BTC: Ep17
In Their Shoes: Crocs’ Employer Brand Journey

 Emily Morgan: I think one of my favorite parts of what we have built over the last year, one of our EVP pillars, is Ideas Welcome, Impact Expected. Everyone is encouraged to think boldly, but also empowered to drive real change no matter what role you're in. And I think that's something that makes us really unique.

Narrator: Welcome to today's episode. The Blu Thread Conversations Podcast at Blu Ivy Group. We've been lucky enough to partner with Crocs Inc on their employer brand Journey one shaped by passion, creativity. Simplicity and co-creation grounded in a culture as distinctive as the brand itself. Crocs Inc. The parent company of Crocs and hey dude, is no worldwide for comfort and bold.

Self-expression. Beyond the iconic footwear is a global team shaping an employer brand that reflects their people values and vision for the future. Today we're joined by Emily Morgan. Senior Talent Acquisition Manager and Christie Cruzi, global Head of Talent acquisition at Crocs, Inc. Together, they're leading the charge to bring this evolving employer brand to life across multiple brands and markets.

In this conversation, we'll explore what makes Crocs a special place to work. How the team is aligning diverse voices across the organization and what's ahead as they prepare to launch their new employer brand. We'll also discuss activation measurement and the lessons they've learned along the way, and because it wouldn't be CROCS without a little fun, we'll wrap things up with the rapid fire round inspired by the brand's playful culture.

With that, let's dive into the conversation.

Leandra Harris: Good morning. Good morning. Exciting day today because I have a guest, co-host, my colleague Fatima, and we have.. I'm a huge fan of the brand. I own several pairs. We have some killer people from Crocs. The TA team. So thrilled to have you join our podcast, Christie, Emily, so thank you. And Fatima, thank you for filling in for Stacy today.

Fatima Qzilbash: Happy to be here for us

Leandra Harris: We're so excited. 

Emily Morgan: Yes. 

Leandra Harris: Aw, thank you. The first podcast. Thank you. Yay. So let's start. First, why don't you share with our listeners a little bit about your role and what you do at Crocs? 

Christy Kruse: Sure. Um, so I'll go first. I lead global talent acquisition here at Croc Inc. Um, I have made my journey on my first year.

I just hit one year with the organization. Um, and really fortunate to lead a team that supports, um, both our global corporate and in retail recruitment organization. So it's a quite a, a journey and an honor. And how many pairs of Crocs do you have, Christie? Ooh, before I joined, I was not wearing any, my kids were wearing plenty, but I would probably say between Crocs and, Hey Dude, we probably have, I probably have around, I dont know... 12 or 15 pair.

Now, 

Emily Morgan: please don't ask me that same question because I will feel really bad when I answer that. They are split between two closets. 

Leandra Harris: Well, that's not bad. Well, we have to share that, Emily, so, yeah, exactly. Tell us then, Emily, tell us about your role and what you do and how many pairs of Crocs you have.

Emily Morgan: So, um, I work on Christie's team and I am so fortunate to be able to really drive, um, our retail global business, um, support some of our corporate partners. And then over the last year, year and a half, um, employment brand, which is what we're gonna talk about today, which is passion area for me for sure.

Okay. If I have to disclose my number of shoes, hopefully no one from my family or financial advisor listens to this podcast because they'll probably be talking to me about my spending. I have well over a hundred pairs between Crocs and Hey Dude together, which is why they are split in the house. I have run out of room.

Christy Kruse: Wow. 

Emily Morgan: Oh gosh. 

Leandra Harris: I love that. 

Emily Morgan : Okay. I, that's a fun fact. 

Leandra Harris: I do not know. Fun fact, yes. Um, thank you for sharing Emily, um, safe space here. And Fatima, since you, my wonderful colleague is filling in for Stace, why don't you share with the listeners what you do at. 

Fatima Qzilbash: Blu Ivy Group. I would love to. Hi listeners, I'm Fatima.

I have been with Blu Ivy Group for about four years, um, and I help incredible brands elevate their culture and employee experiences. And I just wanted to say, I am especially excited for today's conversation because I had the chance to partner very closely with Crocs on their employer brand journey.

It's truly been one of the most collaborative and energizing projects that I've been part of. Um, and not to mention with an iconic brand, um, I don't have a hundred pairs of Crocs. That's the goal. What really stood out to me throughout our work together was just how approachable the culture. Feels making people feel really welcome, uh, while also having that ambitious and very performance driven edge.

And you don't often see those two qualities come together, both playful and high performing. And so actually I'd love to kick it to you, Emily and Christie. What do you feel makes Crocs Inc. Such a unique and special place to work? 

Emily Morgan: I think for me, um, this is gonna sound a little bit cliche, so when candidates ask me this too, it's both my favorite thing to answer and sometimes my least favorite because I, it's really important for me as a recruiter to be authentic and tell authentic stories.

I think that's really important. Um, so it can sound a little bit canned, but it really is for me, it's the people we have such incredible bright. Team members from all walks of life that I get to partner with every day, and I leave meetings. I've been with a brand for about four years now. I still to this day, leave meetings going like.

I cannot believe we just did that, or we talked about that, or I met this person that did this in their past, or is doing this now for the brands. And I think it's just really a testament to kind of where we look for talent, how we look to bring all different kinds together and really also how the brand celebrates and creates.

Space for people to be able to be their authentic selves, not be afraid of bringing, you know, bold kind of ideas that might be out of the box. Um, and I don't know that that's so common everywhere else. It really is something that I think makes us unique and, and sets us apart. 

Christy Kruse: Dito. 

Emily Morgan: Um, 

Christy Kruse: I mean, talent is what we do for a, a living, but I think you know who you're surrounded by every single day, um, matters and how you show up and how you perform and what you do, um, in this.

You know, community at Croc Inc. Is very, very rich in, in talent and kind of this unique expertise in retail and footwear, and you don't always see that. Um, so it's, it's been amazing, um, to be a part of. And then I think the other thing that is really unique about Croc is the way we, which we engage with our customers.

So our marketing,  engagement with customers and consumers, is like, I've never seenbefore and I've been in retail for 25 years. And the, the touch points, the uniqueness and, and the frequency in which we engage, um, I do think kind of sets us apart and has been really fun, certainly to learn, um, and be a part of.

Fatima Qzilbash: Yeah. I love that. You know, I heard that throughout our conversations in focus groups too, especially going back to the people, that's what everyone said about each other. It was how collaborative, how supportive, how engaged people are. And so it seems to be a sentiment that, you know, carries through no matter who you're speaking to.

It comes back to the people. That's something we heard a lot. Uh, one thing that really struck me, uh, talking about people and talking about perspectives and the number of people was just how many different perspectives came together. We're talking about marketing, communications, creative ta, HR leaders, colleagues from.

Us, Canada, Netherlands, uk, India, Singapore, China. I know I'm missing, uh, places, but it showed just how global and inclusive this effort has been. Uh, but also with so many voices in the mix. Alignment is always a big question and so would love to hear from you. What it's been like one working across so many teams at Crocs and Hey Dude, and the people within those teams, but also how did you get alignment across so many different teams and different priorities?

Christy Kruse: Yeah, I think it's a, it's a fair question and I think Emily and I like might describe it as like a little bit of a labor of love. Right. But, but in all seriousness, I think it was also a tremendous amount of fun. But I think we started with like, we had the leadership alignment from the start. Of the project and the work, we knew how important it was to the organization.

Um, and we started with the executive leadership team and had that champion and partnership from our Chief People Officer and our executive leadership team to say, we know we have a really cool and compelling story, um, to share both internally and externally, um, and kind of gave us permission to help continue to drive that alignment because it's not always as easy.

Um. As one might, might think or feel, especially in a multi portfolio business, um, and a global footprint where we wanna make sure we hear voices from our Singapore office, our distribution center in Las Vegas, or our retail stores. So I think having that initial alignment. Um, from a leadership team certainly helped.

Um, and then I think how we continued to have those pulse points and check in on milestones throughout our journey, um, definitely helped us stay aligned, um, throughout the process and. Those were probably the harder or more, um, trying times just to make sure that we were still tracking the same way. 

Leandra Harris: And I'm curious, like Christie and Emily, what's, what was their main objective, like the executive team, like you have, you know, 'cause everyone knows Crocs such as strong brand, so what was their driving force like?

What did they really wanna achieve by doing this work? 

Christy Kruse: Yeah. I'll, I'll start by. I'm sure Em has some perspective and, and ideas as well, but I, I think so. Crocs and Hey Dude, like are still young, like well-known brand, especially Crocs. Um, but hey dude is, is still young for us. I mean, we've, they, we've had hey dude for under, you know, three years and, um.

The story and the voice from a consumer perspective is still continuing to build. And then on the flip side, you know, we, we really wanted Crocs and hated to be recognized, um, as this unique place to work because it has so much of the differentiation. And we wanted to make sure we positioned that, um, in the marketplace, in, in kind of our crocs in Hey Dude kind of way.

Um, so externally we wanted to have that voice and then also bring a little bit. Of that energy and realization internally as we engage with our internal associate population. 

Emily Morgan: I would totally agree. I would say, you know, for what maybe started as looking at creative and, and how we go to market, the other thing that I would say that really came through in this project very early on is it wasn't just about that, it was about defining what does our EVP look like at the enterprise level.

Um. Because we have two, as Christie said, two very distinct brands, so it went beyond just creating great visuals and good messaging. We spend time really in the focus groups with employees across all the levels to make sure that what we built was really authentic to who we are. 

Leandra Harris: Now I understand you haven't launched this amazing work yet, right? Like so you haven't officially launched yet, right? 

Christy Kruse: We, I would say we've done, I'll use the words like soft launch.  So we've, we've introduced certainly to kind of our greater HR community, so inclusive of talent acquisition. Um, and we actually, um, I think end of this week or early next week, we'll be having broader communications go out,to the organization on some of the tools and resources that. 

Um, we built together. So whether or not that's LinkedIn banners or our, uh, reference and toolkits, um, our teams are already starting to, talent acquisition teams are already starting to use some of the collateral. Um, so I would say we've, we're in a soft launch phase, um, but you do see it starting to pop up, so can you share, 

Leandra Harris: like Emily and Christie you mentioned earlier, you're kind of blown away and I'm blown away by particularly, like I'm more familiar with Crocs, like how they engage with a customer and it's such a unique, fun brand.

Do you have some kind of, what are your, some of your ideas that you are thinking of doing maybe as a hard launch or what are you hoping to achieve as you launch this incredible work and story? 

Emily Morgan: Yeah, that's a great question. I think our focus is really on kind of a shared ownership approach, both with employees and leaders, um, not just as participants, but really as co-creators of the brand experience.

We're empowering teams, you know, to spotlight. Um. You know, whether that's passion projects, career, you know, journeys and experiences, how they're living our values day to day. Um, I think that'll be a really important part of the next part, um, phase and also how we're engaging our newly formed brand ambassadors across the globe.

And I think for our leaders, it's about equipping them with tools and language that helps embody the brand from the inside out. Not as a script, but as something that they can live and really lead through. 

Leandra Harris: That gets me so excited, like co-create and doing that in partnership, like so smart. 

Fatima Qzilbash: Absolutely. And it, it ties into that other piece of work, which is it's making sure that recruiters and managers and leaders have the right tools to activate.

Um, and then that, that really, that launch is really the kickoff. And thinking about that, you know, when we talk about tools to activate, a lot of times when people think it's employer brand, they think about. It being a tagline or you know, something that you put on a poster, but it's so much more than that.

It's those daily moments that people actually feel. Um, and you all, you both have taken the time to really understand it and you've been so intentional about defining and articulating it, and now you're providing the tools, uh, for other people to. To do the same, but as you move into activation, how are you engaging your employees and leaders to bring.

That to life, you know, in terms of providing them with the tools, how are you ensuring that it is showing up in moments like recognition or onboarding or even attraction in hiring? How, how are you bringing it to life with your employees and your leaders? 

Emily Morgan: I have to giggle a little bit when you say, you know, posters or.

Chrissy and I talked often at the beginning of this, um, project and ideation. It was really important to us and, and for both brands that it wasn't just something that you saw on our career site. It was something that you really feel every day when you come to work and at Crocs and, Hey Dude, we've been really thoughtful about how the brand shows up.

For the whole employee jour journey. So whether that's onboarding, internal commu communications, how we recognize and celebrate our teams, I think one of my favorite parts of what we have built over the last year, um, one of our EVP pillars is ideas. Welcome. Impact expected. Um, and for us it's really not just a tagline, it reflects how we work.

Everyone is encouraged to think boldly but also empowered to drive real change no matter what role you're in. And I think that's something that makes us really unique. We 

Fatima Qzilbash: heard so many examples and focus groups, like everything from onboarding that felt really personal to like even showing compassion and empathy during difficult times.

And so powerful because. Your employer brand is not a new story. It's just giving your people the language to what's already been there, the tools and the language to what's already been there. It's almost like giving definitely 

Christy Kruse: the tools, but also like it's okay to talk about who we are in, in what we do, um, whether or not it's community and philanthropic or, you know, really excited about something that happened in the store or the distribution center.

So. There's, it's a little bit of like, um, giving the permission and Okay. And I think the tools and resources then, um, just help amplify, um, and, and show and showcase us the way that I think we all feel we are here at cracks, Inc. 

Leandra Harris: Speaking of impact, um, what do you wanna see? Why is because I, I, you know, the team has said that, and what a unique and special thing about your culture.

Fun and personable, but also high performing and want to see, um, impact and progress. So what are you hoping to see Christie and Emily like, what are some goals you have with this work? 

Christy Kruse: Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately we want to make sure we have compelling stories to engage, certainly with external candidates, but also to really.

Highlight or remind or showcase, you know, kind of our internal population, how unique and special we are. We don't always get it right and there are days that are, are challenging, but I would say more often than not, we have some really fun ways in which we work. What we do at the end of the day is creating really cool shoes for our customers.

So I think we wanna make sure, um, that that shows up in kind of all things that we, that we do. Um, but I think with. You know, seeing how the new tools or resources work for us, we can then make different decisions, um, or adapt or adopt new things that we would want to share. You know, either with our internal population or with our external candidates.

Leandra Harris: Chris, you'll never forget, I met a company through like great place to work and they didn't invest more in training. They just decided to, for hold an entire year, remind people what they offer. It impacted their engagement score. Right. So reminding people, and we so forget that about employer branding, reminding people about all the good.

Yeah. That's there. The good people, like the, all of that is enough. We don't have to just keep on piling new programs, new initiatives. Right. So I love that you call that out, Christie. Yeah. 

Christy Kruse: When we have a mantra value here of like inherently simple, and I do think sometimes we have to kind of keep that.

Front and center in all the things that that we do. And sometimes the simple things of how you engage or how you recognize, um, but again, whether or not that's internal or external really do do matter. 

Leandra Harris: Emily, what progress are you seeing so far? I know it's early days, but are you seeing any. Yeah, little wins.

Emily Morgan: I, I do, you know, we, um, Christie just came out of, and, and we had our town hall with our chief people officer actually yesterday. Um, and she was sharing, that happens at the ELT level for us. And so they were kind of sharing some of the feedback in the wins and they were talking about talent and they actually, our chief people officer and some of the language that they were using in ELT, they were talking about things like ideas welcome, impact expected.

And I think for me that was like a heartwarming like, you know, wanted to like celebrate like we did it because that is an organic, authentic conversation. And when you have an employee population that starts. You know, to adopt that without, you know, we of course have the ways that we wanna activate, but again, it was important for us that this was real for everyone and that it felt authentic and that it wasn't something that was just a playbook.

It was everyday language. And for us to be in the early phases of adoption and already see that from an organic side with our, you know, team members and executive leadership felt like such a win. I was so proud, you know. Good thing I was on mute on the town hall because I wanted to like yell and celebrate because that's what we hope for when we, you know, have spent the last year really making sure through the focus groups, through different ideations of this, you know, that was a really big part for us, that we wanted to make sure that we stayed anchored too.

Fatima Qzilbash: Christie, you also mentioned, you know, you don't always get it right, but you're always making progress. Um, I feel like with this type of work mm-hmm. It always leaves you with insights and learnings, what's. One thing that you feel like you've learned in this process that you think other people might find useful or helpful?

Emily Morgan:  I think for me, one of the biggest lessons that I learned, um, early on in this is that employee branding isn't something that you build for people. It's something you build with them. Um, early on I found it kind of tempting to craft. A beautifully packaged message and then roll it out, top down.

But the real magic, like we just sort of talked about is when you invite your employees and leaders into the process and when people feel ownership of the brand and see themselves reflected, and it naturally helps them become advocates. Um, so I think my advice would be. Listen more than you speak, which Fatima knows can be hard for me.

I love to chatter on, that's the recruiter in me, but listen, more than you speak co-create. Don't dictate and, and stay flexible, because that's really where we saw kind of where we thought we would be. And then where we got was really where, you know, the good stuff was. 

Fatima Qzilbash: There's so much power in listening. And I can say employees were really generous with their stories.

People were really generous with their stories and had so much pride and honesty to share that it became the foundation for everything. And it just reinforces that idea that culture is co co-created and not enforced. Imposed. Uh, when you look back, what is one thing that you can say that you were the most proud of?

When you look back at. All this work that, that you've done? 

Christy Kruse: I think we landed, right,  you know? There were, you know, it was a long journey. Um, there was lots of moving pieces and alignment or realignment. Um, and I, and I think, um, how we got to the final. Finish line I'm super proud of. It was also you, Fatima and Jess know this really well.

We, we had a very lean project team, Emily and I, you know, supporting it. Um, but I think because of the relationships and the touch points and the, the folks that we engaged with throughout the process, um, I'm, I'm super proud of, of where we ended. Um, I think the, our EVP pillars, um, resonated immediately.

With our executive leadership team, when they saw them, it was kind of like, of course this makes sense, but said in a very, um, cool and, and kind of fun way. Um, and then, you know, where we landed with, you know, even some of our, um, marketing and collateral with customize your career. You know, we talk about personalization, um, within our shoes and customize your career became a very.

Kind of natural, like talent tagline, for lack of a better word. So, um, I, I, I'm super proud of, of where we landed and I'm super happy to have had Emily as a, as a partner in, in, in working with you guys too. 

Fatima Qzilbash: Emily, anything you wanna add? 

Emily Morgan: What Chrissy said, it, it really is what I'm also most proud of. I think being able to get to something.

Fatima, I can like look back on some of our first sessions and I was like, oh, I don't know. I, I feel, you know, overwhelmed or what, what direction is right? And you told me early on, trust the process. Like this is how it feels and we will get there. And then what do you know? And six months later when we landed on customize your career and some of these e ev pill, EVP pillars that religious.

They do. They're us. They're so authentically us. It feels almost so easy, even though I know the journey to that was a lot of work and labor of love with all of our creative teams. So I just feel really proud of what our end result was. And I think I had a hire that recently started in Netherlands and he said, you know what?

I just wanna thank you everything that I experienced. From, you know, application to now being with the brand, being three months in. It is everything that I thought it was. And so to me that means that we're doing it right. That's what we want. We want from early stage, whether you're just a consumer and you're more curious about, hey, dude, or you wanna know about cracks and what we're doing, and then if we get the fortune of adding you to our teams and our brand, that you feel that authenticity, whether again, consumer.

Employee, internal, external. Um, and I'm, I'm really proud of that. 

Fatima Qzilbash: Yeah. And how incredible is that to just seeing how aligned everyone became under or around one shared story, Crocs, Hey Dude, very different or, or different brands, but under Crocs Inc. They really united in a very authentic way. And it was so cool to see that, that story come to life.

Leandra Harris: Christine, like anything you wanted, anything that you want to add before we go? To rapid fire that we haven't covered. You've really, some shared some real gems here, like simple co-create, like some real gems here. So thank you, thank you, thank you to the both of you and I hope you both feel so good about, I just can't believe the two of you and the work that's been like, wow.

Um, anything you wanna share before we go to our rapid fire questions? 

Emily Morgan: I will say, while it was Christie and I on the HR side, we had really great sponsors, um, and stakeholders. So I do just wanna say like, our creative teams on both sides were so patient and, you know, helped guide our endless ideations and feedback.

Um, our Chief People Officer Shannon, without her being such a champion of this work, that could have been harder for us. And so, um, I just. That would probably be my only thing to add while we were the, the two kind of driving forces, um, you know, we had a great p teams internally that were helping us. And of course Fatima, you know, I can't miss an opportunity to hype you up.

Really, the Blue Ivy team made this incredible for us and we are just so thrilled. 

Christy Kruse: Beautifully said. And I think, you know, Fatima and Jess grounded us or re-grounded us when we were like, okay, what about this? And, and kind of brought us back to like. Our core purpose of what we were trying to anchor to. So trust the process.

Um, should you, you know, work, work with Blue Ivy. It was a really great experience. 

Leandra Harris: Okay. Rapid Fire Crocs team. What's your go-to Crocs color or style? 

Emily Morgan: Ooh, 

Leandra Harris: Crocs are, 

Emily Morgan: hey, 

Leandra Harris: do. 

Emily Morgan: You know, that's gonna be hard when I have so many pairs. On the croc side, anything with height is my absolute favorite. And on the hey dude side, I'm a big fan of their sneakers.

Christie 

Christy Kruse: Classic, um, clog. That is the new canvas, the crafted I got. I just got them the other day. I love them. Describe Croc's culture in one word. Dynamic. Ooh. 

Emily Morgan: Great words. Yeah, that I think I would say future focused, both 

Leandra Harris: awesome words. Now it takes special people to make this work happen. So people often ask us, what kind of competencies do people need to have to, to make this happen on a global basis?

Multiple brands, multiple countries. So one word your team would use. To describe each of you? 

Christy Kruse: Hmm. 

Emily Morgan: Do you answer it for each? Not I was gonna say, um, I think if I was answering for myself, I would say passionate. Um, and if I am answering on for Christie, um, the one word is hard, but I always describe her as our north star.

Um, she is our support, our guiding light. The person that is always there to help reduce noise or challenge us in a different way of thinking. Um, so I know that's sort of cheating too. I'm doing bad at the one-word answers. No, we will make an exception 'cause that's, yeah, perfect. 

Leandra Harris: You're too kind, miss Emily.

Christy Kruse: 

Um, I, I probably would've chosen objective for myself. Um. Just thinking about the role that I play, how I think it'll try to lead the team and kind of see things from different perspectives. Again, that's way more than, um, one, one word. Okay. Um, and Emily is incredibly passionate, but she is also incredibly strategic with how she makes the, makes things move forward.

So her ability to drive things forward, um, probably because of her passion and because of her relationships. Um. Allows her to accomplish many, many things and do it very, very well. 

Leandra Harris: That's nice. Feel good about that? It's a nice love there. If Croc's culture had a Gibbs charm, oh, my kids are so into Gibbs, what would it be?

What would it be? Final question. 

Emily Morgan: That's a really good one and kind of hard one. Um, I think I would go lightning bolt. Um, we're bold. It can come in fast. We are about fast changed, adapting fast, being agile, and lightning always carries energy. And I think at Crocs we have a lot of great people that bring the energy, um, and their passion to everything that they do.

Um, so I would, I would go lightning bolt. Interesting. That's a good choice.

Christy Kruse:  Christie, what do you think? Good way to describe it. Um, maybe similar but slightly different. Like it's something about like problem solving or driving change. So I don't know how to make a JT exactly out of that. So I don't know if it's like a light bulb or you know, when you're problem solving, there's like stop starts, go yield.

So something with a stop sign. But I think, you know, we are a business that is. Responding to the customer. And so our ability to problem solve and chase, um, is really important. Um, and I think those that continue to succeed, you know, have a little bit of that drive and problem solving mindset. 

Leandra Harris: We're gonna see a new gif soon.

I feel this is in our future. Yeah. Um, Fatima, thank you so much for co-hosting with me and Christie and Emily. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Such fans, um, of the brands and so thrilled that you were able to take time to spend with us today. 

Emily Morgan: Thank you you for having us. Yes. 

Leandra Harris: Thank you