Meet Hetal, who keeps every Strider moving forward

Hetal Patel is celebrating her five-year anniversary at Stride. Here’s a bit about her journey as Stride’s Senior HR Business Partner.

Hetal, you’re Stride’s Senior HR Business Partner—tell us a bit about what you do.

In my role, I build, deliver, and manage key HR processes and people strategies. This includes performance and compensation management, employee engagement, and the growth and development of our team. I work closely with Stride’s executive leaders and people managers to ensure our teams are happy and productive. I wear many hats, but the core of my role focuses on people, ensuring that they have the most meaningful experience possible during their time at Stride.

Where are you from originally?

I was born and raised in Stockton, California, and I’ve lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for 12 years before recently moving to Chicago.

What are some of your hobbies and interests?

I love being active and being outdoors, traveling, food and sports! My ideal day is going out for a run or doing a Peloton workout, exploring/traveling whatever city I’m in, eating the best food possible, and supporting all my favorite Bay Area Sports teams (Go Warriors, SF Giants, and Raiders). 

What were you doing before you joined Stride?

Before Stride, I spent time working in HR for the county government, specifically helping build employee engagement and HR programs for county employees. I’ve also worked in senior living communities, where I built meaningful experiences for seniors in assisted living. I’ve always been extremely passionate about people and culture, and I’ve learned many valuable lessons through these experiences.

Why did you choose to work at Stride?

The mission. I’ve never worked at a start-up before, and it was really important to me to join a company that had a mission I not only understood but one that I was passionate about. I am a first-generation Indian American with parents that came here not only as immigrants but also as independent workers. I saw firsthand the difficult chaos of navigating healthcare and taxes on their own. I can’t imagine how difficult it was for them to understand the difference between an HMO and PPO network for their health insurance. Stride helps solve for this and we do it with compassion and care for our customers. I make sure to tell every Uber or Lyft I get into about Stride!

What’s your favorite memory at Stride (so far)?

Wow, there are so many! I’ll have to go with the Open Enrollment Period in 2017 where I traveled across the country along with teammates on our Member Experience (MX) team to get our members signed up for health insurance on the spot. It was beyond meaningful for me to be able to engage with our customers, get to know them, and help them find the right insurance plan for them and their families. My day-to-day is so involved in our internal Stride team, so being able to connect with our customers face-to-face was amazing!

What’s the most rewarding part about working at Stride?

Being a part of the journey over the last 5 years and directly having an impact on our company's values and our growth. The last 5 years have been filled with many challenges, learning opportunities, and wins that we’ve gone through together as a team. I’ve been really fortunate to learn firsthand about the intricacies of our business from our CEO, Noah. Our company is truly built on relationships—we take time to build meaningful connections that lead to trust, understanding, and belonging. We are passionate about going above and beyond to support one another and our members.

What’s your favorite food?

I love Indian food. I grew up being forced to eat it and as I get older I’ve realized how much I love Indian food and embracing my roots.  This may have led me to love all foods that are spicy and bold. I will never turn down a Mission district burrito though.

What’s your current dream vacation? 

Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar—I’ve been dying to visit all three and learn more about the cultures in these beautiful countries and, of course, eat my way through all the amazing foods. 

What opportunities are you most excited for within the next year at Stride? 

Our team is growing rapidly and we are building meaningful products. Along with this, I’m most excited about our efforts around Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Since we have adapted to a remote environment and are hiring teammates from all across the country, these efforts have become more important than ever. This is an area I’m super passionate about and Stride is invested in continuing to learn and grow these areas.

Want to work with Hetal and help everyone get their own benefits? We’re hiring, come join us!