Elevate: Women Transforming Employee Experience

LineZero
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Discover the real stories behind workplace transformation. Elevate features inspiring conversations with women who are reshaping employee experience through empathy, courage, and impact. From navigating challenges to leading meaningful change, each episode offers honest insights, practical advice, and powerful moments of leadership. Whether you're new to leadership or a seasoned pro, tune in for motivation to lead with heart and make your workplace better.

  1. Sep 8

    S02 EP16. Inside Out: Why The Strongest Brands Start With Their People

    What if your strongest brand ambassadors aren’t your marketing team, but the people who experience your culture every day? In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Tanya Bevington, Head of Communications at IKEA Canada, to explore what happens when internal communications, culture, and brand aren’t treated as separate things, but as parts of the same experience. For Tanya, that starts with a simple principle: coworkers come first. Across more than 7,000 coworkers in Canada, many of whom don’t sit behind a desk, IKEA has built a communications approach designed around how people actually work, connect, and consume information. And before a major campaign reaches customers, the work starts internally, making sure coworkers understand it, believe in it, and see the role they play in bringing it to life. Together, Joy and Tanya discuss: Why IKEA makes sure coworkers hear important company news before they hear it anywhere else.How IKEA brought thousands of coworkers into its Bring Home to Life brand platform before taking it to market.What the Cannes Gold-winning Secondhand Tax (SHT) campaign taught the team about trust, purpose, and taking meaningful brand risks.How mental health training, wellness days, and listening to employees can strengthen culture and retention.Why reaching a frontline workforce takes more than email, and how IKEA combines digital channels, leaders, face-to-face communication, and even TikTok-style content.Why leaders across the organization need to see themselves as communicators.What Tanya has learned about authenticity, vulnerability, and taking up space after more than 20 years in communications.How AI can make communicators faster without replacing the human voice that makes communication believable.At the heart of the conversation is a reminder that a brand isn’t only what customers see. It’s also what employees experience, what leaders reinforce, and what people are proud enough to carry with them. If you work in internal communications, employee experience, HR, culture, or brand, this episode offers a practical look at what it takes to build trust from the people closest to your organization outward. STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP16. Inside Out: Why The Strongest Brands Start With Their People

  2. Aug 25

    S02 EP15. The Non-Negotiable: Building a Workplace Where Access Comes First

    What if the accessibility your organization promises its clients had to be true for your own employees too, no exceptions? In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Angelina Algranti, Vice President, People and Culture at Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada (VLRC), to unpack what it really means to build an accessibility-first workplace, not just as a client promise, but as an internal standard. Angelina's path here wasn't a straight line. She built her HR career across broadcasting, manufacturing, public housing, and one of Canada's most recognized charities before landing at Vision Loss Rehabilitation Canada, where about 15% of the workforce is blind or partially sighted. That mix of experience, plus working alongside colleagues who share the lived experience of the clients they serve, gives her a rare, ground-level view of what accessibility actually requires. Angelina walks through how VLRC builds culture through co-design instead of top-down policy, why accessibility is a non-negotiable line item in every vendor conversation (down to testing 16 different platforms before choosing one), and what changed for her personally the week she learned proper guide dog etiquette. She also gets candid about where she draws the line with AI, and why protecting her own critical thinking matters as much as adopting new tools. This one's for any HR or IC leader who says they care about accessibility and inclusion, and is ready to actually test that claim against their own systems. STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP15. The Non-Negotiable: Building a Workplace Where Access Comes First

  3. Aug 18

    S02 EP14. Build Your Board of Directors: How To Grow People With Intention at Any Scale

    Most HR leaders build their careers in one or two industries. Khai Jones has built hers in five, and the thread connecting all of them isn't a framework or a methodology. It's a belief about what people actually need to grow. In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Khai Jones, incoming VP of Employee Experience at GoDaddy, to explore what it really means to grow people with intention, and what it costs when you don't. Khai's career spans nearly 20 years and five very different industries: healthcare, manufacturing, global industrial tech, defence, and now tech. She built HR in places most people leaders never see, including nine years at Cummins, where spending time on the factory floor taught her that the people closest to the product are the ones who drive business success. That belief has followed her across 50+ countries and 18,000+ person organizations. And for 20 years, she's quietly run a foundation for at-risk youth alongside every role she's held. In this conversation, Khai unpacks what intentional growth actually looks like in practice, both as an individual navigating a career and as a leader sponsoring others. She shares the concept of a personal board of directors, why authenticity on a team is the first thing that dies under pressure, and where she thinks human connection fits in a world increasingly shaped by AI. You'll also hear how she thinks about evaluating EX technology: not just for what it can do today, but whether it can scale with you. This episode is for people leaders and HR professionals who want to lead with more intention, and who believe that growth only happens when someone truly sees you, invests in you, and means it. STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP14. Build Your Board of Directors: How To Grow People With Intention at Any Scale

  4. Jul 28

    S02 EP13. Know, Feel, Do: Why Trust Is The Real Infrastructure of Internal Comms

    Great internal communication isn't measured by how many messages you send. It's measured by how much people trust them. In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Mahsa Joyce, Senior Internal Communications Manager at TextNow, to explore why trust, not technique, is the real infrastructure behind every message that lands. Mahsa brings a builder's perspective to this conversation. She built TextNow's internal comms function from scratch, connecting HR, marketing, and leadership into one voice for 250 people scattered across time zones, at a company whose actual product is communication. That firsthand experience of starting with nothing but trust and building from there shapes everything she shares here. Together, Joy and Mahsa explore the "know, feel, do" framework Mahsa uses to communicate through layoffs and reorgs, why she treats managers as the most underused channel in the company, how a single employee survey reshaped TextNow's financial transparency and cut its town halls down to size, and why AI can speed up her drafts but will never replace the gut check the job actually runs on. If you're building trust from scratch, trying to get leadership to actually invest in internal comms, or just tired of watching your announcements land flat, this episode will leave you with something real to take back to work tomorrow. __________________________ Want to understand how your own employee experience stacks up? Book Your FREE Personalized EX Assessment STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP13. Know, Feel, Do: Why Trust Is The Real Infrastructure of Internal Comms

  5. Jul 14

    S02 EP12. Purpose in Practice: How Great Leaders Create the Conditions for People To Thrive

    What does it really take to build a workplace where people grow and do their best work, even in one of the most emotionally demanding professions? In this episode of Elevate, Joy Fajardo sits down with Carla Armstrong, CFRE, Director of Philanthropy at Gulfside Healthcare Services, a five-time Top 100 Workplace in Tampa Bay, to explore what great leadership looks like when the work is deeply human. Carla shares an unconventional career journey, from training at Juilliard and building a career in dance to leading philanthropy for one of Florida's most respected nonprofit healthcare organizations. Along the way, she reveals the leadership principles that have remained constant: resilience, purpose, trust, and the belief that culture is built through everyday decisions, not company slogans. Together, Joy and Carla discuss: What leaders can learn from the discipline and collaboration of the performing arts.How Gulfside has built and sustained an award-winning workplace culture in hospice care.Why communication becomes even more important when your workforce is dispersed across locations and serving people in the field.The difference between purchasing technology and successfully adopting it.How professional development drives stronger technology adoption and employee engagement.Leading through multiple generations while preserving purpose and connection.The opportunities and limitations of AI in people-centred organizations.Why the future of leadership depends on creating the conditions for people to thrive.Whether you lead communications, HR, IT, employee experience, or an entire organization, this conversation offers practical insights into building cultures where people feel supported, connected, and inspired to do meaningful work.  __________________________ Want to understand how your own employee experience stacks up? Book Your FREE Personalized EX Assessment STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP12. Purpose in Practice: How Great Leaders Create the Conditions for People To Thrive

  6. Jun 30

    S02 EP11. Earn The Room: What It Really Takes To Be a Strategic People and Culture Leader

    What if the reason your people programs aren't landing has nothing to do with the program itself and everything to do with what you didn't stop to understand first? In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Desiree Aprekuma, a people and culture leader, to explore what it actually takes to build credibility, earn trust, and drive real change as a people and culture leader. Desiree has spent 20 years walking into complicated situations such as post-merger integrations, fragmented C-suites, distributed organizations with no culture infrastructure, and building something that actually works. She's been the direct people partner to CFOs, CTOs, CLOs, and chief strategy officers. And across every one of those experiences, the thread is the same: see what's real before you act. In this conversation, you'll hear how she built trust with executives one customized conversation at a time. How she rolled out a talent cultivation program across five business units by treating internal communications as a true strategic partner and not a broadcast channel. And how she found a low-lift remote connection tool that drove real engagement because she understood what employees actually needed first. This is the kind of thinking that shapes everything we do at LineZero too. Real time spent understanding what's actually happening with your people before recommending anything. If you're an HR or IC leader who's tired of initiatives that look good on paper and miss in practice, this one's for you. __________________________ Want to understand how your own employee experience stacks up? Book Your FREE Personalized EX Assessment STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP11. Earn The Room: What It Really Takes To Be a Strategic People and Culture Leader

  7. Jun 17

    S02 EP10. Built While Flying: How One HR Leader Built Culture and Credibility for 30,000 Franchise Employees

    What if the career you were meant to build started with a task you never asked for? In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Laura McLand, VP of Human Resources at Sun Holdings, to explore what it really means to build HR and a genuine culture of care inside one of the largest franchise organizations in the United States. Laura didn't start in HR. She was an executive assistant when her CEO handed her a payroll task and told her he believed she could handle it. That one yes set off a 25-year career she built intentionally, one certification and one hard conversation at a time. Today, she leads a team of 20+ HR professionals overseeing employee experience for 30,000 workers across 13 brands, 1,250 locations, and 32 states. She inherited a department of one and built it into a fully structured function, while the company was actively growing around her. Laura shares how she earns credibility at the executive level by shifting the conversation from ROI to VOI — value on investment. She walks through the earned wage access program that put over $106 million directly into employees' hands when they needed it most, explains how she builds mobile-first experiences for a workforce that's never behind a laptop, and talks about what she's actually looking for when she decides someone is worth investing in. If you lead a people function in a distributed, frontline, or fast-growing organization and you've ever had to fight for your seat at the table, this one is for you.  __________________________ Want to understand how your own employee experience stacks up? Book Your FREE Personalized EX Assessment STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP10. Built While Flying: How One HR Leader Built Culture and Credibility for 30,000 Franchise Employees

  8. Jun 2

    S02 EP09. Earn It Every Day: The Real Work Behind Strategic Internal Comms

    What does it take to move from being brought in at the end to being the first call leaders make? In this episode of Elevate, host Joy Fajardo sits down with Meghann Klein, Senior Director of Internal Communications at Marriott International's Revenue and Technology Group, to unpack what strategic internal communications really looks like when you earn the title instead of claim it. Meghann has spent 20+ years walking into functions that weren't being taken seriously and rebuilding them into something the business can't operate without. From healthcare and non-profits to a rebrand at the Entrepreneurs' Organization that lifted communications value by 22%, she's built her career turning comms from a support function into a strategic lens on the business. At Marriott, she led her team through a major restructuring, introduced a business partner model, and rebuilt how internal comms shows up across 140+ countries and nearly a million associates. In this conversation, Meghann shares the diagnostic questions her team used to rebuild after restructuring, why the Einstein principle is a communicator's best filter, how to earn your way from "phone tree number five" to phone tree number one, and why variable speed (not speed itself) is the leadership muscle women especially need to protect. This one is for every IC and EX pro who's ever delivered beautiful work no one else saw, and wondered how to get pulled into the room earlier. __________________________ Want to understand how your own employee experience stacks up? Book Your FREE Personalized EX Assessment STAY CONNECTED! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/linezero/ Website: https://www.linezero.com/resources/podcast ============================= Music: Ramaramaray by Aiyo | Get Up on That Horse by spring gang  Via Epidemic Sound ©  2026 LineZero

    S02 EP09. Earn It Every Day: The Real Work Behind Strategic Internal Comms
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Discover the real stories behind workplace transformation. Elevate features inspiring conversations with women who are reshaping employee experience through empathy, courage, and impact. From navigating challenges to leading meaningful change, each episode offers honest insights, practical advice, and powerful moments of leadership. Whether you're new to leadership or a seasoned pro, tune in for motivation to lead with heart and make your workplace better.

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