Marketing Recon partners with executive teams to create stronger strategic linkages
between a company, its clients, and partners – laying the groundwork for new market growth
and designing custom programs to support the growth initiatives.

Employee Engagement Expert Series:

The following blog was the result of an interview with two HR professionals in the financial services technology space.   Together they drive a divisional global HR function that includes Employee Engagement.  They use annual employee feedback mechanisms combined with their unique backgrounds to evolve HR practices in this unique global and highly diverse environment.  

A comprehensive HR approach

The director describes his role in this way, “I am responsible for leading people-related strategy and execution across multiple enterprise software businesses to solve complex organizational challenges.   I truly enjoy leveraging all of my experiences to help organizations to create and fulfill their business and people related strategies.  Doing this well, generally, drives employee engagement and creates a high-performance culture.”   He works together with a colleague whose background includes social work prior to human resources.   Together they cover a lot of territory – helping leaders with reorganizations, compensation, talent reviews, promotions, merit programs, and everything related to employee performance.

Spotlight on Employee Engagement

In this organization, the Employee Engagement function is fully integrated with other key human resource functions that support it. The main goal is to improve employee communications and career growth opportunities for the talent pool.

But it’s not a siloed function, it’s also a backdrop to Talent Acquisition, Leadership Development, Coaching, and Sponsorship across a global firm of over 20,000 employees.  It’s a hub and spoke environment with business units across four distinct vertical markets and has experienced growth through acquisition.  In the spokes, there are HR people that have local market expertise.  All eventually report to the CHRO in a matrixed environment with the corporate HR team focusing on companywide needs such as Employee Relations. 

In terms of a strategic approach, the first priority is the development of front-line managers.  It’s often said that people leave managers, not companies so this a top priority that is addressed early – in fact, with onboarding.   The key element is the 1:1 between the team and the manager – generally, the key person driving the employee experience.  However, in this organization, this is emphasized as a shared responsibility.   Both manager and team members have to bring their authentic selves to the table, earn their respect, and own their path at the company.  It’s critical that the manager embrace the culture and bring the team along with them. Focusing on career development and growth is a high priority to keeping people engaged.

Essential EE Tools

In this environment, Employee Engagement is a backdrop to everything but becomes more relevant in a cyclical way.  Annually, beginning in the fall, the organization runs a survey.  Each year the baseline and changes are reviewed to see how to move the needle on key dimensions.  It’s a robust third-party tool with predetermined benchmarking questions as well as open-ended for comments.   It focuses on helping the organization assess its top strengths, opportunities for improvement, and guidelines for priorities for the following year.  It goes out to 20K employees with participation varying by business units and is the key insight into the voice of the employee.   Given the diversity of the company and its global nature, the questions have to be generic, but themes are derived by business unit and can get quite granular.

Beside the survey, there are other tools that focus on employee retention, attrition, and internal mobility. These examine how many employees take on new opportunities internally each year and the primary reason for an employee to seek opportunity elsewhere – furthering the understanding of what keeps the employees engaged.  

Top priorities for Employees:

Here the top of the list from employees is communication and transparency.  In parallel, people want to know their job is connected to the greater universe and they are making an impact.  Employees want to feel connected to their work and the company’s overall mission. They value recognition and appreciate it for their own work, as well as having the ability to recognize their fellow employees.  Interestingly, this is now a very strong theme across many organizations regardless of industry or size.

The organization addresses these priorities both company-wide and by department.  One opportunity is via quarterly town halls.   There are also a series of smaller gatherings with senior leadership – with an “ask me anything” session.   Leadership is there to listen.  Many come to learn something new and sometimes we get good recommendations on ways to be more innovative.  The topic of innovation is taken seriously in this tech environment with additional specific sessions over a two-day period to bring tech folks together to put forth their best ideas and tech solutions.  These are run as a contest with awards and recognition.

It’s important to note that the employee recognition programs are run on a quarterly basis. Anyone can nominate an individual or team based on demonstrating alignment with company values. The reward can be monetary award or “in kind.”

Navigating a global footprint and acquisitions

This organization has faced many unique challenges as it has grown organically and via acquisition and enjoys a diverse global footprint.  This requires additional emphasis on bringing people together effectively re-energizing the team in face-to-face gatherings and upping the game on internal communications.   Town Halls, newsletters; and purposeful recognition of special occasions such as work anniversaries and other milestones go a long way to building bridges.

In terms of growing via acquisition, the goal is to harmonize all aspects of employee life and break down barriers.  It starts with the essentials such as benefits and remuneration.  It also means familiarizing everyone with the technology and systems, like Workday or Salesfoce.com.   At the same time, while blending is important, it’s also important to honor each acquired company’s specialization.  A large benefit is company-wide access to the use of LinkedIn Learning for personal and professional growth.

Considering an HR/EE Career

Advice from this team. Remain open, be curious, be an active learner, seek mentors in the areas that you see yourself being most attracted to, and bring your authentic self to all situations.  Each person has unique talent and perspectives.  As one gains experience by doing, listening, learning, they can then start to see patterns and make practical and useful recommendations.  All of this helps build skills and credibility, which your “customers”, internal or external, will value. 

 

A Conversation with Amy Parker, Vice President of Global Talent Development and Employee Engagement at Acquia

The road to Employee Engagement is not a straight path – especially for a leading-edge technology company that has a following akin to that of a famous rock band. For Amy Parker, that means her work is never done. She has continuously evaluated and innovated around the changes in the workforce and work environment during her 10 years at Acquia.

Amy Parker leads Acquia’s Global Talent Development and Employee Engagement strategy. She joined the Acquia team in 2014 as the Director of Acquia University, a technical talent incubator program for Acquia and the Drupal community and went on to build Acquia’s first global Learning and Development function. The global team now offers programs that span the entire employee life cycle – from new hires, early-in-career employees, management/leadership development, all the way through collaborating with senior leaders on customized employee learning and engagement programs.

Jacqueline: Amy, you’ve had a robust career in the Learning & Development field and other key areas of Talent, and recently added the responsibilities of Employee Engagement to your portfolio. Reflecting on your experience in the broader Talent field, what has changed the most?

Amy: When I look back at one of the first “virtual” leadership programs I ran for EMC with a team in Bangalore, the changes are immense. The technology of the time (2000-2001) was limited.  We used synchronous satellite video supplemented by email. There wasn’t a way to engage in meaningful

conversations since the technology was new and the connection wasn’t very strong. To share content, we designed courseware using PowerPoint and Macromedia Flash, and then sent along a voice recording. Fast forward, I can now create all my eLearning materials in Articulate Rise, upload them to our Learning Management System, and publish them to the entire company in a little less than a few hours. Using Slack, Zoom, and other online collaboration tools, I can deliver fully interactive courseware for new hire onboarding, leadership development and connect people across the globe who otherwise would not come into contact with each other.

Jacqueline: What about other non-technical training? How has technology impacted that aspect of your work?

Amy: The need for leadership, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills is stronger than ever. Many traditional courses were full-day, in-person workshops. With the pandemic and people working remotely, not only does the technology need to change, but we also can’t expect people to sit through five-hour classes in a virtual environment. There are too many distractions, and people don’t want to be lectured to.  They want short-form, just-in-time learning opportunities. We’ve devised many new ways to create microlearning pre-work, leaving the in-session time for group discussion and small group exercises using breakout rooms.

When I started at Acquia in 2014, and our workforce was much smaller, we had a mentoring program. I was able to match mentors and mentees to each other based on needs, strengths, etc. because I personally knew the people who would work well together. As we grew to the current size of +1,100 global employees, this process became unmanageable. Using the latest technology offered by Trova.io and Slack, we created a peer-to-peer learning program that enables people to match themselves on any topic, for any duration at any time. Through Trova, we also created a Customer Experience Job Shadow Program that connects people to shadow calls and meetings with customers, which helps our team develop deeper insight into the products they are building and supporting.  I am always looking at new technology to help enhance the employee experience. With AI becoming more and more acceptable, I am excited to be able to accelerate the pace of learning AND provide more personalized learning journeys.

Jacqueline:  What were the operating principles that guided you in building the Employee Engagement function?

Amy: We’ve always been an organization with a strong culture which makes it critically important that we put the employee at the center of every decision we make. What I saw was an opportunity to capitalize on Employee Engagement through learning. In the traditional model, companies would train people and then go away and hope it would all sink in. But today’s tools give us the opportunity to create continuous learning environments. The DiSC Workstyle Preference framework, for example, has been at the core of our learning programs.  The focus on discovering work style preferences for yourself and your team has given us a platform for stronger communication and EQ across the spectrum. I’ve facilitated over 700 DISC assessments and workshops with our teams, and I’m convinced that it’s a key factor in our ability to maintain high levels of collaboration and build trust, which in turn contributes to a positive work environment.

Jacqueline:   Acquia is known for its strong culture and has grown considerably since its early Drupal days.   How has the leadership kept the people side – especially employee engagement and learning – at the top of the priority list through the various phases of growth?

Amy: Open-source technology has profoundly helped shape our culture by fostering collaboration, transparency, and innovation. Embracing open-source encourages a culture of inclusivity, where employees feel empowered to contribute ideas and solutions regardless of their hierarchical position. This culture of sharing cultivates trust among team members and promotes continuous learning and improvement. We’ve continued to rank high on Best Places to Work in the US, EMEA, and India, and recently ranked 6^th in the nation on Built-In for the 2024 awards!

Jacqueline:  Keeping this super-charged work force energized is quite the challenge and opportunity.  What other programs, tools, and priorities have come to the forefront in recent years to help you meet your objectives?

Amy:  Like many companies we embrace a remote-first culture, allowing more flexibility in how and where we work.  Professional development opportunities not only stimulate growth but also instill a sense of value and investment in employees’ career paths. Our peer-to-peer recognition programs democratize the way everyone can be recognized and recognize others, and we have a very robust collection of special interest Slack channels, paired with Trova help people bring their whole selves to work and ‘find their people’

Jacqueline:  Amy, you’ve been at Acquia nearly ten years.  Can you share what has inspired you to stay.

Amy: This one’s easy.  The people.  I get to work with some of the most creative, collaborative innovative and kind people.  We also have a really great technology portfolio that helps make the dreamers and doers make the impossible happen. 

Jacqueline:  Are there any other programs that you believe have worked well to further boost Acquia’s success at Employee Engagement and fulfilment?

Amy:  Finding ways to make your culture evolve and change with time is really important. We really lean into our employees to help us crowdsource changes to our core programs.  Our DEI Statement and the definitions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion were crafted by a group of Acquians who are passionate about linking our culture to what DEI means to us.  We also really try to get everybody involved in an Aquians Teaching Aquians program. There’s nothing better than to be recognized as a subject matter expert, be able to teach other people, knowing that in turn, someone will lend a hand when you need it.  I’m really proud of the programs that we’ve built.

Jacqueline:  Given all you have observed during your time in talent, and specifically Employee Engagement, what is your advice to people entering this field today?

Amy:   For someone staring out today, I’d have two thoughts.  First, being able to make data driven decisions by leveraging people analytics is crucial. By leaning into data-driven insights, we can optimize talent management strategies, enhance employee experiences, mitigate risks, and align our Talent initiatives with overarching company goals

Second, I’d say: Don’t be afraid to break the mold.  With the pace and change of the world today, we have to constantly innovate and find new ways to drive engagement. Be bold and consider building something that will be unique to your culture. Be empathetic and open to what you see and hear.

 

Employee Engagement Expert Series:   This is the first in a series of interview with highly experienced and respected leaders in the field.

Lisa Cummings Penn, recently retired from the Estée Lauder Companies.   She most recently led the efforts of Employee Engagement inside a critical part of the company.  Lisa’s experience and perspective is invaluable to fellow professionals seeking to understand tried and true best practices in this ever-changing field.

---

When one thinks of Estée Lauder, what comes to mind?  Make-up, skin care, consumer goods, and retail.  But Lisa Cummings Penn actually worked in the IT department of Lauder – an impressive group of 1000 technology professionals.  Her role focused on Employee Engagement which uniquely happened completely inside the IT department.  Her insights reflect 24 years of experience in this important and growing field.  

---

Jacqueline:   Lisa, please share your work experience and education prior to Estée Lauder and your roles within the company that led to your role in Employee Engagement.

Lisa:  My formal education was in business and creative writing.   After college, I worked in retail and was in the Management Training Program at the Gap.  At the time, formal training and development was in its early years and most companies did not yet have training departments. So people were just doing training ad hoc to their employees. When I was hired at Clinique, a Brand owned by Estée Lauder in 2000, it was the first time I was exposed to a true Education department within a company. It was there that I worked as a Director of Education, developing sales, service and event curriculum for over 20,000 Clinique Consultants worldwide.

A few years later I went over to our Global Retail Channel where I led the Education team for the 500 brick and mortar stores owned by Estée Lauder, e.g., Origins, MAC, Jo Malone, Aveda, etc. This education was focused on store operations, as in making sure the stores were following policy and procedure which enabled them to focus on driving sales and customer service

From there, I was asked to join the IT department as a Business Relationship Manager, or BRM. In this role, I acted as a connector between IT and the Brands, understanding their business needs, and ensuring that IT solutions were aligned with the Brand’s strategic goals and objectives.   

One of our projects started out developing a learning platform for a single brand. With a global brand you have thousands of employees you need to educate. This quickly spread into multiple brands being interested in the platform, which ultimately led to a large-scale project to roll out to multiple brands, eventually building a learning platform for thousands of people across multiple brands worldwide. 

After working as a BRM for 10 years, an official role was created inside of IT in Employee Engagement.  Our CIO really believed in EE and we were the only business unit in the company to have our own Employee Engagement team.  

Jacqueline: Reflecting on your experience in Employee Engagement and looking out at the greater field of HR, what is the biggest change you’ve seen?  

Lisa: As I alluded to earlier, in 2000, there were not a lot of companies who had Education departments.   And when training was being done, it was usually an additional responsibility for someone in another department, like Marketing. Someone who wasn’t skilled in content development or facilitation.

 The world has changed so much so you have to constantly be reevaluating what’s happening and how it’s affecting your employees. We really should be referring to this role as Employee Fulfillment.   Many different things are important to employees than 24 years ago.  DE & I, for example has become a main focal point – far more than ever before. 

Finally, the demographic of an employee has shifted and with that, behavior.  We work differently today. 20+ years ago, no one would ever think about taking out a phone in a meeting (Or a Blackberry as the case might have been!)  But now we understand how different demographics work and influence and we have to take that into account. Technology in general has changed the way we operate.

Jacqueline:  What is the Mission of the Employee Engagement organization

Lisa:  The Mission should be to create moments that matter throughout the employee journey. It’s about creating employee fulfillment, not just employee satisfaction.  And that journey actually begins before an employee even starts working; it starts during recruitment to onboarding and continues all the way through their departure.  On the back end, when an employee moves on internally or externally, we need to learn from their feedback and use that feedback to improve.

Jacqueline:   Do you recall an example at Estée Lauder of how you used the feedback you received from a departing employee?

Lisa:  Yes, actually.   For our Summer University Internship program, we brought in a group of interns, rising seniors, to which we included them in our onboarding program for other full time new hires just starting with the company. At the end of the internship program, many interns are offered full time employment after graduation. And when they begin, they go through the full Onboarding program. One of the interns who was hired and then left a year later shared feedback of frustration of having to repeat some of the same material in the Onboarding Program that she had gone through before. It felt repetitive and after interning for a Summer she already knew some of which was being reshared. 

This was great feedback for us because it helped us look at the program with a different set of eyes and make updates to the way in which we onboarded new hires who had interned with us, removing the redundancy. 

Jacqueline:  Let’s turn to the world of Employee Engagement – what areas did this encompass in your role at Estée Lauder

Lisa: Employee Engagement at ELC IT was focused on four strategic pillars: 

1. Talent recruitment – Attracting and converting top talent to support the vision of being an IT Employer of Choice. Think internship programs, recruiting
2. Education – Creating a L&D roadmap to support the upskilling and career growth of our people. For example, education through curated learning paths, robust Oboarding programs, etc.
3. Culture – Creating a deep sense of community, purpose and belonging. IT Day of Service, Tech Day of Pink to raise money for breast cancer research and awareness, and employee recognition.
4. Connecting – Connecting employee contribution and business outcomes to create a sense of purpose – help employees connect to the strategy and see how their work is impacting the business and contributing to the success of the organization.

Jacqueline:   Do you have a perspective on how your role differed as compared to your peers in other companies?

Lisa:  The fact that I operated inside of IT was totally unique. Most companies have one Employee Engagement department that works across the enterprise. And those roles are focused mainly on employee culture. 

Jacqueline:  Can you call out some Cultural Touchstones that were well-received?

Lisa:   The ones that really stand out were the IT Day of Service, The Tech Day of Pink -for breast cancer research, and the Hackathon.    These events really bring people together while doing good for others.

Jacqueline:   Did the emphasis on each of these areas change over the last five or so years and if so, how did you spend/divide your time?

Lisa:  Certain programs were predictable at different times of the year.  For example, as soon as the Summer Interns walked out the door in August, we were already accepting applications for the next year’s program.    In the bigger picture, we had placed significant focus on the IT Learning programs which took considerable time and effort to get up and running.  The Pandemic also forced us to re-prioritize and figure out how to accomplish our goals remotely.  Generally speaking, we had to stay nimble and be able to change with the environment while keeping our goals in mind.

Jacqueline: What where some of your favorite tools to accomplish your objectives?

Lisa: What we are always striving for is fulfilment and some of that takes place informally – the “water cooler moments.”   Any time you can talk to people becomes important.  Sometimes it can be in surveys, but survey fatigue does set in.  Our special events, as mentioned earlier really fill an important role in creating these moments.   We also had great success doing speed networking, coffee chats, and “ask me anything” sessions with senior leaders and small groups vs. large town halls. Large town hall meetings were also successful, but the smaller formats allowed for more personalized interactions and being able to dig a bit deeper below the surface.

Jacqueline: What were your operating principles in approaching your role?

Lisa:  It was evident to me that one size does not fit all.  You have to meet people where they are.  People learn differently. People experience things differently.  So, you have to have multiple approaches to make an impact on large groups of people. For example, when cascading new information to teams, some people will read a newsletter – others will join a town hall. Some want small format team meetings. So you need an multi-faceted approach to meet people where they are. This became even more evident during Covid when we were working remotely for two years and all of a sudden completely missed out on those in person moments where we used to check in with one another.   You’ll never be able to make everyone happy all of the time, but you can do your best to bring people along on the journey by meeting them where they are.

Jacqueline: In terms of feedback, how did you get it and what learning really stands out?

Lisa:   There are so many messages being thrown at people, it’s critical to help people relate the messaging that applies to the work they are doing.  To better understand the big picture, we would meet weekly as leadership team from across the department to talk about anything – supply chain issues for example, and how to use our own resources to get things done.   We’d find out how people from other groups are feeling and what they are hearing and get feedback from HR’s regular conversations with the business units.   Not all leaders cascade the message the same way, so we used this time to try to align our messaging so that the teams could hear more consistently from us.  What worked best was continuous check throughout the employee life cycle to be able to manage things as they came up.

Jacqueline: What is your advice to people entering this field today?

Lisa:  Be curious.  Learn, ask questions, meet people where they’re at, and open your eyes to the way people show up and evolve on the journey. Your goal is to be with people along the journey. So first and foremost, understand the journey, what it means for you and for them.  In the end, it’s about creating moments that matter.  In terms of skillsets – communication, relationship building and cultivating relationships for the long term. The way you speak to people and engage with them is so critical.   In this role, you have to create and become the safe space.

---

 

Jacqueline: What is your advice to people entering this field today?

Lisa:  Be curious.  Learn, ask questions, meet people where they’re at, and open your eyes to the way people show up and evolve on the journey. Your goal is to be with people along the journey. So first and foremost, understand the journey, what it means for you and for them.  In the end, it’s about creating moments that matter.  In terms of skillsets – communication, relationship building and cultivating relationships for the long term. The way you speak to people and engage with them is so critical.   In this role, you have to create and become the safe space.