In this episode of Make Yourself @ Work, Matt Tverberg sits down with Caitlin Steininger, Director of Workplace Operations (Americas) at Samsara, a connected operations cloud platform. Caitlin brings more than 14 years of experience, including senior roles at Cohesity and SteelWave, and today leads workplace strategy, real estate operations, and employee experience across a growing global footprint.

Caitlin shares what it really means to own employee experience at scale. She manages 15 locations across multiple regions and explains why the biggest challenges aren't physical, they're operational.

She dives into how Samsara uses utilization data for meal forecasting and lease planning, the real cost of disconnected systems, and how AI is already changing how her team works. Some key lessons from the conversation include: your employees are your customers, always communicate the "why" behind new tools, and if you want people to come in, give them a reason worth the commute.

This episode provides a practical guide for workplace and facilities leaders, and anyone responsible for building employee experiences that scale.

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Quotes

“​​ We're more than just a facilities manager. We really are the chief operating officer of employee experience. When you step into a Samsara office, that employee experience, what you feel, what you see, what you engage with really is what workplace does.”

“ We spend more hours with the people that we work with than our families, and so it's really important that our office environment and creating that great employee experience is… a home away from home, where employees can be their most productive.”

“I really like to put myself in the employee's shoes and say, "Okay, an executive just came to me, or a VP just came to me, and they need me to set this up right now. What information do I need to give the workplace team so they can turn it around quickly?" And that's really where I focus.”

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Timestamps

(00:32) Background on Caitlin and Samsara

(03:01) Defining workplace operations

(06:48) Raising the bar after Samsara's TIME100 recognition

(11:10) What strains first when companies scale

(14:14) Cultural differences across global hubs

(16:14) Hybrid in practice: building the why for in-office work

(20:46) Data blind spots and the HRIS integration gap

(24:11) Using utilization data for forecasting and planning

(31:12) Building team culture and celebrating wins

(43:01) The 80% occupancy pinch point

(51:24) How Caitlin Makes Herself @ Work

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Links

Connect with the guest and host on LinkedIn!

• Caitlin Steininger
• Matt Tverberg

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