How to Make Reskilling Part of a Corporate Culture of Learning
BY Jacqueline Mumford April 08, 2024“You will never hire your way out of your skills deficit,” said Marcus Cazier, head of learning and development for the Americas at bioMérieux.In the next two years, researchers posit that half of your skills will be irrelevant – a pattern that’s expected to continue. So how can employers get ahead of this skilling cycle? Offering insight and advice for other people leaders, Cazier spoke in a panel discussion titled, “How to Make Reskilling Part of a Corporate Culture of Learning” panel at From Day One’s conference in Salt Lake City.The other panelists agreed with Cazier: some sort of training will always be required. “If you hire for specific [technical] skills, you ignore the connection points existing employees inside your organization have. Those skills you can’t hire for, they’ll have to be developed,” said panelist Trent Savage, chief human resources officer at Mountain America Credit Union. “The question is: which type of skill do you want to spend time developing?”Additionally, establishing that your company values challenges and growth will make your best team members want to stick around, boosting your bottom line in the long run.“Promoting a culture that looks internally to find people that want different opportunities, that will help with retention,” said Donald Erb, HR channel czar at CollegeNET.How Do I Start Developing a Culture of Learning?Once you’re firm on the 'why' of reskilling, the real work begins.“At Campfire, the culture of learning really starts with our leaders,” said Steve Arntz, CEO of Campfire. But instead of letting inspiration spikes die off with executives, Arntz says they train down: each leader trains another, going into perpetuity.“This starts with getting my leaders to instill their teams with the idea that we need to learn, develop, and grow together. We need to find solutions together. And guess what? As a leader, I'm here to connect you to the resources that you need.”Leaning on those employees that are already seeking out those challenges is the first step, Erb says.“You’ll draw more people in because [your] reputation is investing in growth,” he said. “People get frustrated when they’re not even asked if they’re interested in learning new skills – I think it diminishes motivation.”Ciara Hulet, Morning Edition Host, KUER News, NPR Utah moderated the panel on the topic of skill-building Career ladders should look more like climbing walls, Cazier says.“The agility and the willingness to be flexible to do what the business asks you to do, that goes a long way,” he said. “Going up might not always be the right move, you may need to go sideways first.”What if My Employees Don’t Want to?If you’re in the process of establishing a culture of learning, you may receive some pushback.Nate Miller, VP of learning and organizational development at Vivint, had first-hand experience when, as part of Vivint’s acquisition, installation and service technicians were asked to begin participating in revenue generation.“There was reluctance to add this selling skillset,” he said. “It drove attrition. These folks chose their paths because they didn’t want to sell.”Miller followed Erb’s earlier advice and found leaders who are naturally high learners and helped them frame experiences as growth opportunities rather than job requirements. Then, those who took the growth opportunities were rewarded.“We integrated selling and technical skills into our scheduling software, so when we assign jobs, the most lucrative installation opportunities align with the most skilled revenue generators,” Miller said.Vivint also cut out their performance improvement plans. “They were working from a place of fear,” he said. “We had to shift it from a place of fear to a place of opportunity and growth by reducing the amount of threat in the environment.”What Skills Do We Need?It’s simple: ask your people.“You’ve got a traditionally top-down focus when it comes to budgets and implementation,” Arntz said. “But the frontline workers and managers, they know which skills they’ll need to adapt. [It may be beneficial] to allow people to choose their opportunities, which [are then pushed through] programs and initiatives at the higher levels.”“Years ago, to develop someone meant to send them to a training,” Savage said. “Now it needs to be on-the-job and it needs to be connected to the needs of the business.”CollegeNET uses “Focus Ring,” a peer-assessment tool that asks employees to respond to prompts and then evaluate their peer’s responses. “These are folks playing the same role as you in the organization, and you see how they address particular product knowledge questions,” Erb said. “That’s learning an immediate skill.”Focus Ring goes further by grouping answers by how highly they were rated. “If we have groups that have eights and nines, they’re good candidates to become mentors,” he said. “They’ve demonstrated they have that particular skill.”The Future of Skill DevelopmentIf you’re interested in technology development, Savage says HR needs your help.“We’re close, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “Skills-based platforms don’t necessarily connect to development or to performance, so you must use multiple mediums [to tie your data] together. My hope is one day we get a more holistic look, because today we’re using Frankenstein technology.”In the meantime, Arntz predicts AI will be pivotal.“Engineers are using Copilot to write better and faster code,” he said. “Someone will build a Copilot for conversations, an AI assistant next to them during performance, expectations, and hiring. [When this is developed] it will enable our leaders to be more effective than they’ve ever been.”Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. When she’s not in Excel or writing an article, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.
How to Solve the Challenge of Corporate Togetherness
BY Jacqueline Mumford April 05, 2024“How can a company of three people beat a world leader, or take on big, established organizations?” asked Jim Wolfston, founder and president of CollegeNET.The answer is connectedness, says Wolfston, who led a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Salt Lake City event. “Connectedness to the mission, to the vision, to their teams, you’ve got to have that in an organization if you want to be the disruptor, not the disrupted.”But achieving this is harder than you might think, and it’s not just big corporations that struggle with it. In 2023, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called loneliness (or disconnection) an epidemic nationwide.Initially, Wolfston thought the solution could be found in getting to know everyone’s name in his office. He sat down with his HR manager and flipped through the company directory, studying names and faces so he could properly greet people in the hallways.But personal tragedy showed him that connection was bigger than being on a first-name basis.“One of my colleagues who I knew for a long, long time, killed himself from loneliness,” Wolfston said. “I realized I wasn’t connected to people like I should or could be. We had to figure out some way to bring our people together, not just for motivation, or for innovation, but for decency, as people.”What he was searching for was a well-rounded approach to connection, something CollegeNET, as a higher education technology solutions company, had already figured out.Wolfston led the thought leadership spotlight titled, "How to Solve the Challenge of Corporate Togetherness and Shared Mission"“College application forms [do not encapsulate] the whole person,” he said. “We’ve become a leader in career services with what we call the Intelligent Mirror, a video program that allows you to practice how you come across and to improve how others perceive you. We also use asynchronous interviewing, which makes everything more efficient.” These innovative approaches to interviewing help people express their whole selves, while simultaneously honing their interpersonal skills.“When you ask questions, what you’re really doing is telling people what you value. You wouldn’t ask a question about something you don’t care about,” he said. “If the company cares about things like innovation, buy-in, motivation, the work you’re doing, they’ll ask those questions. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”The project is called Focus Ring. Participating employees are asked four questions: first, about what they’ve learned at work; second, how their work matters to other people in their company; third, if there was something someone in their company did for them that they appreciated; and finally, if there was something they did for someone in their company that they’re proud of.Once answers are submitted, participants evaluate the response scripts from six other employees. “When you answer these questions, you’re developing your articulation skills,” Wolfston said. “But when you evaluate, you get to learn [from your colleagues]. And you get to exercise the very important social skill of listening.”In practice, Wolfston says employees have shared everything from kind words to Java code they wrote to streamline a project.When you feel that you matter, your happiness increases, Wolfston says. Additionally, mastery of a subject or process can increase those feelings of happiness. The Focus Ring marries the two: mattering by asking participants to vocalize when they’ve felt important, and mastery by giving participants the opportunity to share something they’ve learned at work. And, of course, it nurtures connectedness.“This has created a lot of recognition,” Wolfston said. “It’s opened all of these possibilities for us.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CollegeNET, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. When she’s not in Excel or writing an article, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.
Responding to Chronic Labor Shortages: How a Healthcare Giant Takes Innovative Approaches
BY Jacqueline Mumford April 02, 2024Labor shortages persist at historic levels in 2024, with 1.7 million workers missing compared to February 2020. This was the focus of a fireside chat featuring Heather Brace, the chief people officer at Intermountain Healthcare, at From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference. Interviewed by Lauren Gustus, executive editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, Brace discussed how the organization is responding to these chronic labor shortages.At the height of the pandemic, Brace says Intermountain had 6,500 job openings. As the largest private employer in Utah, this figure was overwhelming. Keeping hospitals and doctors’ offices fully staffed with locals became near impossible.“We saw an explosion in all types of travel agency workers, particularly in nursing and other clinical jobs,” she said. These travel nurses cost Intermountain two to two-and-a-half times the standard nurses’ salary, Brace says.“They took advantage of things the industry hadn’t responded to appropriately,” she said. “When I look back, before the pandemic, I can see our nurses wanted a different type of wage structure. They wanted flexibility. They wanted autonomy. We had the opportunity to respond to that before the pandemic, but we’re a very traditional thinking industry. The mindset was ‘well, this is always worked for patients.’”But this pivot was overwhelming enough to force change.“We have doubled down on the remote strategy,” Brace said. “With the understanding that clinical people can’t often be remote, we acknowledge that one size fits all doesn’t work when it comes to remote work models.”Lauren Gustus of the Salt Lake Tribune, left, interviewed Heather Brace of Intermountain health, right, in a fireside chat With mobility came a need to rethink compensation.“We’ve increased wages almost 40% year over year,” she said. “With remote work sticking around, especially at Intermountain, people can move anywhere in the country and provide services to any organization. This means we’re now competing with California, Colorado, and all the surrounding states when recruiting. Utah has not been known for the best compensation in the nation, and now that’s being challenged.”The biggest impact to hiring, though, has been what Brace calls a “redesign of work.” “We’ve put a greater emphasis on mental health, ‘how do we take care of our people in the same way we’re taking care of our communities?” she said.Alongside mobility and higher wage, the answer was in implementing skill-based learning, recruiting diverse team members, and creating a sense of belonging.“We’ve developed a partnership with refugee organizations here in the valley, in addition to community and technical colleges,” Brace said. “We don’t have to spend operational dollars to train people to do work inside of our organization. Instead, we put them to work, and then it changes the trajectory of their life. We have so many educational programs that we can then use to continue to help promote someone.”Bringing folks from non-traditional pathways into healthcare has also boosted Intermountain’s diversity efforts. Amidst heated legislative battles over DEI programs in Utah, Brace says Intermountain will continue to hire people who represent the communities they serve.“It’s not only good for our organization, but it’s good for our patients,” she said. “It also creates a sense of belonging. Our intent is to nurture an inclusive environment where you can speak up, dress appropriately to your culture, and be able to thrive and grow. We’ve found a lot of success in that.”All the above has served to fill nearly 2,000 of the pandemic job openings. Despite the ever-present hurdles in the world of recruiting, Brace says she has a lot of hope for the future.“My teenage boys really believe that the world is their oyster,” she said. “I think we’ve got to take that on as human resource professionals; if we lean into it, it’ll be different, but it’ll all work out.”Jacqueline Mumford is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. When she’s not in Excel or writing an article, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.
Collective Efforts That Create a Workplace Community
BY Jacqueline Mumford April 27, 2023To kick off his thought leadership spotlight for the From Day One conference in Salt Lake City, Steve Artnz, co-founder and CEO of Campfire, a Utah-based leadership development company, invited the room to close their eyes.“We’re going to check in with ourselves,” he said, and asked three questions:1. What are you feeling today?2. What are you thinking about or distracted by the most today?3. Who are you today?“Now, think of someone on your team and go through the same three questions,” he said. 30 seconds later, eyes open, he explained that we’re blocked from making meaningful connections by the language we use.“Notice I didn’t say ‘How are you’ or ‘How are you feeling,’” he said. “If the person on the other side of the Zoom can’t empathize, you’ve got some big challenges in your workplace. We have to know how to check in and get to know [who our coworkers] are.”You can’t start diving deep in conversation if you’re stuck in generalizations, though—something Artnz says we do both at work and in our everyday lives.“I’m going to describe all of the salespeople that you’ve ever worked with,” he said. “They all love sports, sports all the time. They love to close—it’s their favorite thing about their job. And they’re absolutely driven by money; it’s all they want.”His exaggeration of the boxes we’re prone to put people into is met with bashful laughter. But he goes a step further, into the real research.“I [sat down with] 200 salespeople, and only 20% of them ended up with money and rewards in their top six of [drivers],” he said. “They’re motivated by mission and vision, purpose, problem solving, collaboration, teamwork…all these things matter as much to them as they matter to us. Turns out, they’re human too.”Steve Artnz, co-founder and CEO of Campfire, led the thought leadership spotlight in Salt Lake City (photo by Sean Ryan for From Day One)But even with a change in perspective and improved conversational techniques, Artnz posits that you’ll be walking in place unless your company’s environment instinctively fosters this kind of connection.“Raise your hand if you work at a company that you would describe as ‘an engine for your mental health and well-being,’” he said. To a few hands, he said, “Some, but not a lot, right? Are we doing the things that we need to [achieve that]?”Campfire takes its name from the “warm, connected gathering place” friends and family make s’mores over.“Somehow you just feel safe, sharing stores and thoughts, ideas and mistakes, challenges, lessons learned, all of these sorts of things from the deepest part of your life,” he said. “How do we create that campfire culture at work?”It falls on all of us to develop that culture collectively, making honest efforts to know and understand the people we work with. The most efficient culture changes, though, start at the top.“We’ve learned throughout the pandemic how critical the manager role has become,” he said. “If you take a company that’s become successful and exploded in growth, at some point, they will hit a ceiling if their management is ineffective.”The expectations of managers have risen since the start of the pandemic, he says. What might be tagged as “soft skills,” he says, are anything but.“They’re not soft conversations, they’re hard,” he says. “‘What do you expect of me as your leader? Here's what I expect of you.’ We need to have conversations about career development, ones that provide direction and clarity.”When these conversations are informed by his earlier three questions Artnz asked initially, he says “your company will grow, see success and achieve results.”The reverse is also true, though.“If we don’t do this, people will leave,” he says, referencing a McKinsey & Company study on the Great Attrition. “The biggest reason that [people quit] during the pandemic was uncaring leaders. [We need to] make people feel seen. In a post-AI world, we really need to focus on what makes us human.”In closing, he invited the audience to get a head start on that.“Please pull out your phone and text someone on your team, in your family, [whoever]: ‘How are you? (honest answers only),” he said. “I promise you’ll enjoy the results.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Campfire, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. Specializing in tax, she's interested in business, government, and the intersection of the two. When she's not in Excel or writing, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.
Kindling Community and Engagement in a Hybrid Workplace
BY Jacqueline Mumford April 18, 2023When Covid-19 moved school, work, and the rest of our lives online, some speculated that the change would be only temporary. Three years later, hybrid work remains the norm and companies are still figuring out how to manage it. Glen Mills of ABC4 News moderated a panel discussion on this topic during From Day One’s conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, where five leaders who are navigating the hybrid workplace shared best practices and advice on creating engagement in a hybrid workplace.What Does a Hybrid Workplace Look Like?Before you can manage something, you need to be able to define it. “When you say ‘hybrid,’ it can mean something different to every person,” said Logan Mallory, vice president of software company Motivosity. He goes into the office four times a week, and often sees other team members there.On the other hand, Grace Zuncic, chief people and impact officer at Cotopaxi, works remotely from New York and doesn’t often see her coworkers face-to-face. “Our CEO made a decision to have a remote-first workforce,” she said. “[We spent] our time and energy thinking about how to make that experience great.”Determining what approach is best for a company should be a shared responsibility. “For all of the HR practitioners and professionals, if you feel like you have to solve these problems on your own, say something about it,” said Robin Strup, vice president of DEI at global AI company Dataminr. “Great organizations have executive teams that all feel responsible for the employee experience.”Can You Balance Productivity and Flexibility?“I remember being sick to my stomach because I had to ask for an hour off to get my teeth cleaned,” Mallory said. “I’ve gained a little bit of confidence that I didn’t have, and I wouldn’t work somewhere like that [now].”It’s about more than doctor’s appointments though—remote and in-office workers alike are starting to expect more of a work-life balance than in the pre-pandemic years. If you can lean into that, the panelists agree you’ve tapped into HR magic.“Don’t say that you have a headache because you’re going to your kids’ soccer game,” said Gia Dowling, vice president of people and culture at Nicholas and Company, a food distribution and transportation company. “Don’t say you have a doctor’s appointment because you want to go to your daughter’s dance recital. Let’s be honest. Let’s talk!”If leadership sets the example of transparency, more honest conversations flow. And when you trust you colleagues, the work always gets done — and you’ll make your appointments, too.“We’re very, very specific when hiring,” Dowling said. “I spell it out: these are the expectations, because not everyone is coming into the office and seeing [how it works]. The more explicit you can be in your instructions, the better.”Stages of a CareerStill, Zuncic cautions that an employee’s needs (and expectations) may vary drastically based on how far along an employee is in their career. “We have to be mindful about the remote experience for new people coming in,” she said. “You must design programs around this [being someone’s first job], and ensure that there are opportunities for them to connect with folks at the company.”The full panel of speakers from left, Robin Strup of Dataminr, Brooke Shreeve of Weave, Grace Zuncic of Cotopaxi, moderator Glen Mills of ABC4 News, Gia Dowling of Nicholas & Company, and Logan Mallory of Motivosity (Photo by Sean Ryan for From Day One)Brooke Shreeve, chief people officer at software firm Weave built upon Zuncic’s comment by getting into specifics. “Gen Z is the most volatile right now because of that learning opportunity,” she said. “If we don’t get it right the first time, they’re going to be lost. Other generations want to work from home, but this younger generation is missing an opportunity to learn from them. There is going to be a big gap between the two if we’re not careful.”The solution is being intentional, she says.“There have been many days that I’ve walked into the office and there’s nobody there,” she said. “What a waste of time! If you’re coming in, make sure there’s a group of individuals there too, and you have a purpose. And even when you have people coming in, in a lot of cases you will also still have people at home, and you can’t forget them. You have to continue [to foster] that sense of belonging.”Can We Dispel the “Us vs. Them” Mentality?Coordinating schedules isn’t the only roadblock facing managers trying to balance at-home and in-office employees, though. Often, emotions come into play.Dowling’s company has employees that can work from home, like sales and finance, and employees that cannot, like truck drivers and warehouse workers. “Is there some jealousy? Yes,” she said. “It is an every single day, 24/7 experience of us trying to bridge that gap.” Through year-end thank you bonuses, career trainings and pay-by-incentive programs, Dowling says they’re leveling the playing field.The gaps don’t have to be filled exclusively by monetary value. Zuncic says as a remote employee, phone calls and videos sent on company messaging platforms can mean a lot. “When you think about recognition, there isn’t just one good way,” she said. “Show you appreciation with different platforms and technologies.”A Win-Win SituationAll panelists agreed that hybrid work environments, however they present, can be a strength for a company when applied correctly.“Before the pandemic, [individuals with disabilities] could ask for reasonable accommodation and be able to work from home, but they were isolated,” Shreeve said. “Now, their counterparts are working from home too, so they feel like they’re part of the group.”Dowling mentioned hiring more working mothers, and Strup highlighted that LGBTQIA+ and other underrepresented populations benefit from hybrid working options.The panel concluded on the idea that it’s not just in the individual’s interest to embrace a hybrid workplace.“[Hybrid work] opens up opportunities for all of us,” Strup said. “It’s no secret that organizations that are diverse and inclusive are better performing and have higher retention rates. We are now able to recruit talent from all over the world. It opens doors by allowing people to live wherever they live—you aren’t restrained by regional boundaries or demographics. That’s a real, tangible benefit of the hybrid model.”Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. Specializing in tax, she's interested in business, government, and the intersection of the two. When she's not in Excel or writing, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.
Building an Inclusive Team in the Arena and the Community
BY Jacqueline Mumford April 14, 2023For Betsy McCann, nurturing the authentic self must be at the center of all diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.“There’s no way that you can be a different person from nine to five than you are from five to nine,” said McCann, the new senior vice president of people and culture at Utah Jazz. “As soon as you start doing that, you feel this pull inside that tells you you’re not your authentic self.”McCann started her role in 2022 and has spent the last year pouring herself into making that approach not just a possibility, but a commonplace.Lori Prichard, anchor and reporter for Utah’s KSL, interviewed McCann during From Day One’s March conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Establishing that McCann herself is from out of state, Prichard asked what it’s like to build a team with different backgrounds.“This particular area of the country isn’t necessarily known for being as diverse as some other regions,” Prichard said. “How are you transparent with people who are coming to the organization from outside about [some of] the obstacles or challenges that they may face?”When it comes to feeling as though you can be your “authentic self” at work, McCann asserts that it all starts in your company’s hiring practices.McCann, left, and Prichard, right, kicked off the Salt Lake City conference (Photo by Sean Ryan for From Day One)“As the human resource function has evolved, we have a diligence and a duty to our candidates to provide them more of the real picture,” she said. “I promise most of you have gotten a job and been like, ‘Alright, when is the other shoe going to drop?’”The Jazz’s response was a program for the Black community, where current employees and prospective candidates can use confidential meeting time to talk about their experiences. The hiring manager, other employees, and even McCann herself aren’t involved—it’s an entirely safe place to have a real heart to heart. McCann says candidate feedback has been “incredible.”“This is something I’ve shared with the NBA, that I think other teams are figuring out how they would incorporate something like it,” she said.But you can’t hit the brakes after the hiring interviews. Consistent reminders that team members are seen and heard are key to maintaining a sense of belonging.Last year, for Día de los Muertos, “we had an ofrenda on the concourse,” she said. “We had incredible performances by Latinx and Hispanic artists, and we took the time to connect to that community in a meaningful way.”The Jazz will also be hosting their second pride night this year.“The night after I accepted [this] job, our chief experience officer took me to a Jazz game. It was our first ever pride night, and as a queer person sitting there, I felt like they’d done it before. It’s something that they’re proud of.”But while its foundational and second-story levels of inclusivity efforts are massive, what seems to make the Jazz’s impact uniquely successful is its ability to reach far outside of the core organization.“Seeing the reach of the Jazz into the [larger] community, particularly in schools is so critically important. What are some strategies that you use as an organization to make sure people know in the state that we care about diversity, equity, and inclusion?” Prichard asked.McCann immediately pointed to Junior Jazz, the largest youth-focused basketball program in the NBA. Currently, over 60,000 students in six states participate every year.“I grew up in a very small town where no pro-athletes [came to] show me how to play basketball,” McCann said. “[When you participate in] Junior Jazz, your family, and you as an individual, start paying attention to the work that the Jazz does, how we interface with the community and the events we build.”All of these efforts combined make the Jazz’s employees, players and fans feel connected not only to the game, but to each other.“The first time I went to a game, [I felt] the sound in my body,” McCann said. “This is something special. To be able cultivate the next generation of [the Jazz] is incredible.”Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. Specializing in tax, she's interested in business, government, and the intersection of the two. When she's not in Excel or writing, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.