Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to The Culture Code podcast. On this podcast, you’ll learn how to grow, shape, and sustain a high-performance culture with the CEO of LEADx, Kevin Kruse. From designing and delivering highly effective leadership development programs, to measuring and improving the employee experience, you will understand what it takes to cultivate a thriving company culture. Through interviews with Chief People Officers, deep dives into key topics, and recordings of our invite-only community sessions, we bring you cutting-edge, data-backed insights from the most desirable companies to work for in the world.
Kruse: Hello, everyone. I'm Kevin Kruse, and welcome to Culture Code. I'm excited for our guest today, the Chief People Officer of Veeva Systems, Welsh! Vivian, welcome! Where are you joining us from today?
Welsh: Thank you, Kevin. I'm joining you from home today in Jupiter, Florida.
Kruse: Jupiter, Florida. Now, Vivian, did you know that off the coast of Jupiter, there have been some of the most shark attacks in the United States? Did you know that?
Welsh: I did. I still like to take my chances when we go to the beach, but so far, so good for me.
Kruse: So yeah, I know where Jupiter is. That's great. Let's dive in. So, Vivian, Veeva is legendary in the SAS software community and in the life sciences industry. For those who might not be familiar with [your company], how big is your organization, and in plain language, what do you do?
Welsh: Sure, thank you. Well, Veeva is a high-growth software company that supports our customers, mostly BioPharma companies, in their mission to improve health and extend human life. We provide software, data, and services that all support the industry and help expedite processes such as delivering medicine to patients more efficiently.
Kruse: But how big's the company?
Welsh: We have about 7,000 employees across more than 40 countries.
Kruse: I'm assuming the headquarters is not in Jupiter, Florida.
Welsh: No, it's not. Maybe one day, you never know, but right now, it's in the presence of California. We were founded in 2007, and that's where our headquarters is at.
Kruse: Wonderful. So, we're here to talk about culture. How would you describe your company culture in just a few words?
Welsh: Sure, it's a great question. Thank you for asking, Kevin. So, the culture of Veeva is really the culture of the people in Veeva, right? We all come from different backgrounds and experiences. So, when you put it all together, that's what really forms our culture. One thing that really aligns us is our vision and values. We're focused on building the industry cloud for life sciences. That's Veeva's mission and vision. Our values revolve around doing the right thing, customer success, employee success, and speed. Having these common values that we all agree with and live each day, really helps shape the culture of the company.
Kruse: Now, did I hear you right? You said "Speed" was one of them?
Welsh: It is a company called a company value, yes.
Kruse: So what I love about that, and this is really for the listeners— You can hear certain kinds of values usually in high-performing companies, and someone could make a reasonable argument to take the opposite of the word, right? So "speed" is one of those unique things which is going to come with many advantages, but also, you know, might have some counter side.
What are some of the ways you foster or sustain this culture? Any unique rituals or traditions related to your culture?
Welsh: Sure. Well, we try to. We also have some operating principles, which are our ways of working, right? We have a few of those, but one of them is to "keep it simple," and that really helps with the core value of speed. They go hand in hand. Speed doesn't mean, you know, a lack of quality, of course. Do it. Do it correctly, do it well, but keep the pace right. Keep the pace as though we were a startup. The pace of innovation, you know, it's so... It's not just about how we work, but it's also about the products that we're bringing to the market. We need to continue to evolve, do it quickly, and do it well in order to stay ahead and remain the same company that we were when we started.
Kruse: Yeah, that's a great mindset. 70% of engagement is correlated to the manager, and front-line managers touch more employees than any other leadership group. What are some of the ways you develop your front-line managers?
Welsh: Sure, it's a great question. So, we do have several programs and ways of working philosophies, you know, that support our other core value of employee success, right? When we think about employee success, we think about creating an environment where employees really feel they can do their best work around great people. We believe very strongly in internal mobility, giving people the opportunity to do jobs or roles that they may not have done before. A lot of our frontline managers are either new people managers; they haven't done so in their career, and they grew up, you know, learning as experts at Veeva. Or, we have managers that may have management experience and come in from another company.
When a person first becomes a manager via promotion or transfer at Veeva, or they get hired as a manager, they go through something called Veeva Manager Boot Camp. There, they learn a lot about our philosophies, our practices, you know, the ways that we engage with employees, like having regular check-ins. So, there are certain things that we do. We try to keep it simple, but there are certain things that we make sure they understand and practice to help them be effective managers. We also have different opportunities for them to interact with each other. We have something called Managers' Communities of Practice, where they can learn from each other—learn by doing. We have other ways as well, quarterly. Our CEO does an "All-Manager" webinar, where he opens it up, and managers can ask questions about anything that might be on their minds or challenges they may be having. So, we like to make sure we give them opportunities to connect not just with the leadership team but also with each other.
Kruse: Tell me a bit about the Manager Community of Practice. That sounds really cool. I imagine it's popular because it gives them a chance to learn, you know, directly from their peers. Are those ad hoc groups, or do they meet every month? Is it just for small groups?
Welsh: Within Europe, for example, and it's cross-functional, right? So it could be somebody who's just new to people management, and it's almost like a community, a cohort. They might hop together on a Zoom call, either impromptu or scheduled. You know, we have a bit of both, where they can just ask each other for guidance. And there are different people you can learn from as a manager. You don't always have to learn from your own manager. You can learn from other leaders, you can learn from your peers, and you can learn by watching folks with more experience. So we just want to make sure we enable and support, right? At Veeva, employees are very much captains of their own ships, and we really invest in that. We expect and encourage them to captain their own ship. We provide supportive guidance programs so that they can be successful, but really, their career is in their hands.
Kruse: It's great you mentioned we're talking about culture engagement. How do you solicit feedback from employees about the culture and their engagement (e.g., engagement or other surveys, town halls, ?)
Welsh: Absolutely, so we have a pretty unique check-in process. We call it the Check-In process, and it's an open, simple, and authentic conversation between the employee and the manager. First, the employee discusses their engagement, and then they elaborate on that. The employee sets their engagement, and then the manager also sets the employee's status, which is their performance. It's a two-way conversation where the employee gets to talk about how it's going for them at Veeva, or you know, it could be the role, it could be some of the requirements of the job. They have an open conversation about how it's going and then what is needed. In that conversation, they also talk about strengths and growth areas. These are some ways that the opportunity is there for the employee and for the manager to focus on the things that are gonna help them be better overall at their jobs. So, the Check-In process is one way.
Kruse: Is this what other organizations might refer to as an annual performance review, or is it something a little different?
Welsh: That's right. We evolved from an annual performance review. We used to have it once a year, and it was a bit more formal before when we changed. It was more of a review of accomplishments and a rating that was given to the employee, whether they were exceeding expectations, things like that. So, we moved away from that annual performance review to a twice-a-year or more frequent if you want, but twice-a-year check-in process. This has helped to create more dialogue, more honesty, more authenticity, and better communication between the employee and the manager.
Kruse: Yeah, I wrote a series of articles some years ago about just how absolutely awful the old-school performance reviews were for so many reasons. I mean, they were usually staged because of ratings, and so either there's rating inflation, or the word has come down that you can only give one person a 5, and everyone else gets a 4, like it's all weird, and it's not about development. It's like, are you gonna max out your pay, your bonus, your raise, or whatever? So there's a different kind of dynamic there.
What you're calling the "Check-In Process," which I like—that's what we call best practices—I like to call them "Stay Interviews" every 6 months. Like, exit interviews are alright, but they're already gone, and they're gonna lie and just say it was more money. A "Stay Interview" is about, you know, "How's it going? Where would you like to be in the future? What do we need to do to get there? How am I doing?" It's a two-way conversation, and you're not waiting until December twentieth, when everyone's trying to get out the door to process the checkmark.
Welsh: So, we've separated compensation from the check-in process just to help with that. And then also, yeah, the idea is to just not be surprised. We have that respect for each other; we're all about respecting the individual, right? Just like an employee should not surprise their manager all of a sudden, you know, they're out the door, and the manager had no idea. It goes both ways. The manager has accountability to let the employee know how they're doing, and give them feedback about their performance. If something's not going great, let them know, and help them identify what needs to be worked on, so there's a path forward for them to continue to work at Veeva. We don't like to surprise each other in any direction. Employees shouldn't be surprising their managers, and managers shouldn't be surprising employees. So, the Check-In process really helps with that. It's a tool. Again, accountability is on the employee and their manager to build that trust and have that open communication, but it's there as a vehicle.
Kruse: Sounds great. Related to culture, are there any special initiatives or results you’re most proud of?
Welsh: That's a great question. I think it's our track record in the industry, our customer success, that's probably the thing that, if you ask most people, they would say they're proud of, right? We have small customers, we have large customers. We care about each one equally, and our services teams, our sales teams, and our product teams, all work so hard to help with customer success. And it's just rewarding to see when it all comes together when our customers are living on our products, and not just live, but live and happy. So they continue to partner with Veeva. We're a strategic partner in the industry. We feel like more than just the vendor, and that's a great feeling. So, I think that's fulfilling when we see our customers treat us in that light.
Kruse: That's great. And listeners, you probably heard Vivian refer to her colleagues as "Veevans" and in strong cultures.
What book would you recommend that your colleagues read? (or podcast, video, etc.)
Welsh: Book to my colleagues? I think "The Ideal Team Player" by Patrick Lencioni. So, stop being humble. It very much is the Veeva way; we like to hire folks that are, you know, nice, work hard, and quick learners. Just a good reminder to always stay humble. It's good to be in the position that we're in, but we always have to earn that every day when we show up to work. That's a good book to just remember to, you know, stay humble, share credit, and share the team's success.
Kruse: It's great. So, thinking about the rest of this year or the year ahead, what skill or behavior do you wish your employees did more of?
Welsh: Well, I think it's because one of our core values is speed, right? We're always accomplishing a lot in a short period of time. Something that I have to work on, that the leadership team does very well, and that we encourage all employees to do, is sometimes to stop and slow down. Think, right? A little more slow thinking creates the space for that because we all run quite quickly. Sometimes we need to stop and engage in some slow thinking, some systematic thinking, in order to maybe have a different perspective or approach things a little differently. So, a little more slow thinking is probably a good practice.
Kruse: So maybe that's the second book, the Kahneman book with System 1 and System 2, you know, balancing out depending on the decision.
What excites you the most about your company right now?
Welsh: I think the opportunity still remains for us to grow. We've come quite a long way in about 15-16 years, but there's still so much room to grow. So many more applications and innovations that we plan and will be bringing to the market. The amazing people that we have yet to hire. We're 7,000 people now, but we're hoping to be about 10,000 by 2025. So that's very exciting to me—the opportunity ahead for growing Veeva and continuing to hire just great talent.
Kruse: I love it, Vivian. Thank you for taking the time this Friday as well to spend some time talking about culture and Veeva. Really appreciate it.