AllVoices benefits from valuable relationships with trusted advisors, each impactful in their field. We wanted to take a moment to introduce you to the diverse group of mission-driven people working on compelling problems who provide powerful insight into AllVoices’ growth. 

For the next interview in our Meet the Advisors Series, please meet Molly Schmidt, head of product at LOOM. 

What excites you most about AllVoices?

I was first introduced to the Founder/CEO, Claire Schmidt while she was at Twentieth Century Fox and when she left to start AllVoices I was immediately taken with her vision for how to solve a widespread issue that she had personally experienced. I believe heavily in founder/market fit and saw how Claire’s time spent working at startups, nonprofits, and with Fortune 500 companies had given her a unique perspective needed to build something that both employees and companies want and need. 

I also deeply appreciate the approach they are taking.  Selling a product into C-level management and Human Resources has long lead times and they’ve done a great job at finding innovative ways to solve immediate pain points while they run their employer sales cycle. Their tool for employees to report an incident or give feedback right away is a perfect example of this.  It’s obvious that they prioritize employee trust and they do a great job of reaffirming that over and over again across their product offering and free resources.

How have you seen the media conversation around employee reporting evolve over the past 3-5 years?

I left the entertainment world at the start of the #MeToo movement and it was incredible to see how a campaign like that gained so much momentum so quickly. Entertainment and media companies who had put off addressing these issues in a systemic way were forced to take a deeper look at their entire feedback and reporting process.  That doesn’t mean that all companies have adapted as quickly but the pressure is most certainly there.  And then last year after the murder of George Floyd we saw an avalanche of reporting on companies who were facing a racial reckoning after employees came forward to share their toxic (and in many cases truamatizing) workplace experiences.  It’s encouraging to see the media function as an outlet for these stories to drive change but it doesn’t solve the root issue - employees shouldn’t have to band together once the culture reaches a toxic breaking point for the company to change and that’s exactly why companies need AllVoices.

From your perspective, why would organizations use a tool like AllVoices?

Companies have historically not been great at giving employees a trusted way to report issues or share feedback, if they do at all. What I love about All Voices is that they solve this core issue by offering a platform where companies can start collecting and managing feedback right away but they also establish trust on both sides because of their approach to data and privacy. From an employee experience perspective this is crucial to attract and retain employees and having a way to source this information and manage it properly allows those companies to improve.  

Now that I’m working in startups where attracting talented people is extremely competitive, there’s nothing more important than creating a culture of trust and psychological safety. Great employees have many options and will leave if they don’t feel heard, respected and treated well and companies will see the effects of this by not prioritizing open lines of communication and feedback.