- Zillow Group, which encompasses Zillow.com, Trulia.com and several other home-related brands, has created a new position -- vice president of people and culture.
- Dan Spaulding, who formerly served in an HR leadership role for Starbucks, has been hired to fill this role.
Dan Spaulding
Dan Spaulding has been hired to fill a newly created position at Zillow Group, vice president of people and culture. In this capacity, Spaulding will oversee the company’s human resources operations, spearhead its recruiting and lead the learning and development teams while reporting to COO Amy Bohutinsky.
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“We are thrilled for Dan to join Zillow Group,” Bohutinsky said in a press release. “The most strategic and important part of our business is our ability to hire and retain the absolute best people — in skills, in smarts, in culture fit.
“We’ve been recognized many times for our core focus on people, most recently as one of the top 10 employers in the country by Glassdoor. And as an employer of more than 2,200 employees spanning multiple consumer and business brands, we need a leader of Dan’s caliber and experience to lead our people organization and strategy as we continue to grow.”
Responsibilities of the position
Spaulding’s responsibilities in securing and developing talented employees extend across the company’s eight locations and all brands falling under Zillow Group’s umbrella, including Zillow.com, Trulia, StreetEasy, HotPads and Naked Apartments. In this new role, he will also be tasked with promoting inclusion in the workplace and integrating acquisitions.
The culture that this new position will foster is one of work-life balance.
Zillow Group’s culture
This year, Zillow Group added to its already-strong employee benefits with an extended 16-week maternity leave (eight-week parental leave) policy and the creation of “Baby Bucks” — $1,000 given to new parents for essential items. Seattle Business Magazine also recognized Zillow Group as the No. 1 best place to work in the city.
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However, the company’s HR track record isn’t blemish-free — Zillow Group is currently the subject of a class-action lawsuit over alleged illegal wage and hour law violations.
New employee background
Spaulding most recently served the 140,000 Starbucks staff members in America as the vice president, U.S. stores and retail operations HR of the company. He also brings experience in global scaling through mergers and acquisitions from his prior leadership roles at Life Technologies and Dell.
“Zillow Group is an incredibly innovative and unique organization that presents tremendous opportunity for our employees, and I am excited to join their leadership team,” Spaulding said in a press release. “I am looking forward to partnering with employees at all levels of the organization to accelerate the next stage of business growth.”
