Whitney Hoffman-Bennett, senior vice president of people and culture at CallRail, recently joined The Great Retention podcast, hosted by John Duisberg. In their conversation, they discuss the challenges and opportunities of maintaining a cohesive culture amidst the trials of growth and global events.

Everyone wants to elevate their employee experience, attract and retain the best people. What does culture mean to you as a leader? How have you been able to maintain culture with growth and everything that's been happening in the world?

Whitney: In 2020, we were in one place. Everyone was in Atlanta, Georgia. We had never hired remotely before and we went home just like everyone else. In March of 2020, we started hiring remotely and we were a distributed team. We hired 170 people in 2021 and none of those people had met in person or been to the office.

Then in 2022, we started trying to bring people back to the office and we tried to do more in-person things. We had a lot of starts and stops. It became so important to connect more with people, but also to check on people. People are dealing with mental health issues. They're isolated, alone. They're dealing with unrest in their communities, and then trying to work and just be normal. And it was really hard. I think we really learned in those periods to lean into grace.

Now that we're back, we're focusing on the work with intensity and delivering incredible products. But it's making sure we're using all five of those culture statements together to focus on the whole employee.