Courtney King
SVP People & Culture
Beatbox Beverages
Episode 260
Empathy & Failure: The Surprising Strategy for a High-Growth, Resilient Workforce
Current chapter: Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built By PeopleMarch 25, 2025 · 14:50
Thesis
“A deeply empathetic approach to employee well-being, coupled with strategic technology and a culture that embraces failure, is fundamental for fostering a resilient, engaged, and high-growth workforce, especially in dispersed organizations.”
Show notes
Beatbox Beverages spends approximately $19,000 per employee per year on caring for its people. That's not a benefits line item — it's a philosophy, and it shapes everything from crisis management to how the company thinks about failure.
Courtney King became an entrepreneur at 21, running restaurant franchises without knowing what HR was called. That hands-on foundation — managing real people through real problems before ever touching a policy manual — is evident in how she approaches the function at Beatbox. When wildfire season hit California and employees were affected by the Palisades fires, the company's response wasn't a single email. It was a layered system: AlertMedia for location-based tracking and crisis communications, Employee Assistance Programs for mental health support, and a hardship fund for financial emergencies. Her key insight: employees in crisis need different things. Some need time off. Others need to work harder to avoid thinking. Some need money. Some need therapy. The response has to be individualized, not one-size-fits-all.
Her cultural signature at Beatbox is equally distinctive: a peer-nominated "Failing Forward" award that celebrates employees who took a risk, learned something, and grew. It's a systematic reinforcement of psychological safety — the kind that produces the innovation the company needs as it scales. Her parting advice to HR professionals: find a mentor, and get comfortable saying "I don't know."
What you'll learn:
- How Beatbox uses AlertMedia plus human support systems to manage natural disaster response for a dispersed workforce
- The "Failing Forward" award: operationalizing a safe space to fail through peer recognition
- Why $19,000/employee in care investment is a strategic choice, not a cost
- How to build individualized crisis support that meets employees where they actually are
- Business continuity planning principles for fast-growing companies with geographically dispersed teams
- Why mentorship and intellectual humility are the most underrated HR career assets
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What you'll take away
- 1Cultivate a 'safe space to fail' by implementing peer-nominated awards for 'Failing Forward' and providing learning budgets, recognizing that innovation often stems from past failures.
- 2Balance automated and human support in crisis management; utilize platforms like AlertMedia for efficient communication and location tracking, but complement with Employee Assistance Programs, hardship funds, and personalized outreach.
- 3Prioritize proactive business continuity planning through organizational clarity, cross-training, and clear communication to minimize disruption during unforeseen events.
- 4Recognize and cater to diverse employee needs during crises, understanding that some may need time off, others may want to immerse in work, and support types (financial, mental health) vary individually.
- 5Actively seek mentors in the HR discipline to navigate unprecedented situations and cultivate comfort in admitting what you don't know, leveraging external advice when internal discussions are not appropriate.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Courtney's unconventional path into HR, starting as a 21-year-old restaurant franchise owner without formal HR experience, contrasts with traditional career progressions in the field.
- •Beatbox's significant investment of '$19,000 a year per employee caring for them' represents an aggressive and potentially contrarian approach to employee care costs, emphasizing extreme empathy over typical benefit packages.
In Courtney's words
“I was 21. I was the owner and operator. I was doing front of house, back of house. And I refer to that as my PhD in life, but how that is connected to human resources, I was doing these tasks that I really enjoyed, but I didn't really know what it was called.”
Illustrates her unconventional entry into HR, gaining practical, hands-on experience before formal education.
“We really bring failures to the forefront because we want to know what people have learned from those failures and how we can have growth. As we know here, like some of the best ideas and innovation have come out of a failure.”
Highlights Beatbox's proactive and positive approach to learning from mistakes to drive innovation and growth.
“So when I think about, we have multiple different layers of support, so we have an employee, assistance program because many times employees need to be— their mental health needs to be cared for in the face of a disaster. We have an employee hardship program as well that employees can apply for.”
Demonstrates a multi-faceted approach to employee support during crises, addressing both mental and financial needs.
“Communication, that's paramount, right? Because you don't want to be putting a plan in place when a hurricane, a fire, or something of that nature is happening.”
Emphasizes the critical role of proactive communication and planning in effective crisis management.
“Some employees need time off, some want to like really immerse themselves in their work to maybe not concentrate on what they're experiencing. Some people need financial resources, some need mental health resources. So just listen to your employees and know that not everyone is the same.”
Stresses the importance of individualized empathy and diverse support based on specific employee needs during difficult times.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Tracking and responding to social and natural disasters for a rapidly growing, dispersed, and remote workforce became inefficient and manual for Beatbox.
- •Employees facing personal tragedies or natural disasters require comprehensive support, including mental health care, financial assistance, and practical help (e.g., debris removal), which is difficult to coordinate.
- •Ensuring business continuity and minimizing disruption when key team members are impacted by crises requires robust planning, cross-training, and proactive resource provision.
- •HR professionals often encounter unique challenges where prior experience is lacking, highlighting the need for external mentorship and a culture of admitting unknowns.
In this episode
Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern for employees in 2024
Built by People
Courtney Miller shares a little bit about her career and how it started
In the Elevator With Courtney
BeatBox Beverages recently launched Alert Media to help with crisis management
BeatBox Beverages Launches Alert Media for Crisis Management
Courtney says organizations should create a safe space to fail for employee development
Creating a Safe Space to Fail
When natural disasters or crises occur, you've implemented both technological and human support programs
How to Support Employees During Natural Disasters
Business continuity plans can help ensure minimal business disruption while supporting effective employees
How to Manage a Crisis at Work?
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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