NOW of work w/ Guusto Co-Founders Skai and Joe

HR on the Frontline

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Guusto Co-founders Skai and Joe, recently appeared on the NOW of work podcast, powered by Mercer.
It made for a great conversation and so we thought we would share it with you here.
"Please join us in welcoming Skai Dalziel and Joe Facciolo, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs of Guusto! Today's discussion will delve into Guusto's history of building a culture of recognition from the head office to the frontlines.

Old pals, Skai Dalziel and Joe Facciolo, go all the way back to 1988 when they grew up together in a small town just north of Toronto. They both attended the University of Western Ontario, where Joe studied Psychology and Sociology, while Skai studied Engineering and Business. After graduating, they both traveled the world for a few years before returning home in the midst of the global financial crisis.

In 2008, they kickstarted their first business venture, Dining Tours (think high-end food and wine crawls). Despite local success, they were unable to expand without strong relationships with restaurants in other cities. Around 2012, Skai and Joe noticed that restaurants would often receive calls from people requesting to send a drink to a friend for a celebration or to show appreciation to a client. However, the staff would often refuse to take credit cards over the phone. Aha! There should be an app for this!

From 2012 to 2017, the pal duo built Guusto from the ground up. They partnered with a clean drinking water foundation that fueled their motivation. They pitched the product of Guusto to the Dragon's Den but walked away without a deal. They were also the first to raise equity crowdfunding in Canada. Around that time, they started working with HR leaders to build more robust employee recognition tools. They focused all their energy on customers and solving their problems.

After receiving a 1-star review on Glassdoor in 2019, Guusto recognized the irony of selling employee recognition tools but not using them internally. After this epiphany, Guusto completely transformed their business. The secret ingredient? CULTURE! Culture is the ultimate advantage."

About HR on the Frontlines
How healthy is your company culture? Are you facing issues related to disengagement, retention, performance, or anything else?

HR on the Frontline is a bi-weekly show where Guusto speaks with HR experts about some of the biggest challenges that people leaders face in frontline workforces.

Through candid, honest conversations, we try to get to the heart of what causes cultural problems at companies today, and what you can do to fix them.
New episodes every 2 weeks.

Want more strategies to engage your team? Check out our free guide, Culture is the Ultimate Advantage: https://hubs.ly/Q01MMdVc0