Heroes in Business - Eric Mulvin Contact Center Cactus Chat with culture director, Kiezia

Episode Date: July 31, 2023

Amazing things are happening at Pac Biz Contact Center Outsouring! Eric Mulvin talks with culture director, Kiezia, on how the company has become such a “Great Place to Work”  

Welcome to the Contact Center Cactus Chat Podcast. I'm your host, Eric Malvin, and we're excited that you're back for another episode. It's been a while. This is our first episode of the new season, I guess. We've already had one year of podcast episodes, which is a huge accomplishment. So really quick, I want to give a shout out to our podcast production team behind the scenes. Thank you guys for all the hard work you've been doing to put this together. I know it's not easy, but we've got a great episode today because we just recently, we have a huge announcement. And so I'll wait to talk about that announcement, but I brought a guest back on,

Keisha Ygea, who is our company culture director and uh so welcome to the show again welcome back thank you eric thank you for having me back and excited to talk about the big news that you have all right so we've got some really exciting news so let's get into that i don't want to keep our listeners in suspense so keisha i want you to do the honors so drum roll what's the exciting news we have to share with everybody all right thank you eric so we just got certified as a great place to work this year excited to talk more about it so that's what we're going to be talking about today is getting the great place to work uh certification and i'm i've got to play my favorite sound effect oh it, it's so quiet.

So, yeah, we've got a lot to celebrate because after eight years of having PacBiz in existence and the last seven of those eight years with Keisha being director of company culture, we've put so much focus and effort on culture. So that's what we're talking about today, getting the great place to work, what it took to get that, focus and effort on culture. So that's what we're talking about today. Getting the great place to work, what it took to get that, and maybe at the end here I'm gonna ask Keisha for some advice. If you're a business owner, maybe you're in

charge of culture at your company and you're like, I'd like to get that for my business, maybe Keisha has some advice you could share. So let's dive into it because first of all there might be some people who don't know what this is possibly and so let's take a moment to explain what is Great Place to Work certification. And so I got a cool story that I want to share. A week ago I'm in this business group Vistage and every month we meet up with other CEOs, and we all help each other out, same group of CEOs. So there's a new, there's a person here in Phoenix starting a new group,

and so she happened to be in our group this last week, and I was telling the group about my exciting news, hey, we just got this Great Place to Work certification, and she was like smiling, and she had an interesting reaction, and she she's like you won't believe this because her job was before retiring and getting into this uh vistage uh coaching position uh she was president and ceo ceo of uh i think over five different business journal publications here in the u.s uh phoenix is one of them I think there's 17 different cities. But she said about 30 years ago, it was her paper that she was president of when they came up with this idea for the Great Place to Work to recognize those employers that are going above and beyond and that are

doing a lot more to maybe they're giving back to the community. Maybe they're helping make their employers healthier. maybe they're just taking care of them because you know it's more than just a paycheck like there's a lot of things an employer can do so they started recognizing those companies in that city about 30 years ago and it was such a success that they rolled it out to the other business journals within that next year and And then right away, it just started to spread. And so now it spun off as its own organization. And they certify businesses around the world by surveying the employees to see how happy they are.

Are they treated okay? And then we as a company like PacBiz, we get to see the results. How do we do? What are the areas we need to work on but if you score high enough you also get to be recognized and as get the certification as a great place to work and so companies like um and i was looking up who are some of the businesses that have achieved this award so uh cisco salesforce hilton edward jones, Google, Microsoft, AccuCenture, Fidelity, Rocket Companies, Navia, SAP, Dell, Progressive, and the list goes on and on.

So very big company names. And so that puts us right in the same category of those companies. So I wanted to set that up in case you didn't know what Great place to work is so hopefully that gives you guys a little background and it was something that Keisha and I so let's tell the story a little bit we're on the podcast we're here to tell stories so when did we start talking about this Keisha do you remember right I do I do have an interesting story about how did I figure out about great Place to Work. That was three years ago. And I just pitched the idea because during the COVID, I was with the downtime that we have.

We no longer go to the office. So I tried to find opportunities for growth and value I could bring to PACBIS. So I got into this like cultural consulting group. If I can tell it here, they're called Delivering Happiness. So I got like a free consulting with the group. And at the back of the, while doing the Zoom meeting at the back of the Zoom, they have the best, they're actually considered best place to work. And while doing the culture coaching,

they also mentioned that. So that certification, great place to work for us to get certified. Because Great Place to Work is globally renowned. It's a certification where it validates how great your culture is. But aside from that, they have a very innovative system or measurement for your culture improvement. But it says a great deal when you get certified. Yeah, exactly.

It is a great deal. And so thanks for sharing that story because, yeah, you were the. Yeah, exactly. It is a great deal. And so thanks for sharing that story. Because yeah, you were the one that found it. This is one of those things where, you know, when you're in the middle of COVID, and we lost like half of our business overnight when COVID hit. And you could be sitting there thinking like, how can any good come to this? We had to lay a lot of people off. There's a lot of people that were suffering. They couldn't make the income that they were making before. But yet we were able to take these crazy adverse situations and turn them into positives

because I don't think we would have even considered a great place to work. And I remember that year when you talked about it, and we're like, we're going to go for this one day. I don't know why. We didn't have it in the budget because we were struggling because of the what was happening but we're like we're gonna go for this and so yeah and i it was cool because it was only like maybe april or march or april when we reached out we're like hey let's let's look into this what does this cost and what can how do how do we work with um getting getting recognized and so because it's

yeah it's just really cool that we were able to move so quickly once we found out about it right I was excited when you said that you get it we get the certification and that was actually I think three months ago and I was like i had this intention that oh what can we how can we um level up at this and that intention and then you just uh coincidentally you were you found that sign one of the offices like a best place to work badge too right exactly i was uh i forgot what burger place it was it was like a fast food burger place here and i saw the picture on the door and it reminded me like hey you know like we should go for this and so i was like let's look into this yeah so i remember sending that to you but it was

just that little reminder time and it's so funny you know timing is everything so much in business and you feel like man why didn't that work out? And, you know, you beat yourself up over it. And then, you know, a year or two later, you realize like, that was probably the best thing for me. So there's some advice for you guys listening. You know, just remember, it's a long journey. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Well, I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, you know, because I really believe that we would have not gotten this award and the certification if it wasn't for our culture, which is why I'm talking here with Keisha.

So tell me, like, what would you say are some of the aspects of our culture that helped us get this award? Because you are the one that designed a lot of what culture looks like today at PACT is. So is there anything that stands out to you that we've done in the past that you think like, yeah, that's definitely some winning things that helped us get here? So yeah, I tried to, I'm also data driven

and look at the data from great place work with their amazing system metrics so we were on top on communication and we've done a lot on communication we've been using centralized communication tools and we have this in the HR as we HR created this open door policy. And it's not just about the thing about opening or policies, it's just about you talk about your job, but you also talk about what like your struggles about your day-to-day work.

And that's so important, right? Because it shows that you having that open door it's a kind of support to our their agents um yeah so that's on top uh communication and also the yeah so 91 that was the score and second is the leadership behavior. Our practices had been known for having this great management coming from the CEO. And it's not just this culture thing, it's not just for us, but modeling, having this a good model for all the companies out there right to have this great to build this great culture for the people and for the business because when you take care of people you know it's going to do good for your business so true you know and it's great when

you know it's unfortunate that there aren't more businesses that realize that, that they think – I think it's unfortunate that they have to have an award to recognize companies like this because it is that rare. And that shows you just how rare it is because if there were that many companies doing it, there wouldn't be an award for this. So let me see. I want to dig more into this a little bit too uh you know you mentioned the data that it gives us and being data driven uh so we did get some really valuable information on areas that we could we're doing great in areas that we can improve in was there anything else that stood out to you from the data that we got back uh because we did have um 90 over 90 percent of our staff um participate which is i think what was the goal that you guys had oh was it 90 90 plus or above 90 and it will be in that so okay so we have the gold well yeah and you didn't yeah the thing about it really exciting about that

so that about that with the part eric yeah because you don't you only encourage people to participate you cannot force it's a lot one of their guidelines is you cannot uh have it like a force or just encourage them to participate so we have a big number of participants in that aspect yeah we didn't we didn't do it you can't do any kind of incentives and otherwise it's a great way to get disqualified from the program it's like asking to you know pay someone for an amazon review but which happens unfortunately but uh but yeah so uh but was there anything that stood out though from what you saw from the data that we got back that you could possibly share? I don't know. So 94% of technicians or like co-workers, self-co-workers, so they're proud to tell others that they work at Pactews. And it's such a big thing for them to

have that number. And also, 94% they said that they feel welcome, they made to feel welcome when enjoying Pactews. Yeah. So those are the top statements that we have from the data and also about inclusion people like people are treated fairly regardless of their sexual orientation and but there is a like if you like specifically, I think that stood out there for me centers here in tomogata that they don't really uh those that have like big offices they don't have a work from home setup and given the competitiveness of remote jobs and um you know the physical office remote jobs and um you know the physical office but then remote jobs are it's not gonna uh from just chatting with my friends they don't enjoy it because they don't have to fix the social life and the company offers the perks so given the resources and equipment to

do my job um well just want to dig deeper in that because I know we spent so much on good resources to improve our people as well. How they can... I so love this about practice, how you can be, you know, your authentic self. So you can bring... That's how you bring value to the company, right? But you're being authentic, bringing your skills and talent to the company.

And it did, personally, it did change. There's one specific tool that really changed, like, let me be able to give a valueotech company was that culture index where yeah i love that one which was the last episodes the last with jackie all right so yeah that was great thank you keisha because i do love that we're able to help people be their true selves and uh as much as we can in whatever

position we have at PacBiz. So now what's an interesting challenge that we're going to be facing, you know, we've built PacBiz up to this size over the last eight years. The next big challenge we're going to face is as we grow, how do we maintain that culture? We're at 250 employees right now. We want to get to a thousand. So we're a quarter of the way there. But we're talking about opening up a site in another part of the Philippines that has no connection to Dumaguete. And so that's going to be an interesting challenge. So how important is something like the Great Place to Work certification as we're getting ready to do this big expansion and start you know pulling pack biz in

new places that people don't know they won't know us in other parts of the Philippines like they do where we're at now yeah so having the certification You know, we had this ICT talent night locally, and then we had our logo with a Great Place to Work banner for the first time up there. And I believe it's already attracting talents locally when they see that badge. So when we have the opening, we open another office, it's gonna be, especially when they search it online, most of these talent or skills, they would go for a great place or a company with... considering their skills and talents, right? If you are doing it, if your company is great, then you would attract the same thing great talents and how do we maintain the

culture in that if we build another office would be it would come down from the core values that we have so again going back to the resources we really spent so much on on bettering any aspect of the business including culture and keeping maintaining a culture so we can easily expand with that same culture that we build over the years so yeah yeah i love that you're bringing up core values because that was actually one of the questions i over the years. So yeah. Yeah, I love that you're bringing up core values, because that was actually one of the questions I had was, you know, core values at PACBiz now, it's summer 2023. They really started and we started that process right after COVID. Again, a lot COVID, so many things happened, we could have thrown our hands up and like, oh my gosh,

why is this happening to us? We decided, you know, we're going to get to work. We're going to work on the business and work on the company. And so we came up, we went through a bunch of exercises, got everyone in the company involved and came up with our core values of family, respect, teamwork, compassion, and personal growth. And for the last three years, we've been talking about it. We painted it as a giant mural on our walls. We're getting ready to launch another initiative where we're going to be talking about the behaviors that go with those core values. And we'll be talking about that every week with the staff. But talk to me about that. How important do you think we're having these core values to achieving this culture that we have so that we could get this Great Place to Work certification?

Well, yeah, core values, any company is to call it like co- or a guide so from the word itself guide it's a guide for the culture they want to build for your company um so we wouldn't have this great place to work without having a really core values uh specifically values specifically when you get this certification they would ask for very specific there is a the charitable amount that you have are you doing so it would been big and that we give on a monthly basis based on our core value passion and respect also that's why we had this 91% that's on the leadership behavior and leadership is so important in a company you don't like your boss yeah right that's true that's i think one of the top reasons why people leave their job is because they don't like their manager and so many people

they they make they make the same mistake so many companies make the same exact mistake they just take hey this person's doing good in whatever job they are now you're in charge of people they might hate managing people and now they're doing bad you're like what happened there were a good employee now they're showing up late they're not they're not happy with their job they're not energized like they used to be and so you know that i hate to bring up culture index again but like you know that, that's right there where we've got to find the right people into the right seat. And when you have that happen and you mix in those core values, then everything seems to just work, you know, because of the teamwork. We give people opportunities to give back to the community which i really love and then that means as we grow we're going to be able to give back to more parts of the philippines

and you know i don't even think about the the whole thing about you know attracting people like but you're right we are we are going to attract people that are really talented really smart and hard working that are going to want to come to pack because they just didn't know we existed and now that they start finding out we exist um we're going to get some really amazing people so i'll be excited you know to hear about who who joins the team and uh who are those other 750 people out there uh that are gonna be joining on but yeah i because of those core values though i think we're gonna be able to because that's what we use to find the right people right like we've for three years now it's like do they line up with these core values and if they don't maybe

they've been working here and now they don't line up anymore so we gotta we gotta show them the door um because you know it's a big family we don't have room for someone that isn't performing that isn't a good fit so okay so it's um not just like amazing people but they didn't be working with um an amazing company um being part of the back this family, literally part of the family. So we just had this former co-founder, he visited here and he's still part part of the pacific family and we went to the cousin and also some of the former and present um staff or we're joining him for um hanging around with him right and with our family is very evident with our partners um how um they also have their part and it is like they're just like friends or family so that's like family yeah because the thing about it is we do it on a consistent basis so just to borrow our general

general manager's quote that consistency is the key so yeah she does say that a lot yeah yeah yeah and yeah and i think the consistent the consistent thing that you'll find at pacbiz is those core values and you know that we really try to put out into the world what what we're trying to attract, too. Like, we want to find people that line up with family, respect, teamwork, compassion, personal growth. So it's amazing when I'm talking to clients, and I'll share another example. This week I had an opportunity to interview one of our health care clients up in North Scottsdale. And we've been

working with them for a year now so I was like hey can we do a video testimonial so I went out to their office and set up all the gear that I have around me and you know I got to hear some stories because it you don't normally ask like these kind of questions on a normal conversation so you know like what impact that we have on your business? And, you know, I started digging into that and the answers just blew me away. And, you know, like while he's there talking, I'm like thinking of ideas of like, my gosh, we should be doing more of this and that. But family, you know, that theme of family, that was something that came up with him.'s like i really consider you know my virtual

assistant as part of our family here at our company and we want to be able to come out and visit the philippines one day and see our remote employee in person and it was cool to hear that because i didn't they've never said that to me so i didn't know that they were wanting they were a lot of people say they want to come out to the Philippines, but I didn't hear that from them. But it's just, you know, and if you're not a good fit, like, we got to get rid of you, too. And that's the same thing for clients, the staff. And so I think just as important as it is to find the right people, but when people aren't a good fit, we have to get them out, too. Because that could that's that's another one of the top reasons why people will leave a workplace is because of toxic behavior with co-workers you know if there's constant

gossip being if there's threat they're working they're just stressed out because they got to deal with all this this crap like why why do that I'm gonna go find another job where I could hit the reset button and I don't know it'll be a bunch of people have no idea who I am. And I don't have to think about this stuff. And that's what people are doing. They're quitting. They're going to other jobs.

And I think the fact that we have this low retention, under 20% every year, that we've got people so happy and these core values. So, Keisha, I've got to thank you for helping put all this in place at pact is because i know we wouldn't be here having this conversation if it wasn't for all the work that you and everyone in your department has been uh and the so the teamwork not just the department you guys get everybody involved in a company uh and if we didn't have that involvement if you did an event and five people show up you know what good is that it's not making an impact but people show up we i mean we had an event earlier this year when i went to visit they got a permit shut the street down in front of the office and we had former employees coming out to hang out and uh so i

mean stuff like that it's just you just see examples over and over and over again of those down in front of the office and we had former employees coming out to hang out and uh so i mean stuff like that it's just you just see examples over and over and over again of those core values and uh and this is why i'm i'm so excited that we have some validation here like we've got now instead of like the thing i've been saying i think i said it in my video to everyone you know like we could talk all day about how great our culture is and we've got some really good data to back it up but now we're getting some outside companies to look at pacbus and say yeah you know what they do have a good culture there is something good here going on uh which is super helpful because then hopefully we could attract more clients which means we could hire more people, give more people jobs that fit those core values.

And 110 million people in the Philippines, I'm sure there's a couple hundred more we could find that match those core values to work at PacViz. I so agree, Harry. And yeah, it's a smart thing to do. We're getting to the core here instead of just um you know changing i mean your core values is uh we're just getting to the core of things right to do to run your business um smoothly and it's

the the power of having this like strengthening your core values and um yeah in any i believe in any um culture so yeah yeah for sure we don't have to like change um please do the job and you'll be part of the path of this family forever maybe join us all right keisha well it's uh getting to be about the time to wrap up our episode here today so thank you for helping me make this huge announcement, Great Place to Work certification. But we're not done. We still have more to talk about here, including some really amazing advice that Keisha shares to companies that are thinking about improving their culture, about maybe going to that Great Place to Work certification. about maybe going to that great place to work certification um and so make sure to uh subscribe make sure to check back uh check back in two weeks where we continue the conversation and we'll keep talking more about what makes pacbiz a great place to work so thank you guys

for listening thank you keisha for being on the show today so yeah thank you eric it has been great chatting with you yeah and uh we'll see you guys on the next episode. See you. Catch you guys in part two. All right. Bye.