The Importance of Culture at WEX

One of the things WEX President and CEO Melissa Smith is incredibly passionate about is the concept of culture and its impact on employees and the business. In fact, she believes a big part of our growth in the 12 years since going public can be attributed to company culture. Smith recently spoke on the topic at the Women in Payments Symposium and below are excerpts from that presentation that provide her perspective on the drivers behind WEX culture.

The Importance of Connectedness

Connectedness means to me that people feel they’re part of something. I hear this when I talk to our employees, it’s what distinguishes us as a company. Just as importantly, our customers feel a connection to the company, our products and our employees. I think there’s a cycle there – how you treat the employees and how you treat your customers. If you set up mechanisms for people to listen and to be heard, that translates into better performance.

We lose less than 3 percent of our customers each year, and I think a big part of that is this idea of being connected. For example, last year we won Chevron as a customer. When I talked to them about why, they said they felt like they were talking to themselves and negotiating with someone like them. They initially wanted a five-year relationship, and over time they moved to a 10-year relationship and eventually added on business outside the U.S. All of this this was largely due to these concepts of connectedness and culture.

As we get bigger, we have to think more about how we create that sense of connection in a highly decentralized organization. With 35 offices around the world, it’s important to me that people feel the same experiences. When I talk to our President’s Club winners every year, they discuss their experiences within the company in the same ways — whether they’re sitting in the U.S., Europe, or Asia and regardless of the line of business. It all goes back to that concept of feeling connected to the growth and success of the company.

Leaning Into Your Fears

Something I think is really important and that I think about a lot is leaning into your fears and not getting too comfortable on both a personal and professional level. An example from my personal life: I’ve been a runner most of my life. I started to get a little bored with it, so I signed up for a half iron man. I hired a trainer and the first day out in the pool, I could not swim one lap underwater. Two months later on race day, I’d never felt quite so proud of myself as I did when I got out of water after swimming 1.2 miles, ready to jump on my bike. I walked away with a sense of doing something I didn’t think I could do.

At WEX, we’ve sponsored an all-women’s triathlon for cancer research in Maine. One of the things I like about that connection are the emails I get from women who participate and say the exact same thing: ‘I didn’t think I could do this and I’m so proud of myself that I actually accomplished a goal that I didn’t think was possible.’

This idea of taking risks and trusting yourself is also true at a professional level. During a tough period of time when we were losing revenue due to low fuel prices, we divested some companies. But, we also went out and acquired a $1.5 billion company. From the middle of this storm, we pulled together the biggest acquisition we’ve ever done, and people pulled through in a way I can’t even describe. If you say we can, and you create focus and energy around something, it’s amazing what people will pull together to do.

Living Your Whole Life

Something that’s been really important to me is making sure people don’t have to pick between their whole life and their work life. To support this concept, some of the programs we’ve added at WEX are things like parental leave. It was important that we made a statement that we allow both men and women to take time off when they have children. We added two paid days off so all employees could take time for volunteering because we want to make sure we’re giving time and money in the communities where our people live and work. We also added a sabbatical program so people who’ve been at the company six years can take 20 days off and go experience the world. When I think about culture and the whole package we’re trying to create, it’s so people can vest in their whole self, and then bring their best self to work. That contributes to a positive experience that translates to our customers.

People follow much more of what you do than what you say, and I try as hard as I can to set an example for living my whole life,but that can be hard. For example, when I first took the job as CEO, I didn’t know that at the time I was pregnant. We ended up having to do that disclosure in a very big, public way because there was no precedent for this kind situation. Not a single investor talked to me about my pregnancy – I don’t think they knew what to say. So when I had my twins five months ago, it was a complete non-event from the investor side this time through, and I didn’t have to go through the public disclosure part of it.

Both of those cycles with my children have allowed me to create a much tighter connection with my employees and have made me feel much more human as I share my experiences with them publicly. This time around, I’ve gotten lots of twin stories, which have been so helpful, and how people balance their lives, their concern for me, and how I’m going to balance mine.

This idea of transparency, which I seek in every part of my life, is something that translates well into the marketplace, employee base and customer base. People want their leaders to be authentic and they want to share those experiences with you. To extent you can be real, and that you’re striving to be open and transparent, can be a big influencer in the culture of the company.

View Smith’s entire speech at the Women in Payments Symposium.