47. Coretha Rushing: companies are well-advised to act as if “human capital” really matters

Coretha Rushing talks about the important role a Chief People Officer plays in management and on the board.  Many companies say people are their most important asset, in this episode we talk about what an organization should do to reflect that priority.

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Quotes

I haven't worked at any company where they don't say people are our most important asset. I've not worked at any company where they say they want to operate in an ethical way and that people should be respected in the workplace. But we hear, unfortunately, every day, both in the news and personal engagements with friends and family members, that there are things that happen in the workplace every day that should not be happening, and that must be impacting how people are showing at work and their effectiveness when they are there.  

I think what has changed dramatically with the pandemic and the lack of talent in the marketplace is that smart companies are looking at their talent very differently. The role [of CPO) becomes critical, and they’re sitting there with the CFO talking about the other major assets of the company. When I left Coca-Cola and people contacted me about opportunities, I wasn't interested if it didn't report to the CEO.

I was very fortunate to work for CEOs who felt it was important I attend the strategy sessions, to ensure I was aware and informed on real-time basis those things impacting our business

The reason I've had the benefit of being contacted about so many board opportunities is because so many boards have lack focus on their people assets and  are deficient in the area of human capital.

It's amazing to me when I'm sitting on a board among former and current CEOs and COOs and CFOs, how little they understand about the basics in managing, engaging and retaining talent.

Productivity is not "I'm sitting at my desk all day long." Productivity is you ask me to deliver X by X date with these performance parameters, and I've checked the box on each one.

Big Ideas/Thoughts

For the majority of time when I grew up in HR, the majority of employees in the human resource function were women. But when I reflected on my own career, most of the time, the most senior people tended to be men.

Most companies spend a lot of time, effort, and money on the acquisition of their human capital, but like people who save their whole life for something like a brand-new car and then later you see it and it's got dents in it and it's not clean, and you're thinking, "I remember this guy wanted this car, and now look at it." Sometimes I feel like companies acquire people and then they don't take the time to understand what the asset is that they have.

All of my boards have been very, very different, but they all have a common thread, which is the expectation is not that you run the company, but that you weigh in on the runnings of the company; that you hold the CEO and the leadership team's feet to the fire around what they espouse as the strategy and whether or not they're staying on track to the strategy that they've communicated.

 

When I was at the Coca-Cola Company and Equifax and things happened around the world, it had an impact to us in the US.  Even though we may want to believe that we're the dog wagging the tail when it comes to talent, I'm not always sure that that's the case.

In my mind, companies are better, and our country is better when we have people from all over working and making us a better place. I'm hoping the pendulum will swing back to the middle because I think there are many organizations that know they have benefited from having diversity of talent in their talent base.

 

I think this whole focus on employee engagement is trying to find that happy medium.  I do believe that people want to come into the office, but I also believe that people don't think they have to come in every day.  Management believes some employees are not productive and they're using “productivity tools” to test, but employees believe that they are hugely productive.  I think what we are missing here is productivity should be based on outcome, not just physically being at a particular place, at a certain time.