How This HR Leader Strives to Create a People-First Culture

At Geode Capital Management, the word “evolve” connotes more than just growth.

It’s the name of an employee resource group — and not just a name, but an acronym: engagement, vision, open-mindedness, learning, versatility and education, as Head of Human Resources Julie Coote explained. 

“Team Evolve has been hard at work establishing firm initiatives around culture, value and purpose to help shape the future of work and differentiate Geode in the competitive market for talent,” Coote said.

While “evolve” might reference an ERG, it also recalls the importance of adapting a culture to fit employee needs — at Geode, Coote said surveys are an important, information-gathering bridge to team members. 

“We have a very open and transparent culture and are always open to new ideas from our team members,” Coote said.

Built In Boston caught up with the people leader to for a deeper dive into the Boston company puts resources and support behind its team members. 

Julie Coote

Head of Human Resources • Geode Capital Management

What steps has Geode taken to foster a people-first culture?

Geode is a ‘people-first’ firm and our talent is our biggest asset. Being a small employer, we have the opportunity to truly get to know each other. We create meaningful work for our employees and offer opportunities for career mobility and progression along with professional development. We value work-life balance for all and make sure everyone feels included and respected.

We create meaningful work for our employees and offer opportunities for career mobility and progression along with professional development.”

Following our hybrid return to the office last spring, Geode has been embracing the evolution of our organization and how we will adapt and evolve. As a growing firm, we were inspired to create an employee resource group (ERG) called “Evolve” — an acronym for engagement, vision, open-mindedness, learning, versatility and education — which is open to all employees. Team Evolve has been hard at work establishing firm initiatives around culture, value and purpose to help shape the future of work and differentiate Geode in the competitive market for talent.

We have also launched “One Geode Day,” which is a monthly theme day for the whole firm to come together and collaborate as a team. One Geode Day celebrates our firm’s culture and provides opportunities for all of our teams to network and learn together.

What perks, benefits or other offerings help support a people-first company culture? 

We value our hard-working employees and take pride in making sure their voices are heard. Our HR team is constantly looking at ways to improve our benefit offerings. We recently launched a benefit survey to see what offerings are effective and where we could use some improvement. 

With the results of this survey, our HR team worked diligently on creating solutions. Geode offers many benefits outside of medical, dental and vision that focus on mental, physical, and financial wellbeing such as health advocate EAP programs, annual $300 fitness reimbursement, and healthcare, dependent care and commuter flexible spending accounts.

How do you gauge the effectiveness of these efforts and ensure employees feel valued and supported?

At least twice a year, we send out pulse surveys to all of our employees. The pulse surveys measure employee engagement with specific questions that target our efforts at making employees feel valued and supported. We also send out other targeted surveys when we are seeking employee input on other ongoing initiatives at the firm. We pay close attention to specific employee feedback and work with our senior leaders to make improvements or adaptations to policies and procedures as required. We have a very open and transparent culture and are always open to new ideas from our team members.