Airbnb links comms and internal culture
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Fallon O'Connor. Photo: Celeste Sloman
Airbnb is combining communications and parts of its people function under longtime communicator Fallon O'Connor, who will join CEO Brian Chesky's leadership team in a new role.
Why it matters: The top communicator at one of tech's most recognizable companies is taking responsibility for not only explaining its culture but helping build it.
Between the lines: Airbnb is separating people and culture work — recruiting, development, belonging and talent management — from more financial and operational people functions.
- CFO Ellie Mertz will oversee performance and rewards, and workplace operations.
What they're saying: "Recruiting, talent, and belonging are the machinery by which culture gets built," Chesky wrote in a company-wide memo. "They belong with a leader who knows the culture best."
- "How Airbnb feels inside is how it should feel outside," O'Connor tells Axios in an exclusive interview.
- The new structure, which O'Connor will lead as head of communications and people, reflects how Chesky and Airbnb have been "carving out a space for earned conversation, both internally and externally."
Zoom in: The change has "been happening really naturally" within Airbnb over the last few years, O'Connor says.
- Her comms team has taken responsibility for internal communications and company forums, handling both their content and the experience around them.
- The team has also "evolved and adapted" beyond traditional communications to oversee influencer and celebrity programs, experiential work and internal culture initiatives.
- The expanded role will allow her to "be the bridge between those more properly," she says.
Zoom out: Chesky is also betting that O'Connor's track record in building and retaining a communications team can translate to the broader talent organization.
- O'Connor has spent nearly 12 years at Airbnb, and Chesky noted that her direct reports average a decade of tenure.
- O'Connor says that longevity has also helped her build "really good, deep relationships" across the leadership team she'll now formally join for the first time.
The bottom line: Airbnb's structure could become a model for comms leaders to move from communicating culture to helping build it.
