A phrase jumps out when Experian’s Craig Boundy explains how his company keeps its workers happy.

Bring “your whole self” to work, the company tells employees.

“It means be every bit of one’s self,” said Boundy, CEO of the credit report company’s North American division. “There’s complexity to everybody’s lives. There’s the subtlety in people’s lives, and it’s important that you don’t have to hide any element of that at work. And that’s how we are.”

Be you divorced, diseased or depressed, be you gay or a person of color, you don’t have to hide who you are or what you’re going through. Experian embraces diversity, its CEO said.

Craig Boundy, CEO of Experian North America, at their video command center at the company’s 500,000-square-foot campus in Costa Mesa, CA, on Friday, November 5, 2021. The company uses the venter to communicate with their North American employees. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

It’s hard to know what goes on inside any business. It’s hard to measure intangibles like how well they treat their people. But one measure — how employees rank their companies in workplace surveys — shows Experian is one of the best places to work in Orange County. And its culture of bringing your whole self to work may be one reason why.

The company ranked No. 1 out of 17 large employers participating in the Orange County Register’s Top Workplace program this year. It’s Experian’s third year as the No. 1 award winner, and the second in two straight years.

Orange County had just under 128,000 employers as of last summer, the state Employment Development Department reported. Of those, 207 took part in this year’s program.

Experian’s Dublin-based parent company, Experian PLC, has 17,800 employees in 44 countries. The North American branch, based in Costa Mesa, has 6,600 employees, 1,300 of them in Orange County.

Most consumers think of Experian when applying for a mortgage, a car loan or a lease. Experian maintains credit information on approximately 220 million consumers and 25 million businesses in the U.S., as well as information on more than 650 million vehicles.

All that data totals 1.5 petabytes — or about 1.5 million gigabytes. Put another way, if one byte was the size of an M&M, Experian’s data would circle the globe 389 times.

With so much of its business online, Experian employees have had the flexibility to work from home long before the pandemic hit, Boundy said. The company cafeteria remains closed. And anyone entering Experian’s Costa Mesa headquarters needs to show proof of vaccination. But little else has changed.

For example, the pandemic didn’t put a dent in the company’s growth. Revenue jumped 9% to more than $3.5 billion in the year ending March 31. That’s two-thirds of the company’s worldwide revenue.

“Experian people never missed a beat,” Boundy said. “We’ve never ever used the term ‘back to work’ because that implies that people stopped working. Experian people never stopped working. They didn’t stop delivering for clients. They didn’t stop building new products. They didn’t stop innovating. They didn’t stop supporting each other.”

Craig Boundy, CEO of Experian North America, at their video command center at the company’s 500,000-square-foot campus in Costa Mesa, CA, on Friday, November 5, 2021. The company uses the venter to communicate with their North American employees. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG)

In comments to the Top Workplace survey, Experian employees said they feel appreciated, respected and valued. Some said they felt challenged to do their best work and love their flexible work schedules.

“Fostering that culture doesn’t happen by accident,” Boundy said. “It has to be very deliberate in everything that you do. … It’s making people feel they can bring their whole self to work. Whatever it is that you need, then the company, your colleagues, your Experian family is going to be there to support you.”

During the lockdown, Experian rolled out a plan to tackle its employees’ technology and home environment needs like ergonomic chairs, monitors and videocams.

The biggest lesson of the pandemic, Boundy said, was how resilient Experian people are. The next biggest lesson was the importance of communicating all the time.

“The early stages of the pandemic, I sent video communication out to all our employees every week. I got pretty expert at shooting it from my home office,” he said. “Communication also very important in how we work and the importance of just constant drive to build new things to be innovative to be creative.”

Experian has a robust benefits package, which includes a 4% match to the 401(k) and a wide range of medical plans. The company recently added infertility coverage and care for children and elder dependents.

There are also paid parental leave, family leave and disability leave programs.

On top of those benefits, Experian gave thousands of employees below the rank of vice president a “share award,” or a grant of company shares, earlier this year to recognize perseverance through the pandemic.

Experian CEO Craig Boundy kicked off the company’s Lunar New Year Celebration with a ceremonial waking of the dragon. (Courtesy of Amanda Irving)

“It was an extra thank you,” Boundy said.

The “Power of You” effort launched in 2018 created eight “Employee Resource Groups,” which are networks set up and run by employees to provide support and community for employees. The groups serve veterans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Indian and LGBTQ staff members. Employees also have formed numerous clubs, including ones for book lovers, gamers, golfers, surfers, Christians, Spanish speakers, parents and interns.

The pandemic didn’t slow any of this activity.

“We just work like we always worked. We just carry on,” Boundy said. “We did a lot of different things. That’s how we thrived through this time.”

Experian North America

Founded: 1897

Headquarters: Costa Mesa

OC Employees: 1,300

Website: experian.com

“Experian people never missed a beat. …  We’ve never ever used the term ‘back to work’ because that implies that people stopped working. Experian people never stopped working. They didn’t stop delivering for clients. They didn’t stop building new products. They didn’t stop innovating. They didn’t stop supporting each other.” — Craig Boundy, CEO of Experian North America

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