Jen Fox, VP People Experience and Culture at Justworks, discovered her passion for training and developing people early on. She shares learnings from her experiences at Nordstrom and Starbucks as well as working independently as a coach. Jen continues her journey at Justworks supporting new career pathways and navigating new work arrangements, empowering their employees to help figure it out.
[3:10] Jen starts out as an entrepreneur.
[5:05] The business reaches an inflection point and they have to make a decision.
[06:30] Jen joins Nordstrom and gets moved in Learning & Development.
[07:20] At Starbucks for five years, Jen benefits from many different experiences.
[08:15] Leadership’s commitment to the employee makes a difference—including transparency and openness.
[08:30] Jen hones her HR skills at Getty Images.
[8:55] Early understanding and observations about company culture.
[13:00] In HR, you’re often trying to bridge gaps. Jen shares her HR experiences when her company was acquiring younger, and smaller, companies.
[14:05] It’s very hard telling people that you have to let them go.
[16:30] Someone paid Jen for her opinion as a professional in HR, and this experience gave her a lightbulb moment.
[18:40] By doing side consulting gigs, Jen was able to develop her skillsets much more effectively than by staying at a full time job.
[22:45] It’s an exciting time for Jen and the HR field in general. People are recognizing how important this department is for development and growth.
[28:45] What are Just Works core values?
[32:45] Every manager is empowered to create a team agreement.
[33:40] Like anything else, this process is a journey.
[36:35] What are some of the benefits of working for Just Works?
[38:40] People have a much more blended work/life integration in their calendars and it’s important to recognize that and work with that.
[41:30] People are requesting more learning workshops to enhance their skills as a manager. Jen is working on delivering that.
[45:20] Jen is still trying to find the right balance between work and planning mode.
[48:05] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP: Remember your why. In the hardest times, it’s a pause to remember why you are doing this work. It’s different for everybody. Get in touch with your why.
“It’s a privilege being at a company where our employees are at the center of it all.”
“If you take care of the people and yes, there's a lot of process and logistics and paperwork. But if at the end of the day, these are just people. How can we help and support them?”
“What I realized more so for myself was that doubling down on my strengths gave me more fuel, more energy. The more I did it, the more confident I became. And then the more people wanted to hire me.”
“We were able to pivot and get our stuff together essentially so quickly because we had to. Because we, our customers, all those little companies were now looking to us to help them keep the lights on.”
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