Building a People-First Culture: The Shift towards a Coach-Focused Approach at JW Player

Better People Podcast

In this episode, Jillian Moulton, Chief Human Resources Officer for JW Player, discusses three key topics: manager development and engagement survey results, the shift towards a coach-focused approach, and creating alternative paths for career growth. She emphasizes the importance of a people-first culture, challenges and opportunities in a remote-first organization, and making employees feel heard and supported. JW Player's managers strive to understand employees by listening to individual perspectives and considering data.

Jillian Moulton is an accomplished HR leader with extensive experience in various organizations, including her current role as Chief Human Resources Officer at JW Player. With a strong background in people and talent management, Jillian has played instrumental roles in shaping company culture, optimizing operations, and driving organizational excellence. Join us as Jillian shares her insights on HR strategies, leadership, and creating a thriving work environment. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• JW Player's Leadership Lab program provides training, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration opportunities, fostering autonomy and responsibility among managers.
• The ability for managers to admit “I don't know” and foster open dialogue with their teams is seen as a crucial skill for effective leadership.
• Offering alternative paths for career growth allows employees to find the right fit.
• JW Player promotes a people-first culture that values transparency and mutual understanding.
• The remote first environment brings challenges in terms of connection and cultural understanding.
• Measures like team meetups, improved communication tools, and active employee resource groups help overcome these challenges.
• Making employees feel heard and supported prevents burnout and improves job satisfaction.

Resources:

• JW Player
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jillian Moulton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with our host, Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 24:15 - I feel like the way that our culture is, is that we have a lot of really hard, hard workers. And so instead of having to be like, where are you? It's more like, go take a mental health day. And so I want to make sure people feel heard. I also, I hope they feel like they have the ability to reach out to, to someone to help them, right?
• 14:57 - We also believe very much in transparency where we can, even if it's painful, like that's one thing I think that has helped us through the, the very tumultuous times we have is we've always tried to be really open, not talk about it the fastest, but talk about events and issues when we feel like we understand how we're going to approach them, but that, that creates a culture of really like if we share with you, we're giving you that responsibility to come to us with, you know, your whole self.
• 25:33 - So in coaching we call that like the thing behind the thing, like really getting at what's going on and not staying surface. Because if you stay at the surface level, you're going to miss a lot. So that's awesome. I love that that's been a lesson that you've learned from.
• 11:04 - But it's the coaching habit and that, that's the whole premise, and it's really to help leaders become more coach-like in their approach. And it's all about asking more questions. So it's asking more, telling less, that's exactly what you were getting at. It frees you up as a leader. It helps, you know, it saves you time, and it really builds up the people that that work for you.
• 24:15 - Margaret: with everything that you've done, all the experience that you've had, what is one thing that you've changed your mind about?
  Jillian: Oh, that's a great question. One thing I've changed my mind about, Hm, I think maybe there was a period in my career where I got really data-focused, like we were talking about engagements.