EP057 Beyond Products: Shaping a Culture of Success in E-commerce
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[00:00:00] Darin Newbold: Well, good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name's Well, good day and welcome to Commerce Today. My name's Darin Newbold, your host, and I am so excited to have with me here in studio Ms. Karolina, our director of HR here at Creatuity. Karolina, welcome to Commerce Today. 

[00:00:20] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: Thank you, DDarin good morning. It's great pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting 

[00:00:26] Darin Newbold: me.

[00:00:26] You are very welcome. And we are so excited. I'm I am excited about our topic today. Because this is going beyond the typical products and things on e-commerce. This is shaping culture in that e-commerce, uh, e-commerce environment. And I know that you have had a huge impact, 

[00:00:48] with our culture here, and there's some, some key things that have happened to you.

[00:00:54] Kind of your introduction to kind of this whole thing of quote-unquote culture. Can you tell us a little bit about 

[00:01:01] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: that to get us started? Yes, sure. So probably you're talking about winning culture, right? Absolutely. Okay. I will try to give you a short and simple definition because it's not easy to answer this question.

[00:01:14] So if you ask me what the winning culture is, I would say that this is the place where authentic values. Shared vision, shared goals, sense of security. So I'm talking about psychological safety, mutual trust, and also continuous improvement or open communication are valued. So this is the place where people feel accountability.

[00:01:37] they feel that there is empowerment, um, there is ownership and they trust each other. So we build both their success, but also the success of our business partners, clients, merchants. 

[00:01:49] Darin Newbold: That is awesome. That's a great list of, uh, of items that we're gonna dig into a little bit deeper as we go. One of the things that you reminded me of, uh, kind of as we were prepping for this, 

[00:01:59] for those out there listening, while Carolina's in hr, she's actually an engineer, so we have a rocket scientist right here, uh, among us.

[00:02:08] But tell us about kinda your introduction into this hr, because as an engineer, that's a, that's a different way to get here. 

[00:02:17] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: Yes, behind the scenes, I would call it that. It's a kind of real explosive mix. But we are here. So I would call it systemic approach. I still remember it was more than 20 years ago, and uh, yes, you are right.

[00:02:30] My engineering background. And so I had all those tools in my hands. Technical tools. And I realized that this is nothing because I couldn't use them in a way, in a manner I would expect. So I wasn't so, let's say effective and productive. 

[00:02:45] I didn't utilize everything what I could, so I told myself, okay, Karina, what is happening?

[00:02:51] And I found out that I didn't understand other people, the same people. They had exactly the same in their hands, tools, technical stuff, so on, so on. And then I had to come back. So I realized that I have to learn about self-awareness, soft skills, um, competence, which we didn't use that time. And then I turned back.

[00:03:14] So that was my pivotal moment when I understand that soft skills are really, really, um, important. 

[00:03:20] Darin Newbold: Very good, very good. Well, one of the areas that, that I know you mentioned in your list of, of keys for a winning culture, one of those things was authentic values. Can you explain a bit more what you mean by that and maybe maybe any of your insights around 

[00:03:37] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: authentic values?

[00:03:39] Sure. People around the globe, they are talking about values and, uh, values are, are over there. They are, they are important, but the point in companies is if they are alive or they are hanging just on the wall, right, on a piece of paper, everybody knows them, but nobody know how to treat them. Um, in this way that people can see that in their behaviors approach.

[00:04:02] Attitudes. So authentic values means that we are having them in our heart. And this is what we did at Creatuity with Creatuity. So we asked our people to contribute, in building our culture in such way that we found together. So it was bottom-up approach. We worked together on our values. So this, this is what I mean, authentic 

[00:04:24] Darin Newbold: ones, and that's a very important thing to re to, to realize for, for our audience out there, that this has to start at the bottom-up and it, and it is a foundational piece.

[00:04:36] So, so taking that kind of to one of the next things that, that you brought up that's very important, or at least it's very important to me, is really building that culture of trust. What's needed to be able to have that, that trusting culture. 'cause otherwise stuff just doesn't get di done. Things get hidden.

[00:04:54] You have all these dysfunctions of a dysfunctional family, which is not a good thing anywhere. 

[00:04:59] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: Exactly. So you are talking about psychological safety right now, so. If we would like to build a culture of trust, first of all, we need to listen to our people, but actively listen. Not just listen to what they are saying, but understand what they would like to tell us.

[00:05:16] Try to tell us what are their needs, their expectations, their dreams. So this is the question. What I would like to ask to our people, what is your dream? Uh, for the rest of your life. for example, so this is the first point and the second point, the culture of trust is built on true communication.

[00:05:34] Two-way communication. This is kind of dialogue, not informing our people that we are going to do something. This is a dialogue, uh, between us. 

[00:05:42] Darin Newbold: Now, would you, would you characterize that dialogue as, as building that, that, uh, safety net, if you will, so that people feel safe providing feedback, even to a manager, to their, to the person that they report to being able to at least provide management and not worry about any repercussion.

[00:06:01] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: Exactly, and this is the sense of feedback. It's two-way communication, uh, in so many companies I've been before. Uh, when I asked people about feedback, what does it mean? Feedback, they said, oh, this is the kind of evaluation of my performance. So my manager is saying what I did wrong or good or anything else, but it was.

[00:06:21] One way communication only. So safety, psychological safety means that people knows, people know that they can give and take feedback in such way that this is a gift. This is not just a tool, this is a gift. 

[00:06:36] Darin Newbold: Interesting. That is so, so good to, good for everyone to realize, for those that, well, I'm not raising my hand here, but I might, uh, that sometimes getting and receiving feedback can be a challenge to recognize that that's a gift.

[00:06:51] Not, not just, uh, someone telling me that I did wrong. So well, the next, the next piece on here, this is one that's a challenge everywhere, um, in virtually every company. In fact, Gallup, uh, even says that this is something that's a, uh, uh, a huge challenge, and that's all around accountability and ownership.

[00:07:13] And I know you, you have some very strong and passionate thoughts on this, so I want to hear, What does that look like for you and, and how do you make those things happen? 

[00:07:23] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: Okay, so we need to come back again to psychological safety, but also authentic values and mutual trust. And this is exactly the foundation of.

[00:07:34] Engagement of our people involvement in anything we are doing in our company. So if you would like to ask me how to build it, so the trust, development, empowerment and ownership, and this is the way we are building also accountability and talking about engagement. It is really important, uh, to have. a sense of purpose.

[00:07:55] Um, if people feel that they know what they do, they truly understand and they truly have, they, they have this faith in what they are doing. they would like to engage themselves and they time, uh, in everything what they do. And you are, uh, saying the truth actually, because we are working on Gallup, uh, research in our company and we achieved a great success last year.

[00:08:21] Well, 

[00:08:21] Darin Newbold: tell me more about that. 'cause that's next up on my, uh, my wonderful list. As we're building this foundation from values and trust to accountability and ownership, then we come crashing into engagement and commitment 

[00:08:34] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: That was a great success, not. Of HR or the company. That was a great success of our people, uh, in our company because everybody was engaged in this work.

[00:08:45] So, uh, within a year we achieved, the highest engagement rate. Uh. In the history of Creatuity and that was based on all those things we're talking about. That was about values, mutual trust. We talked to our people, we wanted to know what they feel. Uh, we wanted to know what they expect from us. So we were a kind of servant leaders for them.

[00:09:10] So our company serves our people, so they would like to. Uh, engaged in everything, what, what they are doing. So, coming to your question, we are, in 24 of those top companies around the globe, uh, within Gallup Benchmark right now. 

[00:09:28] Darin Newbold: That is fantastic. And that's, that's is a testament to what, what HR has done and, and what it can do in companies.

[00:09:36] A lot of times people don't realize the, the power and the impact that can be made, And one of those areas that, that, um, I know HR can make a huge impact and it, it was part of this whole list of things that we've been talking about, and it's one of them that, that I love the idea, but I struggled with initially just understanding and understanding how it was gonna be deployed.

[00:09:59] But one of the things that I know you did and we did with our teams was these, uh. These things that you called and to make it simple, basically development centers. Um, and basically they're real, real-time skill evaluation. So these were done through workshops. Tell us about that concept. Tell us about kind of what are the benefits and, and what does that ultimately, what are the results from 

[00:10:24] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: that?

[00:10:25] Yeah. We wanted to help our people to utilize the knowledge, the skills, uh, in the best way. And this is why we decided to develop them, uh, in those area of soft skills. And this is exactly what we did, development centers. This is, uh. One of the best tool to evaluate the soft skills. So we build competence matrix around five areas, which are really important nowadays in VUCA world, like curiosity, like engagement, like insight, like integrity, for example, and communication.

[00:10:59] And, we had some workshops with our people. we were working with them, on some tasks and during. Um, during those workshops, we could also observe our people while, while they were doing some, let's say, work. After that, we came back to them and we gave them really great feedback. What they can do, what they can continue, what they can do better, um, in the future.

[00:11:26] And that was really hard at the beginning, I must say, because uh, it was the first time in our company. But nowadays, uh, the last feedback from them was that they would like to have more this kind of workshops in the future. 

[00:11:38] Darin Newbold: And that's something to bring up here. Um, 'cause we haven't touched on it.

[00:11:42] Maybe Carolina share just a little bit. What was the initial feedback that you received when we first, when you first rolled out these development centers, what was some of the reactions from whether it was a developer or a project manager, a solution architect? What did that, how did that 

[00:12:02] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: come out? It was quite funny because the only thing, what is, you know, arising in my mind, it was a Scooby-Doo effect.

[00:12:09] They were looking at me with big eyes and they didn't know what it's all about. So they wanted to do it, but they didn't know how to do it. And after those meetings, they gave us really great feedback that it was okay, it was great, and they would like to try to develop this kind of skills. But after the second round, after one year.

[00:12:30] Uh, the feedback was really great, uh, because they told us, the first time we didn't know what you expected from us, so we didn't know, what can we do with the feedback. This time You don't have to even invite us. We would like to join it So that was the best feedback from 

[00:12:49] Darin Newbold: our people, and that's awesome.

[00:12:50] I remember, I remember a little bit of the feedback even prior to that, or at least hearing the feedback that they didn't want to participate or Why do I need to waste my time on this crazy thing? So part of it is, is being able to break down some barriers of really recognizing that. The only way you're gonna get better in all aspects of your, of your job, of your how, who you are and how you be.

[00:13:16] The best version is to have some level of evaluation and then have a measurement so that you know where you're at and then where, where the goal is and what the gap is and how to achieve it. And that's really all that you did. It just kind of ended up being wrapped in this, uh, this fun little package that, uh, that brought out some fun results.

[00:13:37] So. Very excited about that. Well, you touched on, you touched on competency models and, and even soft skills a little bit. And as we're, we're kind of coming to the close on this episode. Can you share a little bit about, about competency models and, and what that looks like as you were kind of formulating the development centers and, and how the 

[00:13:57] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: importance of all of that?

[00:13:58] Yeah, sure. Uh, it refers to our strategy and our vision, uh, for a company. So I had to ask myself with managers, what kind of competence do we need, uh, to achieve our vision, to achieve our mission? So I understood that we need to cover. a Couple of areas of competence, um, of course soft competence I'm talking about.

[00:14:21] And, um, this is the kind of curiosity. And within curiosity we build a bunch of competence. We need to have that make people curious about their work, their future, their development and everything else. So one of the competence, for instance, in this area is asking questions or gathering information because if people are curious that they develop.

[00:14:45] The second area, it is integrity, for instance. So this is about self-awareness. This is about emotional Maturity because they need to understand their emotions while talking to our clients. For example, uh, this, the next one is engagement. So we are talking about leadership, we are talking about ownership.

[00:15:02] We are talking about diversity, inclusion, and all the stuff around how to engage people to build a culture and also to build success. 

[00:15:11] Darin Newbold: And one of the things that was a. Well, I won't say it was a byproduct of it because it was, we were doing this, you were doing this, the teams were doing this intentionally, but it was really building that, that growth mindset so that our teams were focused on, hey, just because you're good or just because you're at a certain place right now doesn't mean that's the end.

[00:15:35] It's, that's the constant never-ending improvement. Let's have that growth 

[00:15:39] Karolina Hajdukiewicz: mindset. Will you agree? Exactly my identity, identity is not fixed. I'm growing all the time. And, uh, I can tell you one thing at the end that, uh, it's not only about, uh, evaluation tools, uh, everything, what we did, the major thing is that we have a great faith in our people.

[00:16:00] And this is what I was trying to do all the time. I told them I believe in You Your highest version of yourself. You need to discover it, and you need to unleash that. And today they're coming, they are approaching me and they are asking, hi, I, know I'm a developer and I'm a technical guy. Could you please tell me how to play with emotional intelligence?

[00:16:21] Because I would like to do that and this is the best what I could, what I could 

[00:16:25] Darin Newbold: get. That is the best. And I'm so excited for that. Well, Carolina, this has been such a joy to have you on here. Um, I am sure that others are gonna want to, uh, uh, weigh in and, and we definitely invite you. Please, uh, please send us your thoughts on these concepts as well as any questions that you may have.

[00:16:43] We want you to, uh, definitely subscribe to, uh, to our channel and we would love to hear from you and hear from hear your feedback. 'cause what we really wrap together in this whole winning culture. I mean, everything from authentic values. The culture of trust, accountability, and ownership.

[00:17:00] Getting engagement and commitment, and then utilizing real-time testing with through development centers and having competency models and soft skills that all come together. So with that, that is a wrap for this one. Carolina, again, thank you. Thank you, thank you very, very much. And as always, folks, we look forward to seeing and hearing from you very, very soon.

[00:17:20] Until then, take care.