How Rachel, Stephanie, and Justin work to make learning easy (and fun!) at Dropbox
Recent studies and surveys have shown that one of the factors people value and look for most in an employer is the opportunity for learning and growth. That’s why we’ve invested so heavily in building out an incredible Learning and Organizational Development (L&OD) team here at Dropbox, whose main mission is to help all Dropboxers achieve their personal and professional goals.
It all starts on day one with Rachel Bycer, our New Hire Onboarding Lead. She’s in charge of starting all new Droplets (our internal term for new Dropboxers) off with an introduction to the Dropbox culture of continuous growth that we try to promote — and as a former teacher, this “first day of school” exciting type of environment is her bread and butter. Normally our two and a half day onboarding experience is a lineup of fun learning activities including a scavenger hunt and a volunteer opportunity, but she’s recently had to adapt the program to fit virtual onboarding needs.
“Now that we’ve extended our work from home period, I’ve gone back and reworked the phase 1 VC onboarding experience, which was initially put together in about 24 hours. It was a whirlwind of transitioning everything at first. Now I’ve added more icebreakers, more breakout rooms, and more opportunities for Droplets to communicate in smaller settings to build those memorable first-day connections. At the end of the day, what I really care about is creating a foundation for a sense of belonging for Dropboxers, because research shows that when people feel a sense of belonging at their company, performance is better, retention is higher, and it’s a win for the business overall. I’m really happy to play a role in that.”
As most Dropboxers know, the learning doesn’t stop after onboarding ends. The L&OD team offers hundreds of workshops, programs, courses, and virtual learning opportunities throughout the year — no matter what you’re interested in learning more about, there’s an L&OD offering for that. Stephanie Redding, a Leadership Development Learning Partner who joined our team in August after being on the Dropbox Sales Enablement team for 2 years, is especially excited about a new platform that will help Dropboxers from all over the world connect with each other while learning together.
“Soon there’s going to be more opportunity for community learning at Dropbox. The platform that we’re launching isn’t one of those same-old-same-old setups where you’re just staring at a computer, watching short videos, and clicking from screen to screen. It has more of a community feel, almost like you would get in an online group or something like that. Folks can post their own content, you can ask questions, and you can interact within the learning management system (LMS) like you can’t in most programs. Once it’s been live for a while, we’re going to see a lot of innovation and creativity with the way that people support each other in learning. Trying to capture that word of mouth knowledge and get people better connected is going to be awesome.”
As Head of Leadership Development, Justin McSharry knows that part of helping Dropboxers grow has to be rooted in taking people out of their comfort zones. After working 12 years selling semiconductor components in Silicon Valley before discovering and falling in love with L&OD, he knows what it’s like to push yourself to learn something new — and all the doors that can open in the process.
“We have a huge responsibility to make the programs engaging and exciting. And challenging! We don’t want to freak people out, but we don’t want this to be too comfortable, or purely entertainment. So it’s tough to find that balance. Not everyone wakes up in the morning and says, ‘Hey, I want to be taken out of my comfort zone today!’ But deep down everyone knows they can learn and grow and become more successful in their careers and their lives if they do that.”
And ultimately, our L&OD team feels that feeling fulfilled and successful in one’s career really does translate to all other areas of life. It’s not just about learning technical skills we can use at work — their goal is to help us all become happier, more balanced people overall.
As Stephanie put it, “We’re one of the happiest teams at Dropbox. We all get along really well, so how do we translate that out to other parts of the organization and multiply that happiness and engagement? Everything that I’ve most enjoyed in my career has been centered on teaching people how to be better people. I hope that when people are through with our sessions, they feel a little more capable of not only doing their jobs at Dropbox, but being a better spouse or friend or person overall.”
