Next Practices Weekly: Recent Episodes
i4cp
What are the people strategies that will power your organization for the years ahead? i4cp is a member-based HR research company devoted to connecting HR leaders and providing them with innovative solutions and research encompassing best practices and next practices in the industry. Next Practices Weekly, hosted by Tom Stone, is an extension of the company's mission, featuring Human Resources executives from many of the world's largest brands. Join us for thought-provoking discussions and insight into industry trends and solutions.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone hosted i4cp Senior Research Analyst Katheryn Brekken and i4cp Rob Cross, Senior Vice President of Research who shared key findings from their new research "The Team Network Effect™."
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp Report (members only): The Team Network Effect™
- i4cp Executive Brief (available to non-members): The Team Network Effect™
- i4cp’s TNE Case Studies (members only): Roche, Oliver Wyman, & Microsoft
- i4cp’s TNE: Leaders Guide to Optimize 1:1 meeting (members only)
- i4cp’s TNE: Friday Rose: A Trust and Innovation Exercise (members only)
- Article on this research at HR Executive: What Workplace Teams Need and How HR Tech Can Help
- Connect with Rob Cross on LinkedIn
- Connect with Katheryn Brekken on LinkedIn
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analysts Katheryn Brekken and Tom Stone were joined by special guest RJ Milnor, Co-Chair of i4cp’s People Analytics Board, and Chief People Officer at Valuetainment.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- 2024 Conference Recordings (members only)
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s new Team Network Effect report (full report for members only, non-members should download the executive brief)
- Connect with RJ Milnor on LinkedIn
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp VP of Advisory Services Marshall Bergmann and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone were joined by special guests Dimitrios Smyrnios, former Chief Executive Officer; Scott Peterson, former EVP & CHRO; and Kari Ziemer, Chief Talent Officer and Vice President of Human Resources at Schwan’s Company.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- 2024 Conference Recordings (members only)
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s new Team Network Effect report (full report for members only, non-members should download the executive brief)
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Director of Research Enablement Judy Albers and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone were joined by special guest Matt Beane, Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and author of the new book The Skill Code: How to Save Human Ability in an Age of Intelligent Machines. In today's tech-driven world, the crucial mentor-mentee relationship is at risk. As we strive to optimize productivity with AI and robotics, we are inadvertently distancing junior workers from seasoned experts across various industries. This growing gap is a multi-trillion-dollar problem that has largely been overlooked—until now.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp global events (APAC and EMEA)
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- 2024 Conference Recordings (members only)
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s new Team Network Effect report (full report for members only, non-members should download the executive brief)
- Matt Beane's book The Skill Code is available at Amazon and other booksellers
- The book website is www.theskillcodebook.com
- Follow Matt Beane on LinkedIn
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Creative Director Eric Davis, Director of Member Enablement Nina Holtsberry, and VP of Research Lorrie Lykins facilitated a conversation with special guest Christopher Bylone van Sandwyk, Global Head of Belonging; Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, & Accessibility at Krispy Kreme.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp’s Global Events (APAC & EMEA) - register here
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp Article: Corporate Pride: What's Under Your Rainbow by Lorrie Lykins
- i4cp Survey Results: Employers and LGBTQ+ Legislation
- Krispy Kreme 2022 Responsibility Report
- Time Out Youth (get involved)
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Membership Director Nathaniel Hudson and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone were joined by special guests Laurin Cathey, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer; Greg Johnson,, Sr. HR Director, Talent & Strategy; and Jes Beck, Director of Org Development & Learning at Children’s Minnesota.
View the video recording:
https://www.i4cp.com/meetings/i4cp-s-2024-next-practices-weekly-may-30-2024
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp’s Global Events (APAC & EMEA) - register here
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s new Team Network Effect report (full report for members, executive brief for others)
- Series of resources provided by i4cp for leaders from coaching expert Marshall Goldsmith
- I4cp experiential learning case studies: Shell and T-Mobile
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analysts Katheryn Brekken and Tom Stone were joined by special guest Rob Wellen, Managing Director, Data & AI, at BDO Digital.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp's AI resource collection (includes both member-only and public resources)
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Judy Albers, i4cp Director of Research Enablement, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, were joined by special guest Brandon Roberts, Group Vice President of People Analytics and AI at ServiceNow.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- Resources from i4cp on Culture Renovation are available at https://culturerenovation.com
- Learn more about i4cp Advisory Services at https://www.i4cp.com/advisory
- i4cp's AI resource collection (includes both member-only and public resources)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Pat Murakami, i4cp Senior Director, Member Services, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, were joined by special guests Michael Killingsworth, Head of Learning for U.S. Personal Banking, and Allison Stiefken, Director of Learning Program Execution (USPB) at Citi.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- Case Study (i4cp members only): Leveraging the Power of Agile Through Learning Transformation
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Eric Davis and Nina Holtsberry, along with Jacqui Robertson, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Cleveland Clinic, facilitated a conversation with special guest Vanessa Lewerentz, Chief Inclusion Officer at BMO, and member of i4cp's Chief Diversity Officer Board.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s Brief: Resetting DE&I (members only)
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Lorrie Lykins, i4cp's Vice President, Research and Executive Editor, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, were joined by special guest Bob Toohey, Executive Vice President and CHRO at Allstate.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- Article at Fortune: "Allstate cut half its office space after adopting flexible work. Job applications soared 23%, with large increases among women and people of color"
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analysts Katheryn Brekken and Tom Stone were joined by special guest Rob Cross, Senior Vice President of Research at i4cp to discuss his research on "Creating Enterprise Leadership: How Top Quartile Leaders Collaborate."
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's CEO and Co-founder Kevin Oakes and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone were joined by special guest Elliott Masie, CEO and Founder of MASIE Learning. Together they discussed highlights from the 2024 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference, which was held March 26-28, in Scottsdale, Arizona. They shared insights from the conference on topics including:
- The evolution of HR
- The relationship between HR and the CEO and Board of Directors
- HR and AI
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility
- Team Effectiveness
- Culture and Leadership
- … and more!
They also shared the winners of the 2024 i4cp Next Practice Award winners which were first revealed at the conference. To submit for next year's awards, see here.
For more details and resources shared during the call, visit the offiical i4cp event archive.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Managing Director, Communities & Partnerships, Carrie Bevis, and Senior Research Analyst, Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Hortense le Gentil, a globally renowned executive leadership coach, speaker, and author.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT.
On this week's call, i4cp's Chief Research Officer, Kevin Martin, and Senior Research Analyst, Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Diane Gherson, former CHRO at IBM, and now Member, Board of Directors at Kraft Heinz, Centivo, and TechWolf.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Marshall Bergmann, VP of Advisory Services, and Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst, facilitated a conversation with special guests Lori Frasier, Chief People Officer, and Janie Lee, Senior Manager of Strategy Initiatives, at Pax8.
Join i4cp’s Next Practices Weekly on Feb.1, 2024 for an empowering discussion celebrating diversity and inclusion with Samantha “Sam” Santos, Managing Director, Global Head of DE&I Strategy at Citi.
During this week’s collaborative session you can expect to:
- Gain insights into how Citigroup’s Allyship 365 program empowers individuals to foster inclusive workplaces that ensure every employee feels valued and heard
- Explore the keys to Citigroup's culture of respect and support
- Learn practical strategies from Citi to encourage and support colleagues, especially those from underrepresented groups
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp VP of Research Lorrie Lykins, and i4cp senior research analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Sarah Tilley, SVP of Global Talent Acquisition at ServiceNow.
Turnaround time is the heartbeat of the airline industry. There’s little margin for error, and success is measured by fractions of a second. Nevertheless, turning around an aircraft to ensure a safe disembark and flight readiness is an entirely different challenge from turning around an airline. Oscar Munoz, the former CEO of United Airlines, led UA through one of the modern business’s most remarkable corporate turnarounds, inspiring employees, customers, and investors.
In this Next Practices Weekly session, Oscar Munoz shares insights from his book “Turnaround Time: Uniting an Airline and Its Employees in the Friendly Skies” around leadership lessons for creating a culture of empathy, standing up for employees, and advancing an inclusive economy. Sign up for the 2024 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference to hear more HR insights and details of his journey.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp senior research analyst Tom Stone and i4cp managing director, communities and partnerships Carrie Bevis, facilitated a conversation with special guest Erin Feigal, Chief Human Resource Officer at Prime Therapeutics.
Valuable Resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now Conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s 2024 Priorities & Prediction Report (Members Only Download)
- i4cp's 2024 Priorities & Prediction (Non Members)
Competent, capable, and agile leaders are a necessity for any organization hoping to maximize productivity and growth. To ensure this, high-performance organizations implement frameworks that identify the essential skills, behaviors, and attributes needed. In this Next Practices Weekly session, you’ll hear from Roz Tsai, Ph.D., Chief Talent Officer at Thrivent, a company that has supported and amplified its clients' generosity efforts for over 100 years.
We’ll discuss:
- The recent launch of Thrivent’s Leadership Competency Model.
- And how to leverage Thrivent’s Leadership Competency Model at your organization.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Carrie Bevis, i4cp's Managing Director, Communities and Partnerships; Eric Davis, i4cp's Creative Director and Senior Editor; and Kevin Osborne, i4cp Senior Director, Member Development, facilitated a conversation with special guest Karthik Varatharaj, Vice President and Chief Talent Officer at Levi Strauss. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Levi Strauss includes several well-known brands, from the iconic Levi's to Dockers, Denizen from Levi's, and Beyond Yoga.
- The core values of Levi Strauss Co. include empathy, originality, integrity, and courage. Karthik said that these pillars guide very decision Levi's makes and every action they take. And they fuel their commitment to drive profits through principles.
- Davis shared some of i4cp's research from earlier this year that found that very healthy cultures have leaders who:
- Varatharaj described that at Levi's they have a Moral Leadership Framework in place, which includes four key pillars:
- Levi's has a relatively new leadership development program called NXT-GEN. They've had around 140 leaders go through the program so far, and expect another 140-150 to do so in the next couple of years. NXT-GEN is an accelerator for emerging leaders who are navigating the increasingly interdependent and morally activated world. The program:
- Levi Strauss Co. has four high-performance culture levers:
- Levi Strauss Co. has a multi-level Talent Accelerator program:
- Varatharaj also described their Manager Capability Model. Beyond education and training, they are standing up a comprehensive measurement, accountability and evaluation model for people managers. This includes development, assessment, and performance management components. See the slides above for more details.
- Varatharaj noted that earlier this Levi Strauss Co. did institute a RTO policy at three days per week, but with significant flexibility that managers can leverage at their discretion with their teams. He noted that managers know best how work gets done, and how collaboration best happens, on their teams.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 am ET / 8 am PT. On this week's call, Nina Holtsberry, i4cp's Director of Member Engagement, and Jacqui Robertson, Chief Diversity Officer at Cleveland Clinic, facilitated a conversation with special guest Sheryl Battles, VP of Global Diversity, Inclusion, and Engagement at Pitney Bowes. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Pitney Bowes is a global shipping and mailing company that provides technology, logistics, and financial services to help clients reduce the complexities of sending parcels and mail. They have around 11,000 employees and did around $3.5 billion in revenue last year. They service 90% of the Fortune 500, have a global e-commerce business, and are the largest workshare partner of the USPS.
- Robertson reviewed a timeline of critical events in DE&I going back to the 1960s (see recording). Battles agreed that the arc of the timeline has been a shift from compliance, to a focus on talent, to a focus on business strategy.
- Battles noted that in order for a DEI strategy to be resilient, it needs to be aligned with the culture, values, and business strategy of the organization--that is where sustainability comes from. Without this, it can fade away because it will be seen as an add-on, instead of as critical, embedded, and integral to the organization.
- It is vital to understand the "why" of your DEI strategy, not merely the who and the what. You can make short-term impacts without this understanding, but long-term, sustainable impact requires understanding the why.
- Battles shared the story of the very long legacy of DEI strategy at Pitney Bowes which actually goes back over 80 years, to World War II, when their CEO at the time broadened the aperture of who could be hired as talent to include women, the disabled, and Black Americans. He specifically required a review to make sure that there were no practices or processes (e.g., systemic racism or sexism) that would get in the way of doing this.
- Battles noted that at Pitney Bowes, they consider DEI across all areas of the employee lifecycle, so that the entire employee experience is considered and no gaps can arise.
- Battles said that the listening strategy at Pitney Bowes involves both an in-depth annual engagement survey, as well as pulse surveys every three weeks with different and more targeted questions. Managers have a dashboard where they can see results (as long as they have at least five employees who participated).
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s Report (members only): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with Judy Albers, i4cp's Director of Research Enablement. She shared insights from a tool she created for i4cp members earlier this year, Holding Leaders Accountable for the Employee Experience. Here are some highlights from the call:
- First, it is helpful to understand i4cp's point of view on employee experience, and especially how to measure it in your organization. For this, see the article The Essential Metrics of High-Performance Employee Engagement, by Lorrie Lykins. Further, i4cp member organizations can learn more about employee experience from the many resources at the Employee Experience Research Series.
- Regarding how to hold leaders accountable for the employee experience, Albers first shared some i4cp research data to set the context and establish why this matters:
- Albers also noted this powerful finding from Microsoft's WorkLab: "On average, each additional point of engagement reported by employees correlated with a +$46,511 difference in market cap per employee. Put simply, companies with highly engaged workforces had better financial outcomes. Leaders need to treat employee engagement with the same strategic importance as business and financial outcomes."
- The toolkit Albers created walks through a five-step process for building a business case for holding leaders accountable for the employee experience.
- The toolkit then walks through a five-step implementation process:
- Participant Poll Question: Does your company hold leaders accountable for any aspect of the employee experience?
- Participant Poll Question: If yes, what are employee experience metrics tied to?
- Participant Poll Question: What methods are you using to collect culture data? The most common answers were annual or semi-annual engagement survey, a dedicated culture survey, and frequent pulse surveys. Additional responses included:
- Participant Poll Question: How are you helping leaders improve their employee experience scores? The most common answers were formal coaching and formal training. Additional responses included:
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Currently open i4cp survey (November, 2023): Employer-Supported Upskilling Programs
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s Report (members only): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp Research Brief: Culture Fitness: Healthy Habits of High-Performance Organizations
- Additional i4cp Culture resources at www.culturerenovation.com
- i4cp member-only Toolkit: How to Hold Leaders Accountable for Employee Experience
- SHRM Article: Building a Data-Driven Culture Health Index (Mastercard example)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Bethany Vogel, i4cp Community Program Manager, and Tom Stone, i4cp Senior Research Analyst, facilitated a conversation with special guest Andre Martin, PhD, author of Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever, and former learning and talent management executive at Accenture, Google, Target, Nike, and Mars. Here are some highlights from the call:
- One of Martin's overall goals is to make work feel less like work. His recent book, Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever, arose from this perspective as well as Martin's curiosity about what makes great workplaces truly great.
- The research for the book involved interviewing over 100 individuals about their experiences of right and wrong fit with a company. Martin emphasized the importance of understanding individual work preferences and the negative impact of wrong fit on wellbeing and work-life balance. He also shared his concern about the issue of disengagement in companies, which is estimated to cause a staggering loss of 7.9 trillion dollars in productivity.
- Martin shared six trends that he sees as crucial to getting us to our current state of work:
- Martin noted that the concept of 'right fit' in a workplace is a challenging one, and he emphasized the importance of understanding the difference between who an employee is vs. how they work and how companies function. He noted that many successful CEOs have experienced moments of wrong fit and that addressing this issue can significantly reduce stress.
- Martin emphasized the need for individuals to reflect deeply on their personal needs and aspirations before taking a job. He also highlighted the importance of understanding one's true values, beyond the generic ones that everyone claims to value, as they can influence major life decisions. Here are the kinds of key questions you need to ask:
- Martin noted the many challenges companies face in training employees on how the work really gets done, the need for a unified project management system, and a clear understanding of the company's principles, practices, and platforms.
- Martin also noted the misconception that creative individuals thrive in chaos. He shared an anecdote about a colleague who initially resisted strict guidelines at her company but later realized that they enabled her to focus on her work. He emphasized that standardized principles, practices, and platforms can be liberating for creative individuals, allowing them to excel within a structured environment.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Amazon link to Andre Martin's book: Wrong Fit, Right Fit: Why How We Work Matters More Than Ever
- Andre Martin's website, WrongFitRightFit.com
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s Report (members only): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Report (members only): The Productivity Predicament
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): The Productivity Predicament
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, Carrie Bevis, i4cp Managing Director of Communities and Partnerships, and Tom Stone, i4cp Senior Research Analyst, facilitated a conversation with special guest Rob Cross, Professor at Babson College and SVP of Research at i4cp. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Cross shared from his research that for much of modern work, 3-5% of people account for 20-35% of the value added collaborations. And yet companies are typically not aware of half of these key employees.
- Cross noted that organizations too often don't take a precise enough approach to employee transitions, both onboarding but also internal moves. And then there is real ROI to take an approach that focuses on networks, trust, etc. Cross' research shows this ROI comes from three sources:
- Cross walked through his research that comparing two archetypical employees, "A Tale of Two Transitions." One follows a the advice from classic coaching, while the other follows what he calls "fast mover" insights. See the slides and/or session recording for the detailed differences.
- Differences in results for these two approaches really start to appear after the 9-month mark, where the first individual has to work 2-4 times harder to scale their accomplishments, while the second individual more often finds ideas and opportunities flowing to them, and they more likely start to have a sense of belonging, satisfaction, and motivation.
- The "fast mover" applied three overarching principles and 12 critical practices over the first 9-12 months. When to optimally leverage each practice varies depending on the transition type, such as new hire, new leader, promoted leader, and lateral role shift.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp’s Report (members only): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Report (members only): The Productivity Predicament
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): The Productivity Predicament
- Tool: Calculate the Benefits of Accelerating Role Transitions
- Amazon links to Rob Cross' latest two books:
This event is approved for certification credits.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Chief Research Officer Kevin Martin, and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Brian Baker, Chief People Officer at Teneo. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Teneo is a global CEO advisory firm that draws upon an expansive network of senior advisors to provide services across five business segments to help their clients solve complex business challenges. They have 43 offices and around 1,600 employees.
- Their HR/people strategy is focused on the three pillars of career, capabilities, and culture, all while making sure they nail the fundamentals.
- Baker said that what makes a great member of his people team is a strong combination of skills, experience, and behaviors--but that these days adaptability is also critical.
- Baker described one of their key L&D initiatives, their SMD Accelerator program, which aims to accelerate the enablement of newly promoted senior leaders to deliver on their responsibilities. The program, which involved around 20 individuals, was designed to build a strong leadership foundation for the future, integrating often separate discussions about wellbeing, mental health, and inclusion.
- The program was highly successful, with 95% of participants feeling they had been accelerated into their roles, and 97% rating the program as very effective. Additionally, the program contributed to their culture by investing in senior people and fostering a more holistic view of leadership. The success of the program was also measured through an NPS score of 9 out of 10 and a positive impact on the business development pipeline. Baker highlighted the program's potential for onboarding senior talent and its innovative approach to integrating newly acquired companies.
- Baker introduced the metaphor of leaders as lifeguards, emphasizing the need for leaders to create a welcoming and safe environment while also being capable of handling difficult situations. For instance, given the complexities of leadership in a hybrid environment, leaders need to spot potential risks and take appropriate actions, such as seeing a lack of engagement as a warning flag.
- Regarding generative AI, Baker said that their goal is to create a unified understanding of AI within the organization for better client work and the development of a common language. Their AI 101 initiative was designed to be inclusive and to build capability at scale. He emphasized that the aim was not just to train the people team but to involve senior business partners for greater credibility.
- Another recent focus is on data literacy on the people team, going well beyond collecting more data to also being able to put it to work effectively and leading with insights. Baker also noted the role that data is playing in their journey in shifting away from an emphasis on activities to outcomes.
- In terms of organizational culture, Teneo positions where they want to go as "Our Shared North Star." This has the following six elements:
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- October 24th i4cp AI Revolution webinar (register here)
- i4cp’s Report (members only): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp’s Brief (available to all): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution?
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- Amazon links to three books mentioned on the call:
This event is approved for certification credits.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Oakes, and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Mike Asbery, Vice President of People Experience at Autodesk. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Autodesk is a software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Francisco. They have 14,000+ employees and 96 offices worldwide with around $5 billion in annual revenue. They are a global leader in software for architecture, engineering, and manufacturing.
- HR at Autodesk is divided into centers of expertise, experience delivery, and people business partners. People experience at Autodesk encompasses five areas: People Insights, EX Design, People Services, People Consulting, and Thrive (employee relations).
- Autodesk has a strong culture, with an ethos of sustainability, innovation, and diversity. This culture has been recognized in Fast Company's Best Workplaces for Innovators (2022), Glassdoor's Best Places to Work (2023), and the Corporate Knights' Index of Most Sustainable Company (2023).
- The work model at Autodesk is "hybrid by design, not by default." Asbery detailed their Flex Forward program which is Autodesk's new flexible work policy, first launched in May 2021. There are many components of their approach, starting with an intentional redesign of many of their office workspaces. This has included new collaborative and conference area spaces with strong technology elements, varying seating arrangements, and good catering options. In particular, Asbery discussed the newly implemented Autodesk Conference experience, a service that enables teams to have on-site offsites in hub locations with a similar experience to hotel conference centers. The service has been successful in locations like San Francisco, Portland, Denver, Barcelona, Munich, Singapore, and Dublin.
- Asbery emphasized the importance of employees coming into the office when they feel it's productive, or when requested by their manager, to facilitate valuable in-person connections. He outlined their avoidance of a fixed hybrid work approach and focused on the importance of individual flexibility.
- Three digital experiences, which enable greater productivity, connection, and belonging, that Asbery described were:
- Asbery then described several other key features of their Flex Forward approach, including:
- What has been the impact of the program so far? Asbery noted that their flexible or remote roles get much more diverse talent, and a higher volume of applicants overall. They are seeing 1.6x more applicants for hybrid/remote roles vs. baseline; 1.8x more female candidates; and 1.5x more under-represented people of color candidates. They have also witnessed a lower attrition rate for their remote workers as well.
- Participant poll during the session: What is your organization’s current work model policy?
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- October 24th i4cp AI Revolution webinar (register here)
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- HRE’S HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 2023)
- More information on Autodesk's FlexForward program
- i4cp’s Productivity Predicament Brief (for everyone)
- i4cp’s Productivity Predicament Report (members only)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp VP of Research Lorrie Lykins and VP of Executive Search, facilitated a conversation with special guest Joshua Stewart, SVP, Head of Talent Acquisition & Outreach at PNC Bank. Here are some highlights from the call:
- PNC Bank has a long history dating back to its founding in 1845. They are headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but operates in 27 states plus Washington, DC, with over 2,500 branches.
- Stewart has been at PNC Bank for over 20 years, starting as a financial sales consultant before shifting into HR roles later in his career.
- Stewart shared about PNC's PartnerUp program that helps attract, retain, and develop early-career employees. The program's mission statement reads: "PartnerUp empowers high school graduates to enter, and thrive in, a job market that's in need of their skills. When employers partner with schools to provide committed guidance, real-world opportunities and ongoing assistance, students will take the first step on a road that leads to a proud, flourishing and secure future -- for themselves and the Communities they call home."
- The PartnerUp program was first piloted in 2017 following an external inflection point study that showed the region would fall significantly short of skilled workers in the coming years. Full launch came in 2018 in the Pittsburgh, PA area. It then expanded to Cleveland, OH in 2021, and a further expansion in Birmingham, AL has since been announced.
- The program now involves 65+ schools, 18 employers (including PNC Bank), and multiple community partners.
- The program especially targets students who are not necessarily focusing on college as their next step after graduation. PartnerUp is a recruiting initiative that builds connection between career-bound high school seniors looking for an alternative to the "college for all" mentality and employers with career opportunities. Some key highlights:
- Industries included in this initiative include healthcare, trade organizations, the service industry, financial services, and many others.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- HRE’S HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 2023)
- i4cp’s Next Practices Now Conference (March 2024)
- i4cp brief: Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution
- i4cp report (members only): Is HR Already Behind in the AI Revolution
Delta Air Lines, North America's most on-time airline, understands that employee wellness transcends traditional healthcare. In this Next Practices Weekly episode, Kelley Elliott, Vice President of Total Rewards delves into Delta's three-fold strategy for enhancing employee well-being: addressing financial stressors, strategic partnerships with Operation Hope and Fidelity Investments, and empowering eligible employees to optimize their benefits.
In lock-step with our research, financial stressors can significantly affect an employee's overall wellness. Delta also recognizes this challenge and is taking proactive steps to alleviate it. By seamlessly integrating financial wellness initiatives into its corporate culture, the company creates an environment where employees can thrive without the weight of financial concerns. This commitment underscores Delta's dedication to holistic well-being.
Delta's transformative partnerships with Operation Hope and Fidelity Investments reinforce its employee wellness mission. Operation Hope, a respected non-profit, specializes in financial inclusion and education. Delta's collaboration empowers its workforce with financial knowledge and resources, equipping them for a more secure future.
Additionally, the partnership with Fidelity Investments bolsters Delta's commitment. It offers tailored investment and retirement planning solutions, enabling employees to take charge of their financial destiny.
Delta further facilitates a path for eligible employees to maximize their benefits. It streamlines the benefits enrollment process, making it accessible and user-friendly. Comprehensive support and guidance ensure that employees make informed choices aligned with their financial goals.
Delta's commitment extends to personalized benefits packages, recognizing the uniqueness of each employee's financial situation. By tailoring benefits offerings, Delta empowers its employees to select options that align with their specific needs, empowering them to maximize their financial well-being.
Listen to the full episode to delve deeper into Delta's innovative strategies for enhancing employee well-being.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT. On this week's episode, i4cp's Eric Davis and Nina Holtsberry, along with Jacqui Robertson, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Cleveland Clinic, facilitated a conversation with special guest Darcy Pierson, Global Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leader at Oshkosh. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Oshkosh is an industrial vehicle manufacturing company that designs and builds specialty trucks, military vehicles, truck bodies, airport fire apparatus, and access equipment. They are headquartered in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
- Pierson shared that when it comes to creating DEI goals at Oshkosh, a key principle was to "make it their own," and not necessarily follow what other organizations are doing. One way they did this was to focus at the top-leader level, knowing that diverse leaders more often hire diverse employees.
- One key practice for Pierson is determining where there are pockets of resistance to the organization's DEI goals.
- Pierson cited research from both McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group that found that organizations with both gender-diverse and racial/ethnically-diverse workers will outperform those that do not.
- Pierson noted that Oshkosh they believe that DEI needs to be embedded into everyday talent processes. An example she shared is that for talent acquisition require that 75% of the time a woman and a BIPOC candidate must be part of the candidate slate.
- Pierson cited i4cp's Leadership Redefined study which found that a key next practice was having leaders that consistently establish productive relationships with individuals from under-represented groups.
- Other key behaviors that support that practice included:
- Pierson advised that organizations need to get consensus and agreement on where the organization wants to goal regarding all DEI goals -- where do they want to be in the future?
- Pierson is most proud of Oshkosh's EBRGs (Employee Business Resource Groups). They were negatively impacted by COVID, but have rebounded very strongly and having a very strong impact on the company.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- HRE’S HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 2023)
- i4cp’s Next Practices Now Conference (March 2024)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone and Membership Director Colleen Hunter facilitated a conversation with special guest Rocki Rockingham, CHRO at GE Appliances. Here are some highlights from the call:
- GE Appliances is an American home appliance manufacturer based in Louisville, Kentucky. It has been majority owned by Chinese multinational home appliances company Haier since 2016. They have around 16,500 employees, while Haier overall has just over 100,000 employees globally.
- GE Appliances by the numbers: Each year they build 2,500 units per hour, deliver an appliance every 13.8 seconds, procure 3 billion parts, and manage 16 million calls through their call center.
- At GE Appliances, a simply philosophy, adapted from their Chinese parent company Haier, guides their ambition as a company. They recognize that their main challenge is to lead change… or allow others to change them. As a result, they have adopted the Chinese Rendanheyi Management Model which has three main components:
- The entrepreneurial spirit is seen in their creation of over a dozen "micro-enterprises" with GE Appliances, such as Clothes Care, Refrigeration, Filtration, Small Appliances, and so on. These are in turn supported by "platforms" such as technology, supply chain, finance, marketing, human resources, and so on.
- Key behaviors show up in four ways:
- HR at GE Appliances has three purpose components:
- HR at GE Appliances is using AI, including generative AI, in a safe, sandbox environment. They have teams that are exploring various use cases to eliminate the most mundane tasks in talent acquisition, onboarding, and other talent management areas.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- HRE’S HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 2023)
- i4cp’s Next Practices Now Conference (March 2024)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone and Membership Director Jenelle Buatti facilitated a conversation with special guest Mike Eby, Vice President of Talent at Delaware North. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Delaware North is a global food service and hospitality company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. The company operates in the lodging, sporting, airport, gambling, and entertainment industries (see brief video at 7:10 in the session recording).
- Since Delaware North supports large venues and events, the COVID-19 pandemic hit their business particularly hard. Going into early 2020 the company had around 40,000 employees, but then during the peak of lockdowns/etc. they employed just under 1,000. Those employees were busy planning the return to work and the relaunch of all of their events and venues as the various national, state, and local governments allowed re-openings.
- Key to do this was a having a lot of transparency and strong communication with all employees. The key was timing: staffing needed to occur slightly ahead of when governments allowed events and venues to open up again. Many employees were happy to return because they love their location and the hospitality industry, but also because of the way they were treated by Delaware North during the furlough/etc. period.
- One of early decisions made to support employee well-being was to expand their EAP--which had previously only been available to a subset of employees--to all employees, including all hourly, seasonal, etc.. They have since further expanded the EAP this time by broadening what is offered, such as adding more learning opportunities in areas like financial planning 101, how to save for retirement, how to interpret and manage benefits, crisis management, etc.
- The organization's EVP, Employee Value Proposition, is a critical focus at Delaware North (see brief video at 23:15 in the session recording). In developing and socializing the EVP, they focused internally first, and only later on the external employee brand. The EVP has three primary components:
- In the past, Delaware North's employee listening approach was very ad hoc--if they had 200 different properties, they very well might have 200 different approaches to employee listening. This changed as the need arose during the pandemic to consistently hear the voice of all employees. They launched a new platform to capture information from employees, and instituted lifecycle listening--meaning key moments such as interview candidates, 60 and 90 days after joining, exit interviews, etc. They also now engagement surveys on a rolling basis, every 8-9 months, due to the seasonality of their business. The platform they use is Qualtrics.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp's The Productivity Predicament report (members only)
- i4cp’s The Productivity Predicament brief (publicly available)
- i4cp's whitepaper: Supercharge Your Employee Listening Strategy
- HRE’S HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 2023)
- i4cp’s Next Practices Now Conference (March 2024)
This event is approved for certification credits.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 a.m. ET / 8 a.m. PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone hosted his colleague Katheryn Brekken, PhD, also a Senior Research Analyst at i4cp, who presented key findings at the intersection of two recent i4cp studies on culture fitness and generative AI. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Download the slides above or view the recording to see the many research findings that were shared.
- Participant Poll #1: How has your organization’s culture changed over the past year?
- Participant Poll #2: How is change generally viewed in your organization?
- Participant Poll #3: In which of the following ways do you personally use generative AI at work?
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- Past i4cp NPW events
- HRE’S HR Technology Conference & Exposition (October 2023)
- i4cp’s Learning & Development Survey (open through early September, 2023)
- i4cp's study Culture Fitness (members only): Healthy Habits of High-Performance Organizations
- i4cp’s Culture Fitness Brief (for everyone)
- i4cp’s Toolkit: How to hold Leaders accountable for employee experience (members only)
- Article: "How Generative AI Will Forever Change the Role of Instructional Designers"
- i4cp’s NPW: Generative AI: What HR leaders should be doing now (on-demand recording)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Debbie Shotwell, Chief People and Culture Officer at Stack Overflow. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Shotwell has over 20 years of experience as an HR leader at organizations including Peoplesoft, Taleo, Pacific Pulmonary Services, Good Technology, BigCommerce, Saba Software, and now Stack Overflow. She also currently serves on the advisory board of Best and Brightest Companies to Work For, WorkTribe Dynamics, and Agile Literacy.
- Over the last several years, she and her team have helped Stack Overflow integrate with technology investor Prosus; nearly double in size; become more data-driven in their approach to people; significantly improve the talent acquisition team and processes; accelerate and formalize diversity, equity, and inclusion with a written strategic plan; and roll out a company-wide L&D strategy.
- Stack Overflow's overall vision is to become the most valuable destination for the world's current and next generation of technologists. To support that vision, the people team's vision is to fuel Stack Overflow's growth by making it a coveted and long-term career destination and great place to work. The people team's vision is built on four principles:
- Stack Overflow was already close to 50/50 remote vs. onsite workers prior to the pandemic. Of course they went 100% remote in 2020, and since then they have emphasized flexibility in the where of work while carefully considering their best approach for the longer term. After listening to employees, they recently decided on fully remote going forward--doing so in a way that preserves their strong culture while garnering the obvious cost savings. For instance, they are very focused on how they onboard new employees, including having new employees meet the CEO. Shotwell also holds monthly meetings for organizational culture-building purposes. And they provide funding for employees to use WeWork or similar arrangements if they are not well setup for working from home.
- Shotwell noted that the "when" of work is also flexible for employees at Stack Overflow. What matters is goals and outcomes being achieved, not working set hours each day.
- Shotwell noted that when asked a few years ago what was missing in the employee value proposition at Stack Overflow, employees indicated more was needed in the area of learning and development, career journeys, etc. So that has been a focus area since, with her team developing a "learning and growth" strategy with four aspects: skills-based development; career paths and learning paths; robust employee enablement tools; and multiple learning modalities.
- Employees, who Shotwell noted are affectionately known as "Stackers," have access to a MyAcademy portal, which provides self-paced learning resources from popular vendors such as LinkedIn Learning, Skillsoft, GetAbstract, Udemy, Coursera, Harvard, and more. Their skills are also used to recommend courses and learning paths.
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Each month, half-days are dedicated to employee skills development, with a rotation through three types: self-directed learning, team/department level training, and company-sponsored learning events such as a thought leader, guest speaker, or topic with broad learning need.
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After one year, the results have been very positive: the company has grown by almost 50% (~550 employees now), they have an 81% FY23 engagement score (up 4% from FY22), and an 81% L&D score (up 7% from FY22).
- At Stack Overflow, a key part of their DEIB initiatives is the role of their nine Employee Resource Groups. One special ERG is their broad Allyship ERG, which focuses on allyship across all identity groups and has over 150 members. The ERGs at Stack Overflow use Slack channels for ongoing discussion between live meetings.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone hosted i4p colleague Judy Albers, Director of Research Enablement, for a discussion of AI and especially generative AI and its impact on, and importance for, the HR field. Here are some highlights from the call:
- An informal chat-based polling of call participants not surprisingly found most indicated they were at most experimenting with generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or others, with very few indicating much experience, expertise, or work use cases yet.
- Albers walked through definitions with examples of three types of AI: Machine Learning (e.g., Netflix recommendations), Deep Learning (e.g., Self-driving cars), and Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT). Download the slides above for the definitions of each.
- Tactically, we can expect generative AI to provide significant productivity gains in many areas of knowledge work, in part through the automation of mundane tasks. This could also lead eventually to a reduction in worker burnout and an increase in worker engagement.
- Organizations will vary, however, in how they balance the gains they could see from the standard three elements of productivity: time, cost, and quality. Some will focus on cost savings by having fewer employees in certain roles, but others will seek more benefit from production happening faster, and/or the quality of goods and services produced being increased. Some organizations will see all three benefits, striking some degree of balance in reducing costs, increasing speed, and improving quality.
- Some of these benefits will arise from more strategic uses of AI, that is those that impact harder-to-solve problems. Albers gave examples such as the use of AI to improve internal mobility driven by skills data, enabling more data-driven decisions, and better handling of intractable culture issues or compliance issues.
- Albers shared ample advice for what Chief People Officers need to be doing now, both in their role as head of HR and in their role as people advisor to the C-Suite. Download the slides above for the details.
- She also shared similar recommendations for HRBPs and HR professionals who work in each Center of Excellence within HR (again, see the slides for details).
- Albers review six primary risks of using AI:
- A recent i4cp survey of over 1,500 HR professionals found that it is still early days for HR when it comes to using generative AI:
- In addition, 52% said they have no or low confidence in HR's readiness to contribute to AI strategy; 32% said their leaders are not communicating about AI; and 29% said HR is not involved in the governance of AI or advanced automation decisions.
- Further, the same survey found the following usage rates by functional area for the 22% who indicated they are at least experimenting with generative AI:
- Albers shared lists of the most common uses of AI across TA, L&D, Total Rewards, DEIBJ, People Analytics, and Employee Experience. (See the slides for details.)
- Albers suggested several ways for HR professionals to get started with generative AI, including signing up for ChatGPT at openAI.com; exploring the available Chrome (or other browsers) extensions for AI; following key trailblazers in the field; and taking a course from providers such as LinkedIn Learning, Google, Udemy, Coursera, Skillsoft, etc.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp VP of Research and Managing Editor Lorrie Lykins, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Joanna Clark, Senior Vice President, Talent Acquisition Strategy and Transformation at Wells Fargo. Here are some highlights from the call:
- TA at Wells Fargo had been decentralized for a long time, but is now on a journey that focuses on centralization, process simplification, strategic consultation capabilities, and data-driven insights and decisions. This is a multi-year transformation of the TA function.
- At Wells Fargo they have spent time over the past couple of years refining their capacity management model. Every month the TA leaders get together to judge current and future capacity across the different parts of the business. The formalizing of this process (vs. chat, email, phone) has really made a difference.
- Related to this has been some attention to their high-volume TA process. There has been a change in recent years given the emergence of gig work (Uber, etc.) and the expectations of candidates for a quick, simple hiring process for certain roles. This includes considering greater automation, but also the experience for the candidates for high-volume roles. Interestingly, some changes they might implement here could carry over to non-high volume TA processes.
- In terms of TA technology at Wells Fargo, they have consolidated onto Workday as their Applicant Tracking System (ATS), and also use Beamery CRM.
- Clark noted that in TA at Wells Fargo, in partnership with the L&D function, they are looking at how to take a more skills-centric approach to their talent processes, because increasingly there just aren't enough candidates that have exactly all that is included in a given job description.
- Wells Fargo has always had a strong, if informal, culture of internal mobility, with historically over 50% of hires being internal. More recently, with higher goals for mobility, there is an increased focus to formalize a process in partnership with the talent management team.
- Wells Fargo is using AI and RPA to help better leverage data across their various platforms. Doing so has greatly increased the usefulness of their data for HR and business leaders. Clark noted that generative AI is currently be evaluated, especially for business use cases to help eliminate repetitive work and also to bring to life their policies and procedures to make them more usable.
- Clark emphasized how important mentorships are in the TA space. More and more organizations are offering cross-company mentoring for recruiters, and she is a big advocate for this.
- What does Clark look for in TA professionals to join her team? People who can think outside of their day job, can see the bigger picture, and think about transformational change.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp's The Productivity Predicament report (members only)
- i4cp’s The Productivity Predicament brief (publicly available)
- HR is Using Generative AI (AI Toolkit Excerpt for non-members)
- I4cp's Guidebook on Talent Mobility and Internal Talent Marketplaces (members only)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11am ET / 8am PT. On this week's call, i4cp Membership Director Jenelle Buatti, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guests Samanntha Dubridge, Vice President of Global Benefits, Culture & People Experience and Cile Lucas, Global Culture & Team Member Experience Lead at HPE, the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company. Here are some highlights from the call:
- HPE is a global edge-to-cloud company that delivers solutions as a service that help organizations connect, protect, analyze, and act on all their data and applications. HPE was formed in 2015 after a split from HP Inc. HPE has about $30B in revenue, around 60,000 global team members, produces around 1,000 patents annually, and recently was #32 on Fortune's 100 Best employers.
- HPE's four core beliefs help to shape their culture, with each having three related behaviors:
- Similar, HPE has a "Four E's" of How We Lead:
- They shared how HPE integrates culture into the daily lives of their team members:
- They also shared their holistic approach to team member wellbeing, which they provide tools and resources across four pillars: Physical health, Financial well-being, Mental and emotional health, Community well-being. Three campaigns that they shared were:
- One of two innovation-focused initiatives that they shared about was called "The Innovation Quest." The purpose is to reinforce the role of innovation in HPE transformation, to fuel the spirit of innovation as part of their culture, and to create potential for game-changing outcomes. The Innovation Quest is an annual global contest inviting team members to submit their boldest and most innovative ideas to accelerate our transformation. It includes executive sponsorship and finalist judging at EC level, and has had 1,600 ideas submitted in first 3 years. All ideas are referred to the business for consideration, with winners participating in a development forum and securing resources to implement.
- The other innovation-focused initiative is called "Escape the Red Tape." It is a global team member contest for ideas to remove inefficiency and drive productivity/engagement. Ideas are submitted under three categories: "Fix it", "Accelerate it", or "Eliminate it". They've seen over 650 entries narrowed down to 22 finalists, with winners in each category selected by the CEO and executive team, with support and project team then provided. Celebration for all winners reinforces HPE's commitment and spirit of innovation.
- They also shared what the key areas of focus are for their HR team -- the initiatives that are helping HPE to sustain high engagement and low attrition, while helping to attract talent and accelerate business transformation: culture and innovation; Hybrid work environment; Team member wellbeing; and Team norms and future of work.
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- i4cp's The Productivity Predicament report (members only)
- i4cp’s The Productivity Predicament brief (publicly available)
- i4cp’s Next Practices in Holistic Well-Being (report)
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 am ET / 8 am PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Director of Member Engagement Nina Holtsberry and Creative Director Eric Davis, along with Jacqui Robertson, Chair of i4cp’s CDO Board and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at The Cleveland Clinic, facilitated a conversation with special guest Celeste Warren, VP of Merck’s Global Diversity and Inclusion Center of Excellence. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Warren shared that the purpose of DEI at Merck is to create a more globally diverse work environment for their employees, surrounding them with a culture of engagement, empowerment, equity, and psychological safety so that they can achieve the organization's mission of saving and improving lives. She elaborated on how the focus is in four areas: people, culture, business, and world.
- A major focus for Warren and Merck has been psychological safety. This has come up recently in regard to the return to office shift. Another focus has been on employees and their various identities, leveraging some of their ten ERGs to help inform the approach.
- Warren noted the importance at Merck of allyship, noting their launch of an Ally Resource Center. Their belief is that allyship is not defined as those that are in power being the allies of those not in power, but rather that everyone should be an ally to others who identify differently than they do.
- Warren also spoke to the importance of diversity in medicine and specifically in clinical trials, in order to better understand the impacts of healthcare disparity on different communities.
- In response to a participant's question about how to drive greater diversity in various regions of the world, Warren stressed the need to change where you source talent by building relationships in the relevant communities--you can't take an "if you build it they will come" approach and just hope it will work.
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Regarding the role of a Chief Diversity Officer, Warren noted that some of the critical capabilities include strong communication throughout an organization, strong business acumen, and an understanding of the global, external environment.
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During the call, we asked the following participant poll question: "How have recent judicial and legislative actions related to DE&I affected your personal and/or professional sense of well-being?"
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During the call, we asked the following participant poll question: "How are recent judicial and legislative actions impacting your organization's current or planned DE&I initiatives? (select all that apply)"
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone hosted two of his colleagues, Kevin Oakes, CEO & Co-Founder, and Mollie Lombardi, Senior Research Analyst, who discussed key findings from i4cp recent research study, The Productivity Predicament. Here are some highlights from the call:
- The i4cp Productivity Predicament study's survey involved 624 responses from 52 countries; 46% outside North America, and 53% from senior executive, C-level, or board member.
- Top-performing organizations remain productive, with 49% of high-performance organizations (HPO) saying productivity has increased since March 2022, vs. only 24% of low-performers (LPO). Only 7% of HPOs say productivity has decreased since March 22, vs. 32% of LPOs. (HPO/LPO status is self-reported based on revenue, profit, market share, and customer satisfaction over the past five years.)
- The study found that organizations that listed both empathy and productivity in their top three priorities showed the strongest correlation to trust, goal achievement, and culture health.
- The study found that nearly half (47%) of survey respondents said current work location policies were designed to improve one of the following: collaboration, culture, and productivity. But the selection of one of these as the primary reason for the current work model was either very weakly or negatively correlated with both overall performance and achievement of goals.
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Key findings from the study were the following (see recording or slides for details on each):
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Four recommendations from this study are:
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- i4cp's Next Practices Now conference
- Information on i4cp Membership
- Past i4cp NPW events
- i4cp’s Toolkit: How to hold Leaders accountable for employee experience (members only)
- Article: "How Generative AI Will Forever Change the Role of Instructional Designers"
Access the full The Productivity Predicament series here.
Join us for this powerful Next Practices Weekly episode where we’ll get an inside look at the largest corporate employer in the world—Walmart—and some of the programs they have in place to create “Good Jobs, Great Careers, and a Better Life for their associates.”
Our featured guest: Maren Waggoner, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Digital & Customer People Partner, Walmart U.S.
We’ll discuss:
- More details coming soon
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
Join us for this informative Next Practices Weekly episode featuring the CHRO of Dutch Bros, one of the fastest-growing brands in the coffee industry, where she will offer an inside look at how her team is tackling several formidable priorities in 2023 (see below).
Our featured guest: Sarah Hansen, Senior VP of Human Resources, Dutch Bros Coffee
We’ll discuss:
- How Dutch Bros is using AI and automation to improve processes while preserving Dutch Bros.' unique culture of personal engagement
- Approaches the company has taken to strengthen their EVP
- Insight into their new career development and succession planning programs, which gives leadership easy visibility into high-potential and up-and-coming employees
Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights into Dutch Bros. Coffee's employee-centric approach and their commitment to fostering relationships, optimizing processes, and nurturing talent.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. On this week's call, i4cp Senior Research Analysts Katheryn Brekken and Tom Stone, and Creative Director and Senior Editor, Eric Davis, shared a mid-year review of the 2023 priorities and predictions from i4cp's six executive boards, which include:
- Chief Human Resources Officer Board
- Chief Learning and Talent Officer Board
- Chief Diversity Officer Board
- Talent Acquisition Leaders Board
- Total Reward Leaders Board
- People Analytics Leaders Board
For the 2023 priorities for each Board, and the insights that Brekken, Davis, and Stone shared in each area, see the session recording above and/or download the session slides.
- We asked the following participant poll question: "Which of the following best represents the readiness of your organization’s HR function to use generative AI?"
- We asked the following participant poll question: "Which of the following are currently top priorities for your organization's Learning and Talent Management functions? (Choose all that apply.)"
- We asked the following participant poll question: "Do you provide pay rates or pay ranges for job postings?"
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- Information about i4cp membership
- i4cp’s AI & HR Survey (launched 6/15/2023)
- i4cp's 2023 Priorities & Predictions Report
- i4cp’s Executive Boards
- i4cp’s Next Practice Weekly On-demand Recordings (all topics)
- i4cp Brief: The Role of Diversity in Mitigating AI Biases
- i4cp Brief: How Generative AI is Transforming People Analytics
- i4cp Tool (members only): Bias Audit Checklist for AI and Algorithms
- i4cp Guidebook (members only): Talent Mobility and Internal Talent Marketplaces
- i4cp Guidebook (members only): How to Create a Skills Database
- i4cp Brief: Pay Transparency Laws Present Huge Learning Curve for Many Employers
- i4cp's study (members only): Culture Fitness: Healthy Habits of High-Performance Organizations
On this Next Practices Weekly episode, we will delve into the fascinating topic of Agile TA and explore how Vertex Pharmaceuticals is using a Capacity Building Model and machine learning for more predictive workforce planning analysis.
This meeting is a must-attend for TA professionals seeking innovative solutions and insights to optimize their hiring strategies and drive organizational success.
Our featured guests:
- Grace Niwa, Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition, Talent Intelligence & Early Career, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
- Kristine Mayle, Ph.D., Director, Global Talent Intelligence, Sourcing & Insights, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
We’ll discuss:
- Discover the cutting-edge application of machine learning in automating and analyzing workforce plan data, revolutionizing the talent acquisition landscape. Vertex will unveil how this super cool technology can empower TA teams with predictive analysis of the workforce plan.
- The future of talent acquisition as we discuss the potential of predictive analytics and its impact on strategic workforce planning.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
In this Next Practices Weekly episode, we will explore two important topics that are vital for organizational growth and success: people sustainability and building a robust learning culture.
Our featured guest: Teri Hart, Chief Learning Officer, Zurich North America
We’ll discuss:
- Fostering people sustainability – Teri will share her expertise and experiences on this concept and delve into the importance of nurturing and investing in individuals to promote engagement and well-being while aligning with business objectives.
- Building a learning culture – Teri will share the ways in which Zurich NA has successfully embedded a learning culture to drive customer-centricity. Teri will delve into the benefits of fostering a continuous learning mindset, where employees are empowered to acquire new skills, adapt to changing market dynamics, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
Is ageism real? 7 in 10 older workers surveyed by i4cp and the Age-Friendly Institute say so—and the research also shows there are substantial gaps between the expectations of employers and workers age 50+. In this Next Practices Weekly session, we will delve into the global talent shortage and the risks and opportunities that organizations face with their older workers.
Our featured guest: Geraldine White, Chief Diversity Officer, Publicis Groupe US
We’ll discuss:
- The latest research on attracting, engaging, and retaining older workers, from i4cp and the Age-Friendly Institute
- How employers can be more intentional about the experiences of older workers and the nuances of a managing a global, multigenerational workforce (Publicis has over 27,000 employees in North America and nearly 100,000 employees worldwide)
- How Publicis has incorporated age into its DE&I strategy, and the outcomes that have been observed
- Approaches the company takes globally to engage and recruit older workers
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
With summer just weeks away, there’s no better time to get your organization’s culture in shape for the season ahead.
i4cp’s recent study, Culture Fitness: Healthy Habits of High-Performance Organizations, unveiled a research-based workout to improve cultural health, and just as importantly identified unhealthy habits that permeate the cultures of low-performance organizations. These debilitating traits – The Toxic 9 – significantly influence how your workforce performs as well as how customers, shareholders, and even prospective employees perceive your company’s culture and brand.
On May 18th Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp CEO and author of Culture Renovation®, will be joined by Katheryn Brekken, Senior Research Analyst at i4cp and primary author of Culture Fitness, to share data-driven insights to ensure your cultural fitness regimen stays on track this year. In this collaborative session you’ll learn:
- The “Toxic 9” habits of unfit cultures to avoid and eliminate
- Actions to take that will restore trust in your leaders and your workforce
- Plus, impactful interventions and healthy new habits to help you prepare for the road ahead
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
High-performance organizations are 6x more likely to have healthy cultures, according to global data from human capital research firm i4cp. What separates those organizations from others is not by chance—it’s the result of disciplined, intentional actions by the CEO, CHRO, and others.
In this discussion-based session, you’ll hear the following:
- The defining characteristics of a healthy culture
- The “Toxic 9” – unhealthy habits of unfit cultures to avoid
- Key regional differences that global organizations need to consider
- Specific examples from EMEA-based organizations on how they focused on building healthier cultures
Speakers you’ll hear from:
- Mustafa El Rafey, former SVP of Human Capital, Majid Al Futtaim - Retail
- Christi Karandikar, EMD & Group People Officer (CHRO), Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
- Katheryn Brekken, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst, i4cp and co-author of Culture Fitness
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
In this installment of our Next Practices Weekly series, we will be joined by Diane (Di) Holman, Chief People Officer, at Virgin Pulse. As the leading global digital-first health, well-being, and navigation company, Virgin Pulse empowers organizations across the globe to activate populations, improve health outcomes, and reduce spending. Di guides all aspects of HR, across all global locations and a worldwide employee base.
Join us to find out how she is using talent & learning strategies to create a culture of continuous learning at Virgin Pulse, leveraging technology and collaboration for effective employee development.
You’ll hear from:
- Diane (Di) Holman, Chief People Officer, Virgin Pulse
We’ll discuss:
- Prioritizing a culture of continuous learning:Creating opportunities for learning, such as workshops, mentorship programs, and online courses.
- Using technology to enhance learning outcomes:Embracing digital tools and platforms to make learning more accessible and effective.
- Fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing:Using team projects and cross-functional training to facilitate knowledge transfer and create opportunities for employees to learn from each other.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
In this installment of our Next Practices Weekly series, we will be joined by Linde Grindle, Chief Human Resources Officer at Spirit Airlines. This company is the leader in providing customizable travel options that allow customers to pay only for the options they choose. With plans to double the size of the fleet over the next five years at Spirit Airlines, Grindle is poised to spearhead the expansion team to successfully support this growth and transformation.
Join us to find out how Grindle is using hybrid work, and her expertise to help attract, develop, and retain top talent while strengthening Spirit's culture and driving engagement across the airline.
You’ll hear from:
- Linde Grindle, Chief Human Resources Officer, Spirit Airlines
We’ll discuss, how hybrid work can be used in:
- Attracting top talent: Offering flexibility, autonomy, and work-life balance.
- Strengthening company culture: Promoting collaboration and teamwork, even remotely.
- Driving engagement: Enhancing professional development, work-life balance, autonomy, and strategies for measuring engagement.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
As the world becomes more VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous), leaders need to have a broader set of skills to navigate ambiguity. In this installment of our Next Practices Weekly series, we will examine the strategies that can help leaders develop the skills needed to thrive in today's complex business environment.
You’ll hear from:
- Pamela Mattsson, SVP & Organizational Development, Outreach
We’ll discuss:
- Increasing complexity and uncertainty: The business environment is becoming more complex and uncertain, requiring leaders to have a broader set of skills and be able to navigate ambiguity like never before. How do we develop leaders to navigate today's version of VUCA?
- Culture beats strategy: Organizational culture is not what you "declare" it to be but rather what lives and breathes in the now hybrid hallways of the organization. How do we support leaders to understand their roles as stewards of culture while executing the strategy?
- Driving high performance with empathy: Today's contracting market has stimulated a doubling down on efficiencies and high performance. How do we develop leaders to drive high performance with empathy?
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
On this episode, we will explore the hidden effects of microstresses in the workplace and our lives. Seemingly benign, microstresses can accumulate to wreck our productivity, lead to burnout, and destroy our culture. Join us to learn what essentials are needed for HR leaders who are looking to support their employees and sustain a healthy workplace culture.
You’ll hear from:
- Rob Cross, Edward A. Madden Professor, Babson College; co-founder and Director of the Connected Commons; co-author of The Microstress Effect
- Karen Dillon, former Editor, Harvard Business Review, co-author ofThe Microstress Effect
We’ll discuss:
- How to identify microstresses impacting employee well-being
- Best practices to counter toxic workplace relationships or unhealthy culture
- Personal network strategies to build relationships that support personal, team, and organizational resilience
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the way HR professionals operate in their roles. With the use of AI-powered recruitment tools and employee management systems, HR teams are now able to streamline their processes and improve the overall employee experience.
In this installment of our Next Practices Weekly series, we will explore the latest trends and innovations in AI for HR, including the capabilities of ChatGPT. This session will also cover best practices for implementing AI in HR processes, including tips for ensuring successful adoption and integrating AI with existing HR technologies.
Speakers Include:
- Thomas Stone, Senior Research Analyst, i4cp
- Judy Albers, Director, Research Enablement, i4cp
What to expect:
- Gain an understanding of the current and near-future uses in HR of ChatGPT and similar AI tools
- Discuss what questions organizations are asking about AI-related policies
- Uncover what actions you can take now to stay current on this rapidly evolving topic
Attendees will come away with actionable insights on how to navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of AI in HR and the opportunity to ask questions and share insights amongst like-minded peers and our team.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
On this episode, i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone and Carrie Bevis, Managing Director, Communities & Partnerships, discussed takeaways from the 2023 i4cp Next Practices Now conference held recently in Scottsdale, Arizona and was our biggest conference ever. Here are the 10 areas they hit on -- watch the recording or download the slides to learn more.
- Culture Renovation and Culture Fitness
- Corporate Board and CHRO Alignment
- Artificial Intelligence
- Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Allyship
- Flexible, Remote, and Hybrid Work
- Holistic Well-Being and Microstress
- Talent Challenges: Skills and Talent Mobility
- People Experience and EVP
- Trust and Psychological Safety
Links to i4cp resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- 2023 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference
- i4cp’s Next Practice Award Finalists (Ten Organizations)
- Press Releases regarding Next Practice Award Winners
- Recording of the i4cp NPW event that focused on the Culture Fitness study
- Member-only Brief: Human Capital Data Considerations for Corporate Board Directors
- Member-only flash call: AI and ChatGPT
- Member-only DEI Maturity Model
- i4cp Report: Next Practices in Holistic Well-Being
- Member-only: i4cp's Guidebook: Talent Mobility and Internal Talent Marketplaces
Links to external resources shared on the call:
- Best Buddies International
- Dress for Success
- GitLab's Remote Playbook
- Book (Amazon link): The Microstress Effect, by Rob Cross and Karen Dillon
- Article: "How Building a Culture of Career Mobility Can Help Retain Talent," by Kevin Oakes, Harvard Business Review
On this episode, i4cp Senior Research Analysts Katheryn Brekken and Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guests Nicole Underwood, VP, of Human Resources Business Partners & Operations, and Marie Potter, Senior Director, Culture & Development, at Getty Images. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Getty Images has three brands: Getty Images, iStock, and Unsplash. They have around 1,700 employees.
- Their global human resources organization is comprised of 60 HR professionals, supporting 17 functions across 33 countries. The team is structured into five areas: HR Business Partners, HR Operations, Total Rewards, Culture and Development, and Talent Acquisition.
- Getty Images' culture favors principles over rules, with two dozen principles identified and grouped into three categories:
- Getty Images has a program called VisualGPS, which is built upon expertise from research and reporting on consumer-driven insights that help their customers navigate the crowded visual landscape and have impact. VisualGPS shows what consumers care about, why they care about it, and how to tap into it. This is available on the Getty Images website – an interactive tool to help you search trend data.
- Potter described three key future of work trends determined by VisualGPS:
- Hybrid work at Getty Images at present has resulted in the following categories of employees:
- Getty Images is committed to a culture of connectivity, meaning a basis and network to access the right person, at the right time, to share and give knowledge, build understanding, further inclusion, and solve problems to improve business outcomes and the employee experience. Getty Images is committed to a culture of connectivity independent of employees' physical working election and location. Potter shared twelve components that support this:
Links to resources shared on the call:
- Upcoming i4cp virtual events
- 2023 i4cp Next Practices Now Conference - May 27-30, 2023, in Scottsdale, Arizona (and virtual).
- i4cp’s Next Practice Award Finalists (Ten Organizations)
- i4cp's Culture Fitness report - a new resources exclusively for i4cp members
- Recording of the i4cp NPW event that focused on the Culture Fitness study
- The Future of Work - a trends report from Getty Images
- "Hey CEOs: You Aren't Qualified to Decide Who Should Return to the Office" - an article by i4cp CEO Kevin Oakes
On this episode, Judy Albers, Director, Research Enablement, and Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst at i4cp, facilitated a conversation with special guest Paul Langlois, Vice President Enterprise Learning, Careers, and Engagement at Ecolab, a global leader in water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services. Here are some highlights from the call:
- L&D at Ecolab follows a federated model, where Paul leads the programs and platforms that span across the entire organization, with L&D teams also exist in each functional / regional area of the company.
- Ecolab's employer brand promise emphasizes development: "With our worldwide reach and ambitious growth plans, you’ll have the opportunity to learn and grow, shape your career, make an impact, and quickly see the importance of your work."
- The talent philosophy at Ecolab has the following four components:
- L&D at Ecolab leverages the popular 70/20/10 model to help explain to business leaders and all employees the importance of experiential activities on the job, coaching, and formal training that is offered. The three key questions that this model drives are (see Paul's slide that details what is offered at Ecolab for each):
- In terms of L&D technology, several years ago Ecolab migrated from over a dozen different learning platforms over to Workday Learning to be aligned with their broader use of Workday as their HRIS.
- For Learning content creation, they largely use Articulate and EasyGenerator.
- Career development is the #1 driver of retention and the #2 driver of engagement at Ecolab. In line with this, Ecolab last year turned on Workday Career Hub. The desired outcomes of the platform are:
- Career Hub provides the following:
- And rolling out now in 2023.. An Opportunity (Gigs) Marketplace. This is a new feature in Workday's Career Hub that provides employees with the opportunity to find short-term, part time "Gigs" that are projects or assignments that might interest them and help them learn, grow, and build their skills. (See Paul's slides for more information on this new Opportunity Marketplace platform.)
- In 2023 Ecolab is expanding what was previously a company-wide "development week" into a "development season." There are six critical skill areas identified by the business with learning content and experiences curated to support each.
On this episode, Mark Englizian, Chair of i4cp's Total Rewards Leader Board, and Tom Stone, Senior Research Analyst at i4cp, facilitated a conversation with special guest Margeaux King, Vice President & CHRO, at The Toro Company. Here are some highlights from the call:
- King has been with Toro for the past seven months, and before that was in various HR leadership roles at Ecolab. She shared several examples of where she led partnerships across HR functional areas to drive competitive advantage.
- At Ecolab, King partnered with Total Rewards together with HR Policy and Compliance. They had some early wins working together, such as conducting a pay equity study to determine if their policies were truly creating equitable outcomes. A second area they worked together was on managing immigration, talent mobility, and their global workforce more holistically. A third area where this partnership proved effective was when COVID-19 hit and there were various policies and benefits that needed fresh attention.
- One of the learnings for King from all of these endeavors was the power and value of choosing people for projects based on skillsets and interests rather than their title or functional area.
- The second time at Ecolab that King brought two functional areas together was in the merging of Total Rewards and Talent. This allowed for a far more extensive consideration of the entire employee experience, e.g., aspects such as traditional benefits and compensation, along with other key elements of the employee value proposition such as onboarding, learning and development, succession, etc.
- A learning for King from that combination of TR and Talent was that business leaders and non-HR employees don't really care how HR is structured to provide the best employee experience, they just care about the results of those efforts. They might get used to going to certain people for things, but changing it won't matter as long as the end results improve.
- Now at Toro Company, the company has been growing so there is a need to scale up HR capability, e.g., the HRBP area. In describing that, King noted the value in fostering what she calls "healthy tensions" between people in different functional areas, or between HRBPs and those in COEs, who often have different perspectives on matters such as customizability vs. scalability, or speed of execution vs. standardization.
- King shared several suggestions for situations where you want to have the benefits that can come from partnership and collaboration, but where you aren't in a position to restructure the teams to enable it more formally: Walk it through with someone who's never done the practice in question.
Assemble a SME-diverse team to tackle it
Don't decide for people, ask them
Don't have any projects be off limits
Facilitate formal rotations with the current people structure
On this episode, i4cp's Chief Research Officer, Kevin Martin, and Senior Research Analyst, Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Greg Till, EVP, Chief People Officer, at Providence Health System. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Providence is a hospital/healthcare organization based in the Northwest US. It includes 52 hospitals, 950 clinics, and approximately 25K physicians, 35K nurses, and 120K caregivers.
- Till first provided some context for the talent challenges that Providence and the healthcare industry more generally have been facing. Overall in the US, January 2023 saw surprising jobs report with 517,000 jobs added and a record low 3.4 unemployment rate. The healthcare industry currently has significantly higher open jobs than the rest of the economy, and the gap is greatest in most of the western US states vs. the middle of the country or the eastern states.
- Providence has the goal of being the best place to work in healthcare, but pursuing this goal requires reimagining what's possible. Their main strategies include: Inspire. "We aspire to be the best place to work and practice, where caregivers are inspired to spend their careers."
Develop. "We aspire to be the best place to grow your career, where everyone reaches their full potential."
Enable. "We aspire to provide a simple, modern, digitally-enabled experience."
Transform. "We aspire to ensure everyone can work at top of practice, supporting new models and places of care." - The transform strategy involves what Till calls "The Four Ds": Deconstruct. "What parts of each role can be done differently to increase the joy of practice, add capacity, or improve the quality, cost, or experience of care?"
Digitize. "How can we use technology to ease the way for our caregivers and enable them to do MORE of what they love and are called to do?"
Deploy. "How might we improve our understanding of our communities’ needs and our team’s scheduling preferences, so we can staff more effectively?"
Diversify. "What NEW sources of talent might help us increase capacity to best care for our communities?" - When Providence deconstructed their nursing roles down to the task level, they found that 30-40% of the tasks could be done by others -- whether administrators who were previously nurses or doctors or other staff with minimal training doing tasks such as taking temperatures, check-ins on stable patients, etc. Some tasks could also be automated, such as scheduling and documentation.
- Three keys to Providence's culture that allow it to look at creative talent solutions and their caregiver value proposition differently: Flexibility. Till said that flexibility is the new key to engagement.
Agility. This is the ability to move fast, and not spend a lot of time in decision-making. Till said he loves the quote "Vision without execution is merely a hallucination." Eventually, you need to act -- the sooner you do, the faster you can find out what works and what doesn't.
Collaboration. This applies just as much to HR as anywhere else, where the team regularly gathers to collaborate on workforce planning, acute talent issues, etc.
On this episode, i4cp' s Managing Director, Communities and Partnerships, Carrie Bevis, and Senior Research Analyst, Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guests Annette McEnery, Sr. Vice President, HR Operations, and Joanna Wimbish-Gildart, Sr. HR Business Partner, at Experian. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Experian always had a larger than average (over 20%) remote workforce. They've also grown in part over the years by acquisition, which led to merging various organizational cultures together. They have a large set of call center employees who are hourly and had more schedule structure, but the rest are salaried professionals so a culture of flexibility was already important at Experian, prior to 2020.
- Experian found that their workforce remained productive during the early parts of the pandemic and the shift to full remote work. They listened closely to their employees and determined that maximum flexibility was going to be best for their workforce. Some prefer to work mostly at an office, but many want to be fully remote. The same approach and principles were used globally at their various main work locations, such as in Costa Rica, Chile, and elsewhere. Experian's core belief is: "We believe in a people-first approach. We design the way we work to enable the best outcomes, for our people and our business." Their core principles in this regard are:
- Trusting our people. We know that our people strive to do their best work every day, wherever and however they work. They have proven that during the pandemic.
- Offering flexibility. We believe that we can achieve great business results while supporting our people to find more balance in their lives and are committed to offering each person as much flexibility as possible.
- Enable success. Being with colleagues not only inspires collaboration and innovation, but helps people learn from one another and build relationships which are key for career development. We will make sure that our office spaces support that and that our technology and collaboration tools help people stay connected and be successful.
- Experian's employee listening strategy includes regular use of pulse surveys. They use Qualtrics as their platform.
- They measure turnover closely, and found that their regretted attrition actually decreased a little while other companies were suffering from "The Great Resignation." And their % of women in the workforce remained constant, compared to many other organizations where more women than men left the workforce over the past few years. Their major employee engagement numbers also remained high, in the high 80s and low 90s percentages.
- From a technology standpoint, Experian had been rolling out Office365, and emphasizing Sharepoint and Teams, for greater connection and collaboration in their distributed teams and workforce. So in early 2020 they accelerated this and made sure all employees were using these platforms to maximize productivity, connection, and collaboration. These technologies provide part of the "connective tissue" that binds people together.
- Experian also encourages, but doesn't require all the time, the use of video as this reduces multi-tasking during meetings and helps people get to know each other better. Experian encourages the use of video by having leaders model the use.
- More recently they are focusing on different cohorts beyond an employee's immediate team.
- One focus is their ERGs, and making sure these groups are still going strong in a hybrid/remote world.
On this episode, i4cp' s CEO and Co-Founder, Kevin Oakes, and i4cp Senior Research Analyst, Katheryn Brekken, presented findings from, and facilitated a discussion about, i4cp's latest major study, Culture Fitness. Here are some highlights from the call:
- The Fitter the Culture, the Better the Performance. The headline finding is that high-performance organizations are nearly 6x more likely to have fit cultures compared to low-performance organizations.
- Fit Culture Defined. A culture that employees rated as very healthy (compared to somewhat healthy, somewhat toxic, or very toxic), and one which they commonly described using these six traits: Employee-Focused, Inclusive, Quality, Learning, Innovative, Collaborative.
- Culture Impacts Productivity. Culture fitness explained nearly 20% of the variation among organizations’ employee productivity over the past two years (controlling for size and market performance.)
- The Unfortunate Reality. More than a third of large organizations surveyed (34%) report becoming more toxic in the past two years.
- Toxic Cultures During the Pandemic. During the pandemic, organizations with toxic cultures were far more likely to struggle with...Disrespectful behavior
Senior leaders who don’t trust employees
Employees who don’t trust senior leaders
Leaders favoring on-site vs. remote employees
Unsafe environments for expressing opinions/concerns
Bullying
Pay inequity
Lack of recognition
Lack of inclusiveness - More Data on Toxic Cultures.Those who described their organizations’ cultures as toxic were 16x more likely to indicate "lack of trust in senior leaders" as an issue that needs to be addressed.
They were also 10x more likely to indicate an "unsafe environment for expressing opinions or concerns" as a top issue in their organizations.
Poor behavior is often overlooked during talent decisions. Leaders in organizations with toxic cultures were 4 to 5x more likely to be described as disregarding poor behavior when making decisions about advancement, compensation, succession planning, performance rating, awards and recognition, and high-potential employee designations. - Not All Cultures Suffered During the Pandemic. 43% of companies reported their culture became healthier during the pandemic.
- The Seven Habits of Very Healthy Cultures. These are:More flexible work arrangements
A learning mindset
Boards care about culture
Leaders lead by example
Leaders held accountable for employee outcomes
Leaders regularly communicate values
Poor behavior is addressed immediately - During the call we asked the following participant poll: "What Culture Type is your organization?" (Select all that apply)54% Customer-focused
48% Purpose/Mission
38% Collaborative
34% Performance
21% Learning
19% Inclusive
18% Innovative
16% Safety
16% Agile
16% Quality
The Next Practices Weekly call series has become a well-attended and wide-ranging discussion for HR leaders each Thursday at 11 AM ET / 8 AM PT. On this week's call, i4cp's Managing Editor and Vice President of Research, Lorrie Lykins, and i4cp's Vice President of Executive Search, Mimi Turner, facilitated a discussion on reimagining talent acquisition and mobility. Here are some highlights from the call:
We led off the call with the following participant poll: Has your organization experienced a layoff in the past 90 days?
- 32% - Yes
- 63% - No
- 6% - Not yet, but I'm anticipating it
i4cp's Talent Acquisition Board indicated four top priorities for 2023, with one being "Enhancing the organization's workforce planning capabilities." This includes an emphasis on talent mobility, which helps to engage and retain employees. It can also help mitigate the need for layoffs, by first mapping employees' skills and capabilities to internal openings to verify if some of them can stay on in a different role.
Is there a best practice around time-in-role required before internal mobility becomes an option? Turner noted that it could depend on the organization. For instance, startups might be inclined to allow for internal moves with very little tenure with the organization, because everything is moving so quickly and the company needs to be very agile. Other, more mature organizations, might reasonably have requirements of a year or more, but should consider carefully the why behind such rules in order to not stifle best-fit moves for top talent.
Many participants on the call noted that their organizations are focused on increasing talent mobility, but admit they are at various maturity levels in this area.
Lykins noted the critical role of the managers: i4cp's research has found high-performance organizations far more often incentivize and recognize managers who develop and move their talent into the organization. Doing this is one way to fight against the natural tendency for managers to hoard their top talent. Turner added that a key cultural aspect is shifting the mindset so that managers and leaders see employees as the organization's talent, not their talent.
Lykins and Turner discussed the issue of the many recent reductions in force at many large organizations. These aren't always handled in the best way, with organizations often not thinking through the process that should involve optimal communications, benefits, support, etc. This has a negative impact not only on those employees laid off, but also those who remain (e.g., survivor's guilt, questions about the organization's culture, etc.) and the public perception of the organization's culture, employee value proposition, and leadership.
A stronger people analytics muscle in organizations, particularly in regard to workforce planning, could have helped reduce the level of layoffs that we have seen at many companies. Not only might they have not scaled up as much or as quickly only to need to layoff many workers now, but they could better connect employees with good-match open internal roles rather than letting the talent go. Hopefully, more organizations will learn this from the current period and avoid the over-hire/layoff cycle in the future.
Employer branding can really be hit negatively when an organization needs to do a significant reduction in force. Turner noted that when a RIF has happened, there is no way to ignore it. So it is critical that you explain and clearly communicate why it happened so that the candidates you are now interviewing understand and remain interested in your organization.
On this episode, i4cp' s CEO and Co-founder, Kevin Oakes, and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Rachel Russell, Director, Flexible Work at Microsoft. Here are some highlights:
- Russell became focused on flexible work a full year before the pandemic, in early 2019, when she was tasked with researching how Microsoft could increase employee and workplace flexibility. This research led to a 5-10 year plan, which of course was helpful for Microsoft to have when the pandemic arose in 2020.
- After the initial shift to remote work, the new flexible work strategy was rolled out at Microsoft in October 2020. Since offices did not fully re-open for over a year beyond that, they had plenty of time to socialize and get feedback on the approach.
- Going back to 2019 and before, leaders at Microsoft saw flexible work as a strategic decision, not a perk. This is similar to how forward-looking leaders are starting to see it strategically, not as a concession to employee demands.
- Microsoft's philosophy is to provide "as much flexibility as possible." What that means will vary from role to role, team to team, etc. But on average the baseline is around 50% of time (per week) working remotely, with manager approval needed for more than that.
- Microsoft's approach is not "one size fits all," and managers are encouraged to find a way to "get to yes" when employee's make the case for more remote time. The key is to balance the needs of the individual with those of the team(s) they are on, and the overall needs of the business and its culture.
- Russell noted that the nature of work today means that team needs have become increasingly important, and that this includes your primary (hierarchical) team, as well as the many -- often virtual -- project- and role-based teams that each employee is a part of (some of which are temporary and will change over time).
- On that point, Russell noted they ask managers to have team agreements to make explicit how members will collaborate, communicate, etc., both in-person and virtually.
- This approach also aligns with the movements in some countries that have pending legislation around formalizing flexible work expectations.
- At Microsoft, "hybrid" involves three dimensions: work site, work location (geo region), and work hours. Much attention has been spent on the first two, with more consideration now being spent on the time aspect.
- Russell noted that their approach is "hybrid by design," but that doesn't always mean "hybrid first." She noted the case of hybrid training, where synchronous training events with some people gathered in-person and some online can be very challenging and so often might not be the best approach. In some cases they might instead run the training completely in-person or completely online instead of "hybrid".
- Microsoft's philosophy when it comes to decision making is "data over dogma." This has been followed in developing their flexible work policies, with extensive employee listening that includes daily pulses of a subset of employees to get quick input. Open-answer questions are also leveraged so that nuances can be detected on questions such as, Do you feel that Microsoft values flexible work, or Are you productive in how you are working now?
- They also conduct research on just when in-person work matters the most. They have found that mandating Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday as in-office days is not the best approach, and that a focus on the purpose for being in the office brings better results. Two findings include that in-person time is more important for employees who are new to Microsoft or new to a particular team; and that setting, where possible, an in-person gathering for a crucial project milestone can be beneficial.
On this episode you will hear from JP Elliott, PhD., Chief People Officer at WilliamsMarston, a national leader in complex accounting, tax, and valuation services, and Future of HRPodcast Host. JP is a forward-looking HR executive who is dedicated to inspiring the next generation of HR Leaders. Join this discussion for lessons learned in his 20+ year career, and advice he has garnered from his talks with various practitioners and HR experts on his podcast to help you navigate the workplace of 2023.
Speaker:
- JP Elliott, PhD., Chief People Officer, WilliamsMarston, and "Future of HR" Podcast Host
What you'll hear:
What HR leaders should expect this year, and where to make adjustments from the previous year’s strategy, such as:
- Leading with Purpose: What capabilities will differentiate the best talent management leaders in 2023
- The Future of Learning: Why skills and projects, not pedigree or roles will define the future of HR in 2023
- Building and sustaining a healthy culture: How will wellness and human-centered designs be differentiators to secure talent in 2023
On this episode, Beck Bailey, Managing Director of Inclusion & Diversity at Accenture leads discussions in response to fishbowl questions on how to support LGBTQ Trans / Non-binary employees in the workplace. This. candid and honest conversation dives deeply into what support looks like today.
Amaris McComas, Chief People Officer for CPSI, a leading provider of healthcare solutions and services for community hospitals, clinics, and post-acute care facilities, joins us for this installment of our Strategic HR Next Practices series. McComas will provide a peek into her leadership style, which builds, inspires, and maintains employee engagement along with leading cultural integration efforts amongst employees.
Today’s talent acquisition leaders are experiencing an unprecedented demand for talent within a limited pool. As the VP of Global Talent Acquisition, at Google Cloud, Danielle Monaghan understands the demands for talent and just how high the stakes are. Find out how she is leading the efforts, attracting and hiring the best talent at Google. On this episode Monaghan discussed:
- TA in Tech – What’s unique to the tech world? Which challenges are most daunting for organizations?
- How to expand the capacity of TA
- Offering remote or hybrid work models, and which are most ideal
- Common TA challenges in the U.S. and how they compare to other regions, such as the EU
- What's ahead for TA
On this episode i4cp CEO and co-founder Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Jodi Rabinowitz, Head of Talent and Organizational Development at Zoom. Here are some highlights:
- We asked a poll of participants on the call: On average, how often do you personally use Zoom (or a competing product with video) per week?0% - 0 or almost never
6% - 1-5 times (once a day or less)
13% - 6-10 (about one or two times a day)
20% - 11-20 (about three or four times a day)
29% - More than 20 times (more than four times a day)
32% - I’m essentially always on Zoom or a similar tool, all-day - Like many organizations, only about 15% of Zoom employees were remote workers before the pandemic started in 2020. So everyone leaving the corporate headquarters to work remotely was a big change at Zoom too.
- Zoom has obviously grown tremendously over the past two years. In fact, 75% of their employees were hired in the past two years, and so haven't yet worked in traditional Zoom offices.
- Zoom supports its culture by giving employees money to purchase Zoom swag, such as sweatshirts and other items.
- Zoom has always had a strong volunteering culture, but this was challenged during the lockdown periods. The company today still supports employee volunteer time--in fact, they are allowed unlimited PTO for such activities (and they have even organized some virtual walks, bike rides, etc., to connect employees in this area while remote.)
- Zoom's culture is fairly loose and informal, but also very strong in the sense that their engagement scores are "off the charts" in Rabinowitz's words. People are friendly, open, and willing to help -- the culture is not bureaucratic or layered.
- Zoom has some 700 different internal chat groups, e.g., dog lovers, book clubs, and so on.
- At the same time, Zoom employees feel immense pride in the serious work they have done these past two years, given the fast growth and importance of the Zoom platform for so many organizations and individuals around the world.
- A hybrid approach is what Zoom is pursuing going forward, as only 1% of its employees want to be in a traditional office all of the time.
- They just opened their offices a few weeks ago. They waited this long because they didn't want to open while PPE (personal protective equipment), e.g., masks, were still required.
- Zoom's approach to hybrid is full flexibility--employees can choose which days they come into office workplaces. Employees go into the office for largely social reasons, not specifically to be productive (as they can do that while remote too.)
- Onboarding at Zoom considers IT and benefits as table stakes, with the emphasis instead put on relationship building, particularly on day one. There are many social elements, including breakout activities, etc.
- They have also created nudges for managers at the 30/60/90/180 day marks to do check-ins for those who recently joined, and provide sample questions to consider asking.
- Zoom makes heavy use of breakout room activities for meetings to keep the many online meetings people are having from getting stale.
- Zoom shifted their previous $300 gym stipend benefit to be a more general wellness benefit, which can still be used towards a gym/etc., but also for yoga, a more comfortable home office chair, etc.
- One call participant shared: "I like to shift from the word 'productivity' to the phrase 'doing your best work'. The latter is what we should be shooting for, and allows people to think more holistically…doing your best work isn’t just about output and hunkering down, it’s about investing in connection, creativity, rest, etc."
On this episode i4cp Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Mike Lauderdale, Vice President of Human Resources at FedEx Services, a division of FedEx. Here are some highlights:
In developing its Workforce of the Future model, FedEx Services knew it needed to take a research-based, holistic, and employee-centric approach. So they formed a cross-functional internal task force that went beyond the typical HR, Comms, and Legal groups. Key workstreams included research, payroll/tax, investments, compensation, employee impacts, talent acquisition, employee experience, and tools & tech.
Hundreds of team members touched pieces of the project. Eventually, they had a consensus on decisions all the way up to the chairman.
They developed the model for the Services/Corporate operating companies of FedEx but are sharing and collaborating across all operating companies.
- Purple Flex was the name given to the new flexible work model. It is driven by designating its employees into three work modes: Central, Hybrid, or Anywhere. Central: Employees that must work onsite to perform their duties, e.g., operational tasks, security implications, etc.
Hybrid: Employees who pre-pandemic worked in a FedEx facility full-time don’t have to work onsite to perform their duties at all times. These are the majority of exempt office employees.
Anywhere: Employees that pre- or post-pandemic were hired remotely or that received approval to work remotely. - The HR team and partners then undertook the immense exercise of designating all current employees (13,000+) into those work modes and revising all (~100) processes, policies, and procedures to represent this new way of working.
- Since hybrid is by far the largest category, a large focus point was how to change their work experience in a positive and meaningful way, while capitalizing on what they know worked pre-pandemic and what was learned while working from home.
- Purple Flex Team Days. That is the name given to the intentional, pre-determined days in the office that allow for planning, predictability, and in-person collaboration. Set at the individual org level, these days are meant for collaborative work when needed, not required time in the office. Team Days are for: townhalls, strategy/brainstorming sessions, celebrations, team buildings & meetings.
Team days may be for: project meetings, performance management, coaching sessions, and team meetings.
Team days are not for back-to-back Zoom calls or solo desk work - Resources and communication. Leader and employee resources and communication have been a top priority throughout this process: A dedicated internal resources site, a dedicated email inbox for questions, leadership webinars, FAQs, job aids, and many more resources have been provided at every step of the journey.
30 days' notice was given to team members before the start of Team Days to ensure they could ensure their support systems for child-care or other personal needs could be handled.
They have continued to communicate the priority for a safe, secure, and clean workplace following CDC guidelines.
Their executive team leaned into transparent and direct communication with team members and are discussing in their team meetings, 1-on-1s, town halls, etc.
All our HR policies and procedures have been updated to reflect the new Purple Flex environment.
Productivity and work-life balance have both increased because leadership has leaned into more flexible schedule arrangements with team members.
On this episode, i4cp CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Richard Stone, VP of HR, Global Enabling Functions at Mondelēz International, a multinational confectionery, food, holding, and beverage and snack food company based in Chicago, Illinois. Here are some highlights:
- Like many organizations, Mondelēz has a variety of types of employees. Many people who are on the frontline and worked on-site or in the field during and throughout the pandemic. For others, there was a shift to remote work, and now there is a shift to three types of approaches: returning fully to the office, continuing to work remotely, and a hybrid/flexible approach. For Mondelēz, this was a continuation and acceleration of a trend towards greater flexibility in such work arrangements.
- For those who are and will be in hybrid roles in terms of work location, Mondelēz's approach is to give a lot of flexibility and discretion to the employee and their manager to work out the arrangement that is best for them and their team. Managers are expected to be very intentional and purposeful about when and why they have such employees come on-site -- Mondelēz does believe in the power of people being together to collaborate in person. But Mondelēz is not mandating a rigid, company-wide approach to hybrid such as X number of days in the office per week.
- Mondelez emphasizes managers as role models for hybrid working, with the following expectations:
- Truly role model hybrid working as such, with time spent in the office and remotely
- Remove fear by creating psychological safety and space to talk openly with teams about expectations and concerns
- Contract on key moments when the team will meet in the office (such as team meetings, meetings with senior management, company events, and peak times of the year such as AC planning or month closings)
- Focus on positive reinforcement and encouragement (vs. one-size-fits-all mandates and requirements)
- Reinforce the benefits and human connections that are taking place among team members in the office in team meetings
- Avoid a two-tier system in which people working in the office more are valued and recognized more than those who choose to work more flexibly
- At the Chicago HQ, Mondelez is providing breakfast and lunch options, improving parking, and doing other practical things, as a way to support employees coming into the office.
- A lot of tools have been created, especially to support managers, including guides with templates and insights about how to manage in the hybrid work world. These guides are walked through with managers during workshops.
Mondelez's initiative called "The Right You" is focused on the holistic well-being of employees, with three core pillars of mind, body, and connection. It was started in Australia, expanded around Asia, and now has been rolled out globally. It pulls together all of their well-being-related resources, support, systems, etc. In particular, this initiative has helped to break the stigma around mental health issues that still exist, particularly in certain areas of the world.
WM is a leading comprehensive waste, and environmental services company that believes that defining diversity begins with inclusivity. Forty-six percent of WM’s workforce is racially diverse, and 18% is female. But the DE&I journey at WM goes much further than just racial, ethnic and gender diversity: There are also initiatives in place to increase diversity in veterans, LGBTQ, and disabled candidates.
Shweta Kurvey-Mishra, Vice President, Organization and Talent Development at WM, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on embedding inclusion efforts into the business, overcoming diversity challenges, and fostering an inclusive, diverse and equitable environment that will be a movement, not a moment. Kurvey-Mishra will share how WM represents the diverse customers and communities that they serve, from the frontline employees to executive leadership.
Christine Deputy, Chief People Officer at Pinterest, shares her expertise and knowledge from many years of leading HR teams at Nordstrom, Barclays, and Starbucks. Previously, as the CHRO at Nordstrom, Christine supported over 70,000 employees, helping achieve pay equity and pay parity and bringing diversity, inclusion, and belonging into every part of the business.
“What attracted me to Pinterest was their mission of inspiration and passion for sharing creativity on the platform. Bringing this same experience to life for Pinterest’s 2,700 global employees and embracing diversity and inclusion across every aspect of the business will be a key part of my mission as Chief People Officer.”
About the 2022 Strategic HR Next Practices series
This gathering of like-minded human capital leaders shows the true power of peer collaboration and sharing of next practices to drive high performance. i4cp shares insightful research and features expert guests from some of the largest, most respected organizations in the world i.e. CHROs from Domino's to PwC.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
On this episode, i4cp' s VP of Member Services, Mark Walker, and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Elcio Barcelos, Senior Executive Vice President and CHRO at US Bank. Here are some highlights from the call:
- Barcelos joined US Bank as CHRO in 2020, several months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- His philosophy is that HR's purpose is not rooted in policies and procedures, but rather to enable business outcomes through talent.
- To accomplish this, a major digital transformation was needed, mirroring the ongoing digital transformation that the entire organization has undergone (i.e., over 80% of transactions at the bank today are digital).
- HR also needed to become more consultative with the business, and one focus area was on the role of HRBPs. They were given a new title, Talent Consultants, to better capture the strategic role they were going to play going forward. Significant upskilling, including in areas such as financial and business acumen, was provided so that those in this role could truly consult on all talent matters.
- Barcelos shared the journey that US Bank has been on regarding their overall employee value proposition (EVP). This has included attention to various employee offerings, including a change to maternity leave as well as their approach to the minimum wage, first raising it to $18/hr and then $20/hr, with other compensation adjustments then made across the organization to stay in alignment.
- In 2021 they instituted major changes to their talent acquisition engine, and in 2022 they reaped the benefits of that as they were able to hire nearly 24,000 new employees across the organization globally (a big number given their approximately 77,000 total employee population size.)
- L&D will be a major focus in 2023, both in terms of change and growth to the function at US Bank and regarding the organization pivoting to a broader skills-centric approach to all talent processes. Barcelos said they are going to "reinvent learning" in 2023.
- Specifically, very few organizations think of L&D as what skills do I have, what do I need, and how do I bridge that gap? They will be enabling employees to take a purposeful view of the top five skills they need today, top five they need tomorrow, how do they get there?
- Regarding skills, in the past, they were viewed as elements of the job description. Skills make up capabilities which in turn are required by the role. Skills really are the essence of everything that is done, so they can and should be the common language when it comes to talent in the organization. That said, in some areas a focus skills is more critical than in others. So the focus will be on critical skills and critical roles, and a pilot approach will be taken to avoid trying to boil the ocean.
- From the employee's perspective, transparency of the work on skills is key. Employees have aspirations, and need to understand what is available, what opportunities exist, from classes, to job rotation, and more. The benefits here are a win-win, for the employees themselves and to have a more inspired workforce overall.
- Barcelos noted that key elements of their HR tech stack include Workday, ServiceNow, Edcast, and Phenom.
On this episode, i4cp CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitate a conversation with special guest Ana White, EVP and Chief People Officer at F5, a Seattle-based tech company that focuses on applications, application security, and application performance, with around 7,000 employees in around 45 countries. Here are some highlights:
- White described how several years ago F5 took a fresh look at their organization's values, which numbered a somewhat unwieldy 14 at the time. Their goal is for F5 to be one global and diverse team that is both human-first and high-performance and attracts and grows amazing talent. They ultimately came to focus on 5 key behaviors for all employees that were called "BeF5": We are owners; We make F5 more agile; We obsess over customer needs; We create a more diverse and inclusive F5; We help each other thrive.
- Related to this were some key F5 leadership behaviors, aligned with their view of leadership as being a mindset, not a job title: We create clarity and alignment; We find and shape brilliance; We boldly raise the bar.
- To reinforce these leadership behaviors, F5 has aligned their leader rewards and recognition programs, a revamped performance management process, and also their leadership training programs to these specific behaviors. Also, candidates for succession planning, which White refers to as "progression planning" instead, must demonstrate that they live these key leadership behaviors to even be considered candidates. Lastly, leadership off-site meetings are held every six months and are framed around either the BeF5 or LeadF5 behaviors.
- Prior to the pandemic, F5 had already started to focus more on flexible, remote, and hybrid work approaches. They first tested their approach with their IT organization, and then after the pilot they expanded it to the entire company. They didn't have massive take-up initially, but at least the foundation was laid.
- Today the approach has been solidified as their "Freedom to Flex" policy, which White described as "radical flexibility." Employees are allowed to choose between entirely or mostly on-site as their location, all or mostly remote, or a more hybrid approach. Even with this degree of flexibility, most F5 employees have chosen some degree of a hybrid work arrangement.
- To support this, White noted they have created a "hybrid hub" and a manager toolkit to provide ample resources to enable the many ways of working.
- Regarding hybrid meetings, F5 has adopted a "One virtual, all virtual" philosophy. This both equalizes the experience for all participants, and allows them to use features like chat to enable more input and insights during the meeting.
- White said they have advised employees and managers to be intentional and purposeful in their decisions about when to come into an office location. Consider choosing Tuesday, Wednesday, and/or Thursday as in most cases those will be the days where the most colleagues will be in the office (but if your team differs, then come in on whatever days make sense for the purpose at hand.)
- Once per quarter, F5 dedicates an entire day to employee learning. This includes some degree of flexibility as well, with employees choosing what and how they want to learn something relevant to them.
- F5 also periodically hosts "Thirsty Thursdays," at their HQ location, where they provide appetizers, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and a range of activities to increase connection and networking between employees.
On this episode, i4cp's CEO Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Nina McQueen, VP, Global Talent – Benefits and Employee Experience at LinkedIn. Here are some highlights from the call:
Early during the pandemic, LinkedIn had a simple employee listening strategy centered around one question: How are you? McQueen said they received thousands of responses that covered the full spectrum of stress, burnout, isolation/depression, family responsibilities, and more. This provided key input for how LinkedIn responded to support their employees.
- LinkedIn's key initiative for employee engagement over the past two years has been called LiftUp! It has included many programs and events, including some with celebrity guests like Mindy Kaling, John Legend, Jason Sudeikis, and Matthew McConaughey. Some have been learning-focused, while others wellness focused.
- Also included in LiftUp! was an experiment that quickly became a monthly feature: No-Meeting Fridays (the first Friday of each month). These are still working days, but they are intended to let employees catch up on email, avoid being on camera, and reflect and think and catch their breath. This is a no-cost program and one that leaders and employees have responded very positively too.
- LinkedIn's approach to hybrid work centers on trust and care. They trust employees to continue to do their best work no matter where they are working. They are also focused on learning and adjusting as time goes on, with a lot of agile trial and error. Like many organizations, there is a mix of full-time in-office, full-time remote, and many who are hybrid (in a flexible way, with the days per week varying by role and team).
- A major benefit of this approach, as other companies have seen, is the broadening of the talent pool that LinkedIn can now hire from (around the US and indeed around the globe -- any location where LinkedIn has an official legal entity).
- LinkedIn provides a lot of support to its people managers, including niche-topic workshops and a standing once-a-month meeting to keep them updated on the latest policy shifts, best practices, etc.
- LinkedIn has six wellness tenets that they focus on: thoughts, breathing, hydration, nutrition, movement, and rest. Each year they go very deep into one of these, leveraging a catchy phrase for internal communication, e.g., keep in mind, the quest for rest, etc. The focus for 2023 is financial well-being, and its connection to stress and burnout.
- McQueen said that a critical aspect of an organization's culture is to see it as the "collective personality" of the organization. A key measure and enabler of culture are: can and do employees cite the organization's values with clarity?
- A new employee program called Reconnect is focusing on bringing employees together to connect with each other and learn how to collaborate best. An initial event was focused on "re-onboarding" every employee to the organization. Each month there will be a different focus, e.g., decision-making frameworks, lifting people up with random acts of kindness, etc. These experiences will continue into 2023, which is LinkedIn's 20th Anniversary as a company.
- During the call, we asked the following participant poll: "Has your organization's culture changed since the onset of the pandemic?"13% Yes, it has become much better
40% Yes, it has improved somewhat
11% No
34% Yes, but it has deteriorated somewhat
2% Yes, but it has become much worse