Building a sense of community within an organization Maintaining an inclusive atmosphere is one of the biggest challenges for growing companies. Ciera Parks, the Head of People Operations & Culture at Vangst is an expert at building diverse organizations. She joins Karson Humiston to share techniques for companies to use to create an inclusive environment for their employees. Produced by PodConx Proud To Work In Cannabis - https://podconx.com/podcasts/proud-to-work-in-cannabis Karson Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/karson-humiston Vangst - https://vangst.com/ Ciera Parks - https://podconx.com/guests/ciera-parks
Building a sense of community within an organization
Maintaining an inclusive atmosphere is one of the biggest challenges for growing companies. Ciera Parks, the Head of People Operations & Culture at Vangst is an expert at building diverse organizations. She joins Karson Humiston to share techniques for companies to use to create an inclusive environment for their employees.
Proud To Work In Cannabis - https://podconx.com/podcasts/proud-to-work-in-cannabis
Karson Humiston - https://podconx.com/guests/karson-humiston
Vangst - https://vangst.com/
Ciera Parks - https://podconx.com/guests/ciera-parks
Ciera Parks: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm Sierra parks and I'm proud to work in cannabis because of all the great opportunities that provides in such a booming industry.
Karson Humiston: Hey everybody. And welcome to the proud to work in cannabis podcast. I'm your host Carson and the founder of . And today we have a very special episode. We have one of our own amazing leadership team members. I'm joined by Sierra parks. Sierra is our head of people and culture here at. Since Sierra has joined, we've added dozens of new hires.
We're on the road, adding hundreds of new hires and Sierra is leading this entire effort. Sierra has incredible background in people and culture and diversity and inclusion initiatives. So we're, I feel extremely grateful to have her and, we learn so much from her every day and we thought that our community could benefit from being able to learn and listen to all the knowledge that Sierra has to share.
So Sierra, thanks for joining me.
Ciera Parks: Absolutely excited to be here and chat with you.
Karson Humiston: Let's dive right in and see our, give us your [00:01:00] background and story. How did you decide to make the transition into the crazy cannabis industry?
Ciera Parks: Yeah. So, I was around right when cannabis was starting to come up on the west coast. Didn't think that I would ever cross into cannabis. Just didn't see how the paths would cross, especially in HR. Right. Because HR becomes almost like the regulatory body of the organization. So, had a background working in manufacturing.
And then non-profit work as well, all in the HR space. And then I had an opportunity to join a cannabis organization thought it was the absolute best move in my career, seeing how the industry was starting to grow and really start to spread across the country. And I did that loved the opportunity.
Absolutely loved the opportunities it was providing, saw, where it was going, saw the potential and then joining the bank shortly thereafter.
Karson Humiston: and Sierra talk to us a little bit about, since you've joined the cannabis industry, what's been surprising, what's been unique and different than other industries. You've been.
Ciera Parks: I would say the biggest difference for sure is that [00:02:00] in every other industry, there's some path forward, right? Someone has done something like this. There is a cloth already cut in. The cannabis industry is not that there are going to be so many things as an HR professional or anyone coming into the industry sees for the first time.
Once they hit cannabis. And there are just things that you couldn't imagine, situations or scenarios that didn't exist in other industries. And so that's what I would say is being ready to pivot at all times also because it's so heavily regulated state by state. And then just really understanding that as an HR person on this side of the table, you need to know how to pivot and where to find the updates in the law and the regulatory bodies.
Just across the.
Karson Humiston: Let's talk a little bit about companies going through gross. How would you recommend a young cannabis startup potentially just getting started just recently won a license. They're going to grow from zero employees to a hundred employees. What are the things that people from an HR and people and culture perspective need to be thinking of from day one?[00:03:00]
Ciera Parks: Yeah. So I've seen a lot of cannabis companies fumble the bag here. Right. And I would say maybe in the beginning, you don't think you need HR and that may be true, right? Maybe you have a PEO to do your payroll. Maybe your operations manager is doing time and attendance.
Maybe you don't need a full-time HR person, but I do think it's worthwhile for you to consult with an HR. Stand up how your organization's going to be structured from a people perspective. And so a lot of times, what I see in cannabis is it's some type of family business, right? We bring in, maybe my nephew, we bring in my cousin, we bring in my nephew's friend.
. And now what we've done is we've stacked the deck with all of these family dynamics in a business that's already hard to run and you've layered it in a way that makes it very difficult for you to make decisions when you need it. And so I would say the first thing you want to consider is making sure you understand who are the right people you need to hire.
And where are you getting those people from and what kind of skill set do you need them to have? That is the first thing you should start thinking about from a people ops [00:04:00] perspective. When you want to start a cannabis organization.
Karson Humiston: okay. And for people looking to manage the regulatory complexities in cannabis, and they don't have an HR. What are your recommendations for thinking through? All right. I figured out these are the skillsets I need. These are the kind of folks that I'm looking to bring in. How do I make sure that I'm compliant?
Because I just want a license and I don't know anything about cannabis employment regulations in Nevada, as an example.
Ciera Parks: I would say the first thing you need to do is reach out to your regulatory board in whichever state that you are operating in. Most times, those regulatory boards are more than willing to help you figure out what it is you need to do. Now. They may not have a very clean step-by-step one pager or a PDF that you could utilize, but they are more than willing to make sure that you're going in the right direction, because they too are invested in making sure that your license is put together.
And they know that your business can not get going. If you don't have the right people. And you're not able to hire [00:05:00] them compliantly with the legalities of their commission or their board.
Karson Humiston: so switching gears a little bit, one thing that's been great working with you on is all of the social equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives that you're so passionate about. Can you give the audience some context around the initiatives and what it is that you're working on and where you see the opportunities?
Ciera Parks: Absolutely. So I've been in DEI for probably. 11 years or so Carson. Right. So I was doing diversity when it was just diversity and then it went to diversity and inclusion and then it went to DEI de EIB. Right. And so I've seen quite a few iterations of , what it looks like to implement strategies around diversity in the workplace.
And one of the really unique opportunity that has happened is everyone now seems to be more interested in making sure that we are implementing things that make the workplace more. That make the workplace a truly comfortable place to be for everyone regardless of their background or their demographics.
And so cannabis is no [00:06:00] different. Now. Ironically cannabis has had its roots being old white men. And so when we start to think about how it is, we've ever supplied the industry, how to organizations diversify their workforce, and how is it that we pivot from a social equity standpoint, that is really where we start to lean in on some of these initiatives that happen both in the industry and in cannabis workshops.
Right. And so first off we look at the industry. I think everyone has a pretty good background of what social equity means, but I'll give you a little bit of a, a synopsis here, . It's essentially is how do we meet. All of those who were incarcerated or in some way, penalized by dealing with cannabis, have a fair shot at what has now become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States.
So that is the premise of social equity, right? Let us make this right for people who were penalized. So that. And then when we start looking at what organizations can do internally to make sure that they are in some way infusing diversity efforts or initiatives and social equity, it starts to look like data.
And That's the [00:07:00] first thing I tell people, right? Diversity can become very expensive. There are a lot of consultants. There are a lot of opportunities for you to reach out and talk to people who do this and consultant. A hundred percent. But if you are saying, we want to be on the forefront of this, there are things you can do that costs you nothing.
And it.
looks like who are you hiring? Where are you hiring from? Who are your pipeline sources? How are you making sure that you're increasing your diversity in their recruitment pipeline? It could also be things like just looking at who's already on the team. Do you have women in your office? Do you have multiple generations in the office?
And if you do, how are you making sure that all of those folks get to show up authentically when they come to work? And then how are you making sure that you include everyone to make sure that their voice is just as weighted in meetings and in conversations about what the business is doing?
Karson Humiston: that's an interesting point on the multi-generational component. I'll give you the example of banks. I started Bankston college. And so naturally was drawn to a bunch of other [00:08:00] college people. And before it, the business starts to grow up and the team starts to grow up.
And so you start bringing in moms and dads and people with all different kinds of lives outside of. And what is your recommendations for making that for making a company where the 23 year old, just out of school can come and bring her ideas, but also the mom who can't go out to every single happy hour because she has a family at home and she can't be going out to team bonding happy hours.
I think in speaking candidly, that's a real thread that we've had. Work through, as a business and you've been able to help us do it because so much in early day startups, a lot of things that go on are, are social and outside of the nine to five business hours, like I just described the happy hours with the customers, the retreats, right?
A lot of the social components, which frankly just aren't going to fit in for a working mom or dad schedules. But it's so much a part of startup culture. So how would you [00:09:00] advise other fast growing tech startups? Like what you've done with thanks to make it. So everyone's included in all these kinds of conversations.
Ciera Parks: Yeah, that's a good point. Right? So tech is really battling this, especially startups. and so one of the things that I like to tell people where I advise people to do when they're considering how it is, they bring in multi-generations and infuse them in the workplaces. Be honest with people in the recruitment. So, what the demographics of your organization look like. So hypothetically, if the average age of your organization is 25 and you know that perhaps you're interviewing with someone who doesn't quite fit that demographic, I think it's worthwhile to give them that insight so that everyone can say, I understand what I'm getting myself into.
And you also give them a realistic job preview. This is our culture. These are the types of things that we do. And so regardless of whether or not they think that they're going to be able to participate in every happy hour, they at least had the opportunity to decide if that was the workplace that they wanted or suited their needs.
And there will be some candidates that say, Hey, I just don't think I'm into an environment that is [00:10:00] that social right. And maybe that's not the right fit for them. But then I think there are other opportunities where people say, Hey, I'm at a point in my career where I want to coach. I want to train.
And I want to work with people who are coming up in the gen Z and millennial generations. And in that way, I know that this is a good fit for me.
Karson Humiston: and another point that I think is super interesting on the star. Scaling is in another thing that banks has gone through. As you start out with a company pre-seed round, then you have the seed round. You have the team at the C round, a B show on and so forth and different team members play critical parts of the business along different times.
And so I will tell you right now, our first hire Jordan Smith, who's still a great friend of mine. I, I don't know if she tunes into every podcast, but if you're listening, hi Jordan. Right. We, we both started in. Neither of us had really any experience. And we thought that we would both be there at the IPO bell ringing the bell.
Me as a CEO, Jordan, as a COO and time goes by and [00:11:00] suddenly you look around and you have 60 something employees and two people that have no experience scaling. And you realize you really need to bring in , in this scenario, potentially an operations person. Right. But then you have the early employees who joined and they had these dreams and ambitions and they thought that maybe they would be the CEO.
How do you handle going from the culture of everybody doing everything and thinking that they're going to be running the company for forever to a company where you're bringing in people with 20 years experience doing this one thing. And people go from being generalist to being in a lane specialists.
So how do you maintain that early day? Everyone does everything or in it to the finish line to, we really have to bring in. True professionals with experience in this lane and let them do their thing. And how do you handle that balance with early employees?
Ciera Parks: So the reality and startup is everyone who starts with you is not going to make it. And that is a harsh reality. And I [00:12:00] don't think people like to talk about that when they start the organization. And no one likes to think that far down the road, but that is the truth. Everyone's not going to make it. And I think what happens as the organization starts to grow in scale is we start to identify those early employees?
What is your true name? What are you really passionate about? What are you really good at? What do you really want to do? How do you want to make this startup environment, your true pivot in the career that you want to build? And that's one of the benefits of being in a startup. You get to dictate a lot of what happens in your career and you get to build it from scratch, with people who are saying I'm willing to work with you to get.
And so we really need to start to pivot people into places of passion so that they can continue to push the business forward because in startups, it's not always easy. Every day is not going to be a great day. And some days you have some stumble blocks, but people who are working in roles that they're passionate about continue to be passionate and continue to push forward.
So that's what I would say. We communicate openly with folks as things start to change and we really start to identify people's true strengths and [00:13:00] weaknesses, and we pivot them in that.
Karson Humiston: and this is such a unique podcast because so many of the things we're talking about apply to so many startup founders out there. Let's talk a little bit about. How to professionalize communication and, and chain of command, i, I I'm totally find it, give some insight into, at vanc story. We were a company where everyone would come to me , with every single thing.
Right. Which is scalable when you have 20 employees, but not when you have 100. And I know every other startup out there has the same kinds of challenges. So Sierra from a people and culture perspective, how do you keep the founder? Passion and the relationship with every single employee. How do you keep that alive?
We'll also having a system where not every single decision in the entire company is going through the founder. And, and how do you help founders navigate through that? Because I'm sure there's a lot of founders out there that are going through this.
Ciera Parks: So that is a really [00:14:00] big deal in startup. When you are at that ground level, you are the decision-maker coming through the door. But at some point, the day-to-day decisions become too many for one person to decide. So you hire the right people that you trust people with the right skill set into the right roles in the organization.
And then you really start to funnel up all types of decisions through those departments. That is the key to really being able to be sustainable and communication. Now, what I will tell you is every organization will say that their number one concern is communication. Every organization I'm talking about organization who have been around forever, right?
People at Amazon will say, we don't have enough communication. People at Google will say, we don't have enough compute communication, same thing at Metta, right? These are large organizations that are also struggling with saying, how do we tell the employees what they need to hear when they need to hear it?
And the reality is you're never going to get that. You're never going to get it right. But it is important that you say that I've given you enough information for you to make the decisions that are good for both your department, your [00:15:00] career, and your operational function here at the organization, wherever that might be.
And that's what really starts to matter. Right? We're telling people the information that drives the business forward, and we're making sure that the decisions that are made drive the business forward.
Karson Humiston: Switching gears a little bit to just thinking about the industry fast forward, five years from now, , what makes you most excited about being part of this industry and where this industry is going?
Ciera Parks: Yeah. So for me, Carson, it's truly because I love seeing how much groundbreaking gets to happen in where we are right now. There are things that we're creating today that will set the standard for what cannabis industry will be 10 years from now. And so that is such a cool thing to be a part of, to say the policies that.
Or the compliance pieces we put in place, or the partnerships that we build really do create change in the industry in a way that right now it's tough to say that we'll be able to do it. Any other industry golf forward in our lifetime.
Karson Humiston: And the last question [00:16:00] for you is for folks out there listening to this podcast, potentially wanting to break into the cannabis industry. , they want to break in, they don't know where to get started. Obviously, of course banks has a great resource, but what is the advice?
What do you wish you knew before you started your search into going into cannabis?
Ciera Parks: So the first thing I would tell everyone is you need to create a profile on Bankstown. Honestly, you need to create a
Karson Humiston: Shameless blood.
Ciera Parks: Shameless plug what you need to understand what kind of jobs are in the industry. So often when I talk to people wanting to get into cannabis, they tell me things like I don't have any experience growing, or I don't have any experience manufacturing, oils, or terpene.
That's not what we're asking you to do. I want everyone to understand that the cannabis industry is a fully fledged industry that has marketing roles, accounting roles, HR roles, right. This is a fully baked industry. And so if you have any skillset, there's probably a role that we can find for you in the cannabis industry.
And you need to consider what transferable skills you have to [00:17:00] be able to come into the industry and making that. So often people try to force themselves and I'm going to go figure out how to grow. Everyone. Doesn't need to be a grower, figure out what it is you do well, and let's find a role that fits what you already do.
Karson Humiston: couldn't agree more. There's so many great opportunities in cannabis regardless of the type of skills and background that you have. If you want to get into cannabis, learning about the kind of roles that are in the space, it's beginning to network and speak to other people that have those roles in the space is really what's going to , help you stay up.
So Sierra we're out of time. Because you and I have a meeting after this that's not part of the podcast, but Sarah, thank you so much for being here on our podcast today and excited to do a follow-up episode in a year and talk about all the things that we've learned from people operation standpoint, in scaling the business.
Ciera Parks: Perfect. Thanks so much for the invitation join banks.