The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

Rajeeb Dey (Founder & CEO, Learnerbly) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about why we need to rethink the ROI of learning, how to create hyper-personalized learning experiences, and commonly held beliefs in L&D that we need to let go of. ---- This episode was brought to you by Learnerbly. Get a free 7-day trial of Learnerbly here. ---- Timestamps: (3:05) Good news stories (7:15) Raj’s career journey and how he became an entrepreneur (15:35) How Learnerbly is redefining the learning tech category  (18:54) Why we should be jealous he gets to work at Learnerbly (20:40) Moving from Talent Acquisition to Talent Activation (22:26) What it means to have a thriving culture of learning (26:24) Rethinking the ROI of learning (27:37) Engagement in learning (31:12) What a world class learning experience looks like: hyper-personalized learning, reaches people in the flow of work, and allows people to connect. (33:35) Raj’s Learnerbly playlist (36:04) Commonly held beliefs in L&D that we need to let go of (38:45) How Learnerbly uses Learnerbly (42:09) How Raj believes AI could impact learning (46:58) The most transformative learning journey he’s seen with a client (49:20) Rapid fire questions ---- 📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to become a smarter HR leader 🛎 Follow Raj on LinkedIn 💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn 😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn 😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn

Yael Irom (Head of Leadership & Professional Enablement at Tanium) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about Tanium’s co-hort based leadership programs and the reception they’ve received thus far. ---- This episode was brought to you by Learnerbly. Get a free 7-day trial of Learnerbly here. ---- Timestamps: (2:30) Good news stories (7:20) Her early career was founding public schools (15:08) What Tanium does (19:15) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Tanium (22:50) What she does as the Head of Leadership & Professional Enablement (27:34) How they built the “Skills and Performance” program in a way that was scaleable and effective (35:36) The “Leadership Accelerator Program” at Tanium (39:27) The reception to the accelerator program (40:49) The global enablement team at Tanium (43:18) The language they use and how they refer to their people (45:16) Rapid fire questions ---- 📬 Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest 🛎 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn 🛎 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn 🛎 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn

Q Hamirani (Chief People Officer, Paper) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about the Live and Work Anywhere Program from his time at Airbnb, how he navigates moments of uncertainty, and how he’s approaching his first 90 days as Chief People Officer at Paper. ---- This episode was brought to you by Learnerbly. Get a free 7-day trial of Learnerbly here: https://get.learnerbly.com/mpl/ ---- Timestamps: (2:36) Good news stories (6:03) Q’s journey: Engineering student —> consultant —> global strategy & ops —> HR consulting —> MBA —> People Ops —> Chief People Officer (15:00) What Paper does (15:49) Why we should be jealous he gets to work at Paper (17:30) How Live and Work Anywhere came about at Airbnb (26:56) The four pillars of the Live and Work Anywhere program (32:30) The definition of global mobility changed during the pandemic (38:18) How he operates in moments of uncertainty (44:50) What attracted him to Paper (46:55) How he’s going to approach his first 90 days as Chief People Officer (50:30) Rapid fire questions  Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Penny Farinha (VP, Human Resources, ecobee) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about scaling the ecobee people team from 1 to 25, how her role has evolved, and why more companies should admit when they don’t have all the answers. This episode was brought to you by Learnerbly. Get a free 7-day trial of Learnerbly here: https://get.learnerbly.com/mpl/ Timestamps: (6:57) Growing the HR team from 1 to 25 (9:44) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Ecobee (14:47) Building HR functions from scratch (16:32) How her role has changed over the last 7 years (20:14) Being able to leverage a larger HR team after being acquired (23:14) Creating more pathways in tech for marginalized groups (29:14) Conflict resolution (32:14) Admitting when we don’t have all of the answers (43:04) Rapid fire questions Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Kristy Lilas (Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about how to identify the processes at your company that aren’t inclusive or equitable and sneaky ways you can incorporate DEIB into programs that already exist. This episode was brought to you by Learnerbly. Get a free 7-day trial of Learnerbly here: https://get.learnerbly.com/mpl/ Timestamps: (3:25) Good news stories (6:59) Her journey into DIB work (12:05) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at GoDaddy (15:30) The biggest blockers to progress in DEIB work today (17:30) The forming, storming, norming, and performing phases that teams go through (21:15) Hybrid work and it’s potential to undo some of the progress that we’ve made (26:03) How to mitigate biases in a hybrid setting (28:10) How to evaluate all of your processes to improve DEI (32:55) Creating a heat map of all of your processes and where there are the biggest gaps related to DEI (36:15) The great pause (40:15) Sneaky DEIB (47:15) Rapid fire questions Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Charter’s Massella Dukuly (Head of Workplace Strategy + Innovation) and Emily Goligoski (Head of Research, SVP) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about making the implicit explicit and why internal mentorship programs are a cheat code for organizations. Timestamps:   (1:50) Good news stories (6:20) How Charter is helping the HR community (10:34) Why this work is important to them (18:04) Biggest shifts in the workplace pre-COVID to today (24:00) What progress is at risk of going away (30:00) Backtracking and the impact on DEI (35:21) Great talent exists all over the world (40:50) Making the implicit knowledge explicit (43:10) Why Internal mentorship are a cheat code for companies (48:22) What makes a formal mentorship program successful (52:07) The BEST companies are thoughtful about codifying things (1:00:00) The benefits of two-way mentorship (1:01:10) How Charter runs their off-sites (1:09:02) Rapid fire questions Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

This week we had four 3-time guests on for an MPL Group Chat:  Lyndsay Lord, CHRO at DECA Dental Group Dilshan Ratnayake, Leading HR Executive Rhiana Barr, Chief People Officer at Snap Finance Kristen Barbor, Leading HR Executive We talked about the future of work and why we need more Chief People Officers to transition into the CEO role. Timestamps:   (1:37) Good news stories (8:50) Biggest reflections looking back the last couple of years (15:50) Future or fad: Remote work (22:34) Future or fad: DEI budgets (28:50) Future or fad: ChatGPT (36:09) Future or fad: The focus on mental health and wellbeing (44:30) What the group is most concerned about for the future (47:00) Boards need to take the people element seriously (51:40) What’s getting the group fired up for the rest of the year (57:00) We need more Chief People Officers transitioning to CEO  Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Kat Steinmetz (Principal, Initialized Capital) joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about the HR skills that are useful as a VC and why more people from HR should make the jump into VC. Timestamps:   (1:12) Good news stories (6:22) At one point Kat was a touring musician, makeup artist, and HR leader all at the same time (16:00) Being a “multi-potentialite” (21:20) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Initialized Capital (24:40) Figuring out she was a good fit for VC (31:09) The HR skills that have been useful as a VC (33:30) Why more people from HR should go into VC (39:00) The biggest people challenges at her portfolio companies (40:50) Getting through the frozen budget of HR (45:06) The hiring frenzy that led to recent layoffs (49:07) Evaluating deals from a people lens (53:30) The leadership team’s culture is the company’s culture (58:28) Rapid fire questions Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Kate Parente (Chief People Officer, Pega) joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about making the office a magnet, building a strong relationship with your CEO, and the power of storytelling as a people leader. Timestamps:   (1:22) Good news stories (13:00) This is her first Chief People Officer role (17:00) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Pega (20:00) The paradigm shift that’s happening at work (22:00) There’s no one size fits all approach to work (25:00) How the people team is structured at Pega (28:28) Making the office a magnet, not a mandate (31:00) Piloting “Connection Weeks” at Pega (32:46) What makes the Pega people team unique (37:18) The CEO <> CHRO relationship (40:46) Figuring out what people are thinking and feeling at this moment (42:00) Rapid fire questions Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader

Angela Crossman (Chief People Officer, Brex) joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about her journey into HR (non profit admin, massage therapist, & consultant), bringing your internal & external listening data together, and getting creative with offsites. Timestamps:   (2:00) Good news stories (5:03) Her career journey  (13:17) Why we should be jealous that she gets to work at Brex (16:30) Their fully-flexible work model (20:00) The HR Team’s structure at Brex (23:16) Dog fooding at Brex (25:30) Overcoming myths around what’s “not working” with their globally distributed team (30:12) The skills she gained from her time as a Chief of Staff for multiple executives (33:20) Bringing all of the internal and external listening data together (36:40) The employee listening tech stack (39:35) Advice to HR leaders on improving their people analytics (43:00) Why off-sites are core to Brex & how they’ve gotten creative with different formats (48:06) How she defines a Modern People Leader (49:20) The career advice she’d give her 22-year-old self Subscribe to the MPL Weekly Digest: https://forms.gle/qdt6YaWULfoEHb6n8 Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-modern-people-leader