In this first episode of The EX Conversation, Kaz sits down with Jenny Shiers, Chief People Officer at Unily, to explore what modern employee experience really looks like when you’re responsible for it at the highest level, and why employee experience transformation is becoming a business priority, not just a people initiative.
Jenny shares her career journey from employment lawyer to HR leader, including her pivotal move into a senior HR role at Salesforce before becoming Unily’s first Chief People Officer. The conversation focuses on alignment, enablement, and the practical realities of driving engagement, improving employee productivity and reducing workplace friction in a fast-moving tech business.
If you’re navigating shifting business priorities, struggling to connect EX initiatives to commercial outcomes, or trying to make learning and enablement land in a meaningful way, this episode will resonate. It’s an honest look at what works, what’s still evolving, and where EX leaders can focus their energy for real impact.
🎧 Enjoy the episode and thanks for listening.
Episode timeline
00:00 – 03:21 | From employment lawyer to Chief People Officer
Jenny shares her early career in employment law and the pivotal move into HR at Salesforce before joining Unily as its first CPO.
03:21 – 05:01 | Seeing the commercial impact of employee experience
Why engagement isn’t about perks, and how strong culture connects directly to productivity, customer outcomes and business performance.
05:01 – 06:43 | Delivering EX inside an EX technology company
What it’s like leading people and experience in an organization where expectations around engagement and alignment are high.
06:43 – 08:15 | The opportunity for EX leaders: business fluency
Why HR, Comms, and Digital Workplace leaders need to speak the language of revenue, risk, and growth to stay relevant.
08:15 – 10:37 | Driving alignment through Unily’s “Compass” process
How cascading clear objectives from CEO to individual contributor creates line of sight and strengthens engagement.
10:37 – 12:40 | Using transparency to enable cross-functional collaboration
How shared goals help teams identify overlap, reduce blockers, and improve execution across the business.
12:40 – 15:29 | Enablement in a fast-moving tech landscape
Meeting employees where they are - especially with AI in the digital workplace - and balancing structured training with flexible, self-directed learning.
15:29 – 17:21 | Bringing learning together under one strategy
Why consolidating enablement across functions improves efficiency, consistency, and impact.
17:46 – 20:52 | Leadership instincts, hybrid working, and decision-making
Quick-fire reflections on data vs. instinct, office vs. remote, and what changes as you become more senior.
20:52 – 22:57 | Career advice: pause before you press send
The importance of perspective, giving others grace, and avoiding reactive decisions.
23:10 – 25:16 | EX Room 101: Rethinking employee surveys
The limitations of traditional engagement surveys - and why acting on insight matters more than chasing percentage increases.
About The EX Conversation
The EX Conversation is a podcast series from Unily that brings together employee experience, internal communications, and digital workplace leaders from across industries. Talking about the present and future of employee experience and the evolution of digital workplace.
Each episode features an open, practical conversation with people on the frontlines of EX: sharing what’s working, what’s hard, and how they’re navigating complexity in real time. No hype. No scripts. Just honest perspectives and hard-won insight to help EX leaders learn from each other and move the workplace forward.