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How Craig Window Is Turning the Office Into a Place People Actually Want to Be · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi,
0:17
and today's guest spent 6 1/2 years working as an assistant
0:21
golf professional at a Country Club before ever setting foot in
0:25
the corporate world. That time and hospitality turned
0:28
out to be less of a side road and more of a foundation.
0:33
It shaped a conviction that how people feel at work matters as
0:37
much as what they produce there. That conviction would eventually
0:42
collide with a much bigger moment.
0:44
When the pandemic fundamentally broke the social contract
0:47
between employees and offices, Craig found himself at the
0:51
center of a question every company was asking.
0:54
Why would anyone choose to come in?
0:57
Craig Window is the country president of Circles, a Sodexo
1:00
company that has spent more than 25 years building workplace
1:04
hospitality programs for employers across 40 countries.
1:08
Under Craig's leadership, Circles earned a spot on HR Tech
1:12
Outlook's top Employee Engagement Solution Providers
1:16
list and now serves clients ranging from biotech firms to
1:20
global financial institutions. He overseas all sales,
1:24
operations, finance and people strategy for the US market.
1:28
But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is
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back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:21
today, the US President of Circles, Craig Window.
2:24
Thanks for making the time to Share your story today.
2:26
Absolutely. Thanks for having me Anthony,
2:27
and good to be here with you. All right, so Craig, you spent 6
2:31
1/2 years as an assistant golf pro before moving into what
2:36
we'll call the corporate world. Walk me back to the moment you
2:38
decided to leave that path. What was actually happening in
2:41
your life at that point? Yeah, I mean, I was, I was
2:44
really lucky growing up. My my parents love the sport.
2:47
So I had been around golf for a very long time and about 15
2:53
years old, I started working at at that course.
2:57
It was a natural next step for me when I could start earning
3:01
some income. And that would be waking up at
3:04
5:00 AM, closing the shop down at at 9:00 PM.
3:07
And it helped me pay my way through college really was the
3:11
was the single job that I had all the way through university.
3:15
And at that time after graduation, it was, it was to
3:19
make a decision time, right whether to continue on that path
3:22
or to pursue another career. And I had studied business in
3:26
college and, and, and decided to break out into commercial real
3:30
estate. And from there, I really didn't
3:34
see myself wearing a shirt and tie every day looking at
3:38
spreadsheets all day. And I, I knew I wanted to help
3:40
people. And that's when a friend
3:42
introduced me to, to circles, which, you know, sounded like
3:47
interesting to me and something where I could still help people,
3:50
but more in a corporate setting. So I thought I'd be there for a
3:54
couple years. And now it's 18 1/2 years later
3:57
and I'm I'm still there. So what did you start out doing
4:01
when you joined Circles? Yeah.
4:03
So I was like an entry level research analyst helping
4:06
individual employees myself. That was at the the very, very
4:11
beginning. And then quickly a couple years
4:14
after that we were actually acquired by Sodexo about about
4:18
three years into my my career at circles which expanded the
4:22
opportunities because we joined this this huge organization.
4:27
And then from there I made it into client management and some
4:32
contract negotiations, then some inside sales.
4:36
And then I my career path kind of took off from there as I took
4:40
over global sales and then moved into my, my new role recently as
4:44
of 2023 leading the US business. So you said you started out as a
4:49
research analyst helping employees.
4:52
Were you helping the circles employees or were you helping
4:56
the employees of your client? Yeah.
4:57
So because we work in AB to B structure organizations will
5:01
purchase our services to give to their end employees.
5:04
So I was working with with actual our, our customers, our
5:07
end employees who were requesting services for various
5:11
different things right from travel to dining reservations to
5:16
route transportation to researching service vendors for
5:20
their homes and things like that.
5:22
So I spent a few years actually on the front lines working
5:25
closely with with our members. OK, so, and this is a great
5:29
segue into understanding better what it is that you guys do
5:33
because before coming across circles, I hadn't really heard
5:37
of this concept before. Break this down for us.
5:40
A client comes to you, you guys get paired up, and what is it
5:43
that they're looking for? What's the problem that you're
5:45
solving? Yeah.
5:46
At its basic level, right, we, we're partnering with
5:49
organizations really to help their employees with any tasks
5:54
that may compete for their work day, whether at work or at home
5:58
in their personal life and trying to improve their, their
6:01
experience in the office, right? So it could be planning a major
6:06
life event. We have a employee that's moving
6:09
across the country and they need help with finding movers,
6:13
finding storage for their things, finding cleaners to
6:15
clean out their old home and then getting them settled into
6:19
the new home. It could be I'm getting married
6:22
and I need a venue, I need a DJI, need floor arrangements, I
6:26
need caterers. Can you help someone plan that
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for me? We also do things more, I would
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say hands on with employees. So it could be helping them
6:37
coordinate services during their work day, like running errands
6:41
could be grabbing, you know, ingredients for dinner later
6:44
that evening or dropping something off at the post office
6:48
or even helping them plan a a family vacation.
6:51
And then I think we also we create experiences on site for
6:56
employees as well. So this is about bringing people
6:58
together in a workplace setting, could be team building, could be
7:03
helping plan company wide events like social hours like volunteer
7:08
days or more seasonal things like a Mother's Day pop up event
7:13
or a gift wrapping day around the holidays.
7:17
The things even like yoga and Wellness days for employees as
7:20
well. So I think for our clients,
7:24
their goal is simple when they work with us, right, they are
7:27
trying to create a workplace where employees they feel
7:30
supported, they're less stressed, they have more time
7:33
back, right? And they can focus on on work
7:36
and what really truly moves the business forward versus all of
7:41
these other things that maybe take up space or time during the
7:45
work day. It part of it sounds, let me see
7:48
if I'm understanding this, Craig.
7:50
I'm sort of seeing 2 buckets. There's one bucket that sort of
7:53
sounds like a personal assistant on demand for any of the
7:57
employees of your clients. There's another bucket that
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sounds like, hey, we'll come in and put together these employee
8:06
events to get everybody sort of interacting on a social level to
8:10
kind of increase bonding. Yeah, Yeah, that's a great way
8:14
to put it. I mean, basically when we're
8:16
when we're on site, we're supporting employees, but you
8:19
know, we also could be helping with engagement, improved morale
8:23
and improved culture as well. And for those clients that are
8:27
looking for just a better workplace experience, right,
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we're, we, we can help support workplace operations with, you
8:35
know, reception front of house services that, that support a, a
8:40
better experience. While you could be having
8:42
clients come in or for employees that could that come in or could
8:45
be coming in once a month to be able to support that workplace.
8:49
So in that last aspect of really the engagement piece and the
8:54
better workplace experience really took off right after, you
8:58
know, things lifted from COVID late 2023 when employers really
9:04
needed a reason to make employees come back to work.
9:08
OK, Say more about that. What were some of the reasons
9:11
that you were helping to give these employers to bring their
9:14
employees back yet? Yeah.
9:16
I mean, you probably know as well as I do.
9:18
And in late 2023, I think executives, company leaders,
9:23
they wanted employees back to their offices that have been
9:26
vacant for three years, but they weren't ready to do the mandates
9:30
yet, right? Or to say you have to be here
9:33
because it was the the period was still unknown.
9:36
We had just come out of three years of everyone being the
9:38
opposite at home. And so they really wanted to
9:42
make the workplace OK. How do we make it a magnet so
9:44
people actually want to, you know, come in, we call it
9:47
earning their commute, right? So how can you be, you know,
9:52
having them stay at home all day?
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And so some of that was, you know, let's really think about
9:57
the experience on site. What are we offering to them?
10:01
Who's supporting them? And how can we make it easier
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for them to come to work physically?
10:07
Hey can you give me some specific examples?
10:09
Yeah, it could have been, you know, Hey, we want to give a lot
10:13
of people went through refreshes in their office spaces during
10:16
that time period, right? So they you came back and it was
10:19
different or over those three years you had new workers coming
10:23
into the industry, had never been into a company's office
10:27
before. So it could be our personnel
10:30
that's welcoming out the front door.
10:32
We give them a tour of the new office, show them how the new
10:34
conference room technology works, how food services is
10:38
changed in different or just add general acclamation to to their
10:43
new space or their new, you know, neighborhood or desk
10:47
booking system. And then on the convenient side,
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right, because employees that were working from home also got
10:54
used to, you know, being able to watch, watch their pets be able
10:58
to run an errand down the street during the day.
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And if they were going to go back from that, maybe we add
11:04
convenience. So it could be we put an errand,
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a circles errand runner at your site that can take care of all
11:10
those personal tasks for you during the day while you don't
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worry about it and could be productive at work.
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So those are some good examples. We're bringing on amenities,
11:19
right? Like, you know, it's funny, we
11:21
saw you a lot of lot of companies ask for things like
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car detailing, washing, refueling for vehicles or could
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have been dry cleaning and laundry services, which kind of
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kind of went away was was starting to come back as a more
11:37
popular service. So just interesting things like
11:40
that to make their everyday life a little bit easier.
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So as I think about the value of what you're providing in order
11:48
for it to make financial sense for the company to do this, it
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occurs to me that the employee base is probably highly
11:58
compensated white collar, you know, very high dollar value
12:04
type of service that they're providing, not my understanding
12:07
that correctly well. I think for the most part, the
12:10
larger enterprise organizations that we work with generally do
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have higher, you know, revenue to employee ratios and a little
12:19
bit more discretionary spend to put into things like benefits.
12:23
You're, you're a majority of our clients are in fact, you know,
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1000 plus employees. They're, they're bigger, but
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that doesn't mean that they only offer it to a certain level of
12:35
employee. We see, actually see the
12:36
opposite. A lot of them want to offer it
12:39
to everyone as an equal benefit to them.
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So I, I would say, yeah, we do, you know, the biotechs, the law
12:47
firms, the financial services companies, but we have other,
12:51
other clients as well that, that maybe do manufacturing or, or
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offer other services that don't really fit that same mold.
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And so they would offer this same kind of personal concierge
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service to their blue collar folks working on the
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manufacturing floor. Yeah.
13:09
And in fact, I mean, you know, it's, it's hard to talk to ACFO
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about it, but your person on the manufacturing floor that gets a
13:16
10 minute timed break and a 30 minute lunch, they probably need
13:20
support more than the, than the worker that can come and go
13:23
during the day is less tied to actual, you know, producing
13:28
something. Or we, we talk about call center
13:31
folks a lot, right? That they're, they're really
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tied to their phones and their desks and they have short breaks
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and lunches when they really need it the most.
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And so when we talk to HR leaders, they certainly
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understand that and get it. And then, you know, we, we use
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that positioning to also, you know, present to the, the CFOs
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and the financial decision makers about what is that, that
13:55
cost of, you know, lost productivity or distractions
13:59
during the day or employees being generally just burnt out,
14:03
right? Are you able on those
14:05
presentations to show at least a hypothetical ROI to them?
14:10
Yeah, we, we absolutely are, right.
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I think we're, we're not only showing them the satisfaction,
14:16
the average usage rates and how that equates in the, in the time
14:20
saved and how that equates to a return on investment.
14:23
You know, doesn't pass the muster test of every, you know,
14:27
CFO of a large major company. It's a softer ROI, right?
14:32
But they certainly know the cost to replace a worker, right?
14:37
That's something that everybody knows from HR to to CF OS and
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especially, you know, in, in law firms or in professional
14:48
services that cost that obviously goes up tremendously.
14:51
You're in healthcare and so they understand that and that's how
14:54
we rationalize it with the ROI, but also telling the story about
15:00
how we make a difference. And I was talking about this
15:03
with a colleague of mine the other day.
15:06
And a lot of our clients, you know, they'll have brand new
15:11
building that they've spent 10s of millions of dollars on.
15:14
It's furnished with the nicest furniture you could ever
15:17
imagine. And you know, there's art on the
15:21
walls and every lighting's perfect, but no one's, you know,
15:25
no one's using the space. They're not thinking about how
15:28
is the employee going to interact with this?
15:31
What's what's attracting them back to this besides being a
15:34
nice building? And I think it needs to be the
15:37
opposite, right? How do we design the services,
15:41
the support, the space for employees, not just so it it
15:46
looks great? So you go into a prospective
15:51
client, you show them all these different services that you can
15:55
offer. You talk about how this is good
15:57
for employee engagement, satisfaction, retention.
16:02
How many of them ever look at this and say, wow, this is a
16:04
great idea, We're going to hire a handful of people to do this
16:07
ourselves? Yeah, I think that comes down
16:10
to, and, and we've seen it happen before, right?
16:13
But it's not core to their business, right, Unless they're
16:17
in outsourcing generally, they have other things they can focus
16:21
on. And there's often times a
16:25
culture leader or someone that's in responsible for, you know,
16:29
connecting employees together. But it's a voluntary title,
16:33
right? They're doing this on top of
16:34
their day-to-day roles and they're not focusing on it.
16:38
There's no technology behind it, there's no strategy behind it.
16:43
And so they don't really know what they want to get out of it.
16:45
And for that limited, we think investment, right, there's a
16:50
good strong ROI, especially for those organizations that are
16:54
really concerned about keeping a strong culture and and bringing
16:57
their people together. OK.
17:00
So that makes a lot of sense to me what you're saying, Craig,
17:02
because you guys, you know all these different things, you know
17:05
how to provide the services, you've got a whole menu of this
17:09
for them to go and hire somebody, they got to create
17:12
their own program, they've got to hire their own team under
17:15
them and train them on how to deliver it.
17:17
You guys are just sort of plug and play.
17:18
Yeah. And you know the how to train,
17:21
do you? They have to then train people.
17:22
They have people turn over. So there's, there's also hidden
17:25
cost within the cost. It just, you know, to make sense
17:29
to bring in a provider like us who has the expertise.
17:32
We have also done this for other clients that we can reference.
17:37
We know what people are asking for.
17:39
We can bring them, you know, ideas around service delivery or
17:43
events or operating models that work really well at other like
17:47
minded clients and then tweak it for them culturally or for their
17:51
population. It just it makes a lot more
17:54
sense than trying to do it yourself.
17:58
So of all the services that you offer, what do you find is the
18:02
most popular with employees? Oh, they love the most.
18:04
Right now the most popular is is like the errand running service.
18:09
So the ability for anybody to run personal employee errands
18:13
from point A to point B on their behalf while they're working.
18:17
Without a doubt, it's the most popular right now.
18:20
I just think, you know, no one's getting more time back.
18:24
And I feel like you could probably attest to it like I
18:27
can. If I could have one more thing,
18:29
it would be an extra hour a day, no doubt, right, to spend with
18:32
my kids or with my family in general.
18:35
So, and I think people know that as well.
18:38
And that's what they're finding value in, right?
18:42
Leaders aren't always convinced of that.
18:44
But it, you know, the numbers don't lie.
18:47
That's where we see our most requests by far from our
18:51
employee populations. I'm gonna go back to the CFO
18:55
conversation that you were talking about before.
18:59
If my notes here are correct, there's data showing that 92% of
19:03
employees feel valued when Circles is in place at their
19:06
employer and 100% of the clients are able to report some kind of
19:11
ROI. Talk me through, you know how
19:14
you talk to a prospective CFO about those numbers?
19:19
Yeah. Well, we, we survey right, our
19:22
members who utilize the service and one of the questions that
19:25
we've asked and have for the last 15 years is how much time
19:28
did you save on this request, right.
19:32
And over our over the last 15 years, the, that average is 3
19:37
1/2 hours. Now that could be everything
19:39
from a, you know, one hour up to 10 hours, but the average across
19:44
all of our scores is 3 1/2 hours.
19:46
And so we really use that metric as a strong ROI generator,
19:51
meaning how many requests did we complete based on the average
19:55
hours saved? And then we back into a, a
19:58
headcount, an average headcount based on, you know, their
20:01
average annual salary. Again, it's it's.
20:05
It's softer for CFOs, but in most cases, even if you take
20:09
that number and divide it by two, cut it in half, the ROI
20:14
productivity is, is is positive, meaning we're saving more
20:18
employees, you know, time then then the program actually cost
20:23
them. So.
20:25
Is are there limited geographies where you guys are able to offer
20:28
your services? Because it occurs to me that you
20:30
would need a certain density of clients in a geographical region
20:36
in order to kind of set up an employee base there.
20:40
So yes and no, we do offer our services digitally.
20:43
So not all the time that we're we're actually physically on
20:46
site, right. We have large enterprise clients
20:48
that have employees and in all different states.
20:52
And for those clients, maybe they choose to put people at
20:55
their five biggest locations and then they want digital for the
20:59
rest. So we have a population of about
21:02
80 people that work remotely that just support our clients
21:08
digitally. But yes, the major metros are
21:11
where we we work best because we already have populations there,
21:15
Boston, NY, Raleigh, North North Carolina, Miami, San Francisco,
21:22
Denver, Dallas. But in general, you know, we
21:26
were able to to support them anywhere across the US.
21:31
So let's say hypothetical circles employee on a Tuesday,
21:36
they show up at work, they're going to one of your clients
21:39
sites and what does it look like for them?
21:41
They've got sort of this task list laid out for them.
21:44
You know, Bob needs his dog walked, Susie needs, you know,
21:47
laundry picked up. Like kind of that that kind of
21:49
thing. Yeah, it varies based on the
21:53
client, right. But a typical day can cover a
21:56
lot of different things. So it could be, you know, we
22:00
have a important executive coming in from another another
22:04
country. We need you to help welcome them
22:07
right and give them a get them checked in, show them around the
22:11
space, get them set up with Wi-Fi, maybe have their favorite
22:14
beverage or coffee waiting for them when they come in to out
22:19
out running an errand on behalf of an employee to then when they
22:23
get back, they're meeting with a department head to plan their
22:28
they know their team meeting later later that week.
22:32
So it really can be a lot of different things.
22:35
And that's what I think is interesting is that the people
22:38
that we hire at the backgrounds that they have, you know, they
22:42
need to be good at multitasking and prioritization in generally.
22:47
A lot of them have training in customer support and service.
22:52
They could have come from high end retail.
22:54
We have a lot of people that have worked at Disney and Ritz
22:57
Carlton that take these roles that are looking for something a
23:01
little bit more 9 to 5 versus crazy hours and weekends.
23:06
And so they all have this unique ability to really make people
23:10
feel welcoming and to be proactive to when they're with
23:15
with our clients. Yeah, I'm glad that you went
23:18
there because it was occurring to me while, you know, these
23:20
folks, these frontline folks working for Circles, they've got
23:22
to, you know, be accustomed to wearing many different hats,
23:26
kind of like you have over the course of your career at Circles
23:29
that, you know, you briefly touched on it.
23:32
Let's let's see. Key accounts manager, global VP
23:35
of sales, country president. And I think that role came
23:39
during, you know, the kind of the early middle part of COVID.
23:43
Do I have the timing right on? That yeah, yeah. 2023.
23:46
Yep, in January, right at the beginning.
23:50
So what is it about this place that's kept you there for so
23:52
long? Yeah, I said.
23:55
I said this earlier, but I've been lucky.
23:57
I well, you know, I think that opportunities have have opened
24:02
up for me, but I've been vocal right about wanting more
24:05
challenge and, and wanting more opportunities.
24:08
I've also had great mentors throughout my time here, people
24:12
that that push me to do more. And that's probably one thing
24:16
that I would say to other individuals looking to take on
24:19
the next step in their career is like, you got to put yourself in
24:22
uncomfortable situations, right, in order to breakthrough to that
24:26
next level. Never once did I ever regret
24:29
doing something that was uncomfortable for me in like a
24:32
business setting, right? Whether it's public speaking or,
24:36
you know, a week's worth of training in Spain, like all
24:39
those things may seem daunting, but they're all worth it in in
24:43
the end. And so I would say that really
24:46
helped me during my my time at circles to put me in those
24:49
positions to take on the next opportunity.
24:53
You care to call out one of your mentors and how they've helped
24:56
you along the way? Yeah, I would actually say the
25:00
my the individual who I took over my previous boss about a
25:04
broke him up was exceptional at that.
25:07
He not only, you know, gave me good guidance and offered
25:12
advice, he also gave me the room to make mistakes and learn from
25:16
those mistakes. Right, Which is uncanny.
25:20
I think, you know, good leader to be able to do that.
25:24
Had a lot of trust and he was very transparent in terms of
25:31
what he was working on, what he's motivated by, what he's
25:35
working on in the business. And he kind of gave me a, a good
25:39
seat in position to to learn from him on these different
25:43
areas of the business that maybe I wasn't that close to
25:47
previously. Whether it's, you know, a large
25:49
technology contract that we're negotiating for our people to
25:53
use or being part of a, you know, transformation process
25:58
that didn't have to do with sales.
25:59
But he knew that I had interest in those areas.
26:03
So yeah, I would say that's someone that I that helped me
26:07
very much so along the way. And Craig, you rattled off a
26:11
couple of examples of putting yourself in uncomfortable
26:14
situations so that you could grow.
26:16
Can you pick one and kind of go into a little bit more detail of
26:20
it and talk about why it was so uncomfortable in the moment?
26:25
Yeah, I so we Sodexo the company, we're a part of our
26:30
parent company, we're a brand underneath them.
26:32
But you know, they're 423,000 employees across the, the US and
26:37
prior to COVID, they got together their top 1000 leaders
26:40
from the organization together every year to kind of kick off
26:45
the new year. What are we working on?
26:47
What's all the departments have have in store for the upcoming
26:51
year, but also a, a chance for leaders to connect.
26:54
And we as a circles, as an organization, got an opportunity
26:58
to have some stage time at this conference with 1000 leaders
27:02
from across the world representing 62 different
27:04
countries. And my boss asked me if I wanted
27:09
to have the stage time, right? So I'm used to talking to
27:13
clients and going to see them and speaking in front of a
27:16
board, whoop in a conference room.
27:19
But in a setting where you're on stage, where you have 1000
27:22
people looking at you and you're miked up and everything's
27:26
revolving around what you say and what you do, it can be
27:28
extremely uncomfortable. And so for that right, just
27:32
preparing and putting myself in that position to, to, to go up
27:37
there and represent our brand well.
27:40
Again, very scary, but good. Great opportunity for me.
27:45
And actually, I want to stay here for a little bit longer
27:48
because I think there's probably a lot of people listening who
27:51
are like, oh, I want to advance in my career.
27:53
And I show up and I work hard every day.
27:55
And, you know, I, I, you know, put in the extra effort.
27:58
But you know, in a big organization like you're in to
28:01
really get noticed and to really, you know, be the one
28:04
who's chosen to kind of lead the whole thing, I think there's got
28:07
to be an extra extra level of effort that takes place.
28:12
And you're kind of smiling. Can you say like you agree with
28:15
me? Can you kind of say more about?
28:16
That 100% agree with you, especially if your organization
28:19
can is matrixed right and sometimes leaders don't overlap
28:24
as much. I again, making sure you have
28:27
the, the right connections and it could be through a mentor
28:31
like I did it at first, right, who was able to introduce me,
28:36
but it's getting outside of, so getting outside of your
28:39
functional department, right? So if you're in sales, you know,
28:42
going to learn more and talking to maybe marketing leaders or to
28:46
finance leaders or a CFO of another department, bridging
28:50
those relationships. And what I've learned is that
28:54
those things will always come around right when you need
28:57
something down the line or you need to ask for a favor.
29:01
Maybe you've crossed paths with them before and it just makes
29:03
doing business a little bit easier.
29:06
Even if you've only talked to them once two years ago, that's
29:09
a reference point that that you could point to and in in our
29:12
organization, that happens all the time because of how big we
29:15
are. So what I think I'm hearing you
29:19
say is you weren't waiting for somebody to tell you, hey,
29:24
Craig, get up, up your tuition, you know, go talk to somebody
29:27
over here or go do this thing. You were taking the initiative.
29:31
You were looking for the opportunities to have these
29:34
extra conversations without somebody nudging you.
29:36
Absolutely, Yeah, that's spot on, right.
29:38
And you had to, you have to be your own best advocate if you're
29:41
looking to take that next step, but not only putting yourself in
29:45
uncomfortable positions, but making, you know, introductions,
29:48
creating relationships. And you know, because I, you
29:51
know, I was also in sales, I was used to that, right?
29:55
Just better understanding and how businesses work and how they
29:59
function led me to kind of want to learn more about all parts of
30:04
the business. And I always approached it from
30:06
that perspective. So I just want to learn more
30:10
about what you do and what your day-to-day is like, right?
30:13
That's the formation of every good relationship, right?
30:17
So I think that helped a lot. And So what did it actually look
30:22
like for you to do one of these unexpected outreaches?
30:26
You're, you know, reaching out to somebody in a different
30:29
department than you work in. Why are you reaching out?
30:32
What's the reason that you connect with them to say hello
30:34
or to ask a question? What's going on?
30:36
Yeah, always easier to have some sort of warm introduction,
30:39
right? Whether it be, oh, I met someone
30:41
that we were mutual connections with or, you know, my boss
30:46
mentioned that you're working on this project.
30:50
So finding some sort of a common linkage and just saying, hey, I
30:53
want 115 minutes to pick your brain, right?
30:56
And that's another good token of advice is, you know, I want to,
31:00
I want to kind of bounce an idea off of you.
31:03
Any good individual in general, but leader who hears that is
31:07
going to take the time, especially for somebody maybe
31:10
that's coming up in the organization to listen to them
31:13
and to hear them out and give them their perspective.
31:17
And once you once you can do that, it's about forming a that
31:21
will form a longer term relationship that you can, you
31:24
know, use. OK.
31:27
So you were acquired by Sodexo. Remind me the time period, What
31:31
was the year? Yeah, it was 2017.
31:35
And your role at that time was what?
31:38
I was sales in a BDR inside sales role.
31:45
How have you seen that acquisition impact the growth
31:50
curve of circles or the services that are offered or the
31:55
structure of the company? What have you seen sort of
31:57
transformed since that time? Yeah, I would say interestingly
32:00
enough, when we were first acquired, we did a lot of work
32:03
with financial institutions for their high net worth customers
32:09
like American Express, Chase and Citibank.
32:12
And Sodexo was really focused. They do food outsource food and
32:17
facility management services. They're really focused on on all
32:21
of the employees that they can support, right.
32:24
Interesting tidbit for you, Sodexo serves more people food
32:29
everyday than McDonald's does, right, which is the leader, fast
32:33
food leader that everybody knows in every country.
32:35
And so that just goes to show you the scale of how big a
32:39
company like Sodexo is. You know, we like to say it's
32:42
the biggest company you've never heard of because you know, we're
32:44
always, you know, white labeled in a, in a client uniform or not
32:48
branded. But it's our people usually
32:50
doing the, the cooking and the, the feeding of the food.
32:55
So quick sidebar then, Sodexo is providing cafeteria style
33:00
services to a lot of companies. Yep, cafeteria style services to
33:03
normally companies, but but to hospitals, to universities and
33:08
education. A lot of people that's when they
33:10
reference oh Sodexo they fed me in college, right?
33:14
But they also do large stadiums in in event venues.
33:19
And then we also have outsourced facility services.
33:22
So you need a big building or a big campus or a university of
33:27
someone that fixes your electrical, does general
33:30
maintenance, clean the floors, does the plumbing, cleans the
33:35
grounds when it snows. Sodexo does that across the
33:39
board. OK.
33:41
So the acquisition takes place and you guys started doing a lot
33:44
more work for companies like Amex financial services
33:47
companies? Yeah.
33:48
Well, we started to actually focus more on all broad
33:53
employees. We were really focused on high
33:55
net worth prior to that acquisition and they thought
33:59
this would be great if we could touch the, the, all the
34:02
consumers that we serve every day, not in the physical
34:05
location where we operate, right.
34:07
So if it could be at home a third place on the weekend, that
34:11
was the idea behind the the acquisition and then obviously
34:15
introducing them to all of their other, their bigger client, B to
34:19
B relationships that they had at the time.
34:22
OK. And how has it continued to
34:24
unfold since then? Yeah, it's been an interesting
34:27
journey. We've we've grown globally since
34:30
the acquisition rights or other. We're in 40 different countries
34:34
serving people, but the three biggest are France and the US
34:37
and the UK and Ireland. So that's been in support mainly
34:42
of Synexo's growth in those areas in those countries because
34:46
they had clients that wanted or needed the service or was the
34:51
the right profile for us. And then obviously being a part
34:55
of a larger company like Sodexo and the brand, it helps for
35:00
conversations with larger organizations that, you know,
35:03
they really want to work with larger organizations that have
35:06
the structure, the compliance, the protections of another large
35:11
company. And so that's really helped
35:14
bridge some some gaps in relationships for us with with
35:18
bigger organizations, whether it be large top five consulting and
35:22
auditing and advisory firms to larger healthcare organizations
35:28
and things like that. I want to talk about the digital
35:32
transformation of the business that you like because you've got
35:35
a certification from Rutgers in this area.
35:38
OK. Can you tell us what that
35:40
digital transformation has entailed?
35:42
Yeah. So that, that digital
35:44
transformation, it was the one from Rutgers was a like a crash
35:48
course, very intensive week long transformation.
35:52
But really it was about how do you disrupt your business and
35:56
think about it in terms of not what's happening tomorrow or
35:59
next year, but 3-5 years down the line.
36:04
And when I started, it was mainly phone and e-mail were the
36:08
main primary source or face to face of requesting something.
36:11
And so we were very immature from a technology perspective.
36:17
So what we really focused on at that point was how do we adopt
36:20
the right technology to deliver a seamless experience for a
36:25
consumer, but also so our people behind the scenes can understand
36:31
our consumers better, you know, capture their preferences, their
36:36
likes and dislikes and and their ongoing requests.
36:39
So we went through a a long 2 year project working with
36:44
Salesforce to then developed like what our technology of the
36:47
future was going to be. And so really the output of that
36:51
was consumer website, mobile app that was directly connected to a
36:56
back end CRM where, you know, we could capture what people were
37:01
doing, what their likes and dislikes were, what their
37:04
preferences were, but more importantly, really have the
37:09
analytics behind decision making for clients, right?
37:12
So where's their friction in your day-to-day workplace
37:16
experience? What are your people asking for?
37:18
What matters to them? And then for us, it was how do
37:22
we optimize the the operation? And then of course of the last
37:26
couple of years, we've really integrated a lot of AI and
37:31
automation into how we're doing it.
37:33
I think important point to make on that is, you know, we place a
37:37
lot of emphasis on being a people first organization just
37:40
based on what we do. We don't, we will not ever lose
37:43
that. And I think we're being very
37:44
cough cautious and careful about how we deploy AI without using
37:50
the losing the human element. Can you give me an example of
37:53
how you're using AI to support that human element?
37:58
Yeah, I, I'll give you a good example because it's top of mind
38:01
because we, we just finished the wrapped the project on this.
38:04
But because we do a lot of work digitally and not on site, we
38:09
get sometimes requests from an employee that may say I want to
38:15
go on vacation and that's all they send us, right.
38:17
And we're happy to help. One of your employees.
38:20
Like an employee that we do, we do work for.
38:23
Got it. At an organization who has
38:25
access to our services, they'll just tell us, I want to go to, I
38:29
want to go on vacation somewhere warm.
38:32
And you might know where they work, but doesn't necessarily
38:35
mean you know what airport they're flying out of if there's
38:39
anyone else involved in the trip.
38:40
And so with that, there can be back and forth, right?
38:45
So for us, the obvious use case was let's, let's build up
38:51
automation to respond immediately to make sure that
38:54
we're asking the right questions to that person.
38:57
And maybe we don't have a phone number on file for that
39:00
individual either. And so the back and forths could
39:03
sometimes take days because then they're in a meeting or it's
39:07
late in the evening. So you're not going to hear back
39:09
till the next day. Now AI and automation could take
39:12
over and make sure we're asking all of the right information
39:16
right up front. Never needs to be touched by by
39:19
a Circles employee working on it until we have it back from from
39:24
from that end consumer. That makes so much sense, Yeah,
39:28
because you could lose, like you said, days of that back and
39:30
forth. They send you a question, you
39:34
know, your circles employee maybe doesn't see it
39:36
immediately, so it takes them a few minutes to get back to it.
39:38
And then by the time they respond to that question, you
39:42
just, But if the AI is right there and boom, boom, boom,
39:44
boom, boom, then by the time the information gets handed off to
39:47
your circles employee, they've got all the information that
39:50
they need to start to get to work and you know, kind of
39:54
deliver that white glove service that you guys want.
39:56
Exactly. And to ask the right questions
39:59
does not take a human, because we're feeding it the what
40:02
questions they ask anyways, right?
40:03
So if we could take that part out, they're not, they're not
40:07
producing the actual results, but our real people are.
40:10
So it's saving them I would say and focusing, saving them time
40:15
and focusing on the on the on the right aspects of their job,
40:18
which is like delivering the actual service itself.
40:22
What are some other tech or AI initiatives that are in the
40:26
works? Yeah, we have a couple.
40:29
Actually another big one that we have is like we call it
40:35
preferred vendors project, but basically because of, you know,
40:39
we're supporting over 500,000 people a year across the US, We
40:44
have endless amounts of information and, and for certain
40:48
services we use preferred vendors.
40:51
Vendors that we work with a lot could be a flower and gift
40:55
basket company, it could be a, a hotel chain, it could be a, you
41:01
know, local Courier service. And so we're serving that up.
41:07
Now if a request matches geographic location and type of
41:11
request where that preferred vendor can can operate, they're
41:17
being pre populated into the results section of that request.
41:21
And so our people know right away, OK, this is the vendor we
41:25
should recommend first, either because we get discounted rates,
41:29
they offer better quality of service or they'd come highly
41:32
recommended. It's just speeding up the again
41:37
the process of completing that request a little bit.
41:41
Craig, when a client renews with circles, what do they usually
41:44
say was the thing that made the biggest difference?
41:49
I mean, I think, I think metrics do matter.
41:51
Like how satisfied are people who use it or how many people
41:56
have adopted it or engaged with you?
41:59
But I ultimately, I think it's the, the stories, right?
42:04
Just this past week, I was meeting with clients in locally
42:08
in Boston and we received feedback from a biotech client
42:13
that was, they were in the process of recruiting a new CIO.
42:17
And this came up from their executive recruiting team who
42:21
shared this feedback with the client.
42:23
So they're recruiting this new CIO and had been for a long
42:26
time. They had their top candidate who
42:28
they brought in for a visit to a site where our team manages the
42:34
entire front of house experience.
42:35
So we have concierge, we have reception there.
42:38
And because it's HQ, it's, it's high profile.
42:42
After the visit, the candidate came back and told that
42:45
executive recruiter about the reception that he received from
42:49
the team there. Of course we knew that the team
42:51
knew he was coming on site, right?
42:53
So they, they put out no stops and all the bells and whistles.
42:56
But about the ease of check in the environment of the office.
43:00
He, we gave him a tour of the main like amenity floors and how
43:05
things work. And he said that that type of
43:08
service and attention actually contributed to his decision to
43:12
accept the role. And so things like that, when
43:15
the work becomes really, really visible, especially to important
43:20
executives or leadership, it's, it's quite incredible.
43:24
It's not only about just, you know, it, it influences talent
43:27
decisions too. So that's one that's top of
43:30
mind. Yeah.
43:31
And so interesting part about your several interesting things.
43:35
First of all, great that, you know, your services help to get
43:39
this CIO landed for that company, right?
43:42
Like this high draft pick that they're going after, you know,
43:46
you, you want to score that. But the other interesting thing
43:50
is you guys take care of the whole reception service there,
43:55
not just on a special occasion, but like on a day-to-day basis.
43:59
It's the Circles team members that are manning the phones.
44:04
They're the face that people see when they come off the elevator.
44:07
Am I understanding that right? Yeah, in this certain instance
44:09
that is absolutely the case. Yes, in our in our ideal client
44:13
that we, we own that entire experience, right.
44:16
And that's maybe not for every client because we do so many
44:19
different things, but it's that premier level of service that
44:23
people in in, in headquarters kind of expect.
44:27
And, and ultimately that's what drives, you know, outcomes.
44:30
Like I just mentioned. It's you don't get that from
44:34
having someone at security, someone else at reception,
44:37
someone else, you know, doing the building tour because it's
44:40
all integrated in the same team. We can deliver a really cool
44:43
experience like that. OK.
44:46
Say more about that because I was thinking that was more of an
44:49
outlier for you guys to take over that whole, I call it
44:52
reception front desk kind of experience.
44:55
But you're saying, oh, no, like we want that.
44:57
We want all of these sort of elements.
44:59
Yeah. So anybody who walked, yeah.
45:01
Say, say more about how how you guys sort of coordinate what
45:04
that orchestration looks like between your team members?
45:07
Yeah, I, I, I probably wouldn't say that It's, you know, 50% of
45:11
our business, but right now it's 30% and it's growing rapidly,
45:15
right, Because that's the that's the differentiator for a space,
45:19
especially a high profile one. I think it just makes a lot of
45:23
sense. And a lot of the relationships
45:25
like the like the biotech one that I mentioned, it was a
45:29
legacy client that we've had for 13 years, right, that newest for
45:33
our traditional concierge. We delivered on that for them.
45:36
Great. And then we brought it it more
45:39
on site and we're able to show that we could actually do that
45:42
and gain the trust and, and take that over.
45:45
They actually self operated it prior to, to giving that program
45:49
to us. So they felt that strongly that
45:52
they wanted to run it at one point, but we were able to
45:54
convince them that, you know, you should be outsourcing this
45:57
experience and yes, we can deliver on it.
45:59
So that's what I'd like to see from from all of our legacy
46:03
clients actually. That would be great.
46:06
And OK, so you gave us the one example of recruiting the CIO,
46:10
give us another example of sort of the upgrade in the experience
46:15
that a client would notice by handing over those front desk
46:19
reception services to the Circles team.
46:21
Yeah. For our on site programs, we
46:23
have what we call kind of our hospitality operating system.
46:27
It's more a behind the scenes tech, but it's used by our staff
46:31
to, you know, understand Craig's favorite beverage or the room
46:37
that Anthony books weekly for his team meetings.
46:40
So it gives our team some ability to capture these more
46:44
workplace preferences that really help drive a better
46:47
experience. So, you know, we're not just yes
46:51
Sir, no Sir, it's Mr. Window and the experience becomes a little
46:56
bit better. And so that's that's one of the
46:59
reasons as well. We also have a proprietary
47:02
training platform, Circles Academy, that's all focused
47:06
around hospitality. And I'd like to say, you know,
47:10
it's, it's for our on site people, which it is designed for
47:12
them, but everybody goes through it.
47:14
I went through it last year. My senior leadership team goes
47:17
through it. It's basically, you know,
47:19
understanding what drives the needle from a, a hospitality and
47:24
customer service standpoint. And when it, when it comes to
47:28
that, it's not just once, right? It it, you need to do it in on
47:31
an ongoing basis. So all of our people, especially
47:34
frontline go through various different types of hospitality
47:37
training on at least a quarterly basis.
47:40
And then we have self learning tracks where they could do it
47:43
themselves. But everything's always moving
47:47
on and and to the next thing. And you know, we spend a lot of
47:51
time and resources on on training our people to be the
47:54
best and deliver the best service.
47:57
Yeah, lots of focus on that customer service training.
48:01
So Craig, you've been in this industry for nearly two decades.
48:04
What do you think a lot of companies are still getting
48:06
wrong about the employee experience?
48:10
Well. I, I, I think I may have
48:13
mentioned it earlier, but I think one thing that's still
48:16
staggering to me is that the amount of the amount of money
48:20
that people put into something, You know, it's like we will
48:24
build it. They will come type of
48:26
situation. We'll build a beautiful
48:27
building. We'll put it in a really nice
48:29
city where everyone wants to be. We'll give people the best
48:32
views, But they, they, they don't think about the reality of
48:36
the every everyday employee who's, you know, maybe trudging
48:40
in an hour there, an hour and a half home to actually come to
48:44
that space. And, you know, the amenities are
48:47
good. They have new, you know, 4
48:50
computer screens, a sit stand desk and they have all this nice
48:53
furniture they can show off, but they really need to be investing
48:57
in like, what's the what's, what's the point of the employee
49:00
coming in here? How do we make it better for
49:03
them easier to come here to work?
49:05
And again, make it magnet magnetize the workplace so
49:10
people actually want to come in there.
49:11
We don't have to tell them to, to to do that.
49:15
And so I think most organizations, they get the
49:18
resourcing wrong, right? They're spending the money on
49:20
the on on the things they probably are overlooking, right?
49:25
Just think about the employee 1st and what they want and then
49:30
design those things, right? So maybe scrap the HQ and build,
49:36
you know, four different smaller collaboration hub offices,
49:39
right, where people can go. But maybe you get more sense of
49:45
team camaraderie and, and collaboration in those versus
49:48
what you're going to get in, you know, 25 stacked floor building.
49:54
So do circles ever get involved in those building planning
49:58
stages? For certain clients we
50:01
absolutely have, yes. A lot of times it's for existing
50:05
clients that are moving to new spaces and, and we suggest, you
50:09
know, maybe what that looks like.
50:11
A lot of times if it's existing, we're coming in and suggesting,
50:15
you know, how we can play a part in the in the service design.
50:18
But again, we're not seeing a lot of leaders think about the
50:21
actual service before the asset is built.
50:24
It's it's still one of the things that hasn't caught up
50:27
yet. It's usually afterthought,
50:29
right? It's like, let's build it and
50:31
then we'll figure out how people will use it or how we're going
50:35
to staff it to be functional, right.
50:38
In another good example, a couple weeks ago I was with a
50:43
large client they had, they built out refresh the floor, the
50:46
20th floor of their big, their building, their HQ.
50:50
You go up to to the floor and it's wide open, right?
50:56
But there's nobody staffed there.
50:59
And we walk over, the iced coffee is out.
51:04
You don't know how to, you know, book one of the shared rooms in
51:09
there. And so that design element's
51:13
simple. It's like you just need to have
51:15
someone here. If it's going to be a general
51:17
floor where there's no offices or desks, people are coming
51:21
there to to collaborate. Someone's going to watch over,
51:24
you know, the, the things that are in here.
51:26
And it's brand new and you have no one welcoming you to the
51:29
space to show you where you can meet, how you can use it.
51:34
Just, you know what's a good example of a miss in my eyes?
51:40
Craig, what's the hardest thing you've ever had to overcome
51:43
personally, and what did it teach you?
51:46
Yeah, it's a, it's a good question.
51:50
I, I lost my grandfather in 2020 right at the beginning of, of
51:56
COVID. And of course at that time it
51:59
was, you know, severely locked down.
52:01
And so I wasn't able to go see him as much as I had toward the
52:05
end. And so that that made it a
52:07
little bit harder that you didn't wasn't able to say like a
52:10
proper goodbye. But he was a fixture in my life
52:14
growing up. Yeah.
52:16
He taught me how to play golf, how to, you know, fix things,
52:20
how to play cards. But he was a big family man,
52:25
right? So he spent a lot of time at
52:26
home with his kids. He was a man of faith, right?
52:30
And snatch in his religion. But he also had a really good
52:34
sense of humor. So I, I got a lot of those
52:38
traits, I think from him. But I think when he passed away,
52:42
more importantly, it was just like time.
52:44
Time goes so fast, right? And you, you can't wait for the
52:49
right moment in life for things. You got to go.
52:53
Take that chance. Do the uncomfortable thing, as I
52:57
said earlier, really trying to, like, live the life that you
53:00
want. Nothing's going to fall into
53:02
your lap, right? Maybe sometimes, but it's hard
53:06
to come by. So it was just a good reminder
53:09
of that. And I think about him often.
53:11
So yeah. What was his name?
53:15
Jim. Jim.
53:17
Window. Yeah, James.
53:19
Window. Guild, he was my mom's father.
53:22
Yeah, yeah, they were close by. And yeah, he was just, he loved
53:26
kids too. He had 7 so he he liked Greg
53:29
kids as well. And so you weren't able to see
53:33
him as much there towards the end.
53:35
Was the family still able to come together to mourn his loss
53:39
or did COVID kind of put a a stop to that?
53:42
Eventually we did. We did bring all the family
53:45
together. It took a couple of years but
53:49
we're able to to remember him and I actually got to do the
53:53
eulogy and his services, which was real nice.
54:00
Yeah, Yeah. Well, I appreciate you sharing
54:03
that. Yeah, yeah.
54:03
And then we celebrated him at the golf course like he would
54:06
want to afterwards and had all his friends say something.
54:10
It was really nice. Yeah, Craig, as the country
54:14
president of Circles, what do you hope to most be remembered
54:19
for in this role? Yeah, I think, you know, if he
54:23
asked me that three years ago, my answer be different if I
54:26
wasn't in this role, but I would say the opportunities that I was
54:31
able to create for for other people, right.
54:34
And maybe the fact that I I lead with transparency or I, I try to
54:39
as much as possible. So I want everyone in the
54:42
organization to know what we're working on and know that they
54:45
can ask me questions and I want to make sure that people can
54:49
grow at circles very much. So the next generation is really
54:53
looking for, you know, what's the, the value of the
54:56
organization I'm there for and can I grow there?
54:59
And so I think organizations succeed when when their own
55:03
people can succeed. And so if I can create that type
55:07
of culture where people feel like they can grow, they're not
55:11
afraid to, to ask questions and get answers and, and innovate,
55:15
that's, you know, and I want them to feel proud of what
55:17
they're doing. But that's really the, the
55:19
biggest thing for me. I think it would be a good
55:21
legacy if if I could really remember for those things.
55:26
So how was your answer different now than it would have been
55:28
three years? Ago yeah well, you know, I think
55:32
in a in a sales role, even in a sales leader role, you know,
55:36
probably thinking more individually than I was as a a
55:39
bigger team, it'd probably be oh, I, I would probably be
55:43
financial. I'd say I wanted us to be X
55:45
amount of millions of dollars, right, Instead of the people.
55:49
But when you yeah when I took on that role, you have to the
55:53
business, you realize the business doesn't run through
55:55
you, right. Like you have to enable and
55:58
empower others to do the work for you and you realize really
56:03
quickly you'll never succeed unless the people below you
56:06
succeed right. And so that's something that
56:09
that very much shifted for me is, you know, I, I need to see
56:13
other people feeling good about working here and doing good
56:17
things and I need to help them, whatever it is, resources, time,
56:21
new roles to be able to succeed. I think that will help us all
56:26
like it. Yeah, Craig, I've just got one
56:29
more question for you today. But before I ask it, I want to
56:32
do 3 quick things for the audience.
56:34
First of all, anybody who wants to know more about Craig Window
56:37
or Circles, Lots of options here. circles.com is their
56:41
website. Couldn't get any easier to
56:43
remember than that. circles.com. You can also find them on all
56:47
the social channels. Circles is their handle, and you
56:50
can find Craig Window on LinkedIn.
56:53
Just look for Craig Window in Circles and we'll have links to
56:56
all these things in the show notes, folks.
56:59
And if you're enjoying the show today, please take a moment to
57:02
subscribe wherever you're listening.
57:03
It also sends a signal that helps others discover our
57:06
podcast. So thanks for taking a quick
57:08
moment to do that right now. And as a reminder, you can get
57:12
your hospitality employees access to therapists, doctors
57:15
and prescription meds that counter intuitively actually
57:19
increases your company's net profits, real gains that can
57:23
change how a business is valued. Contact us today at AD back
57:26
benefits.com. So last question for you, Craig.
57:29
A year from now, what is 1 very specific thing that you hope to
57:33
be celebrating? I know you said one, but I might
57:37
give you 2 quickly. I think organizationally I want
57:41
to see us continue to to to win, help new clients, see people
57:45
internally get promoted or even like helping someone that is an
57:50
employee today find their dream job even if it's not at circles.
57:55
Again, I want to just see people succeed.
57:58
And then I think on a personal level, I'd love to look back and
58:01
say that, you know, I was present for my kids, for my
58:05
family, for my wife. Like I said before, you know,
58:10
life goes by so, so fast. And if I could, you know, be
58:14
there with them and really feel like I'm present and thriving in
58:18
the family life, it makes work and everything else much, much
58:23
easier. So I think that's that's what I
58:26
would say would be success in a year from now.
58:29
How old are your kids? My daughter just turned, my
58:32
youngest turned 7 and my oldest is 10.
58:36
OK. And what are they into right
58:38
now? That the youngest well, we just
58:40
it was her birthday last weekend.
58:42
She was in the stitch in the well.
58:44
That was the theme of her party and my older one is into Alta
58:50
and makeup and skin care routines and.
58:54
Already. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
58:56
OK. Scary how quickly it happened.
58:59
No, but she was just in a play actually last night for, for,
59:02
for school. And it was a total like proud
59:04
dad moment. She did amazing, remembered all
59:08
our lines, hit it well. And it was just like, wow.
59:11
I was very, very proud of her. And I am.
59:14
So that was nice to see. That's fantastic.
59:17
Craig Window from Circles. I want to be the first to thank
59:20
you for sharing with your time and your story with us today.
59:22
I really appreciate you being here.
59:23
Yeah, I appreciate you having me.
59:25
Thank you. It was a lot of fun and very
59:27
engaging. So thanks again.
59:28
Anthony Absolutely, folks, that's a wrap on another episode
59:32
of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us.
59:36
And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.