ArticlesArrow image
Life Of A Lepayaan: Meet Lotte Lotte

Life Of A Lepayaan: Meet Lotte Lotte

Written by:
ELLEN WHYTE
Date created
August 24, 2023
Last updated:
October 12, 2023
|
5 min read
Table of content
Ready to upskill your people and
transform your business today?

We offer a scalable employee training solution. It lets you continuously upskill your people and expand their capabilities.

Plan a meeting
Key takeaways

Lotte Scheffer has been working at Lepaya since day one. Being one of Lepaya’s first hires, Lotte has an abundance of stories and experiences at Lepaya since joining in 2018. Lotte recently started a new role as Lepaya’s People Team Lead after her time as Customer Success & Innovation Manager. Lotte and I discussed her path to Lepaya and how she came to be a part of the Lepaya team from the start. Meet Lotte!

Lotte - People Team Lead

Where did you study prior to joining Lepaya?

I did both my bachelor and master in Utrecht. For my bachelor I studied Psychology and I followed it up with a master in clinical psychology. I was always very interested in people, I am really invested and interested in helping people so psychology was an easy choice for university. At the end of my master I completed an internship in-clinic. The internship was quite intense, we were taking care of people who were mentally unwell but it was a valuable experience. After the internship I decided I wanted to explore a different avenue of psychology and focus on how to support people in organizations to determine the right job for them, and to develop themselves further in that role.

Psychology seems to be a calling! Where did you first work after your master?

I started off working with McKinsey as a recruiter for two and a half years. I was a selection & campus recruiter so I worked quite closely with a lot of university students and prospective employees. I learned quite a lot from this role as I was working at such a high calibre. Working with university students made it a really dynamic way of working. I met so many different kinds of talented people and sought out potential in these students and determined potential future employees.

After my time at McKinsey I moved to Singapore and worked at Lazada. First I worked as a recruiter but after some time I moved into people development which is where I met René (founder of Lepaya).

René and I worked together to develop new programs to help Lazada create an infrastructure to efficiently develop their employees. I finished up with Lazada in early 2018 to return home to the Netherlands. I joined Lepaya around this time, so I really got to see it grow from the beginning. I have been working at Lepaya for about 3 and a half years now!

Side note from interviewer: Lotte was perhaps too modest to mention, but like any good interviewer, I did some background work and discovered that Lotte actually won an award for Young HR talent of the year during her time at Lazada! Check it out.

Young HR talent award

You’re an original Lepayaan! What have your roles at Lepaya been?

In the beginning my role doubled up as learning strategist and business developer. These were early days and Lepaya had just started, so many of us juggled a few different roles while Lepaya’s dream team grew.

More recently I worked as a Customer Success Manager for Lepaya. This was also a double role of sorts as I worked for a number of clients and acted as their contact point, in a customer success manager capacity. This meant I designed the programs according to the needs of each company to ensure a) they had a high ROI on learning and b) the trainings would have impact. I maintained conversations with each company for improving and expanding programs as well as advising them and thinking with them to make sure their trainings are as relevant and impactful as possible.

As a customer innovation manager, I worked with Lepaya’s products to ensure the innovations we produce are rolled out effectively with our customers, integrating product development with the practical customer application to ensure we are developing products in the right way.

Today, my role is to lead the People Team in Lepaya, the role that I very recently took on. My goal is to further professionalize all People related initiatives and make sure all Lepayaans are happy and can perform at their best at work. I am really happy I got this opportunity to go back to this field at the company I know so well and look forward to this challenge.

Why do you like working for Lepaya?

One of my favourite things about Lepaya is that we think in opportunities. Everything starts with an idea that is worked and developed into something great. My role as customer innovation manager was created to be involved in the product development to ensure we were innovating with customers as efficiently as possible. This role was created so we could make sure the product we created was truly a fit for our customers and would be used.

One of my favourite things about Lepaya is that we think in opportunities

Lepaya really trusts employees and gives a lot of freedom to grow at Lepaya. You can explore different avenues and see where you fit best, where your skills are most valued. Everybody at Lepaya brings something new to the table, but as well as that, the management allows people to figure out where they should be, grow in that role and enjoy it! That is why I have stayed since the beginning, Lepaya will always ensure you are in the right place. Everyone at Lepaya is open to all ideas and willing to explore different possibilities of innovation and growth.

What is your favourite Lepaya memory?

Lepayaans fun activity

It has to be the beginning. We worked in a tiny, cold office. There was a tiny group of 4 or 5 people working from this office and I remember being so cold! But it felt like I was on an exhilarating adventure with a small group of incredibly ambitious people with so much potential and such advanced goals. At the time, Febo and drinks on a Friday night were a given, it was so much fun!

Another particularly fond memory I have of Lepaya is when I received a present and card in the mail on my first mother’s day! It was so special, I really appreciated that being a mother was celebrated, it is such an important role to me so Lepaya recognising that made me feel particularly proud and valued.

What is your favourite thing that Lepaya does?

Lepaya did things not all start ups do from day one. Not all start ups start right away with a work to live scheme, having every second Friday off to ensure employees have a work life balance. Of course there is always room for improvement, but initiatives like Lepaya Friday are really special and really feel like they put the employee first.

Initiatives like Lepaya Friday are really special and really feel like they put the employees first

Aside from the people-first approach Lepaya adopted, I also love that we are data-driven. We always act on what we know works based on scientific data. We are constantly learning new things and experimenting with new potential programs to innovate and grow in completely new ways, but we are always supported by the data.

Do you think these things make Lepaya different from other employers?

Absolutely! I have not seen this before at any company I worked for. Next to this, Lepaya is a modern scale up company in the HR space, which is an interesting combination. Freedom, trust and people are very important. Corona especially accelerated the freedom aspect and showed the potential for stretching our reach in terms of who joined Lepaya. We brought on so many international employees and proved that we could facilitate remote working effectively.

Everyone says this, and I have said it already, but what makes Lepaya unique is that you are able to shape the role you’re in to your best advantage. When you perform at your best, because you are in the best position for your skills, your organization benefits from this! That’s why Lepaya has grown so quickly. Your skills are identified and nurtured. The thought process is never “How can we adjust your skills to utilize them?” it is always “What role do you need to be in to best use your skills?”. That is what makes Lepaya special.

Become a Lepayaan!

nurturing skills

Meer over Lotte Scheffer

Lotte has been with Lepaya since 2018, since the beginning of Lepaya! In her time, Lotte has always been where her skills and potential were best used and where she was happiest. Today, Lotte is leading the people team to ensure Lepaya continues to grow the dream team needed for our continued growth and success. If you want to know more about working at Lepaya, be sure to reach out to Lotte!

join our team

Lepaya is an employer that helps you discover your best place, as we have seen in these interviews (it is becoming a recurring theme!). If you want to join team Lepaya, check out our vacancies!

Ready to upskill your people & transform your business?

We offer a scalable employee training solution. It lets you continuously upskill your people.

Book a call
No items found.
No items found.

Enter your email below to receive L&D trends, news, and insights from us.

Featured articles