Lauren Schneider on Personalizing benefits and connection in a remote world

Speaker A: Foreign. Okay. So welcome to Vibe Makers. Today. I have Lauren Schneider, uh, with us from Comt. And I'm really excited about this. This one. Uh, Lauren is just. Her energy is awesome. Uh, Lauren is the head of brand and communications at comp, a lifestyle benefits platform that gives people what they actually want. TV journalist who, uh, traded breaking news for breaking boundaries in HR Tec. Ah. She transforms dry benefits talk into stories that actually engage. I love that, by the way. And when she's not making workplaces more human, she's bringing storytelling to her community as a board member for the Central Pennsylvania Festival of Arts and company member at, ah, Happy Valley Improv. Awesome. Welcome, Lauren.

Speaker B: Thank you. You know what's funny is, um, as you were saying that when I'm not making workplaces more human, I thought to myself, I'm making more humans because I' pregnant right now. So I'm, uh, glad that you think that I have a lot of energy because I am trying so hard.

Speaker A: I did not know that. Congratulations. You are literally making humans. Yes. But you're. You're affecting the future for the humans you're making, which is awesome.

Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I like to think. You know, um, something that our founder CEO Amy Sperling has said multiple times that really sticks with me, especially since we're fully remote, is that, uh, the people on our team, a lot of our kids, have the opportunity to see what it's like for mom and dad and whoever to, like, work. I remember growing up, and it was easy for me to figure out, like, yeah, my mom's a nurse. Like, I know what nurses do. And, yeah, my dad works in construction. That makes sense. But if someone had told me, like, yeah, I'm a marketer, I'd be like, okay, I don't know what that means.

Speaker A: It's so true. And when you think of it that way, the idea of workplace culture and whatnot is very much intertwined in the remote and hybrid workforce. I mean, my daughter, she's on spring break, she's a teenager, much, much beyond me. But she, you know, I was like,

Speaker B: oh, Harper, I have to go.

Speaker A: I'm recording a podcast. So she gets to see what happens during the day and hopefully take lessons, good, bad, and ugly, uh, for her future workforce experience. And this is a good one, by the way.

Speaker B: But it's good.

Speaker A: I love your journey, though, because you have gone from, um, what seemingly are two very different worlds in what you do from a work, ah, standpoint. That said, I'm curious to know a little bit more about Your recent journey and how that's really kind of affected your views on workplace culture.

Speaker B: Yes. So I'm gonna start with probably the most controversial statement that I could make.

Speaker A: Oh, please.

Speaker B: Because if you, uh, if you know anything about me or have followed me on LinkedIn, apparently I skew contrarian with everything. I having worked in the news industry and a variety of places, like, you know, when you work in retail and hospitality and you are trying to get by in college, like sling shoes at Payless and drinks at bar bars and whatever else that looks like you kind of see the worst of everything. Um, and I came into HR tech, not HR's number one fan. I had previously bad experiences. I allowed for the bad apples to spoil the bunch. And I hate that about myself because there are so many amazing people that I have met since and they've completely changed the way that I think about workplaces because in the situation that I'm in right now, I am incredibly supported. There's so much flexibility. Leadership is transparent and communicative. And for maybe a short while at comped, I thought, well, this is unique. I'm never going to find this anywhere else. And then the more I started speaking with people, leaders in other companies, other industries, stages, sizes, I realized, oh no, there are people out there in the world trying to do the same exact thing. So it's like my little glimmer of hope.

Speaker A: Yes. You know, I see that so often where people have almost this, you know, post traumatic stress from a bad experience with hr. And whether that was from the HR professional or from just the organization and how they set up, set it up, they carry that with them and then that's, you know, by people studio. I've seen great cultures and I've seen those caring environments. I want to make more cultures like that in more environments. So totally resonate with that. And what's interesting about comp is their comps, they're taking a different approach to workplace and lifestyle benefits. So maybe would you mind telling me a little bit about the model and how it actually caters to, you know, actual employer or employment workplaces?

Speaker B: Sure. So there are a few, I guess, facets to this. So comp started as, uh, taking perks and making them more personalized. So we knew for a really long time that, you know, the ping pong tables in the Google office were real cool and all right, beanbag chairs are pretty neat too, but that doesn't translate to everybody. Um, and when you look at a hybrid or remote workforce, that certainly doesn't translate because then those People are missing out on their compensation, and then that inherently makes your benefits package not equitable. Uh, so we spun perks on their head and said, well, what does true personalization? What does true flexibility look like? And companies were already kind of familiar with the idea of stipends. But if we took that a step further and looked at lifestyle benefits, how can you support the people that you work with more holistically? What does that look like? So it started with things like health and wellness and food and family and, uh, student loan reimbursement and even, like, tech and remote work office equipment. And we started to see that we were able to help different types of people in different life stages, different scenarios all around the world. And then comp started to grow based on customer feedback. So we had HR administrators saying, well, you know, what would also be nice is if we could roll in our recognition program to this. Or what would also be nice is because stipends and business expenses are fairly similar and we need to make sure we're tax compliant. It would be great if we could also do that. And we just kept saying, yes. We're like, of course, that makes plenty of sense. So we started building more things and building more things and most recently released, uh, a product that is called Professional Development Pro. So we are again, responding to the market and seeing that so many companies are investing in their people's career growth, their trajectory. We know that people are coming out of college and maybe wanting different types of support in their careers. And then we know on the other end of things, we have people who maybe were once eyeing retirement and instead staying longer. So what does career growth look like for them at that point? Because it's not necessarily working toward a promotion or whatever else that might look like. Um, so again, you see the one size doesn't fits all. So how do you personalize those things? We, um, saw a lot of people using professional development stipends, uh, things beyond tuition reimbursement and into conferences and books and a subscription to Audible and productivity tools and all of these different things. A class at a local community college. And we thought, well, how do we make that easier to administrate? Because that could be kind of chaotic. And then you deal with the requests that are like, uh, well, I took this class and I already spent $1,000 on it, and I thought you were going to approve it. The back and forth between managers and the employee. And then HR is kind of involved, and then finance gets involved, and there's this web of chaos happening. So we created something to streamline all of that. So as we keep building and building and building, the core of what we're trying to do is personalize everything and make sure that companies are doing what they can to fully support employees. M. On the employee's terms, not the employer's terms.

Speaker A: And I love that because one of the things that comes up in a lot of the conversations that I've had with other individuals in the HR and people op space is, look, there's this concept of connectivity. The workforce has evolved a lot. We're struggling to remain connected with our team, but also there's this focus on whole employee health and how are we supporting our whole employees. It kind of sounds like this is a way to help these professionals actually do that because a lot of times they're like, I don't know, I can't reach through the zoom for every single employee that we have and ask them, m, what do you want? And actually be able to supply it.

Speaker B: Yeah, because it's so hard to figure out what you can prescribe to people. Like, as someone who would manage this program, so often someone in the people ops function like your expertise, of course, is in people, but not knowing every single thing that everybody wants. And if you do, then maybe you know those people too well.

Speaker A: You need to step back.

Speaker B: Exactly. So I mean, who are you to say that what works for one person works for all people? And a lot of HR people really get that. So the, the difficulty is really beyond the HR function and getting the rest of the C suite on board and seeing that like, this is something that people don't just want, but they need. This is something that is going to attract talent, it's going to keep talent. And I know we always talk about, well, what's the return on investment? Well, uh, how do you look at it? Do you look at the replacement cost of whatever employee you're going to lose because you couldn't offer them some kind of family stipend that allows them daycare support. Now they, they can't return to the office because they don't have anyone to watch their kids. And that's just one example of so many. So it can get kind of chaotic if you don't have something to manage this. But you know, our thing that we always say is it's not a, uh, nice to have, it's a must have. If you look at today's workforce, like, what are you doing?

Speaker A: Right, Absolutely. It's a human workforce. And a lot of times I think it's viewed as a cost center versus an opportunity for profit. And there's a lot of, uh, that narrative around. How do we change workplace sentiment from a leadership level from cost center to profit driving? There's even the concept of, hey, if you're a SaaS company, how do you remain innovative and have quick innovation cycles? We need people firing on all cylinders. So we have to care for them inside and outside of work to make sure that they're not only happy, healthy and productive, but they're also coming up with great ideas. But they need to be in a good spot and, uh, well cared for.

Speaker B: Absolutely.

Speaker A: Yeah. So as far as, you know, workplace culture in general, you know, this is, this is Lauren outside of Compt. You know, what would you like to see happen with workplace cultures? Um, it can be leadership. It can be whatever comes top of mind. What would you like to see shift in the next two, two to five years?

Speaker B: Oh, well, the easy answer is everything. I'd, um, like to see everything shift. I would really love to see more people have the same support and flexibility that I do. Um, I didn't know that the grass could be greener until I saw it and it was watered by the people around me. Um, there are so many people that I speak with. I mean, I was even just talking to my neighbor like two days ago, um, about her work situation. And she's a government employee, so she's going through all sorts of struggles right now. Um, not quite close to retirement, but close enough. So she's like, uh, you know, you give your life to a company and this is the thanks that you get. And she has said that she has long told her son and daughter to like, look out for yourselves, like support your wellness. What does work life balance mean to you? You have to do things for you, put yourself first, because companies aren't going to put you first. And I hate that. I hate that that's true. I think that companies can put you first, they can put everyone first. Because I'm seeing it happen in real time at compt. And I mean, we're a startup. Like, uh, we move very fast. Startups are inherently prone to burning people out. And yet we are not experiencing that here because we treat people like adults. We realize that sometimes you have an appointment at the dentist at 12:30 and you need to just step out for an hour and then come back and do your work later. Yesterday I stood outside because it was really nice. I was like, I need to touch grass. If I am going to do any more creative work today, I have to get outside. And then I was Able to come back to my desk and crank out the things that I needed to be productive with. So now that I've seen that it's possible, it's almost. I can't wrap my head around the fact that other companies can't or won't do this. And it's frustrating.

Speaker A: It is. It's this mindset shift. You know how many, um, companies that I've talked to where they talk about burnout and workplace flexibility and it's like, well, they're working 40 hours a week or they're working 46 or 48. It's like actually if you reset your mindset set of am I having really thoughtful one on ones with my team, am I actually leading them to help remove roadblocks? How are we defining the role and when does that break? I think it's getting these companies in that mindset where it's like not butts and seats, it's, uh, in time and chair. It's literally what do you expect from the role and then co creating what that role is with them.

Speaker B: Yeah. Amy says all the time, she's like, measure to outcomes. Why are you measuring hours? Why are you checking to make sure someone's green light is on? Maybe their green light isn't on because they are heads down in creating something or coding or writing or whatever they're doing. And you know, slack and teams aren't perfect.

Speaker A: No, not at all.

Speaker B: So maybe the light isn't totally accurate all the time. Why are you tracking clicks? If someone is producing what their role expects of them, and whether they are doing exactly that or going above and beyond that is on them. But either way, if people are doing their jobs, like, just let them do their jobs. Did we not hire adults? Are we not all adults here?

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: I don't know.

Speaker A: Depends on the day, right?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. So good. And you know, I, uh, completely agree and I think that's why we're all in the business, to try to free these people up to do their best work and how we go about doing that. I'm also curious. It's probably a leading question, but you're a storyteller by trade, by nature, and I'm curious to see, you know, storytelling comes up a lot in conversations around culture and communication, internal communications. Have you, you know, do you tend to intertwine that storytelling with culture? I'm just kind of curious how you've seen that in action.

Speaker B: Yeah, I think I do it without knowing that I do it. Um, people have definitely brought up to me before when I'm trying to get a point across. Aside from talking with my hands, which is what I was just, I just caught myself doing as I'm trying to get a point across. Um, I really lean into metaphors and storytelling and trying to, um, connect the emotion of something to my belief or whatever point I'm trying to make, because I feel like it helps with context. And I know that people respond, um, to those things more, they relate to you easier. Um, I actually am starting to go down this path of getting better at storytelling because I think somewhere along the way I got a little bit too rigid or black and white. White news writing does that to you. Like the keep it simple, be objective. It is just this. Lose the flowery language. And as I'm exploring brand and internal, um, and external communications, I'm realizing that's not how people talk. That's not how they relate to one another. You and I, right now, as we're explaining our sides of whatever opinion we have, are relating them to stories like conversations that we've had. You mentioning that your daughter is seeing you podcast me talking to my neighbor down the street. And those little moments are what people pick up on. And I think that is what creates, I don't know, just like a real culture. Because we're not robots. We all have stories. I get that it's maybe a little scary for some people to share their stories or get really personal, because, I mean, when have we been rewarded for that? In historically. Historically and in workplaces, um, it can be a fine line to walk, but if you have the right supportive work culture, then, I don't know, you can be as weird as you want to be.

Speaker A: Yes, exactly. And I think that comes from the top. You know, the storytelling they talk about, you know, providing context, you know, over, uh, clarity. Because being a transparent company, transparency is a part of a culture that was all the rage. Mhm. Two, three years ago, everyone said we're transparent. Well, that's great, but what's the context behind it? What's the story? Because that connection piece and that re engagement from your team is so important. And unless you have that personal story, whether it's the hero's journey or whatever that looks like, not understanding how that correlates with the work that our team is doing is huge. And that's kind of what I'm hearing from you, is how do I get people to connect with me on a professional level through my personal stories?

Speaker B: Yeah, because when you say things like transparent or other workplace jargon that so many of us fall into, you Ask yourself inherently, like, what does that mean? But if leadership is showing that, well, transparency means that the CEO is going to write in a Slack channel, hey, I need to run, uh, out to take my kids to a doctor's appointment or. Um, it's, you know, It's Friday at 3 o' clock and my daughter has ballet and I gotta run out. You might see me online a little bit later, but I'm just following up on some emails. Don't respond to me. Like, don't, don't worry about anything. I'll schedule send stuff. If anything's important, you'll see it Monday morning. That's transparency. Because then that type of behavior can be modeled elsewhere. People aren't deathly afraid to step out to get their kid off to school. School on the school bus, or take five minutes to go grab a snack in the kitchen or whatever that looks like. Like, we don't need to have our butts glued to chairs all day long because we realize that realistically, that's not what leadership is doing and that's not what our managers are doing. So it creates a more flexible, transparent culture.

Speaker A: Exactly. And it's sending signals, you know, just like you're sending signals to the team that you care. I did like unreasonable hospitality, making caring cool. Like, I think that goes with what you'd like to see, you know, culture changing into. But, uh, you know, even sending signals and cues of. It's a safe environment to take care of the things that you need to.

Speaker B: Yep.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so I have just one or two kind of more fun. I used to call them rapid fire, but they're not really rapid because they actually take some time. But more fun questions. So if comped was a, if comp Culture was a theme park ride, what would that, uh, ride be? And bonus points if you can tell me what it would be called.

Speaker B: Oh my gosh. No wonder why it's not a rapid fire question. I could think about this forever. I'm going to answer something and then a couple hours from now I'm going to be upset that I didn't say something else. Um, I'm trying to think of something that captures everyone on our team because we, I want to say I don't know how we've done it, but I kind of know how we've done it because we look for culture add, not culture fit, um, when we're adding to the team. But we've created this group of people that are all so very different and unique and yet wildly supportive of each other. Like we are each other's cheerleaders in an insane kind of way. We want to see everybody succeed. We like to know things about each other and, like, share pictures of our families and something silly that our dog did earlier and just random, uh, thoughts that pop into our heads that are kind of funny. A meme that we saw earlier that we thought everyone would like. Like, there are no inside jokes because everybody is in on the joke, like at all times. So I'm trying to think like, what, what does that look like? Is it a carousel? Because we're all on the ride at the same time and some of us are experiencing ups and downs, but we're all there, we're in it together, and we're all moving collectively in the same direction. I don't want to say we keep going around and around because that sounds like we're never innovating. So maybe it's some kind of non circular carousel which doesn't exist. Maybe it's like the train ride or something at the park. I don't know. But I. But the carousel is so classic and feels like fun and like there's whimsy and there's always like sometimes weird carousels where like one is like a fish and not a horse. Stuff like that. We're all different. Yes. So maybe it's that. And I don't. I gotta think of a good name. Are there names to carousels? Do people name carousels or is it just always like, do you want to go on the carousel?

Speaker A: Well, but it could, you know, and there's the play on words.

Speaker B: Care.

Speaker A: Oh, sell.

Speaker B: Um, see, this is. Would you like to work in branding? It's collaboration.

Speaker A: I know.

Speaker B: That's good. I like that a lot.

Speaker A: That is.

Speaker B: That is where I will stake my flag. We would be the care.

Speaker A: Love it. Awesome. And if you could recommend one podcast or one book or even just any one follow right now, what would you recommend?

Speaker B: Uh, one is impossible. Um, I'll be totally real. I listen to a lot of murder podcasts, not business ones. I don't know if I would necessarily recommend that. Uh, same with books. Psychological thrillers are my jam. I tend to not do a lot of learning when it comes to reading, uh, and listening to things that could be, you know, business oriented and educational. I'm like, it's. It's a brain break for me. So I would go with, um, who to follow. I know that there are some very, very interesting people on LinkedIn that I am connected to and I love just reading things that they're working on. But if I could like cheat and name a group of people, it would be the fractional people people because I think they are fabulous and doing very interesting things and I also just want to keep an eye on them at all times because I feel like they are in the know and I want to be in the know.

Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Especially if you're fractional, you have to join FPP because I mean they're just so supportive and also knowledgeable. Like that is literally my knowledge repository. Is that that Slack channel that they have?

Speaker B: And there's so many of them who were in house and I feel a lot of people are going fractional. A lot of consultancy is happening and I think that says a lot about what workplace culture and organization is going to look like in the next few, five, ten years. We, um, see it happen outside of HR to a lot of like fractional marketers, fractional finance people. So what does work look like moving forward? I don't know. But I'm sure the FPP folks have an idea.

Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. They have lots of webinars and whatnot. And to your point, even for the in house HR and people pros to start thinking about that, you know, really start trying to get your head around like what does the workforce look like pretty soon. Because it's shifting whether or not we're intending it to or not.

Speaker B: It's true.

Speaker A: Yeah. Well, great. So Lauren, how can people find you?

Speaker B: Oh, I'm around. Um, I probably on LinkedIn. Uh, Lauren Schneider. I am, I am posting all the time, every day. I'm chronically online. It's uh, both a problem and also like great for business. Business. Yeah, which is totally fine, I guess. So find me there. Um, DM me, my DMs are always open if you want to email me, even in case you're like, I don't know, old school like that. It doesn't feel old school, but I like a good email. It's Lauren Compt IO. Um, yeah.

Speaker A: Awesome. Well, Lauren, I love what you're doing and frankly, yes, if you don't. And also go to Lauren's profile and double click the, the bell too so that, that way she comes up to the top of your feed because it's really interesting, super fun and engaging stuff. Um, and comped is doing some amazing things. I was really excited to come across comp and get introduced to you, um, and excited to see you grow and thrive and yeah, thank you for coming, um, and being on Vibe Makers and I'm excited to continue the conversation elsewhere.

Speaker B: Thank you. I am kind of honored to be considered a vibe maker because I just feel like that's what we should all be doing. So if you see my LinkedIn and you're like, wow, some of these posts are about the workplace and some are just completely unhinged. That's all part of the vibe.

Speaker A: It is absolutely. Great. Well, uh, thanks, Lauren.

Speaker B: Thank you, Sam.