For women, maintaining silence, even when they are ill-treated, is all too common. It has been indoctrinated in us, generations after generations, those good women stay silent. Breaking this mindset takes courage, strength and cannot be achieved by an individual, it will take a Revolution of individuals who dares to take a stand and also help others to do so. Frances Holmes, CEO, and Founder Of Speak Out Revolution is one such woman who is speaking out to drive change.

Helping People Draw Courage

Frances started her career as a mathematician and has worked across the engineering sector for the past decade. She had a few key roles that have shaped her career journey. However, it has not been a straight path from A-B and the diversity of her experience has given her the strength and has led her to take on the CEO role at Speak Out. As an award-winning not-for-profit focused on the Diversity and Inclusion space, her organization’s mission is to cancel the culture of silence on harassment and bullying at workplaces.

Frances is motivated about creating truly inclusive workplaces where everyone can bring their whole self to work. She wants to break down the barriers that persist to enable anyone to reach their full potential. Her drive comes from her aspiration for others that come after her to not have to face the same challenges and barriers that she has faced. “There will always be challenges, however in 5 or 10 years, they should be different than those we are facing today. Unfortunately, that is currently not the case, the rate of change towards truly inclusive workplaces is too slow,” says Frances.

There have been three events in her life that have shaped Frances’ journey to date. Firstly, being diagnosed with Dyslexia, she had had to navigate the world slightly differently and understand how to turn the challenges she faced into her strengths. The second was becoming a consultant. This was the steepest learning curve that accelerated her personal and professional development in ways a normal corporate career would not. Finally, founding Speak Out and being named on the HERoes Future Women Leaders list for Diversity and Inclusion as a result of the team’s work, the impact Speak Out is making is so valuable.

Being Vocal

Speak Out Revolution is a not-for-profit with a mission to cancel the culture of silence on harassment and bullying in our workplaces globally. The organization empowers the disempowered to speak out through The Speak Out Survey, challenge the status quo by increasing transparency via The Speak Out Dashboard, and advocate for organizational change.

Diversity and Inclusion is a hot topic in every workplace. However, there is a lot of lip service, not a lot of impact. Diversity and Inclusion is a Strategic problem for organizations, not a Human Resource project, and should be treated as one. Speak Out Revolution is driving real, measurable change, through data-driven insights at a strategic level.

What ultimately makes them unique is that their technology (Speak Out Survey and Speak Out Dashboard) is open source, and they present all data transparently. So everyone is empowered to advocate for change. Unlike their closest competitors, they are not interested in helping companies implement technology that captures insights internally and help sustain the status quo. They believe transparency drives change, so their insights on all the metrics that matter when it comes to workplace harassment and bullying are available in the Speak Out Dashboard: Freely available, open-source, filterable, and fully transparent.

Driving Measurable Change

Speak Out seeks to make every workplace globally truly inclusive. “The jury is still out on whether that was a good idea(!) but… I’m really proud that Marie and I saw a problem, worked together to understand it, and brought together our collective expertise to collaborate and deliver a solution that empowers everyone to speak out for more inclusive workplaces.”

Along with Marie Hemingway, Co-founder and CTO, Frances hopes to constructively challenge the systems and processes which silence targets of poor workplace behaviors, not solve the underlying problems. They aspire to disrupt the status quo through their data-driven insights which show:

* Gaslighting is the most prevalent form of workplace harassment (but is not widely understood in the UK)

* 68% of people do not formally report their workplace harassment and bullying to their organizations which means organizations are blind to the problems which drive out the diversity of thought

* Mental health deterioration is the leading consequence of formally reporting workplace harassment and bullying (owing to the reporting process itself)

* It’s 3 times more likely that a person’s situation becomes worse from formally reporting than better

* Only 5% of people who formally report, see a full resolution

* 22% of people are silenced via an NDA or confidentiality agreement limiting their ability to speak out

The duo founded Speak Out in response to real-world challenges experienced across their networks with respect to unresolved concerns and complaints of workplace bullying and harassment. These challenges ultimately led to people (women particularly) being either forced to tolerate unsafe and disrespectful working environments to maintain their roles or leave their organization. After initial research, the team concluded that workplace harassment persists because speaking up and self-preservation are mutually exclusive given the systems and processes in place. “To drive the change we needed to cancel the culture of silence around workplace harassment and bullying, in a way that protected the individual and enabled others to understand the problem and advocate for change. We decided that the best solution was to create the ‘Glassdoor’ of workplace harassment and bullying. We provide insights for individuals to navigate the poor systems in place and shine a light on the challenges different people face in the workplace and the outcomes of trying to resolve those challenges,” explains Frances.

Being Woman

Frances’s career has always been in a male-dominated field. She has always been and still is consistently the only female in meetings. When looking across the corporate world there are still so few women at the senior level, there are barriers that persist that are preventing and discourage women from staying in the corporate world and progressing to leadership positions. The lack of role models and advocates is the reason why workplace inclusion is so important to Frances personally.

As a passionate leader looking for opportunities to empower women, she feels it is important for young women to understand that when they start their career, the 5-year plan is not important. “The roles that enable you to develop and thrive do not come along on an expected timeframe. Don’t get complacent, but also don’t think you need to be on a single trajectory, be open to new unexpected paths, and also know when to change direction when your current path is no longer right for you,” she advises.

The Right Way Forward

For Speak Out, Frances’s goal is to scale. She is keen to expand Speak Out’s reach and impact in workplaces worldwide. “We aspire to be THE independent, impartial body leveraging data-driven insights to disrupt the status quo. A status quo which silences, not protects, targets of poor behaviors in the workplace; holding at risk our ability to create truly inclusive workplaces,” says a confident Frances.

Growing up in a small town, Sheryl Battles experienced racial segregation early in her school life. When she joined an elementary school in the second grade along with two other Black students, she learned what it felt like not to belong because she was ‘different’ from several others. However, it was also where she learned how affirming it feels when someone reaches out and includes you, acknowledging not only your differences but your similarities as humans.

Through it all her parents encouraged her, emphasizing that there wasn’t something wrong with her that might cause some people to ignore her or be unkind. They also prepared her for the irony that while some might assume she was not as capable as others, they might still require her to do more than others just to get access to the same opportunity. They also taught her to love all of the aspects of her identity (gender, culture, race/ethnicity, etc.) irrespective of what others thought, or what it would require of her.

All of this shaped Sheryl into an overachiever, who grew and left no stone unturned to pursue and achieve her dreams. And today, She serves as the Vice President, Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement at Pitney Bowes. She leads the company’s strategies, operations, and storytelling at the intersection of diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement to help fuel business results and individual growth. She combines her extensive communications expertise, deep understanding of business strategy, strength in analytics, and passion for creating inclusive experiences.

Making Bold Choices

Sheryl graduated from Stanford University in Palo Alto, California with a degree in Human Biology. However, instead of taking the health care profession route, she chose a different career path. Throughout her career, she has gained experience in virtually every aspect of communications there is including speech writing and executive communications for 3 previous Pitney Bowes CEOs, investor/financial communications, media relations, internal communications, crisis management, thought leadership, and philanthropy and community investments. She has also applied her research, writing, and analytical skills to help direct and interpret research on business communications technologies and practices, co-lead complex projects such as the company’s current exploration of the evolving ways of working, and design programs for enhancing diversity, promoting inclusion and increasing employee engagement.

Growing at Pitney

Pitney Bowes is a global shipping and mailing company that provides technology, logistics, and financial services to more than 90% of the Fortune 500. Small business, retail, enterprise, and government clients around the world rely on Pitney Bowes to remove the complexity of sending mail and parcels.

Pitney Bowes has several businesses. Its Global Ecommerce business facilitates domestic retail e-commerce shipping solutions. Presort Services provides sortation services to qualify large volumes of First-Class Mail, marketing Mail, Marketing Mail Flats and bound printed matter for postal workshare discounts. Sending Technology Solutions offers physical and digital mailing and shipping technology solutions, financing, services, supplies, and other applications for small and medium businesses to help simplify and save on the sending, tracking, and receiving of letters, parcels and flats.

Sheryl’s tenure with Pitney Bowes has given her the opportunity to see the business landscape continue to evolve. Technology fuelled changes in product/service functionality, go-to-market, access and delivery, payment systems, and connections with clients, to name a few. Pitney Bowes is over 100 years old, and one doesn’t reach that mark without the ability to successfully transform the value they deliver and the way they deliver it while maintaining the values that guide. For both the business, and Sheryl personally, that means ongoing learning, an openness to doing things differently, and increased nimbleness, while welcoming and embracing the richness that diversity of thought, identity, culture, and ethnicity brings.

Challenges- Just a Part of Growth

Challenges have always been integral to Sheryl’s life and professional growth. Being a woman can add challenges. “While everyone wants to have their voice heard and their skills valued, we know that does not always happen. I know for example that the perception of my value is often viewed through the lens of my gender as a woman or the color of my skin. The reality is that no single aspect of my identity totally defines who I am or what I can do. Those preconceived notions of who I am, however, can sometimes block others from hearing what I have to say, or giving me an opportunity,” says Sheryl.

A virtual meeting of several members of the Pitney Bowes Women’s Inclusion Network (PB WIN) Core Team

Over the years, Sheryl has learned how to tackle those challenges at work. “It takes work to produce a breakthrough when you encounter the challenge of snap judgments, incorrect assumptions, or uninformed opinions of what you can or can’t do because of your gender, or any other singular aspect of who you are. Thus, I look for ways to let my actions and results speak for me. They are the best antidote. When I produce results, it changes the conversation from speculation to observation. Others open up when they see the results. It helps break down potential barriers and increases understanding.

It doesn’t mean, unfortunately, that one instance of performance will change everything, however. Some beliefs are so embedded that they may view your success as an aberration rather than the norm. The ideal case is that your consistency of quality performance over time will ultimately allow individuals and organizations to see you for who you actually are, rather than who they may have incorrectly assumed or expected you to be,” emphasizes Sheryl.

Words of Wisdom

Sheryl has four-point advice for women who want to make it big in their careers:

First, learn how the business you’re in now (or the one you’re looking to enter) works.

The more you can understand how a business/organization creates value, the more you can see how your talents and skills can help it deliver that value.

Second, part of the necessary understanding of the business should include how to read its financials. Don’t be afraid of the numbers. There is a story behind them. Learning about an organization’s financials provides insights into its priorities, focus, and strategies. Understanding the numbers is about understanding the company’s current state and its future.

Third, learn how to learn. Change is the only norm, and it is accelerating as technology evolves. The only way to not just keep up but stay ahead is through continuous learning and curiosity. Always be flexible and open to what lies ahead.

Fourth, and the most important, people matter. Individual and team success lie in the ability to listen, seek an understanding of differing perspectives, treat all with dignity and respect, and develop relationships and teams which enable all to be their best. Ultimately, as you continue to advance, it is not solely dependent upon your technical skills or knowledge, it is about your relationships with others and your ability to help them be their best as well.

Advancing Inclusion at PB

Sheryl’s journey in life has been propelled by consistently demonstrating her knowledge, understanding, and ability to excel. She is proudly leading diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement at Pitney Bowes. 

Today, at Pitney, women comprise 50% of the Board of Directors and lead half of the Board’s committees. Women are 43% of the company’s global workforce and 28% of senior management. The global strategy which Sheryl leads, and the Chief Human Resources Officer’s senior team that she is part of, is designed to attract the best talent and sustain an inclusive environment in which all can learn, grow and engage to deliver superior results. As part of the global diversity and inclusion strategy that Sheryl leads over the last several years, they have developed a series of initiatives to increase awareness, stimulate conversation and facilitate understanding and advocacy for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ communities.

While the emphasis is on these areas of diversity, the work actually benefits all employees which help them work together better, build stronger teams, and deliver more value to the clients and stakeholders.  Sheryl notes, “Pitney Bowes is a great company to work for because it has an 80+ year history of diversity and inclusion that is authentic and integral to its character.  The company seeks the best talent. Period.  And once part of the company, it works to give everyone opportunities to achieve and grow into their best self, so that collectively we can deliver more value to our clients and all stakeholders.”

Sheryl, on a continuous path of learning, growth, and making an impact, seeks to help create a world in which to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we are judged by the content of our character and our deeds and not the color of our skin or our gender. A world in which inclusion of all is the norm and not the exception.

For Agata Zasada, failure has only helped her to continue to grow. She graduated high school early and on a confident note, skipped a grade only to fail out of her first semester in post-secondary education. She couldn’t continue the year, kept waiting two more semesters to restart from scratch, spent the year sulking and living with the consequences. The incident had a humbling effect on her. She understood the importance of scoring right, but the lesson wasn’t over yet. Over the years, she learned how to work in a team, motivate or influence others and balance herself for the better outcome of the team and not just herself.

Finding her Feet

Agata fell into Human Resources over 15 years ago when she had exposure to the function at a very young age, working as Technical Support for TV at a call center. After graduating during the economic recession of 2008, she was fortunate to be hired into an organization that was recession-proof: the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. In 2009, she joined lululemon athletica. After 4 years of career climbing, international experience, and many yoga classes, she was headhunted to join a rocketship tech company, Hootsuite. She had an incredible 4.5 years there and learned so much from business, leadership, and globalization. Currently, she works at Paystone and leads the People Experience function (Executive & Senior Vice President of People Experience).

Paystone is a leading North American payment and software company redefining the way merchants engage their customers and grow their businesses. The company’s seamlessly integrated suite of automated payment processing, customer loyalty, gift card solutions, and now reputation marketing, is used by brands such as Irving Oil, The Source, Global Pet Foods, Kernels Popcorn, and many of the MTY Food Group’s restaurant brands. Paystone’s solutions are used at over 35,000 locations across Canada and the United States which collectively process over 10 billion dollars a year in bankcard volume. The fintech company employs over 180 employees and serves as the technology partner of choice for hundreds of partners across North America.

Facing Challenges

In the tech industry, even 5 years ago, women in leadership roles were still far and few between. Many times, women would have either junior roles or roles that are considered less prestigious. For the first part of her career, Agata struggled to garner respect the way her male colleagues did. To deal with it, she stopped focusing on what she didn’t receive, respect in this case, and instead focused on what she could control, that is her actions, words, and behaviors. This perspective impacted the results that she delivered. Eventually, her work spoke for itself, bringing her respect and she worked equally proficiently to continue to keep it. The change in outlook catapulted her career. “I think because I was seen as a consistent performer, which wasn’t always the case. The difficulty here was it took time, but ultimately it was worth it in the end. It made me better personally and professionally,” says Agata.

Another challenge that Agata faces, just like many other women constantly do as well, is having a voice and being a trusted “smart” advisor. “I sometimes get flabbergasted by how many times a woman’s idea gets brushed aside, but when a male says the same thing (or close enough) it seems like such an original genius idea. How I have tackled this, is mostly head-on. If someone doesn’t seem to be paying attention when I say something, but when a male does, I simply ask “when I recommended this, what could I have done differently to get the same response?” The reason this works is that it’s not insulting to the person who didn’t hear you, and I’ve learned a lot from those responses.”

Agata shares her learning saying some things she has learned and applied are varying, but two that seem to help her immensely are as follows. The first is not to get passionate or emotional when pitching an idea. The second is to lead with context. The context is “what problem are you trying to solve?” (or what opportunity are you trying to exploit?). From here, it’s usually a hop skip, and jump away from a rough return on investment.

What keeps her going?

Agata is motivated by making work and life be the best for as many people as she can help. “Some people are great at one to one, like doctors and nurses, and I’m more attuned to the one to many, where strategy and application come to make magic for as many people as possible. I love making people’s lives better by allowing them to be fully themselves while growing personally and having an impact (to a business, customer, etc),” shares Agata.

She also believes that one thing that has kept her going even with the stiff competition around is Focus. She has seen both the bad, good, and exceptional performers in hyper-competitive situations. It’s hard to stay focused when there are easy distractions, or competing priorities even, but those who have their eye on an outcome, when they stay focused, can deliver extraordinary results. “I’m always reminded how sometimes software developers (or companies) have to work on something for months for the function (not feature) to be released, but the solution can have an exponential positive impact to customers, employees, and ultimately the company. But if those software developers got distracted every time someone had a new idea or a tweak here and there, nothing would move the mountains. In practice, staying focused is very hard, but once you have critical mass on focus, it can feel like a force with the momentum that can’t be stopped,” she explains.

To the young women across the globe trying to make an impact and grow in their careers, Agata says that they should be comfortable with who they are. “I’ve recently realized that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and that is completely okay. When you aren’t a fit for someone or team or company, it is neither a reflection of you nor them. It’s simply not meant to be. The sooner you are comfortable with and even confident in who you are, the faster you will be able to gauge if you are in the right place. I’ve personally felt so much more liberated in life, and would wish that for each woman around the world,” she advises.

What Next?

The pandemic, Agata believes, has really changed the way she thinks about the future, both personally and professionally. Personally, she strives to be an incredible mother, spouse, and member of her family and friends. “Within the last two years, I turned that focus to being the best version of myself, which means I’m calm, creative, and find joy daily. I’ve let go of what I thought I needed to be and became who I am truly, more so. Professionally, I’ve wanted to pursue leading functions outside the traditional “human resources” function. I’ve never been good at coloring inside the lines, and am ready to do so more formally. One professional goal I’ve yet to achieve is a board member seat,” shares Agata.

Eldest of her three siblings, as a kid, Michele found herself learning work ethic, endurance, persistence, healthy risk tolerance, fearlessness, and curiosity through her entrepreneur parents. She attended a school for the gifted as a child and loved learning.  Her college experience set her up well for the scrappy, fear-nothing, risk-taking entrepreneurial spirit. She became a fantastic storyteller and persuader in college learning how to figure things out, deal with the consequences of bad decisions, and land on her feet. After close to 32 years of managing and leading a portfolio of small businesses that her family ran today, Michele is the Founder and CEO of Citadel Holdings, LLC & ClearDigital Media, a start-up in a new industry and an evolving market.

Focussing on Solutions

It all started in 1982 when Michele’s mother, Madelaine Uzuanis, started HITEC Group, International, Inc, which grossed impressive revenues during its first year and a half. In 1986 HITEC, expanded into a larger facility. In 1990, Michele joined the business, learning every aspect of the business, ultimately becoming VP of Operations.  The mother-daughter duo soon realized the need to produce and control their own product line, to manufacture new, top-quality assistive listening products at reasonable prices that would meet the needs of their growing base of loyal customers. In 2003 ClearSounds® Communications was incorporated as a WBE (women-owned business) to leverage its ability to bring new product solutions to the market.

In 2014, Michele launched Clear Digital Media in partnership with her dad, Richard. “We had been working closely with hearing care providers over the years as a point of distribution for our assistive communication products.  As we interacted with providers and observed patient flow in the practices, we saw the need to improve the patient experience in hearing care,” reminisces Michele. As digital signage and streaming video on a screen in physician’s practices was expanding, they saw the opportunity to provide high-quality, educational content to their core client base – hearing healthcare providers.  2019 was another year of challenges and opportunities with entire operations being migrated to Austin, Texas from Chicago.  In 2020, COVID brought a stressful period both emotionally and financially.  This was also when they made a strategic move and accelerated the development of Citadel, the software platform they had started working on in 2019.  In the 4th quarter of 2020, Michele launched Citadel, the DOOH & Roku video content management platform.

Making a Splash in the Industry with Citadel

The digital signage software industry is full of goliaths – large, well-funded companies. To enter an established industry, one has to find one’s way through the market to uncover profitable relationships and activities, only by experimenting and bumping into things that one learns. This takes time, money, and creativity. It also requires a smart and flexible approach. With Citadel, a SaaS company and Roku developer, Michele entered the industry, however, already having a built-in client, ClearDigital Media.

Clear Digital Media is a DOOH (digital out of home) network of screens located in audiology, ENT, and other specialty medical practices throughout the US. It provides CDM TV which is a streaming educational, customized video content channel designed to precondition patients for their appointments and provide advertisers with a platform that offers affordable digital inventory and a highly targeted audience. The Citadel platform was built with 5 years of practical, real-world use-case experience. Because they had used a couple of industry-leading platforms to manage the CDM DOOH network, they knew how to simplify the interface, reduce operational costs and ensure scalability. “Citadel was born out of our belief we could develop our own platform that more effectively served our needs, reduced our costs, and gave us more control,” says Michele.

Seeking Growth

The digital signage software market is expected to witness market growth at a rate of 15.64% in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028.

Michele is optimistic about its team’s ability to participate in this growing trend. Finding pockets of blue oceans within hyper-competitive markets is a big part of her strategy. Her team will be focussing on UI and maintaining the simplicity of use while providing powerful features that offer flexibility and affordability will be the key to their success. Michele adds, “We are focusing on the development of our Elevate platform which serves the needs of both large and small companies and institutions with trackable video training programs & learning curriculums. Also, developing this platform as an effective tool for the homeschooling market is part of our roadmap.”

Michele intends to continue to build Citadel by focusing on its development roadmap and becoming a solution provider for a significant DOOH network. Long term, she sees Citadel being acquired by a larger organization. She says, “We are very entrepreneurial. I love seeing a problem and developing a solution and growing the company without the need for massive capital investment.  So the end goal is to grow Citadel for sale or acquisition, then take all of this compounding experience and explore another new market.”

Being an Inspiration

Michele advises young women to understand their strengths and focus on developing them to succeed.

“Use challenges you face as fuel for motivation and growth. Be curious, be caring, and as a leader, serve those you lead. Challenges come in different forms, but at some point, everyone faces something that deeply impacts them.  It’s the choices we make in how to confront a challenge that creates an overcomer vs someone who feels trapped and hopeless.  When we have a strong, healthy mindset, we handle challenges in a way that moves us forward. Healthy mindsets create stronger families, stronger communities, and a future full of hope. Focus on surrounding yourself with people that feed a healthy mindset. Don’t be scared of failure because it teaches valuable lessons. Break free of stereotypes of any kind, be it gender or race. Shut down the stereotype’s ability to hinder your progress. Prejudice and sexism- yes, it exists, however it should never hold you back. When people are in a growth mindset, the stereotype doesn’t affect their performance.  The growth mindset takes the teeth out of the stereotype and makes people better able to fight back…They don’t believe in permanent inferiority. Seek out and soak in everything you can that helps in the development of a growth mindset. This includes the development of mentor relationships with other successful women with growth mindsets. There is nothing stopping you from achieving success.”

Facing a new set of challenges

In the initial months when the world was in lockdown, businesses were left scrambling for a way to get work done virtually and remotely. Those who had already placed their bets on technology and were open to hybrid work experienced a smoother transition. The others were overwhelmed, to say the least.

The other challenge that businesses and brands are facing is the sudden labor shortage and what everyone is referring to as “The Great Resignation.” COVID has made people picky about the kind of work they would like to do. It has opened the door to a host of worker preferences where people want more money and greater work satisfaction. They demand greater flexibility as they face childcare/caregiver issues. They want to work remotely to address health concerns and ensure a greater work-life balance.

Next in line is about supply chain issues. Shipment of parts and products from overseas are drastically delayed, impacting the ability to fulfill customer purchase orders and service requests. This is leading to more challenging, emotionally fraught interactions. And the next area is concerning consumer preferences for interaction. While so many consumers would engage with Brands in local storefronts or by phone, the happenings of the last 18 to 24 months forced a higher use of digital channels (e.g., chat, email, SMS, social media, IVR, and bots). Today, the way consumers interact with brands has become a habit and it’s never going back to the way it was before.

Innovation for Customer Experience

As a result of the new landscape, brands need innovative ways to serve customers, understand their needs, and creating solutions to ensure their success and happiness. For years, brands have relied on traditional business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions to augment their own in-house customer support services and deliver a great customer experience (CX). However, the majority of those traditional BPOs were negatively impacted through the pandemic, and most are still trying to recover. Just like all others in Q1 2020, BPO providers with brick-and-mortar contact centers were forced to do an immediate lift and shift to work-at-home. While some were more successful than others, the perceived competitive footprint with brands was heightened. And yes, the BPOs are also facing the labor crunch like every other industry.

The complete scenario has led to new innovations and outside-the-box thinking as the gig economy becomes the future of work and a key solution for managing dynamic demands created by unforeseen events or seasonal capacity changes. For brands, it means a flexible approach to meeting customer demand based on their current needs and constituting the “gig customer-experience operations,” or Gig- CX. For those seeking new opportunities in the pandemic era, it means increased flexibility, greater work satisfaction and full control of their options.

The rise of a Leader

Arise Virtual Solutions is the leader in Gig-CX management and a true market disruptor. The company elevates CX through a technology and support platform that connects brands to the largest network of gig-economy Service Partners in the BPO industry. Innovations in dynamic scheduling allows brands to deliver up to 200% intraday flex so they can be there for customers. Highly innovative virtual learning programs keep teams aware of customer needs so they offer new solutions that grow the share of wallet and increase revenue up to 6%. Gig-CX Service Partners select brands they love and deliver empathetic, personal care that creates enduring relationships and up to 34% higher net promoter scores. Coupled with their unique CX Maturity Model that takes customer service to new heights, the Arise® Platform keeps brands essential and growing.

The Advantage of the Arise® Platform

It has become intensely incumbent on Arise to differentiate how Gig-CX truly differentiates from the work-at-home BPO solution. There are some key areas:

 Resources

The Arise® Platform provides Brands access to a network of more than 70,000 mature, experienced Service Partners that helped to deliver 126% of capacity during COVID-19. This is unlike traditional BPOs facing labor shortages even with a remote work environment.

Scheduling

The Arise® Platform allows brands and Service Partners to schedule support in 30-minute intervals, reducing the unproductive time by 17% and providing maximum flexibility.

Efficiency and Flex

Using Arise’s proprietary scheduling system, Gig-CX Service Partners on the Arise® Platform can deliver brands up to up to 90% utilization and 200% intraday flex capacity.

 Virtual Learning

 While global studies have found that 20% of all new learners have poor learning experiences that negatively impact their work, Arise is helping to certify 54% more new learners year over year. It has also helped to decrease curriculum time by up to 40% and speed to proficiency by up to 30%.

 Quality

 While 58% of consumers contact customer care more than once to resolve an issue, the Arise® Gig-CX Platform– along with older, more mature, and experienced Service Partners, CX Maturity Model, and sophisticated Service Partner engagement toolset – help brands achieve up to 6% increase in revenue with reduced abandons and improved customer satisfaction and net promoter scores.

The Driving Forces

Unprecedented times call for innovative solutions led by incredible leaders. And Arise has not just one, but two amazingly inspiring forces to reckon with. Judith Rodriguez is Senior Vice President & General Manager, Customer Success Delivery, and Diane Marques is Vice President, Learning Design & Delivery (LD&D).

At Arise, Judith leads a team responsible for delivering both operational results and executing strategy for its customers (both Clients and Service Partners). Her journey has been both exciting and challenging as the dynamic industry has always kept her on her toes. She has been able to build lasting relationships beyond the professional with customers. But at the same time, she feels the industry is very competitive, and delivering beyond KPIs is critical to show the value an organization brings to the partnership.

Diane, in her role as VP, LD&D oversees the Global Learning function at Arise, helping various Fortune 500 companies to exceed their CX goals by leading best-in-class learning design, development, and delivery in the virtual space.

On a personal level, Judith considers Diane as a person of many wonderful attributes, and the one that stands out most to her is that she is genuine. She feels that Diane has a high level of emotional intelligence and her ability to connect with people early on in a professional relationship is a gift rarely found these days.

And as per Diane, Judith is an amazing leader and an expert in her field. What she admires most is how Judith supports others. “She gives credit where credit is due, she is open to new ideas and is creative with solutions. She encourages different perspectives and acts when needed. I love learning from her and watching her interact with others and the business.”

Here’s more about the leaders and their views on different aspects of business and life.

What inspired you to be in this industry?

JUDITH: When I started, I had no idea what a BPO was but I needed a job and started as a junior Account Manager supporting customer service for a fast-food restaurant. I really enjoyed the dynamics of the industry and felt a great level of satisfaction when we “won.” I realized then that this job could be a great career.

DIANE: Developing and educating others to deliver on genuine, exceptional CX experiences is important to me. I believe that people make a difference and as leaders we should look for ways to invest in people, being in this space allows me to do that.

What has been your greatest challenge as a woman in this industry & how have you addressed it? 

JUDITH: My greatest challenge as a woman has been ensuring that my voice is heard in a male-dominated industry, particularly at the C-level. While there are many women, there are far less C-level women leaders than men, despite there being many women running and executing within all functional areas. We, as women, need to break through the old adages — that women are too emotional; that we’re some sort of expletive word when communicating directly; that decisions should be made for you by men because time and social norms have allowed it.

I say NO Ladies! We are passionate, committed, and strong! We should not apologize for who we are, nor should we allow others to negotiate for our future. It took years for me to realize you need to value yourself first and you will be at that table!

DIANE: Remembering that I have earned a seat at the table, that I belong and that my voice matters. Throughout my career, I have gone through phases of just doing what was expected, not pushing back or sharing my real thoughts or ideas. While it took some time, I have overcome this by remaining open to feedback and forgiving myself for mistakes. I have allowed myself to continuously learn and grow while both appreciating and respecting my unique style. I am in my role to share my perspective, so I do. But I also make sure that I do it with respect for others, commanding it in return.

As women leaders, how do you encourage diversity and women in your respective departments?

JUDITH: While it’s important to encourage diversity and promote women within my own department, as a part of Arise’s Executive Leadership Team, and as a Latina woman, I feel a greater responsibility to build more opportunities for inclusion and diversity across every level of every department across the organization. This is why I felt it important to establish and play a leadership role in two key endeavors at Arise.

The first is the Arise Diversity, Equality, Inclusion, and Belonging Committee. It’s not only okay but necessary to see how people are different from one another. This committee aims to bring greater awareness to and appreciation for all that makes us unique. Through our efforts, Arise has had exposure to influential speakers such as Maika and Maritza Moulite, authors of One of the Good Ones. We’ve also had powerful presentations from internal staff members, discussing their experiences as people of color facing adversity in both the workplace and society as a whole.

I am also incredibly proud to be leading WE@Arise, the organization’s group for women’s empowerment. Here we aim to connect women with internal mentors to provide support and promote growth. Through open dialogue, guest speakers, connections to female-focused professional organizations, and more, we’re ensuring that women’s voices are heard more loudly and clearly than ever before.

With both of these working groups, as well as one-on-one mentoring, and overall team leadership, it is my goal to help deserving individuals break through the glass ceiling and achieve the greatest success!

DIANE: I strongly feel that over the last few years we have seen a significant shift in systemic change. While so many organizations touted the importance of diversity and inclusion, few were really putting it into practice. Today’s the day to make a difference and it is important for me, as an executive, to not just foster an environment where people of different genders, races, nationalities, and sexual orientations and identities are present, but to lead by example and make sure they are truly heard.

For me, it starts with education. Given where I grew up, there wasn’t a lot of diversity, so I recognize how important it is for me to listen and learn from others. I want to better understand other people’s experiences so I can find ways to make them feel more comfortable and secure, helping them to feel more trusting and engaged.

Next, it’s about promoting leaders. As Judith mentioned, we work in a world that is heavily dominated by male leadership despite countless studies showing that diversity leads to better talent, more innovation, better decision-making, and a more engaged organization as a whole. As a woman, I feel it’s my personal responsibility to “lean in” and support other women who have the potential to succeed. Whether it be through strong mentorship, connecting people to appropriate professional organizations, or giving women the opportunity to shine so their success can open male minds, I want to do for my team members, even my company, as I wished other executives had done for me.

How does the digital landscape impact the way your departments’ function?

Judith & Diane:  For decades, technology has played a role in transforming the way we work. In the 1990s, the power of email and Ethernet propelled workplace communications. In the 2000s, mobile technology changed consumer behaviors while the “dot com” era continued to explode. Today, technology has been fully integrated into every aspect of our professional lives and that’s no different at Arise.

As CXM leaders it is our job to look at technology and digital-based solutions in a new light. We see it as the key factor that drives strategy, value-added services, and operational services. Digital technology is used in everything from sourcing talent, to learning and development, connecting securely to brands, as well as enabling and supporting Service Partners on the Arise® Platform.

What’s a one-line quote that best describes your approach to business and your vision.

JUDITH: For me, it’s really my least favorite word – Mediocre. I hate being told you are within the average of everyone else and I should accept the reality. If I had to pick a quote, it would be “Be fearful of Mediocrity” – Jonathan Ellery

DIANE: “We are all just people, working alongside other people.” People, across all levels, are needed to create and execute strategies to meet and exceed business objectives. Involving others, staying focused on the goal, and being able to measure results is the foundation. When we treat others with respect, even if we have different perspectives, and laugh a little along the way, it makes us all better. We are all just people at the end of the day. I think we forget that sometimes.

What would you advise the budding entrepreneurs?

JUDITH: As you think about the future, truly learn from history – there are so many similarities we are experiencing today that we lived in the past. Let’s not dismiss these happenings but ask how we might learn and grow from them so we can take our ambitions it to next level; and do so with our own, unique touch.

DIANE: Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. Stand out, take a chance, and stay open to learning from others. Doors open and close around us, don’t be afraid of that! Embrace it, for it is our experiences that make us stronger. My father always told me that when you work hard and do the right thing it matters. He also tells me “go, go, go you can do this,” and that we have to remind ourselves of that all the time.

Under their leadership, here’s what we can expect from Arise.

The Arise® Platform is very much at a tipping point of growth. As the team speeds to success, their goal is to help brands be there for customers, be aware of their needs, and be essential to their success and happiness, while providing Service Partners the flexibility that they crave. The aim is to help brands optimize their costs with secure technology that reduces their environmental impact and to provide Service Partners with a wide range of opportunities to be their own bosses and structure work the way they want to and the way that suits their lives.

Arise’s long-term innovation goals are to define the future of customer experience management. In that, Arise looks to be the central platform for the gig economy, fostering greater opportunities for a diverse world of entrepreneurs. They expect to reduce learning time and enable complex skill sets by infusing exciting new digital technologies. They are looking to reinvent customer care by designing task-based engagement models. Arise’s strategic roadmap is paving the way for an improved Service Partner experience, from registration to service. And they will ensure a delivery of care that builds greater confidence and trust with customers as they redefine the nature of virtual-first security.

“The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in.”— James Baldwin

Technology and Globalization have brought us closer together by blurring the boundaries in the physical and digital worlds. Today our Global Cities and beyond are home to a range of peoples across diverse races, cultures, interests, ethnicities, and more. However, there’s still a great deal of work to do to address historical and contemporary inequities and, importantly, to foster equitable transformative possibilities. To do this is to engage in the critical concepts of transformation, truth, and reconciliation as described by South African partners. There is deep research needed to unearth and recount the historical truths that are often obscured and accountable intentional reconciliation work needed to ensure equity for ALL and not just a few—if we are to collectively thrive and realize the possibilities of diverse global transgenerational, transdisciplinary, multi-sector collaborations.

Educating them Young

Research from McKinsey, Pew, and others illustrates that Gen X, Gen Y (millennials), GenZ, and emerging generations, such as the Alphas, are in an increasingly globally connected diverse world. Today, the extent of global diversification is noted in several ways, including the combined number of global migrants being equal to the fourth or fifth largest country, birth rates for “people of color,” including multiracial and multiethnic persons have accelerated, and the increased interest in global inclusion, diversity, equity, belonging, access (GIDBEA) related efforts to navigate disruptions and seize future opportunities. Across higher education, these shifts are more prominent and opportunities abundant. For instance, college is often the first time some will live in a diverse neighborhood of any kind, which presents unique occasions for collaboration, learning, and working across global differences.

As such, introducing programs that are focused on spreading awareness and increasing acceptance among the younger generation paves the way towards a global transformation. And this is what Dr. Lisa Coleman loves about being the Chief Global Transformation and Strategy Officer.

The Influential Role

Dr. Lisa Coleman currently serves as NYUs’ inaugural Senior Vice President for Global Inclusion and Strategic Innovation. She teaches at NYU Stern School of Business and NYU Abu-Dhabi. Her work globally spans strategic GIDBEA and innovation efforts related to the future of work, education, and other emerging fields; developing research; harnessing innovation; cultivating global entrepreneurial markets; and developing cross-sector inclusive C-Suite leadership models. Working at Harvard University for almost a decade, Tufts University, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and Merril Lynch Inc. allowed her to accelerate and develop unique innovations in GIDBEA. Her academic foundation greatly informs her work. She has a doctorate in Social and Cultural Analysis, American Studies from NYU, master’s degrees in African and African American Studies; Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Communication Studies from the Ohio State University; and certificates in legal theory and intercultural development. Her undergraduate research foci were sociology, anthropology, and computer science.

Dr. Lisa is motivated by opportunities to learn and her passion for greater equity for those often forgotten and systemically disenfranchised. Currently, she derives a lot of inspiration from intersectional transgenerational interactions and opportunities – for example, collaborating with 80+-year-old world-renowned specialists and 12-14-year-old geniuses. “One achievement, at Harvard, was the integration of design-thinking centering radical empathy into our work, vs. utilizing traditional compliance-based approaches to disability and access. Partnering with engineering students, we developed a campus-based APP to help individuals better navigate their environment,” says Dr. Coleman.

Today, there are more sophisticated APPs, but the important lesson is about actualizing design thinking and empathy models by integrating varying and divergent perspectives to learn, grow, work, co-create, think and do different, and most importantly taking risks and implementing strategies that foster inclusive change.

Of Challenges and Opportunities

Implementing a new idea is easier said than done. To ideate and execute a global IDBEA program in any organization, there are two major challenges – resistance and the lack of investment in GIDBEA. It is essential to determine both the site(s) and level(s) of organizational and/or leadership resistance and the histories that inform it. For example, if resistance is related to financial products, then strategies must be intentional on prioritizing fiscal needs and aligning relevant diversification, and innovating assets.

Secondly, many organizations fail to approach GIDBEA as they would other organizational areas. In other words, there is a lack of investment relative to other business units such as marketing or IT. Without the same level of intentionality and investment, GIDBEA strategies often remain siloed, tangential, superficial, and organizationally dis-embedded.

The most significant challenge to GIDBEA efforts is they are often framed as a problem to be solved, competition between interests and/or groups, or patronage, i.e., we (the authority) need to help women/underrepresented persons. This framing leads to deficit-based approaches.

Therefore, the biggest opportunity is framing differently and emphasizing asset-based modalities to situate women, younger and older generations, and other members of underrepresented groups as strengths to realize greater innovations. For example, what if organizations invested in GIDBEA similar to IT or marketing? What if “good leadership” was equated with creating diverse and inclusive future-forward teams? What if organizations reframed GenZ AND the BabyBoomers as assets and not problems? The possibilities are endless.

The Role of Leaders

Change often begins at the topmost level. What leaders want to preach must be practiced by them for others to understand the positive effect and implement it in their lives. Leaders must embrace a ‘new different’ emphasizing design thinking, radical empathy, and co-creation; and have the courage to let new and sometimes challenging ideas emerge. Learning happens across identities, sectors, fields, and through inquiry and debate. A good leader must be a good follower and build teams of learners that engage processes of belonging, and embrace contestation as central to innovation and intrapreneurship. For example, mentorship networks might be reimagined as sites of inclusive learning, where 6, 16, 66, and 90 year-olds debate and mentor leaders.

Organizations might center radical empathy to ask about the impact of global protests on workforce productivity; and how seemingly divergent sectors may be leveraged to build organizational intrapreneurship and resilience? These types of collective inquiries, leaning into empathy, and collaborative multimodal cross-sector partnerships allow leaders to innovate, find new perspectives, and synergies to build inclusive future-ready organizations.

Endless possibilities

A learner and innovator, Dr. Coleman is optimistic about how today’s efforts will shape our tomorrow. On being asked what it is that she’s looking forward to, she said, “Everything! Remember Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) roles are VERY new. I am taken aback by all the possibilities that have been created thus far and those yet to be discovered. I am excited by new innovations and opportunities created by transgenerational co-creation related to our most pressing issues such as the UN-SDGs, climate change, ongoing disenfranchisement, the future of work, disruptions yet to come, diverse and inclusive approaches in robotics, AI, and other artistic, creative and technological emerging markets.”

Words of Wisdom

Dr. Coleman shares her advice for young women and other underrepresented to succeed in their professional journeys:

“Take strategic risks, think outside the box, construct a posse(s) [board(s) of directors – people who are very different from one another] and find mentors and sponsors who are centered on your growth vs. creating replicas of themselves. As members of underrepresented groups, we often mistakenly think we need to be professionally perfect or that everyone has to like us – but this is inaccurate. Take strategic risks and constructive feedback. Find mentors/sponsors who give advice but do not care if you take it, and encourage you to find your own path. Again, there were no CIOs nor CDOs 25-30 years ago, and many of us were warned, “don’t do it, don’t go into that field.” Imagine if we listened. Receive advice from people with very different perspectives, take kernels of suggestions, amalgamate, and work with your posse to ask how to make it work for you. The path may be circuitous, but also innovative, filled with learning and growth that allows for continued nimbleness and the resilience to thrive.”

I am a strategist, transformer, builder, data-geek, innovator, learner, researcher, scholar, and collaborator who has learned from her (and others’) mistakes, again and again, to be resilient. I am someone who is deeply passionate and dedicated to processes of democratization as we collectively advance and implement globally-specific cross-sector innovative, inclusive, and equitable best practices.