Circle In loves having Domain in our Circle. By partnering with Circle In, Domain continues to enhance its people-first approach and provide meaningful support to everyone in the organization.
Here are some highlights from a recent chat between Co-Founder, Circle In, Kate Pollard, and Chief People and Sustainability Officer, Domain, Ros Tregurtha.
Why was it important for Domain to invest in a program such as Circle In?
Domain has been really proud over the last two years of taking a people-first approach to how we treat our employees and think about our employees. Circle In became a natural addition to our family to offer the organization not just parents, or potential caregivers that wanted to look up pieces of information around surrogacy or IVF, or elderly parents or whatever it might be, and Circle In just fits really naturally into that people first approach for us.
What problem is Circle In solving for Domain?
Domain, like any organization, has inconsistency issues, and that was definitely there in terms of Parental Leave, and how Parental Leave was being managed. So, when the team went out and did some research as a result of the changes that we brought about in our Parental Leave policy they could really see the nice synergies of bringing Circle In as part of that proposal to really provide a consistent approach for all employees, but also all managers because not all managers and leaders know what to do or what to say. The ability to help them through that process was a really good way, and a good reason to bring Circle In into the family.
Managers are so important and they have such a huge impact on the employee experience and how your people feel towards Domain. So, that manager piece is something that we hear really often about how important that is.
If you think about the one thing that does have a really big impact on someone’s employee experience it is the manager in those moments that matter and how you actually use the right words and language around that. So, for people who are worried Circle In provides a platform to help them with that.
What do you love about the platform and the partnership with Circle In?
I think what it does for us is a couple of things. One, it allows us a place where everyone can go regardless, you allow us to customize the platform, you allow our staff to tell their stories on the platform, and I’m really proud of the Domain employees who have been brave, leaned in and written some of their rawest moments on the platform, and in terms of that ability to give people the information that they need in the right time at the right place is another excellent thing.
I love, Ros how you’ve talked about connecting with your people in the moments that matter. Do you have any examples that you can share with us today?
Yeah, absolutely. One specific one comes to mind, and it’s a personal one. This event happened prior to us having Circle In but I could see how Circle In could have been really beneficial. At the time, I personally went through this as a manager and what I went through was nothing compared to my staff member who had lost their child to stillbirth. She has been brave enough to write her story on Circle In and I’m super proud of Amy for doing that, and what’s really interesting is that I’ve then been able to use that information to share with another organization. The fact that she has come out the other side of it and been able to write about it is an absolute testament to her strength and resilience and I think it shows how, when a manager or an organization can lean in and support their employee you really do reap the benefits after that of having that huge level of trust between two people.
What does success look like for Domain in supporting your families and caregivers?
I think success for me looks like it’s an engaging platform that is engaged with. So, at any point in time we have a large number of users that are on there and using the platform, but also allowing our users to give feedback and us to give feedback to you to say we’ve heard this conversation or we’ve heard this topic and they couldn’t find this information on the platform and that allows you then to update your product. That’s where the partnership comes in as well in terms of sharing that information back to you to make Circle In an even better product, and that’s actually part of the success as well.
Why Circle In?
We like to allow people to bring their best selves to work and to be themselves and be the home for everyone. Circle In does provide the information that allows people to be who they need to be at any point in time, whether that be a caregiver, a caregiver for an elderly person, or whether that’s they’re going through a surrogacy situation, or they’re pregnant. So, whatever that is they can be themselves and be in that moment with Circle In.
It lines up very nicely with the values of Domain, one of those is ‘passion is contagious’ and so you can see the passion that people bring through the Circle In platform. That’s really lovely for both our employees like I said, and those that have leaned in and told their stories, not just from Domain, but from other platforms.
The other one is ‘open minds, open doors’, I think it lines up really nicely as well, in terms of being able to walk in someone else’s shoes. So, if we go back to that manager who’s never managed a person who’s in a caregiver situation, having that platform, they can open their mind and step in someone’s shoes by being supported through the process as well is a really fantastic part of Circle In and that’s why we chose you.
We are proud to partner with Domain and support their people in all of the moments that matter.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can support your employees, click here to talk to us today.
