Why ‘Safety Software Professional’ Might Actually Be a Dream Job

Three cross-functional leaders at SambaSafety discuss career tools within the organization.
Written by Eva Roethler
October 27, 2021Updated: October 27, 2021

If we’re honest, few if any children name “safety software professional” in their list of dream jobs. 

“Our business is to reduce auto crashes. That’s not exactly something that people grow up wanting to do for a living, but we save lives. That is pretty cool,” said Jay Triplett.

Triplett is the vice president of sales at SambaSafety, a company that provides cloud-based mobility risk management software solutions for commercial and non-commercial drivers. Though this work might not have glamorous appeal to starry-eyed children, working at SambaSafety holds plenty of appeal for professionals craving learning and development opportunities such as mentorship and management training.

“Since SambaSafety is a smaller company, there is opportunity everywhere; it’s yours for the taking,” said Director of Customer Success Reighlene Chino. 

When Chino first joined as a customer care representative she took advantage of every resource she could, including tuition reimbursement to offset the costs of obtaining a business degree. She also leapt at opportunities to meet with the executive leadership team, who would hold office hours when they came through town. She remembers when she met with the CEO, Allison Guidette, who shared an embarrassing story about sending an email to the wrong customer. Chino said that the CEO’s vulnerability and ability to relate to a customer care rep’s daily experiences helped her see past the big title to the human behind it. 

Humility in leadership was also something that Director of Learning and Development Zach Owens noticed right away when he joined the company. Coming from a consulting background, he was impressed that the company had a habit of promoting such coachable leaders and making an outsized commitment to staff development for an organization of its size. 

“It makes my job a hell of a lot easier when I’m working with people who want to eat what I’m cooking,” said Owens. During Owens’ tenure with SambaSafety, he’s helped craft several career tools to help employees level up. 

It makes my job a hell of a lot easier when I’m working with people who want to eat what I’m cooking.”
 

Pairing Up to Push Forward

How hard is it to launch a brand-new mentorship program? For Owens, it took an excruciating amount of deliberation.

“It was awful,” he said. He matched nearly 30 mentors with mentees, aiming to pair people cross-functionally by tenure and stage of life. But the hardest part was relational compatibility, tapping into his knowledge of participants to predict who might connect, almost like a horoscope. However, he knew that if he got it right it would be a powerful experience for participants. 

If you ask Triplett, the hard work was a resounding success. Beyond the pairing, there were well-thought-out tools such as a pre-meeting worksheet that helped pairs jump right into the hard work and bypass clunky preliminary conversations. 

“We got more completed in six weeks of this program than most companies probably do in a year rolling something like this out,” said Triplett. 

Chino agrees, adding that the mentorship program is her favorite among the development activities she’s been a part of. It was rewarding to watch her mentee inching toward a stretch goal and overcoming obstacles during every check-in. “Even if I’m not here down the road, I know that these lessons will stick with them,” she said. 

 

Owens’ opening dialogue questions for mentors:

  • Where would you like to focus?
  • What do you hope to walk away with?
  • On a scale from 1-10, how motivated are you to act based on what we discuss?
  • What do you want to change and why?
  • What will it look or feel like when you achieve your goal?

 

Managing Up and Down

Before they completed management training, Triplett and Chino had rarely interacted with each other. Throughout a cross-functional leadership workshop series, they ended up in the same Zoom break-out room to discuss how to give critical feedback to help others overcome challenges. 

Triplett was surprised when Chino, a fairly new manager at the time, gave him some great advice. “I went into these workshops thinking that I was probably going to share my experience to help other people grow, but Reighlene gave me advice that I was able to take and use the very next week,” said Triplett.

The training program facilitated knowledge sharing among the team and went beyond just teaching leadership skills. 

“I learned how to have better conversations with my direct reports, but I also learned to have better conversations with my manager. It not only made me a better leader but a better direct report,” said Chino. 

It was revelatory for Chino that, while she is a people leader, she is also still a direct report who must own her upward progress. She feels that the program gave her the tools to hold herself accountable to goals and help others do the same through continuing conversations. 

 

Careers on Camera

The SambaSafety Career Stories video series started on a whim once the team got tired of being remote during the pandemic. Owens is admittedly a terrible video editor, but that is part of the charm. “We saw how late-night shows did Zoom interviews and we thought it would be funny for me to have conversations with people about their career progression,” said Owens. What started as a whim turned into a project that has meant a lot to people whose stories have been told. “People are excited to be seen and acknowledged. I’ve gotten feedback that it’s inspiring to see that there is room for growth,” said Owens.

 

Improving Product Literacy

SambaSafety Certification is a program to help improve product literacy for every member of the SambaSafety organization. Triplett believes the training has helped generate more sales and keeps customers happy. 

“The most talented people I’ve worked with in my career are the ones who take the extra time to learn those things, no matter what department they are in,” said Triplett. 

The program also helps break down silos between departments that are organized into verticals and pushes employees to try out different skill sets through activities such as recording themselves doing a product demonstration. 

“This certification allowed people to have conversations and even discover new passions for things they didn’t have exposure to before,” said Chino. “It helped people learn about their skill sets, not just the company. It challenged them.”

 

A Culture of Growth

Though SambaSafety is a midsize company with 250 employees across the country, the team agrees that it has an outsized culture where everyone is engaged and wants to be there.

“There isn’t a single individual who works for this company who seems to be doing the death march when they come to work,” said Chino. “I truly believe people would take pay cuts to stay at SambaSafety because it is fun to be here.” 

I truly believe people would take pay cuts to stay at SambaSafety because it is fun to be here.” 

 

Triplett recalled that, in his initial interview with SambaSafety, he was impressed with the quality of leadership and looked forward to joining an organization where he could learn a ton. Chino agreed that there is a huge investment in development, from the top to the bottom of the organization. 

“All four of the sales leaders started as individual contributors,” said Triplett. “That is important because people across the organization can see themselves getting to the next level because their peers have done it.”

When considering what makes SambaSafety unique, there is unanimous agreement among these team members that Owens put succinctly: “For me, it’s the culture at every single level. There is a culture here that leads to growth.”

 

 

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