This is the dear corner office podcast where workplace leaders learn why black Latinx and indigenous women lead and how to get them back. I’m your host, Michele Heyward. Welcome, everybody to the dear corner office podcast today. I’m so excited to have with us, Lisa Anderson. Lisa has a tremendous career in HR. I can’t wait for all of you to meet her. Lisa, welcome to dear corner office. How are you?

Hi, Michelle. I’m good. And I’m so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.

You’re very welcome. Now, Lisa, I love to ask this question. Because people have different experiences with this. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, born and raised. I my parents came from a small town in the southern part of Virginia called Gloucester, Virginia, and they moved from Gloucester to Richmond, ahat me. So all of my schooling, and everything was Richmond the city, but I don’t know about you, Michelle. But growing up, I used to go back to the country during the summers. And so both of my grandparents, both sets of grandparents were in Gloucester, and that is more country than Richmond. So every summer, all of the grandkids will leave the cities, you know, Richmond, Baltimore, New York, and come to Gloucester to spend the summer with our grandparents. And so I got the best of both worlds, city and country.

Absolutely love it. I, I somewhat relate. I grew up in a small rural town, but with leave to go to a rural area, where my grandparents live literally had a working farm. So yes, like so when nighttime came, it was night out. Yes, no lights, like, at the porch, like at our house far, far away.

Yeah, so you know, the experience, but you know what, it was such a great experience, right? Because, you know, being in the city, and then during the summers, you know, just being able to connect with your cousins who you never get to see or, you know, during the school year, and then learn those valuable lessons from only your grandparents can teach you, you know, like, like you said, watching them on the farm and just, you know, being around farm animals if we didn’t have that enrichment. So it was a it was quite an experience. And a lot of my cousins and I we still talk about, you know, growing up in the country when we used to go down for the summers. So definitely great experiences.

I love it. I love it something that we have in common. Okay. I know, the people are here to learn more about you. So how did you, you know, growing up in Richmond spending summers in in the country? Yeah. How did you end up or start a career in HR?

Yes. So I when I graduated from high school, I left Richmond and went to college at James Madison University. And that sent me to Harris, Harrisonburg, Virginia. And so I’m not going to date myself, I’m not going to, but you’re probably going to figure it out. But in the early 90s, late 80s, early 90s, when I was in my degree program, I started off at jam you as an accounting major, and took tax accounting, and immediately went to the advisor to change my major, just changed my whole trajectory. And because I was in my sophomore year, and I had to take all those business classes, I decided at that time, okay, we’re gonna stay in the School of Business, because I need to graduate in four years. But instead of going any other trajectory, I decided to go into management. And so as a part of taking electives, back then it was called personnel management. And I took a class in personnel management and fell in love with it. And so, back then at that, during that time, JMU did not have a major in personnel management or human resources. So I ended up receiving my degree a Bachelor of Business Administration and Management And then when I went for my master’s degree, I focused on human resource management. So but that was my start, like my first class in HR. And I said, Oh, my goodness, this is it. This is what I want to be doing. And so when I left, Jim, you, because I had the management degree, my first job, I was recruited right on campus, by Walmart, Walmart was on campus recruiting for their management trainee training program. So they were looking for trainees. And so I went into that, you know, had a job before graduation, that was the big deal back in the 90s. Make sure you have a job before graduation. So I had my job and you know, graduated and went to work for Walmart, and their management training program. And during that program, you rotate around the store, because you’re, you’re learning the different areas of the store. And when I got to personnel, I didn’t want to rotate anymore. And I was like, well, I want to just stay here. And this role, I don’t want to learn shipping and receiving and all the other stuff. And so they explained to me, you know, back then, the personnel person was an hourly employee at the store level. And if I really wanted to do human resources, I was going to have to relocate to bend, bend, Bentonville, Arkansas, which is where Walmart’s headquarters is and I said, No, we’re not going to do that quite yet. So. So that’s how I kind of started really determining that I’ve really wanted to do human resources,

showing a couple things. Number one, management training programs do work. So absolutely. Young people can find a career path that interests them early on. And sometimes they’re a fit for the company, at least that point. And sometimes they’re not like so what I got to go where? Oh, thank you. Right? Yes, the series, I appreciate experience.

Yes. And you know, you don’t know, if you really get that exposure, at least I did in that training program with Walmart, because once you finish the management training program, you were then an assistant manager for a store. And it was just, I learned so much during that experience, you know, you still got to do some pieces, or at least I did, you know, I still got to do some of the pieces of human resources that I liked, because I had to hire people, you know, hiring the cashiers, and the department managers. But it wasn’t the focus that I wanted, because I had to do other things to being a being an assistant manager. So, you know, I did my two years at Walmart, and then made a very conscious decision that you know, what, I want to do human resources, I don’t want it to be a part of the role. I really want to focus in this area. And so that’s, that’s what I did. My next job was working in the field of HR.

I love it. And that personnel people like what is the personality for I’ve heard the jokes about personnel departments. Yes, it is. That’s one company cared about people and they were persons now we just humans, because it’s human resources.

All right. Yes. Yes. So again, I’m, I’m dating myself, because you know, back in those days, it really was, you know, personnel was the term. And so, you know, in the late 90s 2000s, we saw that transformation from personnel management to really human resources, and managing the most important asset

for an organization which is, which is the people absolutely agree that it is most definitely the people. Yes. Okay. So we’re here at a pivotal point in time in US history. worldwide. We are in the middle of a pandemic. With the most recent changes in the workplace in the world, right now, what has been the most difficult for your organizations, your organization and employees to adjust to the most?

Yes. So right now to you know, today just with the environment that we’re operating in the most important challenge and, and I am a Chief Human Resource Officer for a technology company. And so we are in the government contractor space. And so the biggest challenge that we’ve had during the COVID period, and just you know, the pandemic, which no one saw coming, it has experience with operating within a pandemic. And so the biggest challenge for my organization was how do we stay, engage with our employees in a remote environment. Because my company, our culture, our workplace, culture is very before COVID, it was very collaborative, and in person, and, you know, you popped into people’s offices, to just say, Hello, you know, one of the members of the management team out the blue will be like, Okay, I’m ordering lunch for the office kind of thing, oh, we’re doing root beer floats today, you know, it was just that kind of culture. And if you can imagine, going from a culture like that, to where we all sort of went home. And now your your engagement is remote, you know, through teams, because that’s what, that’s the platform that we use, that took a real adjustment, did not just from our organization before all companies, and then how do we help managers and employees to really stay engaged? Now, the other part is, everything else is going on around us, right, the actual pandemic, and then, you know, the schools were closed, and you have your children. I mean, it was just something else, you know, in that March timeframe last year, so we were just dealing with a lot and really just trying to help our employees. So yes, it was a very much a challenging time.

Absolutely, absolutely. We’re here now, a year plus later. What is that one thing that your organization has done, that your people your employees are benefited the most from?

Well, I think the one thing that we’ve done, and I’ll hone in on this, because we did this during the pandemic, because of our culture, and how employee centric the culture, you know, was pre pandemic, I’ll give it to my CEO, the one thing he was very adamant about, is for nine weeks straight. I think we ran it almost 10 weeks straight. During that March time, all the way up until I want to say May, we had a weekly town hall meeting every Thursday night at 7pm. To connect with our employees, and just just to keep our employees, let them know, what is going on from a leadership perspective with the company, how we’re doing, you know, we share, you know, look, we have employees on some of our contracts that, unfortunately, have been furloughed, how, you know, we share what we’re doing to try to get them back to work. And then even just, you know, information about the COVID statistics, because, you know, our employees were like, oh, my goodness, what is happening? You know, are we going to be okay as as an organization, and so having that weekly townhall every Thursday evening at 7pm, because we have employees all over the country in the world, and having them, you know, be able to connect in with our CEO, where he’s live on and answering questions. That was a big piece for us during COVID. And I do think that is one thing, at least we’ve received a lot of feedback from employees on that they really appreciated that. And now that we’re, you know, turning the corner with, you know, COVID and pretty much, we are semi back to work. We are, of course flexible and a lot of our employees have returned in the workplace on a three to schedule. So, you know, one week they may be in the office three days a week, the other week, they may be in the office two days a week. And so we’re stuck now we’re starting to safely. People are starting to feel like okay, now the culture is back because you have more people Kinda back in the office doing the collaboration that we’ve missed for the last year.

Basically, I absolutely love how your CEO stepped in and said, I’m open. Let’s talk. Let me let me share with what what you’re going on what’s going on in the world? And with the company? I think it was a very, especially the beginning of the pandemic, very stressful, because so much change was thrown on. Everybody within a matter of hours. Yes, you have 72 hours. It was like No, don’t come in today. Yeah, hey, I’m already dressed. I’m on my way. Like, yeah, we know, turn around go home. Yes. And so yes, definitely. Any, every everybody that I’ve spoken to these organizations, leaders, and management teams that have clearly and openly even if they didn’t know, said I did, I don’t know. And literally, that’s what it didn’t give them self assurance, but he knew they weren’t alone in certain areas when it came to information about about COVID-19.

Yes, absolutely. And acknowledging it, and acknowledging that, you know, we’re all in this together, and what can we do to support and I’ll give one example. And I’ll share this to some people may appreciate this, Michelle, I had just started my, my position, I was brand new to the company, I had come on board, two weeks prior to the pandemic. So you know, the end of February of last year, so I was living literally in the office about 10 days, and then the world just, you know, sort of stopped and shut down. And what, so me coming in as a new chro, I’m trying to, you know, figure still figure out where all my employees sit, you know, across the country across the world. And I’m, you know, now I’m learning a new boss, right? I’m, I’m the newest member of an executive leadership team. And I haven’t had the chance to build the relationships, because we weren’t there long enough for me to build the relationship. So it was very interesting for me coming in from that perspective. And then seeing, you know, you hear about, okay, well, I heard the culture is this. But then where I saw it in action, is when I, we were on a leadership call. And our CEO says on the call, just sort of matter of factly. And he goes, Yeah, I just secured 13,000, masks, in 95, and surgical masks. And what I want to do is we’re going to ship a shipment of masks to every single employee and their families. And, you know, I had to come off mute, and I said, What did you just say? And he had, you know, a relationship he had with him. And this is when PP, you know, right at the start of the pandemic, the the PP was just so hard to get ahold of. but evidently, you know, he had a relationship with another company that, you know, let’s say, built widgets, and because of the pandemic, they shifted, and started building, you know, making masks, and he had reached out to them and said, How many can you can you can you, you know, get to get to our company. And when those mass came in, you know, he has family, and, you know, actually went into the office, and they actually shipped FedEx, we FedEx, a shipment of mass and we had at that time, we had over 500 employees, and we were able to ship mass a supply of mass and just told our employees Look, you’re gonna be getting a FedEx you know, we know it might take a little longer because FedEx, everybody was operating on a, you know, slow schedule, but we have mass there on the way please use them for you and your family, grocery stores, whatever. And if you need more, please let us know. That’s when I saw the culture. I was like, Whoa, okay. What I just walked into,

yes, you you learn very quickly, whether the culture was the right one for you or not? Absolutely. It’s trial by fire. I see. Yeah,

yeah, that was a trial by fire and you’re not knowing you know what it really is. And that’s when I saw like, okay, whoa, this is you know, this is This is different. And and he’s been that see been consistent in that way. But as the new chro coming in, it was definitely, it was a pleasant surprise, you know, to see that in the top leader, and the way that he treated the employees and and wanted to make sure that our employees were going to be okay. He’s like, a lot of things are out of my control. But I can definitely, we can definitely get mass, you know, we can get that done.

Michele:
You might be running a personnel department, I’m just saying you might not be in human resources, you may have gone back to person now. But I want to move into rapid fire. And I love this question and where we are in this conversation, because it’s focused on your CEO? What are the HR KPIs your CEO is looking at regularly?

Lisa:
Yes. So right now my organization is those two areas. So my organization, we are in a growth mode, and I’m pretty sure a lot of organizations are. And so from the KPIs from the HR side, strategically, one of our strategic initiatives is centered around growth. So when you look at KPIs from the HR standpoint, we are looking at making sure we have the right talent in place ready for the growth. So that has meant that we’ve had to recruit new talent in, that means that we have had to look at our current employees, and where their strengths are, and really start to develop our employees internally, to get them ready for this growth that is coming. So we have had, you know, all of our HR KPIs are very much aligned to the business in the strategic direction of the business. So that will be the first area a lot, we’ve been doing a lot of recruiting of new talent and talent development with our current employees. And then I would say the second top priority we’ve been really focused on because due to COVID, is, you know, just making sure the safety of our employees returning back into the workplace, and what that transformation looks like.

Michele:
Great to hear, what’s your all time HR or leadership book on workplace culture?

Lisa:
You know, what the one book best still years ago, I read this book, and it still makes an impact, for me, is the Five Dysfunctions of a team by Patrick lencioni. That book, just going through that book and reading it and seeing what that CEO went through, coming in to an organization where a team can make or break the person that was very eye opening. For me, just based on, you know, I’m a leader now, but I read this book, probably back when I was like making that transition from an HR manager to a director. And that book really had a big impact on how I lead, you know, as a leader. So that would be the one for me.

Michele:
Yes, sometimes it’s not anything new is that one book that taught you something, and literally changed your mindset and then went down to your actions? I love it. Yes, a recent book on leadership you’ve loved.

So I am actually right now reading a lot of john Maxwell books, because I am studying to become a john Maxwell trainer. And the one book that I have really gotten into is called the 15 invaluable laws of growth. And really trying to help people who are really wants to make that transition to you know, grow personally like personal development, as well as professional development. And so I am in the in the middle of that book, and it has really kept my interest the stories and the concepts. So that was that’s a big one. And another john Maxwell one I’m reading is calling developing the leader within you 2.0 because that book came out years ago, and the new one just came out. So I got Both of those books that like I am very engaged with.

Well, I’m a gold New Age for you. What HR podcast delivers the most value to you?

Yeah, so HR podcast, I listened to several and and I’ll throw the the main one out there I used to try to stay connected with Sherm, and they have a podcast. So I’m usually you know, I’m not consistent with it, but, um, you know, I get the emails and if there’s a topic on it that you know, that piques my interest. I’m used the one that the other one I would say, there’s there’s one a podcast, that’s it’s not really HR, but it is. But it talks more about strategic HR leadership. And I’m usually tune into that when I can. But between the travel and all that I’m not as good as I want to be with podcasts. But those would be the two, what was the name of the second podcast? That this cost strategic HR leadership?

Michele:
Oh, for some reason, I thought that was what it was focused on,

Lisa:
but didn’t realize that was the act. I think that’s the name, actual name. And forgive me, if I screw
that up.

We know that three keywords to search for Yes. Now, what’s the most overrated HR training trend? that you’re seeing?
The most overrated? I would say the most overrated HR trend? I don’t know if it’s overrated. Let me let me back that one up.

I’m not overrated. But okay. People, organizations are spending a lot of time on it. So I guess it is overrated. And where I see the disconnect is that we’re training on it, but as, as is not being applied. And I’ll give you an example. So we do a lot of training around, let’s say performance management. And that training is very much needed. However, the managers get the training. And then it’s almost like if they don’t get a chance to real life and experience it, the training, this just kind of, you know, they don’t get a chance to apply it. And so instead of it being a one and done a lot of organizations, you know, instead of being one big training, can you break that down into snippets, where managers really get to utilize it, or maybe instead of, you know, feeding them like a firehose, you break it down in chunks. And then that way, they feel like they’re always getting and learning something. So then when something does happen, they know how to respond. So I guess the overrated trend of it is that we do one big training a year and it’s one and done. And my hope is that, you know, let’s try to keep the managers a little bit more engaged than just the one and done absolutely better investment of time and money.

Yes. What’s the most underrated HR training tactic?

Lisa:
I would say the most underrated HR tactic right now, at least when I’m experiencing is helping HR leaders. I know, at least I’m experiencing it in my company. There’s a big focus on succession planning and talent development. And if you if you’ve never had experience, honing in on how to develop your talent, and make sure you, you know, take your leadership team, to a talent development, talent development pipeline process, where we’re constantly looking at talent and making sure we’re giving employees what they need in order to move them to the next level. That that is sorely missed, and a lot of organizations so I would say that would be the most underrated especially as companies try to retain their key talent, you know, that you have to have an internal talent development process, because otherwise your your superstars are going to leave and go to the next company.

Michele:
I absolutely agree. Absolutely agree. If you could ask one question to 100 of you. peers in corporate or C suite leadership? What question would you ask them?

Oh, I only get one question I would ask, especially for my colleagues, I would ask the question that you asked me earlier, Michelle. And it’s only because I want to know what other organizations are doing. And I want to know, with the challenging gear that we just had with a pandemic, social justice, just all kinds of just, we’ve just had an 18 month that that previous 18 months has just been, you know, unprecedent Dennett, what are you doing with your employees around the engagement piece, because some companies have made decisions to go 100% remote. And so that comes with a dynamic, right. And some companies are still trying to make those kinds of decisions. And then other companies are doing what my what my company is doing is slowly re entering or re engaging people into the workplace. So if I had met that one question, that would be my question to my colleagues, and what other companies are doing?

Michele:
and final question, what kind of data would you like to have access to as an HR leader?

So the kind of data I want ask that access to, you get your typical, you know, data that comes out of the HR is system, you know, a turnover, you know, who’s ready for promotions, you know, ready in one year, ready now ready in two years. Um, but I also I am into benchmarks as well. So even though I have the data, that’s, you know, within my company, I’m always looking to see what what the benchmark is and how things are shifting, and what the trends are, and then how my organization is relating to that trends. You know, are we behind the curve? Are we ahead in this area? Are we averaged? What exactly are you know, where we sit compared to the benchmark? So those are the things you know, and your typical recruiting stats, I always get, I have a great recruiting director, who keeps me in the know, with that was, you know, how long it takes us to, you know, fill positions, a cost, per feel all that. And then, like I said, right, for me a lot of the succession plan and talent development, you know, how many people how many diverse candidates do we have in the pipeline? And what are we doing with them? Who’s got their eye on making sure they get developed, so they’re ready when that next top job comes open? I don’t want to have to go x turn them to look, why we have talent internal, what are we doing to get them ready? That’s a biggie for me. As a top HR leader,
Lisa, this has been fantastic. Oh my god, you have added so many gems on how organizations, your organization, specifically your CEO is leading, especially during a pandemic and social justice change, what you’re looking for, and looking at in your organization to keep it a prime employer and keeping your culture together. I I absolutely love this discussion today. What Thank you for having me, Michelle, I always love it when you and I connect.

So tell our listeners where they can find you online. How can they connect with you?

Lisa:
Sure. So I am on LinkedIn. As Lisa Anderson and I have a since there’s so many Lisa Anderson’s I do have my certifications behind my name. So as Lisa Anderson sphr, comma Sherm SCP. And then in addition, I do have my own leadership coaching business, and that’s called positively in pursuit. And you can find me, my website is www positively in pursuit.com.

Michele:
Great, thank you, everybody, be sure you go connect with Lisa on LinkedIn, and check out her website. Lisa, thank you so much for dropping by it. It’s been fantastic. Thank you so much, Michelle. Don’t forget to rate review and subscribe to the podcast. It helps me grow, visit positive hire.co. That’s positive hire dot c o