Todd Pruzan, HBR
Welcome to the HBR Video Quick Take. I’m Todd Pruzan, senior editor for research and special projects at Harvard Business Review.
Emerson, the global technology software and automation leader, is focused on delivering innovation and creating value not just for customers but also for its employees. This consistent drive requires a company culture that encourages everyone to bring their fullest selves to work.
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson’s first chief people officer, is charged with leading Emerson’s cultural transformation. Today, she’s joining us to talk about how Emerson is using a moment of change to create meaningful experiences for its people and to foster a culture of trust, inclusion, and empowerment.
Elizabeth, thank you so much for being with us today.
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
Thank you, Todd, for having me.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Elizabeth, you became Emerson’s first chief people officer at a pivotal time in the company’s history. Can you talk about the importance of focusing on culture and transformation at this moment?
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
Yes. Thank you. That’s a great question.
Yes, I became the first chief people officer for Emerson, and I have to say that’s a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I’m coming into an organization that has a storied history, with a lot of strengths to celebrate, but we understand that what got us to where we are at today may not get us to where we needed to be. We need it to really transform our organization.
Our CEO, Lal Karsanbhai, made clear the three strategic imperatives of culture, portfolio, and execution are the ways to transform the company. And when you think about all that’s happening in the world of work—the work around the workplace; the ability to amplify the voices of our employees and to prioritize employee experience; to really make sure that we have a vibrant culture, one that really energizes, inspires, and motivates and empowers our employees to be the best version of themselves—those are so important.
On that mission, we are making sure that we are listening deeply to our employees to understand how they experience the company. What is it that we need to be doing differently as we go forward? How do we align our purpose as a company with our employee purpose? How do we make sure that every individual feels that they can thrive in an environment that is changing constantly? Culture transformation—business transformation—has been paramount to who we are becoming as a company. We want to be a leading automation leader in the marketplace, and the ability for us to unleash all of the potential of our people is so critical as we go forward.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Fantastic. So what approach are you taking to evolve cultural transformation at Emerson?
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
That’s another great question. For me, it starts with deep listening. We want to make sure that we understand the experiences we’re creating for all our employees across the world, to understand how they experience the company. When a company is going through change, a lot is going on, so we want to make sure that we’re really understanding that experience.
Then we take a very disciplined and structured approach to culture transformation, which, like I said, starts with deep listening. We sent out, in 2021, a survey to over 50,000 of our employees to make sure we understand how they are experiencing the company. That gave us a baseline of the current culture state, or [as it was] at that time, in 2021. And then we went ahead and validated all of that input through focus groups, making sure that we understand what’s at the root of what our employees are telling us.
We developed four key levers to transform culture. One is to ignite movement and enthusiasm and inspiration [in] all our employees. We created many stories to help employees understand who we’re becoming, how we can leverage all of our strengths, but really to understand that we need to embody new behaviors, new mindsets. We articulated that, and we shared that across the organization.
Then we had to start looking at our policies and practices. How do they align with the culture aims of innovating boldly for empowerment, trust, accountability, customer centricity? We really understand that all our employees can see themselves in that culture change.
And what about the business processes? We can’t only change HR practices and policies. We also have to understand that our management process, the way we do business, has to align with the new culture of faster decision making, of agility. All of those things helped us create the new culture we want to evolve into.
But the biggest, biggest opportunity we really had was activating our leaders, all of our managers, the frontline leaders. How did they understand the role that they have in inspiring the organization, removing barriers to execution, really driving accountability down the organization? We give them the tools and resources to help them understand the weather that they create for our people and really ensure that they can become evangelists and ambassadors for our culture movement.
That’s the disciplined approach that we’ve taken, but it starts with deep listening across the organization.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
So deep listening is at the root of everything, of all understanding. Elizabeth, how do you view talent as a differentiator at Emerson? Why is talent strategy important for cultivating an inclusive company culture?
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
I have always been one who held the firm belief that it’s our talent—they are our source of competitive advantage, and they’re really what matters most. We can have the best strategy, we can have the best innovation, but if we don’t have people who are fully engaged, are motivated and inspired to help drive the strategy, nothing is going to happen.
For me, it starts with our talent. And that’s part of the change we’re evolving into as a company. How do we build a talent-centric, people-centric organization that prioritizes the needs of our people foremost and really amplifies the employee experience?
It starts with a talent philosophy, and that’s what we’ve done. We really wanted to make sure we understand the rules of the road as they relate to talent. How do we manage our talent in a way that we can unlock the potential we know that they have to help deliver value creation for the organization?
We started to look [closely] at our talent philosophy. We developed a vision around our talent philosophy that puts our people at the center of that strategy. We developed a few principles around accountability, transparency, development, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we really wanted all our leaders to know what their role is as it relates to talent as we go forward.
Again, I would say to you that there’s nothing more important than having the best talent and the ability to prioritize the needs of those workers to understand them deeply and to create the resources and the tools for them to become who they really want to become—to become the most authentic version of themselves. It’s so critical. Nothing is more important than talent.
We prioritize that effort, and we’ve seen some real results of that effort as well.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Fantastic. Elizabeth, how important are diversity, equity, and inclusion to a global workforce?
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
That is so critical. I think we’ve seen a lot of change in the world of work, work around the workplace. When you think about all of what we’ve gone through, whether it’s through COVID or through the racial discrimination and injustice that we experience, we understand that being able to foster a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment is what’s going to unlock the potential of our people, but it’s also what’s going to unlock the value that organizations are seeking.
When you want to truly become innovative, you need to be able to bring diverse perspectives to the table. We really need to be able to make sure that every individual feels they have a voice and they can contribute.
Our journey on DEI started a few years ago, and I have to say that we’ve made a lot of strides despite the fact that it’s still relatively new to the organization. We have defined our strategy and our vision, and we’re really enrolling the organization in that vision.
We’ve actually also shifted accountability of diversity to our line leaders. We want them to understand the role that they play in being able to attract, develop, empower, and motivate their teams that are diverse. We actually also introduced metrics that they’re held accountable for, that are tied to their annual incentive plan.
We’ve really made some [progress], and we have some proof points of success despite the relatively short period of time. A few of those are that we earned 100% on the Human Rights Campaign 2022 Corporate Equality Index—the survey on LGBTQ+ for workplace equality—which is something we’re very proud of. We also ranked number 298 on [the Forbes] America’s Best Employer For Diversity list, and also we were ranked number 12 on Women Engineer magazine’s list of top employers. These are really proof points that our strategy is working.
I would say that on our diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda, we’re pleased, but we’re not satisfied.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
Those are definitely some powerful numbers. Elizabeth, what are some factors in the changing role of human resources in today’s workforce?
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
Oh, wow, that’s one of my favorite questions. I mean, I think with everything that I’ve said, we’ve seen a huge change to the function of HR. You know, like I mentioned, we continue to operate in a very volatile environment. It’s uncertain, it’s complex, it’s ambiguous—I use the expression VUCA.
I think what this has done is really put the function of HR at center stage. Gone are the days when we’re kind of asking to have a seat on the table. Now we have a seat at the table. It’s what we do with that seat, quite frankly.
We’ve seen the evolution of the HR function from being very administrative to now being strategic, to really having a seat at the table with the CFO, with the CEO, with the COO. Our role has morphed a lot. We’ve become the chief crisis officer, the chief well-being officer, or the chief people officer, as my title says. And while we have to do all of the technical parts of the job—don’t get me wrong—we have to find talent, we have to build capability, we have to manage change, we have to design the organization for maximum impact, but what I see that is most important as we go forward—just because of what is really happening in the marketplace and all of the challenges that we face as humans as a society—it’s really about amplifying the role of empathy.
I see a new role for HR people as chief empathy officer, leading how we encourage our leaders to listen deeply, to be empathetic, to show vulnerability, to be humble, to really bring the human back in human resources, and to help our organizations also become more humane and really lead with empathy. I think those are the things that we have to do as HR professionals as we go forward, because those things are not natural. We were not asked to do those things before. We were asked to be hard-hitting and really drive value and drive result. But if you don’t speak to the hearts and minds of your employees, if you don’t connect deeply and purposefully with them, if you don’t build a relationship that’s meaningful, then you’re not going to be able to have them deliver discretionary efforts, which is what we all need.
For me, I think despite all the technical abilities of our job that we have to rise to, if we can embrace the role of a CEO as a chief empathy officer, I think that’s going to be differentiating for us as we go forward.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
The chief empathy officer—I love that. Elizabeth, thank you for a great conversation today and for all of your insights.
Elizabeth Adefioye, Emerson
Thank you so much, Todd, for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
Todd Pruzan, HBR
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