Rebecca Chong, Ensuring Equitable and Fair Performance Management Experiences
March 13th, 2022
Rebecca Chong is the Program Manager, Performance Management Equity & Design at Google, where she ensures that performance management system and process produce outcomes and experiences that are equitable, accurate, and fair. With the opportunity to test out different roles in her first role at Google via rotations and 20% projects, Rebecca found herself drawn to people-centric work — ultimately landing her in her current role and starting her own business as a certified coach.
In this feature, Rebecca shares the importance of trying different things, listing out the key components she was looking for in her next role, and the importance of setting boundaries . Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.
Early Career
You started your career as a Global Customer Experience Account Strategist at Google after graduating from Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in Multicultural and Diversity studies. What key learnings did you take from your first role?
I feel fortunate that my first role after graduating was a big “sandbox” for me to test out what types of work, skills, topics, and work preferences were important to me. I had various rotational opportunities on my team and also 20% projects (at Google you can do 20% projects outside of your core team– at about 20% of your time) that helped me clarify what type of work I was good at and what type of work I was excited about.
After over two years in Global Customer Experience at Google, you transitioned to Google’s People Operations team. How did you know you wanted to make the shift to People Ops and what initially drew you to Performance Management Equity & Design?
Like I mentioned, I was able to test out a lot of types of work via rotations and 20% projects in my first role, and I found myself drawn to people-centric work such as learning and development, intern programs, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. All roles focused on these areas were housed in People Operations, so when I came to the point where I was ready for a change, I began to look into this space. Because of my experiences, I had compiled a list of the key components (skills I wanted or already had, topics I cared about/was excited about, work I liked to do) that were included in my ideal role– now it was finding this role within Google. It was clear when I read the role description how aligned it was to what I wanted and was looking for.
You’re currently a Program Manager in Performance Management Equity & Design at Google. What exactly does your role entail and what is your day-to-day?
My team ensures that our performance management system and process produce outcomes and experiences that are equitable, accurate, and fair. Specifically in my role, I think about how we can ensure equitable outcomes via systems design and change. We recently launched a new performance management system at Google, and I worked to ensure that the new system had equity-centered designs based on insights we have learned from internal and external research. On a day to day, I work with Google program managers and design teams to embed equity centered designs into processes, internal tools, and system designs and iterations. It’s a mix of collaboration, influencing and enablement, design and systems thinking, research application, and applying equity subject matter expertise to help Google accomplish its goals.
What excites you most about the future of designing equitable people systems at Google?
It’s incredibly exciting because it’s still something no industry has gotten perfect yet. We are really in revolutionary territory, and I get to learn, test, and iterate on this giant question of how we can design an equitable system and process, particularly in an organization like Google, but also just generally when I think about people systems. I am able to do both Blue Sky thinking and get in the weeds of implementation. I’m constantly thinking, exploring, experimenting, and iterating– I’m never really bored!
Rebecca Chong Coaching
You recently started your own business! Tell us more about being a certified coach and what you focus on with your clients.
I have always loved helping people align who they are with what they do. I found the more formal practice of coaching a few years ago, and jumped right into it as was so it aligned to who I was, and I knew I wanted this to be a part of my life. After a year and a half of formal certification and practice, I recently launched my website and coaching practice. I am so excited to help people bring their future into their present and align what they are doing to where they want to go. I love helping people find alignment and inner peace in who they are (which includes their values, their position in the world, their identity, their interests/passions, their essence) with how they spend their time (which typically includes work and career).
Career Advice
What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?
Work will always be there for you to do if you let it. I let work come first more than it should have when I first started, and I wish I had the perspective and confidence to clearly define that boundary and relationship right out the gate.
Who is one woman you aspire to be like?
I think about my paternal grandma as someone whose energy is something I want to carry with me. She was a self-made business woman in the 1940s in colonial Jamaica, and she was a trailblazer for her time. She was quite literally a boss, and I think about the power, determination, and drive she must have needed to launch her career and full-fledged enterprise when she was only in her 20s. If she were to do that right now, what would she do with the opportunity?
