Green Tech Innovations and HR Strategies with Mojave Energy Systems Director of HR Susanne Kleveros - ep. 080

Join us in this episode recorded live at the Transform HR conference in Last Vegas! This time host Kaleem Clarkson and guest Susanne Kleveros share valuable insights around feedback in a remote work setting. Straight from Malmo, Sweden, and with over 12 years of experience in HR management, Susanne has an impressive background, including stints at renowned companies like KPMG, Walmart, Volvo, and Kohler. Currently, she serves as the founder of Don't Tell HR and the Director of HR at Mojave Energy Systems, a green tech HVAC manufacturer, where she spearheads initiatives to revolutionize the industry.

In this engaging conversation, the hyped pair explores the challenges and advantages of providing continuous feedback in remote and hybrid work environments. Susanne highlights the importance of equipping managers with the tools and support needed to foster natural, ongoing feedback conversations with their teams. She emphasizes the significance of tracking feedback and performance to ensure no one is caught off guard during performance reviews.

Susanne shares insights into Mojave Energy Systems' innovative work model, which encompasses onsite, remote, and hybrid arrangements. As a company dedicated to green technology, they're making strides in reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption with their revolutionary HVAC units.

Delving into the future of workplace flexibility, Susanne predicts a continued push for remote work options while recognizing the need for in-person collaboration in certain roles. She emphasizes the importance of supporting employees' well-being and providing flexibility to accommodate their needs.

And of course, we can't forget the fun bit—Susanne's unique experience as an identical twin! From sharing her experiences navigating twin dating scenarios to discussing the intriguing phenomenon of twin couples, Susanne shares some lighthearted anecdotes from her life.

Join us for this insightful and entertaining episode as we explore the evolving landscape of remote work and the human experiences that shape it. Don't miss out on Susanne's valuable perspectives and memorable stories.

Learn more about Susanne:

• Susanne’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanne-kleveros-914b7a71/
• Mojave Energy Systems: https://mojavehvac.com/

Transcript

Kaleem: 0:35

All right. So we are here. We're back at transform. I am so happy. We're in the tandem booth. Shout out to Mel and company for inviting us out here. We're in a tandem booth and we're talking about feedback in a remote setting. Of course. So let's talk a little bit about our guests today. Okay. So our guest is from Malmo, Sweden. They currently reside in the Bay area, right? All right. They have their bachelor's in HR management. Something most people do not know about our guests. I'm going to talk a little bit about this is that she has a twin. Yep. Identical twin. Okay. Don't let us forget about that part because that's going to be the fun part. All right. Let's see. Oh, she's been an HR professional for 12 years and got her start at just a little consulting company. Just a tiny one KPMG. Okay. Then went on to work at, A few other small companies you might not have heard of no big deal. You got Walmart, you got Volvo, you got Kohler, just all over the place. That's really great. I'm psyched. I'm psyched. What else do we have about our guests today? They are currently the founder of don't tell HR love the name by the way, don't tell. What She's also the current director of HR for Mojave Energy Systems, which is an HVAC manufacturer focused around green tech space. Green tech? HVAC? Interesting, we gotta talk about that. Listeners and viewers, please give a warm welcome to Susan!

Susanna: 2:18

Clever!

Kaleem: 2:22

Bam! We got

Susanna: 2:23

it, baby. We got it. That was good. I'm,

Kaleem: 2:26

wow. Yes. I try to give you a good intro. I try to give you a good intro. So, can you say it's great to be here and I want to hear your name in Swedish. So why don't you give us a quick little sentence with your name in Swedish. So what do we got? Ok,

Susanna: 2:41

so Mitt namn är Susann Cleverjós. Super tacksam på att vara här idag på Transform conference. And that was the worst Swedish English ever. That's awesome. And if you would have people from Stockholm, they'd be like

Kaleem: 2:58

But you know what, it's okay, because I'm going to go visit there someday. I'm going to go visit there. Again, we're here in the, in the Tandem booth. So the first question we're asking everybody here at Transform is, what are some of the challenges? Or maybe even some of the advantages of giving continuous or critical feedback in a remote work or hybrid setting. What are some of the advantages or challenges?

Susanna: 3:21

To split that up in two, to talk more about the challenges first of all, it's actually to get managers to be comfortable of doing that. A lot of times we give them the tools and the system But how are we giving them the support when they're in the conversations with the main like with their team? They need to start doing this. This is not something that should happen twice a year, three times a year. Like in every conversation, you should be like, Hey, what do you think you did really well there? What could you do better? How do we get them to have it naturally? But also can't like naturally feel like they can keep track of what was being said so they can come back to it as well. It's a two way street. It's on employees and it's on the managers to keep track of things. The positive things about that is again, you should never be surprised when you walk into a performance review. Right, right. You should know 90%, 99 percent where you're at. Because

Kaleem: 4:18

you're supposed to be having conversations. You all hear that? Yeah. No one should be walking in surprised. Have

Susanna: 4:23

conversations. And I can say that, I say, for instance, I, if I look at myself, I am not a meats person. I don't like being at meats. I want to be exceptional or exceeds all of that. Okay. Okay. I hold myself at high standards. Okay. I then want my manager to come to me before I end up in a meats bucket. Let's divert early. What am I doing? That's not Meeting the expectations. Mm.

Kaleem: 4:49

Did you say the meets bucket? Yeah. I love that. I thought you were like a bowl of meat. No, it's just no meats bucket. She's talking about meeting expectations. Isn't that right? I love that. I'm gonna use meats bucket from now on. That's really

Susanna: 5:01

cool. I like that. And I have to say it's absolute to be in meats. That's not a bad thing at all. Right? You want to improve. This is my ego. Mm-Hmm. My big ego. I want to be really, really good at what I do. Um, but meets. It's good. I'm not just going to clarify that very

Kaleem: 5:16

well. Okay. Okay. So basically what I hear is like, okay, well, you have to have continuous feedback and you have to be able to track it. Oh, what, what, what, what, what tandem, what tandem? Oh, that wasn't even on purpose. That wasn't even on purpose. So that's really interesting and it makes sense because when you're in a remote work setting. You're not necessarily seeing everyone every day. You might not have that real tight rapport that you may have and may not be able to see kind of that human interaction. So the more frequent you have it, it totally makes sense. It totally makes sense. Tell us a little bit about, don't tell HR, love the name. Kudos to you. What is that about? And how did you start it?

Susanna: 5:55

It's a consulting advisory firm I've been doing for a long time. 12 years now in and out a little bit. Don't tell HR comes from the fact that I've had managers being like, I don't want people to come to you. And if they come to you, you need to tell me immediately. We're

Kaleem: 6:10

not the police. We're

Susanna: 6:11

not the police. We're not,

Kaleem: 6:14

we're not the bad people.

Susanna: 6:15

Police. We're not here to spy on people. I am here to help you. I'm here to help the business.

Kaleem: 6:22

Don't tell HR. I love the name. That is great. That is great. So, you're also the director of HR, at Mojave Energy Systems. Tell me a little bit about the challenge that Mojave is doing. Like, what are you trying to solve? Green tech space? Tell me what you all do.

Susanna: 6:40

Trying to save the world. Save the world. The team has an amazing product that actually was launched beginning of this year. It's an HVAC, HVAC units, two different sizes right now. So

Kaleem: 6:55

for offices,

Susanna: 6:55

for commercial space? It's for commercial space. We're in the commercial space right now. It lowers carbon emission with 70%. It actually uses less energy. If I get the technology right now, my CEO might be really mad at me. But normal HVACs, they tend to, when you want it colder in a room, say you want 65, it might drop down to 60, and then it slowly heats up the room. Our product can, like, actually meet 65 faster. We won't do that, the big dip, and then go back up again. And we can also control humidity. So we can control both humidity and the temperature. And I see. Phil, if I said this wrong, I'm so sorry. I'm going to need to do another training.

Kaleem: 7:37

You're doing a good job in my opinion, Phil. Okay.

Susanna: 7:40

All right. But it takes less energy because we don't dip. It actually uses less energy. Yes. And then you save money with

Kaleem: 7:47

that. Okay. Very fascinating. So just, you're just saving the planet. We're doing our best. So what is Mojave's work model? Are you hybrid? Are you remote? Are you on site? How would you categorize? It's

Susanna: 8:00

very mixed. Given that we're manufacturing site, we have an onsite in South Carolina. Okay. Okay. We also have, our headquarters are in Sunnyvale where we have, uh, engineers, researchers, they're working the chem labs out in the workshops, working on products as well. And then we have some that are remote and some that are hybrid. So it's a very big mix.

Kaleem: 8:22

Wow. That's a big mix. How many employees roughly?

Susanna: 8:25

Currently it's 31 right now, growing to be about 60 end of this year or so. Lots of work.

Kaleem: 8:31

Lots of work as a director of HR coming. So in your opinion, what are some of the advantages of being a remote or hybrid company? Yeah. What are some of the

Susanna: 8:40

advantages? Cause you can meet people where they're at and meet and connect the way that you like to communicate. You might not like to have very much in person. Sit next to me. Let's talk about your feedback and your performance. You might actually prefer to have a bit of a screen that you can like, it's gives that little protection in between sometimes. And I think it's so important for managers to take a minute, have the conversations with the team. How would you prefer to get feedback? Does it feel threatening to have it in a room when it's just us two? Do you want to have a little bit of a space between so you can like, collect yourself, calm yourself down if there's something that's being difficult, things like

Kaleem: 9:24

that. Are the remote people only in the Northern California area? You're hiring people?

Susanna: 9:29

The remote folks we have right now are in a few different states. We have sales people that are remote as well. And yes, we are hiring.

Kaleem: 9:35

Oh, yeah.

Susanna: 9:38

It's an interesting space to hire in, for

Kaleem: 9:40

sure. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. So moving on to this fun stuff. Actually, right, right before the fun stuff. How do you envision this workplace flexibility thing heading in the future? I mean, you've been in a lot of different roles at a lot of major brands. You've seen how it was prior to 2020. Were you kind of seeing this heading now?

Susanna: 10:02

I hate to say this. I think lot of conversations, of course, is returned to the office. Yes. You have to understand too, that. And someone said it really well in a session earlier today is that the people that sits in this room and make the decisions they built the career in the office, they don't necessarily understand or see that you can build a career outside the office. I think for, if I look at Mojave we have positions that needs to be in office. We also need to have the flexibility for those positions that are not office necessities in that sense. But even for those that are in office, what if they have a really bad day or need like a little bit of a break? How can we support that then?

Kaleem: 10:43

Yeah. Yeah. We need flexibility. It's about support, isn't it? Support and flexibility. I feel like we have as a society. I mean, obviously, 2020 and post 2020 was horrific globally, but I do feel like we got a little bit more human and you were able to see the human side. You've seen CEOs with the cat jumping in the screen. You're seeing, you know, the home office. of a CEO that you may have never seen. So yeah, I do believe we are a little bit more considerate of the human. So focus on the person, the human experience. We're going to be okay.

Susanna: 11:15

That's where you get the productivity. Yeah. Human.

Kaleem: 11:19

So you are a twin. Yes. We're at the fun part where you are identical twin. Yes. What is up when identical twins go on dates? What is going on? I mean, have you ever, first off, have you ever been on a date with another set of identical twins?

Susanna: 11:40

Together? No. Have I dated another identical twin? Yes, that was weird. Let me tell you that.

Kaleem: 11:47

That is great. That

Susanna: 11:50

was pretty much the only common denominator we had in those two dates. And then I was like, I'm out.

Kaleem: 11:56

And what was the statistic that you told me earlier?

Susanna: 11:59

I've never seen so many twin couples that I've had in Sweden. There must be something in the water in the water must be something in the water. I think in school we had it was me and my sister and at least two other twin couples

Kaleem: 12:10

as well. Oh, that is hilarious. Awesome. Well, thank you. Suzanne. I'm trying. I'm, Hey, I'm coming to Sweden. So I got to learn how to, you know, speak some Swedish, but thank you so much for coming. I appreciate it. Come back anytime and, uh, we'll talk to you soon. Love it. Thank you so much.