Raquel crystal, welcome to the show. I got to tell you, I love doing the show. And I really enjoy speaking with leaders in the field like yourself. But it's especially special when those leaders happen to be your friend, and your friend of hate to quantify things, but it's been over a decade. It's been a long time.
Thank you so much for having me, Adam.
For those that don't know you, do you mind giving a quick synopsis of who you are and what you're doing these days?
Sure. My name is Raquel crystal, and I'm currently head of HR of Axovant Gene Therapies. So where gene therapy company focused on developing and delivering innovative gene therapies that can hopefully transform the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Nice. And how do you like being in this industry, totally different industry than your previous field?
Very different. So I'm fortunate enough to have worked in HR across different industries, including financial services, FinTech, now, biotech, I can say now that I've been working in biotech for a few years, I don't think I can ever go back to any other industry, it's extremely rewarding, even though I'm not on the actual development side, even being on the business side of it, and really working with the rest of the team towards a common mission of saving lives. It's absolutely amazing.
It's so funny. So I had a conversation. I think it was early last week with someone who's going to be coming on the show, and he had a similar came from the same place as you mainly financial services. But he too having now being in this with a biotech, he's like, I don't know how I could possibly He's like, outside of nonprofit, I just can't see myself working for any other type of company, or in any other industry.
Yeah, it's very important to feel connected to the mission of the company and feel that you're actually helping drive the company towards that mission.
Excellent. So I'd love to I how I like to start the show is I do this thing called a rapid fire questions where I'm going to throw some questions at you. And just to pry me up, and also to let the audience get a better feel for who it is that we're going to be spending this next half an hour with some good.
Perfect.
All right, you ready?
I'm ready.
Are you an early bird or a night owl?
I'd like to say I'm some form of a permanently exhausted pigeon, but definitely more of a night owl. I think I gave up on trying to attempt to do anything early in the morning.
I have not heard that answer. So kudos to you on that. I want to know when I think you're gonna know the answer to this, who makes the best matzo?
Oh, wow, who makes the best matzo? So we always buy our matzah we don't actually make it but I would say shmurah matzo, which people may not know of, but schmura matzo is actually handmade masa and it has to be made under 18 minutes. So in my opinion, that's probably the best matzah, not the ones that you buy at the supermarket.
You lived in Israel for a little bit. Was there any difference in the quality of the masa over there versus here?
Not to my knowledge. And to be honest, most of the motza that we get here is actually made in Israel. Interesting.
So tell me something about you that most people don't know.
Okay, well, I mean, you did bring up Israel, I did grow up in a Jewish orthodox family, and I'm one of four kids. And I think just looking at me or seeing my name on a resume or on a piece of paper, most people wouldn't assume that I grew up in a Jewish orthodox family. I think that's definitely shaped me and really helped me throughout my personal life and in my career. So I would say that's something that a lot of people don't automatically assume when they meet me.
Interesting. And when do they find out?
Usually when I have to start taking off for all the Jewish holidays.
All right, good stuff. Hey, so what's a piece of technology that you couldn't live without?
So these days, I would have to say WhatsApp. For me, it's very important to stay connected to all my friends overseas, especially now that we're all pretty much in quarantine and not being able to go out. So between the video feature and the texting feature, definitely WhatsApp.
I'm with you there. I've been using that a lot as well. And I just realized the other day when someone videoed me, that option was even there. And I was impressed with the quality too. Yeah, not too bad. at all, so so you've got this really cool job with this great company that's doing things to change the world. You guys are on this mission has this mission, or what has COVID done to change the mission, or at least the way that you guys are doing work?
Yes. So thankfully, it hasn't really changed our day to day significantly at all. whatsoever. require some advanced planning, especially when it came for clinical trials, making sure that we had our patients in the right place at the right time and make sure all that was coordinated in advance. But short of that, I can't say that too much has changed. I will say that it's made us rethink how we do business and how we recruit and how we engage employees. So definitely, that's been a topic of conversation over the last few months as we all go through this pandemic together. But other than that, from a day to day standpoint, not a whole lot has changed.
Okay, so walk me through with some of the things that have changed, or will be changing, what are you going to be doing differently? And what can other people be doing? What's some advice that you'd have?
Yes, so I mean, first and foremost, I've always been a believer that you don't have to show up to an office every day, this idea of face time is very, very old school, I do believe that as long as you hire the right talent. And again, that's the key is making sure you hire the right talent, you can effectively have people working remotely from any place. So our mission at Axovant, at least has always been to hire the right talents and the top talent, regardless of location, especially in a niche industry, like gene therapy, where you're not dealing with a huge talent pool, it is important to be flexible. And that's really where our shift as a company really began when we actually shifted to a gene therapy company and realize that there is a huge talent pool, and we do need to become very flexible. So with that said, we do continue to recruit talent all over the country, as long as they're there the right talent. However, we are realizing that even going forward, we don't have this need to really connect in the office every day that there are other ways of engaging employees and connecting employees while we are remote, and we do think that going forward will probably reduce our office footprint, we'll probably think of more creative ways to get the team together and engage the team. Other than that in person experience in the office.
That's a great idea. And I'm hearing more and more people that are thinking along the same lines as you. So like so for example, a lot of companies are considering, again, like you said, getting rid of their their office space altogether, either getting out of the leases or selling their buildings, and then doing retreats, whether it's quarterly, whether it's monthly there again, I think that's still up in the air. I don't know if that's something that you're considering? And if so, what are the things that you have to think about when you're considering, I guess, changing that type of, I guess, business model,
so I don't think will completely eliminate our office space, we will have a presence. Regardless, I'll be a smaller one. But we are we are looking at other ways to bring the company together. So during these times with an pandemic when really there is no option to be in person. We are hosting virtual town halls on a monthly basis where the entire company gets together. And we have a whole planned out agenda, we talk about updates to our programs, any other updates in the company that are going on, we allow for guest speakers, we allow time to hear from even patients that we work with, and for employees to even present things that they're working on within their functional areas. We've also been doing virtual happy hours now twice a month, we were a little concerned how that would work with everyone being on the phone and kind of chiming in over each other. But so far, it's actually worked very well we did allow for breakout rooms so that we can have people break out and let's say a group of people want to talk about the latest Netflix show they're watching or ways that they're dealing with homeschooling their children. So we have allowed for that. But that's been something that we've kept up with since the start of the pandemic, when the other thing we are doing is our CEO sends out weekly emails. So at the end of every week, on Friday, our CEO will send out an email to the entire company, little updates here and there, he'll even bring in some personal stories. So it really makes the employee base still feel connected to the talk, even when we're not in person or we're not having live town halls, etc. So our CEO has been really great about sending out weekly emails and getting input from other functional areas about what announcements need to be made in those weekly emails. And then you mentioned these offsites. The other thing that we're working towards is having quarterly gatherings. So instead of seeing each other in person, every day, what we're doing is picking one city in the country every quarter, flying everyone in and basically having a whole two days of both work and social activities, where we can brainstorm different projects that we're working on, have icebreakers have team building activities, so really making sure that we don't lose out on any of that quote, unquote, cooler talk by not having an actual office.
So smart, very smart. Now have you know whose brainchild was this? Is this something that you came up with the CEO came up with? Or is this something that you've kind of been wrestling this idea around with some of the networks that you're a part of?
Yes, I can take credit for this. But I think it's been, it came out of several conversations that we've had at the executive mountain, the executive management level. So we do a weekly executive management team meeting that I sit in on every week. And as we started going virtual, and as we started realizing that this can work, and there really is no need for people to come into the office every single day, we started brainstorming different ideas of how do we still make sure that we have that level of connectivity, even when we don't have employees in the office every day. And to be fair, we don't have just one office site. Even when we were in the office, we had an office in North Carolina, we had an office in New York, we had, you know, a few remote employees around the country, given that, like I said, gene therapy, talent is not easy to find, and we had to set up employees remotely. So this is something we really started to talk about, as we all started working virtually and realizing that this can work, but we don't want to lose that sense of connectivity.
Yeah. So you've mentioned the importance of talent on the multiple times in this short dialogue. What are you doing to now I mean, obviously, recruiting is changing, how is hiring, how is recruiting? How are you thinking about this, not just from identifying the right person, but then onboarding them during these times?
Yeah, like I said, have had a leg up in the sense that we've historically hired remote employees regardless, so we've had to roll out this virtual onboarding already way in advance of COVID-19. So this is something that we've been really fine tuning and improving over the last few months. In terms of onboarding, I worked very closely with our IT team, actually, I had up it and operations as well. So working closely with them, to make sure that new hires received their equipment in advance that they're set up to work from home, they have all the supplies that they need. We have offered reimbursement for phone and internet during this time to really help employees while they're working from home. And we're trying to come up with different incentives and ways to make sure that people really feel comfortable setting up a home office. But with that said, we've actually heard great feedback from our new hires, we do a two month check in with all of our new hires, which believe it or not, we've had quite a few already since the start of this pandemic. And they've actually said that this is some of the best onboarding that they've been through, elevate the fact that it's virtual. So with that said, we have a two month onboarding that we have our employees go through. And that is from the time that they are sent their computer, and they're given instructions on how to log in and they go through a full it onboarding, to their HR onboarding, meeting with their manager, we've actually assigned you started a buddy program. So throughout this time, you're assigned a buddy to really help you navigate the different cultural norms and just have a person where you feel comfortable, and where there's really a safe space to ask certain questions that you may not feel comfortable asking your new manager or asking your team members. So definitely this buddy program, I think has been useful throughout the pandemic. And then throughout the two month period, you get a quote unquote, virtual coffee chat with our CEO. Our CEO has been making sure to really spend time sitting and talking and meeting every new hire that has joined the company. And then from an HR standpoint, we're constantly checking and seeing how things are doing. We've really expanded our intranet so that it's really a wealth of knowledge for employees to go and you know, find answers to their everyday questions. So yeah, I found honestly that, if anything, our onboarding process has actually only improved since going through this pandemic and doing this virtually.
Yeah, I mean, that's impressive. And it does sound like you guys are really on top of this, which is so important. From again, having someone matriculate into your culture, especially during these times. If you don't mind. Can you talk a little bit more about the buddy program, and it's interesting, there is a friend of mine who runs he's a CHRO of a relatively large organization. And it's something he's really big into mentorship. So I mean, it was paramount to his success. And his company, they don't have anything like this. So he's looking into options like this. And I've got to assume he's not the only one. So if you don't mind, can you share a little bit more about this buddy system, how it came to fruition, other things that you're doing and some of the positives that you're getting from this?
Absolutely. So it's something I've done in past companies that I've worked for. It's something quite frankly, that I've wanted to roll out for some time. And as I'm sure as Adam, life gets busy, and unfortunately, things get put on the back burner, and it really was this pandemic hitting that really made me made me realize that now is as good of a time as any to really roll this out. So what I did was I rolled it out to the entire company, I want it to be a strictly voluntary program. I obviously don't want to force anyone to be a buddy and I'm sure if you do that it's not going to be a successful program. So I did reach out to the company and asked for volunteers and I was very happy to see that a lot of employees are really committed also to this Success of all of our new hires, which I forgot to mention, we also do on a monthly basis, our town halls, we introduce all of our new hires to the entire company, we also send out a mass email, with their background. So we do a lot to really try to embed the new hire in our company in our culture, and have other employees really take accountability for that. So we had a few volunteers. And what I really tried to do is look at employees who really embody our business principles that really embody our culture, and really represent who we are as a company and share that DNA. So once I have a list of those buddies, what I do is when I have a new hire, the goal is to not only obviously pair them with somebody who can really, really help them acclimate to the company, but also foster cross functional relationships. So the idea is really to pair people up with buddies in departments that they normally would not work with, or normally would not have any sort of, you know, interaction with. So I have someone, let's say, on my Regulatory Affairs team, and that and their buddy is somebody in procurement or somebody in the account, accounting finance team. So it's really a way to also foster there, those cross functional relationships.
It's great. There's a gentleman who's on my other show, his name is Dr. Michael Soto, and he's the founder of a company called Spark, I think it's called. And he does, these coffee connections. And it's fantastic. It's just you don't have a necessarily a formal buddy. But you're connected through some random algorithm, let's say 100. People put their names into this system, you get whether it's weekly, or bi weekly, or whatever cadence you set up, and that it spits out, you'll get an email and someone else will get an email that you are going to be agreeing your terms, buddies for the day, and that you'll meet and have coffee and get to know each other and familiarize and socialize with the different departments and just each other for that same age to kind of build the camaraderie, get a different perspective on the company learning and just making another connection, because lots of good things will come from that.
Absolutely.
Yeah. So I like that. What it's I mean, man, it sounds like what you guys are doing is really, you know, just supporting your people taking it to another level, which I think is great. And I'm sure that those that are working there when you do those surveys, which I'm sure if you haven't you will be doing. I'm sure you're getting some pretty good feedback.
Our human capital is our biggest asset. So to the extent that we can retain our top talent and recruit top talent, that's always been our number one priority.
Excellent. So what are you doing? You've got to be something that's really hot. And with all the other CHROs that I've been in communication with one of the biggest issues that they're dealing with right now, is burnout, corporate burnout, I don't know if that's something that you guys have run into yet, or if it's something that you're thinking about, but if not, definitely you want to make sure that's on your Horizon.
Yet, I've heard co workers of mine talk about it, you know, listen, it's, we're at a time where we're all home, it's very easy to sit at your computer for hours on end and not even know what time it is, it's not like we can head off to the gym or head off for dinner plans. So it's very easy to get caught up in your work. So we have talked about it. And I think what's important is letting everyone know that just because we're we're going through a time now where we're all working from home doesn't mean that you're still not entitled to your time off, it doesn't mean you're still not entitled to your vacation time. But something that we do at Axovant. So we actually have a flexible time off policy, or in other words, we don't have a vacation policy. So we don't track time off. Employees can really take as much time as they need to recover, to spend time with their family, etc. As long as your work is being done. So the idea is it doesn't matter. When where, what, why, as long as you're getting your work done. And again, this kind of goes back to making sure you're recruiting the right talent. And we really want people to feel that they have that autonomy to really feel empowered, feel like they are the CEOs of their own career, so to speak. So with that said, we tell people we understand we have employees who you know who both parents are now working from home while they're dealing with homeschooling their children. And there are times when you're on the phone, and there's a kid that walks up behind an employee and starts starts asking for something or crying and you have to be flexible, you have to be understanding. And then if you need to take an hour off to deal with childcare or simply take time off to walk away from your computer or go for a run. That's okay. But something that we do is you know, every time our CEO takes vacation, we have an email the entire company, to notify them that he's going to be on vacation and that he normally comes back from vacation. And during our next town hall talks about his vacation. And this gives employees the idea that it's okay to take vacation time. In fact, our CEO took off about a week at the end of May around Memorial Day weekend. And he let everybody know that he's going to be taking some family time. So again, it's top down. Having the employees see that members of the executive management team are still taking time off. And it's okay. I think allows employees to feel more comfortable saying to their manager, I've really been working a lot this week, I really just need a day or two off next week. And that's okay.
That's awesome. And that's what I mean, you want to talk about leading by example, making feel people feel comfortable to be able to do something like that? Yeah, I mean, you're really creating some serious psychological safety. And I'm gonna bet some major loyalty. I hope so. Oh, my God. So what's been the best skill set that you've acquired? that's helped to lead to your success?
That's a good question. actually never really thought about this.
I know you've got a lot of them.
Yeah, I think for me, it's really being it's being able to relate to all kinds of people across all different spectrums. And like I said, I've worked across different industries, where you're dealing in financial services with guys on the trading floor, to you know, FinTech or you're dealing with software developers. So really being able to find common ground with anyone, and really be able to relate to people. And I find that that's helped. Throughout the recruitment process, it's helped throughout the employee lifecycle process, it's helped throughout navigating difficult employee relations issues. So really being able to find some common ground with anyone, I think that's really probably the been the skill set that's really helped me most of my career.
I'm a fan of that. I'm sure. Given what you do. Is that something that someone imparted to you? Or is that something that you just realized the how Paramount that would be to your success,
I think it definitely started at home, I would say growing up, I was exposed to all sorts of people, when even though I grew up, like I mentioned, and I Jewish orthodox home, I went to public school, for high school, I went off to college, I played sports in college. So I think for me, I've been able to relate to people on so many different levels, whether that was through sports, or through academics, or whatever it was, I was able to really find common ground with anyone. And that honestly, truly, I mean, that's really a testament to my parents and their upbringing. But I don't think it was till later on in my career, where I really realized how important that is, as an HR leader, in helping lead an organization really helping deal with employee issues and employee relations. It's really Paramount when once you find common ground with someone, and you have that credibility, I think that's really crucial to building long lasting relationships.
It completely agree. And I can't stress enough the importance of having those relationships and what they can do for you, whether it's influence, whether it's just feeling good health, mental health, physical health, they all come as a result of that connectivity. So it's really good to hear that, again, that you're conscious of that, and that you make a conscious effort to do that. So kudos, thank you. You're welcome outside of your family, who's had the biggest impact on your career?
Yes, I've been fortunate to have so many great people in my professional career who have mentored me that have guided me, your self included, so thank you for that.
Thank you.
But I think ultimately, if I have to really think that I want to say it was the CFO of the FinTech company that I worked for, earlier in my career, I was at a time when I was really, in that HR generalist role kind of on the cusp of going up the ladder and really getting promoted into higher HR roles. And the CFO actually happened to be the CFO of a client of mine, when I was first starting out after school working for a PEO. And he randomly reached out to me about this role, and it was a head of HR role. And I did not think that I was prepared for that. And he truly believed in me, he completely took a chance on me. And I have to say that if I have to pinpoint one point in my career, where it really took off, I really have to go back to that moment, when I saw I'm very fortunate for people that have taken a chance on me and allowed me to really grow within certain roles that I've taken on and my CEO included, I'd worked with my CEO as well in a prior company. And he brought me on as the head of HR of this company, and has always looked for ways for me to even continue to develop as an HR professional. So I'm really thankful for all those people in my career and they're all people that I've been able to reach out to constantly for advice or just to act as a sounding board for me when I needed it. So yeah,
I gotta tell you, I think it's gonna be Come back to what you did. And that was and it was what you even acknowledged and pointed out before was that connectivity, when you're able to connect with people, you build the relationships and relationships, the holy grail of the relationship is building trust. So people know they'll meet you, if they like you, they'll spend some time with you. But if they trust you, that's where the magic happens, that's where they're gonna, they'll buy from you, that's where they'll help you raise money, that's where they'll that's where that influence comes in. And again, that trust that brought that when you built those relationships with them, and that's why they trusted you, with putting you at the helm of their organizations. So again, I know you're trying to give them some credit. And yeah, I give them credit for making the good decision. But at the same time, it really it came back to your ability to build that trust. So I've got two questions for you before I go, cuz I know we're running a little tight on time here, you're ready. So I'm ready. I'm a big fan of quotes, as I'd love to know what this quote means to you ready? We are the sum of all of our choices.
Yeah, that's great. throughout our lives, we're constantly making choices. Every day, we're making choices that I think can affect our futures. And like I said, if I have to look back at one point in my career, had I not made that decision to really take a chance and jump into a position that I felt maybe I was not qualified for, or I felt that maybe I wasn't prepared for if I didn't take that chance. And if that CFO didn't take a chance on me, things would have turned out very differently. So I think when you look back in your lives, it's a culmination of all of the choices that you've made throughout your life.
I agree. Ironically enough, I was listening to a podcast yesterday, and a guy who was on he summed it up perfect. He said, life is the C between the B and the D. B is your birth, the D is your death, and the C are all the choices that you make in between. That's what he was referencing. So I thought that was awesome. I love that. So so great answer. All right. My last question is what question would you have asked you, if you were the host? What have I missed? I mean, obviously, we were talking for hours. But if there's one thing that if you were going to if you were sitting on this side of the mic, that you'd want to know.
That's a good question. Well, I mean, I guess for starters, maybe good to know, to let people know, a little bit about my background and how I got to the company where I'm currently, yeah, not HR.
Yeah, please.
So in terms of my background, as I studied industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University,
so you knew you knew early that this was a field that you wanted to go into?
So actually, no. So again, speaking about choices my entire life, I was planning on becoming a lawyer. And that started from a very young age. Funnily enough, I used to always read articles about Sandra Day O'Connor, and I thought it would be this big supreme court justice. So when it came time to apply to universities, it just made sense. The ILR program at Cornell made sense to really help me in that path to law school and beyond. So I started like any other student, mylar, taking all of my prerequisites, doing every summer internship at a labor and employment law firm. And then at one point, in college, I spent a semester working for the National Labor court, in Israel and Jerusalem. And I really realized at that point, that while maybe it was something I was good at, it's not something I really enjoy. That's something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life and truly being happy. And I remember that day, I wrote home and told my parents that. And then at that point, it made me reflect a lot about what I wanted to do. I did reach out to some professors that I was close with at Cornell. And I started really thinking about a career in HR. So at that point, you know, I'd accepted a job after school working for a PEO, which is a professional employer organization. And I also thought for maybe I'll do this for a year, maybe two. And at that point, I'll apply to law school and go to law school. After doing that, for a year, I really, I really came to the realization that this was my calling. And this is something I love to do. And from there, I stayed there a few years and then from there, I went to work for Morgan Stanley, doing HR for their sales and trading desk. And then from there wanting to FinTech in my was working for my FinTech company for five years, at least, we had gone through several acquisitions that I was involved with. And then at, towards the end of that time period, we were acquired as a company and overnight, we were basically we turned from a three 400 person company into a 1000 plus person. company, when I realized that I really enjoyed working in smaller companies really kind of having my hands in everything and getting my hands dirty, rolling up my sleeves. So I, that's when I started looking. And Funny enough, this biotech company came on my radar recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn. And the recruiter looked at my resume and said, well, but you have no industry experience. I don't think you have a shot here. So I said, You know what, just for that, send my resume over. I'd like to hear that from them. And so they ended up calling me for in for an interview. And what I really loved about it was aside for really, feeling connected to the mission, was that everyone, it was okay that I didn't they actually welcomed that diversity. They welcome the fact that I didn't have industry experience, although I had obviously HR experience. So I ran the company. And that's when everyone was great. I really, my first few months really sat working with all the different teams learning about all the different functions in a biotech company. I was there for a few years, when my CEO currently now my company was appointed, he actually transferred from the parent company, which we were both working for two, the company now that we work for, and he became the CEO and I kind of followed suit and transferred to accident, which is the subsidiary company of the company that I did initially. work for.
Wow, what a ride. Anyways, this has been great. It's awesome to have you on the show. It's great to share your story, your insights, I really appreciate you also, there's some really good takeaways on what you guys are doing. I love the buddy system. I like how you guys are ahead of the curve on things, the importance of restarting, like you said, all the organizations the best ones are the it's all about the people. So it's really interesting to hear a company that really is actually committed to the people. So kudos to you. Kudos to accident. And thank you so much for making it today.
Thank you so much, Adam. I appreciate it. It was a pleasure.