HR Confessions Podcast: Building Trust, Boosting Engagement, and Creating a High-Performance Culture

Guest: Gianna Scorsone, Co-Founder & COO of Champion
Host: Kristy McCann Flynn, CEO & Co-Founder of SkillCycle

The episode dives deep into leadership, employee engagement, trust-building, communication, and hiring the right people — all based on Gianna’s real-world experience scaling teams at BlueWolf, Aircall, and now her own startup, Champion.

Introductions & Backgrounds

(00:00:07 – 00:04:28)

Kristy: Hello everyone! Welcome to another episode of HR Confessions. I’m Kristy McCann Flynn, CEO of SkillCycle – an all-in-one HR ecosystem that ties performance, engagement, goal-setting, coaching, mentoring, and learning together into one continuous feedback loop. Today I have the amazing Gianna Scorsone with me. Gianna, how are you?

Gianna: I’m doing great – even though it’s a Monday, I’m feeling as perky as can be!

Kristy: Tell everyone a bit about yourself and what you’re up to now.

Gianna: I’m a native New Yorker (still call Manhattan “New York” – the borough-hopper in me). I co-founded Champion, a customer-marketing platform that helps companies turn their champion users into advocates and revenue drivers. We just launched our beta with an awesome early-adopter cohort.

Career-wise: started in retail (the best leadership training ground – non-commissioned employees taught me intrinsic motivation), moved through cosmetics and handbags, landed in tech sales, and spent years at BlueWolf where I built sales ops, recruiting, HR ops, rev ops, and eventually became COO.

The Big Challenges Today

(00:04:28 – 00:05:24)

Kristy: We keep seeing the same issues everywhere: skills gaps, disengaged employees, unclear career paths, and trust breakdowns – especially with all the return-to-office tension. How have you built trust and inspired teams in the past?

Gianna’s Trust-Building Story at Aircall

(00:05:24 – 00:10:26)

Gianna: The example that jumps out is when I joined Aircall as Head of North America in the middle of the pandemic. The team felt second-class because it was a French company and all leadership was in France.

First thing I did was listen. I asked every direct report: “What are your expectations of me as a leader?” Then I scheduled 150 one-on-ones in my first quarter – I put the time on their calendars so they knew I truly valued them.

That became my permanent style: ask thoughtful questions and actually incorporate what you hear.

I look at manager–employee relationships like any healthy personal relationship – sometimes one side needs more, sometimes it flips, but over time the scale has to balance. Too many companies pretend to give but really just take. Real trust starts with understanding each person’s “why” and showing how company goals help them achieve their personal goals.

Driving Long-Term Engagement – The Engagement Survey Workshop Model

(00:18:39 – 00:21:26)

Kristy: Once trust is there, how do you keep engagement high?

Gianna: My teams always had the highest engagement scores because we fixed the “send a survey and nothing happens” problem.

Every quarter we took the top 3 things we were doing well (“lean-ins”) and the bottom 3 fixes. Then we ran cross-departmental two-hour workshops (facilitated by emerging leaders) to celebrate the lean-ins and create real action plans for the fixes. We reported progress every month on all-hands. People saw their feedback turn into visible change, trust and ownership skyrocketed.

EOS, Rocks, and Issues

(00:21:58 – 00:27:00)

Kristy: That reminds me exactly of the EOS framework (the book Traction by Gino Wickman). You separate Rocks (90-day goals) from Issues, surface the real blockers every week, and solve them together. It gives everyone ownership and keeps the company unblocked.

Gianna: I need to read that yesterday! As a first-time founder scaling from 8 people, I’m realizing I have to bring back some of these structured practices even at a tiny size.

Hiring the Right People – Values & Tactics

(00:28:16 – 00:31:05)

Kristy: Speaking of building teams – how do you hire?

Gianna: Rule number one that I say out loud in interviews: strict “No A**holes, No Ego” policy. Ego creates fear and kills productivity on both sides.

My favorite hiring tactic ever: gamified employee referral contests with a point system (points for submissions, interviews, hires). One quarter we went from 5 hires to 40 hires – all from enthusiastic employees evangelizing the culture.

Kristy: That’s another engagement win disguised as recruiting!

Closing Thoughts

(00:32:49 – end)

Gianna: Inspire and empower – that’s the culture you want so people ideate and grow the business instead of just collecting a paycheck.

Kristy: I’ll add the third piece: enable. Give people the data, feedback, and learning they need to actually succeed.

Gianna: And acknowledge them when they drive real impact – in the way they want to be acknowledged.

Kristy: Gianna, this has been incredible. Next time I’m in New York (or Florida – smart move on the sun!), we’re grabbing coffee.

Gianna: Deal! Thank you for having me.

Kristy: To everyone listening – try even one of these tactics today. And if you need the tools to make continuous feedback and development actually stick, come check us out at SkillCycle.