HRD Live Podcast

Are HR and People leaders the guardians of the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in the workplace? The answer, according to Aviva Chief People Officer Danielle Harmer and ChenMed Chief Learning Officer, is yes. The inherent connection between AI and people mandates HR leaders to support, develop, and upskill their colleagues.

Harmer and Lind are the latest HRD Live podcast guests for the Future of Work series and agree that HR’s responsibility is to consider and nurture the skills of its future workforce, including AI capabilities. In this episode, we cover how and why organizations can drive the best business outcomes through AI by carefully supporting their people through upskilling and clear communication.

“People create technology,” begins Harmer. “People lead the people… …you need people with the skills to build digital journeys for customers or colleagues.”

Lind echoes this sentiment: “Even with large language models… …it’s all built with people. People were the ones behind it.” Both leaders are acknowledging that all too often, organizations portray AI as ‘fairy dust’ that overpromises when people are not given the skills they need to work alongside the technology.

Neglecting the relationship between AI and People and the implications this has for skills development constrains the impact of AI on business outcomes; or, as Harmer describes it, “a chatbot circular hell.”

This reality is already facing organizations that have rushed into AI implementation without taking the necessary time to plan what it means for their people. Lind, taking an optimistic view, sees this as an opportunity for HR: “There is an opportunity, if we’re as familiar with the technology as we possibly can be, to be almost trilingual…being able to speak the business language and technology language, but then also bringing the human experience lens to it.”

Aviva is already seeing the benefits of a people-centric and considered approach to AI implementation. Its learning community, ‘The Aviva Foundry,’ is designed to equip employees with the skills they need to thrive in a digital world of work. “There is no magic cupboard somewhere of people with digital skills,” explains Harmer. “You need to equip them with some of the technical skills. And so, we set up the Foundry to do that.”

In July 2023, the first graduate of The Aviva Foundry, formerly in the customer experience team, became a software engineer. “It’s her dream job, and it’s what she always wanted to do,” adds Harmer. Moreover, this employee is now solving business-critical technical problems.

Harmer’s story emphasizes the importance of the human side to AI implementation. Lind draws on the story, and his own experience within healthcare: “There’s an emotional side of this to help people understand. We didn’t hire you to do these tasks. That’s not what you bring to the table. But let us help you see beyond the tasks.”

Focusing on the connection between AI and people, and taking a human-centric approach to reskilling, is critical. “We’re dealing with people, and people aren’t robots. We can’t just deprogram them and reprogram them to do something else,” explains Lind.

Harmer goes on to highlight the need for organizations and HR teams to be realistic and reassuring during times of change and digital transformation. “We’re focusing heavily at Aviva on saying, ‘We’ve got the people we need; we know where jobs are heading.’ All we need to do is give the skills to our people.”

Aviva begins this process by developing a thorough skills architecture to compare technical and non-technical roles and assess the similarity and transferability of skills. The people team then positions itself to communicate exactly how it is prepared to invest in its people’s development.

Lind agrees that this approach is the most beneficial to an organization and its people. “Have some of those open and honest conversations with your employees,” he says. “Bring them along for a ride and give them a choice.” Trusting employees and inviting them into the conversation about skills adjacencies ensures those who take part in upskilling and reskilling are not just able, but also willing.

Tune into the full HRD Live episode to hear Harmer and Lind discuss the importance of workforce planning and break down further examples from Aviva and ChenMed about the connection between AI and People.

00:09 – Are HR leaders the guardians in navigating the challenges and opportunities presented by technologies such as AI?

08:00 – Danny, Aviva has made lots of progress by introducing learning academies and data fluency programs – can you share more about the progress you have made?

09:48 – Chris, how would you describe the journey that you’ve been on with upskilling and preparing employees for a future where hopefully they’re using AI?

18:29 – How do we get people to a point where they’re excited, rather than anxious, about AI?

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Danielle is Chief People Officer at Aviva, leading its global People and Culture strategy. She is passionate about supporting its people and keeping things simple. Before joining Aviva, Danny was the Chief People Officer at Metro Bank for over seven years and previously held a variety of roles in HR and business leadership at Halifax, HBOS, Lloyds Banking Group, and Barclays. She was recognized as one of HR Magazine’s ‘Most Influential Practitioners’ from 2016-2022.

Chris Lind is Chief Learning Officer at ChenMed. He is a globally recognized, digital-first leader in learning and workplace technology, living at the intersection of business, technology, and the human experience. He is the author of Relentless Intention and host of Learning Tech Talks.

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Positioning leaders as infallible, flawless, and without struggle does not make sense in a rapidly changing world. The future of work is as uncertain and complex as our current volatile work landscape and requires organizations to re-evaluate the role and nature of their leaders. HR and People leaders must now push against the stereotype of traditional leadership. Instead, they should position themselves and train fellow business leaders to embrace vulnerability.

Futurist and author Jacob Morgan is a strong advocate for leading with vulnerability. In the latest HRD Live Podcast episode, we discuss the need for vulnerable leaders and the role HR must play in championing vulnerability both now and in the future.

Whether your organization is struggling with the tough business landscape, or thriving in ‘the new normal,’ all leaders are navigating a constantly changing landscape. Morgan argues this becomes impossible without ideas, advice, and recommendations from your people. By projecting an all-knowing aura of confidence, leaders will miss the advice and insights from employees working on the ground floor.

“If there’s one thing we all know, it’s that leaders today, and you could argue ever, don’t know everything.

“If you want to rely on the collective intelligence and wisdom of your people, [vulnerability] is the only way you’re going to be able to get that out of them.”

Without vulnerability, Morgan argues leaders risk creating organizations that stifle growth, engagement, innovation, and productivity: “You’re going to be doomed for failure.”

Leading with vulnerability creates a working environment where HR leaders can engage in a closer relationship with their workforce. It gives employees the room to co-create strategy around the employee experience in a volatile work landscape. But HR leaders also have an obligation to facilitate leadership development and champion vulnerability across the business. “The best thing you can do is lead with example,” Morgan explains. “As with anything, if you want to encourage those around you to lead with vulnerability, it starts with you.”

Whilst companies expect their employees to be more innovative and challenge conventions, this is not possible if people do not feel safe to do so. Having surveyed over 14,000 employees across the world, at levels of seniority, Morgan reveals the biggest barrier to vulnerability:

“The number one response that we got back by far from everybody is ‘I don’t want to be perceived as being weak or incompetent.’ In other words, leaders, and employees across all levels, are not willing to talk about mistakes, failures, challenges, or anything that opens themselves up to emotional exposure. They’re worried that the people around them are going to think that they are not good enough.”

Morgan also offers advice for HR leaders seeking to model vulnerability:

“If you want others to lead with vulnerability, it’s going to start with you as a leader. You are going to have to open up. You can certainly talk about your mistakes and failures and what you’ve learned from them, and you can talk about some of the challenges or struggles you’re facing and how you’re trying to overcome them.”

Listen to the full episode to hear Jacob Morgan’s full analysis of the need for vulnerable leaders and pioneering frameworks including the vulnerable leader equation and the vulnerability loop.

00:09 – Introduction

00:45 – How do you differentiate between being vulnerable and leading with vulnerability?

04:44 – How does vulnerability help HR leaders lead to navigate through this ongoing and tricky period of change?

07:21 – As we look to the future of work, when might vulnerability not be a good thing?

11:24 – As HR and people leaders, our audience will need to train fellow business leaders on the attributes of vulnerability. How can they teach people to lead with vulnerability?

12:47 – What barriers are there that might keep people from leading with vulnerability at work?

18:41 – Why bother to lead with vulnerability? There are plenty of leaders out there who don’t do this who appear to be quite successful!

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Jacob Morgan is an international best-selling author, keynote speaker, and professionally trained futurist. Jacob’s work has been endorsed by the CEOs of Mastercard, Best Buy, Unilever, The Ritz Carlton, Nestle, Cisco, Audi, and many others. He has a popular podcast called Great Leadership With Jacob Morgan. Jacob lives in Los Angeles with his wife, two kids, and two Yorkie rescue dogs. He is releasing a fifth book, Leading With Vulnerability, in October.

The post Jacob Morgan: The future of work needs leaders with vulnerability appeared first on HRD.

As we dive headlong into a future of work characterized by rapid change and ongoing business transformation, are traditional and transactional change management models still fit for purpose? Existing practices no longer keep up with the pace of change. New models such as Michael Arena’s network approach are gaining popularity.

In a new era of AI-enabled transformation and heightened employee expectations placing higher expectations on HR leaders, progressive change management initiatives are now a business imperative.

UC Faculty member and change management expert Alex Budak, and Ford Motor Company Chief Talent Officer Chris Yates, join the HRD Live podcast to advocate for a greater emphasis on strategic change initiatives that will engage and retain employees during a time of unprecedented change.

Digital transformation is widespread across every industry and business model. “From the executive level down, they’re having to learn new skills and mindsets,” explains Yates. Employees previously experienced periods of change followed by time to rest and re-calibrate.

Now, change is a continuous process. Basic human fight or flight behavior dictates it’s better to be conscious of where dangers lie. When change is continuous, it creates sustained stress that quickly leads to burnout.

Budak echoes Yates’ analysis by introducing Martec’s Law, which proposes that whilst technology changes exponentially, organizations and teams grow much more slowly.

Accordingly, HR leaders must strive bridge to bridge an ever-increasing gap. To best do so, organizations must shift their focus away from transactional change management strategies to strategic change initiatives.

Budak draws on an analysis from Patti Sanchez to emphasize the need for empathy in strategic management processes.

“50% of C-suit executives, when they leave change, don’t take into account how change will be perceived by people on the frontlines,” he explains. “It’s not just about coming up with the right strategy, it’s also about seeing people where they are, empathizing with them, and being able to generate ideas from there.”

Yates reiterates the importance of communication throughout strategic change initiatives. Whilst transactional change models very rarely involve co-creation and feedback cycles, effective leadership requires creating space and time to speak with people. “We have to be more intentional,” he argues. “I’m busy doing all of this transformational work, as we all are, and yet, to be an effective leader at this time, I’ve actually got to spend more of my time talking to people and checking in with people.”

Budak and Yates agree that this approach retains many of the fundamental principles of traditional change management practices. “Chris is pointing out some of the classic research by John Kotter around making sure you communicate the vision over and over and over,” explains Budak. He continues:

“I’ve seen a lot of executives that communicate something once. We’re finding that people need to be approached in many different ways. As leaders and HR leaders, we need to communicate to people in a way that’ true to hear they are.

“You’ve got to be consistently repeating messages and finding different ways to reach people.”

Whilst traditional change management processes such as Kotter’s eight-step model require modern adaption and application, the fundamentals remain the same.

Tune in to the full episode to hear more analysis from Chris Yates and Alex Budak on adapting and applying fundamental change management principles to a new era of chaos and disruption, from navigating employee fatigue to co-creating change strategy.

00:09 – Introduction

01:17 – How is the digital age accelerating the rate of change at work?

05:35 – And how has this impacted the role HR leaders play in effectively managing change in the era of transparency and heightened employee expectations?

10:06 – In a fast-paced marketplace, why is it crucial for organizations to shift their focus from transactional approaches to change management and place greater emphasis on strategic change initiatives?

13:19 – How can organizations provide the necessary support, energy, and growth opportunities to engage and retain employees during times of change? With such high levels of change fatigue, is it best to prioritize and pause certain initiatives?

16:30 – What strategies and best practices can organizations employ to actively involve employees in decision-making and idea generation as part of change management initiatives?

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Alex Budak is a UC Berkeley faculty member, social entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He teaches, speaks, and writes to make change less scary, leadership more accessible, and impact more inclusive. His book, Becoming a Changemaker, has been endorsed by Nobel Prize winners, Olympic athletes, and most meaningful of all—his former students who are using these ideas to change the world.

Chris Yates serves as the Chief Talent Office for Ford Motor Company and has led Values Based Leadership efforts in several organizations, including Caterpillar and Microsoft. His diverse range of experience also includes founding Ethical Organizational Design, a consulting organization in the UK that promotes ethical values in business and beyond. Chris has co-authored two books, “Rewire: A Radical Approach to Tackling Diversity and Difference”, and “Share: How Organizations Can Thrive in an Age of Networked Knowledge, Power, and Relationships”.

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“Your future of work strategy is your DEI&B strategy,” argues Shujaat Ahmad, Director of People Analytics and Future of Work Strategy and Innovation at LinkedIn. Creating unity in these strategies requires data-driven future of work planning.

Ahmad is joined on the HRD Live Podcast by Karthik Varatharaj, Global Chief Talent Officer at Levi Strauss & Co, for an in-depth discussion on using data to guarantee an equitable and inclusive future of work.

To begin designing an inclusive future of work strategy, Ahmad argues you must ask why. “For a lot of companies, they’re doing it because it’s good for the business,” he states. “It’s either good from a customer’s perspective or it’s good because they want to retain and attract talent.”

Data insights then offer the route and guidance for achieving this goal. Monitoring progress keeps you on course and nudges you to course correct where necessary. Simply put, if you wish to create an inclusive future of work, “You cannot do this without being able to measure and iterate along the way.”

Echoing this perspective, Varatharaj confirms Levi Strauss & Co.’s future of work strategy is a natural outcome of its DEI&B strategy. “Data and insights reinforce, validate, and give us signals as to where we should be targeting our efforts, he notes.”

“The data we picked up from listening surveys and external benchmarking has truly helped us create a practical framework that is, supportive of the diversity of our employee base, not just in the US, but globally.”

As a values-driven organization, Levi Strauss & Co. leads with a ‘profit through principles’ approach. But, with limited budgets for investment, there is always a trade-off when investing in strategies and policies that will drive impact and rally the organization. Varatharaj emphasizes the role managers play at these crucial inflection points.

“A core piece of what we’ve done at Levi Strauss and Co is manager empowerment. Having managers and empowering them to have agency over how they make decisions, and encouraging them to lean into flexibility, empathy, and psychological safety.

“We set a central strategy and framework, and we allow managers the power to play within that framework to make decisions that best work for them. And it’s been really successful so far.”

Ahmad underpinned this argument with an analysis of data-driven DEI&B.

“In the DEI&B world, there are two levels. You go to the abstract level, where we start at the top, look at data, and understand where sentiments are and what’s working for different populations.

“But the action has to be coupled with a more grounded approach where employee resource groups come into play. In the culture of storytelling, managers learn from other managers, peer-to-peer learning is very strong.”

He argues by building stories that add texture to data and employee insights, managers buy into more grounded stories that foster a culture of inclusion.

Approaching an inclusive, data-driven future of work strategy requires an iterative, adaptive approach to strategic planning and execution. HR should empower managers to experiment and equip them with data to test and learn. Ahmad highlights sentiment data and behavioral data as two excellent data sources, alongside talent metrics, that allow organizations to innovate and myth-bust unsuccessful and harmful policies and practices.

Varatharaj also vies for this approach to strategic planning, highlighting the work at Levi Strauss and Co. He adds that an iterative and transparent approach to future of work planning can prepare employees for change.

“Employee sentiment is always going to be grounded in facts. But also, what’s happening on a macro level? Is there guidance from the CDC or other external benchmarking research bodies which inform the decision-making?

“Employees appreciate the transparency to understand why something is shifting, and to have the time to adequately adapt to it once things are rolled out. We take this iterative approach.”

Tune in to the full HRD Live Podcast episode to hear further examples of data-driven future of work planning at LinkedIn and Levi Strauss and Co, alongside analysis from Ahmad and Varatharaj on implementing data-led DEI&B planning at the executive level.

00:09 – Introduction

01:14 – What role do insights and data play in continuing to intertwine DEI&B strategy within future of work strategy?

05:15 – How can organizations meet people where they are when not everyone has the same vision for DEI&B and the Future of Work?

08:07 – What are some strategies for generating buy-in and engagement at the manager level?

12:39 – What about at the executive level? How can HR leaders influence executive decision-making based on DEI&B data insights?

16:14 – How would you recommend using data insights to innovate, test, execute, and prove future of work theories in practice?

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Karthik Varatharaj is the Global Chief Talent Officer at Levi Strauss & Co. He oversees all aspects of talent and culture, including acquisition, career development, and employee engagement, and has led and executed multiple global people transformation efforts spanning Retail, Financial Services, and Technology. Both in and out of the office, he strives to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that he does. 

Shujaat Ahmad is the Director of People Analytics and Future of Work Strategy and Innovation at LinkedIn. Shujaat is also the Global Co-Chair of Embrace ERG, a global LinkedIn employee resource group, and a guest lecturer at the Wharton School. He is an established trusted strategic advisor to global executive business and talent leadership. He focuses on myth-busting beliefs and influencing mindset change to align evidence-based talent strategy with business strategy and make people “the” enabler of competitive advantage.

The post Creating an inclusive, data-driven future of work: Lessons from LinkedIn and Levi’s appeared first on HRD.

The rapidly changing landscape for work is shifting the requirements for leaders at all levels of the business. The role of the CHRO is evolving to become more data-driven and strategic than ever before. HR leaders must seize a unique opportunity for greater strategic input, and to do so must develop their digital literacy. In the first episode of the HRD Live Podcast series on the Future of Work, we are joined by AI HR Chief Scientist for HR & OD, Dieter Veldsman, and former L’Oréal CHRO Stephane Charbonnier, to discuss the evolving CHRO skillset and the leadership learnings for current HR Leaders.

The role of the CHRO, argues Charbonnier, has become that of an orchestra conductor. “Not long ago, the head of HR had the role of an expert,” he explains. “The role of co-ordination, prepping for the future, and fostering greater collaboration in the company between different functions was the role of the CFO or CEO.”

CHROs and HR leaders are now responsible for this type of work: Co-ordinating dialogues, anticipating future challenges and becoming closer to the business. Veldsman builds on the metaphor, comparing the use of data to the sheet music a conductor draws from. “How do I connect the people data I am seeing to the priorities of the business?” he asks. “And how do I coordinate these different parts to bring the right conversations to the executive table?”

Veldsman emphasizes the need not just for driving data literacy as a part of an HR Leader’s skill set, but also to develop an evidence-based mindset; to stick closely to the sheet music to create a symphony of insight. By doing so, HR leaders can continue to change the expectations that surround HR and add further strategic value.

Both Charbonnier and Veldsman also have plenty of advice for developing the skillset and mindset detailed above. Charbonnier is keen to point out the need for curiosity. “Go and find out what’s happening outside of your company, throughout the industry,” he says.

“The key word is curiosity,” agrees Veldsman. “An openness to experimenting, finding new ways of thinking, and adopting new practices.” He emphasizes the need for today’s HR leaders to ask why they want this role, and what motivation sits behind their ambitions. This journey of self-discovery will help leaders to understand exactly what skills we get them to this role, from business acumen to data literacy.

Listen to the full episode to hear Charbonnier and Veldsman discuss the changing role of the CHRO, how HR leaders can develop data-driven productivity with human-centric and ethical work cultures, and much more.

00:10 – Introduction

01:12 – Stephane, how are you expecting the CHRO role to change in the next five years, and what are you doing to prepare?

03:03 – What influence will the shift to data-driven HR have on the CHRO role in the future?

09:15 – What steps can current HR Directors and VPs take to improve their overall digital literacy?

12:40 – Historically we have seen CHROs undervalued as strategic partners at the C-Suite level – does this statement still match reality?

16:34 – How can CHROs bridge the gap between data-driven decision-making and human-centric cultures, to build organizations that are productive, ethical, and sustainable?

21:41 – Are there any other future of work challenges or imperatives you think are important to note?

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Stephane Charbonnier was the CHRO at L’Oréal USA at the time of recording. Before joining L’Oréal in 2013, Stephane worked for more than two decades in key HR leadership positions at global organizations including PepsiCo, American Express, and McDonald’s in Europe and the United States.

Dieter Veldsman is Chief Scientist for HR & OD at AIHR. He has an extensive career in Work Psychology and Human Resource Management and more than 15+ years of experience working with organizations in EMEA, APAC, and LATAM, with over 5+ years at an Executive level. He speaks frequently at conferences and panels on strategic HR, OD, and the future of work.

The post Leadership learnings: How to upskill for the future of work appeared first on HRD.

DE&I programs desperately need a refreshed approach, argues Simon Fanshawe, OBE. “It’s become a set of prohibitions and rules,” he explains. It’s all about what you can’t say, or what you can’t do.”

Fanshawe argues the point of diversity and inclusion celebrate our differences. Whilst we attempt to walk in other people’s shoes, we will never fully understand their experiences. Diversity and inclusion programs should be a tool to prevent conformity. “What we have to be able to do is collaborate, and we only collaborate through our differences,” he explains.

In the final episode of the HRD Live podcast mini-series on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Fanshawe talks through some of the biggest misconceptions, mistakes, and consequences of ill-informed DE&I programs. We learn how HR leaders can focus on tackling deficits and communicating dividends to deliver a long-term solution to DE&I programs that avoids finger-pointing.

Fanshawe breaks down problematic language and behavior into three main categories: Careless, thoughtless, and malicious. For the most extreme case, malicious behavior, he argues organizations need to treat incidents carefully and with evidence to assess what happened.

Careless or thoughtless cases are “where our intentions and impact have a gap between them. It is inevitable,” he explains. Fanshawe argues DE&I programs shouldn’t (and can’t) try to stop these mistakes. Instead, they should “help people contribute and collaborate with each other at their best, so that we accept difference.”

Fanshawe believes it’s useful to think about diversity in terms of deficits and dividends. The deficits are the negative experiences of minoritized groups that we know have historically existed in the workplace. “To make progress on this, the first thing is to really understand what’s happening with those deficits,” he states. “So, don’t stop with the headlines.”

By this, Fanshawe means thoroughly researching deficits to understand whether it is a problem specific to your organization, or whether it’s an industry-wide issue your company may struggle to control and offers the example of engineering and white-male-dominated stem programs.

Having understood your deficits, Fanshawe goes to explain you will have a greater idea of the mechanisms that will unleash and celebrate your diverse talent.

Diversity dividends will depend on your objectives and how you bring people together to collaborate. He offers the example of a College English Department that needed help hiring an English from a location outside of the UK such as India, Nigeria, or the Caribbean. On the face of it, this may suggest a dividend of ethnic diversity. However, the Department was seeking cultural diversity, and making such a hire brought a necessary understanding of English Literature authors from such countries were publishing.

By following this model, Fanshawe argues organizations can develop a far more collaborative and celebratory approach to diversity and inclusion. He emphasizes the importance of understanding who and why you are bringing each individual into strategy conversations. “Think about what everyone is bringing differently into the achievement of the goals you’ve set yourself,” he says.

The vital step is to create spaces that are safe for disagreement, rather than safe from disagreement. By doing so, people can bring and celebrate their differences into conversations around talent or performance strategy, rather than fostering conformity.

Timestamps

00:07 – Introduction

00:55 – What are the biggest misconceptions about DE&I programs among HR directors?

04:10 – What are some potential unintended consequences of DE&I programs, such as employee resource groups (ERGs)?

08:42 – Once organizations have defined their DE&I goal, how can they go about creating and equipping their workforce to achieve it?

13:09 – How does this approach to DE&I programs help meet organizational or business goals?

16:32 – Why does this approach deliver a long-term solution to DE&I rather than reducing it to a set of rules, language, and finger-pointing?

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Simon Fanshawe is a writer, broadcaster, speaker, and non-executive director in the public and private sectors. He is a partner at Diversity by Design. He was a co-founder of the lesbian and gay equality lobby group Stonewall. Simon is also a co-founder of The Kaleidoscope Trust, the only British charity working exclusively on gay human rights worldwide.

To listen to more episodes of the HRD Live Podcast view our full archive on HRD Connect. Alternatively, listen and subscribe on Apple or Spotify!

The post Collaboration not conformity: Why DE&I programs must not be a set of rules appeared first on HRD.

The root word of allyship, explains Greenhouse Chief People Officer Donald Knight, is ‘All.’ “Allyship is, how are you inviting, engaging, championing, and empowering all people?” This slight difference in approach to allyship is hugely significant. It demands a continuous approach to inclusion, as Knight explains:

“Regardless of how much of a great ally we’ve been with one demographic or with one group, championing that group, or walking alongside that group, there’s still room for improvement for us to do those (things) for other groups as well.”

When Knight was an intern, he received the support and allyship of his then-CHRO, Kay Kennedy. Kennedy encouraged leaders from across the organization, including another future ally, Diane Harris, to reach out to Knight and encourage him to pursue a career in HR. Without the support of Kennedy and Harris, who pushed through his initial resistance to the HR profession, Knight acknowledges his life would have been very different.

Of course, not all HR leaders are like Kennedy and Harris. Many organizations struggle with the concept of allyship, and as a result, alienate minoritized workers. Knight points out some common pitfalls of people leaders. “They feel like there’s no room for improvement,” he notes. “That there’s nothing for them to learn since they’re surrounded by people.”

Demographics at a societal and organizational level are constantly changing. Employees constantly gain new information, perspectives, and skills. Accordingly, HR leaders must constantly seek new ways to engage and champion their people.

Equally, many organizations simply don’t know where to begin. Knight shares some typical concerns: “I don’t know how to connect with people from different backgrounds. I don’t know how to champion women.” Although fear is natural, Knight argues this does not absolve any leader of their responsibility. Instead, he suggests HR leaders seek out organizations that handle allyship well and learn the fundamentals of allyship habits, behaviors, and actions.

As someone who has both benefited from allyship and served as a powerful ally, Knight was able to share two simple examples of how to champion and support minoritized individuals in the workplace. “We have to make sure we don’t talk over people,” he begins. “But it doesn’t have to be something so philosophical. One easy example is men who talk over women on meetings. It’s not OK. An ally would call that out.”

By respectfully pointing out that someone was about to say something and has been talked over, an ally can quickly implement a ‘micro-improvement,’ Knight’s solution to micro-aggressions.

He offers another example of a micro-improvement. “What I like to do at the end of my meetings is to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to do a round robin to make sure we got everybody’s perspective,’” he explains. This ensures everyone present hasthe opportunity to share their voice.

When HR and business leaders miss these opportunities for micro-improvements and allyship, Knight emphasizes the organization-wide impact it can have.

“We recognize diversity drives creativity, creativity drives innovation, innovation drives revenue, and revenue drives profit. Well, if you don’t have that diverse voice in there, you’re stifling your innovation, you’re stifling your creativity, and thusly, you will see it adversely impact the balance sheet.

Listen to the full episode to hear Knight’s perspectives on measuring progression, bringing the gap between allyship expectations and reality, and sustaining allyship initiatives into the long term.

00:09 – Introduction

00:59 – How do you define ‘Allyship,’ and why does it not mean we all have to view things the same way?

02:15 – Can you share a time when you felt you had the support of an ally? What can HR learn from it?

05:36 – What common barriers does HR face when encouraging employees to become an ally?

07:56 – What structures, training, or practices can you recommend to make allyship a more tangible practice?

10:00 – How does a lack of allyship negatively impact organizations?

11:45 – We know that allies are not always as effective as they think. What can HR do to remove this gap between expectation and reality?

13:54 – How can HR leaders measure progression in a more abstract concept like allyship, to ensure intentions are matched with actions?

14:14 – How can HR leaders ensure that their efforts to promote allyship are sustained over the long term?

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Donald Knight is the Chief People Officer at Greenhouse. He is a commercially focused HR Leader with a proven record of driving financial results, business growth, and asset value through the development and delivery of people strategies. He has lived and worked abroad and excels in finding and optimizing talent on a global level.

To listen to more episodes of the HRD Live Podcast view our full archive on HRD Connect. Alternatively, listen and subscribe on Apple or Spotify!

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From HR thought leadership to Hollywood Press, the consistent message is that diversity, on its own, is not enough. True equity, inclusion, and belonging extend far beyond token diversity gestures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS), the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics, shares this view.

Quite literally emphasizing ‘inclusion,’ Philippa Bonay, People & Business Services Director for the ONS rephrases DE&I as inclusion and diversity. But what is the significance of this semantic switch? And how does the UK’s recognized statistical institute use data to keep accountable with inclusion objectives?

In the latest HRD Live Podcast episode in our mini-series on inclusion and diversity, we discover how the ONS has created dashboards to meet inclusion objectives, and why focusing solely on diversity is simply not good enough.

“It feels like a small change. But actually, it’s really important,” explains Bonay, referencing the switch in language from DE&I to inclusion and diversity.

“If you don’t feel included, and we don’t make sure that everybody feels included, then it doesn’t really matter if we have lots of diversity because we’re not creating an environment for everybody to thrive.”

Inclusion is invisible to those who enjoy it, and painful to those who are excluded from it. Without inclusion, all the benefits diversity promises – creativity, innovation, productivity – fly out of the window. It can even result in greater conflict. Accordingly, organizations and HR leaders must embed inclusion as an instinct.

Bonay recommends several steps HR leaders can take to ensure they embed inclusion within the DNA of their organization. “The first is to have a really clear plan that supports the business strategy,” she notes. At the ONS, this means applying an inclusive lens to all outputs and statistics it produces for the UK. “Then it is about how we behave within the organization,” explains Bonay.

Feeding into this is the need for high-quality quantitative and qualitative data. This data is needed to take data-informed decisions, but also to measure how decisions impact the performance of DEI&B metrics. This approach allows HR teams to track whether their inclusion strategy is operationalized across all areas of the employee experience, including reward and recognition, recruitment, onboarding, office equipment, technology, and beyond.

“In HR, we set the support. We set the tone and a vision. But then, the important thing is devolving it to the wider business. We should be encouraging affinity groups and senior leaders to be role models. Inclusion, interesting, is the one thing that is most susceptible to team behaviors.”

Bonay oversaw the introduction of an inclusion, culture, and wellbeing dashboard at the ONS in 2022. As a data-driven organization, this may not be entirely unexpected. However, this dashboard has become a one-stop shop for senior leaders of the ONS. It allows them to have the information they need on inclusion, culture, and well-being to drive improvements at a local level. “The ICW dashboard moves us from looking purely at diversity data to insightful inclusion data because it looks across the employee lifecycle,” explains Bonay.

The metrics covered on the dashboard include attraction, retention, attrition, promotion, reward, recognition, and engagement: “We can see the story of our colleague’s life experience with us.”

This story creates a compelling narrative for action that feeds practical support to specific teams, each with its own improvements around inclusion. Senior leaders meet with the CEO and Deputy CEO every six months to discuss the data for their team and actions taken since the last session. The focus is on what the data showed six months ago, what actions they took, and what differences they have seen in the data since the actions were taken. By making senior leaders responsible for their data, they have become more curious about what’s going on and more willing to take action based on the insights gained.

00:09 – Introduction

00:54 – Why do you focus on ‘inclusion and diversity’ rather than DE&I?

03:40 – What are other practical ways to ensure inclusion is the outcome?

07:22 – What is an “inclusion culture and wellbeing dashboard,” and how has it helped ONS to improve inclusion?

09:58 – How does this data-driven or data-informed approach help to keep you consistently accountable?

13:29 – Why is important to be relentless about improving inclusion, and why would focusing solely on diversity not be enough?

14:58 – What are some areas you’re looking to improve on in 2023 and beyond?

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Philippa Bonay is the People & Business Services Director for the ONS. Here, she is responsible for human resources, estates, facilities management, H&S, business services, and the customer contact center. She is also the HR Director for the Government Analysis Function and the Government Statistical Service, and a member of the Civil Service HR Function Board. Philippa has extensive experience across the whole HR remit, infrastructure, commercial and business services in both the private and public sectors.

To listen to more episodes of the HRD Live Podcast view our full archive on HRD Connect. Alternatively, listen and subscribe on Apple or Spotify!

The post Inclusion and diversity, not DE&I? appeared first on HRD.

The diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) landscape has evolved significantly in the past five years, accelerated by culturally significant moments such as the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Vitally, DEI&B is now seen as a strategic business driver rather than simply ‘the right thing to do.’ This shift is embodied by a richer view of inclusion and belonging that supports organizations in the markets they serve, alongside the people they employ.

Heather E. McGowan, future of work strategist and author of The Empathy Advantage, is the latest guest on the HRD Live Podcast. In this episode, we examine the rapidly changing work environment. McGowan offers advice on how organizations can keep up to speed by taking a more textured approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.

The way employees and organizations view DEI&B is changing. Beyond being seen as a strategic business driver, diversity is expanding beyond ever-important groups including culture, race, and diversity. Neurodiversity and social mobility are now added lenses that HR leaders must consider. People leaders, argues McGowan, must be leading the charge:

“How do we integrate capabilities like neurodiversity into a team? It’s not something we can solve by hiring someone with a certain profile. It’s, how do you hire them? What kind of jobs should they be doing? What’s their superpower?”

“It’s a matter of helping all of us play to our strengths. And recognize that the strengths don’t come in any one uniform package. They never did.”

The terminology around diversity has evolved with the shift in employee expectations. Historically, diversity meant hiring underrepresented groups. Equity and inclusion followed to help these groups become successful and to create an environment where everyone feels included. DE&I leaders now incorporate belonging. McGowan describes this as “A feeling of psychological safety. It’s a feeling of trust.”

This creates an environment where employees do not self-censor and instead bring their full selves to work. Crucially, they feel safe and encouraged to use their voice whether that is in agreement or dissent.

To create belonging in the workplace, McGowan emphasizes the need for third-party support input: “It’s got to be done by a third party. It encourages people to tell you what they really think.”

Without the safety net of anonymity, employees become far more comfortable to point out the areas where their employers are falling short. A lack of understanding about attitudes across all demographics means organizations lose sight of what matters to their employees and customers.

Moreover, DEI&B helps to establish a culture of learning. “If you want your folks to be vulnerable enough to learn and adapt, you have to provide that psychological safety,” explains McGowan.

McGowan also shares some quick wins for addressing social mobility. “Do we really need to put the degree out there as a barrier? Because that is a barrier as a social mobility binary. Can we reach out and look at somebody who hasn’t had this experience but could train and develop to succeed in this area?”

But whilst leading organizations are increasingly ditching degree-based hiring, McGowan argues this alone is not enough.

“This has been a big problem in DEI&B. Whether it’s race, culture-based or socio-economic, we hire people because they fit a DE&I profile but may be thinner on the experience than another candidate.

“But if we don’t put the support in place for them to be successful, we’ll see that it didn’t work. We hired a diverse candidate, and they failed to perform well. We didn’t put the structure in place. So, you have to help folks be successful whatever their profile is.”

Staring into the headlights of a labor shortage in nearly every sector, McGowan emphasizes the need to partner with your workforce. “You want the inside of your company to look like the market you serve. And that is increasingly diverse across sexual orientation, race, culture, and gender. And if you look at Gen Z, they are the most educated generation we’ve ever had here in the US.”

“They’re also the most diverse, and they’re the most insistent in their opinions. They’re not checking their opinions at the door. They want to work for a company that believes what they believe.”

00:08 – Introduction

01:00 – How has the concept of DEI&B evolved over the years and why is it now seen as a strategic business driver?

01:38 – In what ways do you think this influenced the changing role of the leader?

03:21 – Could you define the term “belonging” in the context of DEI&B, why it matters, and how it can be measured?

06:16 – Can you provide some examples of how organizations are incorporating sexual orientation, gender identity, age diversity, and neurodiversity into their DEI&B strategies?

08:30 – How do social class and mobility factor into DEI&B, and what steps can organizations take to address these issues?

11:27 – Why is it important to include those other aspects of diversity for a more textured view of DEI&B in 2023 and beyond?

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Heather E. McGowan is one of the leading voices on the Future of Work. Her two most recent books on the Future of Work are The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go and Learn Fast to Thrive in the Future of Work (Wiley, 2020) and The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce (Wiley, 2023). Heather gives people the courage and insight that illuminates their path forward.

The post Future-focused DEI&B: Belonging in the future of work appeared first on HRD.

Organizations can no longer ignore anti-racism imperatives. Firstly, and most importantly, all people in the workplace deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Although this is far from a ground-breaking concept, business leaders and employees from historically ignored or minoritized backgrounds still require support as they navigate their roles.

Moreover, there is a business case for establishing an intentional anti-racism agenda. Tackling racism and establishing equity has the power to lower attrition rates and drive innovation. With shifting expectations, particularly among Gen Z and millennial demographics, a failure to do so compromises an organization’s ability to attract talent.

Kim Crowder is the latest guest on the HRD Live Podcast. In this episode, we dive deeper into the need to establish equity, how HR and business leaders can develop cultural fluency, and why anti-racism is a vital part of your people strategy.

Crowder is a firm believer in equity as the future of work. She offers the example of Gen Z, who expect equity at every stage of the employee lifecycle, including the job application process.

“We know that their expectations are higher than past generations. Particularly around equity in the workplace… …we are seeing that Gen Z’s are not applying to jobs that do not have salary requirements.”

In short, the employment market is shifting. Crowder emphasizes that for organizations to stay relevant and attract the right talent, they must become intentional about equity through means such as intentional anti-racism. “People feel extremely empowered to be vocal about their workplaces,” she observes. Whether it be a union forming at an Amazon Warehouse on Staten Island, or a wave of strikes across the UK, people are documenting their retaliation to issues in the workplace more emphatically than ever before.

“As leadership and organizations are thinking about their workplace culture – not just culture at that surface level, but really looking at their processes and systems – people are pushing back. People understand what real equity looks like.”

To establish workplace equity and develop a comprehensive anti-racism policy, HR leaders must develop cultural fluency both themselves and among their peers. “It’s the ability to see, understand, and value someone else’s cultural experiences and cultural perspectives,” explains Crowder. “We automatically ask folks to come into the workplace and change to fit the workplace.”

To shift this approach, HR leaders must work on their cultural humility. In practice, this means accepting you don’t know everything and that the way you – or your organization – do things is not the only right way to do it. “If we can find humility, it guides us into cultural competency,” argues Crowder.

An important step is coupling internal reflection with an external assessment. An objective and third-party view give a more detailed and accurate picture of where your organization is failing with its anti-racism strategy. This should guide further steps at the organization, leadership, divisional, and organizational level.

It will likely involve learning and development, both to highlight historical context about racial inequality, alongside practical applications of cultural fluency in the workplace. It may also shed light on policies that are systemically disadvantaging employees based on race. “Maybe your promotions practices, or the ways people get assigned projects,” offers Crowder. Customized coaching and training alongside policy change not only humanize the workforce but influence outcomes through process-level transformation.

00:10 – Introduction

00:58 – Why is it so important for organizations to be absolutely intentional about anti-Racism?

02:15 – How should business leaders continue to embrace equity as the future of work?

05:57 – Why is it important to describe workplaces that fail as ‘abusive’ rather than ‘toxic’?

08:21 – What is cultural competency and why is it an important part of anti-Racism?

11:05 – What training and development shoulder leaders take to ensure they improve cultural fluency?

14:42 – How can organizations make structural changes to ensure this development (and anti-Racism) is an ongoing exercise?

15:19 – What are the most common pitfalls that lead to anti-Racism initiatives failing, and how can they be combatted?

17:29 – What does the future hold for organizations that fail to develop cultural competency?

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Kim Crowder is the Founder & CEO of Kim Crowder Consulting. She is one of the United States’ leading Anti-Racism, Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Speakers, Coaches, Trainers, and Consultants. Kim and her team work across industries serving U.S. and international markets.

The post Kim Crowder: Developing cultural fluency to establish workplace equity appeared first on HRD.