The little things matter when you’re building culture at a lean company. Just ask Kyra Shannon.
She’s a talent acquisition manager at OnFrontiers, a 50-person company that builds knowledge networks for distributed businesses seeking to become more agile. In April 2022, her company threw her a big surprise birthday celebration.
But it wasn’t for Shannon. The party was for her daughter, who just turned 1 year old.
“To my surprise, our director of ops put together a small birthday party for her,” Shannon said. “There was yummy, kid-friendly food, a magician and a birthday cake for my daughter and other OnFrontiers’ kiddos. Something little like that meant the world to me.”
But it takes more than thoughtful celebrations to build culture. At OnFrontiers, culture-building also means prioritizing diversity and inclusion. That’s why Kyra Shannon’s role is so important. As a talent acquisition manager, she incorporates DEI into her daily duties, which range from recruitment and talent branding to onboarding and human resources. Recently, she was also named the president of the newly formed Culture Committee, which focuses on increasing employee retention, engagement and morale.
So, how do you build culture and DEI at a lean company? Shannon is the perfect person to ask. Built In sat down with her to learn more about what she’s doing at OnFrontiers to ensure that the little things make a big impact.
WHAT THEY DO
What recruiting measures is OnFrontiers taking to ensure a diverse candidate pool?
We’re excited to be growing our women and people of color (POC) headcount because we know it’s important to have people from different backgrounds and experiences to cultivate a well-rounded workforce.
Overall, about 30 percent of our team is from underrepresented minority groups. Our long-term goals are to fill the remainder of our executive positions with women or POC. We recently brought on a VP of operations who migrated from Trinidad to attend a prestigious Historically Black College and University (HBCU) here in the states. Also, we’re creating space for our global workforce (we have staff in South Africa, the Philippines, India, Turkey, and Latin America) and employees from underrepresented groups to be the pillars of our diverse and inclusive culture. We want to continue to celebrate our cultural differences and teach one another what cultural competency looks and sounds like.
Tell me more about the Culture Committee.
The ultimate objectives are to increase team engagement and employee retention, and to create a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued. We also want to establish clear paths for personal growth and career development.
Currently, we host monthly cultural bonding events. We also make it a priority to celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, big company wins, OnFrontiers’ children birthdays, big life events, new hires and promotions.
What are some examples of recent cultural bonding events?
Participation and excitement are high around these events. Many new hires are eager to host and come up with fun team-building activities. We choose two team members from different teams to host each event. This gives folks the opportunity to work with someone they don’t normally work with. This month, one of our new enterprise account executives and one of our product managers based in Barcelona decided to host a food event on Cinco de Mayo and spearhead an OnFrontiers’ recipe book. Our team is spread across the world and we’re big foodies, so creating a recipe book with different cuisines from around the world was a no-brainer.
My most memorable cultural event was when we played a “Who am I?” guessing game, where we were given context clues and had to guess which team member was being displayed. It was such a fun way to get to know my teammates on a personal and cultural level.
I understand that you recently revamped some of your benefits. How so?
We realized there were gaps in our health coverage, so we asked team members for input and are now moving to a new plan that better reflects the needs of our staff. We understand that healthcare is a large part of a compensation package and we want to be sure our offerings are cost-effective and competitive with the market. All of this is important to help attract and retain top talent. In tandem, we’re establishing a paid parental leave policy, which was prompted by our youngest OnFrontiers’ baby (one of our new product managers recently had a baby!). We want our parents and single employees looking to expand their families to know they have the financial and emotional support to grow their families. This is an initiative I’m very excited about, because being a part of a work family that celebrates and supports the ones I love most is a must for me.
Why should someone join OnFrontiers?
We’re transparent about our vision for creating a better OnFrontiers’ culture and team. I believe our genuineness to be real and open is a selling point. New hires have the ability to come in and immediately contribute and impact our culture. There’s also the chance to learn and collaborate with very smart, mission-aligned and driven people who are experts in their own ways. We believe in all things growth, so having the ability to experiment on what works versus what doesn’t is exciting.
And of course, I feel OnFrontiers has a sense of family values and inclusivity, which sits at the core of everything we do. It’s important for our employees to see their personal values be implemented across our organization.
