Mckenzie:
Hi, folks! I'm McKenzie VanMeerhaeghe, and this is Water You Talking About, a podcast brought to you by WaterOne, where we talk about the ins and outs of all things water. Today we are taking an inside look into life at WaterOne. We are discussing WaterOne's company culture and how we give back to the community. We will also be hearing from several WaterOne employees about what working at WaterOne means to them. So grab your favorite drink, preferably water, and let's dive into it. Today's special guest is John LeRoy, who is a talent acquisition and development manager here at WaterOne. John is an integral part to our team at WaterOne, and I am so excited to have him on the podcast today. John, thank you for joining us.
John:
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here for the season finale.
Mckenzie:
Yes, it's our season finale! Today's episode is going to be such a fun one. I always love getting to talk about life at WaterOne and all of the amazing things that we get to do on a daily basis. Before we dive in, let's learn a little bit more about you, John. How long have you been at WaterOne?
John:
Yes, I've been at WaterOne in a full time role for about ten and a half years, but I also worked here as an intern a really long time ago in our grounds maintenance department.
Mckenzie:
That is so awesome. I know I'm going to talk a little bit about interns later in the episode, but it is always just so cool to see an intern move on and grab a full position here at WaterOne. It's such a cool transition to get to see.
Mckenzie:
Yeah, I'm proud to be a part of that group. Can you tell me a little bit about your background?
John:
Sure. I was born and raised in Kansas City, and I've been a WaterOne customer from day one. I'm a graduate of KU and Avila University, where I studied psychology and organizational development. As I mentioned, I interned at WaterOne while I was an undergraduate school, and then a few years after graduation, I joined WaterOne and a full time capacity in the HR department, where I've had my hand and a little bit of everything from recruiting, training, and engagement to name a few. On a personal side, I've got a wife and three awesome daughters who are six, four, and nine months old and they keep me young while also making me feel very old at times. And a couple other things: I love Kansas City sports and music.
Mckenzie:
Oh, that's so awesome to hear. What might a typical day for you at WaterOne look like?
John:
Yes. I don't know that there's really such a thing as a typical day. I think a lot of people can relate to that. I love variety, and I'm lucky to have my hand in a lot of different projects and tasks that influence the employee experience at WaterOne. So my team and I support, new employees during the orientation onboarding process. I facilitate a fun program called H2O, which stands for Helping to Onboard, and that's for newer employees to give feedback on their experience on WaterOne and learn more about the organization. I've got a couple of those sessions coming up here in the next few weeks that I'm preparing for. I also get the opportunity to help employees learn and grow and develop professionally. That comes in the form of training opportunities, whether it's through LMS or one of our curated programs, or helping someone enroll in school to pursue a degree program. And we have more and more employees over the last few years participating in our education assistance program, which is fantastic. From my perspective, it's really rewarding to be a part of that learning journey and see people grow and develop. And I'm proud of what many of our employees have achieved. Aside from those things, I have the privilege to lead the Engagement Task Force, which is a cross divisional group of employees who review feedback from engagement surveys and focus groups and develop proposals for improvement, improving the employee experience. I'm excited to continue leading that group and seeing the great things they come up with.
Mckenzie:
What do you love most about your work?
John:
To put it simply, I love that I get to help people and have an opportunity to positively impact them in some way.
Mckenzie:
That's amazing. And why are you so passionate about what you do?
John:
I'm passionate for much the same reason as what I love about my work. I feel best about myself and what I do when I know that I've helped someone or had a positive impact on them, and that has manifested itself in the many things I've had the opportunity to work on over the years. Organizations are great because of the people and WaterOne has really good people, so it's easy to be passionate.
Mckenzie:
It absolutely is. What about WaterOne drew you to work here?
John:
I'd say what initially drew me to WaterOne was an exciting opportunity to work in HR at an organization I was familiar with and liked why I've stayed at WaterOne is the people that work here, or that I've met along the way, and their commitment to each other and our customers in the community. In my role, I don't have a direct impact on the product and the customers we serve, but I take pride in the indirect ways in which me and my team contribute to being the best water utility in the history of the world. As long as we continue to hire the best people and ensure they have the training, they need to be successful, and we maintain an environment where they know they can come to work and be themselves and feel supported. Then we will continue to be an organization that draws a lot of awesome people to come work here.
Mckenzie:
I agree, it is such a great place to work and it has so many opportunities for so many different people. It's wonderful to see all of the different people that WaterOne attracts, Definitely, and we put a lot of effort into making WaterOne, not only a safe space to work, but also a fun one. With that being said, let's talk a little bit about our company culture. How would you describe our company culture?
John:
So I've gotten this question a lot. And the answer I usually give is, I would say our culture is grounded in a strong sense of family. We pride ourselves on being inclusive and fostering an environment where everyone feels valued and has a sense of belonging. Initiatives like the Engagement Task Force and the Culture Champions, which I think we'll talk about later. Ensure that our culture remains people centered, with a focus on employee engagement and continuous improvement, and having a positive impact on the community we serve.
Mckenzie:
What benefits and perks does WaterOne offer to its employees?
John:
So we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes not only competitive health and retirement plans, but also perks that support work life balance and professional growth. we also have a great employee recognition program, which includes things like Wow and On the Spot Awards that acknowledges the hard work and dedication of our employees.
Mckenzie:
Yes, our Wow and on the spot awards are amazing. They are just little internal awards where if you are working with someone on a project and you feel like they went above and beyond, or you want to recognize someone for something, you can just pop by and give them that award. It's such a great addition to our company culture.
John:
I love seeing those on people's cubes and desk as well.
Mckenzie:
How does WaterOne gather and act on employee feedback?
John:
Employee feedback is critically important for continuous improvement. We use various methods including employee engagement surveys, pulse surveys, focus groups, and groups like the engagement Task Force. The task force in particular, creates an opportunity for employees to provide continuous feedback about their experiences without having to wait for a formal engagement survey. To continue with the Engagement Task Force, It has created a new way for that feedback to be acted upon. Whether it's making changes to processes, improving internal communication, or launching a new initiative, or even explaining the why behind decisions. There are also things like Q&A with the GM and town halls that give employees opportunities to gather and act on feedback.
Mckenzie:
What makes WaterOne unique as an employer?
John:
WaterOne is unique because of our mission driven culture. We're not just another utility company. We are a team of people dedicated to providing clean, safe drinking water to our community. I think this sense of purpose unites us and drives everything we do. Beyond that, we offer a workplace where employees are empowered to grow and develop their careers while contributing to a critical public service. As I mentioned before, the family, like nature means that people truly care about one another in our shared success. And your team and HR does a lot to support employee development across different teams. Can you walk me through some of these different ways that you support employee development? For sure. Yeah, I agree. HR plays a pivotal role in helping employees grow by offering learning and development programs that meet specific needs for different teams. We have internal leadership development programs like the Aspiring Leader Academy, and also connect employees with local and national development programs as well. Our team views ourselves as an employee support service, and as such, we make ourselves available to work closely with employees and try to align training and professional development with business goals, whether that's through job specific training, leadership development, or a course on the LMS or something else.
Mckenzie:
Yeah, absolutely. Our DEI initiatives are such an important part of life here at WaterOne. For reference, DEI stands for diversity, equity and inclusion. It is, in essence, our commitment to ensuring that we attract and maintain a diverse workforce. That we are intentional and inclusive in the way we engage staff and customers, and that we frequently examine policies and procedures through the lens of diversity. And make meaningful changes when needed to ensure equity. We want our workforce to reflect the diverse community that we serve. With that being said, let's get into some questions about diversity, equity and inclusion. Diversity, equity and inclusion has become a focus for so many individuals, groups and employers as it should. I know you're involved is one of the leaders and facilitators in WaterOne's diversity initiatives. Can you share with us WaterOne’s journey with diversity, equity and inclusion? In recent years?
John:
Definitely. I would say around 2020, 2021, WaterOne took some big steps in terms of addressing what diversity, equity and inclusion means to us as an organization while simultaneously taking meaningful action to ensure that we have a culture that fosters a sense of belonging. With that said, in the last few years, I feel like there's been a renewed focus on our culture, specifically with the you and I and what initially started as an awareness building activity through things like unconscious bias, civility and harassment, training has grown into a larger organized initiative which sparked the creation of our Culture Champions Group, formerly called the DEI Champions. We've seen workplaces across the globe place a lot of attention on what it means to be champions of diversity, equity and inclusion, and how the right attitudes and behaviors can be aligned with our organizational culture and values to create a sense of belonging at work. And ultimately, that is what the culture champions trying to accomplish.
Mckenzie:
And just so we're aligned on these important concepts, how are we thinking about and defining diversity, equity and inclusion when it comes to our culture at WaterOne? And what do those terms mean?
John:
Great question. When we hear about DEI in the news or media, it tends to be pretty narrowly focused. But we have a broader definition. The culture champions actually had an opportunity to share definitions for these terms during town hall meetings in 2023. So for consistency, I will share what we said back then. So diversity is the presence of differences within a given setting in the workplace. That can mean differences in race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, etc. it can also refer to differences in physical ability, veteran status, or whether or not you have kids. Neurodiversity. All of those are components of diversity, and it's important to remember that not all types of diversity can be seen with our eyes. Equity does not mean equal. It's the process of ensuring that practices and programs in the workplace are unbiased, fair, and provide equal possible outcomes for every individual. Inclusion is the practice of ensuring that people feel a sense of belonging in the workplace. This means that every employee feels comfortable and supported by the organization when it comes to being their authentic selves. Combining these three elements, DEI creates a workplace culture that recognizes the value of diversity and emphasizes inclusivity and employee wellbeing as core parts of our success.
Mckenzie:
We have mentioned Culture Champions a couple times in this episode. Can you expand on that group? Who is involved? What is the purpose? What are our goals for impacting and supporting WaterOne's culture? And what does it mean to you to be a culture champion?
John:
Yeah. So the culture champions as a committee of employees with a wide range of experiences and perspectives. We currently have nine employees participating and we have just entered our fourth year of existence at a high level. The group aspires to educate and engage all WaterOne employees through living out our five organizational values. An effort to foster a culture that champions diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. To do that, we've organized into three subcommittees that focus on internal engagement, community outreach, and policy and guidance in terms of what it means to be a culture champion. I would say it means actively promoting and embodying the WaterOne values, mission and culture. Culture champions set a positive example through their actions, inclusivity and engagement, and help maintain a supportive environment where employees feel a sense of belonging. Tell me about a few of the things culture champions have achieved so far, or maybe working on right now that have been most impactful, or that you're most proud of. So, as I just mentioned, in the beginning of 2024, we organized into three subcommittees that focus on internal engagement, community outreach, and policy and guidance. Each of these subcommittees has its own leader who helps organize and facilitate the targeted work of the subcommittee. It may not seem like much, but implementing the structure has allowed us to become more organized, efficient, and have a greater impact. A few other things to note. The Internal Engagement Subcommittee coordinated our first diversity calendar, which allows us to have visibility into the many different events our employees celebrate. We also did an internal Juneteenth event, which included watching an awesome and educational history video, which was followed by an optional survey question where employers were able to tell us about what they learned in the video, which is really cool. And the best part about that was we gave away an awesome prize to a random employee who participated. There will be a similar event to this on Veteran's Day, so keep your eyes peeled for a new video and follow up question to be entered into a raffle for an awesome prize! On the community engagement side. We participated and showed our support at a Juneteenth event at Prairie Fire in Overland Park. We served our award winning water, chatted with the community, and gave away some awesome swag. And the last thing I'll say that I'm really excited about is our review of the Personnel Policy Manual. The champions had an opportunity to review our policy manual throughout the islands, and made suggested edits to the senior staff. This review generated some great discussions that I know are meaningful to the champions, and hopefully our suggestions will be recognized and appreciated by our employees.
Mckenzie:
Another thing that we have at WaterOne that I love is our variety of internships. It takes more than just a passion to provide fresh, reliable tap water to succeed here. That's why at WaterOne we're always looking for exceptional, motivated and service minded team members. Internships with WaterOne offer real world opportunities ranging from field services, information technology, marketing, audit, engineering, human resources, and more. Our interns help us with the relentless pursuit of our vision, which is setting the standard for utility excellence. Internships are open, competitive opportunities just like any other job opening at WaterOne. Internship opportunities are posted on our career portal at waterone.org/careers. This link will also be listed in our transcript and our bio. In addition to making a difference inside of WaterOne, we are also committed to making a difference outside. We place a great importance on giving back to our community. So how does WaterOne engage with and give back to the local community?
John:
WaterOne is committed to community engagement and giving back through initiatives like the WaterOne Cares program, as well as supporting numerous local community events like the Johnson County Home and Garden Show, tower 2 tower 5K, the Central Avenue Betterment Association, and I mentioned the Community Juneteenth celebration earlier this year. There are so many other ways we support and give back, but those are just a few that come to mind. And I'll say, I think it's pretty cool how involved we are in the community and that we have employee volunteers who commit their time to representing WaterOne. I feel like our visibility and level of involvement in the community is representative of our values and reflects our commitment to the people we serve.
Mckenzie:
I agree completely, it's such a great opportunity for us to be able to be involved in the community, and I love that we actively do so and go out into the community that we serve. Can you discuss any sustainability or environmental initiatives that WaterOne is involved in?
John:
Well, it's by no means an area of expertise for me, but I can speak broadly to our sustainability efforts. I know sustainability is something that the organization values very much, and we are continually looking for ways to improve our environmental footprint from things like upgrading our infrastructure to reducing energy consumption, to implementing cutting edge water treatment processes like ozone. We take environmental stewardship seriously. we have taken what is called a triple bottom line approach to sustainability, where we balance the economic, social and environmental efforts. That includes things like the ozone treatment, advanced metering infrastructure, AMI, as well as considering the human component of sustainability. I literally just saw that we were honored with the Sustainable Water Utility Management Award by the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies And that's awesome. And again, I think that is representative of us living out our values and our commitment to the community.
Mckenzie:
Absolutely. How does WaterOne's mission of providing clean, safe drinking water influence our company culture?
John:
I would say our mission drives everything we do. Providing clean, safe drinking water to our community is more than just a job. It's a responsibility we all take seriously. The mission itself promotes a sense of pride and purpose among employees, knowing that their work contributes directly to the health and well-being of our community. It also shapes our culture by creating a shared commitment to excellence, teamwork. Continuous improvement. Everyone I've talked to here understands the role they play in fulfilling our mission, and that sense of purpose makes our organization stronger and more united. And as I mentioned before, not everyone has a role that has an obvious direct impact on our mission, but so many of us understand and embrace the indirect behind the scenes impact we have, which I think speaks to how impactful the work we do is.
Mckenzie:
Today we have a special segment. We asked our culture champions what their favorite part of life at WaterOne is. And here is what some of them had to say.
Ellen:
My favorite part of life. That little one is waking up every day knowing that I get to contribute a small part. Along with the wonderful people I work with to ensure that our community has the essential resource that is clean drinking water. Beyond that, WaterOne supports the Culture Champions work to help our fellow employees continuously improve and grow as people, to be more inclusive and accepting of each other.
Karen:
My favorite part of life at WaterOne has to be the opportunities that we get to participate in employee events. Things like Employee Day and Veteran's Day, breakfast and pancakes with Santa and the culture champions as well, which allows me the chance to get out into the community and meet people and tell them all about life at WaterOne and all of the wonderful jobs that we have here.
Rose:
I love WaterOne because I can make a difference. I have never worked at a place where so many employees have been here for 30 to 40 years. When I started here, my boss was amazing and it is hard to find a strong female leader in the IT industry.
Mckenzie:
Thank you so much. Ellen Parker, who is our Associate Attorney, Karen King, an HR Generalist. And Rose Sanders-Likes, who's a Project Manager, for your thoughtful answers to what you love most about life at Water One. Well, folks, that's our episode and this was our season finale! If you are interested in a career at WaterOne, visit waterone.org/careers to see what a career at WaterOne could look like for you. Thank you so much for tuning in today and we appreciate your support. And thank you, John, for being here today.
John:
Thank you for having me. That was a lot of fun and hopefully I'll get to be back on here again soon.
Mckenzie:
Yes, absolutely! Well, this concludes our very first season of Water You Talking About? But don't worry, we will be back next year with a whole new season of insights into the water industry. Don't forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and on our social media channels. Please take a moment to share with your friends and family. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next time on Water You Talking About!
