Why I'm Joining Envoy

At face value, this may seem like a post about how excited I am to get started in my new role as the Senior PR Manager at Envoy, but before we get there, I’ve got to tell you a story about my undying love for *bagels*. 

About a decade ago, right at the heart of the big economic recession of 2008-2009, I worked for a small firm that started to feel the financial crunch. Layoffs of some beloved colleagues were hard to get through, losing some clients was challenging, and morale went down a bit. But I was generally doing okay – until, one summer morning, when the unexpected news came down that, in a cost-cutting measure, they were… cancelling bagel Fridays! 

Anyone who knows me well knows I’m a big fan of bagels – they were a lunchbox staple from an early age. Thinking about bagels on Friday at work legitimately brightened my morning. It seems ridiculous and a bit pretentious in retrospect, but I was truly and sincerely outraged to have that taken away from us. 

I quickly expressed my dismay to HR. It wasn’t even about the bagels themselves, I reasoned, it was about what this meant for our employee experience. We all worked hard, we dedicated ourselves to the goals of the company, and a splattering of cream cheese on a Noah’s bagel made it all that much easier to get through the day.   

Since then, I’ve realized that creating great experiences in the workplace is absolutely vital. Most of those experiences are more mission-critical than a free bagel – choosing workplace tech that helps an office run efficiently; simplifying meeting room issues; or just reducing those dozens of daily tasks that take up just a few minutes each, but really add up to a significant chunk of time.

Office managers seem to feel these pains more than anyone – on top of manning the front desk, they are the default resource for any and all miscellaneous questions around an office – they have to juggle and sort deliveries, play air traffic control for customers, vendors and visitors, and deal with conference room issues among a host of other issues. Despite all that, in my experience the people in that role have usually been the most pleasant, wonderful people I know – can you imagine what they’d do if they had more time to spend on more exciting office experiences instead of mundane tasks? 

And those aren’t the only folks who need an office that works better for them – security and IT teams spend a ton of time thinking about how routine office logistics could cause security risks, but what if they could focus their efforts on bigger problems and risks? And everyone from sales to recruiting teams wants to create good experiences for their guests, but too often they are left scrambling to coordinate a check-in process or find a room for meetings. There’s so much potential for everyone to benefit from smoother processes around the office. 

Envoy is building products that truly maximize these employee experiences for modern workplaces. We’re changing the way visitor management works to streamline the sign-in process and create great first impressions. We’re revolutionizing the mailroom with delivery management tools that make it easy to know when your Amazon or FedEx package has arrived. And I’m so excited about what we’re building now to transform many more experiences around the office – all with a keen eye for security and privacy considerations. 

I’m also joining because Envoy has amassed an incredible collection of talented people – good co-workers, after all, have presumably the biggest impact on employee experience and overall happiness. Hiring good talent is a tall task in Silicon Valley, but it is already clear to me that Envoy has built its culture up with genuinely good people who also happen to be brilliant. On that note, I’d love to have you join us! Especially if you are an engineer so I can get a Tesla!

Taking our PR and communications efforts to the next level here will be challenging but incredibly motivating – there’s a great story to be told about how we’re transforming the modern workplace, and I can’t wait to tell it. (Oh, and did I mention we have bagel Fridays here?) 

Here’s to an exciting future with Envoy!