The HR Digest April 2019

Editor’s Note

April 2019

We’re enjoying Spring in most part of the world. And it’s the most peaceful time to visit Venice with all the festivities and shebang of Carnavale coming to an end. HR Drift talks more about why Venice is the most triumphant city in the world in terms of living standards. Who wouldn’t want breath-taking views of canals, bridges and palazzos every day in a city that is a synonym for romance?

10 powerful HR executives from some Fortune companies were selected for our cover story this time to share some really insightful opinions on various aspects of the HR world. We are glad we reached out to them. It is pretty interesting to see how diverse the opinions get across different industries or even geographies. Their take on the autonomous workforce, cognitive diversity, pay equality, agile tools and tech-enabled transformation has made the cover story an enlightening experience.

We feel inspired with the inclusion of Charles Bendotti at Phillip Morris talking about workplace culture and Shannon Schuyler sharing success stories. Interviewing a Navy SEAL was a delight and I am glad to be the one publishing the views of David Silverman.

Cheers!

As ever, we look forward to your feedback (editor@thehrdigest.com, @TheHRDigest on Twitter, Facebook.com/TheHRDigest).

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

3

THE TEAM EDITORIAL Anna Domanska, Editor-in-Chief Priyansha Mistry, Editor Anna Versai, Sub-Editor Diana Coker, Sub-Editor Naomi Pelham, Associate Editor

MARKETING Jason Miller Sr. Project Director

DESIGN Kevin Paul Sr. Graphic Designer Reepal Savaniya Graphic Designer

PROJECT MANAGEMENT Tony Raval Project Director Jay Raol Project Director

ADVERTISING Richard Dean, Advertising Manager

TECHNOLOGY John Hancock Head-Web Department

FINANCE CONTROL R R Baratiya

4

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Le Manh Coung, Sr Software Coordinator

Julia Hunt, Magazine Production

Contents April 2019

6

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

HR Drift Vienna tops Mercer’s 21st Quality of Living ranking / p.10

Leadership Insights Former Navy SEAL, David Silverman discusses the role of establishing a shared sense of purpose in nonexecutive teams. / p.32

Q&A With Jane “I’m making someone use their holiday to grieve over their mother’s death.” / p.42

Cover Story Celebrating 10 Powerful HR Leaders / p.48

Training & Development Race Against Bias / p.106

Workplace Culture Talking to THE HR DIGEST, Charles Bendotti, SVP People & Culture at Philip Morris International, describes how he has set about renewing this giant as a Global Top Employer./ p.114

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

7

Success Story Shannon Schuyler, Chief Purpose Officer of PwC, talks about CEO Action, the largest-ever CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. / p.122

Employee Benefits Goodbye MICROMANAGEMENT, Hello OWNERSHIP CULTURE! / p.134

Recruitment Point Company Culture Metrics employers must track in the digital age / p.140

Legal Hub The recent SCOTUS ruling may have a message to GIG economy businesses / p.144

HR Tools & Technology Taking a better Safe Than Sorry approach to talent management tools / p.150

HR Events Top picks of conferences and professional events around the world./ p.156

8

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Progress through knowledge Make better decisions in your personal and professional life with nonction summaries from getAbstract!

Knowledge changes people – they learn. We are thrilled about this progress, and since 1999, we have made it our mission to nd and summarize reliable and relevant knowledge. www.getabstract.com

Vienna tops Mercer’s 21st The Austrian capital tops the list for the tenth running year.

Western Europe takes eight of the 10 highest-ranking positions on Mercer’s new safety ranking with Luxembourg topping the list.

Despite Brexit, London remains an attractive destination for international business.

San Francisco top-ranked city in the United States for quality of living.

With its vibrant cultural scene, excellent healthcare, cheap transport, and a surprising urban edge: the patrician Austrian capital has rediscovered its joie de vivre.

Vienna offers the world’s highest quality of living, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Mercer Quality of Living Survey. The city, with a population of just under two million, scores highly in a number of categories. Among others, the city is championed for providing a safe and stable environment for expatriates to live in; it boasts an extensive offering of international consumer goods, affordable public and utilities transportation facilities, and good recreational facilities.

10

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

t Quality of Living ranking

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

11

Mercer’s Quality of Living research assists multinational organizations tocompensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments. Some cities are tied in the ranking.

Source: Mercer’s 21st annual Quality of Living Survey 12

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

13

Eight of the top cities are European, with Auckland, Vancouver, and Sydney representing other continents. Mercer’s authoritative survey is one of the most comprehensive of its type in the world and is conducted annually to enable multinational companies and other organizations to compensate employees fairly when placing them on international assignments.

Mercer’s 21st annual Quality of Living Survey shows that the quality of living is an essential component of a city’s attractiveness for businesses and mobile talent. Some of the factors considered in determining the appeal of cities are availability of consumer goods, economic environment, housing, medical and health considerations, natural environment, political and social environment, recreation, school and education and socio-cultural environment.

“Strong, on-the-ground capabilities are integral to the global operations of most international businesses and are in large part driven by the personal and professional well-being of the individuals that companies place in those locations,” said Ilya Bonic, Senior Partner and President of Mercer’s Career business. “Companies looking to expand overseas have a host of considerations when identifying where best to locate staff and new offices. The key is relevant, reliable data and standardized measurement, which are essential for employers to make critical decisions, from deciding where to establish offices to determine how to distribute, house and remunerate their global workforces.”

14

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Taking into account 39 factors affecting the quality of living, these are the top 10 most desirable cities for international employees in the North America, South America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and Pacific regions.

The Quality of Living top 10 2018

Vienna, Austria Zurich, Switzerland Auckland, New Zealand Munich, Germany Vancouver, Canada Dusseldorf, Germany Frankfurt, Germany Geneva, Switzerland Copenhagen, Denmark Basel, Switzerland; Sydney, Australia Source: Mercer’s 21st annual Quality of Living Survey

“The security of the individual is informed by a wide range of factors and is constantly in flux, as the circumstances and conditions in cities and countries change year over year. These factors are crucial for multinationals to consider when sending employees abroad because they consider any concerns around the expat’s own safety and can have a significant impact on the cost of international compensation programs,” said Slagin Parakatil, Principal at Mercer and Global Product Owner for

16

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

its Quality of Living research.

“In order to stay abreast of the quality of living across all the locations where staff are deployed, companies need accurate data and objective methods to help them determine the cost implications of changing living standards.”

In addition to valuable data on relative quality of living, Mercer’s survey provides assessment for more than 450 cities throughout the world; this ranking includes 231 of these cities.

This year, Mercer provides a separate ranking on personal safety, which analyzes cities’ internal stability; crime levels; law enforcement; limitations on personal freedom; relationships with other countries and freedom of the press.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

17

Overtime: What Proposed DO Mean For Employers?

Raises the salary threshold from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $679 per week ($35,308 per year).

The 2019 rule is expected to affect the exempt status of more than 1 million employees.

Raises the total annual compensation required for the highly compensated employee exemption from $100,000 to $147,414.

On March 7, 2019, the US Department of Labor (DOL) released a proposal to update the overtime rules under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The regulation could make over 1.3 million Americans who work more than 40 hours a week eligible for overtime pay.

To employers and employees alike wondering what’s going to happen, here’s what you need to know: the FLSA requires employers to pay employees overtime pay for hours 40 hours woeked in a workweek. There are exceptions to this rule.

Salaried employees who are managers and those with certain “specialized skills” – such as a professional degree or training in a specific field – are exempt from overtime pay if they make:

18

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

OL Overtime Exemption Could

Photo: Department of Labor The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

19

More than $455 per week; or Over $23,660 a year An Obama-era proposed regulations overhauling would have doubled that level making over 5 million salaried workers eligible for overtime. It required employers to pay overtime to salaried employees unless they make: More than $913 per week; or Over $47, 476 a year The regulatory changes were invalidated in late 2016 by a federal judge in Texas, who ruled that the DOL had overstepped its authority by increasing the salary limit dramatically.

The new rule could be implemented in the second half of 2019. If you’re an employer, you can make informed decisions regarding each employee’s work schedule, the structure of their compensation, and how you’ll account for overtime hours.

“Employers who recall the feeling of panic when the Obama administration issued its Final Rule doubling the salary basis threshold in May 2016 will breathe a sigh of relief over the much smaller increase proposed by the Department of Labor yesterday. In fact, for many larger employers, or employers that made changes to comply with the 2016 Final Rule before it was enjoined, yesterday’s announcement will be a nonevent,” says Ryan Mick, an attorney with Dorsey & Whitney in Minneapolis. “Nonetheless, yesterday’s proposed rule will still have a significant impact on many businesses, as the Department of Labor estimates that more than 1 million employees will have to receive pay raises in 2020 or become eligible for overtime.

20

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Small and medium-sized businesses may bear the brunt of that impact.”

The 2019 Federal Overtime Regulations would serve as a middle ground between current rules and the 2016 ruling. If you don’t have enough payroll funding, then you’ll have to reconsider how you staff certain projects. Employees who are currently making below $23,660 a year will be classified as nonexempt. If an employer pays an exempt employee less than $23,660 a year, they can make up to ten percent of the salary threshold in the form of bonuses and other incentives. Such payments should be made on a quarterly or more frequent basis. ”Although consistent with expectations, employers will also be relieved that the Department of Labor did not propose changes to the duties tests for exemptions under the FLSA, which would have required many employers to undertake a far more complex analysis to determine exempt status for many employees,” Mick says.

The federal case in Texas is to be heard by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is on hold until the DOL arrives at a decision on the salary threshold.

“Employers should not forget that the Department of Labor’s proposed rule has no bearing on state law. If applicable state law imposes a higher minimum salary requirement or a more onerous duties test, employers in that state must continue to comply with state law.” Mick says.

Meeting the salary threshold doesn’t make an employee exempt from overtime pay. The employee’s job responsibilities must primarily include executive, administrative or professional duties.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

21

Study: In The Workplace M Victim Is The Troublemaker Over 60 million American workers wake up and go to work every day to work with people who are damaging to their self-esteem and ability to contribute at work. For those who suffer from workplace bullying, it’s a double whammy when they attempt to go the human resources or management.

According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, victims of workplace mistreatment may also be seen as perpetrators themselves. Moreover, supervisors may not withstand the claims of the victim and may see them as bad employees, regardless of their performance. Despite what the evidence suggests, however, bullies are often viewed in a more positive light, especially if they have a good relationship with the boss.

The peer-reviewed article was co-authored by Shannon Taylor, an associate professor of management in the University of Central Florida’s College of Business.

For most of the part, the flawed decision making is attributed to cognitive biases, such as Halo Effect, which may override any specific judgments they have to the contrary.

In total, four studies were conducted by the researchers. The

22

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Mistreatment Playbook, The r!

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

23

first two of these were based on surveys of employees and supervisors, and revealed that supervisors tend to exhibit bias against those on the receiving end of bullying.

Studies three and four were experiments in which participants evaluated employees based on descriptions of their work performance, as well as how they treated others and how they were treated.

It was found that when evaluators were clearly informed that a victim did not exhibit bullying behavior, the victims were still seen as bullies. The fourth study showed that bullying victims also receive lower job performance evaluations as a result of being victimized.

So what should human resources and managers take away from the research? Regardless of what organizations do to curb workplace mistreatment, human resources should know this: we’re all susceptible to biases. These studies support the idea that victims of workplace mistreatment become dissatisfied and demotivated, especially if the bullies are rewarded and recognized while victims are left empty-handed.

24

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The 9-To-5 Workday Migh “Night Owls,” Study Finds The 9-to-5 workday is generally accepted despite being originated in the 1800s by American labor unions. However, the eight-hour workday which seems to be a normal schedule is directly opposing the biology of a group of persons.

A recent study found that individuals whose internal body clocks mandates them to sleep late have insufficient resting brain connectivity in the consciousness region of the brain because they are forced to wake up early.

In the findings published in Sleep Research Society Journal, SLEEP, University of Birmingham researcher and lead author Elise Facer-Childs, Ph.D., explains that lower levels of brain connectivity were less than positive even though it doesn’t always refer to something negative.

In the experiment, which was focused on the impacts of circadian phenotype and time of the day on functional connectivity, the brain function of 38 persons was evaluated while they were asleep. The scientists measured their levels of cortisol and melatonin using MRI scans, and also asked the individuals to report their levels of sleepiness and when they felt most alert during the day.

26

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

ht Need To Change Due To s

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

27

The study found that higher resting brain connectivity was associated with “morning larks.� And that resulted to lower sleepiness at daytime and better performance in attention during the working day. Their brains were more prepared for doing tasks and to be less sleepy, Facer-Childs explains.

The phenomenon of having some people go to bed late while others are primed to wake up early is attributed to their genes.

28

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

According to a recent study published in Nature Communications, genes can also alter someone’s natural waking time by as much as 25 minutes.

The hormones that control wakeup and sleep cycle; Cortisol and Melatonin, which vary significantly between the two groups studied, also have a major role. These hormones were peak among “morning larks,” about 3 – 4 hours before “night owls.”

“People don’t bother to ask why some of us love burning midnight oil while others are better in the morning,” Facer-Childs said.

“Accounting for the differences in people’s body clocks and sleep patterns is an area of science that is very important to every one of us. And this study could lead to untapped source, contributing to being at our best, both physically and mentally.”

The study also found that the 9-to-5 workday is less compatible with “night owls” than “morning larks” who wake up early naturally. It also found that “night owls” experience poorer attention, increased sleepiness, and slower reactions during the typical work hours due to lower levels of brain connectivity.

There might be a need to change the rigid 9-to-5 workday schedule, Facer-Childs suggests, referring to this research and similar studies.

“The abundance of new researches pointing to the negative health and poor work performance from sleep disruption and misalignment are in support that our society is due to create more flexible work time,” Facer-Childs said.

“Constrained routines are important in a corporate system but taking account of individual differences and allowing people for a few hours of flexibility would make a good impact.”

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

29

Employees Don’t Trust A Corporate compliance officers already know that violation of anti-retaliation statues is an unjustifiable risk. The magnitude of this significant problem is outlined in ECI’s Global Business Ethics Survey. It noted that 44 percent of employees suffered retaliation after reporting wrongdoing of some kind – up from 22 percent in 2013.

Even worse, employees typically don’t report retaliation via internal hotlines. A 2019 Hotline and Incident Management Benchmark Report states that only 1.18 percent of internal reports were complaints about retaliation.

These findings raise important questions that every major company needs to ask: have we created a safe and responsive environment for employees to draw attention to a brewing problem? Will conscientious problem say something if they notice unethical behavior? Or worse, will management retaliate against whistleblowers?

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently published a report on whistleblower operations at the Department of Defense (DoD). The DoD is the largest employer in the world with more than 1.4 million men and women on active duty and 718,000 civilian personnel. If you think you’re in dire straits with whistleblower challenges, think twice. Consider these excerpts from the GAO’s findings: 30

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Anti-Retaliation Statutes About 85 percent of DODIG reprisal and senior official misconduct investigations exceeded statutory and internal timeliness goals. Further, military service IGs did not meet most goals for handling cases within prescribed timeframes.

DODIG guidance for protecting whistleblowers who report internal DODIG misconduct does not specify key steps investigators should take to protect confidentiality, such as not identifying complainants during interviews with case subjects.

Air Force, Naval, and Marine Corps IG guidance does not specify when whistleblower identities can be disclosed without consent. Without updated guidance, the IGs cannot ensure the consistent implementation of confidentiality protections.

Between 2016 and 2018, employees in all of the IGs have been able to access sensitive whistleblower information without a need to know.

Getting employees to escalate unethical behavior is only the tip of the iceberg. Employees who do try to blow the whistle should be taken seriously. Corporate compliance officers need to re-evaluate the process they follow to investigate calls to the internal ethics hotline. Creating a guarded and receptive climate to facilitate detailed investigations of tips will help companies spot the next Enron scandal before it’s too late.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

31

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

BOTTOM UP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS By: Priyansha Mistry

Picking the right approach to leadership gets the most attention, but execution may be just as big a problem. For organizations growing in size and complexity, the job often expands beyond the capabilities of any single leader. That’s why CEOs of many organizations establish executive teams –

32

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

a group of senior leaders who work together to define goals and ensure everyone keeps them in mind.

There are number of ways to do this, as outlined in co-author David Silverman’s leadership and management book, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World. But one of the best ways is to adopt the bottom-up management style. The key, here, is to build teams that are purposeful and resilient with an ability to solve problems that could never be foreseen by a single leader.

In this remarkable interview with THE HR DIGEST, David Silverman discusses the role of establishing a shared sense of purpose and shared consciousness in non-executive teams, and gives his views on what makes a great leader.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

33

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

David Silverman

Founder & CEO of CrossLead & Peak Performance Expert Photo: CrossLead

Leadership expert and best-selling author David Silverman has paved the way in transforming groups into highperforming, agile, and adaptive teams that drive success. David continues to bring out the best in people as CEO and Founder of CrossLead. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, David served in the US Navy as a SEAL Officer for 12 years. Building off of his collective leadership experiences, David created CrossLead as a holistic leadership and management solution for the digital economy. CrossLead is designed to empower leaders, teams, and organizations to scale the adaptability of elite small teams to the entire enterprise.

David previously cofounded McChrystal Group with General Stanley McChrystal, and led the company as CEO. During his time at McChrystal Group, David laid out the framework for CrossLead as a co-author in the New York Times bestseller Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World.

34

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. A sense of ‘oneness’ is a highly subjective emotion.

How can organizations and teams build a culture of oneness that is infused in Ranger Platoons, SEAL squads, Army Special Force units, or across a task force of thousands?

In my experience, that feeling of ‘oneness’ comes from two conditions – trust and common purpose.

The SEAL Teams are like being a part of a family. You learn to trust each other through concentrated and intense interactions both in training and in combat. You are tested in stressful situations time after time, and team members’ strengths and weaknesses become apparent to each other. Teammates are able to anticipate each another’s reactions and movements, allowing us to rapidly adapt to be consistently successful.

Leaders can help establish this by rewarding team members for speaking up and making suggestions, independent of quality, and modeling behaviors that demonstrate vulnerability, such as admitting mistakes. This fosters an environment where people feel comfortable communicating openly. The academic term for this phenomenon is psychological safety. Like trust, psychological safety is hard to build and easy to destroy – leaders must actively work to maintain it with their teams.

In the SEAL Teams we always meet before and after an event to plan and debrief. In both sessions rank does not matter. It’s key observations and quality suggestions that garner respect. The best teams learn as much from their successes as they do from their failures. Learning from everything going right is harder to do than when things go wrong. Good teams can tear apart their successes to find those incremental improvements.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

35

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

36

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Similarly, common purpose must become part of the organization’s everyday vocabulary. It isn’t enough to state goals once a year or once a quarter at a company meeting. Employees should be consistently reminded of their common purpose and the role they play in helping the organization reach its objectives. Knowing how the work they do fits into the larger company strategy holistically cultivates a sense of pride and shared success Q. Your book “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World,” which you coauthored with General Stanley McCrystal, suggests that ‘every individual does not have to have a relationship with every other individual; instead, the relationships between the constituent teams need to resemble those between individuals on a given team.’ How critical is creating shared consciousness via cross-organizational and cross-functional teams in order to flourish in complex and challenging environments?

Shared consciousness is the single most important capability for organizations operating in complex environments. Even when teams are aligned on the goal they are trying to achieve, empowered teams that lack a shared understanding of their environment and impact on one another pose a dramatic risk to the organization. Decisions made in isolation inevitably have unrecognized second and third order effects, the magnitude of which may be unknown until after the fact.

On small teams, shared consciousness develops naturally – information flows freely, and any lesson learned by one individual becomes a lesson for the group. But as organizations scale, creating and maintaining shared consciousness must be intentional. The companies CrossLead has worked with who

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

37

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS

“

Decisions made in isolation inevitably have unrecognized second and third order effects, the magnitude of which may be unknown until after the fact.

38

”

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

have done this successfully have taken a very disciplined approach to it, leveraging regular crossfunctional forums to share key learnings and decisions, as well as our technology that surfaces updates, risks, and other critical information to other teams. With the right operating mechanisms in place, shared consciousness can scale across the enterprise.

Q. Organizations are often criticized because they cannot adapt to continuous uncertainty and change.

How can organizations replicate the resilient characteristics we observe in US Navy SEALs? Adapting to change is difficult for companies because there is a lot of inertia – legacy organizational processes and structures are not designed for flexibility. While the military is arguably the biggest bureaucracy, the Special Operations Forces’ success hinge on their ability to make and execute decisions in real-time. This enables them to adapt quickly as they learn, continuously improving

as they work towards their mission.

To be adaptive the individuals must be empowered to make decisions locally. The people closest to the opportunity must be able to make decisions consistent with the goals and objectives of the enterprise. So as Leaders our job is to constantly push decision making down to the most appropriate level. Establish accountability mechanisms through transparency that provides context and alignment.

Empowerment should highly correlate to speed. In high stress, rapidly changing environments, speed is usually the most decisive factor.

Q. What personal qualities, values or experiences would you say are essential in a good leader?

The two characteristics that stand out to me in the amazing leaders I have known are self-awareness and discipline. Good leaders constantly look for ways to improve themselves and the teams they lead, and this means they must see reality clearly and be capable of recognizing their own faults. Being aware of one’s self helps leaders recognize when the environment requires them to change to be successful.

Similarly, good leaders are extremely disciplined. They demonstrate mastery of the fundamentals – meetings they lead have purpose and reach their intended outcomes, the decisions they make are based on data rather than emotion, and they ruthlessly prioritize their own to-do lists and those of their organizations. Every company has a long list of goals – choosing what not to do is more important than choosing what to do. Good leaders have the discipline to keep their companies focused on their most important objectives.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

39

LEADERSHIP INSIGHTS Q. Who had the most significant influence on shaping you as a leader?

This is a really tough question, as so many individuals have had a profound impact on me as a leader. The person who stands out most to me is my high school water polo coach, Larry Rogers.

Larry taught us how to win and what it took to win consistently, which was extreme physical and mental discipline and a sense of “team� above self. Though our team had an outstanding record, he treated our losses with just as much enthusiasm as our wins because it gave us an opportunity to reflect and learn.

Learning to win was critical in my own development. When you think about winning you usually imagine the joy of and rewards of success. But for me it was much more about the process or journey than any outcome.

Intense daily sacrifices and physical suffering conditioned the mind and made us resilient. The required discipline that it takes to achieve and sustain high performance is something that I was fortunate enough to learn at a relatively early age. I constantly leverage those lessons when trying to make it through the Naval Academy or through SEAL training or on the field of battle and today as an entrepreneur.

40

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

“

Good leaders constantly look for ways to improve themselves and the teams they lead, and this means they must see reality clearly and be capable of recognizing their own faults. Being aware of one’s self helps leaders recognize when the environment requires them to change to be successful.

”

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

41

Q&A with Jane 42

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The brutal and straightforward answers to HR-related queries and concerns.

Send in your queries with the subject line ‘Ask JANE HARPER’ at info@thehrdigest.com

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

43

&

WITH JANE I’m making someone use their holiday to grieve over their mother’s death.

Hello! Long story short, recently one of my employee’s mother passed away. She has been off work for two weeks on bereavement leave. She now wants to take an off before and after the funeral. I approved her request but took two days off from her holiday, which she consented as she has no plans for the holiday. I feel I should let her keep all of it because of the circumstances.

For Your Information: This is in Virginia, USA. It can be tricky knowing how to extend condolences when an employee loses a loved one. From whether to send a sympathy card or flowers to whether to offer compassionate and bereavement leave, it can be difficult for employers to know how to best show their support to a grieving employee.

On average, four days is allotted for the loss of a spouse or child, according to the Society for Human Resources Management 2016 Paid Leave in the Workplace Survey. Many employers give three days’ paid time off for the loss of a parent, domestic partner, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, or foster child. A more generous bereavement policy might include up to five days’ paid time off.

Beyond offering compassionate and bereavement leave, organizations offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) to help workers struggling with the loss of a loved one, substance

44

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

abuse, and other stress-related problems. Workers value empathy in their employers and extending bereavement leave demonstrates that organizations understand the workers’ needs during times of crisis like this.

We recently supported a company veteran who lost his wife.

Alongside two weeks compassionate and bereavement leave, we also arranged for him to have the service. He returned to work in a less pressured role, on reduced hours, and after two months he was able to return to full-time hours.

When an employee’s family was killed in a house fire, this obviously had a huge impact on his physical and mental health. We hired a specialist who gave one-to-one long-term telephone support, literature and face-to-face counseling.

Peer support also really helped at the time.

Ask most bereaved individuals and they will tell you: the emotional process of coping with a loss is a long one. You are providing an invaluable extension of support to your employee by giving her two weeks of bereavement leave.

But as an employer, you are responsible to keep the shop running smoothly. And that can be a real challenge.

You can re-examine your decision by seeking assistance from State and Federal governmental resources. Currently, there is no federal law mandating that companies offer bereavement leave. Virginia law does not mandate employers to provide employee bereavement leave. An employer may choose to offer bereavement leave and may be required to comply with any bereavement policy or practice it maintains.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

45

&

WITH JANE I’m having a hard time with ‘no’ regarding personal gifts.

I have an interesting scenario that I need some advice on.

The delivery boy at our restaurant is a sweetheart of a guy.

He’s an Italian immigrant with a thick accent and he’s good a pretty good worker. He brings in Italian food all the time and is always willing and eager to help others.

He wanted to do something nice for my sons (who he never met) and got them a present for Christmas. He loves kids and says he has neighborhood kids and family over to the house he shares with his sister and brother-in-law in the spring. I pushed back saying he didn’t have to, but he says it comes from his heart. He got them something which needed to be picked up at Costco, but he couldn’t bring it to work for many weeks because it was too big for him to take on the bus.

During those weeks, he mentioned the gift every day. While he never set out to manipulate me, I realized the looming gift made me go easy on him. I even picked up some of his slack which meant working a little extra.

My kids love the gift (a toy that cost a day pay for him), and now he says his brother-in-law wants to make toy cars for them. I pushed back saying we appreciate his generosity and he doesn’t need to do that. But now he already has the material.

Any form of me telling him no results into anything from a

46

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

crabby attitude for the rest of the shift to calling off. How do I tell him that no, he’s not bringing gifts for my boys, without him getting all offended?

Your story should serve as a warning to every working professional. Favors should be given from top to bottom, never taken from bottom to top. And although some give it without expectation of return, most do not, whether consciously or not!

Bottom-up favors are like a neighbor haphazardly clearing up your yard, such that you’re forced to thank him for a rush job he did without hurting his feelings, or a family member knitting you an ugly jumper you can neither refuse nor wear.

Many companies code of conduct requires that its workers show commitment to treating all people and organizations, equally. By picking up some of his slack, you’ve demonstrated biased professionalism towards the worker. Another related question is, do you have a company gift policy?

While an organization may or may not have a gift policy in place, it’s advisable that managers must always refuse the favors they cannot use nor repay for the sake of the ones they may need.

In your case, the nature of the offered gift raises concern to the good faith of the worker offering it. I think you need to make it clear that you cannot accept his personal gifts, however much you appreciate them. “Employee, it’s very thoughtful of you! Regretfully, I must decline your generosity because company policy prohibits managers from receiving gifts.

Be rest assured, I deeply appreciate your kind gesture.”

Got something to ask? Send your questions to info@thehrdigest.com.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

47

COVER STORY

CELEBRATING 10 POWERFUL HR LEADERS By: Priyansha Mistry

Never have HR leaders had to handle so much change so rapidly.

The modern economy demands transforming companies endlessly, necessitating profound changes in the workforce and talent strategy.

These forces are reshaping the role of HR and putting pressure on the HR Executive to become much more than a game changer and the leader who enables business strategy. It’s no coincidence that CEOs know they depend on their company’s human resources to achieve success.

In challenging times, vision and resilience can be significant virtues.

These qualities are evident in the 10 men and women who’ve achieved a spot in The HR Digest’s 2019 list of the 10 Powerful HR Leaders. Their success is the result of an unwavering leadership acumen in the face of a hyper-competitive market. Nevertheless, their companies have shown remarkable success as they consistently deliver results. We say this with confidence, based on our interviews with HR Executives from companies such as IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Southwest Airlines, SAP, and Tesla, all of which act on their commitment to developing the people side of their businesses.

48

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

49

COVER STORY

Meet The Woman Who Has Changed IBM’s History Diane Gherson, CHRO, IBM

H

arnessing the power of data analytics to transform process, people, and culture is not easy. It demands conscientiousness - but when you master the organizational muscle of using data, it can contribute to greater prosperity. Today, as Diane Gherson, CHRO IBM, transforms global workforce outcomes through talent analytics and data, she is not afraid to put forward profoundly ambitious and pathbreaking ideas.

50 050

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. You led IBM to undertake the most ambitious technology-enabled HR transformations in its 107year history. Can you tell The HR Digest readers what these changes are and what led you to make these changes?

We’re all experiencing a tectonic

shift in our businesses - from business models to how work gets done, and in people’s expectations as consumers and as employees.

IBM was no exception. The tech industry was undergoing a massive shift about six years ago.

We had to completely rethink our strategy, expertise, structure, how we innovate and work differently.

It meant readying our more than 350,000 workforce for skills for The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

051 51

COVER STORY the future and redesigning how they work and experience work to drive innovation and client engagement.

That meant rethinking HR with skills at the core of our management systems, employee experience as an outcome of our work, and new leadership models to take the company through the transformation and into a more agile world.

As context, like many HR organizations, we were very process driven. Coming out of the internet era, we were all geared up for process standardization, manager self-service and shared services. Digital technologies forced disruption of all that. It laid a good foundation for what was to come, but the process mindset was optimizing for efficiency rather than speed and innovation - two essential organizational competencies of the digital era.

And employees and candidates have new, consumer-grade expectations being shaped by their every day, rich digital experiences outside of work. When they come 52 052

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

SEVEN OUT OF 10 IBME COMPARED TO THREE O BEGAN. AND HR HAS CO BUSINESS -- $107 MIL to work, they expect this same type of personalization, transparency and responsiveness. We realized that we had to radically change HR, move out of our HR-speak and pivot to outcomes and solutions versus process-centricity.

In HR, we self-disrupted with AI and automation, recognizing that incorporating this into our work could help us tackle the challenges –particularly skills much more quickly. We adopted AI throughout the employee lifecycle, from how we attract, engage and develop to how we grow and serve. This has helped us to solve pervasive talent issues, reacting quickly to employee hot spots, matching employees and external candidates with career opportunities and proactively

ERS NOW HAVE SKILLS OF THE FUTURE OUT OF 10 WHEN OUR TRANSFORMATION ONTRIBUTED SIGNIFICANT BENEFITS TO THE LLION LAST YEAR ALONE. retaining our most valued skills. AI is powering our digital learning platform for employees through episodic training programs to learn on the go and helping to reduce bias in recruitment.

The outcomes have been material for us. Seven out of 10 IBMers now have skills of the future compared to three out of 10 when our transformation began. And HR has contributed significant benefits to the business -- $107 million last year alone.

Q. One of the big themes in your work is increasing the importance of an autonomous workforce.

What’s your sense of what companies can do to foster freedom to innovate within

“

teams while also providing clarity of purpose to keep them on course?

We all want to create an environment where employees can thrive, even see failures as opportunities for growth. At IBM, we have been nurturing a culture of experimentation, providing opportunities for employees to get out of their comfort zones.

Adopting agile and design thinking at scale throughout the company has been a game changer for us.

These teams are self-directed and empowered to innovate, using retrospectives to course-correct when needed.

In my own function where we’ve encouraged HR professionals to work differently, some are now The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

053 53

COVER STORY

“

WE ALL WANT TO CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE EMPLOYEES CAN THRIVE, EVEN SEE FAILURES AS OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH. AT IBM, WE HAVE BEEN NURTURING A CULTURE OF EXPERIMENTATION, PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR EMPLOYEES TO GET OUT OF THEIR COMFORT ZONES. coding, for example, to create chatbots on an as-needed basis to answer employee questions about benefits, on-boarding, performance management, just to name a few. A majority are trained in analytics and applying it to their work. We have trained our operations teams in robotic process automation and they are leading the charge in re-thinking work design with robotics, in areas like payroll, global mobility and expense reimbursement. The recruiting team has gone all in on embracing agile. This freedom to innovate has resulted in higher value contributions for the HR team members, and they’ve gained new skills in the process.

54 054

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. What are the tools IBM is using to build an agile workforce?

We’ve rolled out agile training across the organization and made contemporary collaboration tools available to everyone - including Box, Mural and Slack. This is a vast improvement over the asynchronous momentum of email.

Training employees to think like designers has also been important for us. We have 2,000 formally trained designers but having many in the workforce go through enterprise design thinking training makes us think differently about the products we are producing for our clients.

Q. What skills do the global HR managers of the future need to acquire?

The ability to work with data and analytics tops the list. And of course, business acumen. Design thinking skills for HR can translate to better experiences for the workforces we support. So, we’re recasting the programs we roll out

UNIQUENESS IS OVERRATED. Much like the best a mapmaker can create, your identity is more or less the most accurate and useful representation of who you are. Although, identity is not necessarily a measure of value like money. It’s the ultimate comm commodity. Like time. The driving force behind any valuable exchange in economic, political and social transactions. Ironically, the most personal things that define one’s identity are also the most common. Because, let’s face it, uni uniqueness is overrated. So it’s understandable that one cannot keep their identity distinguishable all the time. But it’s okay, we understand. We know better than anyone what it’s like to identify somebody even though they say they are a nobody. After all, identity is a product of identification. And identity requires an identifier. So we are determined to help you identify, verify and authenticate by providing the best identity verification solutions. The next time you want to verify someone, visit IDMERIT.COM because identification precedes identity.

056

“

to be more like “offerings,” where we aim to delight the user.

The digital era means this list of skills will keep changing. A commitment to continuous learning will be key.

Q. Looking back on your career, what educational influence was the most important in enabling you to become a leader?

I grew up in three different countries and left home at the age of eleven. All that enabled me to learn adaptability and independence at an early age.

Just to gain peer acceptance and avoid ostracism, you need heightened self-awareness and the skills to discern hidden cultural norms, adopting different world views and styles of communicating, interacting and making decisions.

I had the opportunity to test my leadership skills early, as I was elected to be the head girl of my secondary school. All that prepared me for what was ahead - moving 3,000 miles back to Canada to go to university, a

THE DIGITAL ERA MEANS THE LIST OF SKILLS WILL KEEP CHANGING. A COMMITMENT TO CONTINUOUS LEARNING WILL BE KEY. career in management consulting in the U.S., and ultimately, my leadership career here at IBM.

Diane Gherson, CHRO, IBM Diane was named an officer of IBM and CHRO in 2013. Diane is responsible for the people strategy, leadership, skills, careers, engagement, employee services, labor cost, diversity and inclusion of the 360,000 person workforce covering 72 countries.

Photo: IBM

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

057 57

COVER STORY Creating an Environment That Encourages Cognitive Diversity Felicia Mayo,

Vice President, Human Resources, Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Tesla

I

n a remarkable interview with The HR Digest, Tesla Vice President of HR and Diversity & Inclusion, Felicia Mayo, talks about the value of cognitive diversity in the global business sector and what makes a great leader. “The ability to inspire, motivate and create followership is nirvana,” she says. “When you have a leader that exhibits this strength, that leader can rally employees to achieve the impossible.”

As a prominent influencer of diversity, Mayo has made a remarkable contribution to paving the way to a diverse boardroom.

58 058

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Tesla is the only company in Silicon Valley to have bucked the trend of appointing mostly men to a place of power, i.e. its board of directors. But for many companies in the region, this is still a novel idea.

Has your advocacy helped inspire other companies to grow and develop this

stream of diversity?

I wish I could take credit for us bucking the trend. My team was very instrumental in executing on our developed strategy to ensure that Tesla integrates diversity into the business at all levels.

Any decision made was based on the business at hand and the experience that was required

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

059 59

COVER STORY to further drive innovation. The representation of females on the board and leadership shows our focus and commitment to integrating diversity into the business overall.

Q. What measure(s) did you take with your team to ensure that Tesla’s global corporate company culture would reflect its D&I goals?

Can you give a specific example?

Innovation is the key to our company and is at the center of our Diversity and Inclusion goals.

From that perspective, allowing Tesla employees, regardless of their demographic, to feel a part of the success, linked to the mission of the company, and connected to the strategy and the future of the company, is very important.

Overall, the first step taken was to observe the environment and the culture to better understand what enhancements were needed.

We then proceeded to build a strategy that met the specific needs of the organization and 60 060

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

further drove innovation. We have been executing on that strategy by closely partnering with different parts of the business and global leadership.

Q. As Tesla’s Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of HR, how do you place particular emphasis on cognitive diversity, i.e. diverse perspectives, experiences, and contributions, within your sphere of responsibility?

We value and balance visible diversity and cognitive diversity because it’s important to have a variety of different kinds of thinkers, problem solvers, designers and leaders. We’re doing things that have never been done before because as an industry leader, we must always have innovation at the core. Diversity drives innovation.

The beauty of innovation is that you have all different perspectives represented when solving problems. We’re looking for people who can come in and make an immediate and critical impact, regardless of experience,

“

DIVERSITY DRIVES INNOVATION. THE BEAUTY OF INNOVATION IS THAT YOU HAVE ALL DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES REPRESENTED WHEN SOLVING PROBLEMS. education level and background. If you are motivated, are passionate about our mission, and are driven to make a difference, Tesla is the place for you.

I see my sphere as global and across the company. Diversity and Inclusion is not a program, it is a part of the business. I am a business leader.

Q. What do you see as the greatest leadership strength?

The ability to inspire, motivate and create followership. This is nirvana.

When you have a leader that exhibits this strength, that leader can rally employees towards the impossible.

Q. What do you consider your most rewarding

experience in professional life?

My most rewarding experience in professional life was and is being able to integrate my family into my professional career. They have been along the journey by learning about the technology companies I have worked for, even to the point of being selected to be in a company video. I am totally the cool mom working at Tesla while driving a Tesla. Integration has always been key in my household, and it is my way of exposing them to STEM.

Felicia Mayo VP, HR, Diversity & Inclusion, Tesla Felicia Mayo is chief diversity officer and Vice President of HR at Tesla. She is an experienced HR executive, and an expert in Diversity & Inclusion, Talent Acquisition, Executive Partnership and Change Leadership.

Photo: Tesla

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

061 61

COVER STORY

Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders, Today Helena Gottschling, CHRO, RBC

T

he purpose of people analytics, according to Helena Gottschling, CHRO at Royal Bank of Canada, is to enlighten and balance talent conversations. In an interview with The HR Digest, Gottschling talks about people analytics and building a reliable pipeline of leadership talent.

62 062

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. People analytics has a strong place on the strategic agenda of the Royal Bank of Canada. If you had to make the case for the value of people analytics in workforce decision making as succinctly as possible, how would you frame it?

Even with the onslaught of new

technologies, it’s still people that drive innovation, creativity, engagement and, ultimately, business value – all the things that set one company apart from the next. It always comes down to talent, and strong people analytics enable you to make betterinformed talent decisions, which lead to better business outcomes.

Not too long ago, our retail business The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

063 63

COVER STORY identified a clear opportunity in the marketplace but recognized we’d need to increase our expert advisor capacity quickly to win.

Analytic tools enabled us to attract, select, onboard and train over 600 employees for specialized client advisor roles – all within a very tight timeframe. We relied on data-driven insights to shed light on everything from fine-tuning our talent search on social media to enhancing the onboarding and training experience for future RBCers.

We’ve also been using analytics to deepen our understanding of how people managers impact employee engagement and business performance at RBC. This research has enabled us to identify a set of actionable insights and behaviors we’re now drawing on to increase the effectiveness of managers overall.

Fact-based insights have the power to enlighten and balance talent conversations. They have a way of liberating the decisionmaking process from the all-toohuman biases that reside in all of 64 064

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

“

THERE’S ALWAY GROW, ESPECIAL THAT’S CHANGIN WE KNOW OUR S BEGINS AND END HIGHLY ENGAGE us, which helps get you to the finish line faster – a huge plus for large organizations like RBC. Q. Royal Bank of Canada has been recognized as one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers (2019) and Greater Toronto’s Top Employers (2019). Do you still see room for improvement in RBC’s employment practices?

There’s always room to grow,

“

YS ROOM TO LLY IN A WORLD NG SO RAPIDLY. SUCCESS DS WITH ED TALENT. especially in a world that’s changing so rapidly. We know our success begins and ends with highly engaged talent. Over the past few years, we’ve been very focused on making sure employees have a voice at the center of our design process, and that we’re really listening to what they have to say. Not just at annual survey time, but throughout the year across a broader mix of feedback channels, from crowdsourcing to informal round tables to just grabbing a coffee.

One of the most significant outcomes of this employee-centric approach has been a shift away from traditional performance management to performance enablement, where the focus is on unlocking every single employee’s full potential through regular coaching and feedback as opposed to the usual calendardriven reviews. This is what employees told us they want more of, and we listened.

We’re also putting more emphasis on reimagining our benefits programs in ways that take the whole person’s well-being into account, along with the stressors so many of us deal with every day.

In Canada, for example, we now offer a comprehensive financial wellness program and provide full coverage of up to $3000 annually for core psychological services. We’ll always have work to do, but we’re getting much more disciplined about putting ourselves in each other’s shoes, and our employee engagement scores have never been stronger.

Q. RBC takes great pride in its leadership development programs. In building The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

065 65

COVER STORY a reliable pipeline of leadership talent, how do these programs help deliver on your objectives?

One of our ongoing goals is to spot and develop the next generation of versatile, future-ready leaders early in career, so they have the adaptability to thrive no matter what the next horizon brings. A few years ago we introduced a new leadership model to articulate the capabilities and behaviors we need to lead RBC into the future.

It’s really our narrative of what matters most about ‘leadership’ at RBC. The model has been crucial in equipping us with a common point of reference to design richer, more varied development experiences that are mutually-reinforcing.

These days, deliberate, pro-active career pathing and cross-platform moves top the agenda to ensure our high potential leaders are getting the right depth and breadth of experiences sooner. This goes hand-in-hand with deepening our culture of sponsorship, where senior executives are actively engaged in accelerating the career trajectory 66 066

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

of our best talent.

One of our biggest success stories is our targeted leadership development programs for high potential women and visible minorities. We’ve long understood that diversity and inclusion are a catalyst for growth and innovation at RBC – it’s more than a core value for us. But by now, we’ve also learned that representative leadership doesn’t just happen. It takes concrete action, and these programs are helping us to ensure our leadership bench reflects who we are, as well as the clients we serve, at every level of the organization.

Q. What is your personal approach to decisionmaking? Would you call it more analytical or intuitive?

I would say good decision making requires a balance of both.

Diversity of thought leads to better, more innovative solutions at work every day, so when I’m making a major decision, I seek out different perspectives. I also look for relevant facts, data or

research to consider because in my experience, analytics are extremely helpful in making informed decisions and keeping collaborative decision-making from going off the rails. That said, as CHRO, many of the decisions I make impact people, and people are complex, so it’s important not to lose sight of your humanity, especially when you’re making decisions that impact employees’ lives. Ideally, there should be a healthy balance between analytical and the intuitive.

I do today without those moves. I learned that it’s ok to take risks and get uncomfortable - it’s how most of us learn and grow.

Q. What has been the most challenging decision you’ve ever had to take in your career?

The first thing that comes to mind is the decision to relocate with my family from Vancouver to Calgary and then from Calgary to Toronto when RBC offered me a new opportunity in a different part of the business. Canada is a very large country, and we were heading into completely unfamiliar personal and professional territory, more than a 5-hour flight from home.

It wasn’t easy, and I couldn’t have made it work without the support of my amazing husband and family, but I wouldn’t hold the role

Helena Gottschling CHRO, RBC Helena Gottschling is RBC’s Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) with global responsibility for Human Resources. Together with other members of Group Executive, Helena is responsible for setting the overall strategic direction of RBC - extending to over 80,000 employees in 37 countries.

Photo: Royal Bank of Canada

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

067 67

COVER STORY

Living the Southwest Way! Julie Weber,

Vice President and Chief People Officer, Southwest Airlines

A

desire to act with courage, persevere and innovate, the ability to put others first and a fun-LUVing attitude – these are the values that Southwest Airlines, the World’s Most Loved Airline, looks for in its employees and fosters through its talent management. Talking to The HR Digest, Julie Weber explains how the company’s “Hiring for Attitude” motto has helped forge an outstanding performance culture.

68 068

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Southwest Airlines is held up as a role model for its effective ‘Employee First’ philosophy. What forms does this take at the company?

Our Employee First philosophy takes so many forms and it starts with our belief that Happy Employees = Happy Customers =

Happy Shareholders. We have a Mission Statement to our Employees which says “We are committed to providing our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth.” We encourage Employees to grow and develop their careers within Southwest by offering personal and professional development through Southwest’s University, tuition reimbursement The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

069 69

COVER STORY and opportunities to promote.

Our Mission Statement to our Employees also states, “Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.” We believe that our special brand of Hospitality is achieved when BOTH Employees and Customers feel welcomed, cared for and appreciated. Three vital elements to our Culture are appreciation, recognition and celebration. We have numerous ways Employees can celebrate with and recognize each other including formal recognition programs and company-sponsored events like our annual Rallies, Chili CookOff and Halloween celebration.

Our Employee First philosophy and commitment to providing a stable work environment has also resulted in job security, competitive pay and exceptional benefits.

We help Employees prepare for retirement with a generous 401K match and ProfitSharing. We help our Employees take care of themselves and their families with medical coverage options in which 70 070

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Southwest picks up a generous amount of the cost. And, we have never had a pay cut, involuntary furlough or lay-off.

Q. You once said, “An employer must work to keep employees engaged by offering good pay and benefits, opportunities for development and advancement and a collaborative, missiondriven culture.” What does it take to maintain a sense of purpose at Southwest Airlines?

It starts with hiring the right People.

We are famous for “hiring for attitude” and that means we hire to our Values and Expectations – Warrior Spirit, Servant’s Heart and Fun-LUVing Attitude. Our expectations are thoroughly defined, and we’ve built our interviewing methodology around these expectations. We have a bold view on Employee engagement.

We view engagement as a twoway street. Yes, an employer must work to keep employees engaged by offering competitive pay

and benefits, opportunities for development and advancement, and a collaborative, missiondriven culture. But you also have to hire people who are engaged from the start, whose values are in sync with the organization.

Our Company purpose of connecting People to what’s important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel is something that all our Employees rally around every day.

It’s taking a grandmother to see her grandbaby for the first time.

Sadly, it can also be transporting someone to see a sick family member for the last time. No matter the reason, our Employees understand the importance of our purpose and know how their individual role contributes to that.

One of our recognition programs is called Winning Spirit. It recognizes Employees doing what they do best and that’s delivering exceptional Southwest Hospitality, displaying tremendous acts of Courage, demonstrating outstanding Teamwork, showing heartfelt Compassion to a Customer or fellow colleague in need, or even celebrating their volunteerism in their community.

WE ARE FAMOUS FOR “HIRING FOR ATTITUDE” AND THAT MEANS WE HIRE TO OUR VALUES AND EXPECTATIONS - WARRIOR SPIRIT, SERVANT’S HEART AND FUN-LUVING ATTITUDE. Awards like the Winning Spirit Award reinforce our Purpose and how much we believe that it is truly our Employees who make Southwest Airlines successful.

Q. Today work has become an indispensable part of life, wearing away our priorities.

Is there a need to reexamine our understanding of what work ought to be?

If what you do feels like your calling and if who you do that with feels like family, then work becomes harmonious with life. We often talk about work-life balance but that assumes that something always has to give. I believe that The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

071 71

COVER STORY Human Resources is my calling.

Even though I went to school to become a counselor and took a job as a recruiter just to pay back my student loans, I have never looked back. I ended up in HR by chance but have stayed with this profession because it simply feels like this is what I was meant

WHEN EMPLOYEES ARE ASKED ON OUR EMPLOYEE SURVEY IF THEY FEEL LIKE THEIR JOB IS “JUST A JOB,” “A STEPPING STONE,” OR “A CALLING,” NEARLY 75 PERCENT OF SOUTHWEST EMPLOYEES SELECTED, “IT’S A CALLING.” 72 072

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

to do. And, at Southwest Airlines, I am practicing HR at a company that matches my values and I am working alongside People I consider my family. I love the fact that I am not alone in feeling that what I do for Southwest Airlines is my calling. When Employees are asked on our Employee survey if they feel like their job is “just a job,” “a stepping stone,” or “a calling,” nearly 75 percent of Southwest Employees selected, “It’s a calling.”

Q. What would you say is the most effective non-cash motivator?

Appreciation! I have always believed that Employees don’t leave companies, they leave leaders. And, what I mean by that is that it is critical for Employees to believe that what they are doing makes a difference and is appreciated. We have several formal and informal recognition programs at Southwest, including celebrating service anniversaries with pins and also with big parties for major milestones such as the 10 Year Anniversary Gala and

the annual Anniversary Banquet for Employees celebrating 20, 25, 30 and even 35 years of service.

We also have a great program for recognizing Employees doing good work in the moment with incentive-type awards. Over the last few years, we’ve been able to add electronic elements that allow our Employees to quickly recognize each other with just a few clicks of a button.

Q. When the time comes for you to give aspiring leaders advice about their lives and careers, what will you say to them as you reflect on your own experiences?

Be kind to yourself and just as you extend grace to others, extend that to yourself. I have the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with college students through our internship program at Southwest Airlines and through the work I do with the University of Dallas and Colorado State University. Graduating students have expressed a lot of concern over picking the right first job opportunity. While I encourage them to do their homework in researching companies and to be selective in considering only those

that match their values, I also tell them that it’s really okay if that first job is not quite right. It will be a learning experience and our careers are truly journeys that will have twists, turns and stops along the way. As long as you are learning, you are growing. If you take a wrong turn, you can correct it. But, if you don’t take risks or don’t try, there will be little opportunity to progress.

Julie Weber Vice President and Chief People Officer, Southwest Airlines As Vice President People, Julie leads all aspects of Human Resources, including hiring the right People at the right time with the right attitude, providing Employees with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth, providing competitive and attractive benefits packages, and assuring quality and depth of Leadership throughout the Company.

Photo: Southwest Airlines

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

073 73

COVER STORY

Creating Shared Value.

Karen Keegans,

SVP & CHRO, Rockwell Automation

K

aren Keegans, SVP & CHRO of Rockwell Automation, is not short on ambition. Having joined the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information, she is now out to raise the bar for leadership talent across the organization. In an interview with The HR Digest, Keegans explains the crucial importance of AI and Automation in the workplace.

74 074

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Leadership Development programs are one of Rockwell Automation’s core strengths. Can you tell The HR Digest readers more about these programs and how they promote change within the company in practical terms?

We

created

our

Leadership

Development Program (LDP) to give our early career employees the opportunity to have a career at Rockwell Automation, with a variety of experiences and roles across our business units and functions, and to support our succession plans.

Our LDP accelerates work experience and career development for early career The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

075 75

COVER STORY employees. When we hire people who are in the early stages of their careers, we’re bringing in new, creative ideas and unique perspectives, fostering diverse thinking. Through job rotations, our LDP employees can better understand our company, our customers and influence how we work and operate as a company.

Q. Most people in HR aren’t AI & Automation specialists.

But they feel it will soon be important for them, even if they aren’t sure how to get to grips with it. If you had to make the case for the value of AI & Automation in the workplace as succinctly as possible, how would you frame it?

AI adds value to the business strategy by providing Human Capital insights through data and analytics. It also can eliminate timeconsuming, task-oriented work, allowing HR teams to focus more time on higher-value work. Where AI provides data and analytics – it is people and their creativity that bring the insights that can help 76 076

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

transform the business.

Q. You can demand a sense of purpose at the very top.

How do you ensure that people throughout Rockwell Automation believe in the same philosophy?

It’s important to make sure employees understand the vision

AS WE MAKE OUR PROCESSES MORE EFFICIENT, PLACE NEW CAPABILITIES INTO THE HANDS OF OUR LEADERS, AND DEVELOP OUR LEADERS INTO TALENT CHAMPIONS, WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE ARE REDEFINING ALL OF HR’S ROLES - SO WE CONTINUE TO UNDERSTAND THE KEY CRITERIA AND HUMAN CAPITAL NEEDS THAT DRIVE ORGANIZATIONAL RESULTS.

and strategy, how it’s connected to the work they do and that they see and feel that their work is meaningful. Once that is articulated, Communicate, Communicate, Communicate and when you think you have communicated enough ... communicate again. As a leader, it is important to ensure you are always connecting back to the purpose, ensuring that you are leading by example.

Q. When you set out to recruit new talent, what do you look for? How do you retain star performers to Rockwell Automation?

It’s important to us that we bring in thought leaders from different industries with different perspectives, so we can execute our strategy. We look for diversity in thinking and experience.

To retain employees, we empower people to do their jobs. We provide them with a vehicle to develop their careers - the ability to move around, do different roles and get a variety of unique career experiences. We foster a culture that’s agile, giving employees the ability to collaborate and make decisions.

Q. What challenges and obstacles do you see Human Resources Management facing in the future?

The biggest challenge I see is our continued ability to add new value to our organizations. As we make our processes more efficient, place new capabilities into the hands of our leaders, and develop our leaders into talent champions, we need to make sure we are redefining all of HR’s roles - so we continue to understand the key criteria and human capital needs that drive organizational results.

Karen Keegans Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Rockwell Automation Karen Keegans is the senior vice president, human resources at Rockwell Automation.

Keegans provides strategic vision, change leadership and development and implementation of the company’s people programs, and leads cultural transformation for Rockwell Automation to support its delivery of the Connected Enterprise.

Photo: Rockwell Automation

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

077 77

COVER STORY

Presence in the Present Melissa Howell,

SVP & CHRO, Kellogg Company

A

s a branded company whose success depends on change management, Kellogg Company puts a premium on its internal culture. From the vantage point of a lifelong career in human resources, Melissa Howell talked with The HR Digest about the various Diversity & Inclusion programs which have put Kellogg on the global map as one of the top companies for veterans, LGBT employees, and executive women.

78 078

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

“

It’s essential to have a pulse on what is happening in your organization. It’s important to know how employees at all levels feel about the company, its leaders and how they experience work.

Q. Under your leadership, Kellogg Company has taken great strides in the field of diversity and inclusion (D&I). On October 18, Kellogg’s brand mascot turned purple for GLAAD’s Spirit Day to stand up to bullying and show support for LGBTQ youth. Some of the other initiatives revolve

”

around work-life flexibility, recruiting veteran talent and building a more diverse talent pipeline – all of which support the company’s long-term growth and innovation. How do you measure the value these D&I programs bring to the company?

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

079 79

COVER STORY At Kellogg, we know diversity & inclusion is not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do for our business. Having an inclusive culture where people can be their best, authentic selves every day, fosters better collaboration, innovation, teamwork and engagement – all critical elements to helping us achieve our Deploy for Growth Strategy. People are at the core of this strategy. We know our greatest strength lies in the many diverse, inclusive and passionate colleagues we have around our Kellogg world.

We take a holistic approach to measuring the impact and progress of our diversity & inclusion efforts.

From a workforce perspective, we monitor and measure key data such as representation, hires, promotions and retention across key demographics as well as the diversity of our people across all areas of the business in succession planning.

We also measure things such as supplier diversity spend, consumer feedback and corporate reputation. But, one of the things I find most effective is employee feedback.

We 80 080

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

seek (and listen to) qualitative feedback from our employees through our global opinion survey, focus groups and roundtables with our Business/Employee Resource Groups (B/ERGs). This, in addition to the numbers, paints the picture as to whether or not you have a truly inclusive environment where diversity thrives.

Q. Can you tell us about Kapable, Kellogg’s newest Employee Resource Group (ERG), for individuals with disabilities and their supporters; and KVets, which focuses on supporting veterans at the Kellogg Company and local communities?

Kapable is our Business/Employee Resource Group (B/ERG) whose mission is to ensure Kellogg is a welcoming and inclusive environment for current or future employees and supporters of those who are differently abled.

Our Kapable team has driven positive change to make our internal policies and workplace more inclusive. Last year, the team

ventured into the marketing space by partnering with the business to bring braille and audio options to the packaging of our Rice Krispies Treats “Love Notes” campaign.

The team not only demonstrated inclusion in practice, it generated tremendous sales and positive external feedback – further demonstrating diversity & inclusion is both the right and smart thing to do for our business.

KVets & Supporters is our Business/ Employee Resource Group that celebrates military service and recognizes the benefits that can be brought to Kellogg by

HAVING AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE WHERE PEOPLE CAN BE THEIR BEST, AUTHENTIC SELVES EVERY DAY, FOSTERS BETTER COLLABORATION, INNOVATION, TEAMWORK AND ENGAGEMENT – ALL CRITICAL ELEMENTS TO HELPING US ACHIEVE OUR DEPLOY FOR GROWTH STRATEGY.

those who serve. Our KVets & Supporters team has added great value to the organization by helping our recruiters and hiring managers better understand military experience (especially on resumes), and how to both attract and retain more effectively.

All eight of Kellogg’s B/ERGs – including Kapable and KVets & Supporters – help ensure our people are empowered to be their authentic selves. They work to raise awareness from both focused and intersectional viewpoints and are also a valuable resource for innovation and idea generation, helping us to remain agile and relevant with our employees and consumers.

Q. Has it been particularly easy or difficult to advance diversity for leadership roles?

Diversity & Inclusion is essentially about culture change. It takes strategic, deliberate focus and accountability to drive progress.

This is what we expect of ourselves and our leaders in the organization. We know there’s always room for improvement, and we’re fully committed to the journey.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

081 81

COVER STORY Q. What do you consider your most rewarding experience in professional life?

Throughout my career, I’ve had the great privilege to have had many global roles – I’ve even lived and worked outside of the U.S. for seven years. Through these experiences, I’ve gained a deeper perspective on how the history, culture and personal experiences of individuals impact what keeps them engaged and how they “show up” to work. Around the world, there are definitely nuances, but there are still many similarities for all employees. For me, understanding these varying perspectives is the most rewarding and fascinating part of my career.

Q. What’s the key lesson you want HR leaders to take away from your work?

The key lesson I would share – and remind myself of often – is that it’s essential to have a pulse on what is happening in your organization. It’s important to know how employees at all 82 082

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

levels feel about the company, its leaders and how they experience work. It’s also common, as you ascend to leadership positions, for feedback on company culture and employee engagement to be sugar-coated. This is truly a death wish for our effectiveness as HR leaders. Make sure you spend time with employees at all levels of the organization, just listen and hear what they have to say. Simple, but truly effective.

Melissa Howell Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources, Kellogg Company Melissa Howell has been Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Kellogg Company, since June 2016. She is a member of Kellogg Company’s executive committee.

Photo: Kellogg Company

083

COVER STORY

Unleashing Collective Genius Michael Fraccaro, CHRO, Mastercard

A

s globalization takes a sharp turn from government to business, the issue of global talent mobility rapidly moves up the agenda.

In an interview with The HR Digest, Michael Fraccaro, Chief Human Resources Officer at Mastercard, explains the importance of business resource groups and the vital role it plays to deliver real business results.

84 084

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Mastercard is said to have a passionate work culture fit for the industry’s most driven workers. To what extent is that down to a successful talent management strategy?

That’s an interesting way to frame it. I’d say we’re very focused on creating a skilled workforce

and leadership pipeline that can execute our strategy. To achieve this, we are intentional about sustaining a winning culture with decency at its core. Our ability to do that – and get it right – is our greatest opportunity to grow our business and our people, and play a meaningful role in society.

I was at a conference recently and one of the speakers remarked The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

085 85

COVER STORY that “Culture hedges against the risk of uncertainty.” That, I think gets to the heart of what the right culture can do. The headlines provide continuous reminders of how the wrong culture can have a devastating impact on a business.

By contrast, the right culture can help guide people when they’re faced with situations they haven’t dealt with before. It can help them innovate. It can drive healthy, yet provocative debate. It can empower people to take a point of view and allow the organization to benefit from diverse points of view. Culture can be an enabler and that’s the power we want to unlock at Mastercard.

Q. A culture of learning seems to be an integral part of your core company values. How do you ensure that 14,800 employees across the globe share the same passion for that philosophy?

Understanding the trends that are driving change for our business and making sure we innovate our people practices to address 86 086

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

those changes is essential to how we compete, succeed and set ourselves apart as a company.

We embrace continual learning as a foundational element of our culture. That requires us to invest in developing both current and future skills. We partner with universities to develop curriculum for students and learning programs for our employees in “hot skill” areas like cybersecurity and AI. For example, we worked with Washington University in St. Louis to develop a customized, cyber skills program for employees. We’ve also implemented a mobile learning platform (Degreed) where employees can learn anywhere at any time on any device; and we cross-fertilize talent from acquired companies to share knowledge and best practices.

We’ve also made development conversations a point of emphasis, as an important way to help employees identify, explore and connect with learning opportunities as they navigate their career journey at Mastercard. All these investments are intended to help our employees build skills and

“lifelong learning” habits.

Q. One of Mastercard’s key strengths is its investment in business resource groups and mentoring programs for various subgroups of employees. Tell us about the value added to the company after inducting your employees into these programs.

Mastercard places a high priority on being a truly inclusive workplace, where everyone has a genuine sense of belonging. One of the ways we bring this to life is through our Business Resource Groups (BRGs). Participating in these groups gives employees an opportunity, and encouragement; to express their diverse opinions and ideas, get involved in projects that might not be a part of their day-to-day jobs, and contribute to efforts that make a difference for their colleagues and our business. The BRGs provides them a unique platform to enhance their own cultural awareness, develop leadership skills and network with others.

While many companies have similar groups, we made a

conscious decision to make sure our BRGs connect to our business and have the runway to deliver real business results. BRG members have helped develop customerfocused programs, such as our work with the U.S. Treasury Department to provide prepaid cards in place of social security checks for senior citizens. They’ve helped drive the development of mobile payment solutions to promote financial inclusion in emerging markets.

They’ve even helped employees connect and build capabilities across generations. Our YoPros BRG offers a reverse mentoring program, where early career employees coach their colleagues in using social media platforms.

It’s about belonging. It’s about everyone having an opportunity to contribute – and knowing that their contributions are welcome.

Most importantly, it’s about how all of us can help move the business forward together.

Q. Can you share with The HR Digest readers some innovative recruiting strategies that allow Mastercard to compete for talent in America and abroad?

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

087 87

COVER STORY Innovation is central to our business, so it’s only natural that we constantly look at new ways to engage candidates. We’re currently piloting the use of neuroscience games, cutting-edge AI, automated machine learning algorithms and behavioral data in our campus hiring. Not only do these approaches fit with our identity as a technology company, but they can actually help reduce bias in candidate vetting.

Our Tech Hubs in New York City, O’Fallon and San Francisco offer specially-designed office environments for vibrant communities of employees working on our digital payments, cybersecurity and growth initiatives. We also host hackathons and special events geared to coders, developers, designers and entrepreneurs that give employees the opportunity to collaborate on real business challenges on topics beyond their day-to-day roles.

Above all, we believe attracting the right talent comes down to the fundamentals: building relationships and taking 88 088

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

“

WE’RE CURRENTLY PILOTING THE USE OF NEUROSCIENCE GAMES, CUTTING-EDGE AI, AUTOMATED MACHINE LEARNING ALGORITHMS AND BEHAVIORAL DATA IN OUR CAMPUS HIRING. NOT ONLY DO THESE APPROACHES FIT WITH OUR IDENTITY AS A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, BUT THEY CAN ACTUALLY HELP REDUCE BIAS IN CANDIDATE VETTING. opportunities to connect with people. That includes job seekers, professional organizations and students – even those who are in the very early stages of their education. Through programs like Girl 4 Tech, we encourage 1013 year olds to explore STEM skills and careers. We’re very intentional and proactive about supporting activities that deliver good for the community. We’re always looking for ways we can be a positive influence in the markets where we operate. This is how you

get the right people familiar with and interested in your brand.

are no short-cuts in management.

Q. What are the core values that influence your decisionmaking?

DECISION MAKING AND THE ABILITY TO EXERCISE QUALITY AND CARE IN ONE’S JUDGMENT ARE SUPER IMPORTANT. HAVING THE RIGHT VALUES TO HELP YOU DEAL WITH RISK AND AMBIGUITY, SHOWING RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF CONSTANT CHANGE AND BUILDING THE ‘MORAL MUSCLE’ WITHIN YOUR ORGANIZATION TO DEAL WITH CHALLENGING DILEMMAS IS CRITICAL.

Today’s world is more complex and morally-connected than ever.

The role of a leader is definitely subject to greater scrutiny. Decision making and the ability to exercise quality and care in one’s judgment are super important. Having the right values to help you deal with risk and ambiguity, showing resilience in the face of constant change and building the ‘moral muscle’ within your organization to deal with challenging dilemmas is critical. For me, it’s pretty simple…it’s about doing the right thing. I see my role as being less about “command and control” – or where I fit on an org structure – and more about “connecting and collaborating.” That’s a point-ofview that’s shared across our senior leadership team. The decisions we make and the actions we take are predicated on those beliefs and a sincere desire to build a winning culture with decency at its core.

Not just because it feels good, but because it’s the right thing to do for society and for our business. There

Michael Fraccaro Chief Human Resources Officer, Mastercard Michael Fraccaro is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Mastercard. Prior to joining MasterCard, Fraccaro was a core member of the HR leadership team at HSBC Group for nearly 12 years, based in Hong Kong. Earlier, he held senior HR positions in banking and financial services in Australia and the Middle East, working extensively across different cultures.

Photo: Mastercard

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

089 89

COVER STORY

Taking the Right Lead Patricia Lewis,

Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Lockheed Martin

F

or many years, Patricia Lewis, Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Lockheed Martin Corporation, has advocated increasing the number of talent initiatives for groups that are traditionally underrepresented in STEM – and has gotten results. In an interview with The HR Digest, Lewis describes how she uses Lockheed Martin’s Full Spectrum Leadership to deliver results and shape the future.

90 090

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. When you arrived at Lockheed Martin in 2011, you implemented a number of strategic talent initiatives, including the Program Management Talent Initiative, STEM Scholarship Program, and Vocational and a number of Trade Programs. How do you measure the value

these programs bring to the company?

As we look to expand our talent pipeline to support business growth, these programs give employees the opportunity to grow and develop their careers. They also help us retain and attract top talent. We measure the impact of these programs by looking at the

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

091 91

COVER STORY impact on retention. Additionally, we measure our ability to place talent from these programs into critical roles across the company.

Q. ‘Full Spectrum Leadership’ is the cornerstone of leadership at Lockheed Martin. Can you tell TheHRDigest readers more about this model?

Full Spectrum Leadership is how we describe our expectations for successful leadership at Lockheed Martin. The basic premise is that we need multi-dimensional leaders, those who can achieve desired results while doing it in a way that positions the company for success.

We structure the model around five basic imperatives: Deliver Results; Shape the Future; Build Effective Relationships; and Model Personal Excellence, Integrity and Accountability. It’s woven through all aspects of our leadership processes, from recruitment to learning and development, recognition and succession planning.

92 092

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. How do you communicate tough messages?

Providing straightforward and transparent responses with the rationale for decisions is key to communicating tough messages.

We have very smart people at our company and I provide as much information as possible so that our employees understand how decisions are made and utilize the

FULL SPECTRUM LEADERSHIP IS HOW WE DESCRIBE OUR EXPECTATIONS FOR SUCCESSFUL LEADERSHIP AT LOCKHEED MARTIN. THE BASIC PREMISE IS THAT WE NEED MULTI-DIMENSIONAL LEADERS, THOSE WHO CAN ACHIEVE DESIRED RESULTS WHILE DOING IT IN A WAY THAT POSITIONS THE COMPANY FOR SUCCESS.

information to help make decisions that are best for their personal and professional needs.

Q. How are you going to shake things up next?

As our company continues to make investments in new technologies to support innovation, over the next 3-5 years, our workforce will see a major transformation that changes the way they do work.

With the rapid evolution of digital technology, the future of work will be defined by the use of artificial intelligence, human-machine teaming, and automation. These changes will impact everyone regardless of where they work.

This advancement is ongoing and cuts across many of our technical discipline areas, including Engineering, IT and Cyber, and Advanced Manufacturing. The evolution of the digital workplace means that we must prepare workers to understand the change and provide resources and innovative ways to learn so they can prepare themselves for jobs and technologies of the future.

Q. Who had the most significant influence on shaping you as a leader?

Many people have been influential in shaping my career. When I graduated from college, I stepped into my first experience as a firstline leader, which turned out to be the biggest influence on getting leadership experience early on in my career. This role gave me insight in understanding how a leader’s actions has the ability to impact, motivate and engage their employees, which can then drive better results and improved productivity.

Patricia L. Lewis Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Lockheed Martin Patricia L. Lewis is senior vice president of Human Resources for Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lewis is responsible for Lockheed Martin’s diverse workforce of 100,000 employees in over 50 countries around the world. She develops and implements the global human capital strategy, including: benefits, compensation and performance management, talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion, labor relations, talent and organizational capability, and workforce solutions and intelligence.

Photo: Lockheed Martin

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

093 93

COVER STORY Creating Opportunities for Multigenerational Workforce Peter Fasolo,

Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Johnson & Johnson.

P

eter Fasolo is widely considered one of the world’s most influential human resources leaders and Johnson & Johnson, one of the most admired companies. A conversation with Peter Fasolo about the value of transformational growth and innovation – and how to help it unfold.

94 094

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Johnson & Johnson is said to have a very strong corporate culture. Many of your employees have spent their entire careers with the group. Such a degree of corporate socialization can also stifle innovation and overall cognitive diversity. How do you keep your people open to

transformational growth and innovation?

At our core, Johnson & Johnson is a company that is deeply rooted in the values expressed in Our Credo, which defines how we operate and our expectations for our business and our people. We view ourselves as a 133-yearold startup that is guided by

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

095 95

COVER STORY our history and powered by the success of our innovation over that time frame.

Rooted in Our Purpose, we are charged with meeting unmet medical needs at every corner of the globe, and innovation is a key part of how we do that. Innovation is a long-term game and our relationship with our employees is likewise built on a mutual longterm investment in each other.

One example of how this comes to life is to encourage our employees to have “multiple careers” within J&J. Individuals who have the skills and background to move across our businesses have a higher probability of advancing through the organization because we view diverse experience as a major strength and key driver of innovation and growth.

Q. Generational conflict has become a keyword in the current management debate. Never has the topic been as immediately relevant as it is now – particularly when 96 096

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

companies with a rich history like Johnson & Johnson’s are managing people from five generations. How do you motivate employees of different generations to share their knowledge?

One of the most effective ways of understanding and meeting the needs and desires of our diverse patients, consumers and customers, is to have a workforce that reflects diversity. From that lens, we view generational diversity not only as a real strength for our business but as an imperative.

Our opportunity is to enable generations to learn from each other in a way that fuels the advancement of meeting unmet medical needs and innovation.

We tend to look at various groups based on their willingness and ability to learn new things across the spectrum of our businesses.

As part of that, we encourage employees to participate in both formal and informal mentorship and sponsorship programs. Our millennial employee resource

group is also a key driver of cross-generational collaboration, hosting a number of reverse mentoring events.

Q. Organizations have recognized the importance of using people analytics to de-bias hiring and rewards – but then fail to accelerate in skills identification and tackling biases. How did Johnson & Johnson approach this unique challenge to debunk conventional wisdom?

We recognize that there is no singular solution for mitigating bias, and for that reason, have taken a multipronged approach to how we address it within our organization. Beginning with recruiting, we have introduced technology into our process in a way that helps expand the diversity of our candidate pool.

For example, we’ve partnered with Textio, an AI-enabled platform, to enhance our job postings, leading to an increase in both qualified applications and gender diversity.

We’ve also made updates to our hiring manager platform so that our managers are now equipped with insights on the diversity of

their candidate set, among other relevant data, in order to help make more informed decisions.

Once you bring employees with a diverse background and skill set into the organization, it becomes imperative that there is a culture where they feel they belong and can express their unique views. One way we are fostering that culture at J&J is through unconscious bias training. To date, 90% of our employees have completed the e-learning course, with internal surveys indicating that the majority of employees found the information valuable and applicable to their job.

All of this is underpinned by our commitment to get smarter in the way we interact with our employees. For example, one study we conducted found that employees who feel included are 140% more likely to perceive a culture of innovation around them.

Leveraging these insights, we can demonstrate the impact of inclusive leadership across our organization and apply the learnings to how we develop talent.

Q. How do you communicate tough messages?

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

097 97

COVER STORY In my role, one of the most important things I do is to provide coaching and advice at the highest levels of the organization. In these situations, I am always cognizant of delivering my message in a way that is kind but provides realistic feedback that will help individuals reach their full potential.

Another key part of having difficult conversations is to come from a position of caring, rather than judgment. This relies on authenticity, which is built by demonstrating transparency, developing trust and modeling caring behaviors. If you just have a transactional relationship with your employees or peers, even the most carefully crafted messages will fail to resonate.

Q. What do you consider your most rewarding experience in your professional life?

When I take a step back, for me, it is less about a single experience and more about the deep appreciation I have for the sponsors and advocates who 98 098

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

EMPLOYEES WHO MORE LIKELY TO P INNOVATION AROU THESE INSIGHTS, IMPACT OF INCLU ORGANIZATION AN HOW WE DEVELOP have supported me throughout my career. At its root, sponsorship is about making a prediction of an individual’s ability to learn new experiences and supporting them in seeking out opportunities to advance their ambition. This has been a differentiator in my professional life and is something I strongly advocate and strive to enable for our employees at Johnson & Johnson.

O FEEL INCLUDED ARE 140% PERCEIVE A CULTURE OF UND THEM. LEVERAGING WE CAN DEMONSTRATE THE USIVE LEADERSHIP ACROSS OUR ND APPLY THE LEARNINGS TO P TALENT.

“

Peter Fasolo, Ph.D. Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Johnson & Johnson.

Peter M. Fasolo is Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, responsible for global talent, recruiting, diversity, compensation, benefits, employee relations and all aspects of the human resources

agenda for the Company. He is a member of the Executive Committee, Management Compensation Committee, and Chairman of the Pension and Benefits Committee.

Photo: Johnson & Johnson

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

099 99

COVER STORY Workforce Skills Upgrade: A New Competitive Advantage Stefan Ries,

Member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, Chief Human Resources Officer

S

AP is one of the few companies leading diversity & Inclusion, having implemented a comprehensive workforce skills upgrade since 2017. It is the world’s first company to incorporate neurodiverse talents into its workforce. And being responsible for providing algorithmic solutions related to workforce and other corporate challenges, it recognizes “HR PUNKS” as a crucial campaign businesses need to remain valuable. SAP SE Executive Board Member and Chief Human Resources Officer, Stefan Ries explains how he is utilizing AI and Big Data to advance HR analytics as the foundations for a successful global future.

100 0100

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Under your leadership, SAP successfully implemented a comprehensive workforce skills upgrade in 2017. How did you approach this unique task?

In 2017, SAP started a transformation of our Services & Support Business as we had learned

that the demand for service and support for our customers has been changing. We needed to shift faster to public cloud and new technologies, such as IoT, machine learning, SAP Cloud Platform and advanced analytics. We renewed the portfolio and we launched a huge skill transformation. While we were restructuring our services business, we made significant investments in training to help The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0101 101

COVER STORY our employees make this skills transition and to introduce a learning culture, as learning is a lifelong journey. Besides growing the skills of the current workforce, we also focused on attracting the best talents with new skills from the market and at the same time retain our best talents in the organization.

Our technology has helped us tremendously in analyzing the skills of our workforce, provide learning offerings to employees globally, and get access to talent pools worldwide.

Q. SAP is one of the few companies that recognize the importance of neurodiverse talent. If you had to make the case for the value of neurodiversity in the workplace, how would you frame it?

Many individuals with autism spectrum disorders are welleducated and have valuable skills to contribute in the workplace. 85% of people diagnosed with autism are unemployed. Many people who are employed are underemployed or partially employed, 102 0102

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

according to the National Autistic Society UK. Combined, this represents a significant untapped talent pool.

Autism at Work is designed to remove barriers that many individuals with autism face when entering the corporate world.

With SAP’s Autism at Work, we hire skilled colleagues “in spite of autism and because of autism,” bringing different and more diverse perspectives to the creative process. The approach promotes an inclusive work environment that considers the specific needs and skills of each employee – since employee diversity helps us get a better understanding of our customers, develop innovative solutions, and stay competitive in a global economy. Within SAP, the roles occupied by people with autism span human resources, marketing, finance, software development, and customer support and range from taskoriented jobs supporting business operations to more complex jobs in creative areas like software development.

The program taps into an underutilized talent source, reducing barriers of entry so qualified individuals can fully develop their potential.

Q. How are you going to shake things up next?

The old days of HR are over.

We need to revolutionize. Let’s innovate, disrupt, and challenge

the status quo. At SAP, we call this shake up “HR PUNKS”. It started as a small and crazy idea and is now a movement and campaign across the entire HR organization. What do we mean by HR PUNKS? In HR we now have the chance to move from an operational, back-office function to a leader of change.

What might look like a contradiction at first is exactly the shakeup we are looking for: we need a bit

IN HR WE NOW HAVE THE CHANCE TO MOVE FROM AN OPERATIONAL, BACKOFFICE FUNCTION TO A LEADER OF CHANGE. WHAT MIGHT LOOK LIKE A CONTRADICTION AT FIRST, IS EXACTLY THE SHAKEUP WE ARE LOOKING FOR: WE NEED A BIT OF ‘PUNK’ TO THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX TO GET US THERE. DIGITALIZATION GIVES US THE OPPORTUNITY FOR THIS DESIRED CHANGE. The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0103 103

COVER STORY of ‘punk’ to think outside of the box to get us there. Digitalization gives us the opportunity for this desired change. With the help of technology, we can create and deliver positive end-consumer experiences. How? By bringing employees with technology at work where they already are in their private lives: mobile, intuitive solutions, easy and fun to use.

At SAP, we develop, sell and run people software solutions that help us do so.

Q. What challenges and obstacles do you see Human Resources Management facing in the future?

While there are many challenges and opportunities, I want to highlight three in particular: the future of work is already here.

This means we see the impact of digitalization everywhere which has implications on the job market.

Companies across all industries call for IT experts – not only IT companies like SAP. This creates what I call a ‘jungle of talent’ out there. 20 years ago, companies 104 0104

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

could choose which talent they want to hire. As of now, everyone is looking for the best IT talent, it’s much more the talents who can choose where they want to work.

This requires a different approach for HR teams to attract and keep employees.

Secondly, new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data can be a challenge and opportunity at the same time.

While we might see some jobs disappear, new jobs will become available. Huge amount of data combined with predictive analytics will provide the insights necessary for business decisions. That’s especially relevant for HR, as factbased decision making versus gut feeling will be one outcome.

Last but not least, I can only repeat what I’ve already said many times: let’s look at the opportunities. And there’s many. Digitalization brings us the opportunity to improve people’s lives around the world.

Q. What do you consider your most rewarding

experience in professional life?

For me, it’s the constant opportunity to learn and enrich our personal experiences regardless of our age and working experience. Let me give you an example from my own professional life. While I have the chance to visit customers and SAP locations around the world, it’s a clear mandate to reflect on cultural differences and implement them in HR core processes. Listening to those who use our software is how we ensure we focus on our customers – rather than just sending good ideas from our headquarters.

Stefan Ries Member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, Chief Human Resources Officer Stefan Ries, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Labor Relations Director, is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE with global responsibility for Human Resources.

He was appointed to the Executive Board of SAP SE in April 2016.

WITH SAP’S AUTISM AT WORK WE HIRE SKILLED COLLEAGUES “IN SPITE OF AUTISM AND BECAUSE OF AUTISM,” BRINGING DIFFERENT AND MORE DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

Photo: SAP

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0105 105

Race Against Bias A re w e aware o f o ur o w n u n c o n s c io us bias ?

By: Diana Coker

Unconscious bias is hard-wired into our brains. It’s a survival mechanism so basic and below our conscious radar. It helps us better sift through the constant stream of information to make accurate decisions based on instinct rather than logic. What’s more, everyone harbors them and takes them into the workplace. In fact, studies demonstrate bias across nearly every organizational activity and for nearly every group of people. The question is: Are we

106 0106

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0107 107

aware of our own unconscious bias? As plainly evident the word is, bias only becomes dangerous when people reject discriminatory ideas without recognizing the root of it.

BIAS IS NOT EVIL The brain function usually trick your intuition into making three blunders: underestimating resources, overestimating threats, and underestimating threats. Scientists have determined that unconscious bias is found in the same region of the brain (the amygdala) associated with fear and threat.

From a survival standpoint bias serves a purpose. It is a product of our encounters from childhood to adulthood – both what you experienced yourself and saw others experiencing around you – and cannot be unlearned.

This information is ready to be deployed, whether by a scowl across the meeting room or by visuals of two people whispering 108 0108

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

in a corner. We perceive through habit, bias, expectation, and assumption. The heuristics that guide us through the day are full of unconscious, predictable biases.

We convince ourselves that our decisions are “rational,” but in reality, most human decisions are made emotionally from our sense of comfort or discomfort.

Take, for instance, implicit bias

autonomy, relatedness and fairness (SCARF – David Rock, 2008).

IMPACT ON WORK PROCESSES

which activates and includes emotions or feelings when we meet a member of a certain social group. Five times each second, the brain non-consciously determines what is positive and dangerous and the strongest responses are to avoid what is perceived as unrecognizable or dangerous.

Human brain can be threatened by the five domains of social experience: status, certainty,

Numerous studies since the 1980s confirm that unconscious bias is in play in every aspect of the modern workplace – in client relations, mentoring and sponsorship, performance management, recruitment and retention, promotion, and the allocation of job assignments. The first step to addressing unconscious bias in the workplace is to acknowledge that it can be done by offering awareness training. Leaders at PricewaterhouseCoopers, for example, go through awareness training.

For companies seeking to implement a workplace-wide awareness training, however, it is important to find out the kinds of unconscious bias and their influence on a person or group’s behavior.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0109 109

This can also help organizations fuel the conversation about what biases are present on a macrolevel in the company and what steps the organization as a whole can take to minimize them.

with information, the rest of your surroundings can get blurred out.

If we fixate on an initial piece of information to make subsequent judgment during decision-making, we become emotionally attached to it for the stability of forming a conclusion.

Authority Bias:

The tendency to favor innovative ideas coming from authority figures within innovation teams. Take yourself into account. Whatever you as a manager, say will carry more weight than others’ concept, idea or opinion.

Ambiguity Bias: The tendency to favor options in which the probability feels familiar. Most people choose a regular paycheck over the untrodden path of a business venture.

Anchoring Bias:

There is an expression for anchoring bias or focalism – “Not seeing the forest for the trees.”

When you focus on a specific piece of information or are pre-loaded 110 0110

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Bandwagon Bias:

A form of groupthink which prevents individuals from thinking independently. It is often linked to authority bias. Ask yourself: are you favoring ideas just because other teams do them too?

Conformity Bias:

The tendency to take cues for proper behavior from the actions of others rather than exercising our own free will and judgment.

For example, when a group to which you own loyalty to seems to be making an ethical decision, you try to balance your loyalty to the group by acting against your own

Biased sentences which should alert you!

Here’s a list of common phrases we frequently use at the workplace demonstrating unconscious bias: “That’s the way things are done around here” “Baby Boomers are tech resistant” “Women cannot negotiate salary the same way men do” “I’m not a creative person” “CEO won’t approve of it” “He reminded me of myself when I was just starting out” “We experienced something like this last year” “We have done this before” “The idea is not close to what we are familiar with” “We already have a clear picture of what our clients want” “Our top managers won’t let the project run safely” “On what bases are we trusting this to work?”

“Everyone would think it’s a bad idea” “The project has too many challenges” ethical integrity.

Confirmation Bias:

Rather than seeking out objective facts, favoring information in a way that it confirms preexisting beliefs or preconceptions.

False Causality Bias:

To falsely assume when two sequential events occur one must have caused the other.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0111 111

Framing Bias:

To be influenced by the way in which information is presented rather than the information itself.

For example, when judging an idea: are you judging the content or the delivery?

Loss Aversion Bias:

The tendency to prefer avoiding losses even when the fear of loss isn’t justified. Let’s take an example: That last piece of pie in the office. How do you feel when you have it, in comparison to how bad do you feel when someone else does?

Pro-Innovation Bias:

New ideas and innovations are seen as inherently good, regardless of the potential negative impacts.

112 0112

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Projection Bias:

Overestimating the degree to which future tastes or preferences will match current consumer preferences.

Status-quo Bias:

Risk-avoidance by favoring current state of affairs. When changes do occur, people tend to perceive them as a detriment.

Strategic Misrepresentation Bias:

The tendency to knowingly understating the costs and overstating the benefits.

Organizations teams often understate the true costs of

“

We convince ourselves that our decisions are “rational,” but in reality, most human decisions are made emotionally from our sense of comfort or discomfort.

concepts, business model prototypes, and ballpark figures in order to get a project approved by the management.

Unconscious bias is a part of human nature. In some, it’s visibly evident. In others, it’s hard to distinguish. When you are able to

identify your bias, you are able to effectively challenge them and make better decisions for favorable outcomes. Adopting a new way of thinking demands commitment and acceptance that there are ways beyond what feels normal and comfortable.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0113 113

WORKPLACE CULTURE

Emerging contemporary corporate culture By: Priyansha Mistry

Culture defines the overall output of every organization. It’s simply the character and personality that describes your corporate values, beliefs, behavior, attitudes, tradition, and way of interactions. Through culture, organizations are able to establish and manage their sustainability goals such as social impact, environmental footprint, employee engagement, satisfaction, etc. While most corporate cultures are focused on engineering the most common goal of every business, some employers are repositioning their cultures

114

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

to address social inequality as well as drive diversity & inclusion.

Philip Morris International (PMI), manufacturers of one of the most popular cigarettes brand Marlboro, is not only an EQUAL-SALARY certified employer, but pioneering the way to a smoke-free future. PMI corporate culture identifies the need for employers to seek long-term achievements while proposing corporate goals and objectives.

Charles Bendotti, Senior Vice President People & Culture at Philip Morris International, advocated for Equal Pay for Equal Work for many years before its reality. He is the architect behind EQUAL-SALARY certification, which verifies that PMI pays all of its employees, in more than 90 countries, worldwide, equally for equal work, regardless of gender.

Talking to The HR Digest, Bendotti describes how he has set about renewing this giant as a Global Top Employer.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

115

WORKPLACE CULTURE Q. By creating a purposedriven culture with a tall order goal such as achieving a “smoke- free future,” Philip Morris International (PMI) has found itself in a constant process of cognitive transformation.

This is an extraordinary asset in today’s world, where businesses must transform frequently, rapidly and economically—to thrive. How do you keep the people at PMI motivated for change?

That is one of the key questions we ask ourselves daily at PMI. Our people are our greatest asset, they are the reason that we’re here today. Our journey to transform our business from a traditional cigarette manufacturer to a science and technologydriven company is one of the most dramatic pivots taken by a major multinational company in recent history, so by definition it impacts our people deeply. We are attracting new types of talent into our organization, our cultural DNA is changing rapidly, and the 116

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Photo: Quality check for HEETS manufacturing in Bologna, Italy

vision of the company has been completely redefined. As this happens, maintaining workplace fundamentals such as respect, equality and fairness is key, and alongside that, we need to build a more inclusive environment where everyone feels like they can bring their best self to work, to take on new challenges and succeed.

That’s the kind of culture that drives employee engagement and

“

Maintaining workplace fundamentals such as respect, equality and fairness is key, and alongside that, we need to build a more inclusive environment where everyone feels like they can bring their best self to work, to take on new challenges and succeed. That’s the kind of culture that drives employee engagement and motivation. And it’s a key focus for us.

”

motivation. And it’s a key focus for us.

I believe that our central purpose is the greatest motivator we have.

We work hard to be transparent with our people about where our transformation is taking us—the changes we expect to see, and what those changes will mean to them, also why we are invested in this vision and how it will impact

the world. As we continue to advance toward our smoke-free vision, our employees understand the work that we are doing and how it is centered around making a positive impact on the lives of more than 1 billion smokers around the world and their families, and the positive impact that we can bring to communities through our sustainability efforts.

Our success in achieving our vision and creating a new type of future and transforming our company depends on the passion and hard work of the thousands of women and men at PMI who come to work each day around the world. I believe we have an obligation to provide them with the tools and development opportunities to learn and grow as professionals, communicating clearly and regularly with them and fostering the best possible environments for them in which to work. My experience as a father also helps guide me in keeping our staff motivated and engaged. It makes me proud to see how many amazing people we have working at PMI, and it’s my job to ensure that everyone has the space to experiment, to learn and to make mistakes. And it’s my team’s role The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

117

WORKPLACE CULTURE to encourage them along the way.

Q. Many companies profess to be fully committed to ensuring collaboration between different subcultures, but when it comes to delivering on that promise they often fall short.

How did PMI approach this unique challenge?

With more than 77000 global employees at PMI, collaboration for us unlocks unprecedented value and it is a necessity to ensure we can operate effectively.

I have been at PMI for more than 20 years and have worked in a number of different continents during that time, including Africa, South America, Europe and Asia.

I’ve seen firsthand that incredibly valuable insights come from different perspectives. To foster collaboration among employees, we’re focusing on celebrating our differences so we can unlock fresh perspectives, new ideas and innovations to help us succeed.

This means creating teams that have the right mix of people and work environments where they can thrive together. It means

“

When we talk about subcultures, we of course need to consider diversity and inclusion. To foster collaboration, clear direction is needed on how to integrate subcultures effectively.

PMI facil 118

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

vocalizing clearly the priority of collaboration from the most senior leaders in the organization, ad walking the talk.

sharing among markets and combines unique perspectives to propel our business and smokefree vision forward.

At PMI, a number of our staff are what we would consider to be “global citizens”, talents who have lived in various parts of the world.

They speak different languages and identify with different cultures and their families often reflect this as well. We work actively to attract talent from all around the globe and offer growth opportunities in various countries once an employee joins the “PMI family.” We understand implicitly that this facilitates knowledge

When we talk about subcultures, we of course need to consider diversity and inclusion. To foster collaboration, clear direction is needed on how to integrate subcultures effectively. One recent milestone for us was our “Week of Women,” a week of activities dedicated to celebrating our female employees around the world leading up to International Women’s Day. As part of these activities, we invited several external speakers to share and discuss contemporary gender diversity topics; we published the stories of 42 women from across PMI who are inspiring others in our “Project 42” collection on our website; and, most importantly, we announced our global EQUALSALARY certification which confirms that we pay women and men equally for work of equal value and that our actual pay practices match our commitment to equality everywhere we operate worldwide. This is a first for any company and it’s an achievement of which we’re incredibly proud

employees in Bologna manufacturing lity for heated tobacco units

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

119

WORKPLACE CULTURE Q. The Top Employer Institute has recognized PMI for six consecutive years. Do you still see room for improvement in PMI’s employment practices?

There is always room for improvement in this type of work, and that keeps me incredibly motivated. I often ask myself— how can we improve our employee experience? How can we foster more growth opportunities for our staff? How do we help create resilience in our people? Who should we hire next, and how do we find them?

In addition to being awarded the Top Employer label for the sixth year running in many parts of the world, we are very proud to be recognized as a Global Top Employer for the third year in a row – and of course, our global EQUAL-SALARY certification is also a very important milestone for the company. We’re constantly thinking of what’s next on our journey to create an incredible place to work that fosters the kind of growth and collaboration that 120

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

we need to succeed long term.

Q. You have been with Philip Morris International quite a while. What do you say have been the most important transformations in your career?

The transformation that we are currently undergoing is by far the most important and complex that I’ve experienced. We’re completely changing our ways of working; our mission has been redefined; we’re innovating every day and there is only one road map or benchmark: to achieve our smoke-free vision. This excites me and is a thrilling path of discovery, filled with challenges and opportunities. Continuously learning is what has kept me with PMI for so long, and is what keeps me here today. That, and giving back to an organization that has given so much to me and my family.

Q. What’s the key lesson you want HR leaders to take away from your work?

It sounds simple, but HR is first and

foremost about people. I am a product of this company in many ways. I’ve experienced firsthand many of the policies, changes and environments that I influence today. If we can remember that our success depends first and foremost on the people in our business, our mission in HR becomes clear

and simple—take care of your people and their families, give them purpose in their work, and encourage them along the way to that they can be successful. If you do that, I truly believe that your vision as a company can become a reality.

Charles Bendotti Senior Vice President People & Culture at Philip Morris International Photo: Philip Morris International

Charles Bendotti joined Philip Morris International in Lausanne in 1999 as Business Analyst. From 2000 until 2006, he served in various crossfunctional roles in Marketing & Sales and Business Development in different markets of the Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America & Canada Regions. Charles Bendotti then became Managing Director, Ecuador & Bolivia, followed by his appointment as Vice President, Human Resources for the Latin America & Canada Region in 2008. In 2012 he was named Vice President, Human Resources Asia, a position he held until December 2016, and then Senior Vice President, Human Resources.

Charles Bendotti holds a master’s degree in international relations, economy, and law from the Graduate Institute of International & Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and an Executive MBA from HEC Paris.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

121

INCLUSION WITHOUT EXCLUSION By: Priyansha Mistry

Adaptability is one of the mainsprings of diversity. While much needs to be done to neutralize our biases and unleash untapped talent – Shannon Schuyler, Chief Purpose Officer of PwC, is already hard at work developing the one asset she feels will help ensure deep-level diversity and inclusion throughout the organization. In recent years, Shannon has worked alongside PwC’s US Chairman Tim Ryan to drive the strategy for CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion, the largestever CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. It’s a profoundly ambitious and inspiring initiative.

122

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Q. Can you tell The HR Digest readers about yourself and your role?

A. I have the privilege of serving as PwC US’ first Chief Purpose Officer and am also the firm’s Responsible Business Leader and President of the PwC Charitable Foundation.

In my role as Chief Purpose Officer, I am responsible for activating

PwC’s Purpose—to build trust in society and solve important problems - into our core business strategy so that it drives how the firm engages its people, clients and other external stakeholders for greater societal impact. Overall, what purpose is really about for business is bringing humanity into the products and services that you have to optimize your impact. And impact these days needs to go far beyond revenue generation, The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

123

“

Diversity and inclusion is not a competitive issue, but a societal issue that the business community-especially CEOs-can have a critical role in addressing.

124

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

into what organizations are doing for society. It’s about moving from being transactional to being transformational.

When I took this role, I also realized that I was probably going to be asked about my purpose. But I had never really thought a lot about what my personal purpose was before. After weeks of pondering and focusing on it, it was in a place where I least expected my purse. Carefully tucked in my wallet were four playing cards and as I held them, I recognized my purpose.

At the age of 22, I put the first card in my wallet when my mother passed away. Over the next five years, more women in my family passed away-- aunts, grandmothers-- and I added three more cards to my wallet. These were women who were a part of and led a very matriarchal family; women who always sat at the head of the table and were no longer there. So, all of their passion and strength and sassiness and classiness and joy and disruption, was now part of

me. I realized that in my entire life I was being led by the power they instilled in me and was using it to make my way in the world, and be a positive influence. My purpose is to honor their legacy.

Through that experience I realized this role isn’t only about the firm’s purpose, but understanding how personal purpose and organizational purpose come together. Ultimately, purpose is about people and the relationships we make and sustain to have an impact both individually and collectively. People want a sense of meaning and a sense of belonging so that they can actually be transformational, and they need an opportunity to figure out where they can achieve this. It matters because 7 out of 10 people will now leave their organization if they do not have that sense of fulfillment. I spent my time leading a culture where people can find themselves and what their purpose is, so they can understand why their skill is important and valued.

Q. Can you point to any single defining moment in your career?

A. In 2007, I wrote a business case on why PwC US needed a corporate responsibility leader to pull together its global environmental and charitable efforts, and it changed the track of my career. Despite the world being in the midst of a financial crisis, and businesses across the board focusing on profitability, PwC saw the value in what I presented and I went from a national alumni relations role supporting our recruiting strategy to a job that I helped design.

Not only was I able to chart my own path professionally, but I have been able to lead major change during the past decade that speaks to the evolution of the firm.

From streamlining annual giving to focus on education and access to opportunity, to boosting the impact of the PwC Charitable Foundation and shifting our business strategy to one that acknowledges that doing something good for the world can also be good for business, that one opportunity opened the door for so many experiences and responsibilities in my career - including the role as Chief Purpose Officer.

Too many times we sit back and The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

125

wait for opportunities to come to us; but having the courage to pitch a different way to do things led to one of the biggest defining moments in my career.

inequities and increase access to opportunity has played a major role in my professional experience at PwC and even more so on my personal life.

Q. You have been critical in pushing for progress in diversity & inclusion (D&I) in the workforce. What spurred your interest and passion for the topic?

Thanks to a nonprofit board service role, I attended a class through Leadership Greater Chicago, where I met my husband, who is African American. Today, we have a biracial son who, as the only mixed-race student in his

A. Thank you. Pushing the envelope on diversity and inclusion, and equity issues in workplace and beyond are topics of great concern and interest to me, and have been for more than a decade. It goes back to my role in establishing the firm’s Responsible Business Leadership function as well as the PwC Charitable Foundation. Through both of these experiences I was constantly faced with the truth that we can’t begin to solve for societal problems if we can’t face their root causes.

Finding and supporting innovative organizations that are disrupting the status quo, questioning conventional thinking and innovating strategies to overcome

126

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

school, at one point experienced issues because he stood out from other students. This made me hyper aware that he will forever be judged by his skin color, and reinforced the need to address the disenfranchisement that some people face in life.

As a leader, I believe we need to do more than change a program or group; we need to fundamentally change the entire system.

Q. Can you tell The HR Digest readers more about

the CEO Action coalition?

A. In the summer of 2016, our society was in the midst of series of terrible tragedies--from St. Paul and Baton Rouge to Dallas and beyond--that were taking place across the country and were racially driven. When our US Chairman Tim Ryan started to bring the topic of diversity and inclusion to CEOs in various venues, which led to the insight that diversity and inclusion (D&I) is top of their mind for the business community, this

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

127

community recognizes they don’t have all the answers and would benefit from others’ perspectives and insights. It was from there that the idea was formed.

He recognized that diversity and inclusion is not a competitive issue, but a societal issue that the business community--especially CEOs--can have a critical role in

128

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

addressing. Rooted in the idea that we can have greater impact if we work together, CEO Action is the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace.

The CEO Action pledge focuses on three specific areas: • Continue to make our workplaces trusting places to have complex,

and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity & inclusion • Implement and expand unconscious bias education • Share best—and unsuccessful— actions on www.CEOAction.com for anyone to use to help advance their D&I strategies.

CEO Action is about to mark its second anniversary and the coalition has accomplished some amazing things to help CEOs dedicated to creating change together: • Expanded the reach of unconscious bias education in our workplaces and communities through the Check Your Blind Spots unconscious bias tour.

The unconscious bias tour aims to increase unconscious bias awareness and education via 100 stops at workplaces, universities and communities, and engage one million people in-person and online. Unconscious bias education is a tool for diversity and inclusion strategies, but not all companies are equipped to roll out the training. So as the chair of the CEO Action Steering Committee,

PwC invested $10M in the creation of a 45-foot customized bus with analog, virtual reality experiences exposing everyday bias along with a digital library, inclusion lounge and video confessional booth.

• In order to make progress, both executive action as well as individual commitment are essential. To create an opportunity for individuals to personally act on diversity and inclusion, the coalition has created the I Act On pledge. The reason: while leaders have a responsibility to act and drive change, everyone plays a role in cultivating more diverse and inclusive workplaces, communities and society at large.

The I Act On pledge is a personal pledge that any individual can take to commit to mitigating any unconscious biases, and act on fostering more inclusive behaviors in their everyday lives by visiting ceoation.com/pledge.

• Brought together more than 150 organizations and 615,000 employees for candid conversations through the coalition’s Day of Understanding on December 7, 2018. One of the core commitments within the CEO Action pledge is The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

129

to create a trusting workplace open to complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations about diversity and inclusion. As a part of that commitment, signatories held conversations focusing on key diversity and inclusions issues like race, gender, sexuality and more in their workplaces.

Q. What are the biggest challenges executives supporting CEO Action currently face?

A. Every organization and CEO face their own challenges. But from a leadership perspective, I believe one of the biggest challenges any CEO - CEO Action signatory or not - faces is coming to terms with the elevated responsibility and expectations for how businesses interact with the world.

Specifically, how CEOs engage in societal, moral or political issues, in addition to being accountable to various stakeholders and generating revenue. I assume that the vast majority of today CEOs didn’t realize the extent to which they would have to guide their company’s operations so as to

130

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

publicly reflect their values. This is key in our current climate where consumers and employees now scrutinize all parts of a company – from political contributions to crisis response and community investment. Helping CEOs navigate the balancing act of expectations and giving purpose to their brand is a huge challenge. What’s special is that CEO Action creates a peer network for leaders to start to tackle this challenge by discussing their specific issues, find commonalities and tailor others’ lessons into actions that work for their organization.

Q. How can companies commit to truer diversity and make progress without disenfranchising white men?

A. I think there are many ways companies can commit to making progress, which include: • Setting big goals and demand aspirational behavior for your diversity and inclusion progress in the same way you would your business.

• Using your influence to

driving positive change, both in your organizations and your communities. • Holding your company and those you do business with accountable to the values you say you stand for. • Understanding that there is no one expert, perspective or solution on diversity When it comes to engaging and empowering white males in the diversity and inclusion effort, I believe there are a few key actions that can help to empower, educate and inspire involvement.

This includes helping them to understand how they fit into and how important they are to the diversity equation; to recognize that they - like all of us - have blind spots or unconscious biases to address; and to help remove barriers like fear or discomfort so they can be true advocates in driving change.

Q. How can you tell if you’ve succeeded in convincing executives to bring more diverse talent on board, or if they are simply paying lip service to the idea?

A. The measure for progress goes

beyond bringing in more diverse talent. It comes down to an organization vocally and visibly demonstrating that diversity is part of its DNA or ethos. This happens when an organization is taking actions to effectively create and sustain an inclusive culture; when they understand that they must present their brand in a way that demonstrates the inclusivity of their organization; and when The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

131

they model and reward inclusive leadership to drive enterprisewide behavior change. That’s more than lip service.

Q. What’s next for CEO Action?

A. I’m excited to say that during the week of June 10, CEO Action will mark its year-two anniversary, furthering its momentum and

tapping into the power of the coalition by working together to drive change. This includes building on the dialogue CEO Action started with the Day of Understanding in December 2018 with a series of actions employees can take in and around our workplaces - like the I Act On pledge and hosting a CEO conversation to discuss how to take our efforts to the next level.

Shannon Schuyler

Photo: CEO Action; PwC

Principal; Chief Purpose Officer; Responsible Business Leader; President of the PwC Charitable Foundation, Inc., PwC US

As PwC’s first Chief Purpose Officer, Shannon is responsible for infusing PwC’s Purpose—to build trust in society and solve important problems - into its core business strategy so that it drives how the firm engages clients and other

132

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

external stakeholders for greater societal impact. In her role as Responsible Business Leader, Shannon delivers on PwC’s purpose by leading a commitment to help communities through Access Your Potential, a $320 million commitment to teach underserved students the tech and money skills they need to change the trajectory of their lives. By 2021, PwC will reach 10 million students with access to curriculum and will train 100,000 teachers and guidance counselors, and mentor 10,000 students.

Shannon talks frequently about the growing role of business in addressing societal issues, and works alongside US Chairman Tim Ryan to drive the strategy for CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion™, the largest-ever CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. She speaks often of how diversity and inclusion are two critical factors in helping companies achieve their purpose.

A sought after speaker and advisor, Shannon has a deep understanding of social innovation, supply chain and pro bono programs, sustainability, youth education, financial literacy, employee engagement and effective cross-sector collaborations. She is a board member of numerous charitable organizations, including The HistoryMakers Foundation; the National Environmental Education Foundation; Leadership Greater Chicago; Lincoln Park Zoo Board; Harris Theater; and JA Worldwide. Shannon is a graduate of the University of Michigan.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

133

EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS Goodbye MICROMANAGEMENT, Hello OWNERSHIP CULTURE! By: Anna Versai

Today, the old ways of running a workplace are quickly becoming outdated. Organizational governance, annual performance reviews, forced ranking – fail to deliver desired outcomes. Leaders must gain fact-based insights into employees’ evolving needs and learn how to build a workplace of the future. An inevitable trend underway in most companies is a cost-conscious culture, also known as “Ownership Culture.”

134

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

135

EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS

136

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Sixty percent of employees believe their managers excessively scrutinize work and constantly check in, according to a State of the American Workplace report.

One common explanation is the prevalence of micromanagement.

Abound in today’s organizations, micromanagement – when pushed in aggressively - can be quite counterproductive. It may be tempting to deny but the cost of micromanagement is rarely noticed by micromanagers. Most of them believe they are building a work design for maximum productivity without realizing they are rather hurting the company badly. Yes, because managers don’t have time to take up multiple jobs or direct their subordinate on every move. Above all else, the negative effects of micromanagement do not only diminish productivity on a short-term; the effect can be sadly prolonged when employees lose faith in the company.

It is important to be recognized in the company as a manager and to say things to promote productivity at the workplace but definitely not seeing to every detail or forcing your opinion to every minor function. Managers are exposed to more lucrative or

high-level jobs which supersedes every other engagement in the company. Foregoing those roles for minor or less viable responsibilities at the desk of subordinates limits every manager’s capacity. It takes away the opportunities for more promising duties, suffocates all measures to deal with stress at work while yielding underperformance.

At many organizations, the toughest challenges lie in transforming management practices that are far from wasteful. With that in mind, we propose ownership culture – the only way to reduce the organization’s wasteful expenses by taking deliberate steps to create a cost-conscious culture deeply rooted in inherent interdependence to create congruence.

The hallmark of a true ownership culture is when employees feel a sense of ownership often found in small, entrepreneurial companies. They see a clear line of sight between their individual performance and the cumulative impact to the bottom line. Ideally, a shared-consciousness becomes an organizational capability, creating a deeply ingrained ownership culture.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

137

EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS Define the culture you want to create.

Educate employees about what shared-consciousness actually means.

Deliver compelling and authentic processes.

Assign teams functions that are viable and nurture an entrepreneurial environment.

Access the gap between the culture you have and the culture you want to create.

Find out practices and functions that complicate work. Weed out unnecessary processes that add no value. Develop an implementation strategy that allows your business to identify barriers and accumulate victories.

Creating an ownership culture demands employee motivation through trust, empowerment, and recognition, at least. Constant pressure on employees system of work is not how to build trust in your team. Employees lose self138

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

dedication required to function as a team member if his or her work is not recognized as reliable. Ownership culture takes away everything bad about expensive work processes, leaving employees with more dedication for any impact at work. When employees believe the manager would be available to lead and correct every move there’s no ambition to excel at work through dedication.

DRIVING FORCE Company Culture Metrics Employers Must Track In the Digital Age By: Diana Coker

Company culture has been intrinsically tied to the success of every business across the globe. But then, it has often been difficult to align company cultures with business objectives. This is because, for long, culture has been considered as abstract, subjective and insubstantial to be measured.

Basically, everything about company culture and the measurement of its effectiveness is handled by the company’s HR manager. To come up with a unified culture, HR managers do carry out surveys regarding employee satisfaction and culture quality. However, aside from these survey sheets passed across, HR managers need to leverage modern tools to create this crucial connection between employees and management, and in developing a strong/appropriate organizational culture.

The creation of company culture is to help establish a good and happy place of work for employers and employees, as well as to enhance productivity. To indicate how welcoming a working environment is, there are key metrics to be considered.

Here are a few company culture metrics employers need to track in this digital age.

140

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

141

Employee internal transfers In smart organizations, internal transfers and up-skilling are norms.

They institute an organizational culture that allows the movement of employees within different divisions and between various functions. As the employees move, they share insights, experience and help transfer skills when possible. In such organizations, a vibrant, collaborative and thriving environment is created as well as leadership and professional growth. However, in a working environment where employees are trapped in certain roles, professional stagnancy and inactivity are noticed. These employees soon outgrow daily responsibilities and may seek new challenges elsewhere.

Employee turnover rates Even in the most organized companies, employees leave from time to time. Hence, preventing employee’s departure is not 142

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

as important as the company’s reaction to these employees on their way out. When outgoing employees are treated well, courtesy of excellent organizational culture, it builds the goodwill of the organization among both internal and external stakeholders.

However, fact remains that, appreciated and well-paid employees who enjoy their work and feel included don’t go on the job hunt. That being said, if the turnover rate of your organization is higher than 8%, then your HR has work to do.

Employee wellness policy Employee’s general wellness indicates how they are being treated by the company. Hence, there is a need to develop a clearly-outlined wellness policy for your organization. An ecosystem of culture and productivity is hardly complete without a structured wellness policy. This workplace wellness policy should be aimed at work-life balance, covering the physical and mental

health of employees. There should also be an allowance in the policy for participation in recreational activities that energize both body and mind of the employees.

Employee referrals When companies have excellent organizational culture, it gives employees love and respect for where they work. Hence, they can recommend friends, family, and skilled colleagues to the company when there’s an opening. An organizational total hire should have at least 25 percent of its employee referrals.

This means that the company’s talented employees are helping to expand the company’s talent pool by helping to refer and choose skilled and recognizable applicants. This is beneficial to the organization. On the contrary, a bad organizational culture sees the company majorly posting and hiring unknowns.

Company culture is the major driving force of any corporate body; its creativity, innovation, engagement, and overall productivity. Promoting your corporate brand through

“

When outgoing employees are treated well, courtesy of excellent organizational culture, it builds the goodwill of the organization among both internal and external stakeholders. employee retention strategies and properly engaging your workforce through skills transfer are two crucial factors in any campaign for business growth and sustainability.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

143

Arbitration for Transportation Workers?

What does the recent SCOTUS Case Mean For Gig Economy Businesses?

By: Naomi Pehlam

Swift Transportation, one of nation’s largest trucking companies, recently agreed to pay a $100 million settlement to 19,000 former and current truck drivers in a class-action lawsuit. Some commentators forecast even more troubling times for many gig economy businesses.

Truck drivers filed against Swift in December 2009. They claimed they were improperly classified as independent contractors in order to reduce labor costs and avoid paying state and federal taxes.

144

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

145

Michael Droke is a labor & employment attorney for the international law firm Dorsey & Whitney. Droke has litigated employment and labor issues across the United States. He has looked the decision closely and of it says, “Last month, the Court upheld a strict interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) to enforce a mandatory arbitration clause in Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc. (Case no. 171272). There, the Court held that questions of enforceability would be resolved by an arbitrator, thus compelling the case to arbitration under the FAA,” Droke says.

Traditionally, truck drivers are paid for every mile that they drive.

The latest federal court brings us to the question that’s been hounding America’s courts in recent years: do truck drivers deserve minimum wage for non-driving duties?

“The Court also upheld strict interpretation of the FAA, but with a different result. In New Prime Inc. v. Olivera (Case no. 17-340), the 146 0146

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Court held that before enforcing a mandatory arbitration clause between a trucking company and its independent contractor-driver, the trial court must determine whether the FAA’s exclusion of certain agreements would exempt enforcement under Federal law.

The FAA specifically exempts “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers

interstate transport workers with employment agreements as well as interstate transportation workers with independent contractor agreements.

engaged in foreign or interstate commerce.”

To get a clearer picture, federal courts cannot force interstate transportation workers – including independent contractors – into arbitration. The Supreme Court concluded in New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira ruling that Federal Arbitration Act’s (FAA’s) Section 1 exemption for these applied to

“New Prime Inc. is an interstate trucking company, and Dominic Oliveira is one of its drivers. Mr. Oliveira’s operating agreement calls him an independent contractor and contains a mandatory arbitration provision.

When Mr. Oliveira filed a class action alleging that New Prime denies its drivers lawful wages, New Prime asked the court to invoke its statutory authority under the Federal Arbitration Act to compel arbitration. Mr. Oliveira claimed the court lacked authority under the exception. New Prime insisted that this question should be resolved by the arbitrator.

The Court held that a trial judge must first determine whether the exception applies before enforcing arbitration,” Droke says.

The ruling could lay the groundwork for putting an end to the decade old Swift Transportation’s misclassification lawsuit.

Compliance corporate offers in knowledge-intensive industries and creative-occupations in the The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0147 147

gig economy must immediately coordinate with their labor and employment counsel to determine how the recent ruling might affect them.

“Justice Gorsuch’s decision emphasizes the literal statutory interpretation of the Court. The opinion repeatedly emphasized the importance of sequencing decisions: Does the FAA apply, or is this agreement exempt? Only if the answer is “yes” will the Court force the case to arbitration,” Droke says.

“The Court refused to follow the strong public policy favoring arbitration in the face of direct statutory language of an exclusion for workers engaged in interstate commerce,” Droke says.

“State laws could still enforce the underlying arbitration clause, even absent coverage under the FAA,” Droke says.

“The Court reiterated its general position in favor of arbitration,” Droke says. “The Court looked back to 1925 when the FAA was 148 0148

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

enacted to determine what terms like “contracts of employment” meant. Whether the mandatory arbitration agreement was a “contract of employment” was viewed in the context of the time

the FAA was enacted in 1925.

The Court held that “contracts for employment” included any “agreements to perform work” – regardless of any 2019 definition of employment or independent

contractor status. In so doing, the Court thus emphasized the importance of original statutory intent in interpreting this phrase,” Droke says.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

0149 149

150

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

A STICH IN TIME

Taking a better-safe-thansorry approach to talent management tools By: Anna Versai

Over the past decade, talent management tools, especially in the United States have, by and large, fallen into two distinct categories.

The first, and by far the most common, is to anticipate needs and make plans for addressing them. The second is to do nothing, rendering the term ‘talent management’ meaningless. It’s time for a new approach for talent management that takes into account the uncertainties organizations face today.

The talent management software market has grown strongly into a $12 billion industry and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Companies of all sizes and sectors require a tool to learn what their needs are, what factors affect their software search and implementation, and how they’re using the tool to accomplish their talent management goals.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

151

Without prior knowledge, companies can easily overspend on a software that’s a poor fit or have unrealistic expectations for outcomes. According to Capterra’s Talent Management Industry User Research Report, price plays a significant role in talent management solutions, surpassing ease of use as a critical factor across small and medium-sized businesses. The premium on price creates a disconnect between small business owners trying to choose the right talent management software for their organization, as they’re aiming for low price when buying software.

“Understanding how buyers successfully leverage talent management solutions can help small business leaders make wise decisions based on their company’s size, resources, and software needs,” said Brian Westfall, principal analyst at Capterra and the survey’s lead analyst. “While low cost may seem like the most important aspect of software, choosing a solution solely based on price can create more issues

152

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

than most SMBs are prepared to handle.”

Small business owners often run into the risk of choosing a tool that doesn’t meet their talent management needs. It’s time for a

fundamentally new approach that takes into account the potential costs associated with picking the ‘wrong’ talent management tool and create the need to implement new solutions. This reactive approach relies heavily on what organizations expect out of their talent management process. The

lack of knowledge is reflected in Capterra’s key findings: only 45% of respondents took time out to research on what they expected, while another 45% spent less. For budget-strapped small businesses, any use of unnecessary resources could be detrimental to the business overall.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

153

Small and medium-sized businesses can avoid making potentially harmful purchase decisions by making deliberate technology choices. Capterra’s survey offers key takeaways on how businesses can take a more evolved approach for choosing the right solution.

For cash-strapped SMBs, price significant impacts spending decisions. Choosing a tool that isn’t the right fit for the organization or lacks the features needed to meet talent needs could make a detrimental impact on future goals and hiring and retaining new talent.

Vendors are now developing tools focusing on affordability and ease-of-use as the number of small businesses implementing talent management tools has increased over the last decade. Capterra’s 2019 survey reveals a tectonic shift in spending from a similar survey conducted three years ago – price is now the second mostcited factor in selecting the right talent management tool.

An increasing number of businesses

154

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

are increasingly relying on talent management tools to automate their HR processes in order to save time and money. The problem faced by SMBs is understanding

the dangers of prioritizing price over functionalities. Additional functionality comes with additional cost. However, a majority of SMBs surveyed choose to cut corners over functionality. 65% of talent management tool users in the survey switched software providers due

to lack of functionality.

There’s also growing importance to understand the company’s hiring needs before beginning the search and relying on online reviews to find the right talent management tool. Online reviews are vital for gaining relevant information and understanding the tool’s core functionalities.

Businesses use talent management tools for core HR processes such as payroll, recruiting, personnel tracking, etc. A great deal of time frees up when some of these administrative tasks are automated using HR tool and technologies.

The freed up time and energy can be spent to focus on developing an employee experience – the key to retaining the workforce in a competitive job market.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

155

Frontiers

Jan 27-29, 2019

Whether you’re leading or contributing to a team, Frontiers helps you uncover hidden potential within your talent and technologies. Bring the latest insights from industry experts on organizational performance back to your teams to drive better alignment and smarter execution.

Pier 27 & 29, The Embarcadero, San Francisco, California, USA Serena Williams, American Professional Tennis Player

HR Redefined

May 05-07, 2019

HR Redefined is a 2-day conference that brings together HR professionals to learn from industry experts, engage with fresh ideas, and network with forward-looking peers. HR Redefined features a mix of inspirational speakers, actionable takeaways, and the chance to make connections and exchange ideas.

Spring Studios, NYC, New York, USA Shawn Actor, NYT Best Selling Author & Harvard Professor

Inclusive Diversity Conference

May 06-07, 2019

HCI’s 2019 Inclusive Diversity Conference will show you how to leverage neuroscience, data and simple behavioral design to weave diversity and inclusion into the fabric of your organizational culture. This event is for you if you need to: • Generate true executive involvement and commitment • Incorporate recruitment strategies to increase and leverage diversity • Highlight key data and metrics about performance, head count and representation • Understand how to use change management techniques to drive inclusion efforts • Take a human-centric approach to diversity

156

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

Hilton San Francisco Union Square, San Francisco, CA Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer, Symantec

ATD 2019 International Conference & Exposition

May 19-22, 2019

ATD 2019 brings the talent development industry to life by gathering together the game changers, the individuals who are shaping the industry; the legends, those who defined best practices; and the practitioners, you—the lifeblood of this profession! Learn and grow with us, because when you reach your fullest potential, you can effectively develop the talent around you, giving your organization the ultimate competitive advantage.

Washington, D.C., USA Oprah Winfrey, Global Media Leader, Philanthropist, Producer and Actress

SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition

June 23-26, 2019

SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition will give you a chance to meet people who have experiences, stories, and ideas that can help shape your view and experience of the conference, and of the world. You will be able to negotiate meanings from what you’ve learned so that you’re taking real solutions back to your office.

Las Vegas, Nevada Martha Stewart, Emmy Award-Winning Television Show Host, Entrepreneur, Bestselling Author

Culture Summit

June 25-27, 2019

Culture Summit is a cross-functional, cross-industry conference that brings together founders, thought leaders, and culture champions from all over the world to share insights and best practices on building and transforming culture in the workplace.

The HR Digest Magazine | April 2019

157