Debbie Shotwell

▶0:01HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Debbie to the Built By People podcast. Debbie, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:55GuestYeah, thank you so much. I am very lucky. I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I went to school. And I said, I'm going to be part of human resources, now called the people team. And I've been so lucky to work with that great company and with great people. I've learned a great deal. Very lucky to go through acquisitions and mergers and meet special people in the process. But I think that's the reason why I'm so still engaged with this great career opportunity being in HR, because it's changed over the years and I've been able to learn and grow in my career. And I've been able to work with people over and over again, which is even more special. I just feel really lucky that I've been in human resources and I've been able to aspire to what I dreamed about when I was very young.

▶2:00HostDebbie, as someone who has led cultural initiatives across multiple organizations, what do you believe are the key elements that create a thriving company culture?

▶2:12GuestGreat question. I really like that. I think culture requires a combination of leadership, values, and daily practices that align with the organization's mission. So having a very clear mission, vision, and values is very important. Define a very clear purpose of the company and make sure your employees understand it and they align with the values. Strong leadership is core. Culture starts at the top and is led by your leaders, and they have to model the cultures and the value, and you have to be very open and transparent with your communications, and you have to encourage feedback., and you have to act on that feedback. Employee engagement and recognition is key. Show appreciation through awards and recognition and provide growth opportunities, training, and mentorship. Having trust in psychological safety is very important. So creating an environment where employees feel safe about sharing their ideas and foster inclusivity and diversity is super important as well. And to support work-life balance and mental wellbeing. Hold people accountable for performance, set clear goals and expectations, provide constructive feedback regularly, and celebrate successes and learn from your failures. Workplace environment and perks are very important to the organization and your culture, and continuous improvement and adaptability. You know, a thriving culture doesn't happen overnight. You have to continue to work on it on a daily basis.

▶3:56HostDebbie, you mentioned in the past a passion for learning and development. How has your approach to L&D evolved over the years, especially with the emergence of AI and other new

▶4:10Guesttechnologies? Yeah, learning and development has really, really changed over the years. When I first started working, you'd sit in a classroom, you'd be scheduled to go to certain trainings, you'd have an instructor, you'd have a very, very tight curriculum with timelines, with less participation from the participant. It was more of a come to class and you learn and you get a stamp saying you've attended. I think with the changes that have happened with e-learning. In-person sessions don't happen very often anymore. Core curriculum is less well-defined and it's actually more fun for individuals. I think the most important thing about L&D at Stack and how it's been really lucky for me is a core value of our company is learn, share, and grow. Which makes it easier. So myself and team don't have to go to leadership and argue about a budget. So the great thing about our partnership that we have with Indeed allows us to actually assess our people and provide content selected for them based on their skills that they want to develop. And this is an AI component. Which we've been using for several years, which we're super lucky, and we call it My Academy. Just recently, we rolled out something called the Opportunities Module, which combines our job opportunities, gigs, and pushes these out to our people and allows them to apply for those opportunities, whether it be a regular full-time job. Or a project they might want to participate in, in building their skills. It's new and it's linked to our L&D system and our LTS system working together to support our employees in their career journey. So it inspires me to see the changes that we've made in L&D, and we love to share knowledge with our people so they can advance in their careers. So it's super exciting. The changes, and this is the reason why I have passion for L&D.

▶6:31HostDebbie, Stack Overflow has gone through some significant changes with AI integration. How do you balance maintaining company culture during technological transformation while addressing employee concerns?

▶6:45GuestThis is a really good question because a lot of companies are making changes and transforming because of AI, I think the most important thing is to communicate and be transparent and be proactive. Be very clear on the why. Explain how AI will enhance business processes and not replace employees because there is a fear there. Address those fears. Be direct. Acknowledge concerns about job security and role changes. And also provide frequent updates. Keep your employees involved and in the loop on the implementation and the impact. Involve employees in the AI journey. Encourage participation. Let employees continue ideas on how AI can improve work. Pilot programs and feedback loops. Test AI solutions with employees. Ask them for their input. And see what their experience is. Empower employees and show how AI can add, automate repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus more on strategic work. People love that. Reinforce the core values and the culture. Ensure AI aligns with the company values. Transparency, trust, and innovation are key. Make sure AI adoption reflects maintain human connection. This is super important. You use AI to enhance, not replace meaningful interactions. And lead by example. Leadership should embrace AI responsibility and model the culture of learning rather than fear. Invest in upskilling and reskilling your teams and your employees. Provide training programs, offer career growth opportunities, and foster learning mindset. Build trust in ethical AI practices. Make sure that you're investing into great decisions around AI and that they're ethical and set guidelines and have feedback and give your employees some control over that. Promote a culture of adaptability and innovation. Frame AI as a learning opportunity, positioning it as a tool for growth and not threat. And celebrate successes. So that's how we've been working it at Stack Overflow.

▶9:16HostDebbie, from your experience as a chief people officer, how do you measure and track the success of your culture and L&D initiatives?

▶9:26GuestThis is really important, and it's also changed over time. What used to track is really actual turnover, hiring, all the basic metrics, you know, attract, retain, and motivate your employees. And how did you do that? So you measured it. Today, so much easier when you can utilize tools like employee engagement and measure engagement from an engagement survey. And then what actions you've taken based on that employee engagement survey and continue to measure that. We also at Stack use an inclusion survey. So we actually ask on a quarterly basis, a very specific set of questions, including an eNPS. So we really find out from our employees what their, you know, net promoter score is. And we utilize that and we actually make it a very firm score for us as part of our evaluation and part of our goal setting for our employees. And we're very transparent about how we're doing, even when the scores go down, which they have over time, and we've had to work our way back up and make those scores look better for us.

▶10:52HostDebbie, as someone who's managed multiple acquisitions, what role does culture play in successful

▶11:03Guestintegration? This is a great question. And a lot of people don't understand this. They want to make it a business decision, but the biggest reason why mergers fail is culture clashes. A well-managed culture integration ensures alignment, engagement, and productivity. Identifying those culture differences early is super important. I've always conducted culture audits to understand the values, the leadership styles, and the decision-making approaches, which really helps in an integration. Recognizing the differences in hierarchy, risk-taking, work-life balance between the two companies. I've seen integrations go very well when the cultures are very well blended, and I've seen integrations of two companies go extremely difficult and they've taken more than, you know, 12 to 18 months because those culture clashes weren't identified very early on. Understanding the core values of both companies and embracing them, or modifying them as you go through an integration. Engage the leadership model culture. So really understanding that the leaders want the culture to be at a tone for the integration. And then cross-company leadership teams can drive alignment and foster collaboration. Foster trust and inclusion. Avoid the us versus them mentality, which happens many times in integrations and makes it difficult. So learning and development plays a key role because they make sure the employees adapt and grow and succeed in a new organization. And it helps bridge the skill gaps and improve engagement and reinforce unified cultures. Onboarding and integration, having a very structured onboarding for both companies and offer culture training to help the teams understand new expectations and norms is very important. Reskilling and upskilling for the new organization. You have to identify what those are and then offer training and development. And leadership development and a unified vision, making sure that the leaders are very clear what the new vision and any changes in the core values is communicated. And then continuous learning to drive long-term success is super important. So culture plus L&D equals a successful merger.

▶13:38HostDebbie, what parting advice would you like to share with our audience?

▶13:42GuestI would really like to say thank you for having me and that I've been really lucky in my career. And one of the most important things is working with smart, bright people, great teams. I've worked with great teams.. And I highly recommend if you're interested in, in a career in human resources, that you really, really look to your mentors and your key leadership to get advice on where you wanna go. And I'm always out there to help. If you have questions, I'm happy to answer them.

▶14:21HostDebbie, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶14:27GuestThank you very much for having me.