At Ascend Learning, we strive to provide opportunities for employees to stretch their skills and advance their careers by moving among business segments, brands and teams — driving personal and team growth while creating a culture where people love what they do, take ownership and are empowered to pursue new career opportunities within the company so we “hire our own talent.”

After starting in a sales role with Ascend brand ClickSafety in 2020, Aaron Roose made his move from safety & security to a sales operations team supporting the healthcare segment two years later. His story is about embracing change while moving across segments on sales teams where roles — and goals — are constantly evolving.

Ascend Communications (AC): Tell us about your former role and how it helped prepare you to make your move.

Aaron Roose (AR): I started in April 2020 as one of two pilot sales development reps in the Safety and Security vertical supporting ClickSafety. That role quickly morphed from general sales support into a more robust role helping with sales enablement and operations, a new HubSpot integration project and [being] an unofficial “CRM champion.”

I feel like we made a lot of progress, demonstrated by my eventual backfill of an official sales ops analyst role supporting ClickSafety which previously did not exist. I found it to be very beneficial to initially have my manager be a high-level director. That reporting structure offered opportunities to gradually be more and more in the “room where it happens.”

AC: Are there any projects you’re most proud of during your time at ClickSafety?

AR: As my role and my title evolved at ClickSafety, the most rewarding projects were the ones that required us to create a working cadence that allowed for more effective cross-departmental collaboration such as the HubSpot integration. I honestly think one of the things I’m most proud of was implementing the known idea of “teach a person to fish.” ClickSafety has some amazing folks on their team who want to learn and develop their skills, so we partnered, dove in, and not only upskilled ourselves, but those collaborators then also became SMEs that could help the rest of the sales organization.

AC: What can you share about your new role?

AR: In June 2022 I moved over to the healthcare segment as a sales operations analyst primarily supporting National Healthcareer Association, where I facilitate communication and collaboration between multiple functions in healthcare and Tech & Ops. I don’t always solve the question or concern — but I bring the needs of the business to the team that does.

AC: What was the process like making your move?

AR: My amazing wife has been with NHA for over six years and loves the ethos here. NHA puts significant time, thought, and effort into truly embodying Ascend’s values. She first mentioned the job opening in healthcare and we saw there was overlap with the work I was doing at ClickSafety. My manager was completely supportive and encouraged me to apply.

During the initial interviews, there was an immediate ease in the conversations, and I realized I had gained confidence and competence in many of the things being asked in this new role. After I was offered the position, my former manager went further and said I could call anytime if I needed additional support, which speaks to his leadership skills.

AC: How would you describe the culture at Ascend?

AR: Our work has real impact, whether it’s ClickSafety training that keeps workers safe on the jobsite, or NHA training and upskilling medical professionals to better serve the healthcare community — neither is trivial. As someone who has spent time both on jobsites as well as in hospitals, we very much want and need those professionals to be as good as they can at what they do. You only need to hear one testimonial from a pharmacy technician, nurse educator, or a CTE instructor whose life has been changed for the better because of their relationship with NHA to witness real world effects of our values.

AC: How have our values shaped or influenced this process for you?

AR: I think that embracing change has been top of mind throughout my time at Ascend. If we learned one thing from the pandemic, it’s that agility is critical to success. Ascend pivoted in myriad ways to support our customers. I’ve also had the privilege of working with a number of teammates whose passion for what they do makes me WANT to come to work.

That could be anything from putting in extra time and effort to help cover a coworker that’s out to something as simple as NHA having a Teams channel where folks regularly give shout-outs and accolades, thereby encouraging the entire org. There is camaraderie here I’ve not encountered elsewhere.

AC: Do you have any words of encouragement to others at Ascend who are considering “making their move?”

AR: Don’t be afraid to ask questions — particularly if the goal is to improve. I have been told by several folks in leadership roles during my tenure in both safety & security as well as healthcare that there are no dumb questions.

Some of those questions for me have led to the next opportunity to collaborate with additional teams or see the problem we’re trying to solve from a wholly different vantage point. You never know when YOUR question or YOUR unique input could not only benefit the entire project but might also open doors on which you never would have thought to knock.

To quote Ted Lasso, “Be curious, not judgmental.”

***

When team members move to new roles across Ascend, they grow their skills and stretch their capabilities within a company they already know, maintain their benefits and connections with colleagues, and teams gain an employee already invested in the work, mission and culture — one that can ramp up quickly and bring legacy knowledge to their new role. To learn more about career opportunities at Ascend, visit our Careers page.