Holistic Approach to Employee Engagement

In leadership positions at both TikTok and Gartner Digital Markets, Chris Alwell has worked to foster a sense of belonging and expanded culture-based initiatives.

By Maggie Mancini

As the employee well-being experience program manager at TikTok and former culture and engagement lead at Gartner Digital Markets, Chris Alwell aims to foster belonging, address equity, and expand DEI offerings in his leadership roles.  

At Gartner, Alwell organized the company’s first-ever Pride celebrations and secured stakeholder support by emphasizing diversity and inclusivity in connection to the brand’s image. At TikTok, Alwell piloted well-being programs at TikTok, fine-tuning them based on regional feedback. These programs were later scaled to Asia and Europe.  

By taking a holistic approach to the employee experience, Alwell views communications, rewards, events, and well-being initiatives as interconnected parts of a bigger picture. His emphasis on culture-building and DEI have impacted more than 1,300 employees globally.  

In all, Alwell has been able to merge community-building efforts with data-driven insights to ensure empathy and efficiency in HR decisions. He utilized virtual town halls and other communications avenues to ensure broad reach and engagement with employees in Austin and abroad. He also leveraged internal communications to garner support for his well-being and culture-based initiatives to encourage smooth execution and wide acceptance.  

Chris Alwell, employee well-being experience program manager at TikTok, won the HRO Today Association’s North America Award for HR Excellence, Media and Entertainment.