ServiceNow welcomes former Gartner analyst Melanie Lougee

The need for a unified employee experience is more important than ever.

Today’s employers have realized the power of a single employee experience platform, one that hides the complexity of embedded corporate services. These streamlined interfaces have fundamentally altered the nature of work, keeping employee experiences consistent, whenever and wherever they may be.

As ServiceNow continues its journey of building intelligent workflows, we are thrilled to welcome Melanie Lougee to oversee the strategy for ServiceNow’s Employee Workflow business unit. In this newly created role, Melanie is reporting directly into Blake McConnell, SVP of Employee workflows.

We recently got a chance to meet with Melanie to learn more about her and why she’s excited to join ServiceNow.

First, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Melanie: Most recently, I spent four years at Gartner as a Vice President where I researched, published, and presented to global audiences on Human Capital Management (HCM) technology, identifying key trends in the world of HR and authoring two magic quadrants.

Prior to Gartner, I held various strategy positions at Oracle (and, formerly PeopleSoft) and enterprise software provider, Infor.  I’ve also worked on implementations as a consultant, managed HR systems internally and spent time in go-to-market strategy for Logitech . The broad experiences give me a fairly rounded point of view on enterprise technology.

On the personal front, I’m a Bay Area native currently living in San Jose with my eight-year-old daughter Simone and our two rescued dogs Bella and Bandito.  My daughter and I love to ski, bike, hike, create art and entertain a house full of friends.  I also volunteer for an organization that rescues dogs US from Taiwan and Korea.

Given today’s current climate, what should organizations be thinking about as it relates to their employee experience? 

Today, employers are scrambling with unexpected shifts on an unprecedented scale.  They don’t know how long this current crisis period may last or what the long-term effects will be. As organizations are uncertain, employees are more so.  It’s a critical time to ascertain and respond to employee sentiment.  Communication and coordinated action from all employee-facing departments is essential to long-term loyalty and trust, especially if the messages or decisions are difficult. Organizations should be aware that employer reputation is also measured in times of uncertainty.

What excited you about joining ServiceNow?

I began my career as an HR assistant and benefits representative when I was still in college.  I have personally spent nights stuffing benefits enrollment envelopes and keeping pen and paper lists of requests. It’s fair to say that I had an early interest in employee workflow improvement.

I started to work on HRSD Technologies in 2009 for one of the first start-ups offering purpose-built HR Case Management, Knowledgeable and portals.  At the time, the technology wasn’t where it needed to be in order to be truly transformative for organizations and employees.  Also, organizations had not yet embraced the principles of employee-experience, let alone considered moving to an employee- centric service model that breaks down department and division silos. However, I maintained my passion for the purpose and mission behind employee experience and carried it into my research and publishing at Gartner.

Today, ServiceNow has the technology and innovative drive that can truly deliver transformative ways of working.  Employers also now see the value in employee experience investment both in employee-employer relationships and in operational efficiency.  With ServiceNow’s presence across service domains, industries and geographies they are uniquely positioned to transform how work is done. I can’t think of a place I’d rather be.

What’s the best career advice you’ve received? 

“Choose the role that opens the most possibilities for your future.”

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