Eric Mulvin: Welcome back to the contact center cactus chat podcast. And we are back with Keisha, our director of company culture for part two of our interview here. And really excited to have you on the podcast again. And I’ve got a couple more questions of burning questions I have to ask you about. And this is the very last of our eight year Anniversary series while I’m here in Dumaguete. And I think this is like eighth or ninth or 10th podcasts I’ve recorded since I’ve been here. So I can start doing these in my sleep soon. But thank you for for stepping up and being on the show. Appreciate it.
Keisha: Thanks for having me on again, Eric. Well, I’m excited to talk more about property culture.
Eric Mulvin: Yeah,
Keisha: let’s get started.
Eric Mulvin: So in the first episode, we talked about how, how, how we started working together, even before taxies with the taxi business true cap. And, you know, you talked, we talked a bit about some of the growth that you’ve experienced and the growth that you’ve helped bring packages and some of the talent that you helped bring packages. But I want to talk about, you know, that takes us up to about 2020. And, you know, I was out here with my family, march 2020. We’re watching the news. COVID starting to happen, lockdowns are starting to happen. And now all of a sudden, you know, like you built the culture around. That’s a lot of events that we used to do all the time with the staff. And now like, unlike the US, Canada, the UK, the COVID restrictions here were really strong. And really strict. Like there was no face to face, there’s masks, face shield with the mask. They had police checkpoints throughout all of the Philippines throughout the city here. One of our biggest challenges when COVID started, remember was we had staff that didn’t keep up with their motorcycle registration. And so when they got to the police checkpoint trying to get to the office, and they weren’t let through because registrations and to go back home, like weird stuff that we had to deal with. But they could have been come to the office, like you were just completely cut off from the events that you could put on. In fact, I remember we were getting ready for the five year anniversary. We were we do this thing called sports feast. One of our traditions that we used to have here. And really excited about it. We have everyone getting together. And then as it got closer, we were meeting and they’re like, Okay, we can’t have a gathering of more than 100 people. So okay, how do we balance that? Then I started going into like, then we started going and next thing, you know, like the whole city is locked down. So,
Keisha: yeah,
Eric Mulvin: what a challenge.
Keisha: It was.
Eric Mulvin: But you answered the call again. And you stepped up and you found innovative ways to continue culture. So how did you manage that? And how did you? How did you not just like give up? Because I feel like some people in that role. This is it. I don’t know, I call me when COVID is over. But you know, you you took the challenge, and you made an awesome work when people couldn’t even see each other. So how did you do that?
Keisha: Right. So I remember it was March, when that happened. They feel as though we can we can no longer work at the office. And yeah, I saw I I had that. I had that in mind too that Oh, what, what? What am I going to do with with company culture. But I remember also I got friends telling me and found it like, oh, that this time would be like the mortgage company culture if your child is more needed. And yeah, so it’s just about being able to quickly shift to the digital world. So March. And it’s interesting. Also, it was during COVID this time that we we actually updated our company core values, which is more where everyone participated. Compared to the old one that we had somebody just put put it out
Eric Mulvin: to shoot (overlapping) Something I don’t remember anymore. Didn’t have any meeting. No one could repeat it. I think I asked around you guys know what it says out there for our core values. And no one no one in the company. I couldn’t even repeat it. That’s a problem.
Keisha: Right? So it was like during the COVID time that we updated our company core values. And yeah, it was. This communication is a big thing and people are at home Uh, you know, how do you make this like events, but there’s always that the virtual world? And so I remember I did, I did try to find resources, what other companies are doing, and there is this a group of culture, they call it culture champions. So there’s that group and I, I check what they’re doing and everyone’s shifting to the virtual world and but during that time, we’re also bringing something that is that can help something relevant with a situation. And I remember we brought in speakers speakers do like online, talk it’s ah easy to do it like any anywhere you are. So it’s an opportunity, right? And we get you get to hear this people like, from all over, we brought in our guests, like monthly and also we did the PB jam or, like online, we just had like a few people doing a recording and then we use the life on it was just Facebook, and the quality wasn’t even that. Good. But yeah, it was, it was about quickly shifting to the virtual world. And because communication was a very crucial part during COVID.
Eric Mulvin: Yeah, because we used to see each other all the time now. We’ve got to get information to them. And they’re not in the office at all in person. So yeah, and so glad that you get you’re out looking, you have. See this is where it’s all important that personal growth, if you wouldn’t have gone out and made those connections before COVID started, I think that really helped give you some ideas on how you can take this challenge. And, you know, I remember like, I was like really impressive while you’re getting some really great speakers here. And I don’t think we wasted any time starting. It wasn’t like we spent six months planning it out like those right away. I think like, By May, June, we were doing this. Yeah, it was.
Keisha: Yeah, it was. Eric was right. It was right away. It was like March and then add that that is a classic like culture that was about value creation. So just perfect timing. And Eric had that it was we had a PB variety show.
Eric Mulvin: Yeah,
Keisha: where Eric would have his updates, what’s going on with our, with our accounts, So
Eric Mulvin: mean, it was a literal, like, it could have been a Netflix series, like a literal 30 minute episode. I still love like, we were not doing enough of them things. You know, I think with everything coming back, we see each other all the time, we’re not really doing that as much anymore. It really was something that helped us out through COVID. And I think we got to like episode 16 or something, or we made a lot of episodes and they’re high quality. Like, it’s me interviewing people. Like I think I was interviewed a staff member, I do a little segments where our intro and outro clips, and I have my daughter in the show with me. And then the creative team here came up with the program, you know, whether it was like you got different employees on for Father’s Day with their kids for Mother’s Day, there was something around that we’d have staff doing performances, or do like a song, every chord and we put that in the show. And then mix that in with updates from leaders about you know, housekeeping items and things that you need to know about your job and what’s happening. But and I’m so proud of the work that we got to do and I all I did was say like we got to do this, this show and but the work that happened behind the scenes to put it together. You and and Benzi and a lot of other people a lot of other leaders because he had to get people to step up and they had to submit videos. It was a lot of work. But what’s awesome is I will I will save those videos forever. Like I wouldn’t be old watching those videos and be like wow look at there’s like it’s just like a time machine snapshot in time of like, what we were going through talking about COVID But also, you know, like we’re gonna look back at these episodes and the way older Wow. I I still I actually saw part of the clip not too long ago. It’s already been three years and you know You’re a parent. And I’ve got a six year old and a three year old. And you know the crows so fast. So it’s cool to go back and look and say, Oh, my gosh, my daughter’s so small there. Yeah, look at how much more hair I had back then.
Keisha: Right. So we had those. And I think one of the really important things that we did during that time was the updating of the core values. Because, you know, in company culture, they always say, like, getting the right people to your business, and say, we updated it, and there were like, people that we had to replace, because they, Oh, they’re actually not the job. And so like, for example, we had a better we got a better videographer. Right? Because of that, at COVID. Also, because the SEC da time, we were able to look at, like, our, we were able to look at other things, like how we can, you know, make our culture extraordinary. And it all starts with without updating of the court. Yeah. So those are, those are actually exciting times, for me. And, yeah, cultures,
Eric Mulvin: I’m so grateful, we went through that, because I use the core values, there is not a business, I talk to you, if you guys ever reached out to pack biz, if you’re, if you’re listening, you’re thinking about outsourcing, and you set up a meeting with us, there’s no way we’re going to get to that meeting without me spending the first couple of minutes talking about our core values. And it makes my job so much easier. Because now with like, just a couple minutes, I could really explain who we are, what we’re all about here, what we look for our staff, and if they don’t match it, like what we do when we let people go, because they’re not a good fit. And clients too, I want to attract clients that match those core values. We didn’t have that too. At first, I wanted to attract clients and pay his money. I want that, but they also have to match our core values. And I mean, how important is it? You know, you’re you’re not working with the clients directly. You get to help maybe entertain them, when they come out to visit? We got clients that come out from UK from Canada, from US. How, how important are those core values? And having clients that are a match with that?
Keisha: Right, so with a core requirement, it is very important to to always work with clients aligned to our core, right, because it also happened to us, we worked with this client before. I think I don’t have the data, like how many clients would just stop working with us like, maybe there is such a difference with our clients before we updated the core, or, but I think there is different.
Eric Mulvin: Eight year anniversary. And I think one of another one of the things that I really am really proud of that we’ve been able to build over these years. And I think it’s so important to culture is traditions. And I think that was something to that we were pretty purposeful in from the beginning. There’s things that we keep coming back and bringing back TV jams. The wall sports fest is something we’re gonna bring back another time. We’ve done like Biggest Loser challenge where we challenged everybody in the office to lose weight and give a prize to the people who’s in US kilos. You know that there’s all these traditions, our birthdays like what you guys do for birthdays, what we do when we hire new employees and there’s like the welcomed and there’s all these like traditions that we’ve created. We have these big brothers or like the mentor mentee program for new employees. The they get to learn about the culture we have here and you know how to be a good fit and how to be successful that pact is so talk to me about that because that a lot of that comes from you’re the one executing these and many times I did not come up with Pb jams. I did not come up with sports fast. I did. I don’t think I came up with any of it. They had to probably come from you maybe some of the other people here. But it talks to me about like, these traditions and how like, how important are they to who we are today actors
Keisha: Yeah, when it’s interesting with I think traditions add so much to our Tupac is personalities. Culture is you know the company personality, and how it also so you can use that or your marketing your brand. But aside from this, just from a personal perspective, like we all like as humans, right, we, we wanted to have this, I believe that tradition that the tone for the office would have to be to have this safe mindset when they know what to expect. And I’m glad that we are we’ve, we are putting so much emphasis on tradition, like what they would expect on February the anniversary. So it kind of set their mind already what was going to happen. And the for the Easter. So it’s sort of creating the safety, ease Easter, and then the sports fest, and the PAP is John. And even with a with our program, we like the E curve. It has to, you know, it has to happen a name or like that branding. And so yeah, it’s easy for for doubt, to just tell what practice is with this tradition.
Eric Mulvin: Every time you keep talking, I keep thinking of more questions to ask you, I’m like, man, go do part four, part five. So we’ll, I think we’ll have to do another couple of episodes. Next time. I’m out here in December, hopefully in December. Because you’ve given me more ideas, I think I want to ask more in the future about more on those traditions. You know, there’s some cool stuff that we do, like the Halloween decorations. And, again, it’s just don’t realize how much you do. And like, there’s so much. And it really makes like, it makes sense that the we are who we are today, you know, and again, for those of you guys listening, if you made it to the end of part two here. And you’re wondering, like, this is a lot of great stories, but how does this help my call center? How does this help my, my business? Well, here’s the tangible part of it, like we’re celebrating our eighth year anniversary. And you know, over the weekend, I didn’t even realize but our hosts, we have two packers employees, Nell and Sam, who are part of the culture department as well as part of your team. And as well as agents on the phone providing support for our staff. But they announced and read the names of 53 people that by the end of the year, they’ll all be celebrating their five year anniversary with us. So I mean, if you’re a business owner, and you have 53 people celebrating their five year anniversary, how impactful is that to a business? how impactful is having people that many people hear that long? How does that make your job easier?
Keisha: Well, yeah, because it’s all right, it makes my job easier. Because they are the ambassadors or ambassadres, of our culture. And they’ve been here for a long time, so they could express it. Like, there, there’s strong leg up ambassador or fair to up, hire new line up, do you know it takes time for them to get used to those traditions? Or what to expect with the with the company? And and when you go out there? Elder Oh, I’ve been working with practice. For this law course we tell their friends. Why? Right? Probably they will tell them about the Sikh traditions that we have. So yeah, they’re very, like, strong. Ambassador bosses, where your company, our company.
Eric Mulvin: Yeah. And you know, we’re here. We’re trying to grow a lot. That was a big theme. Every time I’m out here. It’s like, hey, we want to grow the company. We want to add this staff. And it makes it a lot easier when you’ve got people that have been here for years. That era. They’re the champions of the company, they’re out there. They’re like walking billboards and commercials for practice, because it’s like, well, if you’ve been there for five years, you know, there’s something that there’s something there. And I never forget when I was out here last year in July, and we were just starting the podcast, and it was doing the first episodes with Jake, but I was talking with the staff. And so many of the staff were coming up to me because it was my first time back after two and a half, three years because of COVID. And so many of them were like, you know, I never worked at a company more than six months. I’d always bounce around. And I’ve just celebrated my three years. anniversary are my four years. And that’s that speaks for itself. There’s something there like, why would you stay at a company for that long? You never you are no for actually jumping around. I know one of our account managers that I’ll never forget his story. And, you know, he’s, he actually said like, he really stepped up, he personally grew, because he told himself like, I don’t want to keep doing this, and I want to stay at this company. So I’ve got to make myself better, so that I can stay here and he started out on the phones is actually having like attendance issues and other things, performance issues. But he didn’t want to lose his job. So he actually stepped up so much and turn himself around so much. Yeah. Now he’s one of the leaders, and he works with some of our best clients out in Canada in the northeastern United States. So, yeah, that.
Keisha: But yeah, to add to the derrick, I think there’s something with apneas, because we just like, had this like alumni thing. Because people would always come back to the company, even they no longer work. They’re no longer working with with practice. And maybe it’s all about the family that they have built here with the people say, That’s interesting, we call it I think I even said it once admissions, admission always be vision. So it’s like, that’s why with confident that Pac-biz have alumni.
Eric Mulvin: Yeah, yeah, that’s true, too. You know, and I didn’t even realize it. Because these are familiar faces. You know, we have 200 employees, I can’t remember who’s working here. There’s not that I’m like, I know these people. And I’m like, oh, yeah, they all came back. They’re not working here anymore. But they’re still hanging out. And I could say the same thing for our clients to you know, we’ve got a couple clients that we no longer work with a business one a different direction, as far as like their model and everything. But there’s, we’re still friends like. So that’s really telling to me, you know that we’ve created these relationships professionally, personally, that live beyond this business. And it’s changing lives. So at the end of the day, you know what the goal here we have it packed and I think he shares and that is that we want to impact more lives we want to grow because there’s so much that we could do. I mean, you touched on like we just for like five seconds on the Eco Rev. Or in the US eco route. You know, what we’re doing beach cleanups and tree plantings. And, you know, we have another be a blessing program that is all employee created. And I mean, if you looked it up online, you would have to realize it has anything to do with Pac-biz, it doesn’t say Pac-biz does, it doesn’t have our logo, they go out into the community and do stuff just to do good. And, and, you know, we’ll have to talk about it in the next episode. You know, like the work we do with the orphanage which is so such a big part of with Casa Miani. And, you know, some of the other organizations out here so, well, Keisha, thank you so much for being my last guests for the eight year Anniversary series, podcast series here. And I really hope you guys learned a ton. I think, you know, this could be some really powerful podcasts out to go back on to YouTube and to check our stats and see 1000s of views because there should be a lot of people listening to this message. If you’re thinking about building culture at your company. And maybe whether you’re just starting out, or or you’re a big company, like how do I get to what Pac-biz has it start somewhere you got to start traditions, you got to start being purposeful, you got to bring core values, you got to start doing a lot of the stuff that we’ve done, and it’s not too late. It’s it’s harder to do when your company is bigger and you’ve never done it. We definitely have made it easier on ourselves because we’ve known for we’ve been known for from day one. I really hope you guys got a lot out of these, these these two very long podcast episodes. Like you were like 25 minutes each or something. But I think I can just keep talking all days I was really looking forward to my podcast and interview with you. And you did not disappoint. So thank you for sharing and and pouring your heart out and, and stories and, and history with our listeners and with me. Thanks for being part of Pac-biz
Keisha: Thank you for having me, Eric S for this amazing episode with you.
Eric Mulvin: All right, until then, so you’ll catch me I’m gonna be going back to the states and we’re going to be interviewing some more business owners out in Phoenix. We’ve got Clifford, who was a former UFC fighter and Ultimate Fighter champion. He’s going to be on a future episode. He’s now a business coach. And we’ve got some other CEOs lined up. And so stay tuned, make sure you’re subscribing so you can get these episodes. And if you know businesses that could use the information you just listened to today, please share it with them, especially this one. I don’t think there’s a business out there that could use more culture and to and that can improve that. And on before we go, I wanted to show off this design because we got our awesome video or awesome designers here Benzie who helped produce a podcast made this shirt for our eight year anniversary. Super cool. So I just wanted to show it off because he gave it to me hot off the press for my daughter. So she’ll be rocking this back at home and jeans so so happy eighth year anniversary Pac-biz. Will be back to more normal episodes next time so until then, see you guys later