“Everyone should have an opportunity to feel like they belong”: Five minutes with Renee Beerworth

She’s an all-around HR guru that has a fascination with the connection between people—but have you ever wondered how Renee Beerworth became a female founder?

Launching Spinach Ventures in 2015, Renee has always had a vision of a world where businesses bring people together—no matter who or where they are.

Presenting at the Canberra Innovation Network and Women with Altitude’s Female Founders: Flourish, Thrive and Prosper lunch on Tuesday 19 July, you’ll find out all this and more as she dives into her 20 year career and her passion for people.

Ahead of the lunch and networking event, we sat down with Renee to find out what workplace brilliance is to her—and what you can expect to learn from her presentation.

What is Spinach Ventures and what inspired you to begin the business?

Having a number of family members, friends, and ex-colleagues start their own businesses and hearing about their people challenges, I would often find myself sharing experiences, providing advice, and helping them navigate tricky or challenging situations related to people.

I had previously led People and Culture teams within large corporate environments, so I wanted to bring a team of professional people and culture specialists together—including experienced HR practitioners and organisational psychologists—and make them accessible to small businesses in a commercially viable way, either as an ongoing support service, or on an ad-hoc basis—just-in-time or for a defined project.  I wanted to see these organisations deliver their purpose on purpose with a team of people totally committed and engaged in what they do.

Spinach Ventures was born to cultivate work cultures where people flourish, businesses thrive and communities prosper.  We consult, mentor, and advise on the leading people practices and methodologies in human experience strategy, people and culture advisory, and organisational design.

 Have you always been interested in helping people and businesses thrive?

I think I’ve always had a fascination with human behaviour and why people do what they do, their motivations, how they view the world and how unique the interactions can be between people. I studied psychology and knew that I wanted to work with people in everyday situations, rather than in clinical practice—so I kind of fell into human resources, and it seemed like the perfect place to feed my curiosity!

I care deeply about people and believe that everyone should have an opportunity to feel like they belong.  And I mean belong not in the sense of ‘just fitting in’ but being seen for who they really are—only then can people have a chance to truly thrive. There are definitely techniques, strategies and ways to have interactions with employees in a planned and intentional way to make this a reality.

Where do you even begin when it comes to bringing workplace brilliance to light?

It starts with understanding. Understanding what the common purpose is, and why the workplace needs a group of people to deliver it; understanding what success looks like, and what people really need to care about and do to bring the organisation’s purpose to light. It’s also about understanding all of the individual people and what their unique superpowers and motivations are and understanding how to keep them in their ideal zone so that they are engaged and motivated more of the time.

I think that when people are contributing to something that has meaning and that is bigger than themselves, and when those same people are seen for their unique and valuable contribution to that team and for that purpose—this to me is workplace brilliance.

What’s the most important thing people need to know about the work Spinach Ventures does?

We facilitate the true alignment of a business’s purpose, values, strategic objectives, and goals across teams and cultures. Our holistic approach gives everyone in the organisation a sense of purpose, autonomy and belonging.  Through this, we hope that business owners and people leaders feel supported so that they flourish and their businesses thrive.

What can people expect from your presentation for Female Founders: Flourish, Thrive and Prosper?

There is no one size fits all, so what are the questions we need to be asking to understand what flourish, thrive, and prosper mean to ourselves and those around us?

THE ESSENTIALS

What: Female Founders & Women with Altitude: Flourish, Thrive and Prosper

When: Tuesday 19 July, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Where: Canberra Innovation Network Level 5, 1 Moore Street

Register here

Article written by Erin Cross for HerCanberra.