The Gartner Talent Angle

An inclusive workplace makes all employees feel equally involved in and supported across all areas. Fran Katsoudas, Cisco CHRO, and Michael C. Bush, Great Place to Work CEO, join the Talent Angle to share insights and lessons that help leaders build inclusive organizations. Both make the case why doing so isn’t only an altruistic act, but also has real business impact on outcomes such as revenue and market performance. They also discuss the pillars that define Cisco’s globally recognized culture of inclusion, challenges to building an inclusive culture with a dispersed workforce, emerging ways to foster trust and belonging, and which new inequities are materializing in a disruptive talent landscape.

Francine Katsoudas is executive vice president and chief people, policy and purpose officer of Cisco. In this role, Fran oversees critical functions that instill Cisco’s conscious culture, contribute to the company’s overall performance and advance Cisco’s purpose to “Power an Inclusive Future for All.” The strategic alignment of functions within Fran’s organization ensures holistic care for the well-being of Cisco’s people, establishes Cisco as a trusted and valued partner to governments and global leaders, and extends Cisco’s reach to positively impact communities everywhere. A 25-year veteran of Cisco, Fran has extensive experience leading organizational transformations, driving large scale growth, cultivating successful leaders and teams, and constructing an employee-first culture. Fran currently serves on the board of directors for Americares, Global Citizen, and ADP. Passionate about social justice, Fran is an activist and advocate for a variety of causes close to her heart, particularly women’s leadership, homeless youth and the Latino community.

Michael C. Bush is CEO of Great Place to Work. His global research and analytics firm produces the annual “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For” list, the “World’s Best Workplaces” list, the “100 Best Workplaces for Women” list, the “Best Workplaces for Diversity” list, and dozens of other distinguished workplace rankings around the world. Driven by a love of business and an unwavering commitment to fair and equitable treatment, Michael joined Great Place to Work as CEO in 2015, bringing 30 years of experience leading and growing organizations. This includes serving as CEO of Tetra Tech Communications. Michael is a former member of President Obama’s White House Business Council and a founding board member of the private equity seed fund Fund Good Jobs, which invests in small inner-city businesses.

Daniel Dirks is a managing vice president in Gartner’s HR research practice. He has been with Gartner for eight years and leads research teams in the areas of HR strategy, HR cost and budget, total rewards and performance, and working with the CEO. He has also been in the lead for our global COVID-19-related HR response task force. Prior to joining Gartner, Daniel was responsible for all global HR topics at Allianz Group, ranging from HR strategy and policies to global compensation, talent management, EVP, diversity, analytics, and global corporate responsibility. In the 1990s, Daniel led the economics department at the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo. He holds a Ph.D. in business and economics from the University of Witten/Herdecke, Germany.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

When organizations break employee trust, Peter H. Kim argues those employees are less willing to go above and beyond to contribute to the organization. Peter, author of “How Trust Works,” goes on to detail why trust in institutions has been declining significantly, despite its importance to our work and lives. Peter explains why we mismanage and misunderstand trust and dives into counterintuitive findings from his research, such as why most people believe they are more effective assessors of trust than they actually are. He also shares why efforts to mitigate risk can have a negative impact on trust between employers and employees.

Dr. Peter H. Kim is a professor of management and organization at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. His research on trust has been published in numerous scholarly journals, received ten national/international awards, and has been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. He’s the author of How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships Are Built, Broken, and Repaired. His website is www.peterhkim.com.

Jessica Knight is a Vice President of Research in the Gartner HR practice. She leads research teams to identify best practices and new opportunities to address HR executives’ most urgent challenges. Her areas of focus include employee experience, organizational culture, change management, and the future of work.

In this Gartner Talent Angle podcast, Marcela Escobari shares key metrics about job quality, economic mobility and job equity. While organizations are facing labor shortages in the short term, Escobari argues that there’s been a long-term decline in job quality. She explains how churn in low-wage jobs is expensive for organizations, but low-wage employees often lack “stepping stone” opportunities to advance their careers.

Marcela Escobari is the current Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean at the U.S. Agency for International Development. At the time of this recording, she was a senior fellow in the Center for Sustainable Development, housed in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings, where she led the Workforce of the Future initiative.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Three-fourths of HR leaders agree they will be lagging in organizational success if they do not adopt and implement generative AI (GenAI) in the next 12 to 24 months. However, GenAI’s long-term impact on jobs is yet to be determined, and as a result, organizations must prepare for multiple scenarios as they engage in workforce planning and adopt GenAI to their unique context.

In this episode of the Talent Angle, Helen Poitevin, a distinguished vice president analyst at Gartner, shares a framework to help organizations evaluate the context-specific workforce impact of GenAI by identifying the market and technology drivers that matter for talent decisions. This Gartner model will help HR leaders establish workforce strategies as they align technology and business investments with talent implications.

Helen Poitevin is a distinguished VP analyst with a focus on human capital management (HCM) technologies and advising clients on their HCM technology strategies. In HCM, areas of particular focus include talent analytics, voice of the employee analytics, workforce planning and AI in HCM. Ms. Poitevin also conducts research regarding the future of work with a focus on technology’s effect on how people will work, the gig economy, talent marketplaces and ecosystems, and future talent practices.

Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. Mr. Aykens is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College, a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth) and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

In her book “The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It,” Jennifer Moss implores organizations to design burnout strategies that move beyond apps, wellness programs and perks. Instead, she makes the case for a systematic and preventative approach to building an anti-burnout strategy. To do so, organizations must first understand the key drivers of burnout, why conventional approaches fall short and how leaders can build cultures that prioritize workforce resilience and health.

Jennifer Moss is an award-winning journalist, author and international public speaker. She is a nationally syndicated radio columnist and writes for Harvard Business Review. Her first book, “Unlocking Happiness at Work,” received the distinguished UK Business Book of the Year Award. Jennifer has been named a Canadian Innovator of the Year, an International Female Entrepreneur of the Year, and was a recipient of the Public Service Award from the Office of President Obama.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Netta Jenkins, author of “The Inclusive Organization,” suggests that while organizations have made advances in DEI in recent years, political polarization and economic uncertainty have threatened to undo that progress. Jenkins joins the Gartner Talent Angle to share her advice on the current state of the DEI movement, and she charts a path forward for HR leaders. She unpacks her three “P” framework — people, practices and products — detailing how each “P” is essential to moving DEI forward within organizations. During the conversation, Jenkins also describes the often unrealistically high expectations put on DEI leaders to transform the organization, despite limited funding and staffing.

Netta Jenkins is a doctoral student and author of “The Inclusive Organization,” listed by Forbes as one of the Top 4 DEI books to read. She is CEO of AeroDEI, a DEI tool that helps organizations measure and quantify the impact of their DEI initiatives through gamifying the experience for employees. Jenkins has been advising corporations and audiences of all kinds for years on the most effective strategies to address inequitable gaps that led to a 300k+ LinkedIn audience and played a key factor in Forbes naming her as one of the Top 7 anti-racism consultants in the world. She has also given a ground-breaking TEDx talk, “Reimagining the Workplace.”

Peter Aykens is chief of research in Gartner’s human resources practice. Peter is responsible for defining research coverage within the practice and building and leading research teams in addressing clients’ key initiatives. In prior roles at the firm, Aykens spent over 25 years leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channel marketing, customer experience and product issues in financial services. He holds a B.A. in political science from St. Olaf College; an MSc. (Econ) degree in international politics from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Brown University.

Harvard Business School professor Joseph Fuller joins the Gartner Talent Angle podcast to share the latest insights from his white paper, “Hidden Talent: Untapped Talent.” Fuller explains why fitting candidates are  consistently overlooked by recruiting technology. He shares solutions for uncovering these workers, and argues why senior leaders play a critical role in ensuring the success of the hidden talent pipeline.

Joseph Fuller is a Professor of Management Practice in General Management at Harvard Business School and co-leads the school’s initiative, Managing the Future of Work. He graduated from Harvard Business School in 1981 and founded the consulting firm, Monitor Group, now Monitor-Deloitte. During his three decades in consulting, Fuller worked with senior executives and policymakers on a wide variety of issues related to corporate strategy and national competitiveness.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2022 interview.

Patrick McLaughlin, PepsiCo Foods North America CHRO, joined the Talent Angle at Evanta’s 2023 Dallas CHRO Executive Summit in June to reflect on what he refers to as “the inversion of the labor market.” For the first time, there are more jobs than people to fill them. HR leaders are charged with retaining and engaging the frontline workforce amid changing employee expectations and a competitive talent landscape. Patrick offers his perspective on current workforce trends, reflects on lessons learned in recent years and identifies opportunities for organizations to improve the employee experience for frontline workers.

Patrick McLaughlin is senior vice president and chief HR officer for PepsiCo Foods North America, an operating division of PepsiCo. He is a 27-year veteran of PepsiCo with a broad range of leadership experience in beverages and foods. Before joining PepsiCo, Patrick worked for Exxon USA based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Patrick holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in organizational communication from Purdue University. Patrick also serves on the board of the Sabra Dipping Company, a joint venture of PepsiCo and the Strauss Group. He is an avid football fan and enjoys travel, gardening and cooking; he and his husband, David Talley, are active in the Dallas and New Orleans communities.

Peter Aykens is the chief of research for Gartner’s HR practice. He is responsible for building and leading research teams within the practice to address clients’ key initiatives. Before his current role, he spent over 25 years at Gartner leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy, producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channels, marketing, customer experience and product challenges. He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Olaf College; a master’s degree in international politics from Aberystwyth University (formerly known as the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth); and a master’s degree and a doctorate in political science from Brown University.

In his book, “The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance that Awaits New Ideas,” Kellogg professor David Schonthal challenges the default assumption that selling an idea requires the seller to heighten its appeal. Instead, he makes the case that failure to adopt ideas, strategies or products is often due to the four key psychological frictions that oppose change: inertia, effort, emotion and reactance. He argues that successful leaders and innovators must identify, understand and overcome these to achieve novel outcomes.

David Schonthal is a clinical professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he teaches courses in new venture creation, design thinking, business acquisition, corporate innovation and creativity. He also serves as the faculty director of Kellogg’s Zell Fellows Program. Outside of the Kellogg School of Management, David is a senior director of business design at IDEO, where he focuses on helping organizations build and launch new ventures, design transformational new business models and establish novel go-to-market strategies for products and services.

*This episode is an excerpt taken from our 2021 interview.

Mid-level managers are sandwiched between pressure from business leaders to retain employees and rising employee expectations for personalized support and communication. In this Talent Angle episode, former Kimberly-Clark CHRO and member of Gartner’s CHRO Global Leadership Board Liz Gottung encourages organizations to rethink their expectations for mid-level managers or risk losing these critical managers to burnout and fatigue. She suggests organizations use technology and rethink role design to free manager capacity for more high-impact work.

After a 35-year career with Kimberly-Clark, Lizanne (Liz) Gottung retired as senior vice president and chief HR officer in 2017. At the time, Kimberly-Clark was a $20 billion global company with nearly 45,000 employees in more than 63 countries. Under her leadership, Kimberly-Clark’s talent strategies were widely recognized for excellence and innovation in HR management, winning multiple global awards for diversity, equity and inclusion; succession and development practices; and Kimberly-Clark’s employer brand. Liz has been a member of the board of directors of the Louisiana Pacific Corporation since 2006 and is chair of the governance and corporate responsibility committee. She joined the board of Sylvamo Corporation in 2021 and chairs the management development and compensation committee. Liz works with a number of non-profit organizations in the Atlanta area, where she lives. She is also a member of Gartner’s CHRO Global Leadership Board.

Peter Aykens is Chief of Research in Gartner's Human Resources practice. Mr. Aykens is responsible for defining research coverage within the practice and building and leading research teams addressing client's key initiatives. In prior roles at the firm, he spent over 25 years leading research teams focused on banking and financial services strategy producing numerous studies that addressed business strategy, channel, marketing, customer experience and product issues in financial services. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from St. Olaf College; a MSc.(Econ) degree in International Politics from the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth; and a MA and Ph.D. in Political Science from Brown University.