ctpartners - why hr matters
TRANSCRIPT
• “Why HR Matters: The Fourth Annual Board of Directors Human Capital Institute” was convened in New York City on Friday, September 12, 2014 by global executive search firm CTPartners.
WELCOMING REMARKS“This ties back to building a culture that is based on core values. Core
values give you a foundation which allows you to focus less on rules
and procedures, and more on following the values of
the organization.”
Tim Huval, Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer, Humana Inc.
• Mr. Sullivan noted, “Each year, it’s our goal to create meaningful dialogue, healthy debate, even some controversy. But the underlying goal is to do our part to help drive conversation about what makes good HR and what makes effective HR involvement with the board.”
• The daylong event offered an insightful and timely examination of the role, relevance, and impact of HR leadership, with a special focus on the essential relationship between CHROs and CEOs.
• Brian M. Sullivan, CEO of CTPartners, kicked off the event with a warm welcome to all participants, emphasizing how pleased and proud he was to be hosting the Institute for the fourth time.
• Mr. Kaplan concluded his introductory remarks by explaining this year’s focus on the CEO-CHRO relationship. “As we thought about today’s key themes,” he explained, “we recognized that it takes a team. You can’t find a world-class CHRO who doesn’t have a partner in a world-class CEO who understands the value that HR can deliver.”
• He added, “We will all acknowledge that HR as a profession is often under attack… We have a group of world-class HR executives here, and a couple hundred more are outside this room, but there is a problem that needs to be solved. World-class HR leaders number in the hundreds, not the thousands, and that is a problem we need to solve.”
Brian Sullivan
Daniel Kaplan
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CATCHING UP WITH THE CORNER OFFICE:A CONVERSATION WITH BIOGENIDEC’S CEO AND CHRO
Moderator: Michael Feiner, Senior Advisor, Human Capital, at Irving Place
Capital, previously SVP and Chief People Officer for PepsiCo’s beverage operations
worldwide
Panellists: Dr. George A. Scangos, CEO Biogen Idec and and
Kenneth DiPietro, Biogen’s Executive Vice President, Human
Resources
A behind-the-scenes look at some of the challenges, strategies, and accomplishments associated with Biogen Idec’s remarkable transformation since CEO George A. Scangos, Ph.D., took the helm in 2010.
Key Insights | On the importance of selecting the right CHRO
Dr. George A. Scangos: “It took almost a year to find someone to run human resources who had sufficient experience, character, and other attributes we felt we needed. But it was better to wait and find the right person than to settle for someone who wasn’t the best.”
Kenneth DiPietro: “When I joined, George gave me great freedom to learn. I spent a lot of time listening and developing relationships.”
Key Insights | On the corporate vision
Dr. George A. Scangos: “Do great science, great medicine, and bring these to the patients as quickly as possible. We put patients at the center. That’s what drives us. Putting patients at the center of the culture and helping people to understand how they need to behave to achieve our goals—that is what we have worked at.”
Dr. George A. Scangos
Kenneth DiPietro
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THE CHANGING WATERS OF HR IN EUROPE
Key Topics included maintaining a business and operational focus for HR priorities, recognizing the powerful influence of straight talk and personal integrity, and remembering that a company’s performance is driven by its people.
Moderator: Tim Kemp, London-based Partner who leads
the CTPartners HR Practice in Europe.
Panellists: Michael Kerr, Group HR Director at Aston Martin
Lagonda Ltd., formerly holding leading HR roles at West Ham
United, Intertek, Aviva and HSBC,
and Tony McCarthy, most recently Global HR Director at
ENRC, previously holding top HR positions at British Airways, Royal
Mail Group, and BAE Systems.
Key Insights | On integrity and straight talk
Michael Kerr : “Effective human resources management requires integrity in the HR function and integrity in how you project yourself as a leader. You also need straight talk. … You need that piece of straight talk in your kit bag to help employees develop by understanding how they are perceived in the business, however painful it may be.”
Key Insights | On people driving performance
Tony McCarthy : “When I began attending (Royal Mail) company meetings, I noticed they never talked about people issues…. three years later, half of every company meeting was spent talking about people issues, the company was profitable, bullying and harassment issues were down, and Royal Mail was meeting its delivery promise to customers. And this change began with talking with people.”
Left to right: Tony McCarthy, Michael Kerr, Tim Kemp
Tony McCarthy
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CATCHING UP WITH THE CORNER OFFICE: A CONVERSATION WITH TIAA-CREF’S CEO AND CHRO
Moderator: Jim Shanley, Partner, The Shanley Group, and
former long-time Chief Talent Officer at Bank of America.
Panellists: Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. President and
Chief Executive Officer at TIAA-
CREF since 2008, and Otha “Skip” Spriggs, Executive
Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at TIAA-CREF,
joining in 2012.
Panel Three turned the spotlight on the successful CEO-CHRO partnership at TIAA-CREF, which has navigated a veritable wave of growth-oriented transformation.
Key Insights | | ON the CHRO role at TIAA-CREF
Roger Ferguson: When I started, we had less than 6,900 employees. By the end of this year, we’ll have about 11,000. So, we had a fairly aspirational strategy, plans for lots of change—we needed a CHRO who could lead around all that transformation.
Skip Spriggs: So many elements convinced me to step into this role…That first interview with Roger was a decision-maker. We spent very little time talking about HR itself. We talked about the business. Roger was clear about the role he expected HR to play as a leader.
Key Insights | ON culture and leadership
Skip Spriggs: As we continue to grow and diversify, our board is very conscious of ‘are you moving fast enough?’ and ‘don’t move too fast.’ That’s an important balance.
Roger Ferguson: With few exceptions, the entire senior leadership team that I had when I joined has moved on. With that degree of change at the top, you need to think about what is consistent. Culture is strong here. We are a mission-driven, values-driven organization. Everyone needs to understand what is not going to change.
Left to right: Jim Shanley, Roger Ferguson, Skip Spriggs
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CATCHING UP WITH THE CORNER OFFICE:A CONVERSATION WITH HUMANA’S CEO AND CHRODuring the tenure of the two leaders at Humana thus far, the stock price has nearly doubled while employee engagement measures in the 91st percentile. Topics of conversation included the value-driven and customer-centric business model, strategies for building sustainable leadership, and impactful CHRO capabilities.
Moderator: Jim Shanley, Partner, The Shanley Group.
Panellists: Bruce D. Broussard, President and
Chief Executive Officer Humana
Inc., and Tim Huval, Humana’s Senior Vice President
and Chief Human Resources Officer.
Third, I needed a person who could help me with blind spots. As a CEO, in particular, things are often presented to you so that they look good on the surface, but there might be disaster lurking in the background. I wanted a CHRO who could help me to see beyond that surface view, to suggest the right questions to help me dig deeper.
Key Insights | ON spider webs and sustainable leadership
Bruce Broussard: We want to remove that central leader as the only decision-maker, and have decision-making flow to all the individuals around the circle, which looks something like a spider web when you draw it.
Tim Huval: The spider web of decision-making is easy to draw, but it is much harder to bring to life. The sustainable leadership model is something we intend to stay focused on, and it will take a great deal of work.
Left to right: Jim Shanley, Bruce Broussard
Key Insights | ON finding the right CHRO
Bruce Broussard: I had a number of goals as I searched for a CHRO partner. First, I was looking for a person I could trust in candid conversations and when bouncing around ideas. Second, I wanted a person who would carry influence in other parts of the organization.
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CATCHING UP WITH THE CORNER OFFICE: A CONVERSATION WITH VOYAFINANCIAL’S CEO AND CHRO
Key Insights | ON signing up for this journey
Kevin Silva: “When deciding to join Voya, I knew there was a critical point in the interview process where it was appropriate to ask: Who is Rod? What are his values and how would they align with mine?”
Rodney Martin: “I fully understood coming into this role that the capital we had was the capital we would have to work with. We had to change our former focus from when the company was operating as a division of ING.”
Moderator: Joseph R. McCabe, Vice Chairman with
CTPartners.
Panellists: Rodney O. Martin, Jr, Chairman and CEO and Executive Vice President and
Chief Human Resources Officer
Kevin D. Silva, at Voya Financial, the former American
insurance unit of ING Groep NV.
After a spinoff from its Dutch parent company, an IPO in 2013, and a secondary common stock sale just days before the CTPartners conference, the CEO-CHRO team at Voya Financial had a great deal to talk about.
Key Insights | ON building momentum
Kevin Silva: “Members of our senior team signed up for this climb one at a time. The key members of their teams signed up one at a time. It was a steady building process. Slowly and surely the vision came through, and now we have momentum as well as the vision.”
Rodney Martin: “One of the issues that we talk about a lot among our management team is that competitors aren’t standing still, either. We not only have to raise people’s “heads” in the marketplace, but also within the industry.”
Left to right: Joseph McCabe, Rodney Martin, Kevin Silva
Kevin Silva
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SHOULD HR BE SPLIT UP?A RESPONSE AND DISCUSSION
Panellists: Richard Antoine, , President, National
Academy of Human Resources; President, AO Consulting; and
former Global HR Officer for Procter & Gamble; and CTPartners
CEO Brian M. Sullivan, and CTPartners Managing Partner
and Global Head of the Human
Resource Practice Daniel Kaplan
The final panel of the day gathered to discuss a controversial recent article that suggests companies would be best served by splitting the HR function into two parts.
Key Insights | On underselling the value of HR career experiences
Brian Sullivan: “. The CHRO’s role is to be frank with the CEO and the executive team, with no other agenda than the betterment of the organization. That is not the mandate of any other C-Suite role. I think Ram missed it entirely here.”
Key Insights | Closing the discussion
Daniel Kaplan: “Think about the meaning you project if you say, ‘I am not an HR leader. I am a business leader.’ No CFO says, ‘I am not a financial leader, I am a business leader.’ When we cut the legs out from under our profession in that way, we create the problem of maintaining respect for the HR function.”
Key Insights | On the CEO’s role in fostering effective HR within a company
Richard Antoine: “What’s missing from Ram’s analysis are the expectations of the CEO for HR. In some part, the ability to be a great CHRO has to come from the CEO empowering and expecting much of the CHRO. There is clearly a role
for the CEO in building a strong CHRO partner.”
Left to right: Richard Antoine, Brian Sullivan
Daniel Kaplan
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TOP TAKEAWAYS FROM THE INSTITUTE
“The skill sets of a top CHRO are complex. They are the most challenging skills to measure, and they deal with the
most valuable asset of a corporation—its people”
Brian Sullivan, CEO, CTPartners
• It takes a team. World-class CHROs are almost always on the team of a world-class CEO who understands the value that HR can deliver and helps make that happen.
• Encourage candor. Cultivating honest and effective communications in all corporate meetings should be a key priority.
• It pays to talk about it. Dramatic business transformations sometimes begin simply by talking with employees.
• Consistent values matter. Especially in a rapidly changing business environment, employees need to know that core corporate values are not going to change.
• Healthy companies require sustainable leadership. Encouraging broader participation in decision-making builds sustainable leadership.
• Corporate culture must be nurtured—and respected. The real culture for any organization is the sum of the decisions that a company makes every day.
• Great CHROs cultivate business knowledge. Top HR leaders develop their teams by ensuring diverse human resources and line operations experiences.
Left to right: Brian Sullivan, Richard Antoine
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About CTPartners
CTPartners is a leading global executive search firm that is designed to deliver in-depth expertise, creative strategies, and outstanding results to clients worldwide.
Committed to a philosophy of partnering with its clients, CTPartners offers a proven track record in C-Suite, top executive, and board searches, as well as extensive experience in serving private equity and venture capital firms.
Headquartered in New York, CTPartners has 31 offices in 18
countries.
Our ApproachMethodologies used include our proprietary technology, ClientNet®, a technology tool that permits clients to access password-protected information over the Internet from any place, at any time, to check the status of their search engagements, and the 40-Day Audit™ processes, a comprehensive assessment tool that provides formal feedback and insures search milestones are met according to plan.
Our Track RecordCTPartners’ focus is straightforward: Place the right executive in the chair. Evidence of CTPartners’ ability to get the job done is its 80% placement success rate and average days to placement of 149 days in 2013. CTPartners has a stick rate of 87% for the 18-month period ending on June 30, 2013.
Our ExpertiseCTPartners serves clients with a global organization of more than 500 professionals and employees, offering expertise in board advisory services, key leadership functions, and executive recruiting services in the financial services, life sciences, industrial, professional services, retail and consumer, and technology, media and telecom industries.
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