Rebuilding culture and community at Citrix

Key Wins

  • 11% improvement in eNPS score year over year

  • 15% improvement in employee engagement year over year

  • Formed and led cross-functional grassroots team of 15 people to effect change across the company

  • Led primary research with employees, identifying key actionable issues

  • Presented summary of findings and recommended next steps to senior leadership team

  • Built year-long program, including employee video shoot, development of interactive community website and employee photoshoot

“Our leaders need to walk their talk and start to include employees in the conversation.”

Citrix Employee

Massive Change Impacts Culture

Citrix was in the middle of a massive business shift from on-prem to cloud products. The organization was pivoting from discreet businesses to a more consolidated unified approach to engineering and product development. The yearly quant survey showed issues in three areas: employees’ trust in leadership, understanding and personal advocacy for company vision and leadership empowering employees and making them feel part of the change. A recent layoff heightened the churn and stoked employee concern.

Low Morale Undermines Company Goals

Employee morale and engagement were at an all time low. Significant distrust of senior leaders was at the forefront of employee concerns, especially following the layoff. This undermined the company’s ability to execute the business shift — at a time when an increase in trust, engagement and lift from the employees was required if the company were to successfully pivot the business.

“Our goal was to give employees an opportunity to make a real contribution in the company’s transformation.”

A Grassroots Movement

I led a motivated group of employees in creating ‘Project Unleash Citrix’ to tap into employees’ passion and desire to be part of the company’s transformation. Our goal was to inspire and motivate employees, reestablish trust in leadership, unify disparate programs into one umbrella program, reinforce desired behaviors and values, and create a fertile environment for innovation and change.

Radical Transparency is the Secret Sauce

We recommended using radical transparency to rebuild trust, give all employees the opportunity to make a real contribution and have a stake in the transformation, celebrate individual and team efforts— our bright spots—and use high fidelity storytelling to make our impact feel real. 

Fostering Trust in Leadership

On behalf of Project Unleash Citrix, I made recommendations to the senior leadership team that resulted in immediate action to build community. Additional steps were planned to build community through an interactive employee culture site, and an internal campaign of employee videos.