[Podcast] Talking with Brad Rencher CEO of BambooHR

Learning employee experience from Brad Rencher

Zight | February 16, 2021 | 4 min read time

Article Last Updated: November 10, 2023

[Podcast] Talking with Brad Rencher CEO of BambooHR

As the former EVP at Adobe and current CEO of BambooHR , Brad Rencher has been a pioneer for improving both customer and employee experience. Today we talk about how both can affect where you stand as a business in the modern workplace.

On this episode of The DNA of An Experience, Brad Rencher CEO of BambooHR and Joe Martin VP of Marketing at Zight (formerly CloudApp) talk through how to create an experience for a customer along every stage of the journey.

What we talked about

  • What is the DNA of a good employee experience
  • How does a good employee experience tie in with customer experience?
  • In the modern workplace, how can visuals and video connect your employees?
  • What does your company do about employee experience?
  • What is a recent experience you had that has made you a more loyal customer?
  • What do you think is the future of the modern workplace?

To listen to the audio of the podcast go here

YouTube video

As the former EVP at Adobe and current CEO of BambooHR, Brad has been a pioneer in the industry when it comes to improving both customer and employee experiences. In this episode, he sits down with Joe to talk about the role both can play in affecting where you stand as a business in the modern workplace.

How Brad Got Here

You won’t find a long list of employers when looking at Brad’s resume. When he commits he’s in it for the long haul.

So after spending over ten years of his career helping to build and transform Adobe into the business we know and love today, he wasn’t exactly sure where his next role would take him. He just knew it’d have to be something really worth digging into.

When he came across an opportunity at BambooHR, he very quickly knew it was a place he could put down some roots and immediately make a difference in helping the already award-winning team continue on their trajectory.

Today Bamboo HR is the leading HR platform for small and medium-sized businesses, a not-as-often-discussed but fundamental institution of the American economy. Brad and his team take pride in assisting this demographic of customers.

DNA of Employee Experience

A quality customer experience is rooted in a quality employee experience, but you might not know that by looking at the HR systems in place for many employees.

Brad says that companies need to “elevate their core human capital (employees) to the same level” as all other business objectives if they truly want to unlock the full potential of the company and its customer experience.

The core atomic makeup of a business is its people and the initial “why?” “Why does this company exist? Why are we here?”

The answer to this question, (a.k.a. the mission statement) needs to resonate at a human level.

For Bamboo HR, their mission is “to set people free to do great work.”

By automating as much of the day-to-day busy work as possible, the team at Bamboo is confident that employees will have more time to unlock their full human potential.

If the mission is the “Why” then the values are the “How.” The intersection of these two entities? That’s where the magic happens.

At the end of the day “if you focus on the employee experience and company culture, everything else, including customer experience, is going to take care of itself.”

Making the Connect with Visuals

Virtual events are never going to feel exactly the same as the in-person ones, but with all of the tools currently available to businesses, it’s never been easier to go digital.

Bamboo HR recently took their annual company-wide conference completely remote, and while engaging 700 employees via screen might not be ideal, it is possible to pull off something special with a great creative team.

The company has also started sending short weekly video messages from executives to all employees, which serves as a nice regular connection and morale boost to start the week.

It is also encouraged for the team to share photos and pictures in company chats upon return from cool experiences and vacations, something Bamboo HR takes very seriously. Brad says he is constantly asking himself and his team how they can further “delight” their employees.

The Future of Work

Brad’s predictions around the future of the modern workplace don’t have as much to do with technical logistics or remote vs. in-person, but rather it all goes back to the mission.

“The future modern workplace is where employees feel able to bring their whole selves into work.”

This sort of freedom unlocks more human potential and will ultimately benefit employees and their work communities.

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