Best of MPL: 11 tips for Chief People Officers

Hey MPL Fam,

Can you believe we're already 106 days into 2024?

So far, we've dropped 26 episodes packed with plenty of insights and memorable moments, but here are 11 moments that really standout. ??

1. Insights from surveying 61 first-time Chief People Officers ??

David Hanrahan says that his debut in a Head of People role felt like a disaster.

Driven by curiosity about other first-timers' experiences, David surveyed 61 Chief People Officers on their debut as CPOs.

Here were the questions he asked: 1. Was it a positive or negative experience?

2. What was the most challenging aspect of being a first-time CPO?

3. In hindsight, what do they wish they had known?

4. Would they choose to go through it all over again?

5. What are they up to now?

The survey unearthed some surprising insights for David:

? While most acknowledged the role's difficulty, surpassing any previous positions, the consensus highlighted its positive impact and willingness to undertake it again.

?? The career paths post their initial People role intrigued David the most. While many pursued further Chief People Officer positions, a significant portion stepped away from operational duties towards consulting or coaching.

?? Interestingly, the demand wasn't for more HR knowledge post-CPO experience. Instead, there was a clear appetite for greater business acumen and insights into everything beyond HR.

David says that the essence of a Modern People Leader goes beyond conventional HR boundaries, paralleling the responsibilities of a COO.

He asserts that the most effective CPOs today are those who could seamlessly transition into a COO role.

Listen to the full episode here.

2. The art of saying "no" in HR ??

It’s tempting to say “yes” when people come to HR with outlandish demands.

But agreeing to everything isn’t necessary. Katya Laviolette (Chief People Officer, 1Password) once worked for a CEO who advised her not to rush into saying yes. He suggested, “Sometimes, if you sit with a decision, a different answer emerges.”

Her advice for People Leaders facing these types of demands? Instead of reacting immediately, try to engage in a dialogue.

Consider asking questions like:

• What’s driving this demand?
• Have we considered __ instead?

After a meaningful dialogue, it becomes easier to push back respectfully.

Saying “no” in HR is an art. It’s about having courageous conversations, not confrontations.

Listen to the full episode here.

3. Stop going through the motions in HR ??

If you're swamped with tasks, feeling like you're constantly fighting fires and stuck in survival mode, then you’re likely just going through the motions.

Over the past six or seven years, Anessa Fike has discovered two strategies to break free from this cycle:

1?? Distinguish between what's urgent and what's important.

We're bombarded with urgent tasks, but focusing solely on them means we'll never get to the truly important matters. Prioritize impact over urgency.

2?? Assess how you can create the most significant impact in the shortest amount of time.

Instead of exhausting yourself with endless tasks, without a clear understanding of your impact, consider reallocating those hours. Imagine if you took a brief walk, detached from your desk, and reflected on how to best support your organization that day. Your actions upon returning would likely differ significantly, focusing on more impactful efforts.

This shift in perspective is what transformed Anessa’s business from a six-figure to a seven-figure venture.

She says it’s all about maximizing impact.

That’s why this year, her keyword is "impact." She aims to achieve a thousandfold, or even ten thousandfold, impact with her efforts.

She believes this mindset should be adopted by people leaders.

Listen to the full episode here.

4. This CEO & CPO duo swapped 360 feedback during the interview process ??

"After a recent round of 360 feedback, I shared everything with Brandon—the good, the bad, and the ugly. I laid out the raw comments for complete transparency.”

Wade Foster, Zapier's CEO, explained that this was to show what working with him was like and to identify areas that weren't benefiting Zapier, asking Brandon for help in addressing these issues.

In return, Brandon Sammut, now the Chief People Officer at Zapier, shared his own 360 feedback and “readmes”.

They say this exchange rapidly accelerated their understanding of each other.

“Readmes” are a company-wide practice at Zapier.

They are personal manuals that explain each individual's values, working styles, and feedback preferences.

They say this ritual is rare but powerful.

It's a structured way to foster mutual understanding and collaboration from the start, proving to be especially helpful during transitions or new team formations.

Listen to the full episode here.

5. Unique ways to think about transparency at your organization ??

Here are four unique methods for enhancing transparency that Adam Horne shared:

1) Sharing the employee-to-manager ratio with candidates

This might seem like a minor detail, but it gives applicants a sense of the team size they're potentially joining. This is crucial, as studies indicate an optimal team size for productivity. Knowing if you're entering a large or small team can significantly impact cultural fit, development opportunities, and manager interaction time.

2) Sharing your company's meeting philosophy

People are increasingly scrutinizing their meeting schedules – whether it’s eight hours a week, just one hour, or even a zero-hours policy. This is particularly relevant in fields like product development and engineering, where uninterrupted focus time is often valued over back-to-back meetings. Sharing this philosophy helps candidates decide if they align with your company culture.

3) Being transparent about Internal Mobility opportunities

This aspect is particularly important for Gen Z candidates entering the workforce. They’re not interested in being pigeonholed into one role; they value the opportunity to move laterally within a company for career growth. Companies should be transparent about these opportunities, even if they are limited.

4) Creating team 'read-me's

These are like user manuals for hiring managers and colleagues, and they're gaining popularity. Going beyond LinkedIn profiles, these documents offer insights into communication styles, decision-making processes, and behaviors during both good and bad days. This level of detail can be a significant factor for applicants, as the quality of a manager often influences their decision to stay or leave. Sharing this information provides applicants with a deeper understanding of their potential manager, which can be incredibly valuable.

Listen to the full episode here.

6. How to make decisions with your CEO as Chief People Officer ??

Hannah Yardley has lots of experience getting other leadership to care about people problems.

Her advice?

Get alignment on the what and when of decision making.

She has three buckets:

1) CEO decisions - major people investments like office locations

2) CEO + CHRO decisions - engagement surveys, compensation strategies

3) CEO + all SLT team decisions - broader policies and programs

This structure creates clarity when she needs to deeply partner with the CEO vs. when she should be gathering perspectives from the broader leadership team.

It also empowers her to move faster on people initiatives and say “no” to non-critical requests.

The key takeaway? Invest time with your CEO to define decision rights and cadences.

Listen to the full episode here.

7. The ROI of HR is "Return on Intangibles" ??

Dave Ulrich says the ROI of HR is “Return on Intangibles,” highlighting that 80% of a company’s value comes from things like ideas, people skills, and leadership.

That’s why he believes that human capability (talent, organization, leadership, & HR) should be a key point in every board meeting going forward, alongside financials and strategy.

He gave us two examples of how intangibles can affect market value.

1 - P/E Ratios & Investor Perception

Dave noted how two companies, pretty much identical in earnings, can get wildly different scores from investors. Take Pepsi and Coke – Pepsi’s P/E ratio is 20% higher than Coke’s, all thanks to investor perceptions.

2 - Basket Size & Employee Engagement

Dave also shared a story about a retail giant checking out their stores’ employee engagement levels. They noticed the top 20% engaged teams were seeing a 25% bump in how much customers were spending.

Realizing the massive potential, the company decided to invest $1 billion on their people, expecting to see a 3-4x return on basket sizes across their stores.

Dave’s bottom line to boards: Give human capability the same stage as financials and strategy to boost both investor value and business success.

Listen to the full episode here.

8. The 'Calendar Redesign' Experiment at Atlassian ??

Atlassian recently conducted an interesting experiment. Upon reviewing company-wide calendars across various functions, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian) says they noticed a peculiar pattern: everyone's calendar seemed to be filled with back-to-back 30-minute meetings, regardless of their differing job roles.

This observation raised a critical question: if calendars are packed with meetings, when does actual work happen?

To address this, they formulated hypotheses and conducted experiments with two groups.

Group A was instructed to keep 30% of their calendar free, dedicating around 10% of their time to focused work and 20% to open collaboration. This approach allowed for more flexible, immediate problem-solving rather than scheduling discussions weeks in advance.

Group B, on the other hand, began each day by discussing with their manager the most important task to be accomplished, emphasizing the creation of value over fulfilling calendar obligations.

The results were remarkable. Across both groups people reported:

? 31% increase in productivity

? 13% reduction in meeting time

? 67% of ICs felt like they were making more progress

? 71% of managers felt like they were making more progress

? The habit of less meeting time has persisted

While both groups made more progress on top priorities, the group that choose a daily top priority was significantly more likely to say they made more progress.

Listen to the full episode here.

9. Q's advice for first-time Chief People Officers ??

1?? Be flexible.

Balance taking your time to settle in while addressing any fires or time-sensitive issues that come up.

Q Hamirani, Paper's Chief People Officer, built a 60-90 day onboarding plan when he started, but had to scrap it by day 3.

No matter how much you understand about the company pre-hire, expect some unknowns and surprises when you start. Roll with the changes.

2?? Take a role where the mission aligns with your values.

If you can’t anchor to your mission and it’s not what you expected, get out. If you can’t build a strong relationship with the co-founders and executive team, it’s probably not going to be sustainable long-term.

For him, knowing Paper’s mission to transform public education was what got him through the hardest days.

And because he has built such a strong relationship with the co-founders, he feels comfortable being open with them and hashing things out.

Listen to the full episode here.

10. How to bring your values to life through stories and real-life examples ??

This process helped Holly May (former CPO at Datavant) and her team bring their cultural values to life with a collection of stories and real-life examples. ????

1) She and her CEO arrived at a "good enough" version of their written values for broader input.

2) They gathered extensive feedback in a company-wide five-page Google Doc where everyone could comment, ask questions, and refine the wording.

3) They conducted workshops to solicit examples of existing behaviors that aligned with the desired values. In one workshop with the People team, they spent hours presenting "underbaked but directionally correct" draft values, acknowledging that employees were already embodying them unconsciously. Their goal was to identify and recognize these existing behaviors.

4) They brainstormed specific stories: a leader's decision regarding a high performer, a leader's approach to a problem on a specific date, etc. The focus was on real-world actions, not hypothetical scenarios.

Listen to the full episode here.

11. The job market is more broken than ever before ??

James Hudson says there's a significant imbalance in power, information, and sheer numbers between employers and job seekers.

Here’s how he explained it.

?? The signal to noise ratio:

In the last decade, even before the pandemic, it fell upon recruiters to filter through the noise to find the worthy candidates.

He calls this managing the signal to noise ratio.

In every company he’s been part of, regardless of its size or location, this ratio has consistently hovered around a 75 to 25 ratio. This means 75% of applicants don't fit the job, while about 25% do.

Before the pandemic, handling these percentages was manageable. With a hundred applicants, a recruiter would only need to evaluate the 25% appearing qualified on paper, then narrow them down further.

However, post-pandemic, the volume of applicants has skyrocketed, making it nearly impossible for recruiters to sift through the sea of candidates effectively.

Suddenly, finding 250 suitable candidates among thousands has become an overwhelming task, and giving each a fair chance has become unfeasible.

?? We're using outdated tools

Advances in consumer technology have far outpaced the tools, methodologies, and core philosophies that recruitment teams rely on. This mismatch has left recruiters, who were already thinned out by pandemic-related layoffs, trying to tackle digital-age challenges with outdated tools.

Even though Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are digital, they require so much manual effort that they're no longer adequate for today's challenges.

James says there's more noise now, and although there's also more signal, it's harder to distinguish.

?? Candidate expectations have evolved

The imbalances have grown more pronounced, and job seeker expectations have evolved.

It's no longer acceptable to provide a poor experience to applicants.

These applicants could be future customers or employees.

He says the industry's casual acceptance of disappointing applicants needs to end.

Listen to the full episode here.

See you next week!

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