Lynnette Heath

▶0:01HostWelcome 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 Lynette to the Built By People podcast. Lynette, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could tell us a little bit more about your career journey and some of the important lessons you've learned along the way.

▶0:59GuestSure, thank you so much for having me, David. I appreciate it. I've had a long career, so there's certainly some experiences and lessons along the way. I started out as an administrative assistant in our local utility in the employee and labor relations department, and that's where I found my first love of HR and really what holds true today in terms of employee relations, labor relations. That's always been an area I've been drawn to. I traversed my career. I went to then a healthcare company and moved up through there, became the director of HR for a pharmacy benefit management company, learned a lot there. I went through a variety of companies, rose up to be HR leader, VP of HR at different companies, joined an acquisition. Then went to my first privately held company as the leader of HR, and transitioned to my current company as the CHRO of a publicly held organization. So that's really truncating, obviously, my career there over multiple decades. But I will say something that you may have heard is movement, movement, movement. And what I encourage people to do is be open to moves, be open to taking risks. That's really how you learn. It's okay to say, I'm not really sure, but I'm going to raise my hand and try this. That's where I've been involved in a lot of acquisitions, integrations. I maybe didn't know anything about these different industries. At GE, I was in the financial services sector, and then I moved to manufacturing, which I didn't know, and I had to learn a lot. So always being open to learning, it helps you one, just broaden as an individual, but you maybe bring in a different perspective of people who have always been in a certain area, who've grown up in manufacturing, services, etc. You're going to ask questions that maybe they wouldn't, and it helps make you and the organization better. So I would never shy away from something just because I don't know everything, as an example, about X, Y, or Z. And also, being involved in integrations and acquisitions I was responsible for the entire scope of HR. That meant benefits, compensation. I still remember that first time. We were on a TSA for a year, and when it ended, someone came down and handed me all the benefits files, and you do your own 5500s. I'm like, what is a 5500? What do these things mean? I'm now negotiating with benefits vendors I knew nothing about, but believe in yourself. Know where you need to go for help. Don't be afraid to raise your hand and ask for help. And that's how you learn. And for me, it just continued then to open the door for more opportunities. People saw I was willing to dive in. I was willing to learn. I was happy to collaborate, to work together to get to the best outcome. And it's really served me well through my career.

▶4:00HostLynette, I want to switch gears and talk on the topic of employee resource groups, which I know you have a lot of experience with. What are ERGs and why do you view them to be important?

▶4:13GuestThey— so we have ERGs, or employee resource groups. I'm going to go back maybe a few decades. When I started at GE, we called them affinity groups. So different organizations call them different things, but they really provide value when you think about the employee experience. And that, of course, in HR is something we're continually focused on. How can it improve the employee experience? Well, having and offering ERGs or employee resource groups allows the opportunity for employee to raise their hand and say, hey, I'm passionate about a particular topic, a particular area. I want to get involved. And it allows them to get involved in maybe a different way in the business or organization than they otherwise would if they only have the channel of their role. And so for us, we spun out about 6 years ago from Pentair. So we became our own company. We stood ourselves up as our own organization. We were a part of a much larger publicly held company at the time. We spun out, and then we took a step back and said, you know, we have a great foundation from a culture to build upon, but what do we want to be as nVent? And we talked a bit about inclusion and diversity. We didn't have a function around that until we added somebody on the HR team, and we've slowly added over the years. But part of the discussion around our strategy to be an inclusive organization was to say, let's create some ERGs or employee resource groups. We've seen these be successful in the past, both myself and now we have our chief diversity officer, inclusion and diversity officer. And part of what's important to understand is we did not sit back and say, we're going to create an ERG and see who's interested. We talked about it. There are a lot of people at our company who didn't know what an ERG was, but it was important that this be something that a group of employees feel strongly about and raise their hand and say, we want to start this group. So the very first ERG that started was our sustainability ERG. They came up with the name. It's called Grassroots. And this is a very strong ERG for us. And when we talk about an ERG, we now have a playbook. Here's how you start an ERG. Here's the goals. But you will have a business impact. So what does that mean? And it varies based on the ERG, of course. But it's available for people globally to join. And so right there, it helps the business because now we're creating relationships that maybe didn't exist before. It crosses business segments, it crosses geographies, and they may not have had a chance to interact. But when you broaden the network of employees, that means you broaden the network of people for them to reach out to, for them to bounce ideas off of, for them to learn from. So it benefits both the employee and the organization from that perspective. Also, we have some really passionate people in our grassroots ERG, and they've taken a step back and said, hey, they've let's look at how we're packaging. Let's look at if we're using single-use plastics. Let's talk about how we can be a better partner to the planet from a sustainability perspective. And they are pushing us, meaning management leaders, to think through more of a sustainability lens. Not that we're not already, but they're bringing in other ideas, other thoughts. They're standing side by side with us partnering to make sure that we can do better in terms of our sustainability goals, metrics, and how we show up as community partners.

▶7:50HostYou talked on the role that ERGs can play in facilitating organizational inclusion. What are some of the other different ERGs that you've implemented, and what are some of the ways that ERGs have created a more inclusive and welcoming workplace?

▶8:08GuestWell, one thing I will say that I'm really proud of is we have 9 ERGs at Invent. And so there's really an ERG for everybody, depending on what your passion area is. We have an ERG called Connecting Cultures. So that's— we're a global organization, and it's really helpful to understand, I might not know a lot about this culture from a business perspective. I'm in sales. I'm selling to someone differently. Isn't it great to have a resource to be able to tap on? Maybe I'm going to India for the first time. Well, we have people from Connecting Cultures in India. Maybe they can tell me more. So they help share the landscape, things you should be mindful of and understand when you're coming to interact as a business perspective, as well as just educating more broadly the org, our global organization on what is it like to live in this country? How do we operate? What are some things that might be helpful for you to understand so when we interact, we can connect even better. That's one of our ERGs. We have a women's network, really focused— and all of our ERGs are focused to anyone to join. But this is about just promoting women in the workplace and thinking how we can make sure we support their career growth. We have what is called our Conductors ERG, and that's an ERG focused on African American descent. And really, again, anyone can join and be supportive. But how do we make sure that we're growing the careers of African American employees as well. We have an Allies ERG, and that's an ERG that supports the LGBTQ+ population. And we also have an ADAPT ERG. That's our newest ERG, and that's an ERG focused on disabilities, both seen and unseen, and just making sure we're being really thoughtful as an organization. How are we making sure we're welcoming for people with disabilities? How are we making sure that we're inviting in individuals who have some great skills, but maybe we're not reaching out to a certain population to be applying for jobs? How are we thinking differently? So they really help us think through business planning. What are we focused on? And making sure we're casting our net wide enough when we think about recruiting individuals to the organization. A couple of other ERGs we have, an early career ERG, called Charting Courses. And that's for those who are earlier on in their career, maybe fresh out of school or been working a few years, but coming in and trying to navigate the business world. And what does it mean? And how should they be thinking? And they're so hungry to learn and grow. Another ERG we have is for later career, which is called Encore. And I really love partnering up these two ERGs and approaching and how can they be cross-mentoring one another, a lot of learning, a lot of different learning and approaches. So they come together and share information, as do all of our ERGs. They will often partner up and provide different events, whether it's speakers or other activities. So we're broadening that relationship with cross-ERG networking, if you will, again, broadening the connections, understanding across the organization, but also coming together and saying, How can we partner together and help the organization grow? So a lot of different ERGs. None of these were us sitting back and saying, we're going to create this. This was employees raising their hands to say, we are passionate about X, Y, or Z, and we would love to create an ERG, and we would love to help the business be successful. So let's put together some business goals as we form.

▶11:51HostLynnette, what recommendations would you provide that draw from the challenges and experiences you've had with ERGs?

▶12:00GuestWell, when you want to establish ERGs, it, it can't be leadership sitting in a room saying, we support ERGs coming together, but it's got to be something that employees feel strongly about because they're going to have to sustain it. We're going to give them the playbook, and we have very specific playbook and guidelines for every ERG. So you want to say, Here's the structure you should follow. This is what the leadership looks like. Here's how much time you should be investing. You should understand if you're going to be on the leadership team, it is an investment of time. It's also a great development opportunity for maybe people who want to be leaders in the future, but aren't current people leaders. Well, you're leading a group and a team. So it's a great way to get some leadership skills. You also want to make sure that there are ties back to what are you going to do to benefit the organization? Because of course we're a business, so this isn't a social agency. This is a group to bring people together to learn and grow and benefit the organization. So you want to make sure there's goals that tie to that. Or as we say, it can become just food, fun, and flags. And that's not the intent, right? The intent is this is a business group. To add value to the business. And making sure when you think about setting up ERGs that you keep that as a foundational aspect. It's not about just celebrating holidays and bringing in fun food. You can certainly do that, but you should think about how are we setting up mentoring programs? How are we giving them exposure to leaders? Maybe they can help us solve for a business issue here or there. You want to be drawing it back to the business.

▶13:43HostNow, we've discussed in the past the importance of being data-driven. How has data played a role in gaining organizational support for initiatives like ERGs?

▶13:55GuestData and analytics and the insights that we bring is so important. So we use that across HR at nVent for a variety of things. And I will say, as we— this is something that I talk to our HR team about. We are in the function of HR, but we are business people. So we need to think and talk to the business in terms of business need. And as we all know, if you're in a for-profit business, there's a lot of metrics, there's a lot of deliverables, and we have to be able to speak to that and also tie back what we're doing on how it improves that. So for example, talking about ERGs. We have engagement surveys. We have retention data. We have performance data across the entire organization. And so we'll look at it and say, hey, do we see better performance for retention, for promotability, for these engagement scores of people who are in ERGs versus people who are not? And we see a difference. And so that's where we'll talk about that. Do we see a difference in promotability because They learned some skills in terms of leading a team. They've learned some skills in how do you manage projects. How are they getting exposure to some of that training? There's different development that they are getting, which then helps their career grow. So we try to tie back data as well as then the insights. So when we approach as an HR leadership team, our executive leadership team, we talk about these things. What is the benefit to the organization as well as our people? And how are we seeing that play through? So why should you support it? And one other thing I'm going to tie back in from your earlier question, as we're bringing data forward, one thing that we found to be very successful, and I highly recommend if you're thinking of creating an ERG, is having an executive sponsor. So one of our executive leadership team members is an executive sponsor of each ERG. As an example, I'm the executive sponsor for our Allies ERG. And so we work together a lot. And they may say, oh, we're struggling with this, or we're struggling with that. We're not getting access to that. Then I can help break down those barriers, as well as making sure we are keeping our ERGs forefront in different conversations that we're having with the executive leadership team so they're aware. Because it's important, the work that our different groups are doing.

▶16:21HostLinda, what does it mean to say how we treat our people matters? And how do you bring that concept to life within Invent?

▶16:31GuestThat is something that we say a lot. Our people matter. So we say that frequently, our people matter. And so how do we show that? To your point, how we treat our people matter. I will tell you, unsolicited, I get feedback when I'm traveling around to people who will tell me, we feel it, Lynette. We feel the focus. On people at InvenT. And so how is that? How do we do that? We really ingrain our people processes. We have what we call a people leader goal that every people leader, so anyone that manages anybody across InvenT has the same people leader goal. And these are really just some basic things, but you will give reviews on a timely basis. You will set goals on on a timely basis. You will have mid-year reviews on a timely basis. We have a culture orientation that all new hires go through. You will make sure that they go through culture orientation in a given time after they join the organization. You will make sure they complete compliance training. So these are just really basics, I would say, some foundational things. But when we spun out, after having some conversations with people, I heard, oh, maybe I haven't really had a review in a few years. Or haven't really set goals in a few years. And I thought, that's just not acceptable. It is so important for our people to know you matter enough that I'm going to have a really good conversation with you about your goals. I'm going to make sure we're thinking through your goals in a good way. And oh, by the way, we set performance goals for the year. And we also set IDP or those individual development plans for the year. So we're focusing on you. We're focusing on your development because you matter. And we're going to make sure that we are having continuous conversations throughout the year. So yes, you heard me mention the year-end review and the mid-year review. Those conversations matter, and they need to be about both the performance goals, but as well as the development. But then we really promote continuous conversations. We have an engagement survey every 18 months. We don't do it annually. We do it 18 months to make sure we can really be thoughtful with action plans. And then we follow up. And we talk about what we're doing based on the feedback that we've received. And then we have a pulse survey in between that 18-month period. But we really encourage thoughtful feedback from our employees, from our people, because we want to act on what they tell us they need. We do roundtables when we travel to different sites. And we follow up and say, you told us, and we heard you, and let's make some improvements. It's all about working together. To make sure our people feel valued, to make sure they feel communicated with early on. In our surveys, they told us we can improve on communication. And we did. And we focused on it. And we saw our scores go up because that mattered to them. We heard, hey, recognition, we can do better. We focused on it. We created a new global platform. And our employees said, you listened to us. This is good. We improved in that area. We're focusing on career development. Because the feedback was we can do better. Focus on career. Our scores are going up there because we maybe need to double down in some areas for our people to know, yes, we hear you. You matter. You're important. We need our people engaged and excited every day to make sure we can deliver for our customers. So that matters. And they feel it. So rewarding when we have new hires who I'll walk through in the lobby and they'll say, these values, they're more just words on the wall. We feel it when we're here. It's a tangible part of our culture and who we are.

▶20:07HostVerna, any parting advice you'd like to share with our community?

▶20:12GuestI would say, you know, it can be a challenging time to be in HR when we see what's going on around us, the world around us, the pace of change, maybe employees having a different view or perspective in the relationship that they want to have with an organization. Whether it's something as simple of, I really, I want to work remote. I don't want to be in the office. We have, as an organization, we want people in the office. That's where we feel we build, reinforce, enhance our culture when people are together in person thriving. Also knowing there's a lot of competition for talent out there. So what are we doing to attract and retain our talent? With all of that being said, I would say it's really exciting. And to think for HR professionals, you can have a profound impact on an individual as well as the organization as a whole. So I would say, look to that, be excited about it, and think, what can I do to add value today? Because as I'm adding value to an individual, to a team, to an organization, I'm also learning and growing as an individual. It's going to enhance my skill set and make me more desirable to the function, the organization overall as well.

▶21:24HostLynette, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure having you involved.

▶21:29GuestThank you so much. It was a pleasure to be here.