The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR 271 - How 100-Year-Old Company (Synchrony Financial) Runs Like a Startup: DJ Casto (CHRO)
DJ Casto joined us on The Modern People Leader to share how Synchrony is co-designing the future of work with employees.
We talked about active listening at scale, building trust by being great not perfect, rethinking leadership for a flexible workforce, and why treating the employee experience like a product creates real business impact.
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Downloadable PDF with top takeaways: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/episode271
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(06:16) DJ’s Origin Story: From First-Gen College Student to CHRO at Synchrony
(11:19) What Synchrony Does: Credit Access, Health & Wellness, and Major Retail Partners
(14:12) Co-Designing the Future of Work & Adopting an MVP Mindset in HR
(18:27) Active Listening as the Operating System for People Programs
(29:10) Scaling Listening: Pulse Surveys, Roundtables, ERGs, Wellness Coaches and On-Site Therapists
(35:14) Avoiding the “Send One Email” Trap and Communicating 20 Different Ways
(38:48) Great, Not Perfect: Building Trust, Prioritizing Requests, and Saying No Openly
(44:51) Synchrony’s Hybrid “Way of Working” and Redesigning Leadership for Flexibility
(51:48) Rethinking Performance, Onboarding, and Culture Centers in a Hybrid World
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Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.