By day, Bryan Larsen is a product marketer for Medtronic, a medical device company. After hours, he’s a master cyclist who’s headed to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
Most Olympic and Paralympic athletes can’t afford to train full-time and won’t get a check from the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee unless they medal. Larsen recently told HR Brew how his employer has supported his dream of Paralympic gold.
Larsen always had dreams of being a Paralympian, but was quiet about them at work.
“I’ve had past organizations that haven’t been hyper-supportive,” he said, noting that he often tried to downplay his training because employers were reluctant about his time away from work.
When he joined Medtronic as a remote worker in 2021, he only told his boss and a couple close work friends about his training. However, he said he was met with support from everyone on his team, allowing him to be more open about his journey.
Denise King, VP of global benefits and payroll at Medtronic, told HR Brew that the company believes supporting employees’ personal goals can help employee engagement and retention.
“When you support an employee with something like what Bryan is doing, that creates a very long-lasting relationship,” she said. “So from an inclusive perspective, we really do have a number of different benefits that we offer to try to support employees so that they can accomplish their dreams outside of the workplace.”
Balancing work and training can be difficult, Larsen said. He trains 10–18 hours a week on the streets of his Northern California hometown or on a stationary bike. He’s attended various Paralympic qualifying events, including one that required him to spend more than a week in Rio de Janeiro.
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“We got there a week before competing and I’d ride the bike maybe one or two hours a day,” he said, adding that he would work during his downtime. “It also has given me an opportunity to kind of shift my brain away from competing sometimes, which is kind of a pleasant thing to do.”
For organizations that want to support employees’ dreams, Larsen said flexibility and support from managers has been key. “They’ll respect my time away to the point where they’re not going to bubble it up and be sending me text messages related to work.”
Larsen has also had opportunities to involve the wider company in his journey. He said he held a Paralympics-focused “lunch and learn” so his colleagues could ask questions about the games and have a schedule of his races if they want to watch him live.
“We’re all watching from the sidelines, and as an organization, we can watch one of our fellow employees achieve their dreams outside of work. And that is pretty powerful,” King commented.
Larsen said the support, flexibility, and enthusiasm have been key to his Paralympic experience.
“It takes away that stress, which just helps me be able to focus on what I’m doing,” Larsen said. “The fact that I have so many people who want to cheer and watch—that’s really special, too.”