Juliette Dupré
Chief People Officer and Interim COO
OtherSide Entertainment
Episode 8
Unlock Your Company's Potential: Why Employee Well-being Isn't a Soft Skill.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features interviews with world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJanuary 26, 2026 · 11:10
Thesis
“Company success and employee well-being are intrinsically linked and not in opposition, requiring a holistic approach where a healthy work environment directly contributes to business objectives.”
Show notes
Summary
In this episode of the Built by People podcast, Juliette Dupre shares her career journey from a litigation paralegal to a leadership role in entertainment technology. She discusses her current priorities in a volatile world, emphasizing the importance of employee wellness and communication. Juliette highlights innovative initiatives like offering free therapy to employees and shares her approach to enhancing engagement through creative communication methods. She also talks about the essential tools for operations, her aspirations for the organization, and offers valuable advice for aspiring leaders, particularly the need for financial acumen in HR.
Takeaways
- Juliette's career began as a litigation paralegal before moving into tech.
- She values creating a progressive workplace culture.
- Employee wellness is a top priority in her current role.
- Innovative communication methods can enhance employee engagement.
- Free therapy for employees has made a significant impact.
- Slack is a key tool for communication in her organization.
- Juliette aims to create a positive work-life balance for employees.
- Financial acumen is crucial for HR professionals.
- HR plays a vital role in managing payroll, the largest company expense.
- Leadership should focus on both employee well-being and company success.
What you'll take away
- 1Prioritize employee well-being and calm, helping them manage personal and financial situations to enhance focus at work.
- 2Implement tangible wellness benefits, such as short-term free therapy, to provide resources and break mental health stigmas.
- 3Develop engaging and entertaining internal communication strategies, even with limited budget, to capture employee attention for bureaucratic information.
- 4Be highly selective and thoughtful about timing and format of communications to employees, proactively preventing information overload from vendors.
- 5HR leaders must cultivate stronger financial acumen to effectively contribute to strategic business discussions, especially regarding payroll and organizational financial health.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Juliette pushes back on the idea of inherent friction between employee priorities and company priorities, arguing that company success and employee well-being are mutually dependent.
- •She challenges traditional HR education for overly focusing on compliance and soft skills, advocating for a stronger emphasis on financial acumen to integrate HR more deeply into strategic business conversations.
In Juliette's words
“I just found that I was looking for an environment culturally that was more progressive than a law firm is able to offer.”
This quote highlights her motivation for transitioning to tech, seeking a more forward-thinking workplace culture.
“Right now, keeping the focus on the employees and thinking about what they need, our focus has to be on trying to help the employees find some semblance of calm and manage whatever their situations are...”
She emphasizes the current priority of employee well-being in a volatile global landscape.
“So wellness has been important to that priority that I mentioned, giving our employees resources and methods and tools to manage change, not only at work, but in their lives. And so we've been able to offer at the moment free therapy for our employees on a short-term basis.”
This describes a key initiative to provide accessible mental health support and address employee needs directly.
“I think that we have to also entertain people, and I'm in the entertainment business. So I try to where I can, you know, I don't have a lot of budget... So doing unusual things like that, that kind of catch people off guard and give them a little bit of a smile is always useful.”
She underscores the importance of making communications engaging and creative to ensure information is received and acted upon.
“I really believe that in order for a company to succeed, the people need to be in a good place. In order for the people to be in a good place, the company has to be successful, and they have to contribute to that in a way that's impactful.”
This quote encapsulates her core philosophy on the interdependent relationship between employee well-being and organizational success.
“It would be to learn more about finance. I think that's an area where I always feel like I have more to learn... We manage as HR the biggest investment that most companies make, which is their payroll. And so we really need that financial acumen and background...”
She provides critical advice for HR professionals to develop financial literacy for greater strategic influence.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Struggling to make critical but often bureaucratic HR information (e.g., open enrollment details) engaging and actionable for employees.
- •Dealing with vendors who spam employees with untargeted, untimely, and poorly structured communications.
- •Overcoming social barriers and mental health stigmas that prevent employees from accessing crucial support like therapy.
- •Lack of financial literacy among HR professionals, hindering their ability to engage in strategic business discussions around payroll and overall organizational financial health.
- •Finding a progressive and culturally aligned work environment after experiencing more traditional, less flexible corporate cultures.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features interviews with world's top HR leaders
Built by People: Juliette Dupré
We always like to talk about your career journey, maybe the unexpected turns
Tim Ferriss on His Career Path
Tell me about some of your top priorities right now. Yeah, well, the world is a volatile place
Your Top Priorities
Employee communication is becoming harder and harder across every organization
How to Improve Employee Communication
You mentioned Slack. What other tools or platforms are most essential for your operations today
What other tools or platforms are most essential for your HR operations?
If you could leave one piece of advice for our community, it would be about finance
Juliette Moore on Leading With Financial Analysis
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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