Exclusive Interview with Louise Willoughby, VP of People, Beekeeper

 

In an exclusive interview with HR.com, Louise shares her HR journey, insights on the evolving HR landscape, strategies for navigating AI-driven changes and the future trends shaping the industry.

Excerpts from the interview.

Q: Reflecting on your HR journey, what pivotal moments influenced your career the most? 

Louise: I’ve tended to think of my HR education less as a series of contained epiphanies and more as the steady accumulation of insight into the intricacies of managing personnel. I started in the hospitality industry, where I got a crash course in staying sane and on point amid chaos. My transition to the tech world—first at CERN, the Swiss research organization, and later at Iomega International—taught me how to navigate the sometimes wildly divergent needs of different employees, and how to fulfill those while keeping an eye on overarching business goals. At Beekeeper, I’ve had the chance to synthesize these and other insights as VP of People, in the process learning even more about the optimal way to conduct HR (which is, after all, an ever-evolving field, especially in the tech sector). 

Beekeeper’s mission is to optimize HR for frontline businesses, which usefully raises the stakes: how can we purport to help other businesses if our own isn’t in top shape? Accordingly, in my four years at Beekeeper I’ve overseen the implementation of a robust learning program and have worked diligently to get a much clearer sense of what motivates our employees—because if working at Beekeeper has taught me anything, it’s that the average employee’s motivations are much more complex than is typically understood. As it happens, this applies not just to the HR industry but to all industries, including the frontline industries Beekeeper is built to serve.

Q: Which emerging HR roles or specializations do you see gaining prominence in the near future? 

Louise: Over the last few years, certain long-held assumptions about the motivations of workers have been overturned. The importance, for instance, of salary and benefits when it comes to attracting top talent. Don't get me wrong: those things still matter. But I’d argue that what prospective employees care most about today falls under the general umbrella of "quality of life." There is—sensibly—a much lower threshold when it comes to tolerating undue stress or general workplace disarray. More than anything, people want to feel like their employers are listening to them and looking out for their best interests. 
Accordingly, I think HR is going to see much more emphasis on day-to-day employee happiness and satisfaction levels—what’s increasingly being called ‘People Experience.’ A people-centric approach recognizes that “work” is just one aspect of an employee’s life—it’s a holistic strategy aimed at ensuring the overall happiness of the person. As more and more businesses realize just how central employee satisfaction is to overall success, expect People Experience to flourish. Relatedly, with top talent harder to attract than ever, I think we're going to see much more attention paid to recruitment practices. 

Q: What strategies are you using to identify and address skills gaps within your organization? 

Louise: Continuous learning and growth are at the core of what we do here at Beekeeper and are essential to our culture and success. The hope is that our employees are always learning, always stretching past what they thought they were capable of. Inevitably, one huge component of this is routine, structured feedback: teams can get ahead of any potential miscommunications, because managers are in constant, meaningful contact with employees, working not only to identify and fix any issues that arise but also to help employees shape and move towards long-term career goals. Education is the other half of this equation: at Beekeeper we take the continuous upskilling of our employees very seriously. 

Every single employee has access to a learning budget of $1,500/year, plus three paid days per year for learning and development activities. Additionally, our employees have access to an external coaching program, which many have cited as one of their favorite parts of the job—keeping them motivated and empowered, and accelerating their learning to the next level. 

Q: What impact do you anticipate AI and automation will have on HR functions, and how are you preparing for these changes? 

Louise: When it comes to a massive paradigm shift like AI, sitting around and waiting for change is never going to be a winning strategy. Better to anticipate those changes, and then work to actively bring them about—which is what we've been focusing on at Beekeeper the last few years. In part, this ties into what I was saying earlier about the growing need to get a handle on a workforce's day-to-day satisfaction levels. To this point, employee sentiment data has been hard to come by—there is only so much you can learn from a monthly pen-and-paper survey. AI is already permitting an increased granularity here: through digital tools, employees can assess workforce sentiment much more frequently (and with much greater ease). 

At the same time, via machine learning/AI, they can detect shifts in employee sentiment and help management address workers’ needs. Ultimately, AI and machine learning have the potential to offer HR personnel something we’ve rarely experienced in our field: more time to focus on high-value work. As AI/ML handles repetitive tasks, HR professionals will have the opportunity to innovate and enhance the way we approach our roles. We’re likely to see a significant increase in employee interaction, allowing HR teams to engage in deeper, more meaningful person-to-person work that was previously overshadowed by administrative tasks. 

Q: What are the top three HR trends you anticipate for the next five years? 

Louise: 

1) Purpose-Driven Workplaces: The old notion of employment—clocking in, clocking out, and not thinking much about the larger purpose—is increasingly outmoded. Crucially, this is the case not just in white-collar employment but in frontline work as well. More and more, frontline workers are seeking alignment between their personal values and the company’s mission. If businesses want to retain their employees, they are going to need to do a much better job of communicating a strong sense of purpose. 

2) Mental Health and Well-Being Again: Frontline workers today are simply not going to tolerate a stressful work environment for long. Employers who want to retain talent are going to have to take a much more active interest in their employees’ well-being. Burnout is a key factor here, and a tricky one: more often than not, employers don’t know a given employee has been struggling until the day they tender their resignation. Finding ways to detect burnout early—and intervening accordingly—will be a key task for employers moving forward.

3) AI: We have already delved into this, but it truly cannot be overstated. In HR as in virtually every other field, AI is going to be one of the biggest drivers of change over the next five years. The trick for HR departments will be acting on the surfeit of insights they're suddenly going to have at their fingertips. Ultimately, HR departments are going to spend a lot less time diagnosing problems—AI will be able to support that—and much more time taking steps to fix them. 

Q: What is your success mantra? 

Louise: Listen to your employees and be sure to always give recognition to those who deserve to be celebrated. It's as simple as that. Your workforce makes up the foundation of your business and creating a work culture that prioritizes listening and championing employees will do wonders for your staff in terms of staying inspired, productive, and engaged.