Resilient by Design: Turning Disruption into Opportunity

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[00:00:27] Mo Fathelbab: Welcome to today's episode of People and Strategy. We are recording live from the Executive Network Visionary Summit. I'm your host, Mo Fathelbab, president of International Facilitators Organization, People and Strategy is a podcast from the SHRM Executive Network, the premier network of executives in the field of human resources. 

[00:00:54] Each week we bring you in-depth conversations with the country's top HR. Our executives and thought leaders for today's conversation, I'm excited to be joined by Felicia Robinson. CHRO, boys and Girls Clubs of America. Welcome Felicia.  

[00:01:09] Felicia Robinson: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.  

[00:01:11] Mo Fathelbab: Great to have you with us, Felicia. Let's, start with your career journey and what brought you to the field of HR. 

[00:01:18] Felicia Robinson: I initially became interested in total rewards that is also known as compensation benefits. Recognition and no wellbeing, and I started in that area as a pension actuary at PricewaterhouseCoopers. Many, many moons ago. And from that I was able to be exposed to all aspects of HR being a consultant at a top five consulting firm. 

[00:01:45] And so I got to see all aspects through talent management, organizational design, and I actually, the bug pricked me as to how important. HR is to driving organizational success. And from there I, I was smitten. I love the diversity of HR and all the various levers you could pull to not only impact. 

[00:02:10] Organizational success, but it brought me joy to unleash the potential in people. So I love being in human resources and I think it is the secret sauce. And the magic sauce to organizational success.  

[00:02:25] Mo Fathelbab: Well, you are preaching to the choir here at SHRM. We agree with you a thousand percent. today we're talking about workforce planning. 

[00:02:32] What are your company's goals for this year when it comes to workforce planning?  

[00:02:36] Felicia Robinson: Well, I would say there are three of them. we recently refined what we call our employee value proposition. We actually realized we have a very strong one, but it was not documented. So we worked with several employees across many levels in the organization, and we had a specific focus team on it. And so now we're doing the work of operationalizing that and bringing it to bear, both in our branding, our career site, as we also talk to people about why they work at Boys and Girls Clubs of America. So that's a big piece of the workforce planning. The second is career development. 

[00:03:17] Our employees through our engagement survey said they really don't understand what their career options are. So we're gonna be leaning into career development by, setting up very targeted mentorship programs, as well as teaching managers how to have that career growth conversation as well as the employee and making it a two-way. 

[00:03:40] Conversation. We're also gonna be leaning into succession planning. We have been primarily doing executive succession planning, and now we're taking that deeper in the organization as we. Present to people what their different options are and making sure we build out their capabilities not only for the present, but also for the future. 

[00:04:02] And there's a lot of cross-functional transferrable skills. And so we're testing out what we're calling development assignments. That could be outside of your particular function, but it builds on a set of core skills. And then lastly. Being really relentless about prioritizing and resourcing the work. 

[00:04:24] We just finished the work of putting our, three year plan together and, there are lots of words on the pages, but now we wanna add to that what are the people resources and how much time will it take to really deliver an optimal solution?  

[00:04:40] Mo Fathelbab: And what is your employee value proposition and more importantly, how are you operationalizing it? 

[00:04:46] Felicia Robinson: Yep. It really was something that was already there, but we, we, didn't have the words. So it's really about marrying passion and people and purpose. And my marketing person would probably say, I messed that up. But at the end of the day, it really is about being a place where people can marry their profession and their purpose with, delivering on our mission, which is to serve nearly 4 million young people. 

[00:05:15] Every year. And under that we realize we have so many tools in our tool set that makes Boys and Girls Clubs of America a great place to work. We actually have a, real, propensity for people to have multiple careers within the same organization. They can do different. Things. We also do a lot in the space of leadership development. 

[00:05:40] there is no shortage of leadership development programs and then we also have very competitive benefits. We just gotta do a better job of making sure our employees understand them and understand that they are truly competitive and in some cases above market. And we want to make sure people understand that part of the total rewards. 

[00:06:03] As far as what they get for working here, how we're gonna operationalize that is gonna be in partnership with our marketing organization. We recently launched a new marketing branding campaign around America Needs Club Kids and Cub Club Kids needs you. So we're gonna marry up that external branding with the internal. 

[00:06:25] Branding. We have our, mission statement says we want to unleash the potential in every kid, and, we want to do that for our employees as well. And so we're gonna partner with our marketing team to really get very targeted branding on our career site. To get very targeted branding around the office building to make sure every time we're up in front of our employees, we're pulling elements of that employee value proposition and building our meetings around that. 

[00:06:55] So there are other things in HR too that we're gonna be doing specifically on a program basis to make that EVP come to life.  

[00:07:03] Mo Fathelbab: That sounds lovely. And what KPIs or metrics are you currently measuring and tracking?  

[00:07:09] Felicia Robinson: Well, at a high level we do a lot of operational metrics in the core business. And then within HR we also do some of the typical ones like time to fill. 

[00:07:20] We also recently started tracking internal mobility, not just how many folks are actually getting promoted. How many of our employees are actually getting new opportunities to develop new skills? So it may be a lateral move, but because they're moving to something different, they're actually building out their resume by getting additional skills that would make them employable, both at Boys and Girls Clubs of America, but also if they ever decided they wanted to move on, they have these skills that they can take with them. 

[00:07:53] So we, we monitor that. Internal mobility. We also started getting very intentional about the effectiveness of all those development programs. So we do a lot of them and we, want to make sure employees at all levels can feel like they're growing. So we have this. Tagline, of fostering a culture of learning. 

[00:08:15] So we, we do different things through our, training system. We also do live in person, facilitate it, but what we're trying to do is, measure the so what. If they're doing these, are they applying the skills that they are learning? We also re recent, recently with one of our programs, we started these cross-functional peer learning groups where the peers in these programs, they get to talk together without HR in the room about how they're applying and sometimes how it's not working. 

[00:08:48] So getting those peers, those cohorts to talk to each other then fuels back to us what we might need to do to improve. Program. So we're looking at a number of metrics, but I also want to take our three year operating plan. And when we talk about what are the success measures for those, not only just the, success of, growing, how many youth we're gonna serve, growing, how much revenue we need to serve those youth, but also what is the impact to the people who are doing the work? 

[00:09:20] What is their experience? Are we seeing an improvement in their commitment to the mission? So coming up with this personal employee impact statement is what we're, looking to do also next year, so that you know specifically what your impact has been to the mission.  

[00:09:38] Mo Fathelbab: So that's a lot of wonderful stuff. 

[00:09:41] Can you give us an example of one of those initiatives where you've had a measurable impact?  

[00:09:46] Felicia Robinson: I will say the leadership development program that is called Leadership Forward. We put it in place, I believe, maybe four years ago, and that program creates the internal talent pipeline for our senior leader roles. 

[00:10:03] So one of the ways we started tracking was with that internal mobility and what we see those individuals who have successfully completed that program. It's a nine month long program. They get an executive coach, it's very robust. And so we start tracking what's happening to these graduates and 20% of them have either been promoted within. 

[00:10:29] We also see retention is higher for that group who has completed it. And when there are these special work assignments that we often get to do, those people are tagged to participate in those, strategic. Project. So we're connecting what they're getting out of that leadership development program called Leadership Forward to what happens to them afterwards. 

[00:10:52] So we're super proud of the fact that 20% of those graduates are actually moving into higher roles or different roles.  

[00:11:00] Mo Fathelbab: So this internal mobility program, are you systemically moving people from role to role every couple of years, or do they have to sign up for this program and it's a nine month program? 

[00:11:10] How does it work?  

[00:11:11] Felicia Robinson: Well for the nine month program, that is a very specific, the there are only 15 people in that cohort and you have to apply, you have to submit a form of, I'm interested in this program. You have to answer a number of questions. The thing I love about this program is HR doesn't decide who gets selected. 

[00:11:34] Our board of trustees. We actually sanitized the application. So there's no name, no identifying information, and we asked the board of trustees to volunteer. we usually want about five so that we can divide and conquer 'cause they're busy people. And this year we had close to eight or nine board of trustees to raise their hands that they wanted to participate in that. 

[00:12:00] And so we package all the form interest forms. We give each board of trustee three to five to review, and they get to rate it on a rubric. They send that back and they decide whoever got the highest scores across those board of trustees, that's who gets selected for the program. So it's very competitive and it, allows the program to have objectivity to it, and they don't have to say, well, HR. 

[00:12:27] Is picking their favorites. We're not, our board of trustees are, actually selecting it based on a sanitized package that they get.  

[00:12:35] Mo Fathelbab: And how many applicants do you get typically for that?  

[00:12:37] Felicia Robinson: We typically get between 30 and 45.  

[00:12:40] Mo Fathelbab: Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. And you also talked about peer learning groups. How are those put together and how are they organized? 

[00:12:47] I know that they're self-run from what you said, but how are they organized to get started?  

[00:12:51] Felicia Robinson: Well, typically out of that leadership forward group, remember I talked about these special assignments. we typically tap that group first to ask them to lead one. From there, people are randomly put in them. So we, try to have, at least there's someone in the room who is gonna make sure the group continues the dialogue that they come together. 

[00:13:14] So we typically will pick a graduate from one of the leadership forwards to be the leader, and then we just randomly assign them from the different programs that our employees. Participate in, and then it's up to them to meet and come together. And I will tell you, that's been some of the most positive feedback because they're getting together in a safe space. 

[00:13:36] They're talking and sharing with each other. like I said, it's not HR facilitated and it's cross-functional, and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from that program.  

[00:13:47] Mo Fathelbab: Wonderful, wonderful. And how do you, just did three-year plan.  

[00:13:51] Felicia Robinson: Yep.  

[00:13:51] Mo Fathelbab: How do you align your KPIs to that plan?  

[00:13:55] Felicia Robinson: Well, mostly they come from our CEO first, but I, will say we take each of the priorities and we ask ourselves, what does success look like? 

[00:14:07] What is it that we want the desired outcome to be, and how will we know? If we get there. So it can be a number of qualitative and quantitative KPIs. I can tell you from my space and the human resources, one of them is around this activation and operationalizing that employee value proposition. So it's not just about all the activity that we do annually. 

[00:14:35] We do an employee experience survey, so one of my success measures for operationalizing that. Is am I going to see we ask a question around your, are you. Are you connected personally to the mission? Do you feel the work that you do in your job is absolutely driving the mission? So that may be one of the questions that I put as a success measure, because if my EVP is working. 

[00:15:04] The current employees are gonna feel more connected to the mission-based  

[00:15:08] Mo Fathelbab: work. And what number are you looking to hit? How many of them do you want to, say, yes, I'm connected.  

[00:15:13] Felicia Robinson: I believe,  

[00:15:14] Mo Fathelbab: Other than a hundred percent. 'cause I know you're an overachiever of course.  

[00:15:16] Felicia Robinson: Well, if you know Jim Clark, we're a hundred percent on everything. 

[00:15:20] I believe the last time we took the survey, we probably were in the low eighties. So I'm looking for that to jump to the nineties.  

[00:15:28] Mo Fathelbab: That is amazing. so Felicia, what do you think the current state of external talent landscape is, looking like right now and what are the potential business, disruptors that, you may be facing? 

[00:15:40] Felicia Robinson: The external talent landscape is something like, I've never seen, I've been in human resources, for multiple decades, I will say, and it's, a little bit of the wild, wild west. It's very unpredictable, it's very volatile. That's why for us, we're actually have a, part of our EVP called the Internals First Strategy. 

[00:16:06] We have a very low turnover rate. We're about 9% turnover rate, which is really, again, you know, outpacing what other organizations may be experiencing. So we, do want talent from the outside, but it's a little bit of. So many things and factors and disruptors that are outside of our control, and so we are leaning into what do we do for our internal. 

[00:16:34] People, and we have an internal first strategy where we are teaching people how to really think about their career plan options. What do they want to do in the next one, three or five years? With the external talent landscape, we hope that we're gonna find people who are interested in doing mission-based work. 

[00:16:56] We want to find people who truly care about what's happening to the youth. Our country and frankly in the world. And so we have, specific behavioral questions that we ask, that are aligned to our organizational values to make sure the people we are hiring who come from the external talent world, that they actually are people who are gonna adopt the mission with both their head, their hands, and their hearts. 

[00:17:26] When you're internal, we already know we have your head and your heart. We build your capabilities so that we can get more out of your hands. And so there's a value proposition in focusing internally, but we also do welcome external talent. I came from the outside, so I have to, say, you know, yeah, we, do wanna expand the, family, but we also wanna make sure the people we're bringing into it. 

[00:17:53] They actually will, we will be able to win their head hands and hearts. And, I'm a club kid, so when the recruiter reached out to me to become the head of HR for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, me and my husband are both club kids. That was an easy yes.  

[00:18:09] Mo Fathelbab: Yeah. And when you, talk about those questions, what's an example or what's maybe one of your favorite questions that tests the applicants as to whether or not they're aligned with your values? 

[00:18:21] Felicia Robinson: One of my favorite questions is, tell me about a time that you put the best plan in place and it didn't go as you expected. What was the situation? What did you do? What actions actually worked or didn't work, and what was the results? That question. Our values have the acronym of iCare. The I stands for integrity. 

[00:18:50] The C stands for collaboration. The A is for accountability. The R is for respect, and the E is for excellence. So when I ask that question, if an interviewee tells me, I can't think of a time that. Something did not go right, or if they answer the question more from a third person as if it was someone else, not really me. 

[00:19:17] To me that signals there's. Possibly in an integrity opportunity. Right, because you have to own, because we're not perfect. Right? Own. You have to take ownership. You have to take ownership. Yeah. Collaboration too, because a lot of times when things don't go as planned, we have to basically learn quickly, fell forward, and learn quickly. 

[00:19:40] So I'm looking for the person to first of all, own that. Yeah, something didn't go right and here's what I did. That contributed to it not going right. And here's what I did to also get it back on track. So to me, that particular question touches upon each of our values, with the acronym of iCare.  

[00:20:00] Mo Fathelbab: Well, that is a wonderful example. 

[00:20:01] Thank you. so to prepare for the future, what are the critical capabilities and roles that organizations will need in your view?  

[00:20:10] Felicia Robinson: In my view, and I'll just say what we're focused on at Boys and Girls Clubs of America, it, is about digital affluency, digital transformation, digital and add whatever word you want to in the blank, but it's also about adaptability. 

[00:20:29] we're, in some very uncertain times right now and we have some very bold goals. today we serve just under 4 million. Young people and we have the goals to raise that to 6 million. and with us all having a new normal right now, we, need talent who can build their muscles around resilience, build their muscles around adaptability. 

[00:21:00] It is very easy to become change fatigue, and lots of times I get the questions, when will things stop changing? News flash, they won't, they won't ever stop changing. They're gonna change faster. Yes. So how do you build your muscle around resilience? How do you own your own wellbeing? Right? That is something you have to own for yourself. So we're very focused on balance, but we're also focused on digital and, one of the things we're doing, probably Q1. our CIO is working on the AI strategy, but what we also realize is with the current technologies, and we have a lot of them. People don't even know how to optimize what we currently have. 

[00:21:48] So we're gonna be very focused on basically making sure with the basics that people know how to optimize the current technologies that are already there. They just don't. They're either sometimes not wanting to raise their hand and say they don't know how to do this in Excel. I'm talking about some basic things. 

[00:22:06] So we're gonna do some table stakes training just on the existing technology, but we're gonna really be leaning into how can AI absolutely help us move faster and help us be more effective.  

[00:22:19] Mo Fathelbab: Yeah. And just for context, so 4 million. Boys and girls, how many volunteers, how many staff members support those 4 million boys and girls? 

[00:22:29] Felicia Robinson: Yeah. And I, my marketing person, would correct me and say under four, 4 million. Just under, just under 4 million. Just under 4 million. Okay. at the national office, we have just under 600 employees. We also have, for the nearly 4 million young people, they roll up to about 5,500 club sites. 

[00:22:53] Those club sites also roll up to, about 800 organizations. And we also have just over 200 military sites as well, volunteer wise, and adding in all the actual employed full-time and part-time staff. There's around 75,000.  

[00:23:11] Mo Fathelbab: Wow. Yeah. That's a lot. Yeah. Amazing.  

[00:23:14] Felicia Robinson: We call it the movement because it requires a lot of, staff, a lot of volunteers. 

[00:23:21] The youth also making it all work.  

[00:23:24] Mo Fathelbab: Yeah. So would you say you're currently buying, building, or borrowing when it comes to talent?  

[00:23:31] Felicia Robinson: I would say in the digital space, we are probably buying because it's moving so fast and we are trying to find the right partners to help. With that so that, we can continue to focus on the mission. 

[00:23:51] But the digital transformation space is, a space where we do feel we're gonna probably have to buy. To make sure we have the best of the best because as soon as we, we land it, it's going to evolve and change. I would say when it comes to some of the internal capabilities, like just being a, good human-centered leader, we're gonna be doing a lot of building around that type of capability. 

[00:24:18] But digital transformation, when we think about. Revenue channels. Those are things we may also, buy or borrow to think about how can we get and open up more channels so that we can serve more youth.  

[00:24:33] Mo Fathelbab: And last question, Felicia. What is one piece of advice that has shaped your work or personal life?  

[00:24:40] Felicia Robinson: I would say, if you don't mind two things. 

[00:24:43] one of my leadership principles has always been, and I got this from one of my leaders at Coca-Cola. assume positive intent, and that has been a leadership principle that I have put in place with many teams that I've led over the years, but I also believe in leading with the human at the center. 

[00:25:06] Don't forget, the other person on the side of any conversation is a human being. So I try to lead always, always with grace and in a way that preserves someone's dignity. And I believe when you do that people will run through walls to get to the results that you are asking them to deliver.  

[00:25:27] Mo Fathelbab: Yes. Second time the word dignity comes up. 

[00:25:30] Today it came up on stage and it is an important word. Thank you. 

[00:25:35] And that's where we'll end it for this episode of People and Strategy. A huge thanks to Felicia for your valuable insights.  

[00:25:43] Felicia Robinson: Thank you.  

[00:25:44] Mo Fathelbab: Thanks for tuning in. You could follow the People and Strategy podcast wherever you get your podcasts. 

[00:25:49] Also, podcast reviews have a real impact on podcast visibility. So if you enjoyed today's episode, leave a review to help others find the show. Finally, you could find all our episodes on our website at SHRM dot org slash podcast. And while you're there, sign up for our weekly newsletter. Thanks for joining us, and have a great day. 

[00:26:14] Ad: In golf, every shot is different. In business, challenges change too. Just as Tiger Woods resets and adapts, Insperity helps you adjust and keep moving forward. Insperity, how you HR matters. Learn more at insperity.com/tiger.