Shelley Okeefe
Chief People Officer
Platinum Dermatology Partners
Episode 363
Beyond perks: Crafting employee experience with a marketing mindset
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleDecember 31, 2024 · 11:31
Thesis
“Effective culture and employee experience are built by deeply understanding employee demographics, leveraging existing organizational strengths, and adapting flexibly, particularly through significant organizational changes like M&A, mirroring customer-centric marketing strategies.”
Show notes
Most culture initiatives fail before they start—because they're built on aspiration rather than reality. Chelle O'Keefe has seen it dozens of times: senior leaders craft beautiful values and mission statements that employees shrug at, because those words don't describe the organization anyone actually works in.
O'Keefe's counterintuitive approach: start with what's already working. As Chief People Officer at Platinum Dermatology Partners, she draws on a background in industrial organizational psychology and marketing to treat employees the way a marketer treats customers—segmenting by role and demographics to design experiences that land differently for, say, a front desk coordinator than for a physician. She'll even say the quiet part out loud: not all employees drive equal business value, and pretending otherwise leads to undifferentiated experiences that resonate with no one.
Her work at Platinum Dermatology is also a case study in post-acquisition culture integration. The company has grown through acquisition, and O'Keefe's core principle for integration is restraint: don't impose the acquiring company's culture on absorbed entities. Let evolution happen across all of them. It's a harder path than mandating uniformity, but it's the one that preserves the organizational strengths worth keeping. The result: a "Platinum Experience" framework built on the authentic voices of employees who actually love working there—captured through deliberate listening, not leadership assumption.
- Why aspirational values fail—and how to build culture from what's already true in your organization
- Applying customer segmentation to employees: designing differentiated experiences for high-impact workforce segments
- The employer brand method that works: ask the employees who love working there, then use their exact language
- Post-acquisition culture integration: why evolution beats imposition, and how to hold flexibility and core truth simultaneously
- Culture as "heart and science"—structured models plus relentless optimism from the champion driving the work
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What you'll take away
- 1When shaping company culture, start with "what's already working" within the organization rather than imposing purely aspirational values that may not be actualized.
- 2Apply customer experience philosophies from marketing to employee experience, segmenting employees by demographics and roles to tailor experiences for high-impact groups.
- 3Build a strong internal employer brand by actively soliciting feedback from employees who love working at the company, using their language to align with mission and values.
- 4In post-acquisition integration, foster culture evolution across all entities, avoiding a dominant imposition of the acquiring company's culture to maintain flexibility.
- 5Culture work requires a balance of "heart and science," combining structured models with a champion's optimism and focus on creating exceptional experiences for people.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Similar to how a marketer thinks about customers, not all employees may be valued equally in an organization when considering the value they drive to the business.
In Shelley's words
“I think you have to start with what works. Oftentimes I, or what's already working. Oftentimes I see senior leaders put out values or a mission statement that is aspirational... I think you have to start with what's already working in the organization.”
She emphasizes grounding culture-shaping in existing organizational strengths rather than abstract ideals.
“What it taught me was to think about the customer experience... you can take those same philosophies and apply them to the employee experience... think of our employees as our customers.”
This highlights a core part of her unique approach to HR, directly translating marketing principles to people strategy.
“This could be a little controversial, but similar to how a marketer thinks about customers, not all employees maybe are valued equal in an organization when you think about the value they drive to the business.”
This is a bold statement that challenges egalitarian views of employee value, advocating for strategic focus on high-impact roles.
“One of the best ways I found to align the brand work is by asking your employees, the ones that really love to work at your company, what do they love about the organization?”
She offers a practical, employee-centric method for building an authentic employer brand.
“The key, I think, is to not destroy what existed prior by trying to be too dominant with, with the acquiring company's culture. But allowing evolution across all of the entities.”
This provides crucial advice for M&A, stressing cultural integration through evolution rather than imposition.
“Culture, creating culture is a balance of heart and science. And so there are key things, and you can find definite models and programs of how to build culture within your organization. Just make sure that you, as culture warrior, that culture champion, keep your heart in the game and stay optimistic and stay focused on the fact that at the end of the day, it's all about people.”
This powerful concluding thought encapsulates her philosophy on the blend of strategy and passion needed for culture work.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Senior leaders often create aspirational values and mission statements that are not fully actualized by employees.
- •Difficulty in creating a cohesive organizational identity and aligning company culture/brand after a series of acquisitions.
- •Ensuring the employee experience caters effectively to diverse demographics within an organization (e.g., frontline staff vs. highly educated professionals).
- •The challenge of being a 'party of one' (sole culture champion) in an organization where leadership may not fully grasp the vision for culture.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
Dave, tell us a little bit about your career journey
CHRO's Career Journey
How do you approach shaping a company's culture and aligning values and expectations
How To Shape a Company's Culture?
Shelley's background in marketing has influenced her approach to change management
Culture and Change Management in an Organization
What steps do you take to create a strong internal brand that resonates with employees
How to Build a Powerful Employer Brand
Can you share what providing a platinum experience for employees looks like
What is the Platinum Experience?
How do you align company culture and brand identity after acquisitions
Creating a cohesive organizational identity post-acquisition
Shelly, any parting advice you'd like to share with our community
Shelly on Building a Culture
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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