Next Practices Weekly

By i4cpBusiness Management

Next Practices Weekly episodes

January 19, 2023How is Mondelēz Getting Hybrid Work Right? With Richard Stone, VP of HR, Global Enabling Functions
On this episode, i4cp CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Richard Stone, VP of HR, Global Enabling Functions at Mondelēz International, a multinational confectionery, food, holding, and beverage and snack food company based in Chicago, Illinois. Here are some highlights:
Like many organizations, Mondelēz has a variety of types of employees. Many people who are on the frontline and worked on-site or in the field during and throughout the pandemic. For others, there was a shift to remote work, and now there is a shift to three types of approaches: returning fully to the office, continuing to work remotely, and a hybrid/flexible approach. For Mondelēz, this was a continuation and acceleration of a trend towards greater flexibility in such work arrangements.

For those who are and will be in hybrid roles in terms of work location, Mondelēz's approach is to give a lot of flexibility and discretion to the employee and their manager to work out the arrangement that is best for them and their team. Managers are expected to be very intentional and purposeful about when and why they have such employees come on-site -- Mondelēz does believe in the power of people being together to collaborate in person. But Mondelēz is not mandating a rigid, company-wide approach to hybrid such as X number of days in the office per week.

Mondelez emphasizes managers as role models for hybrid working, with the following expectations:
Truly role model hybrid working as such, with time spent in the office and remotely

Remove fear by creating psychological safety and space to talk openly with teams about expectations and concerns

Contract on key moments when the team will meet in the office (such as team meetings, meetings with senior management, company events, and peak times of the year such as AC planning or month closings)

Focus on positive reinforcement and encouragement (vs. one-size-fits-all mandates and requirements)

Reinforce the benefits and human connections that are taking place among team members in the office in team meetings

Avoid a two-tier system in which people working in the office more are valued and recognized more than those who choose to work more flexibly

At the Chicago HQ, Mondelez is providing breakfast and lunch options, improving parking, and doing other practical things, as a way to support employees coming into the office.

A lot of tools have been created, especially to support managers, including guides with templates and insights about how to manage in the hybrid work world. These guides are walked through with managers during workshops.
Mondelez's initiative called "The Right You" is focused on the holistic well-being of employees, with three core pillars of mind, body, and connection. It was started in Australia, expanded around Asia, and now has been rolled out globally. It pulls together all of their well-being-related resources, support, systems, etc. In particular, this initiative has helped to break the stigma around mental health issues that still exist, particularly in certain areas of the world.
53 min
January 19, 2023 DEI Next Practices with WM'S Commitments & Values with Shweta Kurvey-Mishra
WM is a leading comprehensive waste, and environmental services company that believes that defining diversity begins with inclusivity. Forty-six percent of WM’s workforce is racially diverse, and 18% is female. But the DE&I journey at WM goes much further than just racial, ethnic and gender diversity: There are also initiatives in place to increase diversity in veterans, LGBTQ, and disabled candidates.
Shweta Kurvey-Mishra, Vice President, Organization and Talent Development at WM, joins us for a wide-ranging discussion on embedding inclusion efforts into the business, overcoming diversity challenges, and fostering an inclusive, diverse and equitable environment that will be a movement, not a moment. Kurvey-Mishra will share how WM represents the diverse customers and communities that they serve, from the frontline employees to executive leadership.
59 min
January 19, 2023 Strategic HR Next Practices with Christine Deputy, Chief People Officer at Pinterest
Christine Deputy, Chief People Officer at Pinterest, shares her expertise and knowledge from many years of leading HR teams at Nordstrom, Barclays, and Starbucks. Previously, as the CHRO at Nordstrom, Christine supported over 70,000 employees, helping achieve pay equity and pay parity and bringing diversity, inclusion, and belonging into every part of the business.
“What attracted me to Pinterest was their mission of inspiration and passion for sharing creativity on the platform. Bringing this same experience to life for Pinterest’s 2,700 global employees and embracing diversity and inclusion across every aspect of the business will be a key part of my mission as Chief People Officer.”
About the 2022 Strategic HR Next Practices series
This gathering of like-minded human capital leaders shows the true power of peer collaboration and sharing of next practices to drive high performance. i4cp shares insightful research and features expert guests from some of the largest, most respected organizations in the world i.e. CHROs from Domino's to PwC.
To ensure open discussion, this event is exclusively for HR practitioners. Vendors and consultants are not permitted to attend.
58 min
January 19, 20232023 HR Priorities for U.S. Bank with Elcio Barcelos
On this episode, i4cp' s VP of Member Services, Mark Walker, and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone, facilitated a conversation with special guest Elcio Barcelos, Senior Executive Vice President and CHRO at US Bank. Here are some highlights from the call:
Barcelos joined US Bank as CHRO in 2020, several months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

His philosophy is that HR's purpose is not rooted in policies and procedures, but rather to enable business outcomes through talent.

To accomplish this, a major digital transformation was needed, mirroring the ongoing digital transformation that the entire organization has undergone (i.e., over 80% of transactions at the bank today are digital).

HR also needed to become more consultative with the business, and one focus area was on the role of HRBPs. They were given a new title, Talent Consultants, to better capture the strategic role they were going to play going forward. Significant upskilling, including in areas such as financial and business acumen, was provided so that those in this role could truly consult on all talent matters.

Barcelos shared the journey that US Bank has been on regarding their overall employee value proposition (EVP). This has included attention to various employee offerings, including a change to maternity leave as well as their approach to the minimum wage, first raising it to $18/hr and then $20/hr, with other compensation adjustments then made across the organization to stay in alignment.

In 2021 they instituted major changes to their talent acquisition engine, and in 2022 they reaped the benefits of that as they were able to hire nearly 24,000 new employees across the organization globally (a big number given their approximately 77,000 total employee population size.)

L&D will be a major focus in 2023, both in terms of change and growth to the function at US Bank and regarding the organization pivoting to a broader skills-centric approach to all talent processes. Barcelos said they are going to "reinvent learning" in 2023.

Specifically, very few organizations think of L&D as what skills do I have, what do I need, and how do I bridge that gap? They will be enabling employees to take a purposeful view of the top five skills they need today, top five they need tomorrow, how do they get there?

Regarding skills, in the past, they were viewed as elements of the job description. Skills make up capabilities which in turn are required by the role. Skills really are the essence of everything that is done, so they can and should be the common language when it comes to talent in the organization. That said, in some areas a focus skills is more critical than in others. So the focus will be on critical skills and critical roles, and a pilot approach will be taken to avoid trying to boil the ocean.

From the employee's perspective, transparency of the work on skills is key. Employees have aspirations, and need to understand what is available, what opportunities exist, from classes, to job rotation, and more. The benefits here are a win-win, for the employees themselves and to have a more inspired workforce overall.

Barcelos noted that key elements of their HR tech stack include Workday, ServiceNow, Edcast, and Phenom.
53 min
January 12, 2023How is F5 Getting Hybrid Work Right? With Ana White, EVP and Chief People Officer at F5
On this episode, i4cp CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitate a conversation with special guest Ana White, EVP and Chief People Officer at F5, a Seattle-based tech company that focuses on applications, application security, and application performance, with around 7,000 employees in around 45 countries. Here are some highlights:
White described how several years ago F5 took a fresh look at their organization's values, which numbered a somewhat unwieldy 14 at the time. Their goal is for F5 to be one global and diverse team that is both human-first and high-performance and attracts and grows amazing talent. They ultimately came to focus on 5 key behaviors for all employees that were called "BeF5": We are owners; We make F5 more agile; We obsess over customer needs; We create a more diverse and inclusive F5; We help each other thrive.

Related to this were some key F5 leadership behaviors, aligned with their view of leadership as being a mindset, not a job title: We create clarity and alignment; We find and shape brilliance; We boldly raise the bar.

To reinforce these leadership behaviors, F5 has aligned their leader rewards and recognition programs, a revamped performance management process, and also their leadership training programs to these specific behaviors. Also, candidates for succession planning, which White refers to as "progression planning" instead, must demonstrate that they live these key leadership behaviors to even be considered candidates. Lastly, leadership off-site meetings are held every six months and are framed around either the BeF5 or LeadF5 behaviors.

Prior to the pandemic, F5 had already started to focus more on flexible, remote, and hybrid work approaches. They first tested their approach with their IT organization, and then after the pilot they expanded it to the entire company. They didn't have massive take-up initially, but at least the foundation was laid.

Today the approach has been solidified as their "Freedom to Flex" policy, which White described as "radical flexibility." Employees are allowed to choose between entirely or mostly on-site as their location, all or mostly remote, or a more hybrid approach. Even with this degree of flexibility, most F5 employees have chosen some degree of a hybrid work arrangement.

To support this, White noted they have created a "hybrid hub" and a manager toolkit to provide ample resources to enable the many ways of working.

Regarding hybrid meetings, F5 has adopted a "One virtual, all virtual" philosophy. This both equalizes the experience for all participants, and allows them to use features like chat to enable more input and insights during the meeting.

White said they have advised employees and managers to be intentional and purposeful in their decisions about when to come into an office location. Consider choosing Tuesday, Wednesday, and/or Thursday as in most cases those will be the days where the most colleagues will be in the office (but if your team differs, then come in on whatever days make sense for the purpose at hand.)

Once per quarter, F5 dedicates an entire day to employee learning. This includes some degree of flexibility as well, with employees choosing what and how they want to learn something relevant to them.

F5 also periodically hosts "Thirsty Thursdays," at their HQ location, where they provide appetizers, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, and a range of activities to increase connection and networking between employees.
51 min
December 21, 2022How LinkedIn has Managed Employee Experience During the Pandemic: Nina McQueen, VP, Global Talent – Benefits and Employee Experience at LinkedIn
On this episode, i4cp's CEO Kevin Oakes and Senior Research Analyst Tom Stone facilitated a conversation with special guest Nina McQueen, VP, Global Talent – Benefits and Employee Experience at LinkedIn. Here are some highlights from the call:
Early during the pandemic, LinkedIn had a simple employee listening strategy centered around one question: How are you? McQueen said they received thousands of responses that covered the full spectrum of stress, burnout, isolation/depression, family responsibilities, and more. This provided key input for how LinkedIn responded to support their employees.
LinkedIn's key initiative for employee engagement over the past two years has been called LiftUp! It has included many programs and events, including some with celebrity guests like Mindy Kaling, John Legend, Jason Sudeikis, and Matthew McConaughey. Some have been learning-focused, while others wellness focused.

Also included in LiftUp! was an experiment that quickly became a monthly feature: No-Meeting Fridays (the first Friday of each month). These are still working days, but they are intended to let employees catch up on email, avoid being on camera, and reflect and think and catch their breath. This is a no-cost program and one that leaders and employees have responded very positively too.

LinkedIn's approach to hybrid work centers on trust and care. They trust employees to continue to do their best work no matter where they are working. They are also focused on learning and adjusting as time goes on, with a lot of agile trial and error. Like many organizations, there is a mix of full-time in-office, full-time remote, and many who are hybrid (in a flexible way, with the days per week varying by role and team).

A major benefit of this approach, as other companies have seen, is the broadening of the talent pool that LinkedIn can now hire from (around the US and indeed around the globe -- any location where LinkedIn has an official legal entity).

LinkedIn provides a lot of support to its people managers, including niche-topic workshops and a standing once-a-month meeting to keep them updated on the latest policy shifts, best practices, etc.

LinkedIn has six wellness tenets that they focus on: thoughts, breathing, hydration, nutrition, movement, and rest. Each year they go very deep into one of these, leveraging a catchy phrase for internal communication, e.g., keep in mind, the quest for rest, etc. The focus for 2023 is financial well-being, and its connection to stress and burnout.

McQueen said that a critical aspect of an organization's culture is to see it as the "collective personality" of the organization. A key measure and enabler of culture are: can and do employees cite the organization's values with clarity?

A new employee program called Reconnect is focusing on bringing employees together to connect with each other and learn how to collaborate best. An initial event was focused on "re-onboarding" every employee to the organization. Each month there will be a different focus, e.g., decision-making frameworks, lifting people up with random acts of kindness, etc. These experiences will continue into 2023, which is LinkedIn's 20th Anniversary as a company.

During the call, we asked the following participant poll: "Has your organization's culture changed since the onset of the pandemic?"13% Yes, it has become much better
40% Yes, it has improved somewhat
11% No
34% Yes, but it has deteriorated somewhat
2% Yes, but it has become much worse
53 min

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What are the people strategies that will power your organization for the years ahead? i4cp is a member-based HR research company devoted to connecting HR leaders and providing them with innovative…

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