The HR Digest January 2022

Editor’s Note January 2022 Man and machine. For two centuries they were regarded as distinct entities.

However, this changed when we became so advanced, and started to experiment with artificial intelligence. This ambitious spirit underpins the way we work. Machine augmentation is slowly converging with human augmentation, making the boundaries fuzzier and fuzzier.

Staying true to the spirit of ‘futurism,’ we spoke to CHROs who’ve truly transformed the way we work in the past year. Their accumulative action promises to inspire generations to come. You can find their interviews in full in our cover story titled ‘League of Extraordinary CHROs.’ It was a privilege to showcase their stories and experiences!

We are also pleased to devote this issue highlighting a wide range of ideas about the future of work and our place in it…

Happy Reading!

Cheers!

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

The Team Editorial

Design

Anna Domanska Editor-in-Chief

Kevin Paul Sr. Graphic Designer

Priyansha Mistry Editor Anna Versai Sub-Editor

Project Management

Diana Coker Sub-Editor

Tony Raval Project Director

Jane Harper Content Writer

Jay Raol Project Director

Marketing

Advertising

Jason Miller Sr. Project Director

Jay Raol Director – Ad Sales

Technology John Hancock Head-Web Department

Finance Control R R Baratiya

Le Manh Coung Sr. Software Coordinator

Julia Hunt Magazine Production

Contents January 2022 HR Drift Education Sector Employees Eat the Most Unhealthy Diet, Says Report./ p.08

Leadership Insights Workforce trends that will shape 2022/ p.22

Q&A With Jane “Boss very reluctant to praise any hard work or initiative; how do I get her to acknowledge my efforts?”/ p.44

Employee Benefits Do Workplace Wellness Programs Save Money? We find out. / p.54

Cover Story League of Extraordinary CHROs/ p.68

Legal Hub Better.com Needs to do Better!/ p.134

HR Tools & Technology Tech HR Startups We Love/ p.142

Success Story Why Do Nike Employees Always Seem So Happy?/ p.152

Recruitment Point “Its not you, its me.” Why 50% of American workers want to make a career change./ p.164

Workplace Culture Moonlighting on the Rise Among White Collar Workers./ p.172

Training & Development Learning & Development’s Role in Operational Efficiencies in 2022 / p.186

HR Events Top picks of conferences and professional events around the world./ p.198

A roundup of the latest news and insights on the human resources to keep you informed on issues at the forefront of the industry.

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The HR Digest Magazine | January 2022

EDUCATIO

ON SECTOR EMPLOYEES EAT THE MOST UNHEALTHY DIET, SAYS REPORT A well-being study conducted by a new age nutritional meal company says that people in the education sector in the UK lead the unhealthiest lives.

The report took into account stress levels, eating patterns, exercise habits, time taken off for illness, the support of the workplace, the effects of Covid-19 and work-life balance, and allotted points for each to determine the health levels of the people.

They interviewed people from across 22 industries to determine which industry was the unhealthiest, stressed, or injury-prone, etc. in the UK. The research found that teachers and lecturers have the unhealthiest careers. Eighty percent of these professionals claimed they’ve had to take time off work for mental or physical illnesses.

A close second after the education employees were construction workers where 99% said they took time off from work due to injuries.

Recruitment and HR employees were the most stressed,

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with a third (33%) admitting that they are always overworked.

The healthiest are those working in science and pharmaceuticals as 38% of scientists and pharmacists claim they don’t feel stressed and overworked and almost half (44%) maintain they never skip lunch.

The Fitness and beauty sector seems to have a happy balance. 33% of those interviewed said they get to go for a walk every day, and 58% say that their workplace is supportive in stressful situations.

Those in motoring and hospitality seem to put in maximum extra hours along with business owners.

Mark Coxhead, founder and CEO for Abnormal added, “After a tough 18 months, we’re now seeing light at the end of tunnel. However, with winter approaching, it’s crucial people don’t skip meals or eat nutritionally poor meals, compromising their health and wellbeing.

Although education topped the leader board for the unhealthiest career, it’s important that everyone takes extra measures to ensure they are happy in the workplace.”

“We hope employees around the country take extra care and attention to their diet habits and lifestyle choices.”

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SMALLER CONSTRUCTION FIRMS SAY NO SHOT? NO PROBLEM TO WORKERS One unusual result of the Covid-19 Pandemic has been employees dictating their return to work. People are exercising their options and refusing to join back work due to unsafe work conditions, low pay, moving away from expensive urban clusters, and more.

Added to this is the hesitation against getting vaccinated due to some health fears. With the Federal-mandated deadline and OSHA’s emergency temporary standard, which applies to businesses with 100 employees or more approaching, many big construction firms are facing a skill crunch. Taking advantage are smaller construction firms, which do not fall under the gambit of the mandate.

No shot? No problem is how they are attracting workers to their sites.

“For the first time I can remember, small private contractors actually hold an advantage in being able to acquire talent,” said Jacob Binke, a construction executive recruiter at the Detroit-based Birmingham Group. “They’re using it as a selling point that they don’t require the vaccine.”

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The rate of vaccination among the construction crews is between 53% and 58%, according to data tracked by CPWR. All other occupations report 80 to 82% vaccination rates.

“This is a reflection of the wider political divide and the level of education within the industry,” says Binke.

“It’s a huge issue right now,” said Jamie Hodges, executive vice president at Colorado-based general contractor Industrial Constructors/Managers Inc. “The smaller companies are saying, ‘We’re not going to make you do it, come over here.’”

Indeed, job candidates are refusing to work for bigger companies such as Amazon and FedEx where they are required to be fully vaccinated.

Under the White House’s executive order, barring allowances for legitimate medical or religious reasons, all employees of federal contractors will need to be vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022.

But how long this small firm advantage lasts needs to be seen.

If work is outsourced to these firms by larger contractors, then being in the less than 100 employees bracket will not work.

However, 19 states have filed four separate lawsuits against the federal contractor mandate earlier this week.

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PATERNITY LEAVE DEBATE HEATS UP IN US A tweet by the US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg about going on paternity leave to look after adopted children with his partner has started a debate over paternity leave, “do gay men qualify for one”, and the general genderbased argument over a father’s role in a newborn’s life.

“The thing about paternity leave is there isn’t much for dad to do when the baby is a newborn...,” conservative pundit Matt Walsh noted. “His main role is to take care of mom as she recovers but of course that doesn’t apply to Buttigieg so I’m not sure why he needs paternity leave at all.”

Another tweet objected to Buttigeig taking off for 6 months as he occupies an important position in the government. And added that the right masculine approach would be to work and provide for the babies. The US is the only developed nation that doesn’t have a federal law mandating paid leave for parents. Companies decide on paid leave according to their culture and benefits package. About 7 in 10 Fortune 500 companies offer some sort of paid leave for new parents. Research has shown that there is a general perception that workers are less committed to their work if they take paternity leave.

Amy Beacom, founder and CEO of Center for Parental Leave Leadership, a consultancy organization that works The HR Digest Magazine | January 2022

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with companies. “There have historically been very strict gender roles in this country. Moms are at home and dads are bringing home the bacon,” she said. “Paternity leave challenges those people for whom that works well.”

There are clear benefits in granting paternity leave for improving equity, boosting talent and retention, says Beacon. She recommends a “floor” of 12 weeks of gender-neutral parental leave. Most Scandinavian countries grant paternal leave and there is proof that it is beneficial for society.

Mothers gain in terms of mental, emotional, and medical support.

Companies like Spotify, spirits producer Diageo offer six months of gender-neutral parental leave. In Diageo, employees can avail of the leave a full year after becoming parents.

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The HR Digest Magazine | January 2022

HR PROFESSIONAL NEED TO FOCUS ON HANDLING MENTAL HEALTH AMONG EMPLOYEES Mental health is a growing concern in society, especially in the aftermath of Covid-19, which has led to lockdowns, job insecurity, and health scares.

According to a Harvard Business School study, 85% of employees said their workplace well-being declined since the start of Covid-19.

Job pressures, disengagement, loneliness, and stress were a few issues cited by many.

Hence, mental health issues among employees should be of prime concern for HR professionals. To address these concerns, the HR executives need help and tools to support their employees. They need to initiate conversations around mental health. Learn to recognize signs of stress, be ready with the support and help if and when employees seek support.

According to Mental Health America’s Mind in the Workplace report, nearly 85% of employees feel emotionally drained from their work.

Senior corporate executives should promote efforts to improve and support mental health well-being. There should be a culture of addressing mental stress and work pressure. If share their struggle

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with anxiety, then it becomes a common cause.

In a Deloitte study, researchers found for every $1 a company invested in mental health care, it realized a $6 return in terms of more engagement and productivity.

Create mental health support groups. Form yoga, meditation, nature walks, music, and therapy groups.

If employee needs are kept central, then it creates a more relaxed and congenial environment for employees to flourish.

In a Deloitte study, researchers found for every $1 a company invested in mental health care, it realized a $6 return in terms of more engagement and productivity.

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HACKERS TRICK EMPLOYEES TO INSTALL RANSOMWARE Ransomeware-as-a-service seems to have matured with hackers luring corporate workers with vast sums of money in for injecting malware 20

into their companies’ networks.

Instances of hackers teaming up with ransomware threat groups

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and offering executives money in exchange for access to company networks have gone up.

According to Crane Hassold, the Director of Threat Intelligence at Abnormal Security, the employees are offered $1 million and more in Bitcoins for deploying ransomware.

After the security firm got wind of a proposal made by to a corporate worker, it set up a fictitious persona and contacted the hacker. The hackers sent links for an executable file that could be downloaded from file sharing sites WeTransfer or Mega.nz.

The ransomware was picked up from GitHub as a “project was made to demonstrate how easy ransomware are [sic] easy to make and how it work [sic].”

What was alarming was the ease of use of rasmoware-as-a service via GitHub and just manipulating someone to do the work for them.

Nigeria is a hub of such campaigns.

Roger Grimes, a data-driven defense evangelist at KnowBe4,

said:…“The big question to ask is, how prevalent is it? Is it just a few here and there, or is it more widespread than believed?

And he adds that for the campaign to succeed, there need to be people willing to be bought, and most of the time, these are disgruntled employees. He cites a second cause —the social engineering of employees into revealing login credentials and allowing unmatched software to be downloaded. These two root causes account for likely 90% percent of all hacker and malware exploitations.

The only way to get around such attempts is by using security awareness training and MFA. Create backups for every file. Have a basic cyber incident response plan and related policies that include response and notification procedures for a ransomware incident. An experienced team of cybersecurity professionals on hand for prevention and damage control.

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The two years of the Pandemic have brought about many changes, including the way we work. What was thought to be an indulgence once, work from home and remote work, has proved to be the saving grace for a world trying to survive a tough situation.

The smart companies will listen to the burgeoning needs of the employees and respond dynamically to retain talent and attract new ones.

With the new year right around the corner and the Pandemic somewhat under control, companies and HR leaders need to rethink work strategies, including management. A rethink of where people will work, what tools, and how they need to be supervised all have to be worked out. Work trends for 2022 will be centered around the employees rather than the organizations.

From just me to us. Companies will have to think beyond profit, to employee welfare, engagement and management. Those companies that want to thrive in this new environment will need to respond to this new power dynamic.

Work trends for 2022 will be centered around the employees rather than the organizations.

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REINVENTING The last two years saw many disruptions, including responding to working from home. It was all about collaboration and flexibility.

The new year will demand more agility and flexibility from organizations. The Pandemic brought in its wake many bottlenecks —from human resource to components, to supply chain, to global restrictions and shortages.

Organizations now need to be more prepared and concentrate on how agile they are in responding to changes. A more responsive organization, which is designed around outcomes and flexibility, will be more resilient in changing times. Employees now need to be more prepared to do cross-functional roles.

They need to be more broad-based in their approach and companies should prepare employees to acquire the required skills.

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CONTRACT WORK The economic uncertainty of the Pandemic led to job cuts and furloughs. Many companies pared down their employees to the bare minimum to bring down costs.

Hence, contract and contingent workers were the first ones to be shown the door. But the new reality is a more fluid work model, where the majority of the workforce will be made up of these contingent work force.

A Gartner survey reported that 80% of companies will allow employees to work remotely part-time after the Pandemic, while 47% will allow employees to work remotely full-time. This is the way the wind is blowing.

Employees are ready to take more contractual and freelance roles if it allows job and location flexibility.

For employers, it means access to a wider talent pool with lesser liabilities and headaches and cost cuts.

“Our research finds that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure,” writes Gartner in a research paper on new work trends. “While gig workers offer employers greater workforce management flexibility, HR leaders will need to evaluate how performance management systems apply to these workers and determine whether they will be eligible for the same benefits as their full-time peers.”

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AI-AUGMENTED WORKFORCE According to the World Economic Forum’s report on work trends, AI and automation will create 97 million new jobs by 2025. AI technology is increasingly expected to boost work abilities and take care of automated repetitive daily tasks, allowing workers to focus on more creative and strategic tasks that require emotional intelligence.

AI will augment the recruitment process by filtering out relevant applications. Gamification is being increasingly used to gauge employee suitability for a job.

Day-to-day administrative tasks such as meeting minutes, filing, keeping track of employee work processes will all be AI-driven.

It will play a major part in data analytics concerning job performance and tracking of customer engagement too.

Security and cyberattacks can be lessened with AI tech that can detect fraudulent activities.

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THE TALENT WAR Gaining and retaining talent is a tough task and in the new power dynamics of employee-driven demand, the wind is backing them. In September alone, 4.4M workers left their jobs. Companies need to gear up for the war for talent to reach a fever pitch in 2022.

Companies need to offer better salaries, benefits, and working conditions, including help in setting up work from home office equipment.

The focus has to be on employee welfare and engagement. Involve the employees in the decisionmaking process of whatever involves them. Ask what can be done better.

Companies need to gear up for the war for talent to reach a fever pitch in 2022.

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COMPANIES WILL DOUBLE DOWN ON TRAINING ESPECIALLY FOR MANAGERS A study by West Monroe Partners done in 2018 found that 59% of managers reported having no training at all in overseeing people. This number might be higher now as work models keep on evolving, and it is hard to keep up. Managers desperately need training on how to be managers remotely. Managers are struggling right now, and this affects the team dynamics and productivity too.

Hence, instead of specialized skill training, there will be more emphasis on man-management and soft skills.

Managers desperately need training on how to be managers remotely.

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GEN Z WORKERS WILL BE MORE VOCAL There is a stark generational difference in the approach to work.

The way millennials prioritize themselves over others has been talked about a lot. The next generation of workers, the Gen Z, is more tech savvy as they were born with the technology. For them, it is an essential tool and not something that has to be learned or applied at work. Gen Z is not only laser-focused on using technology to solve problems - 63% think that using an employee engagement and productivity platform could help their company improve the company’s culture, communication and inclusivity development efforts.

They are very conscious of discrimination, diversity, inclusivity and sustainability. A company’s track record in sustainability and DIE (diversity, inclusivity and equality) is more important than its bottom line. As a result, Gen Z will likely have a significant impact on today’s workplace as we know it–from how we use technology, and think about company culture, and how companies deal with the most pressing social and political issues. A company’s brand image will be determined by these factors rather than sales and revenue performance.

How a company responds to social, political, and humanitarian issues plays a central role in determining an employee’s engagement and productivity levels. A survey by an HR company found that 56% of respondents would be more engaged and productive at work if their company was actively involved in addressing today’s critical social issues.

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EMERGENCE OF NEW TOP-TIER EMPLOYERS Before the Pandemic, companies were already working to improve workers’ engagement and expectations. Post-Pandemic, most employees and prospective candidates will judge organizations by how they treated employees during the Pandemic.

Companies that have made salary cuts and job cuts, but kept the top tier safe from the fallout are going to lose out in the battle for talent. Companies that made sure financial impacts were absorbed by executives versus the broader employee base are going to fare better as prospective employers.

Transparency about difficult decisions, open communication and the ability to motivate employees to participate in the hard decisions is what is looked for. Companies that are open to being this progressive and transparent will be doing well.

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ORGANIZATION COMPLEXITY The economic upheaval has seen a lot of mergers and acquisitions, for some, it is an opportunistic time to find partnerships that align with their business models. For others, it is a much-needed infusion of capital and talent in hard times.

As the Pandemic subsides, there will be a similar acceleration of M&A of companies. What the adversity for circumstances has taught organizations is to hedge their bets. Companies will focus on expanding their geographic diversification and investment in secondary markets to manage risk in times of disruption.

The supply chain disruptions, shortages and inflationary trends have forced companies to look for alternatives for sourcing. This has resulted in buying and acquiring of complementary businesses.

This rise in the sizes and complexity of businesses has come with its own organizational management challenges for leaders as operating models evolve.

Customizing business management models will have to occur as the geographical and cultural diversities will demand different answers to similar problems. This will require reskilling and career development support for the managerial staff.

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EMPLOYEE CENTRIC The Pandemic has fudged the line between personal and professional a bit. There is increased visibility into the personal lives of employees due to the unprecedented personal and professional struggles that everyone has faced.

Now employers are expected to play a greater role in the personal lives of workers. According to Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey, employers that support employees with their life experience see a 23% increase in the number of employees reporting better mental health and a 17% increase in the number of employees reporting better physical health.

Employee experience or EX with the place of employment has become a crucial component of the new way of working.

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Q&A with Jane 44

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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 Can your employer force you to come back to the office? Jane gets a letter from a frustrated worker who wants his employer to overstep federal guidelines and ask people to return to office.

It’s not fun to toil at a job where your boss doesn’t give you recognition for all your hard work. How can you highlight your achievements without sounding too braggarty-bard? Who should you talk to about feeling under-valued?

“To continue working for someone who is bent upon not giving you credit is harmful to your mental peace and even professionally,” advises Jane in her letter to an underappreciated worker-bee. In this series of Q&A, Jane comes across a few employee conundrums that we are sure plenty of our readers wouldn’t mind finally getting the answers to: The HR Digest Magazine | January 2022

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“MY COLLEAGUES ARE RELUCTANT TO COME BACK TO OFFICE, AND I THINK WORK SUFFERS…”

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Moreover, Covid-19 has not been totally eradicated. Come winters, it is believed there might be a resurgence. People with unvaccinated kids are reluctant to expose them by travelling to work and maybe bringing the You need to remember that not bug home. Hence, the reluctance everyone faces the same situation. seems to be justified. It is not that With schools closed, childcare has people do not value their careers, become a necessity. Both partners but people are prioritizing life need to be around to share choices. the burden of work, household chores and childcare. You being Don’t you think coming back to the a single millennial, works to your office before vaccines was a hasty advantage. decision and risky too?

As you yourself admitted, the days of regular office are over.

People have realized that most of the work can be done offsite and trekking to the office every day is not required.

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Moreover, many people find working from home to be more productive and fulfilling. Also, they feel more relaxed as they are home with their family.

Agreed that being in the office makes collaboration, networking and scheduling work easier, but at the moment, the advantages of working from home far outweigh that of on-site working.

Your objections seem to be more personal than about the hurdles to work, which seems to be getting done albeit at a slower pace. It seems for the time being; the workplace policy is to allow

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whoever wants to work from home.

If you feel that some rescheduling of days at the office needs to be done, then co-ordinate your days with the people you need to see in the office. Ask them to come on the day that you are in the office.

Beyond that, as a manager, you’ve got a professional obligation to consider other perspectives than yours. If it works for you, it might not work for others. A good manager learns to accommodate, delegate and take feedback.

The pandemic has shown us empathy and patience are important in tough times.

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“MY WORK EMAIL IS FLOODED WITH QUERIES ON COMPLETION TIMELINE BY A CO-WORKER”

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You have already tried to tell her that her behaviour is distracting and even ticked her off, to no avail.

My advice is to initiate a formal dialogue with her. Tell her calmly and clearly that her behavior is not what is expected of a work colleague. “You constantly are after me to finish on time. The constant interruptions and urges to deliver on time act as distractions and take focus and concentration away from work and act as delays rather than helpful.” Say that you would appreciate if she stopped all such communication immediately. If you ever delay in submitting the work on time, then you will have another chat with her.

voicemail. Inform her that you are no longer going to entertain her calls and emails. She does not need to get in touch with you until and unless you are delayed in work submission.

To add pressure, you can ask your other colleagues who are upset with her behavior to join in the conversation later on.

Despite all these efforts, if the colleague still does not desist, you have at least warned her off about your non-communication.

Talk to her before a project starts — about how she will be involved.

Try to agree on the timeline and boundaries and how you will let her know of your progress once a day if she is so anxious to know.

If that does not work, then filter out her emails, put your phone on silent and let her calls go to 50

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“BOSS VERY RELUCTANT TO PRAISE ANY HARD WORK OR INITIATIVE; HOW DO I GET HER TO ACKNOWLEDGE MY EFFORTS?”

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I am so sorry to read about how you are being treated. It seems from your telling that your boss views your effort totally different from you.

What is surprising is that she is free with her praises with other work colleagues and subordinates. So it is not as if she is the type of boss who only likes to criticize and not praise or give feedback. There are many such managers. But with them, you know it is universal and not personal.

It is strange that she has never found anything about your work to praise. Though she seems quick with her criticism and mistake pointing, however polite she is with it.

In almost five years, even if she is not impressed with your work, there is something that she should have found praiseworthy. The fact that there is no positive response to any work you put in —be it learning new skills, trying to save costs for the team, implementing 52

good processes and even raising funds, raises some red flags here.

I know you are very engaged with the job you are doing and satisfied with your performance, but the one person who should be validating that is avoiding the issues. My advice is you should start looking out for a new job.

If she did not find any positive in your performance in five years and is almost ignoring you, then it is time to just leave.

No amount of dialogue or intervention of a third party is going to work. If forced into a corner, she is going to just say that your work was unsatisfactory.

Hence, it is better to leave the job on your terms, rather than with a negative mark of unsatisfactory performance, however unjustified it may be.

To continue working for someone who is bent upon not giving you credit is harmful to your mental peace and even professionally.

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If you still want to address the issue, then ask for a meeting and question her with —“I want to know how you see my work? I think I have done quite well compared to others in the team and have accomplished XYZ.”

need to improve —then your reply should be, “I am always open to where I need to improve but would also like to here some positive feedback of when I have done something right, which I am sure we can find something to agree upon.”

Confront the issue of not noticing or acknowledging your efforts despite being free with praises for the smallest achievements with others. Ask, “I am wondering if you apply a different set of standards for me and if so, why?”

The whole point of the exercise is to get her to acknowledge that her feedback has been one-sided. If she still feels that she has nothing positive to say about your work, then it is time that you make the decision to move on. I am positive that with your hard work and initiative, it would not be difficult to shine wherever you go.

If you get another indifferent response —or a list of things you

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EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS

Do Workplace programs Save Money? We Find out.

By: Diana Coker

Healthcare costs are a major expenditure for most business owners. Healthcare is an essential and a necessary investment for both employers and employees.

A lackadaisical workforce can be detrimental to productivity.

So, are wellness programs a sound investment? Do they drive down a company’s health investment costs or not?

Let us find out.

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EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS

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A study conducted by Harvard in 2015 found for every dollar spent on wellness programs, the employer saves $3 in healthcare costs and another $3 in absenteeism. This is a 6-to-1 return on investment.

The return on investment from the wellness programs saw claim costs decline by $1,421 per participant, compared to the previous year.

But what the study did not differentiate was what worked better - lifestyle changes, wellness programs, or the money spent on chronically ill employees.

Another study conducted by Rand for Pepsi with more than 67,000 employees as subjects looked into what was more effective: a wellness program based on lifestyle management, including fitness and diet, or one that concentrated on disease management.

The Rand study found that chronic illness management saved

$3.78 for every dollar spent (primarily through a decrease in hospital admissions); those spent on lifestyle management resulted in savings equal to the amount invested. The wellness program generated $136 in savings per member, per month, and a 30 percent reduction in hospital admissions. Another interesting finding was that only 13 percent of Pepsi employees participated in disease management programs, but they helped save the company 87 percent of the healthcare costs.

An International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans report showed that most North American employers saved $1 to $3 in their overall health care costs for every dollar spent on an employee wellness program.

The savings were made from reduced compensation claims and improved retention, less attrition, and increased productivity.

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EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS Before moving further, let us take a peep into what constitutes wellness programs in companies and corporates.

Organizations offer wellness programs to improve health and fitness and control and manage chronic diseases among employees.

They provide financial incentives or other resources to stay healthy. This is above the resources offered by insurance companies. Some of the main offerings of wellness programs include companysponsored exercise and gym memberships, substance abuse counseling and cessation programs, CPR/First Aid training, stress and meditation sessions, massage therapies, reimbursement programs, and more. Companies can additionally offer in-house workout spaces, walking paths on the campus, or something similar to encourage physical 58

activity. Some corporations may even offer financial incentives, such as lower health insurance premiums or gift cards for meeting fitness goals.

Google provides employees massage therapy and a massage program with more than 30 therapists throughout the United States. This is, of course, in addition to on-site gyms and free workout classes.

The state of Wisconsin has something called Well Wisconsin initiative, which started in 2018.

State employees, including employees of the University of Wisconsin System, the UW Healthcare, and their families,

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EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS

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can earn $150 per adult for fulfilling three wellness activities: a health assessment survey, a physical checkup or health screening, and participation in one or more wellness activities.

Cost of Corporate wellness programs Companies spend anywhere from $150 to $1,200 per employee on wellness programs, depending on the size of the company and the number of individuals employed. But companies need to remember that the Internal Revenue Service counts any employer-provided cash rewards for gym membership or well-being therapies as taxable income since they are not considered medical care.

Wellness programs aim to improve productivity, decrease sick days, lower insurance expenses, reduce turnover, and lower workers’ compensation

claims. The improved sense of well-being helps individuals and the company benefit financially with increased engagement, lesser days off, and improved productivity.

Employees also benefit through lower health insurance premiums and decreased out-of-pocket medical expenditures.

A more comprehensive look at the ROI for employee wellness programs shows that there is an impact on culture, engagement, and productivity.

Engagement The benefits include savings from decreases in health care costs and employee sick leave.

But the more indirect benefits are that an improved lifestyle leads to a generally healthier relationship with both work and after office hours. There is more overall engagement with life, and there is general

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EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS well-being. These factors are largely thought to be indirect ROI components and often harder to calculate/crunch numbers for. The long-term ROI in an employee wellness program is tenfold.

Productivity Success does not come overnight. But if companies invest in configurable, resultsdriven employee wellness programs that match a company’s culture, goals and needs, and devote time to communicating clearly and regularly about the program, companies will see tangible results. Less absenteeism, a healthier workforce and lesser time away from tasks mean more work getting done.

Another tangible benefit of increased engagement and productivity is that employees see immediate results and 62

are more invested in the company. That means they will not be looking out for work and the attrition levels will be naturally low. A Towers Watson and the National Business Group on Health study found that companies with highly effective wellness programs had a significantly lower turnover rate (9%) than companies without (15%).

The workforce remains motivated, the company culture also sees improvement, which is reflected in employee and customer satisfaction and an improved brand image.

How effective are wellness programs?

The number of research and studies undertaken to prove the effectiveness of wellness programs stands testament to their benefits. But companies

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need to work out what gives the maximum benefits. The Rand and the Harvard studies that have gained much traction among the corporates have shown that disease management is more effective than lifestyle management in driving down healthcare costs. “A program that preempts 25 unnecessary emergency department visits can easily save $50,000, while preventing four inpatient stays can save at least $100,000,“ points out the Harvard study.

Employers investing heavily in lifestyle management programs should consider transferring some of their resources to disease management programs that the studies have demonstrated save more money.

The studies are incentives for companies to turn in this direction.

Corporates generally take the easier route of lifestyle management rather than working towards disease management, which

requires more care and human investment.

“The lifestyle-management component of the program — while delivering benefits —did not provide more savings than it cost to offer,” said Soeren Mattke, the Rand senior scientist who led the study. “While workplace wellness programs have the potential to reduce health risks and cut health care spending in the long run, employers and policymakers shouldn’t take for granted that the lifestyle-management components of the programs can reduce costs or lead to savings overall,” Mattke added.

Companies “need to be clear about their goals for the wellness program,” the study concludes. “… [I]f an employer wants to improve employee health or productivity, an evidencebased lifestyle management program can achieve this goal,” while also boosting workplace morale, other studies have shown. “But employers who

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EMPLOYEE

BENEFITS are seeking a healthy ROI on their programs should target employees who already have chronic diseases,” the study leader said.

How to initiate a wellness program?

Companies looking to start a wellness program can take inputs from their employees on the perks they find most beneficial. A startup and a younger company might prefer wellness programs geared towards lifestyle management, such as subsidized gym memberships, the more established corporations may prefer health screenings, regular checkups or mental health benefits.

Corporate wellness programs can offer their employees benefits in finding a work-life balance. Ultimately, serious 66

Wellness programs aim to improve productivity, decrease sick days, lower insurance expenses, reduce turnover, and lower workers’ compensation claims.

investment in such programs is about understanding the employees’ expectations and aligning them with company goals and improvement. The return on investment in health care savings and lower attrition can be remarkable if this is done right.

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Winning A World in Flux Charlie Ackerman,

Sr. Vice President Human Resources, Bosch North America

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s paycheck the decisive factor in determining whether employees feel their work is worthwhile? And if not, what are the ways and means of creating a culture where employees are united by curiosity, knowledge, innovation and a shared sense of purpose? We’ve had the opportunity to interview Charlie Ackerman who provided some illuminating insights on how Bosch is equipped to drive change in its workforce, and what lessons have been reinforced over the past year to help the innovation engine become future ready.

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Q. What is Bosch’s secret sauce to being recognized as one of the “Best Workplaces for Innovators?”

The drive to constantly search for answers is a fundamentally important part of Bosch, one that has been part of the company’s DNA for over 135 years. Bosch firmly believes that research is not an end in itself —a never-ending

race to develop new technologies —but rather something that makes a tangible contribution to improving the quality of people’s lives. That belief is reflected in the words “Invented for life,” which is not only our claim but our strategic imperative.

That spirit of innovation manifests itself in many ways throughout the organization. For example,

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Bosch recently introduced the Virtual Visor product, which helps improve safety for drivers by using a driver-facing camera and a smart flip-down LCD to digitally block sun glare. The idea for this product came from creative brainstorming by two Bosch associates, who secured leadership support to bring their idea to life. We encourage our associates to step outside the box and push the limits of creativity on a daily basis. In fact, we have created internal platforms to enable our associates to innovate every day with colleagues from around the world.

Q Bosch takes great pride in its Business Resource Groups (BRGs). Can you tell our readers more about these programs and how they promote change within the company in practical terms?

At Bosch, Business Resource Groups (BRGs) are designed to engage 72

I DREAM ABOUT IM ECO-SYSTEM AT TH HAS SIGNIFICANT IN our associates in important conversations about critical topics.

Our BRGs are voluntary and are typically developed by associates who want to drive and influence our workplace culture. These outlets provide an opportunity for all associates to raise their voices within the company, and support our dedication to foster an inclusive, respectful, and positive environment.

Our BRG program is a platform for connecting and learning from each other, which is vitally important for an organization such as Bosch with so many diverse associates. These groups build common ground and provide associates with the tools they need

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MPROVING THE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT HE STATE LEVEL, IN STATES WHERE BOSCH NVESTMENT.

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to continue to grow personally and professionally.

Simultaneously, BRGs are empowered to advise Bosch leadership on policies and practices that support associates, emphasize the issues we have in common, and advocate for awareness and inclusion. One of our newest BRGs is BeAdept.

The goal of this group is to bring awareness, resources, and support to those impacted by a disability.

For example, the group helps colleagues to better understand the challenges faced by those affected by disability and how to provide support.

paced, unpredictable world?

Q What is the number one leadership competency required in today’s fast-

Our new virtual office environment has also placed a new emphasis on the need to foster strong

Adaptability has always been a critical key to success, but if the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that adaptability has become more important than ever. The past two years have seen more dramatic changes in the workplace than at almost any time in modern history. This has required all of us, especially HR leaders, to learn to lead in the “new norm” of remote working, flexible schedules, and with a greater emphasis on employee health and safety.

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DATA DOESN’T LIE, AND TRANSPARENCY IS YOUR FRIEND. relationships with subordinates and peers. Without the traditional opportunities to interact with our teams in-person, we’ve had to learn to adapt in many ways, such as adopting video communication tools, virtual whiteboards for innovation, and the like. We’ve also had to learn to make an even more concerted effort to preserve our culture of innovation through internal collaboration. It takes a new level of understanding and bridge-building to navigate any organization through such unchartered waters.

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That enhanced level of adaptability applies across the entire value chain to the customer, from a horizontal, vertical and diagonal perspective. The pandemic hasn’t diminished market demand for continuous innovation, but it also presented the opportunity for Bosch to re-evaluate how we build strong relationships and collaborations in an ever-evolving world.

Q What do you think most boards misunderstand or underestimate about human resources?

Most boards underestimate the concept of change management and the science behind human behavioral change. There’s a process by which HR professionals identify behaviors that lead to a high-performance culture and link those behaviors to key performance metrics. That process, and the results created by going through that process, can be difficult to quantify for board members. It’s

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also often difficult to convince boards to embrace the need for uplifting and inspiring messages from leaders. Leadership positivity leads to organizational positivity, and helps build a company culture based on collaboration, mutual support, creativity and maximum effort.

Boards sometimes don’t recognize that culture can be reinforced by effective role modeling and mentoring on the part of an organization’s leaders. For example, it’s important for thought leaders and key skills experts to share expressions of gratitude with their supporting teams, in both times of success and when times are tough. The notion of working simply for a paycheck are long gone. People typically stay motivated to perform and achieve when their efforts are appreciated by their leaders.

In addition, it’s important to reward leaders who excel in change management, leadership positivity

and role modeling, but that is also often overlooked or misunderstood at the board level. In order for a positive, collaborative culture of performance to exist within an organization, the concepts of open communication, positivity and gratitude must permeate the organization at every level, and examples are best set at the top.

Q What is the key lesson you want aspiring CHROs to take away from your work?

I’ve always sought the truth through data, and I’ve always shared that truth throughout our organization. I would encourage any aspiring HR professional to embrace data and not be afraid of it. Why? Because data doesn’t lie, and transparency is your friend. Data can be used to overcome challenges at every level of an organization, so it should be shared far and wide.

In fact, I believe HR pros should be positively nerdy about data, and they should use data as an enabler

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for continuous improvement. It translates easily at the board level, it quantifies the effects of any implemented changes, and it can be used to predict the need for additional action in the future.

It’s important for CHROs to leverage data analytics to illustrate positive and negative shifts in sales and EBIT contribution.

This will help continue to dispel the perception that HR is a cost center or soft skill-based function and demonstrate how data-driven HR can directly impact the bottom line.

Q How are you going to shake things up next?

I dream about improving the workforce development ecosystem at the state level, in states where Bosch has significant investment. We all know that talent scarcity will continue to be a challenge for us for the next 10 years or more, especially due to 76

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LEADERSHIP POSITIVITY LEADS TO ORGANIZATIONAL POSITIVITY, AND HELPS BUILD A COMPANY CULTURE BASED ON COLLABORATION, MUTUAL SUPPORT, CREATIVITY AND MAXIMUM EFFORT. rapid technological advancements in many of the markets we serve.

One big key to tackling that issue is by building a better workforce development model between industry, government and our educational system. This is a personal passion of mine, but I also have a great team in place that is working to inspire this passion across our entire organization.

Bosch has been very active in

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supporting STEM education for many years, but there’s more to be done at many levels. For too long, we’ve been asking, “Why is the current educational system not providing enough STEM talent from secondary and post-secondary educational institutions?” There are many answers to that question, but I believe one significant solution is for states and school systems to work together more closely with companies like Bosch to make sure a workforce strong in STEM skills is being consistently produced.

Because I’m a bridge builder, I’d like to build a better model between industry, government and education to help solve our talent pipeline issues, and to offer more opportunities to people in the communities in which Bosch operates. I believe such a model is achievable, perhaps through direct engagement with local school districts to help build school curricula, or through apprenticeship programs similar to those in Germany. But the first step is for all sides to come

together and work collaboratively as we’ve never done before, and to me, that would shake things up for all the right reasons.

Charlie Ackerman, Sr. Vice President Human Resources, Bosch North America Charlie Ackerman is Senior Vice President of Human Resources for Bosch in North America, and has served in that role since 2008. Charlie is a globally networked executive with extensive HR, manufacturing, and international experience. Based in the metro-Detroit area, Charlie is responsible for preparing, shaping and leading the human capital strategies that enable business growth, including engagement of Bosch’s more than 35,000 associates across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Charlie thrives on developing and implementing strategies that accelerate a culture of high performance.

Photo: Bosch North America

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Proudly Resilient Gloria Chen,

Chief People Officer & EVP, Employee Experience, Adobe

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he future of work, according to Gloria Chen, is not one destination —it is a journey, one where we will be learning as we go. In an interview with The HR Digest, Chen explains how she is future-proofing Adobe through digital transformation - and how she sees the Taking Action Initiative as the path toward growth and advancement for the historically underrepresented talent groups.

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Q. Adobe has been recognized as the World’s Best Workplace by Great Place to Work and Fortune for the sixth year in a row.

Do you still see room for improvement in Adobe’s employment practices?

I’m incredibly proud of the recognition that we’ve received over the years. It’s a testament

to the values that have been established since our company’s founding: that our people are our most important assets, great ideas come from anywhere in the company, and we should treat others the way we would like to be treated. We’ve worked hard to live those values over the years in how we hire, grow and promote talent; how we cultivate a strong sense of community and belonging; and

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through our progressive benefits and programs. But as a company who also values innovation and “looking around the corner,” we are always challenging the status quo —so absolutely, there is always room for improvement!

our employee assistance program which offers free counseling support. But by far the most appreciated benefit was giving our entire workforce every third Friday off to allow everyone to unplug and recharge together.

We were certainly tested with the onset of the pandemic, as almost all our 24,000 employees moved to remote work overnight.

Suddenly, “employee experience” was not just about the workplace experience —it was about juggling personal and professional responsibilities throughout the day, while working from a variety of home environments, including living rooms and kitchen tables.

The basics started with covering home office setups and providing extra time-off benefits, and soon expanded to reimbursing the cost of kids’ activities while parents worked. Seeing mental health emerging as a front and center concern, we provided meditation apps and emotional wellbeing workshops, along with

Adobe For All is a core platform of our employee experience, and during the pandemic, our employee networks went global as they stayed connected and engaged virtually. In 2020, our Diversity and Inclusion team and the Black Employee Network launched the Taking Action Initiative task force to explore and drive actions we could take to make meaningful change internally and externally to the company. In addition to improving existing programs and practices, the effort led to a dedicated diversity talent acquisition team and greater HBCU and HSI partnerships, a sponsorship program to support career advancement, and other programs. Involving employees from concept to execution has

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helped us stay focused on what matters most to both our workforce and the communities we serve.

Q Looking ahead, what does the “future of work” at Adobe look like?

WE KNOW THAT THE FUTURE OF WORK IS NOT ONE DESTINATION –IT IS A JOURNEY, ONE WHERE WE WILL BE LEARNING AS WE GO.

We believe the future of work is hybrid. Digital transformation has fundamentally changed how we work, as we now have the ability to work anywhere. And as a company, we’ll lean into digitally enabled workflows and digital tools and resources for people to be productive working wherever they are. But at the same time, we believe in the value of people being together and that trust, good relationships, and collaboration come from people spending time and working together.

opportunities. Our smart digital campus Adobe Life app will be at the center of this transformation, giving in-person and remote employees access to a variety of health and wellness tools as well as being able to book meeting spaces, order food from the office café, and make appointments with IT.

We’re working hard to enable digital-first workflows across our Adobe employee experience — from onboarding new employees, virtual collaboration tools, and learning and development

At the same time, we’ll be intentional about in-person interactions, and we know the design of our physical spaces as vibrant hubs for inperson gatherings is key. We like the “neighborhood” concept —a

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mix of design, technology, and service within each Adobe office to encourage and support casual collisions, impromptu gatherings and collaboration. We’ll also have flexible meeting spots for hybrid teams, providing a dedicated space with a range of configurable settings such as multimodal furniture.

One innovation I’m particularly excited about is the experimental approach we are taking to evaluate different hybrid work approaches, working with several volunteer engineering and sales leaders. We’re A/B testing different virtual onboarding approaches and measuring the impact on sales productivity ramp, and testing the impact of different work schedules on engineering productivity metrics. We know that the future of work is not one destination —it is a journey, one where we will be learning as we go. This model of engaging employees in the ideation, experimentation, and learning is 82

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THE FUTURE NOT JUST ABO POLICY AND PR CULTURAL AND O TRANSFORMATI HAPPEN OV so in line with the idea that good ideas come from everywhere —one of the principles our company was founded on. And as a company filled with analytical engineers, empirical evidence is a fantastic way to promote the best ideas!

Q With one of the largest and most diversified software companies such as Adobe, you must have a unique perspective on

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E OF WORK IS OUT CHANGING ROCESS – IT’S A ORGANIZATIONAL ION THAT WON’T VERNIGHT. what is essential with core competencies for leaders navigating key challenges in the future of work?

As a global software company, we have decades of experience with software teams who are geographically distributed. Prepandemic, many Adobe teams had already adopted some form of a hybrid work model and we knew that “one size fits all” is not a workable strategy.

Based on our pre-pandemic experience as well as more recent experiences as employees have re-entered the office, we’ve found that there are four key areas leaders should focus on when navigating the future of work: Shift the focus from where and when people work to trust and outcomes: Leaders need to lead with compassion, share expectations and goals proactively with their teams, and regularly check-in with their employees to build trust.

Lead purposeful and inclusive digital-first meetings: When managing hybrid teams, leaders must think asynchronously and reconsider if a meeting is necessary, be diligent about sharing meeting agendas and pre-reads ahead of time, as well as capture and share action items post-meeting.

Include wellbeing as part of work: Wellbeing is no longer a nice-tohave. Leaders must take care of their own wellbeing first and lead by example, be open to flexibility and what individual needs are,

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and create a sense of community and belonging with their teams.

Commit to growing careers for all: To ensure both remote and hybrid employees are on an equal playing field, leaders must be inclusive of all team members and understand individual strengths and development areas regardless of their location and encourage career growth.

The future of work is not just about changing policy and process — it’s a cultural and organizational transformation that won’t happen overnight. If leaders can start with these best practices, we’ll set ourselves up for success as we navigate challenges in our new hybrid world.

Q You’ve been with Adobe for quite a while. What would you say have been the most interesting transformations in your career?

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WE BELIEVE IN THE V THAT TRUST, GOOD R FROM PEOPLE SPEND Without a doubt, the most interesting transformation in my 20+ years at Adobe was our move from selling boxed software to the cloud over the past decade.

It’s literally a Harvard Business School case study in business model transformation, but when I think back on it, the impact on the entire organization has been amazing. When I started at the company, our products like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Acrobat were updated once every two years and were sold in boxes through mail-order catalogs. There wasn’t a lot of direct customer interaction, and innovation was hindered by this schedule. Our business plateaued and growth

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VALUE OF PEOPLE BEING TOGETHER AND RELATIONSHIPS, AND COLLABORATION COME DING TIME AND WORKING TOGETHER. stalled.

To keep up with the pace of innovation and to reinvigorate growth, we decided to move our software to the cloud and offer it as a subscription model. But there were challenges with this transition to subscription: it meant customers would have to change how they buy our software, and our annual revenue would drop by hundreds of millions of dollars as we dropped our price and built up a subscriber base. And above all else, this meant we had to rethink every part of how we operated the business —from how we continually release new product features and engage

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with customers on every part of the customer journey, to how we update our financial and business cadence and motivate and incent our salesforce.

What we learned about this from a change management perspective were three things: having the courage of our convictions about our strategy, having champions within the organization who believed in and could affect change, and never tiring of the communication of where we were headed and why. This context setting was critical in empowering teams to drive change in a way that was geared toward learning and iteration. Transformations

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come with a lot of unknowns and being able to maintain focus and the conviction of our leaders and teams in the vision led to the success of Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe Document Cloud, and Adobe Experience Cloud.

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Q What’s the key lesson you want aspiring CHROs to take away from your work?

As a non-HR professional stepping into a CHRO role right as the pandemic was hitting, I was immediately immersed into the trenches with my Employee Experience leadership team. I was both humbled and incredibly appreciative of their expertise, capabilities, and dedication to our employees, and quickly found my groove by utilizing my own strengths in structured problemsolving, change management, and communication-capabilities developed over the years both as a consultant, chief of staff, and frequent leader of crossfunctional virtual teams. I learned that as a leader, I don’t have to have all the answers and I don’t have to do it alone–we each bring our strengths to the table to serve a common purpose.

But beyond the work of the Employee Experience team, what

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I have come to appreciate over the past year —especially with the passing of one of our beloved co-founders —is the incredible responsibility that I have as the voice of our values and culture.

Ultimately, bearing that torch is the most important role that I play, bridging the past, present, and future employees for Adobe.

Q How are you going to shake things up next?

Adobe has an amazing mission of changing the world through digital experiences, and this means we have a tremendous growth opportunity —and our employee experience is no exception. This year, we are celebrating Adobe’s 40th anniversary, and I believe it is going to be a turning point year for the company. We need to be prepared, resilient, and agile as we create our future. When I think about my future at Adobe, I get excited about building on our great foundation of peoplecentric culture and values and

applying it to new ways moving forward as we set our company up for success for the next 20 years.

Gloria Chen, Chief People Officer & EVP, Employee Experience, Adobe As Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President, Employee Experience, Gloria Chen leads all aspects of people strategy and operations for Adobe, including talent development, diversity and inclusion, and all human resources functions. She’s charged with creating an exceptional employee experience for more than 25,000 employees across 75 locations around the globe.

Gloria serves on the board of The Tech Interactive in San Jose and the Carnegie Mellon Electrical & Computer Engineering advisory council.

Photo: Adobe

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Rethinking the People Agenda Lisa van Capelle,

Chief Human Resources Officer, Syneos Health

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ou have to be authentic in how you “show up” every day,” says Lisa van Capelle of Syneos Health. This is reflected in the company’s foundation on its Total Self culture where everyone can authentically be themselves. The unique mantra recognizes diversity, strives for equity, and creates an inclusive environment that gives a sense of belonging to the employees.

In this interview with The HR Digest, van Capelle talks about the determination and passion people bring to Syneos Health battling the pandemic, and forging the path to the next normal.

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Q. Looking at the impact of Covid-19 on Syneos Health, what changes are here to stay?

Throughout the pandemic, our priorities have been the safety and wellbeing of our employees, the success of our customers, and the stability of our business for our shareholders. Although Covid-19 presented unprecedented

challenges, our teams rose to meet the moment and continue to do so today. Through their resiliency and dedication, our teams supported each other and we supported our employees, while continuing to provide agile, custom solutions to meet the needs of our customers.

While the pandemic has proven it will have an ongoing impact on every facet of our world, it

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ultimately changed our work ecosystem. It taught us that our ability to be agile not only helped us survive but enabled us to thrive.

This theme of agility is now woven into the work that we do —not only from the aspect of our direct work with biopharma customers, but in how we reacted to the pandemic to meet the needs of our employees. Our connection with employees not only became far more frequent, but more open and candid. At the beginning of the pandemic, to remain transparent with employees, we implemented frequent employee communications —including CEO emails, blogs, vlogs and town halls —to inform employees about Company actions to safeguard their wellbeing and the Company’s financial wellbeing. How and when we engage with employees has forever changed.

office every day, work a hybrid schedule or are permanently remote, interactions are different.

Collaboration has never been greater and for those who are able to safely meet in an office, it’s no longer a space to sit in a closed office, but a place to come together to work smarter.

Q What do you think most boards misunderstand or underestimate about human resources?

How we work has also shifted. The focus is less on where employees work and more about how they work. Whether they come into an 90

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CHANG HAPPEN THAN WE

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At Syneos Health, we are fortunate that our board inherently understands the value of human resources as our people strategy is at the core of our business execution. When Covid-19 first hit, we implemented weekly updates with our board, which were equally focused on what we were doing to keep our shareholders happy and how we were taking care of our employees. Their concern for the safety and wellbeing of our people extended beyond the

GE CAN QUICKER E THINK.

traditional board seat.

While I realize not every board functions like ours nor shares our mentality, I do believe that it is less about what a board misunderstands about human resources and more about a board’s general interaction with the company, which is traditionally focused on the return for shareholders. This focus, however, is now changing and the value of human resources is becoming more top of mind as companies are increasingly focused on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) efforts.

Q In your opinion, what truly affects workplace culture?

Authenticity and intention are imperative traits to lead within order to create a sustainable, positive culture for employees. You have to be authentic in how you “show up” every day, and not just in larger moments when you think it matters. This works in tandem with having intention when

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building or sustaining a culture.

At Syneos Health, we believe in a Total Self culture built upon being authentically who we are, inclusive of our emotional and physical wellbeing. We believe that the total health of our employees — including their emotional, physical and community wellbeing — is essential to ensure they are supported in leading satisfying and healthy professional and personal lives. It’s also imperative to weave in your values across all

aspects that impact employees, so our Total Self culture was designed to integrate our corporate values.

Q Do you believe that the current curriculum in business schools are preparing future leaders for challenges and changes in store for the workplace of tomorrow?

I’m encouraged not only by the data available to the future

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leaders that tells a story and instigates conversation around the workplace of tomorrow, but also because this generation understands their voice holds more weight in today’s world, weight that can drive positive change. Despite what the current curriculum involves, the students have access to data and can use it to support their voice in molding the future. They can also use it to work through any challenges they may encounter.

ON ARE WITH IN NABLE, OYEES.

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Q What’s the key lesson you want aspiring CHROs to take away from your work?

There are two equally important lessons I would like aspiring CHROs to take away from my learnings as an industry professional. First, change can happen quicker than we think. Covid-19 supports this theory —remain agile in all that you do. Second, you should hire for potential versus experience.

Traditionally, there is a high degree of expectations when looking at potential candidates for a role.

It was easy to overlook a resume that met the criteria in terms of skillset if the candidate came from a different industry; however, this is a missed opportunity and a myth that should be debunked. Having prior industry experience is not solely correlated to a prospect’s potential. We have learned firsthand that if a job candidate has the skill set needed for the work, aptitude and motivation, they can succeed. That doesn’t mean

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internal training programs are not important, because they are and something we offer at Syneos Health.

Q How are you going to shake things up next?

There is value in pausing, especially in order to lay the groundwork for what is next. Sometimes, the best thing to do to “shake things up” is to pause in order to clarify what is important and what needs to be a focus in the next phase for an organization.

At Syneos Health, as a relatively new company (we formed via a merger in 2017), it’s important to take stock of what we have done to date and dissect what we can do simpler moving forward to make things more clear and easier in order to have a lasting impact.

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THERE IS V IN PAUS ESPECIA IN ORD TO LAY T GROUNDW FOR WHA NEXT

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VALUE SING, ALLY DER THE WORK AT IS T.

Lisa van Capelle, CHRO, Syneos Health As Chief Human Resources Officer, Lisa guides more than 28,000 global employees responsible for high-value integrated Clinical and Commercial Solutions. Through this engaged workforce, Syneos Health helps accelerate the delivery of treatments that impact patient lives.

As an active Executive Leadership team-member, Lisa is member of Syneos Health Compensation Committee and HR representative for the Board of Directors. Her extensive leadership experience in developing, aligning and operationalizing integrated businesses has been key in bringing together Syneos Health with a focus on an inclusive culture that enables new and innovative healthcare solutions.

Photo: Syneos Health

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Leading Through the Unexpected Mary Hassett,

Chief Human Resources Officer, Lam Research

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n a remarkable interview with The HR Digest, Mary Hassett shared how ‘Diversity, Equity and Inclusion’ is being firmly anchored into Lam Research’s philosophy, how the company is bridging the diversity gap in executive leadership, and shed light on the upcoming Inclusion Index.

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Q. What changes from the past year are working well for Lam Research?

Our global team showed great resiliency in the face of unprecedented circumstances in 2020, and Lam had a tremendously successful year as a result. However, through employee listening sessions, surveys, and conversations with our global HR

network, we heard our employees were struggling with feelings of fatigue and social isolation during the continued global pandemic environment.

In response, earlier this year, we launched a new series of initiatives called WorkWise, specifically designed to promote wellness, support, and engagement in the workplace. To start, we added

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wellness holidays and rolled out new meeting practices to limit video call fatigue, including adding time for breaks between meetings, setting reasonable boundaries around our workdays, and encouraging no video calls on Fridays. We’ve launched an internal site that we continuously update with new resources to support employee wellbeing and engagement. There were many existing resources available that we elevated, such as our Employee Assistance Program, our wellness platform, and caregiving support for children and family members. We’re looking comprehensively at things we can do to improve the employee experience and remain agile and resilient in times of challenge.

Q What challenges did you come across while working as a CHRO at Lam Research?

How did you manage these challenges?

It’s been wonderful to be part of a growing company. And the 98

unprecedented growth in the size of our workforce is one of our biggest challenges in HR. While we were already planning for a big hiring year, we are exceeding hiring estimates by over 40%, and that has required the entire HR organization to be agile.

Our talent acquisition team stepped up to hire quality candidates in higher-than-expected volume by dedicating additional recruiting, vetting, and onboarding support.

And we are engaging more with every new hire to make sure they understand and feel part of our culture. This is especially important for new hires who are onboarding remotely or joining one of our new manufacturing facilities. We’re sending welcome packages, asking for feedback about the hiring experience, and local leaders are reaching out and making connections. The bottom line is making sure our growing team of Lam employees the world over have a consistent, fulfilling, and engaging experience.

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Q You have focused on employee engagement and company culture extensively during your progressive years. How do you plan to maintain these HR practices in the ever-evolving industry?

We have a highly engaged workforce, and we are focused on maintaining that engagement through a period of unprecedented growth. We’re examining closely the moments that matter to employees, like the onboarding experience, the transition from individual contributor to people manager, and significant life events outside of work like the birth of a child. In my experience, the employee’s manager plays a critical role in these and so many other moments.

Managers really drive the employee experience through the quality of their connections with their teams, how they communicate expectations and priorities,

and where and when they step up as their best advocates. As leaders, we can design policies and programs to strengthen engagement like flexible and hybrid work schedules, expanded parental leave, or added holidays to promote well-being. But we rely on managers to champion those policies and deliver the greatest positive impact within their teams.

The ones who do it well often have some great advice to share, so we continue to learn from the best to help teach the rest.

Q Can you tell The HR Digest readers more about Lam Research’s strategies to raise the bar of leadership and diversity in the workplace?

We just launched a new brand a few months ago, and as part of that we added Inclusion and Diversity (I&D) as one of our Core Values. I&D is something we have always stood for —attracting the most talented people, fostering

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a culture where everyone can contribute their best, and leveraging diverse perspectives to drive breakthrough innovations.

Making I&D one of nine drivers of how we behave is really one of the strongest commitments we can make, and we’re backing up that commitment with actions and holding ourselves accountable.

To offer a few examples —this year in our annual Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, we shared more information about the diversity of our global team than ever before, and we publicly stated our plans to promote diversity in our workforce and in our supply chain. Also, beginning in 2022, every manager will be scored on an Inclusion Index based on their responses in our annual employee survey. The leaders of each team will then be asked to play their part to foster a more inclusive culture at Lam, and we’ll support them with the tools and resources 100

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AS LEADERS, W POLICIES AND STRENGTHEN EN FLEXIBLE AND SCHEDULES, EXPA LEAVE, OR ADDE PROMOTE W to do that. We’re ready to take our commitment to Inclusion and Diversity to a new level.

Q What’s next for Lam Research?

We’re looking closely at the workplace of the future as we move toward a hybrid model with more flexibility in terms of

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WE CAN DESIGN PROGRAMS TO NGAGEMENT LIKE HYBRID WORK ANDED PARENTAL ED HOLIDAYS TO WELL-BEING. where people work, activating managers to help us deliver a great workplace experience, and keeping always at the forefront the safety and well-being of our global team. Our industry is in a period of tremendous growth, so we’ll rely heavily on our new Core Values of Agility and Inclusion and Diversity to bring our global team together around

our common goals and respond effectively to challenges and opportunities. And following the launch of our new brand this year, we’ll be raising our profile with prospective employees. For much of Lam’s history, our reputation as a technology leader and a great place to work has been largely known only to those in our part of the semiconductor industry.

We’re looking to change that by spreading the word about our purpose and our value proposition as an employer of choice.

Mary Hassett, CHRO, Lam Research Mary Hassett joined Lam Research in August 2020 as the new Chief Human Resources Officer and is responsible for leading the company’s global HR organization. In this role, Hassett is charged with aligning Lam’s valued people resources to the company’s strategic priorities with a strong focus on leadership development, employee engagement and company culture.

Photo: Lam Research

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Setting A New Direction for HR Monique Herena,

Chief Colleague Experience Officer, American Express

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n 2020, American Express achieved the ambitious goal of 100% pay equity in the truest sense of the word. It is also the only company in the finance industry to have bucked the trend in the boardroom. In a truly remarkable interview with Monique Herena, we talk about American Express’s The Ambition Project, leadership resilience, and what we can do to help women propel into leadership roles.

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On the cover

Q. What is American Express’ secret sauce for being recognized several times as a “Great Place to Work”?

We firmly believe the best way to back our customers is to back our colleagues. To do that, we offer a compelling colleague value proposition, which includes meaningful work and growth

opportunities, a flexible and inclusive culture, competitive pay and benefits, and more.

At its core, our colleague value proposition places our colleagues at the center of everything we do, focusing on the whole person, holistic well-being, and a strong sense of belonging.

An important aspect of how we designed our new way of working

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RESILIENCE IS BUILT THROUGH A SERIES OF INTENTIONAL BEHAVIORS —THEY CAN BE LEARNED, PRACTICED, AND STRENGTHENED THROUGH EXPERIENCE. 104

—or what we call Amex Flex — was to check-in with, listen to, and learn from our colleagues.

They told us they value having the flexibility to work from home and that they also miss in-person collaboration. That’s why Amex Flex offers the best of both worlds —providing greater flexibility for our colleagues while ensuring we preserve the important benefits of our very special culture which is built on relationships.

Q American Express takes great pride in ‘The Ambition Project’. Can you tell our readers more about this program and how it promoted change within the company in practical terms?

Women’s success is in everyone’s best interest, and through The Ambition Project, we are encouraging women to fully embrace their ambition and pay it forward. We launched this initiative as part of our commitment to engage, retain, and back our

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women colleagues, and I’m proud to say that: In 2020, American Express achieved 100% pay equity for colleagues across genders globally and across races and ethnicities in the United States.

48% of new hires globally were women and among colleagues that received promotions globally, 46% were women.

Today, women make up 27% of the Board and 37% of our Executive Committee at American Express.

With a focus on better understanding the unique experiences and ambitions of our women colleagues, enabling them to build stronger relationships and creating a more inclusive environment for all women across the company, we continue to move The Ambition Project forward through global events and networking forums

and customized learning and development programs. We are ambitious for all colleagues at American Express.

Q What is the number one leadership competency required in today’s fastpaced, unpredictable world?

Without a doubt, leadership resilience. Resilience is built through a series of intentional behaviors — they can be learned, practiced, and strengthened through experience.

Resilient leadership is all about motivating teams, sustaining energy levels, and maintaining a growth orientation. We do this by inspiring, leading, adapting, and performing through disruptive changes, both on a personal and organizational level, over time.

We use these experiences to make us even better.

At Amex, we continue to prioritize colleague well-being, communicating frequently, and

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staying open to if and how we need to evolve. That’s the key. We can all be better in the next moment than we are right now. I’m inspired by the great resilience Team Amex has already demonstrated —the growth and successes, and how we’ve led through so much change. It’s really important that we continue to build on our momentum.

Q What do you think most boards misunderstand or underestimate about human resources?

In my experience, boards are increasingly seeing HR as a trusted advisor and having a critical seat at the table. They are in tune to the strategic value of talent and the role and responsibility the function plays as a co-creator of people strategy with the business to enable and support growth. I believe that you have to closely link your talent and culture strategy to the company strategy, or you just will not be able to drive 106

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AS COLLEAGUES AT AMERICAN EXPRESS, ONE OF OUR MOST IMPORTANT VALUES IS “WE DO WHAT’S RIGHT.”

the same level of impact. From my first conversations, well before the pandemic, with our Chairman and CEO, Steve Squeri, and members of the American Express Board, we were very aligned on the company vision, the strategic importance of providing a great colleague experience, and the cultural shifts required to achieve our business goals and better serve our colleagues, customers, and communities.

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Q What are the core values that influence your decision-making?

The American Express Blue Box Values and Leadership Behaviors set the standard of leadership for all colleagues and exemplify how we drive change and, ultimately, how we win as a team. The Blue Box Values are our guiding principles; they help ensure that we bring our company vision to life by backing our customers, colleagues, and communities with trust, integrity, equity, and respect in everything we do.

As colleagues at American Express, one of our most important values is “We Do What’s Right.” This is the foundation of how we make decisions every day and conduct all aspects of our business —from backing our customers, colleagues, and communities and maintaining their trust to protecting our brand.

All of us share this responsibility.

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Q If the HR Digest readers would like to get involved in advocating for more women in the boardroom, what do you recommend they do?

Having diverse backgrounds and experiences at the decisionmaking table fuels innovation, so advocating for representation in the boardroom and at all levels of the company is a win-win.

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HAVING DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS AND EXPERIENCES AT THE DECISIONMAKING TABLE FUELS INNOVATION.

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When it comes to advocating for more women in the boardroom, I recommend looking at your current state and start by increasing transparency. We recently shared an in-depth look at our journey, which includes our US Workforce EEO1 data and makeup of our Board, in our first-ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report.

Through transparency, we hold ourselves accountable and not only stand by our words but put them into action. While there’s more work to do, we are very proud of the progress we’ve made.

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It’s also important to demystify the process and increase awareness of how women progress into leadership roles, such as board seats. There are different roads to the boardroom, and the more we can create space to learn about other’s experiences and understand the diverse set of skills needed, the better positioned women will be to advance and achieve their ambitions.

Monique Herena, Chief Colleague Experience Officer, American Express Monique Herena is Chief Colleague Experience Officer at American Express. As Chief Colleague Experience Officer, Monique is responsible for all aspects of the colleague experience, including talent management, leadership development and compensation and benefits. Monique leads all colleague experience functions globally.

Monique joined American Express from BNY Mellon, where she was Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Senior Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Marketing and Communications since 2014. She worked closely with the Chief Executive Officer and senior management team to lead the development and execution of a business and culture transformation strategy that has made the bank more competitive in the market for talent.

Photo: American Express

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Charting the Future of Work and Worklife Balance Tracy Layney,

Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.

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here’s a global movement happening right now that is empowering HR professionals to elevate their voice and strategic contribution to the company in building a better workplace. Tracy Layney is one such leader whose contributions towards flexible work inspired a generation of HR professionals to reframe the most important aspects of work-life balance. In a remarkable interview with Layney, we talk about LS&Co.’s employee resource groups (ERGs), what we can do to make the boardroom more equitable, and her key leadership lessons.

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Q. What is LS&Co.’s secret sauce to being recognized as one of “America’s Best Employers for Women?”

At LS&Co., we’re committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive company and culture.

In line with our values, we have instituted policies and benefits designed to support women, and ultimately all employees, in our

organization as they navigate the pandemic and beyond. For example, over the past several years, we’ve implemented paid family leave and paid parental leave, as well as extended paid sick leave to part-time retail employees so our employees never have to choose between work and taking care of their own health, a new child, or a sick parent or spouse. We also offer backup

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child and elder care and recently updated our bereavement policy from three days to two weeks, with pregnancy loss included.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, women became the social safety net of the country and absorbed the shocks to the system. We knew we needed to act to support them.

In addition to the paid leave and benefits programs, LS&Co. offers a variety of wellness and mental health support programs. For example, we partner with support experts like Thrive Global to help

employees manage their wellbeing on a daily basis. We also offer employee resource groups (ERG’s) to create safe spaces for employees to connect with each other on specific focus areas, such as mental health, women, parents, and more.

Additionally, we conduct independent pay equity audits every other year to maintain fair and equitable pay for all employees, which we share internally and externally. Through our support and benefits, our

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ultimate goal is to cultivate an inclusive environment where everyone feels heard, valued and supported.

Q LS&Co. takes great pride in its employee resource groups. Can you tell our readers more about these programs and how they promote change within the company in practical terms?

At LS&Co., our Employee Resource Groups (ERG) allow our employees to come together based on shared characteristics and life experiences.

ERGs are open to all employees and support reciprocal learning, development of future leaders, increased employee engagement, and expanded marketplace reach.

Along with providing employees a safe space where they can find people with similar values, ideas, and real-life situations, our ERGs promote change by helping inform business decisions and play paramount roles when it comes to speaking out about current issues.

Q What is the most effective non-cash motivator?

At LS&Co., we are constantly striving to create a workplace that enables all employees to be healthy, fulfilled and successful at home and at work, because we believe our people are the most successful and motivated when we approach their wellbeing with a holistic approach. One way we do so is by offering industry leading benefits like paid parental and paid family leave.

We’ve seen the positive impact of paid leave in our employees’ lives since we introduced paid parental leave in 2016. Our updated paid family leave benefit built on that momentum, providing U.S. corporate and retail benefitseligible employees with up to eight weeks of paid time off per year to care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition.

Included within our holistic

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approach to employee wellbeing has been to train managers on how to lead with empathy during these challenging times. We implemented “manager reset training” at the beginning of the pandemic, reaching hundreds of people managers in the company to build new leadership capabilities.

We also have a number of different ways we create an open dialogue between our people and our leadership, this includes our regularly all company town hall with our CEO where everything is on the table. We further conduct listening sessions related to our diversity, equity and inclusion work and regularly engage with our Employee Resource Groups.

Q What are the core values that influence your decision-making?

Our core values here at LS&Co. are originality, empathy, integrity, and courage.

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enable authentic self-expression —originality While remaining cognizant of the communities we touch —empathy We act ethically, knowing how we make products is as important as what we make —integrity And we use our platform to drive positive change, even when it’s difficult —courage These values fuel a profit through principles approach that demands we choose hard right over easier wrong, work to be on the right side of history, and drive outsize impact.

It’s the right way to do business, it makes us a better company, and it assures our people that they are part of something bigger.

Q If The HR Digest readers would like to get involved in advocating for more women in the boardroom, what do you recommend them doing?

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I’m fortunate to work for a company and with a Board of Directors that understands what it means to uphold our heritage and live our values, because we have a great platform and want to use it to affect meaningful change. This

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includes valuing diversity, equity and inclusion, and I am proud to say that 58% of the LS&Co. employee population is made up of women – along with more than 60% of our executive team. And today, a third of our board of

HR LEADERS NEED TO THINK ABOUT THE STEPS THEIR COMPANIES CAN TAKE TO MAKE WORKPLACES STRONGER, HEALTHIER AND MORE PRODUCTIVE. The HR Digest Magazine | January 2022

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EMPLOYEE RESOURCE GROUPS ARE OPEN TO ALL EMPLOYEES AND SUPPORT RECIPROCAL LEARNING, DEVELOPMENT OF FUTURE LEADERS, INCREASED EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT, AND EXPANDED MARKETPLACE REACH. directors is comprised of women.

I would encourage readers to speak up and use their voice and platforms to drive meaningful change, including more Board diversity and advocacy for their values in the boardroom.

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Q What’s the key lesson you want aspiring CHROs to take away from your work?

The pandemic pushed many leaders to be more empathetic, to think even more deeply about

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what their employees really need, and to be very intentional about how they communicate with their organization —and that was especially true for me as I started at LS&Co. As we look beyond the pandemic, it will be critical for organizations to continue to focus on employee wellbeing —creating a culture of empathy while implementing policies that support employees’ holistic needs.

HR leaders need to think about the steps their companies can take to make workplaces stronger, healthier and more productive — to move away from long hours, the ‘always on’ nature of technology, difficult commutes, which all contributed to stress and burnout which impacted employees’ mental and physical health. Alongside the chaos of 2020 also came unexpected blessings —a chance to come together for the better good, reassess priorities and focus on what matters most while

ensuring that we gave ourselves the mental space to process it all.

Tracy Layney, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Levi Strauss & Co. Tracy Layney is Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Levi Strauss & Co. Tracy is responsible for LS&Co.’s people strategy on a global scale, including diversity, equity & inclusion, recruiting, employee engagement, talent management, compensation and benefits, HR technology and HR communications.

She is active in the HR thought leader community and she is board member for the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Foundation.

Photo: Levi Strauss & Co.

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HR Leadership for A Better World Carey Pellock,

Chief Human Resources Officer, Neustar

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n an interview with The HR Digest, Carey Pellock talks about the value of DE&I initiatives in the global business sector and what makes Neustar a great place to work. “The pandemic gave us the opportunity to really test our agility and innovation, and I am proud to say we exceeded expectations,” she says. “I have no doubt that our diversity initiatives have made an indelible impact on our culture here at Neustar.” As a prominent HR leader, the CHRO at Neustar paves the way to a more inclusive workforce.

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Q. What changes are working well for Neustar?

Since I joined Neustar in 2012, the company has undergone significant changes —most notably a transition from public to private company status and the arrival of a new CEO. While challenging, this process brought a discipline into Neustar that has served as the foundation for a heightened focus

on our employee experience —a formal and regimented change management process.

Change is inevitable in any company. It’s essential for hightech companies to maintain their competitive advantage, but how we’ve handled that change has been one of the pillars of our success over the past four years.

For Neustar, change has been

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constant and widespread —from the business we are in, to our culture and literally everything in between. This amount of change could paralyze a company at worst and create chaos at best, but thanks to a proper change management system, we’ve thrived.

Another area I’m extremely proud of is our culture and values.

Several key programs, co-created by management and employees, have set the tone and course for how we have navigated Neustar’s evolution. These programs were in their infancy when the pandemic hit. Our values, in particular — accountability, collaboration, transparency, resilience, and respect —were familiar words but not fully practiced. In the face of tremendous change, our values led the way. They grounded us throughout the pandemic, and we continue to rely on them to bring our teams together, irrespective of the challenges we face.

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Our employees embraced our values and so too did our executive leadership. Our values informed our guiding principles, developed by our CEO and implemented by our Executive Committee, for operating through Covid-19.

Chief among those principles was to keep our people safe and healthy, which meant considering how the pandemic was impacting our employees’ overall wellbeing, physically and mentally. In support of this effort, for Mental Health Awareness Month in May 2020, we launched a mental health framework that focused on four pillars —physical health, relaxation, balance and getting help. What started out as a shortterm initiative has become an integral program at Neustar, with strong employee and leadership support.

Our culture and values evolved right along with our business —an interdependent process that was discernible even from the outside.

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Customers, partners, and potential new employees alike noticed that life at Neustar was different and appealing. And so, it became a differential —a competitive advantage in a highly competitive talent environment.

Q What challenges did you come across while working as a CHRO at Neustar?

How did you manage these challenges?

We’ve managed through many periods of change during my tenure at Neustar, but the Covid-19 pandemic is by far the biggest challenge I’ve faced as CHRO. Of course, the pandemic presented challenges to all organizations, across all departments, but I think HR and Facilities, which is also under my umbrella, bore an overwhelming responsibility because the virus impacted people’s ability to physically be in the office.

With some 2,000 employees in 16 offices around the world, we must be very good at communicating and collaborating with one another so that we can continue innovating. And so, we had to quickly create and adopt more flexible work conditions and rely heavily on technology to help ensure business continuity.

As an organization, we drew heavily on our five core values — respect, resilience, accountability, collaboration, and transparency —to guide us during this time, which helped me make better decisions as a leader with a sense of confidence.

As a technology company, we are used to moving at lightning speed to keep pace with change and innovation. But the pandemic also gave our leadership an important gift —a pause to really see and appreciate the extraordinary team we have assembled here at Neustar.

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Q. You have demonstrated success in strategic thinking, planning and implementation through her experiences. How do you plan to maintain the best HR practices in the everevolving industry?

I attribute the success of our HR initiatives to adopting the innovative and agile thinking of our businesses. As an information services and technology company, we are constantly looking for ways to build for the future. This mindset has also driven our HR practices —not relying on past practices to solve today’s and tomorrow’s problems.

The pandemic gave us the opportunity to really test our agility and innovation, and I am proud to say we exceeded expectations.

Not only did Neustar get through those initial daunting months, but we thrived. Now, we face ongoing shifts in our workplace, from where and how we work to why —all 122

requiring continual evolution of our HR practices. Going forward, more so than ever, we’ll need to embrace a growth mindset and be open to new solutions and innovative thinking. To support this approach, we’ve enhanced our culture of feedback by committing to a framework for two-way feedback. Through education and practice, we will continue to challenge the status quo and have open, healthy discussions about what isn’t working and what could work instead.

The challenges of the pandemic solidified my thinking around the partnership between innovation and best practices. When paired, innovation and best practices will enable us to create effective solutions to support our employees’ experiences and help drive growth and profitability.

Q. Can you tell The HR Digest readers more about Neustar’s strategies to raise the bar of leadership and

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AS A TECHNOLOGY COMPANY, WE ARE USED TO MOVING AT LIGHTNING SPEED TO KEEP PACE WITH CHANGE AND INNOVATION. diversity in the workplace?

At Neustar, we are actively working to address barriers that keep women and underrepresented groups from pursuing technology careers. Our research has shown that women, in particular, often feel invisible or unsupported in some tech company cultures.

Women who have taken time off to raise families can be at a

disadvantage in the hiring process, so we have shifted from focusing on credentials to evaluating potential. We are working hard to create an environment in which women feel empowered, engaged and supported, and our benefits package and flexible work options are part of that effort.

For IT companies, Neustar has an above-average ratio of women to men, but there are always ways

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to improve.

One of the things I’m most proud of as CHRO of Neustar is overseeing the launch of and commitment to our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion program. In less than two years, we assembled a leadership council, hired a dedicated DE&I leader, created a framework to guide us, hosted our first Black History Month, and launched employee resource groups. I believe we are a better company and we are better leaders because of this commitment to diversity, to working to better understand each other, and to creating more allyship across our company. I have no doubt that our diversity initiatives have made an indelible impact on our culture here at Neustar.

Q. What’s next for Neustar?

Neustar is entering an exciting new chapter. In September, TransUnion announced its intent to acquire our marketing, risk and communications businesses, and 124

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AS AN ORGANIZATION, WE DREW HEAVILY ON OUR FIVE CORE VALUES —RESPECT, RESILIENCE, ACCOUNTABILITY, COLLABORATION, AND TRANSPARENCY. our security business will become a new portfolio company under Golden Gate Capital and GIC. Our unwavering commitment to sustaining a winning culture and achieving our growth strategy laid the groundwork for both of these transactions.

With growth comes change at some level, but change is certainly not new territory for us. Neustar has gone from public to private, we’ve acquired several companies, and we’ve weathered a global pandemic

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together. Yet we recognize that change is nearly always unsettling to people. Our focus now is on helping our employees understand what’s ahead and embrace the change and showing how it can drive tremendous opportunity for the company and for them professionally. Change management for us really comes down to communication and people.

Three years ago, we developed a formal Change Management Playbook, which put in place corporate strategies, structures, procedures and technologies to help us deal with change stemming from internal and external conditions. Tools like this, combined with how our people focus on living Neustar’s values every day, are helping us move forward in a positive direction. I’m so proud of our leaders, who have stepped up to engage and empower our employees, minimize disruptions to business, and manage with confidence and empathy.

Carey Pellock, CHRO, Neustar Carey Pellock serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Neustar, Inc. She is responsible for the strategy, operations, and leadership of all aspects of the Company’s employee experience.

As head of Neustar’s Human Resources and Facilities functions, Pellock leads the day-to-day people strategy that ensures Neustar has the best-in-class talent, amenities, and diverse and inclusive culture required to execute the Company’s customer success obsession strategy successfully.

Pellock was named Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer in 2019 and joined Neustar in 2012.

Photo: Neustar

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Reconnecting With Our Humanity Pat Wadors,

Chief Human Resources Officer, Procore

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n these difficult times, Pat Wadors, CHRO of Procore, is making a conscious effort to build on the advantages of a value-based corporate culture. In this interview with The HR Digest, she makes a case for the value of employee value proposition (EVP), and explains how the company’s Diversity, Equity and Belonging (DIB) has put Procore on the global map as one of the top companies for underrepresented talent groups.

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Q. What changes are working well for Procore in the fast pacing world?

One of my priorities is to build an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive, do their best work, and feel valued.

At Procore, we’re continuing to build an inclusive culture that’s

grounded in diversity and a shared sense of belonging. We want people to feel safe to be themselves and realize their full potential.

My goal is to help scale and further evolve the culture, which means it’s essential that we put all of our people first.

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Q. What challenges have you come across while working as a CHRO at Procore? How are you planning to manage these challenges?

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The role of the Chief Human Resources Officer is changing, evolving, and expanding. The challenge with this is that we don’t know what we don’t know and we’re expected to provide opinions or take the lead on any people-related matters.

The perception of our role based on the audience can also be challenging. Either we’re meeting that expectation of being the chief of everything else or we’re not.

The role is exciting because you get involved in more conversations, but it is humbling because we’re learning along with everyone else.

Some of the challenges include: Do we have the courage to learn faster and take more risks? How do

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you find the answer in a way that is trusted, reliable and scalable?

How do you make a decision with only maybe 60 percent of the data or less and iterate quickly and have more agility? HR is not known for its agility historically and being able to experiment more often is challenging.

Q. Can you highlight any benefits and perks gaffes that organizations usually make? What are a few mistakes that Procore tracks down for itself and how are you planning to overcome these gaffes?

The ‘mistake’ for an organization would be to add a benefit and/ or perk that you don’t plan on keeping “forevermore” — unless it is clearly outlined for a unique purpose in a unique timeframe. Otherwise, employees will inevitably overreact to the takeaway, regardless of the item versus getting excited about

adding an incremental benefit.

As for gaffes, I see these as learning moments. For example, historically, Procore wasn’t the best at communicating the value of an employee’s overall benefits and we weren’t yet thinking about how to design for a ‘global’ company —e.g., what can and/ or should scale? So we’ve taken that learning and started working on an Employee Value Proposition that has already started to provide a better compass from which to create our overall benefit plan approach globally.

Q. What talent practices do you plan to keep the future of work in shape?

My mantra hasn’t changed since I joined Procore; we are a peoplefirst company. So logically, the foundation of our guiding principles is to create a safe and inclusive environment for everyone

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as we adopt a hybrid work model in 2022. And that foundation will guide our decisions and actions related to our people, to shape our thinking as we evolve toward tomorrow while protecting what has made us successful. ​ The past few years have really highlighted the need for companies to play a larger role in supporting employee mental and physical health. Employees need the tools to help manage their anxiety, stress, and fear for what the future holds.

Another important thing we do to support employees at Procore is giving them the knowledge and transparency about what’s happening in the business — what we know and what we don’t know, in addition to a window into what we can and cannot legally share —because, in the absence of information, people often fill the box with negativity. Constant communication and visibility of

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our leaders are key to creating trust with our teams.

We build that trust through our culture. Culture is essentially our language —how and what we communicate with one another plays a huge role in how we operate as a company. We have three core values that drive our efforts: openness, ownership, and optimism. They guide us in everything we do —and this is especially true for our diversity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives.

We’ve also developed new communications channels to further amplify the voice of our employees, which allows employees to share their unique perspectives and experiences with the company.

Communication should be a dialogue —talking with someone, not speaking at them. The key to getting it right is setting the right level of expectations with our employees. So, how do we gather their input, incorporate

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WE HAVE THREE CORE VALUES THAT DRIVE OUR EFFORTS: OPENNESS, OWNERSHIP, AND OPTIMISM. what makes sense for the business, and then clearly communicate the goal? By reinforcing that all employees have a right to provide input and share their perspectives but not the right to make the final decision or veto decisions made.

We’re also focused on meeting our employees where they are, not where we tell them to be. We discovered that work is something we do together —not somewhere we go. To operationalize that

philosophy, we’re implementing a hybrid work model that not only allows employees to work in an environment best suited to doing their best work but also leveling the playing field by providing equitable perks and access to tools across the organization.

And finally, the goals of our employee value proposition — essentially our talent strategy, which underpins our corporate strategy —are to (i) hire and scale for the future, (ii) retain and engage our existing talent, and (iii) reinvigorate our talent brand to build a high-performing, healthy company that scales. In operational terms, that means we’re focused on attracting and hiring global top talent, keeping our employees engaged and motivated to continue doing purposeful work, providing clarity on roles/expectations, and creating amazing and equitable experiences in the employee journey.

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Q. Can you tell The HR Digest readers more about Procore’s strategies to raise the bar of diversity in the workplace?

One of the things I love the most about working at Procore is how much emphasis there is given towards celebrating people’s differences and unique experiences, both internally at the company and within the construction industry, as a whole.

Diversity, inclusion, and belonging (DIBs) have long been ingrained into the cultural fabric of Procore.

And, in the past year, we have strengthened our internal efforts by adding even more resources and programming for our employees.

We have also provided resources and support to drive meaningful action in the construction industry as a whole.

At Procore, we’re on a journey to build a more diverse and inclusive future that empowers

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everyone to thrive. We want to build a community of trust, where all voices are heard and we feel safe bringing our authentic selves to work. This means we need to bring our diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives into everyday moments. It’s a collective effort, and together we can ensure

“

THE ‘MISTAKE’ FOR AN ORGANIZATION WOULD BE TO ADD A BENEFIT AND/OR PERK THAT YOU DON’T PLAN ON KEEPING ‘FOREVERMORE.’

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Procore builds a more equitable workplace that allows everyone to do their best work.

We’re also taking steps to create a more diverse and inclusive industry. Through our longstanding Women in Construction initiative, we’re expanding the definition of what construction looks like by supporting organizations that challenge bias and expand a diversified labor pool. We’re also offering our construction management platform, training resources, and educational materials to support nonprofit and educational organizations dedicated to serving underrepresented communities.

There is still so much work to do.

I’m so grateful to be part of the journey that is so passionately focused on making a lasting and systemic impact, where priorities are placed on continuing to listen, learn, and keep the conversation going in a positive direction.

Pad Wadors, CHRO, Procore Pat Wadors has served as the Chief People Officer at Procore Technologies since November 2020.

Prior, Wadors served as Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) at ServiceNow from 2017 to 2020.

She was responsible for overseeing global employee resources and talent, helping the company scale from 5,000 to 12,000 employees while building programs to support employees and their families. She previously served as SVP, Global Talent Organization at LinkedIn, where she led a global HR organization. Wadors has also held executive positions at Plantronics, Inc. and Yahoo! She currently serves on the boards of Zenefits, Accolade, Inc., and El Camino Hospital.

Photo: Procore

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Better.com Needs to

do Better!!

By: Diana Coker

The termination of 900 employees of Better.com through a Zoom call by its CEO Vishal Garg last month is long going to be held up as an example of how companies should not handle terminations, let alone mass terminations.

Recently, I witnessed something similar where a colleague was handed her walking orders without notice or any compensatory pay. The person in charge felt no obligation or responsibility towards the employee. By any standards, it was an unfair termination, but there was no recourse as it was a startup with people scattered across the world.

Garg, 134

who

heads

Better.

com, a mortgage company headquartered in New York, took less than 3 minutes to let all the people who were asked to log in for the meeting know that they were no longer employed.

The video of him callously laying off people went viral and there was a tremendous backlash, which forced him to apologize for the way he handled the situation, saying that he “failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better.”

Contrast this with what he had to say during the laying off call: “This isn’t news that you’re going

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to want to hear...If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off. Your employment here is terminated effective immediately.”

He added that the company was facing productivity, performance and efficiency issues, but no specifics were provided. Garg said, “This is the second time in my career I’m doing this, and I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried.” Garg employed a few empathetic words, yet his tone was cold.

Compounding his gaffe, then Garg went on Blind, an anonymous professional network, where he criticized terminated employees, saying, “You guys know that at least 250 of the people terminated were working an average of 2 hours a day while clocking in 8 hours-plus a day in the payroll system? They were stealing from you and stealing from our customers who pay the bills that pay our bills….”

later he called into question the work ethics of the employees and said the 900 should have been let go three months earlier.

Incidentally, the diversity, equality, and inclusive team was part of the termination, which says a lot about any company’s culture and ethics to not consider having a DIE team essential to running a company.

So one thing is clear, the apology was just a whitewash and the termination of employees, nearly 15 percent of the workforce, is justifiable in his eyes, and he has no regrets about it.

The company’s CFO Kevin Ryan attempted to soften the message of the company by releasing a statement: “Having to conduct layoffs is gut wrenching, especially this time of year,” Ryan said in a statement to CNN Business. Yet the company’s leaders wanted a strong, or “fortress, balance sheet” and a smaller, “focused” workforce going into 2022,

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Ryan added.

Ironically, the “fortress” is pretty strong. The company is flush with cash. In May, Better.com went public through a SPAC. During the first week of December, it raised $750 million from its backers, which included SoftBank. Better’s balance sheet seems strong, with the company valued in billions.

What is lacking is any company culture.

The fallout of the call is that the CEO has been sent on leave by the board, his behavior under a cloud. The PR and communication team members have resigned. Again there are lessons galore to learn how to handle a company’s image post gaffes. Internal communications, company culture and ethics are some essentials that any growing organization needs to foster. The remote work culture has many positives, but handling people from different locations needs better coordination, patience, and empathy.

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There is a feeling that people who work from home need to overwork and should take a pay cut as they save commuting money and also because the companies are facing a hard time due to the pandemic.

Strangely, this convenient work solution is seen as a pass by some organizations, especially startups and online-based organizations, to overlook some basic HR rules and regulations.

There is a feeling that people who work from home need to justify this convenience. They need to overwork but should take a pay cut as they save commuting money and also because the companies are facing a hard time due to the pandemic.

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Terminations are routinely done without warnings or viable reasons. It is the easy and short-term route to cut down on expenditure.

The longterm harm of such policies is not far to see. If employees are treated as expendable resources, then the approach to work will be similar. There will be no loyalty or engagement with the company.

Skilled, talented employees will become scarce.

You can’t claim to be dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workplace and then unceremoniously cut the entire DE&I team on a group call.

HR industry veteran Amy Spurling, CEO and founder of HR software company Compt, says Garg is sending a clear message to both here is worse than the countless his employees and job seekers headlines and hit-pieces on Better. about where Better’s priorities lie.

“The zoom call layoff wasn’t the She says, “You can’t claim to be worst part to me. When you’re dedicated to building an inclusive fully distributed, you don’t have and diverse workplace and then another choice really. I give him unceremoniously cut the entire credit for being the one to have DE&I team on a group call.” the conversation actually. What is inexcusable is the purported It’s not exactly a good feeling reason as to why he did the layoffs to get laid off over a Zoom call. —that 900 people were lazy and Spurling says what’s happening only working 2 hours per day.”

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Tech HR Start By: Jane Harper

T

he Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) agenda is interlinked to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) agenda: unleashing the organization’s energy. Over the past several years, dynamic HR technology services and market has firmly established as the driving force behind organizational efficiency and employee experience. Data suggests that human capital management (HCM) software providers continue to flourish and acquire new automation capability with the help of emerging technologies such as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). This transformation is the spotlight of the current issue.

For organizations seeking to leverage this automation, a new organizational capability presents itself in the form of HCM software-as-a-service (Saas) providers. These innovative HR technology startups are helping organizations transform employee experience, performance and feedback management, digital learning, wellness, payroll and talent acquisition. What was once a $148 billion market is now a promising ecosystem full of HR tech startups that enable enterprise-wide digital transformation efforts.

We’ve sourced the most promising startups that have helped CHROs modernize the organization and align their capabilities to address challenges facing the future of work.

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tups We

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01

Humaans

London, England, United Kingdom

This London-based HRIS (Human Resource Information System) startup simplifies the otherwise taxing process of onboarding, managing and compensation management through fast workflows, automation and quick access to data.

Founded by Giovanni Luperti and Karolis Narkevicius and launched in October 2020, Humaans was pitched as a solution for companies frustrated with poorly integrated HR stacks, making processes inefficient and exposing them to compliance risks.

Humaans has grown 3x since its launch and is popular amongst distributed companies, such as, ChartMogul, Pleo, Bombinate, HeySummit and Pento.

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02

personio

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

The Munich-based unicorn has digitized the HR department of around 5,000 small to medium-sized (SMEs) European businesses.

Personio’s cloud-based software helps HR professionals automate processes that are not limited to their own department but that span the entire organization.

The startup helps organizations eliminate the arduous paperwork that still dominates human resources management in many SMEs. It has democratized enterprise capabilities of HR departments in SMEs that would be too small to work with HR software bigwigs like APD, Workday, or ServiceNow. Pernosio continues to grow at breathtaking speed and plans to expand into what CEO Hanno Renner describes as “people workflow automation.”

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03

Workday peakon Employee voice Copenhagen, Denmark

Peakon is geared toward helping HR professionals boost workplace engagement, increase productivity, coach team members, and improve organizational performance. The Denmark-headquartered SaaS company and ‘employee success platform’ provider Peakon was acquired by Workday in March 2021, and works with some of the biggest employers such as BMW, Capgemini, Verizon, and more.

The employee-engagement startup continues to provide organizations with a continuous listening platform, including real-time visibility into employee experience, sentiment, and productivity to boost engagement in a post-Covid world of work.

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04

Thrive Global

New York City, New York, United States

The corporate wellbeing startup helps HR professionals develop healthy employer-employee relationship by managing stress and burnout issues. Thrive Global offers organizations sophisticated, science-based solutions to build mental resilience of employees and make a difference in their overall mental and physical well-being.

Thrive’s human-centric solutions have helped employees in more than 100 organizations including Accenture, JP Morgan, Hilton, P&G, Salesforce, SAP, and ViacomCBS. The startup’s arsenal of cognitive, behavioral therapies is based on three pillars: live workshop, a digital health program, and behavior change tools. The results include a 60% increase in walking, 30% increase in productivity and 21% increase in engagement around diet and exercise.

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05

FishBowl

New York City, New York, United States

The semi-anonymous professional social network and job board is all about transparency. Fishbowl app gives users a platform to provide candid feedback, as well as join interest-based group chats, and search for jobs.

The go-to-gossip app has given a voice to 40% of Biglaw attorneys from firms like Baker McKenzie, Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, and Skadden. Around thirty percent of Fishbowl’s audience comes from consulting, advertising and accounting firms.

San Francisco-based Fishbowl, founded in 2016 by Matt Subbulli and Loren Appin, was acquired by Glassdoor in September 2021 for $1.2 billion.

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06

Workramp

San Francisco, California

The all-in-one learning platform is disrupting the way organizations streamline employee onboarding and training development programs. WorkRamp’s platform allows managers to reimagine the employee onboarding process and shorten the time taken to train employees by 50%.

In July 2021, the San Francisco-based startup partnered with BambooHR to help automate and streamline employee onboarding and training development programs. The integration enables organizations to save countless hours of manual work uploading new and existing employee data to the WorkRamp platform. HR professionals can revamp training and deliver the employee learning experience in just a few clicks.

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07

Knoetic

New York City, New York, United States

Knoetic is on a mission to thrust Chief People Officers into the spotlight.

Founded in March 2020, the New York City-based startup has built a client base, including the likes of Discord, Lyft and Zapier.

The startup’s “Insight Engine” AKA the people analytics platform is designed to provide CPOs both quantitative and qualitative insights with the goal of helping them make smarter, holistic decisions about their workforce.

“The reason we exist was really born out of the pandemic. We noticed in our ecosystem of chief people officers that their role was thrust into the spotlight and it was a really tough time for them, and also a really lonely time,” says Quan.

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08

Localyze

Hamburg, Germany

This talent technology company’s mantra has won organizations worldwide. It is “Hire Talent Beyond Borders.” The one-of-a-kind HR tech app aims to ease the international mobility challenge for global employers.

Localyze has helped over 1,000 people relocate over the last years and has made their lives a lot easier. Its simplified HR solutions take bureaucratic work off the hands of HR professionals who might otherwise have to worry about documentation and other timeconsuming tasks.

The startup has proved to be a core enabler of talent strategy in a post-Covid world of work where location flexibility is the need of the hour.

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By: Diana Coker

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NIKE, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon, is the largest seller of athletic footwear and apparel in the world. It employs more than 70,000 people globally, as well as 800,000 lower-level staff members who are mainly unskilled factory workers.

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franchises, and distributors spread across the world, human resource management is a strategic resource for Nike. In today’s world, human resource management is a tool for competitive advantage.

Therefore, it is treated as capital that must be leveraged in a company rather than in the traditional role of a non-profit

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making unit.

HRM is an important aspect of any multinational organization as it means effective use of the human resources for them to achieve corporate social responsibility, sustainable competitive advantage, and meet all legal and compliance measures of its operating countries.

The strategic HR policy of Nike is based on a Code of Practice that started in 1992 and was renewed in 1998. These policies are modified and changed from time to time according to the

needs of the stakeholders in the company and changes in the business environment.

Jorge Casimiro, Nike’s Chief Social and Community Impact Officer, shared how a brand like Nike scale its impact. How does it ensure that its HR policies, brand values and culture make a lasting contribution? “Nike’s mission statement is to bring innovation and inspiration to every athlete in the world. And if you have a body, you’re an athlete. The innovation is the work and partnerships that we’re doing. The inspiration is something we do when Nike

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shows up to talk about work.”

The road to an effective human resource management strategy has been wrought with mistakes and difficulties for Nike. As with major international apparel and sportswear companies, Nike also adopted the outsourcing route to developing countries, mainly China and South East Asia, where manufacturing is much cheaper. But down the line, there were many complaints of inadequate wages, very little or minimal healthcare and leaves, unhealthy working conditions, and more.

The dissatisfaction was pervasive, and there were many complaints about how their factories were run in Indonesia, Vietnam and China. The workforce was demotivated, and as a result, production and quality suffered.

Nike was forced to take cognizance and introduce widespread policy changes in human resources to improve the workings.

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Nike introduced a new system of training in 2008 in factories in Vietnam and Southern China. Workshops were held in order to strengthen contract manufacturers’ HRM systems and support lean manufacturing implementation.

In each factory, employee satisfaction surveys were completed to understand the top issues workers were facing and to measure mutual trust and respect in the factories.

Additionally, Nike tried to develop individual action plans for every factory to address core HRM areas, including supervisory skills, employee turnover, incentive structures, and employee satisfaction.

The company deployed teams in each of its regions with individuals dedicated to working with its suppliers to measure and develop HRM capabilities.

These efforts are based on something called Nike’s Lean

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Management Framework. These activities include, according to the company website: Developing systems and processes to capture accurate data and conduct data analysis on HRM related qualitative and quantitative metrics Assessing supplier management strengths and weaknesses and identifying opportunities for

development Providing coaching and consultation to strengthen supplier HRM systems, with a focus on how to attract, develop and engage their employees Developing tools to measure worker engagement and identify areas of opportunity for investment

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Standardized metrics and engagement targets Nike’s HR strategy underwent an overhaul as mentioned above, after labor problems and accusations of exploitation.

The company now focuses on risk management and review in all its human resource policies 158

to eliminate any discrimination.

Important standards and metrics are applied at its different branches around the world and localized in the various countries and production units

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and components. This helps to have uniform HR standards across all its local units.

(EWB) Survey to measure the level of engagement and experiences of factory workers.

Some of the core standards and metrics that Nike uses for setting up operational standards and regulations in its different business units around the world, include “productivity, human resources management assessments, turnover, absenteeism, and factory implementation of and results from worker engagement and well-being surveys.”

They try to implement evidencebased and measurable practices for their suppliers to increase engagement and have set an ambitious target for 2025. By 2025, they want 100% of all strategic suppliers to be measuring and improving the engagement of the people working with the company.

This will be done through the standardized HR practices with leeway for localization that they seek to implement with their partners.

The sports and apparel company has developed and implemented the Engagement and Wellbeing

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Commitment to Human Right Nike follows the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Rights at Work.

Nike employs many unskilled workers at its various factories and it ensures that all basic human resource activities cover these workers.

The sports company has defined its commitment to human rights in its many policies, standards and strategies, including Code of Business Conduct – Inside the Lines, Supplier Code of Conduct and Code Leadership Standards, and Privacy Policy as well as our Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategy. These commitments apply to all employees, communities, consumers, sponsored athletes, as well as the partners and suppliers they work within their manufacturing and logistics supply chains.

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complaints or irregularities.

The company has safe, confidential, and accessible channels to ensure that anyone can report any matter that they believe is inconsistent with Nike’s values and policies. They have a Speak Up Portal, which can be accessed anytime online or by phone, and is a resource to ask questions or raise concerns about potential violations of Nike’s policies. All reports are dealt with promptly.

Their policy is clear and equitable access to all in matters of human dignity and right to work.

Their efforts have increased the representation of women globally across the enterprise to 49.5% and representation of racial and ethnic minorities to 29% in their VP Leadership Team in the United States. All factories in each region must implement other metrics and standards,

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including green metrics as part of Nike’s lean operational strategy. The HR supervisors ensure that the company’s human resource management and productivity targets are met at all Nike’s factories. Casimiro, Nike’s Social and Community Impact Officer, said that partners

are important for implementing all their policies. The company believes that the relationship is built so close and well integrated that the policies are continued even if they part ways. It is made clear upfront that the partnership empowers them to carry on the good work and make an impact

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individually.

Nike works in house too to inspire a culture of purpose. “If your employees don’t understand and buy into your purpose, it’s going to be very difficult for your consumers to do it,” Casimiro says.

Nike encourages its employees to participate in making a positive impact. They have the famous catchphrase “Just do it” and another addition to it is “Give Your Best.”

Casimiro adds in an interview to Forbes, “An employee might want to connect to their purpose by volunteering at their kid’s school. Or it might be a homeless shelter. We have 74,000 employees and we say to all of them, ‘if you want to do something there, we’re going to support you.’”

Nike matches employee donations and offers volunteer pay, $10 per hour for hours volunteered that they can donate to the organization they choose. Employees can officially take time off to volunteer weekly to work as community coaches or something 162

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similar to guide underprivileged children. Through Made to Play —a global commitment to get kids moving through play and sport — more than 6,700 store employees across 29 countries volunteer more than 60,000 hours to inspire kids to be active.

The regular interaction with the volunteers brings some stability and positivity into the lives. Not only does it help the kids and support Nike’s mission, it also builds a sense of purpose in the employees. They have developed a training module called Coaching Girls, for volunteer youth coaches to help build a culture that makes sport fun and inclusive for girls.

The greatest lessons from these policies that can be learned, according to Nike executives, are that such strategies make good business sense. As shown by numerous studies and researches, a motivated and happily engaged workforce means financial and performance benefits.

Additionally, all HRM efforts should be sustainable in the long term for brands. They should become a part of the brand identity.

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‘It’s not you, it’s me’ Why 50% of American workers want to make a career change By: Anna Versai

According to a recent U.S. Chamber poll, 32% of people who lost their job during the pandemic and remain unemployed say they are looking for work in a different industry. A recent Washington Post-Schar School poll noted that one-third of workers under the age of 40 are now considering switching careers or changing industries since

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the pandemic. The pandemic has taught Americans that nothing is permanent.

Everything can change within weeks if not months. Perhaps more worrisome trends for HR leaders is that a growing number of Americans want to spend time by themselves, prompting organizations to rethink their approach to hiring and retention.

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Historically, people looked to switch careers for a beefier paycheck, better benefits, more opportunities, among other reasons. What’s different now is that while a lot of traditional reasons remain the same, they aren’t the only ones prompting The Great Resignation. Deb Broberg, Executive Director of RealTime Talent and a U.S. Chamber Talent Pipeline Management fellow says the pandemic prompted Americans to reevaluate their priorities and made them realize things like work-life balance, a positive work environment, and flexitime were just as important as money.

Reskilling Workers in the hospitality, retail, and other industries hit hard by the pandemic are searching for transfer skills into high-growth industries. As indicated by the U.S. Chamber survey, 46% of Americans previously employees in the

retail, hospitality industry are now looking to switch industries.

‘Degree inflation’ not required The need to fill jobs, combined with the lack of skilled talent, is prompting hiring managers to move away from a degreebased approach to hiring. A bachelor’s degree is no longer required to do the same jobs anymore. Instead, businesses are moving towards a skillsbased approach to hiring new talent. A growing number of companies are now seeking workers with technology skills and talent partners who provide upskilling and reskilling to both employers and employees alike. The expulsion of the degree barrier opens limitless opportunities for workers, particularly those from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, to switch to industries that were previously unavailable to them.

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Remote Work Goes Mainstream Unmistakably the transition to remote work is definitely not a temporary condition stirred by the pandemic. In the future, people are less likely to migrate for a job, and with the pressure organizations are under to fill open positions, they aren’t going to demand that employees move as a condition of employment either.

This leaves employers and employees with a much wider canvas for recruiting talent from across geographies.

Make a difference According to the U.S. Chamber Covid-19 unemployed poll, roughly 41% of respondents said a positive work environment would increase their urgency to return to office, while another 31% said they would return to work if they found a career that 168

Anxiety, stress, burnout, and other emotional well-being issues are prompting these workers to switch careers.

makes a real difference in their lives. Those statistics highlight a pattern among American workers, especially millennials and Gen Z, who are seeking jobs that align with their personal values. The devastating effect of the pandemic has sped up the desire among workers to search for employers with better cultures and jobs that contribute to the betterment of the society.

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Progressing Out of High-Contact Jobs The economic toll by the pandemic can be quantified, however the mental and emotional cost cannot. There is as yet an undeniable fear factor for workers on the frontlines - from retail to healthcare workers - whose jobs include high-contact interactions with people.

Anxiety, stress, burnout, and other emotional well-being issues are prompting these workers to switch careers. A recent survey of nurses found that 66% have considering leaving their jobs because of the pandemic, citing fear of exposing themselves or their families to the novel coronavirus.

Many industries require people to be on the ground taking care of other people. There is still some level of dread today, the question is whether this dread will continue and if so to what extent.

The combination of these factors means that employers that are strategically putting resources into and focusing on their talent will come out as winners. This also requires organizations to leverage the skillset that workers bring from other industries, and in some cases, collaborating across industries to show how jobs from one industry to another can be linked.

The need to fill jobs, combined with the lack of skilled talent, is prompting hiring managers to move away from a degreebased approach to hiring.

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By: Diana Coker

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The pandemic has brought around many changes, wider acceptance of work from home and remote work being the most pivotal. This new work mode has made it possible for many to moonlight on the job. This is possible due to more availability of time (for some), being away from constant supervision, and the ease of being able to do it.

Moonlighting on the job is just not taking some hours in a week, but holding down two or even three jobs at a time and jiggling two workplaces, colleagues and bosses without any problem whatsoever.

Says Adam Jennnings, a twentysomething software engineer who was asked to work from home in the wake of the pandemic, “I was able to finish my day’s job with time to spare, which I was wasting playing online games. A friend’s friend recommended a startup that needed a coder and I agreed, now I earn double my salary 174

with just putting in a normal day’s work.”

The proportion of people working from home in the last two years of the pandemic has almost doubled. Along with that, many platforms have proliferated, offering opportunities for remote work at competitive prices. Many gig workers are already making decent money handling as many jobs as possible. Joining this group are regular workers with enough time to spare and the talent and skill set.

The moonlighting community has platforms and support groups operating online to share their experiences. There is overemployed.com floated by 37-year-old Isaac, a tech worker in the US, in April. This site extols the benefits of having more than one full-time job and offering advice on everything on how to file taxes to keeping your managers’ expectations low so you can operate comfortably.

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There’s also a subreddit forum, r/overemployed, and Discord, an instant-messaging platform group boasting 6,500 members where users share experiences anonymously.

the US, the tax system is based on self-assessment; hence, it poses no problem. But the problem arises when you have signed non-disclosure and noncompete agreements.

Isaac founded the overemployed community site after he heard rumors of layoffs in his company.

He started looking out for another job and, to his surprise, found another one soon. He continued in his old job along with the new one and realized he could double his salary by doing both. According to him, doing two jobs at a time in the tech sector is nothing new, but the pandemic has made it more popular.

Getting caught could cost someone their job and even make it difficult to secure another job in the future. Says Adam, “I did have some reservations when I started my second job, but then I overcame my fears, as I was giving my full attention to both the jobs and working to my best capacity. I was not short changing either.”

Risky Proposition Having a side hustle or holding down two plus jobs at a time is controversial and risky.

Though, both in the US and UK, holding two or more jobs is legal from a tax viewpoint.

In the UK, holding a second job could mean two tax codes, but mostly it can go unreported and unnoticed in big firms. In

“The money is too attractive and easy to come by for people to be too worried about the ethical concerns of moonlighting,” says an HR consultant who says he is aware of overemployment and has warned many prospective clients about it.

In his experience, it is a winwin situation as employers get skill and talent at a reasonable rate; hence, they are not overly concerned.

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Another concern is the cornering of jobs by a select number, whereas others struggle to get employment. Some people have three jobs at hand, whereas some struggle to land even one.

Ethics When questioned over the ethics, some of the people who were keeping two jobs at hand said they felt guilty about deceiving the company; a majority were okay with the concept as long as they met the employers’ expectations. One person who did not want to be named said, “As long as I am not gambling or committing some fraud such as selling company secrets, I do not think I should be overly concerned, and it is hard,earned money for my family.

“I want my family to live comfortably, and I’m not exactly gambling or boozing. If both companies are happy with my performance, why should I feel guilty?” wrote one overemployed

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worker on Discord.

Moreover, some pointed out that the employers were not too concerned when replacing or laying off employees; hence, an honest day’s job that did not harm anyone should not make anyone feel guilty.

What about instances when one is overstretched, and there are meeting clashes and deadlines to be met for both jobs? Some jobs are easier to handle than others. Simultaneous meetings, training and inductions can sometimes eat away a lot of the time. The answer is that those who have encountered such problems can either be off camera the whole meeting time or keep the camera on in one meeting but no audio.

It takes some juggling but can be managed though mistakes happen. One person on Discord reported unmuting the wrong meeting to answer a question,

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though he quickly covered up, but it was stressful for a short while. Such incidents are the exception and not the rule and can be managed.

Juggling the Jobs The key to handling such situations is to ensure that one job is less demanding than the other. If you are a project manager or lead for one company, the more judicious option should be to take a less responsible job in your moonlighting option.

Overemployment.com and similar platforms and messaging apps have subgroups that advise you on how to overcome such situations. Some of the suggestions include keeping separate computers or laptops for the two jobs. Create two LinkedIn profiles, not with fake names but using initials in one.

For example, if your name is Adam J Smith, then create one with this name, and the other

with AJ Smith. Word your profile differently.

Some small precautions can go a long way in keeping the two jobs separate. Another caution thrown about is to take on as much as you can.

The term overemployed does not mean overstretching oneself.

Do it if you can handle the work load and if your work schedule is light. It is a way for workers to take control of their work lives.

Remote work has allowed for flexibility and a workday that can stretch to 10 hours if you want. The days of nine to five are over. As Adam Jennings put it, “He had the time and the inclination, waiting around for work to be assigned was frustrating, and I was not fully engaged to my capacity, this way I am able to work more and earn more.” Overemployment is seen as a chance to optimise skillset, or to explore other professions.

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Juggling the Jobs But Phil Jones, author of Work Without the Worker: Labour in the Age of Platform Capitalism, and HR expert, cautions against oversimplifying the risks involved. “Sacrificing one’s time for a payoff later is a promise that capitalism has made since the 19th century and has only been realized for a rarefied few,” he says. “Work tends to offer an illusory sense of control in a world which often seems to be spiralling out of control,” he adds. “It demonstrates, in quite a stark fashion, just how much work colonizes our imagination [and is] symptomatic of a societywide addiction to work.”

As mentioned above, the people opting to moonlight are mostly those who already hold down a financially sound job. It is not that they need to find more work but want to work more. Though there are many who are moonlighting due to the force of circumstances and because they need to meet 182

Work tends to offer an illusory sense of control in a world which often seems to be spiralling out of control. some financial obligations. Ella Thompson, 55, a person who has been routinely holding down two to three jobs the last decade or so, says circumstances forced her to enter the workforce after a long break of 15 years. She was a part of overemployed before it even became a concept. “I was an editor with a media company and used to work the night shift for another media company that operated in a different time zone. It was hectic but still do-

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able, and most importantly met my financial needs.”

But she stresses that it was possible because of the remote work concept, and her job was such that it allowed a remote operation.

It is a fact that white-collar jobs allow one to operate on the remote model. An Office for National Statistics survey found that home working was done

The capitalism of platforms is skewed in favor of the rich and comfortable here also.

mostly by managers and senior professional staff. Compared to that, less than 10 percent of blue-collar workers such as cleaners or factory workers had that option. Lower-wage jobs are less open to remote work.

They are more surveillancedriven.

As Jones points out, the capitalism of platforms is skewed in favor of the rich and comfortable here also.

Overemployment is more conducive to people who are already holding down a fairly well-paid job, whereas the lower-waged people and those who need the extra income are unable to exercise the option due to their job descriptions.

The labor market is going to become increasingly polarized between the over and the underemployed in the digital era too if the people in charge do not take cognizance of the disparity in the labor market and bring about policy changes beneficial to all.

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Learning & Development’s Role in Operational Efficiencies in 2022 By: Diana Coker The last two years have been traumatic and overwhelming for the whole world. The Pandemic changed the way the world functioned in many ways. We expected 2021 to ease things 186

a bit, but the resurgence of variants of the virus put paid to any plans of return to normalcy.

And as the Omicron variant spreads across the globe, all

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Leaders have an essential role to play in developing solutions to tackle these challenges.

plans for a complete return to the office is anyone’s guess.

Learning and Development (L&D) teams of companies are working overtime to figure out ways to keep the organizations functioning in these difficult times.

to the Pandemic. In addition, the L&D teams helped companies transition to wide-scale digitization and mobilization of processes and upskilling and training staff to get their jobs done, regardless of where and how they were placed.

In fact, it were bringing about wider acceptance of innovative measures, processes and strategies, including reimagining how employees learn to work in a digitized world. Training Industry research found that over half of L&D professionals have retooled or repurposed learning programs in response

Here we bring you a few learning and development trends for 2022 to help companies introduce impactful and efficient training programs.

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Training Remote Managers According to Mckinsey & Company, “Leaders have an essential role to play in developing solutions to tackle these challenges.” Managers will increasingly need to take up more innovative roles to manage disparate and dispersed teams.

They will need further training in measuring the performance and engagement of a remote workforce.

Learn to address the lacuna observed in the preceding year and align the organization’s needs with that of the employees and the organization’s shifts in policies.

Reset expectations in a remote team environment.

Learn how to support colleagues and be flexible with them to enable success.

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Working with a hybrid workforce The Pandemic forced almost all organizations to transition to work from home, but with the waning of the disease, the solutions being thrown up were a

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president at Gartner. The firm’s researchers have also found that “48% of employees will likely work remotely at least part of the time after Covid-19 versus 30% before the pandemic.”

Companies are becoming more flexible about their workweek and are open to some of the workforce working offsite, a kind of rotational shift where teams can meet onsite some days.

mix of in-office and off-site work weeks. “Our research finds that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure,” writes Brian Kropp, distinguished vice

As of June 2021, according to Quantum Workplace, 30% of employees considered themselves hybrid employees and 35% of employees reported working remotely.

These numbers are supposed to increase in the coming year and will be challenging for team leaders and managers.

Imparting training in such a scenario will be difficult in terms of platform/device compatibility, Internet connectivity, employee distraction/focus, fixing rotas and time management.

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Training modules will be hybrid According to Training magazine’s 2020 Training Industry Report most respondents (54%) indicated that they plan to return to some classroom training postpandemic while maintaining some remote learning instituted during the crisis. Another 12% said they plan to return to classroom training as usual once the Pandemic is over.

based training can actually cost much less to develop than interactive eLearning content. In addition, later, live interactions and training in a real classroom can be used as training material.

Moreover, employees are increasingly doing self-learning with the availability of YouTube videos, massive open learning courses (MOOCs), and other resources. Fosway Group reports that in 2020, there was a 71%

What has become clear now is that the days of classroom training are over, and online learning is here to stay. Before the Pandemic, people were still debating the pros and cons of online training and learning, but the Pandemic has shown that it can be done online. It is feasible and a good cost-effective alternative. It makes training and learning more accessible.

With higher participation rates and fewer distractions, classroom190

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increase in demand for digital learning.

Handling a Liquid workforce of contractors and freelancers The labor market is skewed in favor of the employee. The great resignation and refusal to compromise on compensation and health have led to a scramble

to retain and acquire new talent.

Freelancing and consulting have become more popular options.

Many organizations also have a talent pool that includes a high proportion of part-time employees. The new year will see more companies relying on consultants and contractors to fill in the talent gap.

L&D teams will have to gear up to meet the needs of these new professionals. Companies will

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have to develop new compliance norms, training material and such. With workers being parttime or contractual, it will become imperative to protect company resources. Organizations must have rigorous contracting and onboarding processes in place for their liquid workers.

Intelligence and data analytics.

L&D teams can use AI to create personalized learning programs for their employees based on their job profile and previous skills assessments. The AI tool can deliver recommendations and entire curriculums so that employees can focus on learning.

Additionally, the same talent pool can become a good source of creating training material in their field of expertise. It’s also important for leaders to train their learning teams and keep or create investments in remote learning technologies and tools.

In the year ahead, it appears likely that AI will become more deeply embedded into many different forms of learning technology. In his HR Predictions for 2022 Report, Josh Bersin says, emerging metaverse technology and innovations will continue to revolutionize virtual learning experiences.

Employee Learning Experience With the workforce becoming more diverse and hybrid, organizational leaders in many industries need to tailor the employee learning experience accordingly. This begins with training for gig workers and focusing on soft skills, data literacy, including Artificial 192

Accreditation for Corporate Learning Companies are very aware of their brand image as employers.

Creating a positive image to attract prospective talent is a part of advertising, marketing, and social media promotions.

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With the workforce becoming more diverse and hybrid, organizational leaders in many industries need to tailor the employee learning experience accordingly.

As part of this image building, some training and development teams are strengthening their courses by partnering with industry experts and associations for accreditation and wider recognition. Such partnerships can provide endorsement for the brand. The co-branding the employees can acquire respectable credentials to their names, which can be helpful for future movement and opportunities.

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Operations Before Experiences The Pandemic has pivoted the role of the teams. They need to now develop learning programs aligned with the organization, measure learning outcomes against business performance, and overall build a robust and mature learning ecosystem.

Along with the new needs, the L&D teams are also learning

L&D teams can use AI to create personalized learning programs for their employees based on their job profile and previous skills assessments.

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where they have fallen short in the previous years.

In a recent research published in ATD by Robyn Defelice, “How long does it take to create one hour of training?’, the author asked respondents about the barriers to creating training faster. The top answer, given by 67% of respondents, was limited resources. This included budget,

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staff, and time. So it is important for organizations to find ways to use the resources they do have as efficiently as possible. That includes focusing on processes, technology and judicious use of resources.

LearnOps LearnOps is the new optimal learning process that L&D creates

with more effective training materials. It’s about handling operational inefficiencies across people, processes, and technology to produce better outcomes. LearnOps uses data, analytics, and technology to manage learning processes.

It allows a company to create value across teams throughout the learning development lifecycle.

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Some benefits of LearnOps include: Reducing friction among project stakeholders Clearer and transparent resource use Improved learner experiences and more demonstrable ROI throughout the business

Diversity and Inclusion Remote work has increased the stresses of managing work-life balance. Taking care of the health and wellness aspect of employees has become an important part of the learning and development processes.

HR and L&D professionals will also have to see that a more diverse workforce is treated fairly —from recruiting to offboarding —regardless of race or ethnicity, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, background, 196

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L&D trends in 2022 are all geared towards building more resourceful and productive teams that can add to the bottomline of organizations.

age, or age culture. Diversity and unconscious bias training will become increasingly intrinsic for companies.

Whether it is tech-related trends, further adaptation to hybrid work environments, or a focus on operational efficiency, L&D trends in 2022 are all geared towards building more resourceful and productive teams that can add to the bottomline of organizations.

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