Dena Upton: Chief People Officer at Drift: Career & Culture Insights

Published: April 2, 2021, 7 a.m.

Who\u2019s it for?: If you\u2019re looking for ideas and inspiration for problem solving the major problems of the pandemic and how to bring people together, check out this conversation with Dena!\n\nOn E135 of #thePOZcast, I sat down with Dena Upton, Chief People Officer at Drift. We discussed company culture, and how to learn and adapt our way through the new challenges of COVID-19. Dena is a strong leader in people and talent access. She\u2019s also grateful to be the CPO of Drift-- a conversational marketing platform-- where their strong principles reinforce and empower her ability to build and maintain strong teams and culture.\xa0\n\nDena and I discussed the eight major principles that Drift mobilizes to promote this strong culture, and we get into the specifics of how they actually put them into use-- rather than just putting them on a poster or t-shirt. Integrating these principles has been key to their team\u2019s success, and it\u2019s also helping them adjust in new ways during the pandemic. Dena explains how Drift went from an in-office five day a week company to a digital first organization. She talks about some of the possible options for the future where Drift can learn from this change when things go back to \u201cnormal\u201d and how they\u2019re specifically thinking about their approach to collaboration.\n\nWe then get into what makes company culture in its simplest form, and how that might change post-pandemic as well. She gives some insight into how they\u2019re thinking about bringing on junior talent, among other ways that they can start to supplement a mix of digital interactions and communications to fill the void of the in-office meetups. Dena and the leadership at Drift are focused on prioritizing equity in their adjustments, and have come up with some really strong ideas for how to make the playing field more even and effective.\n\nIf you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review/rating: https://ratethispodcast.com/thepozcast\xa0\n\nThe POZCast is brought to you by our friends at Interseller - the prospecting + outreach platform of recruiters and sellers. Whether you\u2019re doubling down on business development or recruiting talent, Interseller does all the heavy lifting of finding contact data, automating the email and follow-up process, and syncs all that rich data into 20+ CRMs and ATSs. Reach out and get going in a 2-week *free* trial today and let them know you heard about them from Adam on the POZCast.\xa0\n\nCheck out a free demo today! https://bit.ly/2Fbm/BZ