Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Nabeel Ahmed, CHRO and Board Member at WIS (WIS) Wellbore Integrity Solutions
Transcript
- Kelsey Willock (00:42) Welcome Nabil Ahmed, CHRO at WIS. We're so beyond excited to have you today. And so to kick us off, I'd love for you to introduce us to yourself, tell us a little about your career and your background and where you are now. Nabeel Ahmed (00:58) Thank Kelsey. It's a pleasure. I appreciate you inviting me. I have been in the HR career throughout my 22 years of professional life. I came into the US as a 19-year-old ages ago, seems like, to Mississippi State for my undergrad degree, followed by the grad school. And then right after that, took on a job in an oil and gas company, starting off in IT. Pretty much within the first year I realized I'm not really great at it ⁓ and this is not something I enjoy. I was very fortunate to meet a gentleman in the HR organization of that company who somehow thought that I would do well in HR and said, why don't you come work for me? So that's how my journey in HR started. He mentored me and helped me settle down and understand the true HR. ⁓ function and the value HR can create in any organization. And from there on, my career has been fantastic. I couldn't have carved it out better myself. It's been, know, worked in 30 different countries. I've done all aspects of HR from talent acquisition to leadership development, succession planning, total rewards, HR business partnership. and worked for five different companies. This is my sixth company. For the most part, it's been an oil and gas, specifically oil field services with big names like Weatherford, Baker Hughes, Halliburton. But at the same time, also have done a stint in the steel industry and midstream space. Until most recently, I'm working with this private equity backed company called Velvo Integrity Solutions as the chief HR officer. Kelsey Willock (02:42) Why do you think your previous colleague had thought you had the quality to be a senior HR leader? In your own words. Nabeel Ahmed (02:52) That's a that's an ⁓ like you know that's still something I don't know the precise answer on why just having a conversation with me in 15 minutes and he would just look at me he was a very experienced 35 40 years veteran in the oil and gas hr field worked globally ⁓ and he just thought like my interaction from coming from an it professional with him was very ⁓ people driven and Kelsey Willock (03:16) Mm. Nabeel Ahmed (03:18) That's really the rationale he gave me when I asked him. But other than that, was just some things I leave it to fate. My career was meant to be in HR. So I just landed at the right place at the right time with the right individual. But other than that, it's tricky to say as a young professional with no prior experience in HR, why would somebody think in 15 minutes conversation, you would do well in HR, right? Kelsey Willock (03:43) Well, clearly he was right though. So before we dive into all the amazing work that you're doing now, I want to dig a bit deeper into telling our audience more about your personal story. And so the first one I have for you is can you tell us a little bit about your earliest money memory? Nabeel Ahmed (04:01) I grew up in a family with money. We were six siblings. My dad was the sole breadwinner. My mom was a home maker. you know, life was tough from a financial perspective, but we were happy and we had a great time. So my earliest memory really was coming to Mississippi State to the U.S. with a one-way ticket from Abu Dhabi, which is where I was born and raised in. And I had one way ticket to the U.S. and $500 is all I had. So second day landing in the U.S., I did get a job at a gas station. And at $5 an hour. Not speaking a lot of English, and especially the accent in Mississippi is very different and unique. They know a lot of the names of the products that were being sold at the gas station. So I was learning pretty much everything from speaking, communicating, interacting, to actually product sales, even to the extent of I didn't know the difference between a dime, nickel, and penny and quarter. I only had seen dollar bills, right? So that first week itself is where if I have to Think back, that was the first time I got paid and I had to work like 12 hour shifts, maybe more hours. So that was my first experience with money. Kelsey Willock (05:31) And do you recall what you did or spent with your first paycheck? Nabeel Ahmed (05:38) ⁓ I saved because like I said, I had scholarships at the school, but I had to cover up for my personal expenses. So this was right before the semester was starting. So I wanted to make sure I have enough money saved up for my expenses for the month so that I can focus on my classes and education during the week. So then I got into a schedule of like working through the weekends, making enough money to pay for the bills during the week. ⁓ So yeah, if I recall correctly, I must have saved that money. Kelsey Willock (06:10) And do you think this experience helped shape how you see security, freedom, or even responsibility about money? Nabeel Ahmed (06:21) absolutely. think, you know, that that $5.15 an hour before tax was it taught me a lot about working hard to make an honest living, ⁓ you know, and really utilizing it or maximizing the value out of where you utilize it and just accountability and financial discipline in life is what I learned ⁓ from that experience. Kelsey Willock (06:48) And how do you think that experience in your early money story has influenced how you think about pay and benefits for your employees? Nabeel Ahmed (06:59) So one of the things I've over time evolved in it already from the very beginning is the pay and benefits holistically has to be driven by performance. And you have to almost differentiate pay for performance. And that started from the very first experience that I had is you work hard, you do deliver. and you get paid accordingly, right? And it has to be differentiated between individuals who don't work as hard or perhaps don't put in the same amount of effort and value to actually be paid differently. So it's, I guess one thing I always say is it's not about equal pay, it's about equitable pay, right? So that equity comes in from what that particular individual is putting in. So my commitment or to differentiating pay for performance comes from that very early experience I had that I learned. Kelsey Willock (08:03) makes a ton of sense. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. So I want to shift a little bit into today's challenges and talk about where you see compensations and benefits breaking down most often today, whether it is pay equity, transparency, understanding tool rewards. What does that breakdown look like for you? Nabeel Ahmed (08:05) and for some time. Thank you. I think the understanding piece of the total rewards as a holistic package is something we need to do a lot more work on. like most people think in terms of salary and guaranteed cash only when it thinks about compensation. However, there is more than just the guaranteed compensation and even elements like short-term incentives and long-term equity or incentives, things which are all monetary and the traditional benefits like medical and dental vision, those things are all great, but there is more Kelsey Willock (09:01) you Nabeel Ahmed (09:02) Intangible benefits as well that we need to do a better job of demonstrating to the employee as a total holistic or total rewards package. And one example that comes to mind and my one my previous employer, we had a flexible work schedule of three days in the office, two days work from anywhere, work from home. And it really the value employees. Kelsey Willock (09:24) Thank you. Nabeel Ahmed (09:25) recognized of that benefit was when they left the company to go work for competition who had a five-day in-office schedule and then they recognized of the one I'm to go back. So we ended up rehiring a lot of those individuals back from competition because for them, you Kelsey Willock (09:26) Okay. ⁓ Nabeel Ahmed (09:41) know, one dimension of that was money they save on gas or commute time and, you know, the tolls that they have to pay. Kelsey Willock (09:44) Okay. Nabeel Ahmed (09:51) However, the more important thing was the quality of life that they were getting impacted by spending one hour or more in some cases on the road five days a week versus when they do have to do three days a week. So as a professional in HR, I am doing a lot more work with my team in terms of holistically presenting to an employee what is the core, what is the value proposition from a total rewards perspective that we have to offer holistically. Kelsey Willock (10:05) Okay. ⁓ Nabeel Ahmed (10:18) cash and compensation elements being there, but also benefits, which are traditional benefits. In addition, what are the other components? Like whether you invest in their educational development, do you have better policies in terms of ⁓ parental leave? What kind of benefits do you have in terms of perhaps taking international projects and assignments? Not every company can offer that, but those are all like... Kelsey Willock (10:19) . Nabeel Ahmed (10:45) in terms of a holistic offering, those are all dimensions that we need to do a better job of helping employees understand. And that's where the differentiator comes in. Kelsey Willock (10:54) So kind of digging into that, can you share one specific example where you've seen a change that you've enacted that has moved from attracting talent to transforming lives? Nabeel Ahmed (11:08) Yeah, one of the things so I've a lot of my career was spent in publicly trading companies, but lately the most recent couple of employees have been with this private equity based. I think. The one of the things which which has ⁓ transformed lives from a belt generation perspective. is when employees have, individuals have worked for private equity backed companies, there's always a potential transaction or an exit or a merger or an acquisition of sorts. And that's where creating value for the company ultimately ends up creating value for the individual in the form of wealth, as opposed to just getting paid on a month to month check by check basis. There are individuals that, you know, I recruited Kelsey Willock (11:45) Hmm. Nabeel Ahmed (11:54) ⁓ end roles in my previous company. And they were reluctant on the fence of leaving a publicly trading company which provided stability and, you know, just structure to actually go work in a private equity backed company which brings a lot of uncertainty but also speed of execution. And we had this conversation with them and through the recruitment process where it's almost like you're pitching the job to them but the Kelsey Willock (12:06) But. Thank you. Nabeel Ahmed (12:21) the transformational aspect of it came in when we ended up selling that company because through that wholesale process those individuals made true wealth. Kelsey Willock (12:33) Right. Nabeel Ahmed (12:33) It wasn't like just the competition. was like all of the equity investing, all of the change in control packages. Now we're talking about at a certain level of the leadership and above. But again, those kind of decisions and those kind of competition arrangements does transform people's lives and families' lives really. Kelsey Willock (12:53) So thinking about how those decisions impact the company from a measurable standpoint, was there a measurable impact that you saw? It sounds like potentially retention or even attracting new talent. Do you ever look at things like engagement, a higher level of employee satisfaction, and what are the things you look most to? Nabeel Ahmed (13:16) Yeah, there are some metrics that almost everybody looks at and I do too in terms of you know, what is the attrition of key talent? You know, what is the what is the typical tenure of key talent and like, know, it indicates retention and attrition does indicate like, you know, you're doing what are the things you're looking at and doing right. But one thing when it comes to engagement, ⁓ I'm a big advocate of evaluating engagement for specific topics as opposed to a overall Kelsey Willock (13:44) Thank Nabeel Ahmed (13:45) general, generic engagement-based survey that you conduct and you kind of compare as a trend that we had these six generic questions. This was not so positive. This was very positive and on a trend basis, what is it that people are saying? If we truly want to evaluate engagement, I'm a big advocate of looking at engagement from a specific topic perspective. Kelsey Willock (13:52) Thank Bye. ⁓ Thank you. Nabeel Ahmed (14:14) ask one question, maybe it's like, okay, I really enjoy the work hours I have at this company, right? And kind of evaluate ⁓ or the work-life balance or whatever the topic is, look at one topic, pick on that and look at the response of that topic across a spectrum of time. That's to me a better, more effective way of evaluating engagement in an organization as opposed to a kind of a general generic survey. Kelsey Willock (14:24) Right. Right. Otherwise, you might be looking at correlation versus causation and it's not really good data. looking ahead, what compensation or benefits trends do you think are going to shape the employee experience in the next year or two? Nabeel Ahmed (14:46) Examine. Examine. That's Yeah, see the more and more with the so it's an interesting time as I always talk about in any given organization, especially in the oil and gas sector, you have almost three generations of workforce working simultaneously. And a fourth one is Kelsey Willock (15:14) Hmm. Nabeel Ahmed (15:16) probably going to come in and there will be some overlap between the first and the fourth. And what motivates one generation is very different from what motivates the third and the fourth generation and the Gen Zs, right? So how do you design comp and benefits or total rewards as a whole for an organization that has different motivational levels for different individuals and different workforce people, even though they're working simultaneously, right? ⁓ Kelsey Willock (15:28) Right. Right. Nabeel Ahmed (15:43) The one trend I've experienced and I think it's going to continue to grow is where longer term incentives were really long, scheduled like five, six, seven years, rest things. we will see a trend and we are already seeing of shortening that length of longer time incentives to perhaps three years or even in some cases, two years. And that's driven by the most recent generations of workforce coming in where they have needs now or they have options now, right? Either they get the opportunity to make wealth now or they can go externally make wealth elsewhere and ⁓ in different options that they might be available right. So that's one trend which is changing so whatever you offer you've got to look at like how can you Kelsey Willock (16:23) Okay. Nabeel Ahmed (16:33) give them something sooner and more regularly as opposed to longer term after like a 70 year period and stuff. It's not going to be effective to give somebody stocks, for example, which are going to rest after five years or in five years. Because for them it's like, what do I get today? I've got bills, I've got to buy a house or a car or pay for a wedding. All of those things are today's expenses. ⁓ Kelsey Willock (16:39) Right. Right. Nabeel Ahmed (16:59) And it's also partially driven by the other opportunities externally beyond the traditional corporate world that individuals can make money. I mean, when you look around yourself, I mean, personally, the first 10, 15 years of my career, I knew nothing about investing in the stock market, investing in crypto. Kelsey Willock (17:18) right? Nabeel Ahmed (17:19) Now I've got like 20 year old ⁓ employee 20 in the 20s. They're looking at investment opportunities and making some of them are making a lot more money externally than they would. They would be making it a paycheck. So what is the opportunity loss of actually coming in working? So you've got to think about it from that perspective as well as that. What do you have to offer them and then look at opportunities to provide them to be able to invest through the employer? Kelsey Willock (17:32) Mm-hmm. Nabeel Ahmed (17:48) in ways that they can make wealth. Which, like I said, there are generations of workforce today even in the company which for them that's not a primary motivator. For them is job security, it's what do they pay check, who's the people they work with, all of those motivations are very different. Kelsey Willock (17:56) than not. That's it. So I want to talk tools because that's a super interesting way in which to serve the needs of a very diverse workforce, specifically talking about age-wise. Are there any tools or data sets that you're using to help measure and improve pay equity and also improve helping employees understand those benefits? Nabeel Ahmed (18:32) ASO my- I'll be very transparent. The current work company that I've joined in, in like six months back, it's, we're just doing the basics right now. Like we, we're basically cleaning shop, putting in the basic fundamentals. We just ran the first pay equity analysis on certain dimensions of, you know, of the workforce most recently. And we're building the tools and the systems. It's still for this particular company, would say still early days to be able to get to that point where I can run and analytics and be able to make some decisions. ⁓ Right now we're just placing the right fundamentals to make sure that we have the data to be able to run the analysis and trends and then based on that take decisions. So still early days here. Kelsey Willock (19:18) And what is one 30-day experiment that listeners could try to boost engagement or financial well-being within the workforce? Nabeel Ahmed (19:31) I'll give you a very general response to that question, Kelsey. Financial wellness, my personal experience, and over the course of my life, I've learned that wellness related to finances does not come by buying products and buying items and collecting items. lived in some of the fanciest places in the world so been fortunate to actually like you know buy cars there was a time I used to love cars and think like okay fancy cars is what the way to success or financial wellness is I've achieved something it doesn't it doesn't give you satisfaction beyond a few days after some time all of those collections become part of it like offshore collections in the in the either garage closet or somewhere in there right so what I have Kelsey Willock (20:15) Right. Nabeel Ahmed (20:18) learned is that if you can create opportunities for others success that will give you the most contentment in life. So if I have the financial means now or whenever anyone does what can you do to utilize that financial means to create opportunities for other people to success in life. whether it's your friends, relatives, even strangers or other youngsters who are coming to the ranks. If you can create opportunities for them, that's truly the most blessed. or content feeling you can get out of your financial wellness. So look for those avenues. I'd Kelsey Willock (20:53) . Nabeel Ahmed (20:59) still advocate you should spend money on yourself and friends and family. I'm not by any way discouraging don't spend money. Do spend money, but I think experiences in life are more important than products. So I mean, if I can spend money to actually Kelsey Willock (21:12) Okay. Nabeel Ahmed (21:17) ⁓ Get a nice vacation with a family or friends. That's an experience to like, you know explore a new place that is more satisfying But at the end of the day what you can do to actually create opportunities for others Is what's going to give you a true sense of contentment in life? Kelsey Willock (21:35) I love that and I particularly always respect conversations with HR leaders such as yourself because you live and breathe that. You're constantly thinking about how do I uplift others, particularly those within my organization. So what a gratifying career to be in, especially given those are your values. So there's such alignment there. So. This has just been a fabulous conversation. I've learned so much for you and I have such deep respect for you, particularly at the beginning of your career and how you have cultivated such a successful one at so many different organizations. And now particularly within the private equity space. I also really learned how much you deeply care about the holistic person, giving them total wellbeing. It's not just their paycheck. It's so much beyond that. And it's also about helping people find that contentment regardless. the age or where they're at in their career and we need to meet them where they are because all of those folks have different needs. So thank you so, much for this conversation. I want to also give you an opportunity to share with our guests how they can connect with you. Nabeel Ahmed (22:41) I'm very active on LinkedIn and I almost always respond if anybody connects or if I can help anyone. I'm always like where I can to the extent I can, I'm always very responsive on LinkedIn. Kelsey Willock (22:53) Wonderful. Well, thank you so much again for joining us today. And for our listeners, we can't wait for you to tune in and to join us on our next one. Thank you so much. Nabeel Ahmed (23:03) Pleasure Kelsey. Thank you. Have a good one.