Amy Zimmerman | Source | Chief People Officer at Relay Payments
Amy Zimmerman
Amy is an award-winning, veteran People and Culture leader, who is routinely sought to offer comment on HR trends. She is currently the Chief People Officer of Relay Payments, which she joined in 2020 to support their explosive growth plans. She was hired to establish their people function and build it from the ground up. During this time, they have grown from fewer than 10 team members to 115+ globally. Relay Payments is a mission-driven, Series C, venture-backed start-up in the fintech space, headquartered in Atlanta, GA. They are building a contactless payment network in the transportation and logistics industry.
Amy co-founded PeopleCo. to be a strategic partner for founders and a growth catalyst for companies on the rise. Central to her work, of course, is the development and nurturing of a company’s culture. Whether the focus is on foundational elements, like defining core values and communication practices or developing more mature programs to support organizational effectiveness like performance development and engagement initiatives, it’s all in service to ensuring that the culture is intentional and aligned with the company’s growth objectives and financial goals.
In her previous life, as Chief People Officer for Kabbage (acquired by American Express), Amy was responsible for building the company’s award-winning culture, driving engagement, and guiding all people strategy initiatives. She oversaw the integration of M+A teams to build and grow capabilities across a diversity of cultures and geographies. Before that, she worked for VSI as a recruiter, people leader and culture ambassador prior to their acquisition by TransUnion. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a completely irrelevant degree in Criminology.
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Relay Payments
Chief People Officer
started Aug 2020
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Top Qualities of a Great Workplace Revealed by Relay Payments' CPO
Amy highlights that a great company lives its values, has clear success criteria, and rewards high performance. To assess culture, ask about values, recognition, and role expectations. Red flags include interviewers unaware of company values and lack of transparency in the hiring process.
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Amy Zimmerman, a 25-year HR veteran, says her one cardinal sin during the interview process is when a candidate talks badly about their former employer. Even if the company deserves to be bad-mouthed or if a person really was treated poorly, it shows a complete lack of self-awareness and poor judgment during an interview with a prospective employer, says Amy. It also makes the candidate seem like they could start “drama,” which is what no HR team wants to deal with.
"A much better approach is to focus on the silver-lining and to use a former employer as a springboard to find a new job. Or bad-mouth to your friends and family and not your potential future employer."
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If you don’t feel supported after a layoff, you can talk to the human resources department about extending benefits or employment. While benefits post-layoff are typically not negotiable, it can’t hurt to try to get help from your employer, says Amy Zimmerman, chief people officer at Relay Payments.
“Generally, companies offer a package to everyone affected that isn’t negotiable, but that doesn’t mean your extenuating circumstances might not yield a different result,” Zimmerman says. “If you’re being laid off individually, you might have more leverage.”
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“Rage applying” is a new name, not a new phenomenon. Applying for new roles because you’re frustrated with your pay, manager, co-workers, or you’re generally disconnected from the values or mission of your company are age old reasons why employees have always looked to move on. The term is gaining traction now because it’s a more aggressive evolution of what frustrated and discontent team members are doing following the “quiet quitting” phenomenon. It’s a more active way to respond to one’s dissatisfaction.
