Shelby Bascom is the People Ops Manager at Jellyfish, based in Boston. We sat down with Shelby to talk about the evolving role of People Ops, her mentors, diversity and inclusion strategies, and favorite winter hobbies!

Q: Who is Shelby Bascom? How did you get to where you are in your career?

Shelby: HR fell into my lap. I was an office administrator for a company that worked with children with special needs. They were shutting down their office in West Roxbury at the time, and they had an opening within their corporate HR office in Randolph, MA. So I jumped into that role, and once I started, I just fell in love with it.

Q: Who has been a mentor for you throughout your career?

Shelby: Tasha Kitty, former Chief People Officer at Panorama Education is someone I consider to be a mentor. She always said, ‘lead from the front.’ Why did she say that? HR typically is known as a department that operates behind closed doors, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, HR is now a department that is on the forefront of decision-making within a business. She always encouraged me to ‘lead from the front’ especially when it comes to DE&I - be a leader and an example for others within the company.

Q: Can you share a little bit more about Jellyfish?

Shelby: Jellyfish is a growing startup whose mission is to help engineers better focus on the work they are doing. Think of this analogy: Salesforce helps sales teams function better, and we do the same thing for engineering teams. We are headquartered in Boston, but are starting to grow quickly, and we have employees who work remotely. We are currently working in a hybrid environment.

Q: Are there organizations that you think are focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion really well and why?

Shelby: I don’t think any organization is doing it perfectly because each company has its set of challenges when it comes to DE&I. I would say that newer companies in general are doing it well because they are actively thinking about integrating DE&I into all of their processes from Day 1. However, I do think that HubSpot is a leader when it comes to DE&I in the Boston area because they are constantly promoting new employee resource groups and aren’t afraid to make public statements about what’s happening in the world.

Q: How is Jellyfish thinking about diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Shelby: We are still relatively new as a company and we grew from 50 to 100 employees at the end of 2021 so we are still in our “honeymoon phase” when it comes to DE&I. However, we’ve been starting to think about how to incorporate DE&I into everything we do. I’m excited to work on our DE&I strategy in the new year, but it will be challenging to balance the DE&I strategy with our rapid growth.

Q: What are you looking forward to doing for employees at Jellyfish so they can learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion or actively participate in initiatives?

Shelby: There are few things that I’m excited to implement for Jellyfish employees. First would be employee resource groups. So far, we had an employee who wanted to start a #jellyfish-of-color Slack channel to bring a sense of community. I’m looking forward to this group migrating into a formal ERG within the company. I’m also looking forward to bringing DE&I programming to Jellyfish employees so that they can learn “how to be an ally” especially within the engineering industry which has been so white-male dominated. Furthermore, I hope that we can integrate DE&I into more of our policies and practices such as hiring new talent.

Q: How has the role of people ops leaders changed since COVID-19?

Shelby: Well first, we’ve seen the name “HR” starting to evolve to “people operations/people team.” I think that’s one trend that has been happening since before COVID-19. Also, HR used to be the scary department that people went to only when they needed help. However, during COVID-19, employees have seen people ops teams as a resource to go to or a team that they can lean on and get guidance on difficult questions that have arisen. Additionally, managers are now asking people ops teams for advice on how to build engagement within their teams as a result of the remote/hybrid work environment. People ops leaders are being seen as an example to lead other departments in how to demonstrate employee engagement. Despite the role of people ops leaders changing, I have always and continue to refer to myself as a people cheerleader - I want to ensure that every employee has a voice in the room, and I want them to know that their voice matters.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish in 2022 at Jellyfish as it relates to your role?

Shelby: As Jellyfish continues to grow as a company, I want to ensure that we have a strong sense of community throughout 2022 so that is something that will be at the forefront of my mind as a people ops leader. I want to actively develop our DE&I strategy and work with Jellyfish’s executive team to ensure that DE&I is part of every conversation - whether it’s manager conversations, policies, or even vendors that we collaborate with. I want DE&I to be embedded within our culture - for us to think about how we can make sure every voice is represented in the conversation, from veterans to parents to the LGBTQ community to remote workers and so much more.

Q: What is your favorite winter time activity?

Shelby: Growing up in New England, you’d think I’d be used to the cold weather by now, but no such luck. You can find me curled up somewhere with beautiful winter scenery and a book near a warm fireplace :)

Shelby Bascom is the People Ops Manager at Jellyfish, based in Boston. We sat down with Shelby to talk about the evolving role of People Ops, her mentors, diversity and inclusion strategies, and favorite winter hobbies!

Q: Who is Shelby Bascom? How did you get to where you are in your career?

Shelby: HR fell into my lap. I was an office administrator for a company that worked with children with special needs. They were shutting down their office in West Roxbury at the time, and they had an opening within their corporate HR office in Randolph, MA. So I jumped into that role, and once I started, I just fell in love with it.

Q: Who has been a mentor for you throughout your career?

Shelby: Tasha Kitty, former Chief People Officer at Panorama Education is someone I consider to be a mentor. She always said, ‘lead from the front.’ Why did she say that? HR typically is known as a department that operates behind closed doors, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, HR is now a department that is on the forefront of decision-making within a business. She always encouraged me to ‘lead from the front’ especially when it comes to DE&I - be a leader and an example for others within the company.

Q: Can you share a little bit more about Jellyfish?

Shelby: Jellyfish is a growing startup whose mission is to help engineers better focus on the work they are doing. Think of this analogy: Salesforce helps sales teams function better, and we do the same thing for engineering teams. We are headquartered in Boston, but are starting to grow quickly, and we have employees who work remotely. We are currently working in a hybrid environment.

Q: Are there organizations that you think are focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion really well and why?

Shelby: I don’t think any organization is doing it perfectly because each company has its set of challenges when it comes to DE&I. I would say that newer companies in general are doing it well because they are actively thinking about integrating DE&I into all of their processes from Day 1. However, I do think that HubSpot is a leader when it comes to DE&I in the Boston area because they are constantly promoting new employee resource groups and aren’t afraid to make public statements about what’s happening in the world.

Q: How is Jellyfish thinking about diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Shelby: We are still relatively new as a company and we grew from 50 to 100 employees at the end of 2021 so we are still in our “honeymoon phase” when it comes to DE&I. However, we’ve been starting to think about how to incorporate DE&I into everything we do. I’m excited to work on our DE&I strategy in the new year, but it will be challenging to balance the DE&I strategy with our rapid growth.

Q: What are you looking forward to doing for employees at Jellyfish so they can learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion or actively participate in initiatives?

Shelby: There are few things that I’m excited to implement for Jellyfish employees. First would be employee resource groups. So far, we had an employee who wanted to start a #jellyfish-of-color Slack channel to bring a sense of community. I’m looking forward to this group migrating into a formal ERG within the company. I’m also looking forward to bringing DE&I programming to Jellyfish employees so that they can learn “how to be an ally” especially within the engineering industry which has been so white-male dominated. Furthermore, I hope that we can integrate DE&I into more of our policies and practices such as hiring new talent.

Q: How has the role of people ops leaders changed since COVID-19?

Shelby: Well first, we’ve seen the name “HR” starting to evolve to “people operations/people team.” I think that’s one trend that has been happening since before COVID-19. Also, HR used to be the scary department that people went to only when they needed help. However, during COVID-19, employees have seen people ops teams as a resource to go to or a team that they can lean on and get guidance on difficult questions that have arisen. Additionally, managers are now asking people ops teams for advice on how to build engagement within their teams as a result of the remote/hybrid work environment. People ops leaders are being seen as an example to lead other departments in how to demonstrate employee engagement. Despite the role of people ops leaders changing, I have always and continue to refer to myself as a people cheerleader - I want to ensure that every employee has a voice in the room, and I want them to know that their voice matters.

Q: What do you hope to accomplish in 2022 at Jellyfish as it relates to your role?

Shelby: As Jellyfish continues to grow as a company, I want to ensure that we have a strong sense of community throughout 2022 so that is something that will be at the forefront of my mind as a people ops leader. I want to actively develop our DE&I strategy and work with Jellyfish’s executive team to ensure that DE&I is part of every conversation - whether it’s manager conversations, policies, or even vendors that we collaborate with. I want DE&I to be embedded within our culture - for us to think about how we can make sure every voice is represented in the conversation, from veterans to parents to the LGBTQ community to remote workers and so much more.

Q: What is your favorite winter time activity?

Shelby: Growing up in New England, you’d think I’d be used to the cold weather by now, but no such luck. You can find me curled up somewhere with beautiful winter scenery and a book near a warm fireplace :)

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Shelby Bascom, People Ops Leader at Jellyfish, talks about the evolving role of People Ops and her DE&I strategies for 2022

Meet Shelby Bascom: People Ops Leader at Jellyfish

Tue Jan 18 2022

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