Kathleen: Hi everyone, welcome along to another episode of LiveRem's QuickBites webinar. I'm Kathleen Webber, Co-founder and CEO of LiveRem, and I'm really excited to be back here today with another amazing guest.

Just before we jump in, QuickBites is a space where we can share knowledge, learnings, and insights on what it takes to excel in HR and business. We're keeping it short and impactful with just a 30-minute, lunch-and-learn-style session hosted regularly by us at LiveRem. For those of you who don't know us, LiveRem gives leaders confidence in pay conversations through real-time, automated salary benchmarking.

I'm delighted to welcome today's guest, Heather Polaschek from RUSH Digital. Welcome, Heather, and thank you for joining us. Heather is a force for driving change at RUSH by championing new initiatives, developing strong leaders, and implementing sustainable diversity, equity, and inclusion frameworks. She has extensive experience across the people space, having worked in multiple industries over 14 years, including the public sector, telecommunications, charity, retail, and the Kiwi success story, Vend.

I'm really excited to talk to you today, Heather. We briefly caught up a few months ago over coffee, and I feel like there was so much to say. I really enjoyed our conversation. Today’s topic is all about how Heather expertly combines data-driven insights with human-centered approaches to enhance culture, drive gender pay equity, and foster employee engagement. At the end, there'll be a chance for questions, so get ready to ask those in the chat box.

But before we get started, I thought I'd run a quick poll to see how many companies are using data to inform their HR strategy. Alright, so we've got 67% of people using data and 33% unsure if they’re using it. It sounds like a lot of people are using it, which is a good place to start. Heather, do you want to give us a bit of your background? I know I've given a high-level overview, but I’m sure there's more you could share about how you started in this space and what made you passionate about using data.

Heather: Kia ora everybody, and welcome! Thank you for joining, and thank you, Kathleen, for the lovely intro. It’s always a bit uncomfortable hearing your experience summarized like that, but it’s good to provide some context. So, I’ve been in HR for about 15 years, working in different spaces in New Zealand and the UK.

One of my biggest passions developed while working at a charity in London. We conducted a diversity and inclusion survey, and the data revealed our organization was predominantly made up of white women—over 80% of our 1,200-person staff. When we compared that to the data on how we supported people with cancer in the community, it highlighted massive gaps in supporting ethnic minorities. This experience sparked a deep passion for diversity and inclusion, as well as using data to drive strategies and decisions in people and culture.

After that role, I returned to New Zealand and spent a few years at Country Road Group. I loved how we used commercial data to show how the right people and culture contribute to greater success when looking at commercial outcomes. Moving to Vend really ignited my passion for the tech sector, which is where I am now—and absolutely loving it. The tech industry is so progressive in the people and culture space and very data-driven. You can't present to engineers without data, evidence, and academic research to support your case, so it's been a natural fit.

Kathleen: That's so interesting, Heather! It's great to hear about your journey from the charity sector to tech. I imagine Country Road also had a mostly female employee base? And would it be fair to say that the tech sector has less female representation, especially in leadership roles?

Heather: Yes, exactly. At Country Road Group, which became a billion-dollar company with Woolworths, the workforce was about 70–80% female, yet most senior leadership roles were held by men. When I moved to tech, I found a similar trend—more men in general across the industry and more men in leadership. However, there’s a strong drive at Vend and RUSH to increase diversity, particularly for Māori, Pasifika, and women in leadership roles. The passion is there, but sometimes it’s unclear how to make it happen.

Kathleen: And how long have you been with RUSH now?

Heather: I’ve been at RUSH for two and a half years now. It’s flown by! When I joined, I was the only woman on the Senior Leadership Team (SLT). In my first week, I made a few comments about women in leadership to set the tone for my role.

One of the first things I did was create the people and culture strategy. This involved understanding the business, its commercial drivers, and then setting data metrics to drive our decisions and measure success. I started by benchmarking key areas, such as recruitment, learning and development, remuneration, gender pay, belonging, and well-being. Establishing these benchmarks helped us measure the success of our initiatives over time.

We realized we needed to set some goals and ambitions because, from our perspective, the data showed that the lack of women in leadership was a major driver of our organizational pay gap. Over the last two years, we've managed to reduce it, but we still have a lot of work to do.

Kathleen: That's great to hear. At LiveRem, we have a lot of data, and most companies are paying fairly across gender, age, and location. In some places, parity is an issue, but for the majority, it’s not. However, women in leadership is very real, and unfortunately, data is crucial to push that conversation forward because people often don’t fully understand it. Sometimes, there’s a prejudice, and other times it’s just a hard concept to grasp without a clear explanation.

Heather: Exactly, and sometimes there’s a mindset of, “Well, we’ve tried, but it’s hard to get women in leadership,” which can feel like a bit of an excuse. There are challenges, yes, but when we see such large gaps, it needs to be addressed. I've been doing gender pay analysis for a while, and few organizations have a zero percent pay gap. Startups might find it easier, which is great, but it requires talking about it. Data allows us to have an objective conversation, compare with other businesses, and then set goals and priorities. Reviewing and measuring our progress is essential.

Kathleen: Absolutely, we have to talk about it within our businesses, which can be difficult. When we first discussed sharing our data, there was some resistance because acknowledging a gender pay gap of over 8% can be hard for businesses. However, transparency drives change—by acknowledging it, talking about it, and setting goals.

You also mentioned ethnicity pay gaps. How are you tracking that?

Heather: That’s the next area we're moving into. Earlier this year, we conducted our first proper diversity and inclusion survey, covering a range of diversity dimensions. We plan to start tracking ethnicity pay gaps more effectively with our HRIS. So far, our main focus has been on women in leadership, but our upcoming strategy includes measuring ethnicity data, especially in relation to our commitment to Te Reo Māori and supporting cultural diversity, particularly in the current political climate. If a company doesn’t reflect its customer base, it’s going to be challenging to serve those customers effectively.

Kathleen: Absolutely, and we know from all the data that diverse teams lead to better-performing teams and outcomes for businesses.

Shifting gears slightly, you mentioned earlier about using data to improve the quality of conversations. How does that look at RUSH?

Heather: We measure in a variety of ways. One of the best is our monthly engagement survey. When I first started, it felt like a lot to measure every month, but having that frequent data is fantastic for tracking trends, understanding morale, and seeing what’s working well.

At a company, chapter, or team level, the data shows us what’s going well. For example, if one chapter has a net promoter score of 70, we can have a conversation with them to understand what’s working and share that with other teams. Likewise, for areas that aren’t doing so well, we can dig deeper to understand the issues. The anonymous comments we get in the survey are valuable, but nothing beats a one-on-one conversation where we can ask questions, show empathy, and truly understand.

We also collect feedback through our Culture Cadets and Belonging Steering Group. These groups regularly check in with the team to gauge feelings, identify areas for improvement, and help drive initiatives. We share this data every week during company sessions, keeping everyone informed on how we’re doing from a people and culture perspective.

Kathleen: I’m really impressed—every month! I haven’t worked in a business setting for a while, and the last time I did a performance survey, it was a once-a-year, hour-long survey. How do you approach it? Is it short and sweet?

Heather: Yes, it’s a quick survey—about five minutes, with 20 questions that rotate so they’re not always the same. There’s also an anonymous feedback section, and our platform allows us to respond anonymously to feedback, so it’s truly a two-way dialogue. We also combine this with our regular performance management processes, like quarterly reviews and annual 360-degree reviews, to create a consistent and open dialogue.

Kathleen: It sounds like you’re fostering a real culture of trust by taking people’s feedback and acting on it promptly rather than letting issues fester.

Heather: Trust is something you have to continually work on. Transparency, engaging in open feedback, and explaining changes help maintain it. When things don’t go perfectly, it’s important to own up and figure out how we can do better, keeping that trust and transparency at the forefront.

Kathleen: That’s awesome. Do you have any examples where you’ve received feedback or gathered data that led to a major change?

Heather: Sure, we’ve done a lot of hiring this year after a pause at the end of last year. We received significant feedback from new starters, particularly around our onboarding process. With hybrid working—two to three days in the office—we didn’t anticipate the impact of onboarding new people in a hybrid setup. New starters reported feeling a lack of belonging and team connection. So, we’ve been working to improve both onboarding and hybrid work practices. For onboarding, we’re ensuring people integrate into the culture quickly. For hybrid working, we’re having ongoing conversations about making communication inclusive, ensuring learning and growth, and setting people up for success.

Kathleen: Has hybrid working been part of your setup for a while, or is it a post-COVID thing?

Heather: Post-COVID, like for many companies. When I started, we were just coming back to the office, so one of my first projects was establishing a hybrid approach. We settled on two days in the office, with the option for more if desired, and we review it every six months to see if it’s still meeting our team’s needs. We run surveys to check on engagement and inclusion, especially for new team members. We want to keep flexibility, especially since it’s so valuable for retaining women in the workforce. It's an evolving landscape, and with around 80 to 90 people, we’re committed to constantly reviewing and speaking with our team about it. So far, two days in the office and remote flexibility have been a good balance.

Kathleen: That’s great! Hybrid working is such a topical area right now, with so many discussions about returning to the office. We’ve taken a different approach with 100% remote, which has its own challenges. One key piece of feedback from our team has been around maintaining a sense of community since we’re all over the world. Hearing about how you’re creating that balance is really inspiring.

Heather: Yes, being fully remote has so many benefits, like access to a wider talent pool. Hybrid is tricky because it means supporting both in-office and remote people equally. Some of our team members have even moved out of Auckland, so we’ve worked to make sure they feel included, too. Culture is always a work in progress—you have to keep nurturing and improving it. And while the nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday in-office structure works for some, it’s just not where we are.

Kathleen: Absolutely. Some people love the traditional setup, which is great, but it’s equally fantastic to see businesses embracing flexibility.

I have a couple more questions, and then I’ll open it up to attendees. If anyone has questions, feel free to drop them in the chat.

What advice would you give HR leaders who want to integrate data and human insights into their strategy?

Heather: I’d say start with the right tools. Data can only be as good as the systems in place to collect it. Building a solid tech stack is essential, whether it’s an HRIS, engagement tool, or remuneration tool. Don’t try to measure everything at once. Begin by tracking what’s feasible and then hold yourself accountable. I report to the board monthly with our metrics because it’s a way of measuring our progress. Having the right tools is critical—without them, data collection can be time-consuming.

Kathleen: What tools do you use?

Heather: We use BambooHR as our HRIS—it’s been great. For engagement, we use Peakon and have also used 15Five. We’re also incorporating AI, which has been transformative. We all use tools like Claude and ChatGPT, and I’ve even set up custom ChatGPTs to support various aspects of our business. AI is still limited when it comes to New Zealand-specific remuneration data, but it’s been invaluable for learning, development, and creating content.

Kathleen: That’s fantastic! Just giving a moment here for any questions from the group. And if there’s anything else you’d like to share, please feel free.

Heather: When it comes to data and people insights, it’s crucial to balance both. We get valuable data from engagement surveys and one-on-one conversations with team members. But it’s essential to look at everything holistically. Sometimes, you get one-off feedback that seems concerning, but when you look at the data, it doesn’t reflect a widespread issue. So, while engagement scores are helpful, they aren’t everything—neither is one person’s feedback. The key is combining all perspectives to get a full picture.

Kathleen: Great point. What metrics do you report on for the board?

Heather: Our people and culture strategy is focused on making us the best workplace for ambitious tech talent, with three core goals: attracting the best people, creating a high-performance culture, and fostering belonging. We track metrics under each of these, about 12 in total. For recruitment, we monitor our time-to-hire and acceptance rates. Under high performance, we check if people have learning plans and if they’re using their allocated $1,000 learning budget each year. For belonging, we track engagement and well-being metrics, as well as the usage of programs like Southern Cross and Ignite.

Kathleen: That’s fantastic! Is the $1,000 learning budget flexible?

Heather: Yes, it’s flexible. Even if someone is learning through a personal project, we support it. We also pool funds for group learning—for instance, a group of us is using it for Te Reo classes right now. It’s an essential part of our culture—there’s always something new to learn.

Kathleen: That’s great. Another question from the chat: Since your team works with different clients, how does client culture impact team engagement?

Heather: That’s a challenge, especially in a services business. We have our own culture within our chapters, but client culture can vary. We measure engagement within projects with a simple tool called “fist of five,” where every week or fortnight, the team and client rate how they’re feeling on a scale of one to five. This allows us to track any shifts in morale. We set clear shared values and goals at the beginning of each project, measure along the way, and aim to build strong relationships with clients to support our team’s engagement. Client relationships are fundamental to maintaining positive engagement.

Kathleen: That’s brilliant! As a former consultant, I understand the importance of having your company’s support when working in different client cultures. It sounds like you’re doing a fantastic job.

Heather: Thank you! We’re always learning and striving to do better, looking for new ways to approach things. Listening is a huge part of what we do at Rush.

Kathleen: That’s awesome. All right, we’re just about out of time. Thank you so much for your insights today. Our next webinar will be on November 28, hosted by Jonathan Morgan, our CTO. He’ll be joined by Nat Ferguson, co-founder of PowrSuit, and they’ll discuss “Men Stepping Up: How You Can Help Close the Gender Pay Gap and Why You Should Want To.” It’ll be a practical discussion about men’s involvement in closing the pay gap. We’d love for you to join us and invite your male colleagues, friends, husbands, brothers. I think it will be an insightful discussion. Thanks, everyone, and have a great day!