How LOVB's Game-Changing Team Stays Connected
League One Volleyball, (LOVB) is changing the face of sports and forming the bedrock that will support the next major American sports league.
Through its one-of-a-kind, holistic club to pro volleyball ecosystem and its foundation dedicated to increasing access to the sport of volleyball for youth across the country, LOVB is championing the sport of volleyball and every athlete who plays it.
Building the foundation for the next major league sport is a mammoth undertaking, but LOVB’s diverse and growing team is not only up for the challenge, they relish it.
We met up with Charlie Erdman from LOVB’s Pro League Marketing team, Andrea Larsen, Director of People Operations, and Alen Kopcic, Manager of Operational Effectiveness and Internal Communications, to learn what it takes to keep this diversely talented, nationwide team connected and engaged.
While each member of the team we spoke to was initially drawn by different aspects of the organization, LOVB’s mission, and the people they work together with to carry it out rang through.
“First and foremost, it’s my teammates,” Erdman began. “Everyone I’ve met at LOVB has been so kind, compassionate, helpful, and easy to work with. I enjoy my role to the point where it feels more like a passion than a job.”
“We attract people who are passionate, and empowered by LOVB’s mission,” Larsen added. “It makes for an incredible working experience when everyone around you is driven by that mission.”
“I feel like everyone here is on the right path,” Kopcic said. “Women’s sports are growing, and as a father, I feel like this is creating more opportunities for people who want to join the sport.”
The broad reach and exciting nature of LOVB’s mission continues to inspire and engage the team, despite the distinct personal and professional backgrounds they come from.
“What we’re doing is groundbreaking, and will have a real impact on the sports world for years to come,” Erdman said. “That’s been a dream of mine forever.”
“I came from a world of government contractors, financial institutions, and aerospace companies,” Larsen explained. “While there’s incredibly interesting work to be done in all of these sectors. I’d been searching for a mission that revolves around human beings, and finally found it with LOVB.”
Kopic also found his own unique background fit right in among the LOVB team. “I have a service-oriented background: hospitality and video games—creative products that entertain people. For me, this was the next progression of getting to an organization that wants to entertain people, bring people together, and get access to players that can play and engage with a sport.”
With a trailblazing mentality and a tidal wave of momentum carrying it forward, the LOVB team has been recognized in multiple arenas, even being named one of LinkedIn’s Top 50 Startups. Asked what components of LOVB’s team and culture might contribute to its outstanding success, Erdman pointed to its dedication to seeking and implementing diverse perspectives.
“Every single person at LOVB has a meaningful job,” he shared. “When I was an intern, people took me and my ideas seriously. I was given meaningful work. We all have a role that will make a real impact on the present and future. All these incredibly strong players come together as one, and that’s why we’re called League One.”
"What we’re doing is groundbreaking, and will have a real impact on the sports world for years to come."
The LOVB team’s spirit of collaboration and combining myriad backgrounds and skills sets as a unified force fuels a deep well of innovation.
"Our CFO was previously the CFO at Allbirds and Panera," Erdman explained. "My boss was a top exec at Meta, Super Bowl 50, and America's Cup before joining LOVB. We’re bringing all these unique individuals and backgrounds together, and it makes for a diverse and exciting team to be on.
No organizations in North America have really established this club-to-pro ecosystem before, and I think we’re just getting started.”
“You can’t try to change the world from the ground up if you're going to use the same old ideas,” Larsen added. ”The diversity of our team allows us to see from numerous perspectives and understand points of view that will help shape LOVB as the next major league.”
“You can’t try to change the world from the ground up if you're going to use the same old ideas.”
To keep this collective connected with all its varied knowledge organized and accessible to everyone on the team, it was essential for LOVB to find a centralized hub that fit their unique team structure.
“We needed something clean with a nice UI anyone can use, a strong search functionality, and a good calendar that could connect with all our tools.”
Finding a platform that met all those needs was challenging, but through a thoughtful evaluation process, the team was able to find a solution that fit perfectly.
“We found that Haystack was exactly what we were looking for. It was cleaner and easier to use, it was better than anything out there, and it fit our budget. We got quotes for $100,000 for a product that was half as good as Haystack. That made it a really easy decision.”
In 2024, LOVB implemented Haystack to an enthusiastic employee base.
With over 50 volleyball clubs to manage, most members of the LOVB team are on the go at any given moment. That means communication, engagement, and accessibility look different from a typical organization.
“I’ve used a lot of different intranets, and Haystack’s mobile friendliness is key for the type of workforce we have,” Kopcic explained. “I come from a background where everyone is working on a computer at a desk all day. In contrast to that, maybe 20% of our internal audience is connected to a desktop device. Most people are on the go, in the field—out at the clubs.
Having a user-friendly internal communication platform that anybody can access from any device is essential.”
In addition to using different hardware than the average desk worker, many members of the team relate to communication tools differently as well.
“We need to communicate with a majority audience that doesn’t check email every day, or sit there looking at Slack or Teams or GChat. With Haystack, people can get the notifications they want on mobile. If there’s something critical to send out, I can force notifications and it still gets to your email, if that’s your preference.”
Meeting people in the context of their work with the right message at the right time can be a challenge for organizations with a large deskless workforce, but Kopcic and his team have a winning formula.
“Bringing insights and news to people where they’re at is key. We’re competing for attention on devices where everyone has highly engaging consumer apps. Being able to put information in people’s hands when they need it is crucial, and Haystack’s mobile platform is meeting those challenges.
“I’ve used a lot of different intranets, and Haystack’s mobile friendliness is key for the type of workforce we have."
As a People Operations leader, Larsen discovered Haystack was not only able to save employees time by connecting them to the information and people they needed more efficiently—it also unlocked new bandwidth on her team.
“Haystack gives us a reliable place where people can go when they need current information on policies or to access forms, which relieves a lot of burden from the People Ops team. Instead of answering those sorts of questions in numerous one-off interactions, they can focus more of their time on the work that propels us all forward.”
The employee onboarding experience also gained some noteworthy new features, helping both new and longstanding employees connect.
“Something I highlight when I’m doing orientation for new hires is the directory, the employee map, and the org chart,” Larsen said. “Those features make Haystack such a valuable resource and reference, because new hires are not only able to quickly put faces to names—they’re also able to click into someone’s bio and learn that they train quarter horses, that they love to read, or that they’re an Excel expert.
Having all those things in one place, in addition to being able to locate people on the map and see their time zone is really valuable.”
Erdman echoed Larsen’s sentiment, sharing his own experiences connecting with colleagues.
“Since we first set it up, Haystack has been the main touchpoint for anything anyone has questions about. If you need to find anything or anyone, just search Haystack.
I get outreach from people across the team saying ‘I saw on Haystack that you’re the person to talk to about this.’ It helps me spend less time tracking people down, and it makes it easy for anyone else to track me down. They have my phone number, my email, my timezone—everything is right there, and it’s really efficient.”
"If you need to find anything or anyone, just search Haystack."
With members of the LOVB team working across multiple states and time zones, ensuring the right messages reached the right people at the right time wasn’t easy. Oftentimes it led to an overload of information. With Haystack, the team was able to reduce overlap, shorten communication cycles, and cut through the noise.
“We have a very meeting-heavy central support team environment,” Larsen shared. “Emails alone tend to get bogged down and almost unusable for internal communication. Before Haystack, we had been using GChat as a method of internal communication, but that became its own quagmire.”
Communication is essential in any organization, but as Larsen explained, how, when, and where a team communicates can have a significant impact.
“When there’s too much input and too many channels, you get lost,” she said. “People get tired of all the input and tune it out. Having a central place for all the things that don’t need to be communicated on a regular basis really brings that noise down.”
“There was a lot of noise," Erdman agreed, thinking back. “Communication was split across three different channels. Some people were using Slack, while others were using Gchat and email. I’m glad we’re using the intranet now.”
While Haystack has been helpful as a central support tool, it’s also given the LOVB team a means of organizing communication in a way they couldn’t have before.
“With the club director and coaches groups, everyone gets all the information they need without being overwhelmed by noise,” Erdman said. “When we send out company-wide messages, it’s easy to ensure everyone gets the notification.”
Kopcic revealed another component of his strategy that lies in thoughtful multichannel communication, and using Haystack to automate it.
“The key for me has been to reserve large-format content for Haystack. While we’re still using Google Chat, we’re not going to put a full 600-1000 word post there, expecting people to scroll through for two minutes.
Instead, we’ll post a shortened summary in our centralized company-wide Google Chat channel that directs people to the full version on Haystack, where we can keep it visually appealing, easy to read, and importantly, mobile-friendly. With 80 percent of our team on mobile, again, that’s an essential audience to ensure we make this content accessible for.”
In addition to leveraging integrations and automated multichannel messaging to deliver engaging content in a format everyone can appreciate, Kopcic also emphasized the importance of empowering content partners across the organization..
“We’re always encouraging user-generated content from our 50+ clubs. It’s important to tell their stories and communicate the content that is relevant to them.”
“I can’t be at all of them at once, so it requires a partnership between me and the members of those groups to surface that relevant content for everybody. Not just top-down, but upwards.
A lot of stuff is happening out on the field and the courts that those of us working at computers don’t get to see. We want to see it as much as our colleagues in the field want to share it, so those partnerships continue to be key going forward."
As a member of a team that managed to deliver an engaging digital employee experience to a diverse national employee base, Kopcic shared a simple, yet powerful piece of advice for anyone else striving to accomplish the same goal.
“Start simple. With any communication platform, device—whatever it is—start with the essentials, and get those right. The last thing you want to do is roll out 15 things, and watch 13 roll off. Start with the core features, and keep expanding as you unlock the benefits.”
We’re thrilled to get to work with groundbreaking organizations like LOVB, as they continue building a foundation for the next major league sport.
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