Latest / The BioHub - by Avetix / Episode 56– Alec Ford & Stacy Solorio - CEO and Chief People Officer at Karius

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Episode 56– Alec Ford & Stacy Solorio - CEO and Chief People Officer at Karius · The BioHub - by Avetix

0:05
So welcome back to the episode of the Bio Hub.
0:07
Today, we're really excited to host a dynamic leadership duo, a
0:11
CEO and Chief People Officer in Alec Ford and Stacey Solorio,
0:14
who are together shaping the future of carriers.
0:17
In today's episode, Alec and Stacey will talk through their
0:20
journeys, how carriers approach being a hybrid slash remote
0:23
organization, as well as the importance of the relationship
0:27
between the CEO and Chief People Officer.
0:30
So Alec, let's dive in. So if you could start us off
0:32
with an introduction on yourself, your journey through
0:35
the field and how you got to where you are today.
0:39
I'm glad to, Thomas, and thank you so much for having us.
0:41
And I'm delighted to be here with Stacy and talk a little bit
0:44
about what we're doing together at CURIOUS.
0:47
My background began about 37 years ago at Pfizer.
0:52
I spent an old 20 years in pharmaceuticals, four or five
0:56
years in vaccines, in the last 15 years in genomics.
1:00
And after leaving the last genomics organization that I was
1:04
a part of, the company that discovered BRCA 1 and 2, the
1:08
genes responsible for ovarian and breast cancer that's
1:11
inherited after leaving that organization, I heard about
1:15
curious. And it was this amazing
1:17
opportunity to stitch together 2 parts of my history.
1:21
One, my genomics history and where genomics could take
1:24
medicine in the future. And the second was the very
1:26
beginning of my career, which was at Pfizer and infectious
1:29
disease. It was a golden era of
1:33
infectious disease 37 years ago. New antibiotics were being
1:36
developed all the time and Pfizer was a very exciting place
1:41
to be a part of that. So the chance to bring those two
1:43
things together, genomics and infectious disease, is what
1:46
Carious is all about. Awesome.
1:49
And Stacey, the same for you. If you could talk through your
1:52
journey and how you got to where you are today, that'll be
1:54
that'll be amazing. Yeah, I, I wrote this down and
1:58
it's hard to work, right? 20 years experience in HR, like
2:02
oof, it hit the milestone. 20 years experience in HR.
2:05
The last 10 years in life sciences, I've been working with
2:09
organizations in rapid periods of growth and transformation
2:14
going from start up to growth stage organizations.
2:17
I'm really, really passionate about implementing HR strategies
2:20
and operational efficiencies within the organization.
2:24
I really strive to forge these strong alignments with the
2:27
executive team and the board so we can really prioritize our
2:30
people driven goals. I think most importantly the
2:34
work that we do is to foster the culture of engagement and where
2:38
employees can feel that they have some professional growth in
2:41
their organization and something specific to carry as we really
2:45
want to contribute back to our community and ways of
2:48
volunteering and other events that we do with local colleges.
2:52
Over the last years, I've worked 10 years with the different
2:56
industry organizations like Biocom.
3:00
I found the Biocom HR Biotech Group.
3:03
It's a group of over 600 HR professionals in California
3:08
where we provide them access to networking events as well as
3:11
educational events. And I also started the HR
3:15
Executive Education program to get heads of HR access to
3:20
strategic partners and give them the education they need to be
3:24
strong leaders within their organization.
3:27
I'm also a member of the Biocom California Board of Directors
3:31
and I really enjoy speaking at conferences and doing a first
3:35
podcast now. And in 2023, I became certified
3:40
as an integral coach, which has been an amazing experience to
3:43
bring that back to the Carriers organization and help provide
3:47
leaders access to coaching through some work that I've done
3:51
previously. Awesome.
3:54
Fine. So Alec, you and Stacey have
3:56
been working together for nearly five years now.
3:59
Tell us a little bit about how you've been able to build a
4:02
strong relationship, have open communication together, trust,
4:06
and a vision for success. Yeah, Thomas, I appreciate that
4:10
question. I think you have to go back to
4:12
when our work relationship began.
4:15
Stacy's history of Curious preceded me.
4:17
She had a lot of critical knowledge relative to the
4:19
history of this organization, as well as a extraordinary finger
4:22
on the pulse of the people of this company when I arrived.
4:25
But if we go back to just almost five years ago, we were in the
4:29
throes of the pandemic. And so not only were there the
4:33
typical challenges for a leader like myself coming into a new
4:36
organization, but we had an organization that quite frankly,
4:40
considering we were an infectious disease that not only
4:44
was trying to provide critical answers to patients in the
4:47
hospital, specific what was taking place, but also an
4:50
organization that quite frankly was working from home like many
4:54
other companies in the country. So I think the first part is
4:59
Stacy's significant impact on my entry to this organization had a
5:03
couple important elements. The first element was what do we
5:07
do with this leadership team? How do we need to change it and
5:10
modify it? Stacy was a thought partner on
5:13
each step of that journey. Who is the next C level leader
5:16
that we bring into the organization?
5:17
Who was how do we scale the next part of the organization the
5:21
right way? This is a relatively small
5:23
organization when I arrived. And so Stacy had an
5:26
extraordinary impact and exchange with me about how we
5:30
needed to sequence that and how to be the most thoughtful around
5:33
that such that it had the biggest impact on the business.
5:36
The second part was how do we create a culture among that
5:40
leadership team that elevates trust and connection among the
5:43
leaders, these new leaders as they arrived in the
5:46
organization. And as Stacy and I talked about
5:50
it more and more, especially during the pandemic, we realized
5:54
that we need dedicated time as a leadership team away from the
5:58
office with just us as a group. And a couple important things
6:02
happened, Thomas, with Stacy's input and vision around this, a
6:06
couple important pieces happened. 1 is every month
6:10
during the pandemic and thereafter as a leadership team,
6:13
we were together talking about the business, talking about the
6:17
company, talking about the culture away from the office.
6:20
Just as a leadership team, it gave us a chance to have a meal
6:25
together. It gave us a chance to review
6:27
what was critical in the business.
6:29
It gave us a chance to make some difficult choices about where we
6:31
were going thereafter. So that was the first piece.
6:35
You have to figure out what kind of cadence you can get going in
6:38
terms of pulling these people together.
6:40
I think the trust that was developed both between myself
6:43
and Stacy as well as across this leadership team happened as a
6:47
result of that very steady drum beat of bringing those people
6:52
together in a dedicated setting where they could talk safely
6:56
about where we needed to go as as a company.
6:59
And then quite frankly, the last piece was creating the kind of
7:02
cadence and environment for these leaders where we can get
7:05
work done and talk about the business in a way that was
7:08
really informed. Stacey, what would you add to
7:10
that? I'm going to go off track just a
7:13
tiny bit just to talk about the importance of psychological
7:18
safety in the relationship that Alec and I have built.
7:22
You know, over the last couple years, I've gone through some
7:24
significant life events and not only with Alec but with the full
7:29
executive team, I just show up and announce a major life events
7:32
to everyone. And I knew I could do that
7:35
because I knew that there wasn't going to be any judgement about
7:38
how my work was going to get performed, whether I could do
7:42
the job, going through the significant life event that no
7:45
one would think different with me of going to have a major
7:50
change in my role and in my life.
7:53
And so we talk about psychological safety a lot and
7:57
how important it is, but to actually see it working in an
8:00
organization is something different.
8:02
And so I think, you know, five years is a long time to build a
8:06
relationship, but building that psychological safety within the
8:10
relationship is extremely important because you get to see
8:13
the person as the whole person. We don't just show up to work
8:17
and, you know, keep the world outside our walls like these
8:20
things impact our work and impact our our lives.
8:23
So I just appreciate that the amount of psychological safety
8:27
that's been created here at Carious with Alec and with our
8:30
executive team. Yeah.
8:32
I love that the the type of culture that you've built where
8:35
you can have that open communication.
8:37
Yeah, I love that. And Stacey, can you tell us a
8:40
little bit about how you ensure that the HRS initiatives align
8:44
with the company's strategy and vision?
8:47
Yeah. We have a really robust annual
8:49
strategy and planning process and it starts with the business.
8:54
I'm very, really trying to get people to not just think, oh,
8:59
what does HR want to do? There's a lot of things HR wants
9:01
to do and implement in an organization, but I want the
9:04
business to tell us what's important to them.
9:07
So we start there. We start with what do you want
9:10
to do to develop your leaders? What do you want to do?
9:12
Develop your individual contributors.
9:15
How do you want to look at training and development, either
9:18
as an organization, either as a functional team.
9:22
And we start with the business asking them what they'd like to
9:24
do for the upcoming year. So for us, it's about making
9:28
sure that we're going deeper into the programs that we have,
9:32
that now that I've been here five years, we got most of the
9:35
things HR needs in an organization to make it
9:37
successful. And really something Alec has
9:40
taught me over the last few years is we don't need more.
9:43
Actually we're doing great with what we have.
9:46
It's how do we refine it? How do we make it better by
9:49
asking people for feedback? What would you change?
9:52
What would you add? How can we streamline processes?
9:55
So for us it's all about making sure the business is giving us
9:59
the information of what people driven with, grow their
10:03
organization and aligning to that and then just refining some
10:07
of our operational areas. And Thomas, the thing I'd add to
10:11
Stacy's comment that I think so important is, you know, the, the
10:16
sea level leadership and especially for Stacy, right?
10:19
There's a set of expectations that especially Stacy is at a
10:23
chance to model for everyone on this SEA leadership team, which
10:26
is make sure you understand the business, make sure you're
10:29
contributing to the business, and 3rd, make sure that that
10:33
contribution is producing an impact.
10:35
So when Stacey talks about that we don't need more initiatives
10:40
in the company to have, but more impact.
10:43
I think what she's speaking to is the fact that she and her
10:45
team have refined what we're doing such that each time that
10:49
we do it, roll out this program, go through some element of
10:52
performance management, go through something that we think
10:55
is going to drive engagement, the goal becomes having a
10:57
greater impact, not adding a new thing relative to the overhead
11:02
of the organization. So, but that doesn't happen,
11:04
Thomas, if you don't understand the business well and you're not
11:08
contributing to it on an ongoing basis.
11:12
Also, this is probably a question for both of you, but
11:15
Alex, let's start with you. So you made the decision to that
11:19
you guys will be a hybrid business where you don't require
11:22
people to be on site X amount of days.
11:25
In fact, half of the leadership team is actually remote.
11:28
How are you navigating today's workforce challenges, including
11:33
talent, strategy and the evolving future of work?
11:36
It's a great question, Thomas. I'll.
11:38
Yeah, I'll love to share a perspective there.
11:40
Again, you have to go back to 2020, not an ideal time to be
11:44
starting in our organization. Not only starting in our
11:46
organization, but scaling 1. So think about what all, many,
11:51
most organizations were going through at that time.
11:53
Everybody was remote, everybody was working from home.
11:57
We need a specific set of talent that to arrive from the
12:00
leadership standpoint into this company.
12:03
And to some degree at that .5 years ago, four years ago, that
12:06
was an advantage for us because we could hire people remotely.
12:10
We could look for absolutely the best person relative to the role
12:13
we were trying to fill and we could ignore where they lived.
12:16
Now the challenge, Thomas, and I think you hinted at this.
12:20
The challenge came when the pandemic began to wane.
12:25
Sea level leaders like myself and I was a part of a twenty
12:28
person CEO group for a three-year period where we
12:31
talked about this all the time. Sea level leaders like myself
12:35
wanted to go back to what that history was.
12:38
Hey, let's get folks back in the office.
12:40
Let's get all the benefits from people being together on a daily
12:43
basis. The intent on that is
12:45
extraordinary and I completely understand.
12:48
But we had an opportunity with the pandemic in transitioning
12:52
from fully remote work to a hybrid work environment.
12:56
We had a chance to run an experiment and that experiment
13:00
was beginning to pivot to what I would call an outcomes based
13:04
workplace, right? Anybody who works in any
13:07
organization, sure, people have work to do and there's there's
13:11
things that need to be fulfilled.
13:13
But at the end of the day, you're responsible for an
13:14
outcome, a business outcome, an outcome to people, an outcome on
13:19
someone's development in terms of their ability to perform in
13:23
their role. We're all responsible for
13:25
outcomes. And so Stacy hinted at our
13:27
planning culture. We have had to build a variety
13:31
of things that are ultra specific around the business
13:34
outcome that every single leader in this company is accountable
13:38
to. And then once you have that
13:40
clarity in those business outcomes, then you need
13:43
processes that support them where people are driving their
13:47
own accountability, people are providing updates relative to
13:50
the achievement of those outcomes and you need the rest
13:53
of the system to make that outcomes based workplace come to
13:57
life. I think in that CEO group,
14:01
Thomas, I was the only CEO during that three-year period
14:07
who didn't require a minimum number of days to come back into
14:10
the office. I have to tell you, my
14:12
observation would be the majority of my peers in that CEO
14:17
group had one challenge after another about return to work.
14:22
We decided to stay focused on outcomes, what needs to happen
14:26
in the business, what needs to happen with our people?
14:28
How do our leaders need to develop?
14:30
We stayed focused on outcomes and we ignored whether or not
14:34
somebody's coming in on Tuesday or Thursday.
14:37
You have to build the rest of it to achieve those critical
14:40
outcomes. And sometimes we don't achieve
14:41
them, sometimes we do. But that whole idea would
14:46
somehow organizations could be re transformed with one or two
14:49
days a week in the office. I think failed to acknowledge
14:54
the fact that as the world went remote for two years, the world
15:00
of work changed. And we can either anticipate how
15:03
we need to change based on what took place, or we can do what
15:07
took place and try to go back to the way we used to do it.
15:10
And I think with stations, counsel and advice to me is we
15:14
embrace something that was very different to us.
15:17
Yeah, I love that. I think, I know we're a slightly
15:20
different business to you guys, but as a recruitment business we
15:24
we're pretty flexible as well in terms of whether we work at
15:26
home, whether we're in the office.
15:28
We have a mantra that we go by which is freedom to flourish.
15:32
And what that means is that you know, if you're going to hire
15:35
top people and you're going to attract the best, you have to
15:37
give people that freedom whilst making them accountable at the
15:40
same time. So I think it's something
15:42
similar that we follow as well. Yeah, I think it just gives like
15:46
a high degree of trust to your people when you can say it
15:50
doesn't matter if you're a warm seat in an office where you do
15:54
your work, you can still not be productive.
15:56
By the way, if you're a warm seat in the office doing the
15:59
work, it's a matter of going and against the goals that you set
16:03
for the year and how are you achieving those goals.
16:05
I'll also add, we, we do a lot of cross collaboration work at
16:08
Carius. So we've built systems where
16:10
people can work together. So we have things called core
16:13
teams and a product executive committee and these groups that
16:17
get together on a regular basis to move projects along.
16:21
So I think the infrastructure that we've been able to build at
16:23
Carius too really supports this future of work hybrid
16:26
organization where people can work cross collaboratively.
16:30
In our last engagement survey, we scored 94% on we do hybrid,
16:35
right. So people are very happy.
16:37
I curious with the way that we've set up hybrid, the way
16:40
that we're able to communicate even though we're all on screens
16:44
and people in the lab, but we've been able to also make sure that
16:48
we have touch points where people come together and they
16:51
have on sites and they have team building events.
16:53
So we do make sure with the build in those special moments
16:56
where people can connect in real time as well.
16:59
Yeah, Thomas, Thomas, a quick comment on that.
17:02
You know, there there's there's two schools of thought, right.
17:05
If we were to exaggerate it for a moment, there's one where,
17:07
hey, you got to be here Tuesday, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
17:11
There's another school of thought that says you are
17:14
responsible as a leader in an organization to make the office
17:17
a place people want to come. And those can be very different
17:21
mindsets that will result in very different approaches.
17:24
I think based on Stacy's council and leadership, we're trying to
17:28
achieve the latter where people want to come in because there's
17:32
an event that they want to be a part of, that they want to have
17:35
a voice around that they want to participate in, that they want
17:38
to spend time with their peers as a part of.
17:40
And if if we can either demand that people come in or we can
17:45
say it is up to us as leaders and coaches to create an
17:48
environment that's a draw that makes it appealing for people to
17:53
come in for these critical events and these critical points
17:55
of connection. It's a little arbitrary and a
17:58
bit exaggerated, but I think those are the two choices.
18:02
Nice. Yeah, I think it's nice to have
18:04
that flexibility. Like I, I love being in the
18:07
office even though I've got the option to work at home.
18:09
I I love just being around people every day.
18:11
And so, yeah. And I know one thing that you
18:16
could strongly align on is the development of people from the
18:19
executives to, you know, managers that are leading teams
18:23
all the way through to individual contributors.
18:26
Stacey, tell us about some of the strategies you've
18:28
implemented to ensure continuous organizational development and
18:33
like a coaching culture organization.
18:36
Yeah, absolutely. We are a coaching organization.
18:39
We really believe that a culture of feedback is spurring at
18:43
growth and innovation within our team.
18:45
So I think there's several things that we do that's unique
18:48
at Curious. The 1st is we offer coaching to
18:51
anybody in the company. So we run cohorts twice a year
18:56
where people can sign up for coaching through a platform
18:59
where they can get all types of coaching.
19:02
We don't prescribe to them. We don't tell the coaches what
19:05
our cultural values are, what the competencies are in each of
19:09
the roles. We just let them run free with
19:11
their coaching so they can have a professional coach.
19:14
They can have coaches on sleep and parenting and can
19:19
communication. They have sense of coaches that
19:21
are available. We really believe that if you
19:24
get coaching in any aspect of your life, you're going to be in
19:27
a better employee at work. So we don't prescribe how they
19:30
use coaching. We just let people sign up and
19:33
go forward with that program. We've done that now for four
19:36
years. There's always a wait list.
19:39
People are really excited to hear what how other people have
19:42
learned through their coach and how it's impacted them.
19:45
It's unlimited coaching, so they could do coaching twice a week,
19:49
one with their professional coach and one with their
19:52
nutrition coach. So it's really great for them to
19:55
have access to unlimited coaching and we run those
19:58
cohorts twice a year. Secondly, I got a chance to get
20:02
certified in a leadership assessment program called the
20:06
Leadership Circle Profile, and we've been running our leaders
20:10
through that program to get full 360 feedback.
20:13
This is in no way tied to their performance.
20:16
We call this the gift of feedback.
20:18
We allow people to participate in a way that gives them
20:22
quantitative results and how to be a best in class leader.
20:26
We also show them the things that are holding them back from
20:29
being a great leader. And then we work together as a
20:32
team to look at our strengths in the aggregate of all of our
20:36
results. We're currently running our
20:38
commercial team through this program.
20:40
And then latter in the year we're going to have people
20:42
leaders opt in, which that is already full.
20:45
We have that. We have 15 people already signed
20:48
up for that later in the year. So we really believe not only
20:51
through the performance management process where people
20:53
are getting feedback on being a great leader as well as getting
20:58
information from their peers, we want to provide them this gift
21:01
of feedback through the Leadership Circle profile.
21:04
And then lastly, I'll just say we develop an annual development
21:07
calendar. So this is both for people
21:10
leaders, for individual contributors, this is a way for
21:13
them to opt in to any skilled development and training
21:16
throughout the year. So we provide that at the onset
21:18
of the year. We have some external partners
21:22
that come in and deliver training.
21:24
Yesterday I delivered a coaching training to our people leaders,
21:28
introducing them to our new coaching model that we'll be
21:31
using across the organization. And then we also have other in
21:36
house trainings related to neurodiversity and other areas
21:40
where people can grow their skill development either as a
21:43
people leader or an individual contributor.
21:45
So we make those available throughout the year.
21:48
Most of the people leader stuff we, we tell them they need to
21:50
come with individual contributors, they can opt in,
21:53
but we want to make sure that we're providing a, a robust
21:57
leadership and development program for our team.
22:02
Very good. And this is probably a question
22:05
for both of you, but I'll start with you, Alec.
22:07
How do you work together with Stacy to identify and nurture
22:11
future, future leaders within carriers?
22:14
It's a good question. A couple of perspectives there
22:16
and I'll lean on Stacy. I think that the the first piece
22:21
of this equation is I think the importance that Stacy and I
22:25
share and how aligned we are around what a good leader in the
22:29
company needs to look like. I would say at the most basic,
22:33
we'll, we'll draw 2 distinctions.
22:35
There is a leader as coach. That leader as coach requires
22:39
that person's ability to develop trust for them to be seen as
22:43
credible for them to be able to develop effective partnerships
22:46
with their people, the people that report to them such that
22:49
they can help those people become more impactful in their
22:53
work. That's leader as coach.
22:55
I think on the flip side, you have organizational leadership
22:58
responsibilities as well. And we'll get to how we define
23:01
some of these leaders and invest in them.
23:03
But on this other part of the equation around what it means to
23:06
be an organizational leader, that means extreme clarity in
23:10
terms of what's being pursued strategically in the company.
23:14
It means developing a culture of performance as a leader and
23:18
outcomes based performance as we spoke of previously.
23:22
And then again the common thread with a cadence of transparency
23:26
that drives trust as a leader in the organization.
23:30
So those two pieces to the puzzle as Stacy and I think
23:34
about people that are developing in the company as well as people
23:37
that have an established leadership role, those are the
23:40
two of the pivot areas. Stacy has many more because she
23:44
works on this a lot. Those are two of the areas that
23:47
we spend a lot of time on. How do we help people become
23:49
more effective coaches and how do we help them become
23:52
respected, thoughtful and high trust leaders in the company?
23:57
Neither of those two are easy to do.
23:59
Many of us have worked in companies before.
24:01
We can instantly think of the worst boss we've ever had.
24:05
Thomas, can you think of them right?
24:06
Now, yeah. Anybody can come up with that
24:11
name in a second. So the thing I would offer, the
24:14
last thought before Stacey's comments, nobody works for a
24:17
company, Thomas. People work for a person.
24:22
And so if we don't get that coaching development the right
24:25
way and if we don't get that leadership development set up
24:28
the right way, and those expectations are clear in both
24:32
domains. If we fail on that, they will
24:35
never remember they worked for Carry Us, but they'll remember
24:39
who they worked for while they were here, whether it's great
24:42
experience or a poor experience. Stacey, what would you add to
24:45
that? Yeah, I absolutely agree.
24:48
I I think that one of the things we really instill in our team is
24:53
to create relationships within your group.
24:57
And that's why we're constantly open doors, whether it's Alex's
25:00
door, whether it's HR store or any executive team members door
25:04
for anybody in the organization to come and ask about their
25:08
growth within the company, about their management style and where
25:11
they can improve. So it's really important for us
25:14
to make sure that these leaders are giving our people the best
25:17
experience. I'll also add that we're really
25:21
looking at how we develop people within the organization through
25:25
our talent review process. This is a chance for a full day
25:29
every six months, the leadership team getting together and
25:32
talking about our people. And this is a way that we look
25:36
at our high potentials. Who in the organization is
25:39
rising to that next level and how do we as a group get them
25:43
there? Sometimes there's not a lot of
25:45
visibility on who in the organization are these high
25:49
potentials. It gives the chance for the
25:51
executive team to highlight somebody on their team and then
25:54
sign up for something. Hey, I'll, I'll mentor them.
25:57
I'd love that. Sign me up for taking them to a
26:00
conference with me. I'm about to go here.
26:03
So it gives the visibility to the team team, it allows us to
26:06
talk about critical talent within the team to who is the
26:09
person who's the only one who knows how to do fill in the
26:12
blank. Let's make sure we have
26:14
contingency plans. Let's make sure we understand
26:17
the flight risk that they have us a person as willing to stay
26:21
in the organization or leave. And then lastly, we've done a
26:25
ton of work on our promotion process to really make sure that
26:29
the way in which people are being presented as a promotional
26:32
opportunity is grounded and it's equitable.
26:36
So we require people who are about to get promoted to have a
26:39
career development plan in place for at least a year that they've
26:42
been working on with their manager.
26:44
And so it's important for us to justify our promotions.
26:48
You know what happens when everyone gets promoted?
26:50
They look inward. Why wasn't it me?
26:52
Why was it this person and I haven't seen what I do in
26:56
comparison to the other. So we want to make sure that
26:58
when people get promoted, it's celebrated across the
27:01
organization and people understand why somebody got
27:05
promoted because they know that they're working on a career
27:08
development plan with their manager.
27:10
So we've really done some great work to really refine our
27:13
processes. Yeah, I love that.
27:17
And Stacey, back to you again. How are you ensuring carries
27:20
this culture is strong and its impact on employee retention?
27:25
We ask, we ask a lot. We ask at least twice a year.
27:31
So we're asking through employee engagement survey that we do
27:34
every year and then we do a pulse check at the end of the
27:38
year as well. Through our annual employee
27:40
engagement process, we not only look at how did the company do
27:45
as a whole, but we get those reports for every functional
27:49
leader. We hand over the reports.
27:50
We say go share your team's results with your team and then
27:55
create development plans with your team on how you want to
27:58
move the needle within your group.
28:01
Something Alec has taught me is there's no company answer to how
28:05
we respond to an employee engagement survey.
28:09
The company isn't going to fix anything.
28:11
Our leaders are. Our leaders are going to make
28:14
the change within the groups for the things that are important to
28:17
their group. So we actually have action plans
28:20
that are developed by each functional leader.
28:22
We share those to the whole organization and a company
28:26
meeting so they can see how we're progressing against those
28:28
action plans and we get results. And we continue to get really
28:33
great engagement scores year over year.
28:36
We just participated in the Best Place to Work engagement survey
28:40
as well, where we went out to our people again and asked them
28:43
how we're doing. And we just got results back
28:46
around an 89% engagement rate, which won US five awards for the
28:52
spring awards, which were all 5 awards that were possible.
28:56
Curious has already won nine awards for the year.
29:00
And so it is only May and we have 9 best place to work
29:03
awards. So I think just asking people,
29:06
we have an open anonymous survey that people can ask questions.
29:11
We'll respond to it in a company meeting.
29:14
We have people leader sessions where people come and learn from
29:18
our executive team and hosting roundtable conversations.
29:23
And then every quarter Alec also has a session with anyone in the
29:27
company who wants to join him just to ask.
29:30
It's like an Ask Me Anything kind of event.
29:32
And so there's always lots of streams of communication where
29:36
we get information from our people and how we're doing.
29:38
So the first answer is ask. You got to check in with people
29:43
and see how they're doing. And Thomas, just to put a point
29:46
on that, you know, in 2024 as a as a leader, and this would be
29:52
the same for any member of the leadership team.
29:54
In 2024, I had 400 skip level meetings.
29:59
That's with people who report to my direct reports.
30:01
That's with other people in the company that wish to have a skip
30:05
level meeting. And when you have those
30:07
meetings, people have questions about the future of the company,
30:10
of the questions about the future of their career.
30:13
They want to know why their boss isn't developing faster.
30:17
It is an effective coach, whatever they want to talk
30:20
about. If you're asking, just like
30:22
Stacey said, if you're asking, if you're going out and getting
30:25
your own data, that's not the hard part.
30:28
The hard part is then empowering the leaders in the company to
30:32
make changes culturally, to make changes in terms of how they
30:35
coach and how they set expectations in whatever way
30:38
that improves people's experience.
30:40
That's actually where the lift is, Thomas.
30:42
It's getting the data. How can we be better?
30:46
Super easy to do. We can get data on how much we
30:48
how much we can be better any day of the week.
30:51
The real lift is then putting the responsibility for driving
30:55
those changes in the company back on the leaders of the
30:58
company in a way that they get to have a voice in what they
31:01
pick and where they want to move the needle.
31:03
So I think that's the the secret sauce that Stacy's helped us
31:08
develop as a company in terms of producing a real change in
31:13
people's experience in this organization.
31:16
That's fine. And lastly, so when, how do you
31:20
2 partners together, particularly when either there
31:22
might be a reduction in force or a change in leadership or a
31:27
restructuring or plans for M&A, like how would that partnership
31:31
happen or that dialogue? Stacey, why don't you start?
31:37
It, it starts with communications.
31:39
Like I think that one of the things that we do well in our
31:42
change management is making sure that the leadership team is
31:45
aligned and how we communicate this change organizationally.
31:50
And so we can spend days doing that alone because what we don't
31:53
want to do is walk out of the room and have different messages
31:56
across the organization. So we start with a change
31:59
management process that includes bullet points of communication.
32:03
So we're all really aligned on what those bullet points are and
32:07
then we're communicating across the company.
32:10
One thing that we really make sure to do in any change
32:13
management event is think about the people.
32:16
How is it going to land on them? Where are they hearing the
32:19
message? How are they hearing the
32:21
message? Who are they hearing the message
32:23
from? So whenever there is an
32:26
impactful event, even in a reduction in force, you know
32:29
you're so excited to bring people into your organization,
32:32
you want to treat them with respect on the way out as well,
32:36
whether that's through a performance management process,
32:38
reduction in force. It's important for us to really
32:41
treat people as the people. We were very excited to have
32:44
them join the organization as they exit the organization.
32:48
So we really think about how things land on people and then
32:52
how that communication is distributed.
32:55
Absent information, people make it up.
32:57
So we want to make sure that we have a very authentic why things
33:01
are happening, not the oh, that's just the corporate answer
33:05
that they're giving us. People want to hear the real
33:07
answer and to the extent we're able to, we're very authentic
33:11
and transparent in our communications.
33:14
Yeah, Thomas, I just add a couple comments.
33:17
I think the first part is, and we discussed this a lot as a
33:20
leadership team with Stacy's council.
33:22
The first part that's really important that I think we can
33:25
all acknowledge is something happens in the organization and
33:29
you need to put together some communication around it.
33:32
You and I both know. We all know based on our
33:34
experience, people usually underestimate what's required
33:38
relative to a communication event and a communication
33:41
strategy to deliver a message to the people in a company.
33:44
People always underestimate what is required.
33:49
They may not think at a level of the of detail that's important
33:52
enough relative to a single employee.
33:54
They may not think at a stakeholder level.
33:56
They may not think about how that message and that
33:58
communication needs to be sequenced across different
34:01
leadership teams. They may not think about other
34:05
objections or concerns or fears that may arise from the
34:08
communication. There are so many elements that
34:11
Stacy has helped us define that need to be a part of that change
34:15
management communication process.
34:18
Everyone underestimates the kind of communication that people in
34:22
an organization today expect. Everyone underestimates it.
34:27
So that has to be the first part that's in our control.
34:30
We cannot underestimate what is required in a communication
34:35
strategy relative to something that's taking place in the
34:37
company or even our annual plan, right?
34:41
I think the second part that's really, really important is that
34:45
Stacey has been helpful with is the people that are leading that
34:48
change need to be the people leading that communication.
34:52
And so not only do does the expectation of what's required
34:55
in an effective communication of a change in the company or an
34:59
element of our strategy or a pivot in that strategy, whatever
35:02
it might be, not only does it need to be thought about it
35:05
across all different stakeholder and cohort levels in the
35:08
company, but you actually have to take those materials back out
35:12
to the leaders in the company level by level to ensure that
35:17
they're feeling like they're in a powerful position to deliver
35:21
that content in a way that addresses what people want to
35:25
know. And people's expectations are
35:27
higher than ever in organizations.
35:30
Stacy and I are going to assume that we're going to fail when we
35:34
begin to work on one of those communication strategies around
35:38
change management. If that's our assumption that
35:41
there is a high degree of risk that we will fail, we will over
35:45
prepare and we will have at least the chance of doing a
35:49
better job. Yeah, look.
35:51
Guys, thanks so much for coming on.
35:52
I think it's been a really unique perspective from both of
35:55
you in terms of how important that relationship is between the
35:58
Chief People Officer and the CEO.
36:00
I think you guys have broken it down really well.
36:04
Thank you, Thomas. We are.
36:05
We were excited to be here and glad to share some of what we're
36:08
doing at Kerry.