on me until that moment when I was asked to move desks and started having an anxiety attack about it. I had the perfect setup finally figured out! In that moment, I was snapped into focusing on myself to evaluate how I handle change, especially in the workplace. Change is unavoidable; you will pivot, goals will move, priorities will flip, headcount will accelerate, a pandemic might cause a reduction in force, an ‘irreplaceable’ employee might give notice, an acquisition might take place, a partnership might fall through, etc. The ability to handle change professionally and calmly has greatly helped me throughout my career. Thanks, Babak!

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Can we make it brunch? That way, it’s more acceptable to start with coffee then move to a Bloody Mary. I’d love to have brunch with Conan O’Brien for a few reasons. I remember watching the first episodes of Late Night in 1993 and laughing hysterically. I have followed his career since and now listen to his podcast, ‘Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend,’ where he has repeatedly said that he needs to make anyone he interacts with laugh. I’d like to exploit that weakness and enjoy a meal laughing non-stop. Laughter is what keeps me going through overwhelming moments in life. Plus, I can make him watch my standup performance where a packed room of family and friends said it was great! And, if we have an extra chair to pull up to the table, I’d invite Dave Ghrol to join us.

Our readers often like to follow our interview subjects’ careers. How can they further follow your work online?

Readers can follow me on LinkedIn or Twitter @Liz_Hall1

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this. We wish you continued success and good health.