UpClose with Pax8

 

In this series we take you UpClose with some of the world’s top HR leadership teams who share their experience, insights, lessons learned and how they are shaping the future of work for business and society.

Episode 4/4 - UpClose with Pax8

Pax8 is the leader in cloud distribution. As a born in the cloud company, Pax8 empowers MSPs to achieve more with cloud technology. Through billing, provisioning, automation, industry-leading PSA integrations, and pre-and-post sales support, Pax8 simplifies cloud buying, improves operational efficiency, and lowers customer acquisition cost.

Pax8 has been ranked in the Inc. 5000 for five consecutive years as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., and ranked #1 on the Denver Business Journal’s Fast50 as the fastest-growing large business in Denver, Colorado.

Episode highlights

  • How their company values helped create a purpose driven culture

  • Pax8’s commitment to DE&I and breaking down the barriers for women in the tech industry

  • How Pax8 are engaging and retaining their employees amidst the great reshuffle

Speakers

  • Shane
    Rob, walk us through the story behind Pax8, the journey to where we are right now.

    Robert
    Sure. It's been a roller coaster journey. Pax8 always had a clear vision from the beginning, founded by a guy called John Street, and his idea was, essentially, that cloud software should be as easy for organisations to buy as it is to install a mobile app on a phone. The iTunes marketplace for cloud apps was kind of where it all began, and John and co-founder Klaus, came up with this concept. At the beginning everybody thought they were kind of crazy, and they had trouble getting funding because the model didn't look very attractive. They were fortunate to have had a number of previous business successes, so they're able to fund it themselves by scrambling around and raising a bit of angel investment.
    The first three or four years of the business was very challenging. They got that point of inflection and scale, then suddenly everybody wanted a piece of it. The journey of Pax8 was kind of a slow start, and then an absolute rocket ship. And it's probably the fifth year, as we sit here today, since that trend trajectory change really took place, which has been marked by our inclusion in the Inc.5000, which is the 500 fastest growing companies in the US still privately held. So yeah, a hell of a journey. Just getting started disrupting a trillion dollar industry along the way.

    Shane
    And you've been a part of Pax8 for how long now?

    Robert
    I've been part of Pax8 for about two years. I was previously the founder and CEO of a business called WireHive, which was acquired by Pax8 as the beginning of international expansion. We're filming today in what was WireHive office, right? And, and we spent sort of eight or nine years building a technology business in the UK that Pax8 saw as a great, great way to kind of begin the international expansion, and we've gone on to acquire five or six other companies across Europe, and now in Asia Pacific, in New Zealand as well. My journey with it has been about two years and when we started in the UK, we had about 30 people. We've got about 250 people today, so the growth has been pretty spectacular.

    Shane

    Must make you extremely proud to be a part of that journey as well.

    Robert
    Definitely proud. I think there's a lot to be proud of a Pax8. It's a genuinely special organisation, and I'm sure lots of people you interview say things like that, but it's actually true on this occasion. There are so many things you could point to, such as revenue growth, raising a Series F from Softbank, who are sort of, seen by many as the kind of Rockstar venture capitalist, as well as achieving that unicorn status of $1.7 billion pre money valuation; those are all the kind of traditional ways people get excited about businesses.
    But for those of us that are part of it, it's actually seeing the progress that we're creating for the people that are part of Pax8 that's more rewarding. We measure things like the employability rate within the company, how often people get promotion within a 12-month period and our whole model is designed around largely hiring young, fairly inexperienced talent and offering incredible career development opportunity. To see that happen at the speed it is, is truly humbling and really gets you out of bed in the morning.

    Shane
    In terms of the business, you need great people to work here. And Chloe, you've got a really fun spin here on the company values that you've curated. Talk me through exactly what these are and tell me why they're so important to the organisation to thrive as a purpose driven culture.

    Chloe
    We have four core values; they are innovate, advocate, elevate and celebrate, and the eagle listeners among you will know they all end in eight, and so we represent them with the figure 8 number, it's very special to us a Pax8, But what they really do embody as well as sort of being very conveniently suffixed is the drive to constantly push ourselves and the product to better serve our partners and our colleagues.


    Innovation is at the heart, the idea that Klaus and John came up with that distribution was broken, and that what cloud technology needed was the App Store. The elevation piece, we really believe on hiring great people, and just give them the resources to see them absolutely fly. Advocate is all about not just advocating for our partners – our partners are the hero of our journey. They're who we're here to serve – but advocating for each other as a community. The most important one is celebrate; celebrating each other as individuals, like really celebrating the diverse pool of people who work at Pax8, who come to the work as themselves every single day.
    It's really important that we embed that notion of stopping and looking back and celebrate those milestones. Otherwise, it could just be too fast too much and lead to burnout.

    Shane
    What about yours, Debbie? Which one do you resonate with most?

    Debbie
    I have to choose between innovate and advocate.
    On the advocate side, I watch so many people prop each other, and we mean props as recognition, which is open to the whole country company to kind of see and share. And I just love the fact that everybody around the organisation give each other recognition for what they've done.
    And innovate because I'm a bit of a maverick. Most people join this company because they want to disrupt. Some of them have been in other corporate organisations where they know things can be done better and they want to disrupt it, they want to do things differently. And I think that's what draws people into us.

    Robert
    The comments of my learned friends here are spot on. But I think any technology company ultimately lives or dies by the quality of its product. And I think innovation is such a key part of that. For Pax8, innovation wasn't just about the product itself, and how we went to market with it, but it was how people were part of that product. And that's something that a lot of our competitors feel makes us so different in our approach to the others in our market. They don't have that same vision for why people are such an intrinsic part of what makes the technology business successful. Innovation, not just the tech itself, but of the whole thesis of what building a technology business is, is the thing that I really connect with.

    Shane
    You've been innovating your entire profession, and the role that you're in right now is different to the role that you served just a couple of years ago, where you were the AMEA CEO. So now you’re Global Chief People Officer. Walk me through how that transition has been for you; to go from a CEO to Chief People Officer?

    Robert
    It's been about three months since I made that change. It's been rewarding, but certainly challenging as well. And I think it's unusual to have someone make that leap. I spent 10 years getting really good at being a CEO, and to step away from that was what some people would consider to be a bit of a strange decision.
    CEO’s are generalists, right? By definition, you have to be quite good at lots of stuff. But you also have something you're really exceptional at. And I'm from a technology background, so I always assumed that was my thing. And I think what I realised as we went through this process was actually along the journey, it had become people, and culture, and creating an environment where people can do their best work. As we talked about it more, it became clear that I could make a difference to this part of Pax8, and the opportunity to impact not just the 300 people we have in AMEA, but the 1400 people we have globally. It was something I couldn't turn away from.
    It's been an exciting transition and what I'm really enjoying, but I definitely think it's not a road that's particularly well-travelled by others.

    Shane
    You're exactly right. I think the only another example I can give you is Ogilvy's CEO, who then took on a global chief people officer role. But other than that, few and far between. One of our other episodes that we did with Lego, Loren Shuster, their current Chief People Officer, had never ever done a day's work in HR per se, up until he took that role. He was working in marketing and in sales, business development. So quite interesting to now see sort of a new breed of Chief People Officer, perhaps not with the necessary sort of experience in HR, but have probably acquired it indirectly, the other business functions,

    Robert
    What people traditionally thought of as HR, which is the more transactional side of it, in my opinion, remains a critical part. For me, that's like the hygiene of people. It's the more progressive approach to what culture really means in a business. That is the future state for HR, and I think as a result, we're going to see more and more people entering people leadership roles from alternative backgrounds, that more traditional kind of HR pathway will be as common as it perhaps once was. It's my prediction.

    Shane
    I completely agree, when you look at employer brands, we're seeing a whole host of marketers now coming into their HR function. I know that's also your background as well, Chloe, right?

    Chloe
    10 years b2b marketing before I made the transition, and like Rob, I thought marketing was my craft. As we grew, the WireHive business took a more generalist sort of day-to-day leadership role. And I realised that what I loved the most was seeing people develop, and helping them realise their full potential, and making work a place of joy. So that's why I made the move.

    Shane
    Rob, what would you say has been the biggest challenge as a global chief people officer, and then maybe to flip it more in a positive light? What are you most grateful for having a role that impacts so many people?

    Robert
    The challenge can be positive, too, right? A lot of our challenges of Pax8 are what people describe as ‘good problems to have’, although it never quite feels like that when you're dealing with them. I think growth is where a lot of our friction comes from, but what does that mean? It means attracting amazing talent to fill all the overalls we have in the market today; making sure that everybody who goes through the talent pipeline has an amazing experience, whether they do or they don't end up at Pax8.
    We’ve got a lot of the velocity of Pax8 and our approach in terms of hiring young people and giving them the opportunity, but we've got lots of green leaders in the business people who are early in their careers with amazing potential, but don't have much experience. Everybody’s very well intended and trying hard, but experience is so valuable.
    So, what do I find rewarding? Seeing the impact immediately is very rewarding. Like, you know, I'm three months into the role and I can already see meaningful change happening as a result of some of the things that I've been able to do. We're not a huge business, but we're a small enterprise, right? We're north of 1000 stuff globally. At that point, small changes start the butterfly effect that you can see ripple change in a positive way. That's the most rewarding thing so far; making small adjustments and seeing big changes.

    Shane

    I want to flip it to you, Debbie, because it's not every day that someone gets to work with a global chief people officer that perhaps hasn't worked too long in the HR function. How have you found it working with Rob with so much commercial experience, but perhaps less sort of HR and people experience? How's that been for you?

    Debbie
    It is amazing for a couple of reasons. I should just acknowledge the it was a really brave move for Rob. But the amazing thing is, we have a seat at the table because of where Rob has been on the journey before. And so often in so many other corporations, you hear the phrase, HR need a seat at the table, where we have that and we have somebody with a proven track record at CEO level. So that's listened to. It also makes a statement and I've already had feedback from senior people coming into the business that go ‘okay, you've got a CEO who's then been appointed as CPO? Well, that means ‘people agenda’ is really important to you’. And yes, it is. So, it's really amazing.
    And I'm grateful for Chloe's experience, because with a marketing background recruitment is massive, and talent is a massive subject. And that marketing attraction piece is a massive function in its own right. So, we've got a great blend of kind of CEO skills, marketing skills, and recruitment expertise. It's works really well.
    I think the other thing that has struck me in the whole Pax8 journey was that we have to congratulate our M&A people, for the values matching that they did at the front end. You hear so many stories about American companies taking over European companies, and it being really bumpy. But Pax8, they were so good at the front end, they stood back, they matched the values first, obviously the commercial things as well, but they stood back and they let people find each other and they let the dust settle a bit. And then we've taken so many initiatives from here in EMEA, and export those back to the US. It shows we've got that voice over there as well with a with a C level person and a CPO seat. So, it's great!

    Shane
    fantastic. What's your take on it? After six years working, it seems like you've got all of the complementary business functions that just live in HR, which is just so cool. It must be so energising to work every day.

    Chloe
    It is amazing. And actually, we don't call it HR, we just call it people, because they're human beings. To the points Rob and Debbie have mad, the future of a fantastic people organisation is bringing that diversity of skill set together. It is a little bit operations, a little bit marketing, a lot of leadership, and culture, empathy, and understanding. It definitely needs a good dose of commercial acumen, as well.
    The future is a more diverse team pulling from those backgrounds. And to Rob's prediction that we will see that more because people are waking up to the fact that you can have the best IP in the world, the most innovative idea, the best product market fit, but if you've not got a team of fantastic people who believe in what you're doing and want to show up every day to give it their all, you're not going to reach your full potential.

    Shane
    Completely agree Chloe. I know that Pax8 have a real commitment towards the year ahead and I in particularly feel this is a passion project for you, and getting more women into tech. Tell me a little bit about some of the strategies that you've implemented to make sure that there is an abundance of women working at Pax8, representing that technology sector.

    Chloe
    I really have to give full credit to Debbie for a lot of the work that she and her team do, because it starts at the front, and it starts by not just fishing in the usual places for talent. It's as I always say, if you want to get a diverse group of friends, you have to start hanging out at different parties, and it's exactly the same with recruiting that diverse talent; you can't just put a job ad up on indeed and expect people who may not think tech’s for them to suddenly apply. And Debbie's team do a wonderful job with how they write their job adverts; they really get under the skin of what does the candidate want, and how can we make them feel that this is a place that they will not only be included in, but they'll actually belong. To have a career where they can fly. Full kudos to.
    We do quite a lot of volume hiring. We only really consider a classic success if we have a good mix of candidates: male or female, diverse backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, but also to not limit to those who have a degree to work in technology. We hire smart people, and we invest heavily. We have our own internal learning and development team. We have fantastic sales trainers. Anyone from any background can have a sales career here, if they show the right attitude for it. It flourishes from individuals. We have an amazing women empowerment group in the UK, also one in the US as well. That wasn't me setting that up. That was one of our amazing CGI’s - she's since been elevated to be a channel account manager, Lucy Hutchinson. She came to me and asked, ‘How do I get this going?’ You just invite people and start. You need budget? We've got you a budget. It’s a really important to support them, fund them, to put your money where your mouth is, but also give them space and let people feel like they don't have to ask permission to have these conversations.

    Shane
    Amongst all of you, it seems like building that sense of psychological safety for the employees is so important for them to talk out. And your role is obviously important in that because from the first moment you want people to be comfortable and have that sense of belonging, to be confident enough to speak up. How you doing that?

    Debbie
    We build it into the job ad. When we talk to people considering joining us, we take them on a story about their life, we get them to tell us a story about where they've come from. We've had some phenomenal psychological safety training. It's interesting because with people coming into the organisation, and with some of the leadership training that we've done, I see fear in both of those camps. So we've had some fantastic vulnerable leadership training that is cascading right the way through the organisation that gives people the opportunity to feel safe, even when they're making mistakes.
    I’ll give you an example, I made a mistake last month. I used of an emoji that I thought was a pointy finger. But it was actually the bird, and it went across the whole channel. I held my hand up and acknowledged that it was the wrong thing to have done. But I had such warmth back and laughter from the whole company. I made a mistake, I fest up, and everybody was fine. Celebrating those failures is something that we do well, which makes people feel safe to try things new and push the boundaries.
    The way we interview people, as well as we encourage them to bring their whole selves to work, we talk about where their relative that introduced them to their first piece of tech, we ask them what their first piece of tech was. All of those kinds of things are breadcrumbs into the psychological safety that we provide when they get into the organisation.

    Robert
    It speaks to the mould that our founder John set out; he talks about it as Servant Leadership. It translates fairly easily, and it’s this idea that leaders are here in service of their teams, not the other way around. Another little catchphrase is ‘it's not personal; it's business’. He says, ‘it's business and it's personal, right? The two are intrinsically connected. You can't reasonably expect people not to be emotionally attached to the place that they spend more time at than anywhere else in their lives.
    Treating people and culture as an absolutely necessary part of what makes a great workplace thrive is a big part of that. Recruitment is theatre in most organisations.

    Shane
    It’s so important that you've built that culture of trust and safety. It's something which I'm sure our audience is gonna take on board and probably begin to implement, possibly instil and put that into their own company culture. But I think that's a great thing. Rob, you've obviously been a part of Pax8’s massive growth trajectory, which is fantastic. What excites you the most about being at Pax8?

    Robert
    There's a lot to be excited about. We are changing the way IT professionals all over the world buy cloud software. I think the market we're in has been badly served for a long time, and having this opportunity to meaningfully enhance the experience that 1000s of 1000s, if not hundreds of 1000s of people are having is pretty rewarding. As we continue to grow and expand all over the world, that's only going to ramp up.
    Looking inwardly, the thing that I remain incredibly excited about is that we are genuinely creating a place where people enjoy the work that they do, and the people they do it with. For me, my NorthStar throughout business has been about being a pride to Pax8, and create an environment where people can do their best work, do it with people who they respect, and they enjoy spending time with. Optimising for joy, not for profit.
    This sort of conscious capitalism, or conscientious capitalism movement, as people refer to it, is the feature. Pax8 is a business that operates in that way where it's no longer just about shareholder return.
    Pax8 is a name that a lot of people are going to know in the future. It is going to be meaningfully bigger than it is today, and along the way, it’s going to have the opportunity to positively impact a lot of lives.
    That's something that I think is really exciting.

    Shane
    I suppose in HR, or people, you get the opportunity to impact so many lives as well. Where do you see this rocket ship going in the future, and especially looking after the EMEA zone? Which seems like there's so much growth potential here, it must be an exciting time to be the chief people officer.

    Chloe
    There's huge potential in the European market, and with the amazing, talented individuals who've chosen to come and join us. Pax8 is going to keep out-innovating the competition, both in terms of our product, and also the way we approach people.
    What I'm really excited about is legacy. My hope is that by working at Pax8, and by being treated like adults, and being told that their happiness at work is important, their fulfilment, it's important that if they do decide to leave, if they see opportunity somewhere else, that they will take that belief with them, and they will spread it because all work should be a joy.
    We are so fortunate to live in such an advanced capitalist society; most of us are lucky enough to not worry about putting food on our table and heating our homes at the moment. But what's the next stage up? People shouldn't be miserable to live. My hope is that whether people stay for a long time, or they go somewhere else, they will take that Pax8 ethos about people, and they will push for that change elsewhere.

    Shane
    Debbie, the tech sector is absolutely brutal in terms of attrition, the turnover, and the churn of employees is sky high, higher than any other industry. But it seems like Pax8 have done a really good job. In particular, over the last two and a half years, as we enter into the great reshuffle, you're still doing a great job retaining that talent; how were you keeping a motivated, and productive, and engaged workforce?

    Debbie
    Continuous personal, and professional development.
    If I think about engineers, many of them want commercial knowledge, commercial insight to get better at interactions with customers. For example, our internal learning platform, we've got something like 8800 courses; we have vendors that come in and deliver training to our people, and the people that we attract have their DNA cut with continuous learning. As long as they're learning, as long as we're giving them stretch projects, giving them access to other opportunities, then we're more be able to keep this person in this seat. So be generous, share them around the rest of the organisation, leapfrog them from that division to that division.
    We coined the phrase ‘the Willy Wonka lift’. It's not just about upward trajectory, it's sideways; sometimes you may want to take a step backwards. That's okay. Let's break that thinking about the only way is up, because it's not anymore. We're in the adaptive economy where we can do anything we want and go anywhere we want. Let's maximise that if we can.

    Robert
    The reality is we pay great wages, but that's not what we're attracting people with. Well, I think if people come for a salary, they'll leave for one, too. We're actually focusing more on the real substance of what makes their job a delight.
    People often like to reference Simon Sinek. He says to give people the opportunity to learn new skills, to direct their work with autonomy, and to have a purpose that they can connect a meaning to. I think as long as you're paying people enough to take money off the table, then all that other stuff is what actually matters. The feedback we get from others who are having huge churn problems, is that they just haven't managed to fulfil their employees in those ways. It's about focusing on more than just a pay check.

    Chloe
    The question I always ask people is, ‘why are you leaving where you currently are, to take a chance on us?’. A lot say, ‘I'm sick of being treated like a cog in a machine. I want someone to notice if I don't show up and do my work that day’. People are looking for that; not just the contribution, but the community.

    Shane
    I'm in a room with three extremely smart people. But, how do you deal with disagreement? Or how do you deal with generally difficult decisions that you may not generally see eye to eye on?

    Robert
    We've sort of touched on some of this with the psychological safety discussion already. Amy Anderson's thesis that everybody references is this idea of what psychological safety and organisation really gives you. For me, I always characterise it as the freedom to speak truth to power. Rank is not relevant when it comes to disagreement in and we don't always get it right. At Pax8, disagreement is encouraged. A dissenting view is a valuable, diverse perspective. It's something that, as leaders, you demonstrate not only that you're open to that sort of feedback, but that you reward it.


    The 15 commitments method is this thesis that if you're above the line, you're open, curious and committed to learning. If you're below the line, you're closed, defensive, and committed to being right. As a leader, if somebody comes to you and says, ‘Hey, I think the way you're doing this interview is really not great, you should do it in a different way.’ Then you say, ‘Well, thanks very much,’ and make sure you you're always appreciative of feedback, whether it's positive or negative.


    If you do take action, you’re show you're working. It may be a very small change, but it could have big results.

    Chloe
    People don't need you to go with their decision; they just need to be heard. They need to know that you care enough to show that you listened with real intent, not just to persuade or to shut them down. We always say disagree, then commit. That's something that is important, as long as you hear from everyone.

    Shane
    We work with a fantastic coach called Chester Elton. He always said never ever say the words, ‘no, but…’ because it can immediately crush someone's dreams. Just make sure you acknowledge and say ‘yes, and…’ It's such a powerful change in your language that just makes a complete difference in the person that you're speaking to.
    I think it probably plays back into your culture, of why people were just so willing to experiment and be happy to fail, knowing that, going forward, they have the backing of all of the employees saying ‘it's okay to take that risk’.

    Chloe
    Awareness is great. That habit building is the key. This stuff is easy to say, but it's harder to do. And it's hard to do every single day, consistently. We don't always get it right, but I think that the focus on building those habits and holding each other to account as leaders, making sure our teams hold us to account as well, is important. Awareness plus habit for me.

    Debbie
    20 years in recruitment and there is not a day that goes by when I still don't feel like I need to learn more. I think the pace of change that we're dealing with out there today is phenomenal. And yet, the key for me is to put the human centric hiring at the heart of everything that we do, and not lose sight of that.

    Shane
    Seems like this is why you've been so successful. Well, hot off the press, it seems like best companies have just recognised Pax8 as being one of the top 100 medium enterprises as a desirable place to work. So congratulations, team. How does that make you feel?

    Chloe
    Proud, grateful, slightly disbelieving at times. It’s great to get the recognition that all the stuff we think we're doing for the right reasons is working, because best companies is voted for by our colleagues. The fact that 84% of them bothered to fill out quite a long survey to tell us what they thought makes the accolade great.
    I'm a data nerd, and we've now got a tonne of data on how we can make things even better. It was really wonderful, because what they called out as our strength is personal growth, which is what everyone said today is why people joined Pax8, for the opportunity to really accelerate their career. The fact that we got that recognition around that piece of our employee value proposition is fantastic.

    Robert
    We've won numerous awards in Colorado, where our headquarters in the US is, and that's great. We've had a few great award wins in the UK, some focused-on women in tech, which have led to lots of more diverse candidates coming to play at Pax8, and so these external validations have a major impact.
    I don't want to sound arrogant, but what we're doing is great in so many ways. It's never perfect. There's always room to do better; trying endlessly to optimise and improve, but broadly, we know we've got a really great proposition.

    Shane
    Rob and Chloe, what is the one thing you would change about the people function, if you could literally just click your fingers and make it a little bit better, a little bit easier, or add more value?

    Debbie
    That's quite easy for me. It’s the cut and paste mentality in HR. If we're in a disruptive industry, then let's disrupt People Ops HR. We're in a massively changing world. When we looked at our processes internally, and exploded them out, we found 160 different points of failure in the hiring process. It was a real wake up call for me that so many organisations out there have cut and paste initiatives across their entire hiring and onboarding spectrum. And they're all disconnected and discombobulated.


    You can't understand a person in a 40-minute phone interview. You have to spend longer than that on Tinder these days, don't you? So I've heard. If you can't spend an hour on the phone with a person, how can you expect them to perform and accelerate in productivity when they land?
    I encourage people to look at other industries, and don't just cut and paste one HR initiative from one company, slap it into your business, and think that it's going to work around all the other processes that you've got, because it just doesn't. I think that's the challenge of keeping it human and scaling it, but not turning into a boring corporate organisation, especially in the treatment of people, because we can do things differently and better these days.

    Chloe
    I think people who work in HR often get a bad rap. Everyone I've interacted with in the Pax8, people go into HR because they are committed and passionate about people, and work being a joyful place. I want to put that on the record. My pet hate is ‘stupid rules’; where you make rules for the lowest common denominator of behaviour rather than treating people like adults. You might see a sign which has ‘please do not skateboard down the stairs’. Clearly, one time, one person does something stupid and now to solve that problem, someone in operations legal HR has decided they need to put a sign up. I hate that mentality. Treat people like adults and they will respond in kind. Trust should be the basis of our principles. This is not about tech security, this about trust being at the heart of it all, and we should build policies that way.

    Robert
    in HR, I see is there's this obvious disconnect between the right commercial decisions and the decisions people make. That's the thing that I would change about the world of people in HR; being considerably more mindful of the real value of talent, such as what great members of organisations actually deliver, because it's a force multiplier and a completely exponential.
    I’d like to completely reimagine the way people think about talent density in organisations and building their whole process around that, like how do we attract, retain, nurture the best talent, and hire above the mean average, as we go along.

    Debbie
    The average gets higher, the bar gets higher. There was an Indian entrepreneur who said, ‘if I had to apply for a job at my own company, I don't think I'd get in’, which is kind of amusing.


    Shane
    I just want to leave you with one final question.
    It's clear that you're all passionate about the people function and making a huge difference to all of the employees globally. You are deeply passionate and connected to the organisation, and its goals and its motives. What's one thing that you love most about Pax8?

    Chloe
    Thing I love most about Pax8? The genuine community.
    We're very lucky to not have an abundance problems. We could be really successful, but no one like each other, and just be out for themselves. We could have a great P&l like many businesses do, but the fact that everyone here shows up every day, not just for themselves, but for each other, is truly special.

    Debbie
    Because I'm a bit of a maverick, the fact that we're allowed to rip up the rulebook and think differently, I think that's the thing that most excites me, for everybody in the organisation, especially me.

    Robert
    If I pick one thing, it’s opportunity for our people, for our partners. I think Pax8 is just having such a meaningful impact in so many people's lives. As I've sort of mentioned before, that's something that is really exciting to be part of, and you can look outwardly at the market and the impact it's having, where you look inwardly at the people around you. And the fact that our global chief commerce officer started on the sales floor five years ago, and seeing those significant shifts people are able to make in their lives for the better as a result of Pax8’s existence is something that is incredibly rewarding and a source of great personal joy.

    Shane
    I think that's a wrap. Thank you so much for today's interview. Honestly, it was fascinating to learn a little bit more about Pax8, wonderful to learn a little bit more about yourselves, as well. Thank you for spending the time with us today.


A particular kind of organization will thrive in this era—it’s called the people-powered enterprise. Every organization relies on people to produce business results, but people-powered organizations are different. They view their people as equal partners in value creation, leveraging their people data to understand the explicit connection between people and the goals and objectives of the business.

This guide shows you five ways to turn your organization into a people-powered enterprise with people analytics.


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