Beyond HR transformation: Why cultural renovation drives real impact.

Welcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce.

I'm excited to welcome Ebony to the Built by People podcast. Ebony, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to have you tell us a little bit more about your career journey.

Yeah, so first, thank you for having me. Such an honor and a privilege to be here with you today, Dave, and A little bit about me. So I am currently based out in Nashville, Tennessee, home of hot chicken and country music, and I have the pleasure of leading HR for a healthcare company. Before that, I've lived all over the US working in different HR roles, some HR generalists and then some from a center of excellence standpoint, talent acquisition and talent management. I've worked in the industries of CPG, technology, automotive. And then had the pleasure of leading a team across the Americas. So Canada, US, and Latin America, as well as partnering and working with people in European countries. Lots of great experience, about 10 years of leading people. It is a weighted blessing that I do not take lightly, but it is absolutely the best part of my day and what makes the job fulfilling.

Ebony, tell me about a time when you successfully implemented a cultural renovation rather than a transformation. What specific approach which has worked, and how did you navigate the challenges of adapting existing culture rather than trying to completely transform it?

Yeah, so that's a great and a meaty question that we don't have a lot of time for, but here's what I would say. So anytime I'm trying to assess whether it's cultural renovation or cultural transformation, I'm looking for what works, what doesn't work. I'm a huge believer of the Jay Galbraith organizational design model, which is really strategy, structure, people, processes, rewards. And a lot of times a leader will come into an organization and fit the people and fit the structure to their leadership style versus thinking about what's already existing and then figuring out how to add to that strength, build that strength, or create different capacities. So in my mind, when the leader changes the structure and the people and the rewards to fit them, that's the transformation versus when you look at what's already there, you adapt, you strengthen, you build, that's the renovation. And so in the role that I mentioned that I have the pleasure of leading Latin America, I was their first ever non-native Portuguese and Spanish speaking leader. I also did not look like them. I didn't obviously come from the 6 countries that I led. And the goal that I was given by my leaders was essentially to integrate. They wanted to create more standardized centers of excellence, and they wanted to create efficiencies for the organization because obviously you're trying to maximize your investment in the people that you hire. They wanted to standardize some operating procedures as well. Really what they were asking me for was a transformation. Throughout my process and my style, I listen, I learn, I seek to understand. And what I realized is it needed renovation, not transformation. So there were some processes that were embedded into the culture of the countries. So think about now, it's very common for you to put a picture on a resume or put your race or your nickname or whatever. This was in 2018. That's unheard of. You don't ask a about family, race, none of that in the US. But in Latin America, that's very common because they're a relationship-based culture. So if you go in with top-down processes that essentially say, we're not going to ask about those things, those people, candidates, don't feel connected and will not come to work for your company. So by starting to understand what worked, maybe why the rooms were painted the colors that they were painted and why it had these characteristics, I was able to advocate for that, keep the essence of what was working and elevate and enhance with some general things like standardizing compensation, creating efficiencies in the processes, using different technology. They love the pictures and the infomatics and the infographics. So taking some centralized things that we had from a marketing and branding perspective and bringing that into what already worked. So we achieved our goal to absolutely create centers of excellence. But those centers of excellence mostly reported to me with a few reporting into the US so that I could be the buffer or the painter, as I like to say. I'm able to say what needs a new coat of paint, what needs a full demolition. You can tell that I've been watching a lot of HGTV. But essentially, I was able to be that buffer, that contractor to figure out what pieces worked and what kept it. And I would say The challenge there was the pressure from the top to do something different, but I had the full support from the bottom, my team, to advocate and make it what it is. And I'm proud to say they still have a bit of that blended model. It's not integration, it's blended. And I think blended is what creates those unique characteristics that makes an organization sellable to any candidate.

Ebony, can you walk us through a specific example of how you've built and implemented a people strategy that linked KPIs to measurable impact rather than just activities. What were the key elements that made it successful?

Yes. So remember I said, I love that Jankel writes strategy, structure, people, processes, rewards, right? One of the things that I did coming into this role, again, HR is a very transferable skill, but the industry, knowing the industry norms and the rules and regulations is what allows the execution of that skill to really come to life. In this role, I came in, I didn't have a healthcare background. I had to understand that. And one of the things that I realized is that in this industry for HR, turnover is what they measure it by because you need nurses and doctors and physicians, all of that staff. People are your commodity. You don't have a manufactured good. It's really the people. There's not a lot of automation in the process. It's the people. That create the service. And so because of that, they essentially look at turnover as one of the key indicators for success. But turnover is not inherently good or bad. It's the context behind it. So again, with that listening approach, came in and said, okay, our strategy doesn't need to be rocket science. We need to attract and retain talent. We need to focus on hiring, learning development, culture, all of those elements. But we need KPIs that actually help us understand, are our actions working or are they not working? And so now we don't just look at turnover, we look at quality of hire. Because what I realized is that about 50% of our overall turnover was happening with people within the first year. Some of it, it was the training or lack thereof. Some of it was just a bad hire or a bad fit. Some of it we were pulling from companies that had a lot of growth. And so our organization is flat and that won't work. So we need to find other ways to sell our culture to help retain those people. Ultimately, we look at that quality of hire metric. We get real-time feedback from different focus groups that we have set up. We've got different engagement teams. We monitor people very closely in that first 90 days. And then when we look at our overall turnover number, We're not just looking at a number that's inherently neutral, but we know what's driving that number. And we can take quarterly actions to help mitigate that.

Ebony, share with us a recent case where you had to think creatively about compensation structure to attract and retain talent. What innovative approaches did you use within the existing framework, and what were the outcomes?

So framework of compensation, I will be honest, I am not a compensation expert. Expert, but I have lots of mentors and friends that I usually poke their brains. And, you know, framework by nature is set up to be rigid, and it's really about equity, and then again, maximizing that return on investment that you're paying in. So what we have and what we've had in other organizations are you've got salary grades. You can't really move away from those salary grades because those are market price. But what people don't really consider are in-grade promotions. So for a flat structure, I don't want to necessarily create elevated titles that are meaningless to people. I don't want to overinflate titles or overpay for salary. But what I can do is look at the people periodically that have been here that are high performers and see if the job that they're doing is actually the job that we hired them for. So often you come into a job., and it's not what's on the job descriptions. So when I've benchmarked that job and created a salary grade, it's already out of date. So what I would do is look at what these people are doing, and I did this with my Latin America role and in this role as well, but essentially evaluate, do job evaluations, and then the range might be right from a market perspective. But what I've noticed is that maybe these people have fallen behind. Poor performers, or people that have come in from the market at a high rate. So now I can get a bit of an ingrate promotion, move them to the top of the third quartile, or move them out of their current quartile to show them that we are going to pay you what we think you're worth. We want to keep you with the company. We're not necessarily changing your job title. We can look at other ways to grow you with the intangibles. But from a pay perspective, we're essentially moving you up in the salary range to show and signify that we believe in you. We think that your talent is worth more than what the average market is, and that's the reason for you to stay and work and play with the organization.

Ebony, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

Yeah, so I would say every one of us is a leader. And I think leaders— whether you're a leader of a process, a team, a group, a company, whatever it may be— but I think our job as leaders is to learn, right? I think we should seek to learn versus seek to lead, because when we seek to learn, you're showing that you believe that other people can contribute to your ecosystem. There's that humility and that authenticity that people want to connect because they feel like you're not the know-it-all. Me personally, that is when I'm the most fulfilled, when I feel like I'm learning in my job. And when you're sitting at the top, there may not be another level to go to, but if I am learning from others and learning new things, that definitely keeps my mind stimulated and creates that fulfillment that I think most people

want in their jobs. Ebony, thank you so much for joining us on the Built By People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

Yes, likewise.