John Ferguson

▶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 John to the Built by People podcast. John, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:54GuestDave, thank you so much for having me. Excited to be on here as we prepare and experience Transform. My career journey, wow, it has not been linear is what I always like to tell people. It's had plenty of twists, turns, and pivots. And guess what? It will continue to have twists, turns, and pivots. We're thinking about things built by people, probably focused on HR, but I truly believe I fell into the field of HR. I was a poli sci major in undergrad and moved to Washington, D.C. with all intentions of working in politics, but a few other avenues surfaced and I decided to pursue some different roles, one of which was starting my career in hospitality in HR with Hyatt Hotels. And that really just opened a world of opportunities that I think were not immediately on my radar. So started with Hyatt Hotels and then went to Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which is the home of the Washington Wizards, Washington Mystics, Washington Capitals, Capital One Arena, and a few other properties, esports teams. We, you You name it, we've done it at Monumental. And then towards the end of my time at Monumental, I was approached about the opportunity to join NASCAR. And I got curious. I like to tell everyone, I want everyone to be NASCAR curious. And so when I got that first call, I perked up and I said, hey, I wanna learn a little bit more about what's happening there and the sort of cultural transformation they're looking to do in the sport. And it has been a phenomenal run. I'm coming up on almost 4 years now with NASCAR.

▶2:12HostJohn, you previously discussed the importance of making an organization both a great place to work and a great place to be from. Could you elaborate on the strategies you employ to achieve this dual objective?

▶2:24GuestDave, thank you so much for that. That is a topic that I'm very passionate about, and I'll tell you how that sort of framework was birthed to me. And it really came when I was thinking about my time at Monumental Sports. So I was there for just shy of a decade. And as I, you start thinking about what's next in your career, I learned and grew a lot with that organization. Dave, when I started there, I had a head full of hair and I was single. For those of you who can't see me, I am bald, but when I left, I was bald, married with two beautiful daughters. Monumental was indeed a great place to work, but as I looked at pursuing other opportunities, that was when I really sat still and reflected on how it was a great place to be from because it became the springboard for my career. So when I put that framework out there, it's really challenging HR professionals and business leaders to think about how how you want your organization to be viewed in the context of the generational mix that's continuing to evolve in the workplace. Great place to work while I'm here, while the employees are working there, while the managers are leading, all those things are going well, you're adding to the employee's toolkit, or I like to call their success path, and the employee is also adding to the bottom line and creating value for the organization. But oftentimes we determine, or we will level set retention purely on like someone just being there for a long time. And when I think about Gen Z entering the workforce and even millennials, the amount of tenure that people are staying in one place is not as long as it used to be. So baby boomers, 15, 20 years plus, and then you have millennials coming in at shorter tenure, and then you have Gen Z that's kind of like, here, I might not be here for a long time, but I'm here for a good time. And so embracing how we view retention is really the driver of that framework, because if you're a great place to work, naturally you should evolve to become a great place to be from. Because you were the springboard for that employee to take all that they learned at your place of employment, and they took that on to further their career. But then guess what? That doesn't mean that, oh, we're missing out on the investment that we made in Dave because he was with us for a couple years. No, it simply means that now Dave, if he was a rock star, he continues to be a rock star, and now he's an alumni of your company, and now he's going out saying all the good things about his time there. So when we think about who's entering the workforce, particularly Gen Z, we need to level set how we think about retention. Strive to be a great place to work, but most importantly, a great place to be from.

▶4:39HostJohn, with NASCAR's workforce spanning over 20 office and racetrack locations, how do you approach understanding and meeting the diverse needs within your team?

▶4:48GuestThat really comes down to active listening. And I'll tell you, Dave, some days I'm good at that and some days I probably could use some additional practice, but it is an art and it is a skill for it. And the reason why I lead with that bit of transparency on my end is because look, I think many of us have room to grow in a lot of areas. So I am humble enough to say active listening is a skillset that you should practice and repeat and then practice some more. But for that really aligned with our ability to understand how employees were experiencing the organization. So no matter where you are across those 20 racetrack and office locations, what has been your experience with NASCAR? And so with that, we partnered with Culture Amp, which is our engagement survey platform, and we needed to hear the employee voice. When I joined the organization in '21, NASCAR was on the heels of a merger. So there were two very distinct companies coming together to create something new. And so with that, I needed to understand what was the foundation of that. And getting that employee sentiment and feedback on their experience was key to understanding how we should develop our, not only our HR strategy, but how that should align to the business strategy, because we know that our employees are our greatest asset into our competitive advantage and achieving Set goals, but most importantly, Dave, you can't ask for people's opinions and feedback unless you plan to act on it. So we have a real commitment to action planning to ensure that employees know that their voice didn't go unheard. While we may not be able to change everything, we're gonna make the appropriate steps and have the appropriate conversations to improve the overall employee value proposition.

▶6:12HostJohn, traditional views on employee retention are evolving, especially with newer generations valuing varied experiences. How has NASCAR adapted its retention strategies to align with this shift in career expectations?

▶6:25GuestThank you for that. So that, that goes back to that great place to work and great place to be from. We've invested a lot, and this was also informed for our employee engagement survey, was that people wanted the ability to upskill themselves. I'll use sports as an example. Typically in sports, I don't mean this in a negative way, but a lot of times there's a lot of passion for why people want to work at said company. And so, because it's the team that they've always rooted for. So I've always wanted to work for NASCAR, et cetera. But there also comes a point in time where their passion and the ability for career progression may not be aligned. And so when I think about sports, sometimes you have to go to grow. And when we think about traditional views on retention, our employees are saying they wanted to have greater learning and development opportunities. So not only while I'm here do I want to be a role model employee,, but also want the opportunity to upskill myself. So we have a NASCAR University platform internally where we have partnered with LinkedIn Learning. We have virtual libraries, and these are things that allow people to upskill themselves. So again, that great place to work concept, and then that turns into a great place to be from. Because look, we want you to be here as long as it's a good time for you, as long as it's a good time for us and everybody's learning. But we also recognize there comes a point where your desire for progression in your career may outpace what's available internally. And I'm the HR person that says, hey Dave, how can we get you to where you want to be? And it's not the conversation, can you stay with us? We keep promising and promising, but guess what? Some of those higher level leaders, they're not going anywhere. So that kind of limits your ability to grow. But I believe in saying, hey, let's partner in helping you find that new opportunity. And then guess what? We can always welcome you back as a boomerang employee. Because I do believe that when you work in different environments and for different companies, you pick up so many different tools and skills of the trade. And I think if you stay at one place your whole career, you limit your opportunity to gather those new skills.

▶8:12HostJohn, as the CHRO of NASCAR, what are the unique challenges you face in creating a cohesive culture and how do you address them?

▶8:21GuestI think the unique challenges, I think not unlike other companies when we just have employees spread across different offices and locations, because each of those office locations and racetrack locations is gonna have its own little nuance of character and flavor. And I think that's okay because I don't think we should have prescribed to have a one-size-shoe-fits-all. So for us, it's just really making sure that what we have in place holistically works for everybody, but also when we need to customize it and round corners or maybe pivot a little bit, we have that flexibility and agility to meet the needs of employees in said market.

▶8:54HostJohn, what parting advice would you like to share with our audience?

▶8:57GuestGood question. Think about retention differently. It goes back to how I started this, and I believe that Gen Z is going to be an amazing group of contributors to the workforce, and they're gonna force us in some areas to think about some things differently, but also in many ways, uh, partner with us as we have the evolution of how we look at work, how it's done, where it's done, and what the future of the workplace looks like, because Gen Z's coming in, they're digital natives. So I would say, listen to Gen Z. Hear them out, hear what they have to say. And I tell us in the older generations to come in with active listening because sometimes it's kinda like, oh yeah, we've been there, we've done that. But I think the perspective that they're gonna bring to the workforce and to the world is gonna be one that will enlighten us all.

▶9:43HostJohn, thanks so much for joining us on the Built By People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶9:47GuestThank you, Dave. I appreciate your time.