Joining Fuel50

Five years ago, I wasn’t in an HR related company, today I’m on the cutting edge of HR through AI-driven career pathing. How did this happen?

I have to thank Mercer and the vision (and courage) of Andre Maxnuk, CEO of Mexico at the time, when he hired me to lead the Monterrey office. Then I would definitely thank all of the people at Mercer who helped learn and understand their business and then work together to deliver solutions to our clients.

Last year was very challenging for our family. My performance at work declined as we were having to deal with a difficult situation at home with our firstborn. From August through October I was almost dedicated to him while my wife had to carry with most of the economic burden at home. I’ll forever be grateful to Mercer for all of their support through this difficult time even though I was no longer a full-time employee.

But last year, I also learned of Fuel50, as they were partnering with Mercer to deliver AI solutions and for some fortunate reason, I ended up teaming up with Jim Myers to visit with some of the clients that now were part of my day to day life, introducing them so he could explain their innovative game-changing platform and its benefits to employees, leaders and HR professionals.

A lot of the times when doing projects for our clients, we would learn the answer to a common question asked by many HR leaders: why do my employees leave or are not engaged? And this is even more relevant with Millennials and Centennials, who are commonly accused of not wanting to stay and of leaving if they are not promoted soon. Not true.

Yes, money is important to everyone, but there is so much more to it. Reading Harvard Business Review and other business publications, it becomes clear that everyone, not only the youngest generations, want to know there is more to it than their current job or waiting for their boss to move on, that they could move over to other areas in order to acquire new skills and capabilities that could alter their career path in ways they couldn’t even imagine.

Then I met Kelly Palmer, CLO of Degreed, and heard her talk about her book, The Expertise Economy at the Monterrey Digital Hub. She and David Blake get it so right when they talk about the importance of valuing skills, not degrees and about granting employees the autonomy and trust to learn what, when, where and how they prefer. I asked her if she knew of Fuel50 and she told me that she had even written about them in the book and the great results she had seen from them.

Very few times we get an opportunity to enter a market with a real innovation and see how it can transform the way things have being done in the past. This is one of those cases.

So, not only am I joining a cutting-edge HR company, but also having the privilege of taking it to the Latin American market. It’s my honor to lead this division and now that I have started to meet my colleagues and the leaders, I know I’m part of a great team, which in the end is always what counts the most: its people.

See you soon.