Driving America Forward with Beth Haley
“In HR, we’re looking at every part of the employee experience. Zum, as a company, is thinking about every person and community we touch along the way, not just the students who are riding the bus.”
Beth Haley
People Operations Generalist
Zum
Beth Haley has strong experience in Human Relations. After working with many different companies, including, most recently, a 12-year stint at Block, she now helps to manage People Operations at Zum, improving the experience for employees throughout their time at the company.
Question 1:
In your role at Zum, how do you think about innovation?
At Zum, I am on our HR team. Before, as a recruiter, I was responsible for bringing in good talent, but my role ended once the employee started at the company. Now, I get to work on the employee experience while they’re within the company.
I think about innovation as looking at how things have been done, and asking the question, is there a way to do that differently? Is there a way to do that better?
Here, in my job, that means doing things differently in order to make the employee experience better. Specifically, I help serve our employees who are out in the field, in our school districts.
One specific example that comes to mind is the process for helping an employee who’s taking a leave of absence. The innovation here isn’t about fancy technology. Of course, technology can help streamline communication and make things go more quickly, but the real approach here is, how can I be as clear, and simple, and supportive as possible during what is obviously a difficult time?
It’s sad to say, but not every company always approaches leaves of absence like this, so the first step is to make sure that our team is maximally supportive during difficult times. Innovation for us looks like elevating the bar of the employee experience, even if it’s not with advanced technology.
Question 2:
From your perspective, at a company-wide level, how is Zum driving American innovation forward?
As I mentioned, in HR, I think innovation is examining all different aspects of the employee experience, even if they’re not physically in the building.
I actually think Zum is innovating in a similar way—by examining all different aspects of the student transportation experience, not just the times when the student is physically in the bus.
It starts, of course, with scheduling and routing. Parents are added to a bus route, and know exactly when a bus is going to arrive outside their home. They can track their child to and from school, as can the school administrators responsible for looking after student safety. Beyond the actual act of student transportation, our EV buses are then returning to our yards and sending power back to the electrical grid, which benefits everyone in the city. Zum is innovating because it’s looking at every single touchpoint in our ecosystem, and improving it, thinking about how we can do things differently, and better.
Question 3:
When you think of the future, what role do children/the next generation play, and how can we set them up for success?
In HR, we’re looking at every part of the employee experience. Zum, as a company, is thinking about every person and community we touch along the way, not just the students who are riding the bus. I think, even if we’re not explicitly saying that to the students every morning when they get on the bus, or every afternoon when they get off, they get it—that we’re trying to improve every aspect of the communities we touch.
I think that’s the crux of innovation, and I’m hopeful that by being immersed in it every day, our students will be inspired to do the same, when it’s time for them to be the innovators.