Future Ready Leadership With Jacob Morgan

Karen Carter is the Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Inclusion Officer at the Dow Chemical Company. She is responsible globally for guiding and directing Dow's efforts to create a more diverse and inclusive environment and workforce. "My job, in a nutshell, is to ensure that we have an environment that gives everyone a fair chance, those processes, those policies, how we evaluate people, and how we hire people…if you're not focusing deliberately on including, you will ultimately exclude." Karen has 25 years of experience with Dow, but she only recently moved into the HR space. Before assuming her current responsibilities, she held the role of North America Commercial Vice President, Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics (P&SP). In her role, Karen was a member of the global business leadership team and was responsible for the overall profit & loss of P&SP's North America region, which is part of Dow's Performance Plastics Division and represents more than $18.4B in sales Karen has a bachelor's degree in marketing from Howard University and a master's degree in international business from DePaul University. In 2014, Karen was named to the prestigious Forty Women to Watch Over 40 list for her innovative leadership contributions Dow Chemical has been in existence for a little over 120 years. With 50,000 employees around the world, it has revenue in excess of $40,000,000,000. Karen describes the company as a combination of a science and technology organization with a goal to develop and deliver solutions that are essential to human progress. One main focus of Dow is on consumer care, for example ingredients for prescription medications and vitamins. Another one of their markets is packaging, for instance, keeping meat fresh, and as Karen touches on in our conversation, there's actually technology that is used to make a plastic that enables meat to still be fresh for a few days. The last market that is a main focus is infrastructure - things like roads and bridges and buildings and mega structures like stadiums. What does diversity and inclusion mean?Karen says, diversity is the collection of all of our unique differences. We talk about diversity across multiple dimensions, and most people tend to migrate directly to race, gender, ethnicity, however, there are other dimensions of diversity – for example, military experience or cultural fluency. Inclusion is the intentional and deliberate action we take to create a culture that embraces and values those differences. There are several technologies that Dow Chemical is leveraging in the diversity and inclusion space. They use a Workday People Portal that allows them to be much more transparent with information directly to employees and it allows leaders to have easy access to data that helps them make better decisions. For example, being able to see the last 50 promotions a leader has made to ensure that talent is diverse. As Karen shares in our conversation, we still have a long way to go when it comes to diversity and inclusion in organizations today. Some good strides have been made, but not enough. Things you will learn: Why companies are choosing to hire non-HR people to lead HR What does a Chief Inclusion Officer do? Typical biases that occur in most organizations How to measure D&I How D&I impacts engagement Technologies Dow Chemical is leveraging in the D&I space Why the conversation around D&I is so critical right now Contact: Karen Carter on LinkedIn

Looking back 20 or 30 years the very nature and definition of a company was very different than it is today. Companies used to be viewed solely as a place that offered jobs in exchange for compensation. Employees would show up to the building, work 9-5 and then go home again at the end of the day. Companies today are no longer just an employer that pays people to show up--in fact a large number of workers don't even go into a centralized office building anymore. Now companies are involved in not only an employee's work life, but also in their personal life. Companies provide gyms, therapy, financial planners, etc...it is much more than just place that provides you with a job. Companies are focusing more on employee engagement and experience today than ever before. We are seeing a blurring of work and life and organizations have to adapt to this shift. They can no longer just focus on an employee's work life, they also have to focus on the personal aspect of our lives.

Dave Kozel is EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer of PVH Corp, the global apparel company that owns brands such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Izod, Speedo and Arrow. PVH employees around 36,000 people and has locations in 40 countries. Dave is responsible for Human Resources, Compensation, Benefits, Talent Management & Development, Inclusion & Diversity, Communications and Facilities for one of the largest global apparel companies in the world. PVH has been recognized for its commitment to creating an inclusive environment where every individual is valued, including being named one of Forbes' Best Employers for Diversity and earning 100% on the HRC Corporate Equality Index. The Company was also ranked among the top 100 Most Inclusive and Diverse companies globally on the Thomas Reuters Global Inclusion Index and named one of Forbes' and JUST Capital's Most JUST Companies. Dave joined PVH in 2003 as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, and was promoted to Executive Vice President, Human Resources in 2013. He changed to his current title in June 2015. Prior to joining PVH, Dave served as the Executive Vice President of Human Resources for J. Crew and held executive HR positions at Grey Advertising and Deluxe Corporation. His early career was spent at Citicorp and Pacific Gas & Electric in various Human Resource positions.Dave has a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Lehigh University and a Masters Degree in Industrial Relations from University of Illinois. A major focus of the organization is having a people first strategy in order to bring in the best talent, and keep them engaged and motivated. It also involves allowing employees to be truly successful in what they're interested in from a career standpoint. And if they're successful and engaged, it only increases the company's probability of having success. This is what is driving their leadership curriculum. Dave talks about one of the company's programs, which is the PVH University. It is a fairly robust university program where they have a leadership academy in which they offer entry level,first-time manager training programs and then second-level training programs to managers. They have a global leadership program that works with The Wharton Business School. When asked about work-life balance, Dave said he believes, people really need to spend, 10% to 20% of their time away from their work. Even while at work everyone should try to designate some time to not think about the day to day and the tasks they have to complete. The world of work is definitely changing. Some of the most significant changes Dave has noticed include: Work environments have fundamentally changed The advent of technology has changed the way people work The rate of change is so fast, we have to find new ways to work and leverage technology in order to keep up One thing that is certain is what we're doing today is going to change tomorrow Trends Dave is focusing on include: It's all about talent A people first strategy The importance of creating a culture and a workplace that has purpose What you will learn in this episode: How Dave and his team are creating a workplace that can attract and retain the best talent Dave's insights and experience building up the HR function at PVH from the ground up How Dave deals with being told 'no' His advice to HR professionals and managers on how to get new programs in place What to do as an HR professional if an employee tells you they are unhappy Trends Dave is paying attention to Contact: https://www.pvh.com/company/leadership/dave-kozel https://www.linkedin.com/in/davekozel1

In our organizations we like to put the life cycle of an employee into a neat series of buckets such as recruitment, onboarding and separation. But is the employee lifecycle model really an accurate way to look at an employee's time at our organizations, or is there a better way? In our organizations we like to put the life cycle of an employee into a neat series of buckets such as recruitment, onboarding and separation. But this is more of the organization's perspective of what the employee lifecycle should look like, not so much an accurate picture of what employees really encounter during their time in an organization. When we put employees into these rigid, pre-determined buckets it really causes us to view them as worker bees, not individuals. If we look at this from the employee's perspective, their time at the organization looks quite a bit different. We would see that their time not only includes recruitment, onboarding and development, but it also includes personal aspects such as having a baby or buying a house for the first time. We would also see that it is hard to have such rigid boxes. Development, for example, is not a one time thing it really should be happening constantly. Employees who are working for you view themselves as individuals and we are seeing this shift from work/life balance to work/life blurring. Shouldn't we create an employee lifecycle that reflects this reality?

Paul Irving is Chairman of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging and distinguished scholar in residence at the University of Southern California Davis School Of Gerontology. Paul spent much of his life as a corporate lawyer as chairman and CEO of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, a law and consulting firm. He is also the author of "The Upside of Aging: How Long Life Is Changing the World of Health, Work, Innovation, Policy, and Purpose," a Wall Street Journal expert panelist and contributor to PBS Next Avenue and Forbes. When he came to the end of his term as CEO he enrolled at Harvard to look at 'something new, something interesting'. There, he was asked to do a research project on the impacts of population aging in cities in the U.S. They came up with an idea about ranking U.S. cities, knowing how ranking systems attract interest and attention, and it was called "Best Cities for Successful Aging". Eventually Paul became the president of the Milken Institute which is based in Santa Monica, although they have offices in Washington D.C., and Singapore. Each of these is involved in spreading both domestic and global prosperity and improving health. One of the things that the Institutes are now focused on is this question of how population aging will affect individuals, families, communities, businesses, and societies. Some of the trends Paul is seeing in the workforce include: Across the world populations are much older Workforces are becoming more diverse Enhancement of opportunities for women over the last several decades, the increasing diversity and inclusion in leadership positions There is a risk of talent loss and talent shortage as a result of retirement There is a very clear need for people to work longer and aspiration for people to work longer The HR culture has become much more complex As Paul points out, "we have about a billion people today over 60 in the world. By mid-century, that number will more than double, the number of people in their 60s in the United States will more than double. We have ten thousand people turning 65 a day in the US, and we are now at a point where there are more older adults than kids and teenagers in the world. So the bottom line is that we have a historically unprecedented demographic shift, unlike anything that humankind has seen since the beginning." The operating assumption is that older people are: Unwilling to learn, Unable to evolve, and Are less effective performers than the young people The evidence is simply not there to back up those claims. They are ageist expectations that come from a fear of aging, a fear of death, a fear of physical change and a lack of recognition of the complementary skills of young people and old people. As Paul mentions, organizations can benefit from hiring people over 50, because they bring important things to the table including balance, judgement, wisdom, and experience. And several companies are specifically bringing in older employees for this reason. Companies like Airbnb, BMW, and Michelin have programs and incentives in place to make sure they they have employees ranging in age and experience because they understand that it is critical for their future success. What you will learn in this episode: What the Milken Institute does The impact of the aging workforce Examples of companies such as Airbnb, BMW, and Michelin who are bringing in older employees who can share their wisdom, experience and training What will happen to organizations not paying attention to this trend Paul's advice for older workers How to create policies for older workers Contact: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulhirving/

What is Empathy and why do we need it? A lot of times we confuse empathy with sympathy. In the past organizations have been good with being sympathetic to employees, but in the future of work it is empathy, not sympathy that is crucial for organizations to have. A lot of people confuse empathy and sympathy. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone else's circumstances, empathy on the other hand is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. It means putting yourself in someone else's shoes to not just say you feel sorry for them, but to actually imagine how hard it must be to be in that situation. In the past organizations have been good at being sympathetic, but they have struggled with being empathetic. Unlike in the past when most organizations had hierarchies where there really was no need for upper management to be empathetic, in today's organizations we are beginning to see why it is so crucial to have empathy in the workplace. We have different generations of workers, we have work/life integration that is starting to happen, we have a war for the best talent and many other reasons why employee experience is becoming a priority for organizations. But the fact is, employee experience cannot happen unless we embrace empathy. We have to be understanding when an employee has a sick kid, we have to be genuinely interested in getting feedback, we have to build collaboration and increase transparency. To do these things we have to have empathy. Don't be a sympathetic organization, be an empathetic organization. Empathy is the one thing that is going to differentiate your company from all the other companies out there.

Andrew Glincher is the CEO and Managing Partner at Nixon Peabody LLP, one of the largest law firms in the world. Andrew started at Nixon Peabody 30 years ago. He is a first generation college graduate, having grown up in Brockton, Massachusetts. He studied business at Boston College undergraduate and has always prided himself as being as much a business person as a lawyer. He ran his own snack bar and concession in high school, was very entrepreneurial, worked in business, and then went to law school. Initially he went to work for a small firm for about a year and a half to do business and commercial real estate. Eventually, Andrew made his way to Nixon Peabody, running the Boston office with a large corporate and commercial real estate client base which has evolved into his current role of CEO. Nixon Peabody LLP is one of the largest law firms in the world - with 16 offices. They have international alliances throughout the world, particularly in Asia. In the United States, their major metro offices are located in Boston, New York City, Washington D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. They employ about 700 attorneys and 1500 total employees. They work on almost everything except criminal defense work - except white collar. They do not do personal injury work on the plaintiff's side nor do they do divorce work. They particularly excel in corporate, real estate, labor and employment law. Some of the changes in this law firm that Andrew has seen are: Moving away from hierarchies One size glass wall offices A shift towards encouraging collaboration No more corner offices Unified office furniture for everyone More open spaces with cafes and collaboration space Nixon Peabody isn't an ordinary law firm and Andrew isn't your typical CEO. In fact, as you will here in today's discussion, Andrew is simply not content with the traditional ways that law firms are used to operating. He and his team at Nixon Peabody are finding ways to increase collaboration, change the way they think about space, encourage leaders to be empathetic listeners, and use technology to be more efficient and productive. How do you deal with people who are resistant to that change? Andrew says you can show them companies that aren't fairing well who have resisted change. He also says you should have discussions about change and acknowledge that change is difficult. You have to keep encouraging people to do things. What you will learn in this episode: How law firms are changing The role AI and technology may have on the the field of law How to be an empathetic listener How to deal with people resisting change Advice to leaders looking to change their work spaces Contact: www.nixonpeabody.com

Creating a true human organization has been a topic for decades and there has been a lot of smart people, wonderful books, case studies and research reports out there that talks about leadership, employee experience, and management skills. But still, a lot of organizations all over the world struggle to embrace these things. Still, a lot of employees out there don't like their jobs. So a part of me wonders, does any of the work that I do matter? Why isn't change happening? why do these companies still exist? Then I remember the emails I get or the stories I hear from all of you about how change is happening in your organization. It might be hard for us to see change because it takes time, but change is truly happening. It's like going to the gym. I have no idea how long it's gonna take for you to look better or feel better, but I know that over time, as you exercise and eat healthier, you're gonna start to look a little bit better and feel a little bit better. One day you will wake up and look and the mirror and think "I look and feel pretty darn amazing!: Stay optimistic. You too overtime, will start noticing change.

Caskie Lewis-Clapper is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Magellan Health, Inc., ("Magellan "). Prior to joining Magellan, she served as senior Director for Human Resources Operations for Helix Health, a Baltimore, Maryland-based health care system. At Helix, she held a variety of senior leadership positions, including Sr. Director of Human Resource Operations and Director of Training and Organizational Development. Prior to joining Helix, she was a consultant with General Physics Corporation, providing training and performance improvement consulting services, and conducting human performance improvement research. She is a published author of articles on team building and human performance improvement. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maine and her Master of Science degree from Johns Hopkins University. Magellan Health is care management for the fastest growing and most complex areas of healthcare, including special populations, complete pharmacy benefits and other specialty carve-outs. It is "the right care at the right time in the least invasive way". With 10,000 employees, they work relentlessly to provide the best care. Workplace flexibility is something that has been discussed and worked on over the years. Magellan was on the cutting edge of this issue as they were finding ways to allow employees to work off site since the early 90s. And they continue to make flexibility a priority for their employees. Currently 40% of their staff works from home. A lot of organizations question flexibility because they feel that the best collaboration and innovation happens when employees are in the same location and able to talk face to face daily. But Caskie believes that Magellan is able to make it work because they focus on having purposeful, meaningful in person meetings from time to time that allow everyone to stay on the same page. But they a majority of the time they are able to collaborate and innovate through phone calls, Zoom, and online resources. A lot of times when teams are in the same location, they tend to waste time in pointless meetings just to say they met. The important factor, whether your team is onsite or not, is that during meetings the leader is clear about what they are there to do. Caskie says, "Let the work drive when you need to be in a room together." And then when you go your separate ways everyone knows what they are aiming towards and what needs to get done. Another topic of debate these days is around who is responsible for the development, advancement, learning, and success of employees. Is it up to the organization? Is it up to the employee? According to Caskie, Magellan places the main responsibility with the individual employee. Caskie says, "You're the driver of your work. You're the driver of your development, you're the driver of your successes, you're the driver of your learnings. And that means that as a team member at Magellan, and I'm going to use a word that's a really overused, but you're empowered to, you have the power to make things happen for yourself and for our company." They feel that it is important for employees to have goals, to be proactive in advancing their careers, and to find ways to keep learning. What you will learn in this episode: How employees at Magellan collaborate while working in different locations What mindsets/skills/traits they look for in potential employees How to help people navigate change How to be a digital citizen and a perpetual learner How Magellan is giving employees ownership over their learnings, development and success Interesting programs inside of Magellan--Vern and Rita What it's like to work at Magellan Changes Caskie has seen at Magellan over the past 20 years Contact: Caskie Lewis On LinkedIn This episode of The Future of Work Podcast was made possible by our friends at ServiceNow. Please show your support by checking out the great work they are doing! Give employees the service experience they deserve because everyone deserves great experiences at work. Eliminate frustration and improve employee satisfaction with a single access point for efficient, personalized HR services. ServiceNow helps you put service at the heart of your business. Start today.

There has been a major shift in the way we view work. In the past when a company had a position to fill they announced the opening and people jumped at the opportunity. There wasn't any talk of employee perks, health and wellness programs, workplace flexibility or workplace design. Someone needed a job, they found out about the job and they applied. Now if an organization has an opening people don't just jump at the opportunity. They want to hear about what it's like to work at that company, they want to know what the company perks are, they want to know whether the office is an open floor plan and whether or not they have the latest technology. People have options now, so they don't have to jump at the first opportunity, they can wait for the job that is a perfect fit for them. That is why it is so important for companies today to focus on employee experience. Companies have to be able to understand their Reason for Being and they have to be able to answer questions like, what is it like to work for your company and why should I want to come work there? Organizations, we need to do a better job convincing people why they should work for us. This episode of The Future of Work Podcast was made possible by our friends at ServiceNow. Please show your support by checking out the great work they are doing! Give employees the service experience they deserve because everyone deserves great experiences at work. Eliminate frustration and improve employee satisfaction with a single access point for efficient, personalized HR services. ServiceNow helps you put service at the heart of your business. Start today.