Providing Supportive HR for a Connected Employee Ecosystem with Melissa Marshall, VP of People and Organization at Banfield Pet Hospital

This episode features an interview with Melissa Marshall, Vice President of People and Organization at Banfield Pet Hospital, the largest veterinary practice in the U.S. Mel is responsible for leading the people strategy at Banfield, where she serves 20,000 associates including veterinarians and their staff. In this episode, Mel discusses how to use layers of technology to support communication among employees, how to increase diversity in a predominantly white profession, and the many ways Banfield is making the veterinary profession more accessible.Quotes*”It's so important to have that human connection. One of the things that we know is that word of mouth is how connection happens [and] how community is really fostered. And so whether it's through our diversity resource groups, whether it's through our mental health and wellbeing offerings, we've really balanced low tech, medium tech, high tech to be able to create community and draw community around some of these major topics.”*”At the end of the day, what we do is for our people. It's not for the business. It's to make a better world for our people.”*”We have a mission to truly understand people for who they are, their whole selves, everything about them. Truly understand their capabilities, truly understand what's possible, versus that proverbial ‘judging a book by its cover’. I count it my mission personally to ensure that [in] any organization that I work with, people will come first. We will listen. We will listen at scale, and we will act on what our people say.” *”Relationships, relationships, relationships…the ability to partner well and successfully is going to come from having great relationships with your team, to partner well and collaborate. As they say, teamwork makes the dream work. And so the more that you can start your career with relationships at the foundation, I think will be critical.”*”The people strategy is the business strategy.”Time Stamps*[4:23] The Flight Plan: Get to know Banfield Pet Hospital*[7:38] First Class: Best EX practices at Banfield Pet Hospital*[25:21] Turbulence: EX lessons learned*[37:55] Advice for other EX leadersLinksConnect with Melissa on LinkedInCheck out Banfield Pet HospitalThanks to our friendsThis episode is brought to you by Firstup, the company that is redefining the digital employee experience to put people first and lift companies up by connecting every worker, everywhere with the information that helps them do their best work. Firstup has helped over 40% of the Fortune 100 companies like Amazon, AB InBev, Ford and Pfizer stay agile and keep transforming. Learn more at firstup.io