Today’s guest is Livia Freudl, Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources at Varian.

Varian’s Intelligent Cancer Care is shaping the future of oncology by building shorter paths between consultation and treatment, connecting the world through intelligent thinking, data, insights, and solutions to deliver advanced care for each patient’s unique journey.

In her role at Varian, Livia oversees all operational and strategic human resources activities including talent acquisition, talent management, performance management, learning & development, compensation & benefits, workforce analytics, employee experience, diversity & inclusion, and organizational development.

In this episode, you’ll hear about Livia’s expansive global cultural experiences that inform her leadership, how Varian is promoting a wider cultural awareness by fostering curiosity, empathy and even self-awareness, and how she works to keep employees engaged and mentally/physically healthy in today’s hybrid work models,

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Livia Freudl’s background - from dreams of a professional harpist to global corporate HR
• Benefits of experiencing so many different cultures - Germany, Indonesia, the Middle East, and the U.S.
• What have organizations done to address the challenges of working parents?
• Empathy, and curiosity vs. rote learning
• Improving cultural awareness - requires curiosity, empathy and self-awareness
• Dealing with biases in the workplace
• Cross-training and job rotation within a company - adding valuable perspective
• Keeping teams engaged, healthy and enjoying their work in the new work models

Resources/Links:

Varian

Livia Freudl

Global Mentor Network Website

Global Mentor Network on Twitter

Global Mentor Network on LinkedIn

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

Today’s guest is Tracy Ting, CHRO of Encore Capital Group, a global specialty finance company with operations and investments across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Tracy brings almost three decades of combined finance and HR expertise to her role, and is an award-winning CHRO who enhances shareholder value through strategic business growth and cultural transformation at multi-national companies. At Encore, Ms. Ting is responsible for people, culture, communications and ESG, providing strategic vision and enterprise leadership.  Prior to Encore, Ms. Ting was the Chief People Officer at Avanir Pharmaceuticals and SVP & CHRO at Affymetrix.

In this episode, you’ll hear how Tracy spearheaded the creation of a global set of values for Encore, written by employees, that distilled ten different sets of values down to just three. She shares the metrics by which all these values are measured, and explains how a company’s core values should hit the heart more than the head. Tracy talks about the challenges and successes Encore faces post-pandemic regarding the future of work. She addresses how they make ESG initiatives their standard operating procedure rather than just a "special project.”

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Tracy Ting background
• Involving all voices in the co-creation process
• Distilling ten sets of company values down to three: We care, we find a better way, we are inclusive and collaborative
• Feeling values in your heart vs. head
• The impact on global employee engagement
• A constant search for incremental improvements
• Thinking through the future of work, and making ESG the new normal
• Metrics for measuring ESG and who wants to see them
• ESG has been a multi-year journey of incremental progress
• Five pillars of ESG: Consumers, people, operating responsibly, environmental, and community
• The biggest challenge in global collaboration is getting the right people at the table
• Advice- Tracy has a lot of it!
  • Be open
  • Navigate the new
  • Don’t be afraid of mistakes
  • “I don’t know what I don’t know.”
  • Be strategic in your career progression, think two steps ahead, not one.
  • Figure out your superpower and market it
  • Never compromise your core values

Resources/Links:

Tracy Ting LinkedIn

Encore Capital

Global Mentor Network Website

Global Mentor Network on Twitter

Global Mentor Network on LinkedIn

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

Today’s guest is Susan Hailey, Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition and Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at OpenText. As an expert in leading all aspects of human capital and talent for high-growth organizations in technology and life sciences, Susan is known for innovation, results, and creating high-performance teams around the globe.

In this episode, you’ll hear about the benefits and importance of interdepartmental “cross-pollination”, hiring process differences in cultures around the world, evaluating interviewees’ responses to behavioral interview questions, and some of the challenges facing talent acquisition professionals in today’s rapidly changing environment.

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Susan’s backstory
• HR challenges in a global team
• High-functioning companies ‘cross-pollinate’ across departments
• Cultural differences in talent and recruiting- India
• The theory of ‘weak ties’ in a job search
• Behavioral interviewing questions and how they are answered
• The pros and cons of panel interviews
• Online video interviews - the new normal
• Challenges around limits on travel and global time zones
• Generational challenges around new tech and other changes
• Talent advice for the near future - mindful hiring and scrutiny of high-level executives

Resources/Links:

Susan Hailey LinkedIn

OpenText Careers

Speaker Profile - Talent Acquisition Week

Real Talk with Susan Hailey

Book: The Silo Effect

Global Mentor Network Website

Global Mentor Network on Twitter

Global Mentor Network on LinkedIn

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

Today’s guest is Eva Andres, SVP and Chief Human Resources Officer for Juniper. Juniper  strives to deliver network experiences that transform how people connect, work and live. Their solutions power connections in education, healthcare, secure banking and more. From Junos to Apstra and Paragon to Mist AI, Juniper pushes the envelope on predictability, programmability, automation, and insights. By making experience the top priority, Juniper creates agile networks that transcend customer expectations.

Eva is responsible for charting Juniper’s global people strategy, fostering diversity, inclusion, and growth among their most important asset, the employees. She leads the human resources organization and the Juniper Networks Foundation Fund, which inspires the next generation of engineers and innovators. With over 20 years of global leadership, Andres has held executive human resources roles ranging from startup to multinational organizations, and has a proven ability to prepare and lead organizations through transformation and growth. Prior to joining Juniper, she held senior leadership positions at Virtustream (Dell EMC), Documentum, and Dupont.

In this episode, we discuss about the renaissance of the work environment post-Covid, broadening the scope of what is discussed with potential job candidates, screening out candidates who are too focused on titles and hierarchies and hiring and training multi-dimensional candidates that will power Juniper into a sometimes unknowable future. 

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Eva’s back story & matching talent to business objectives
• Thinking more broadly about job candidates and skill sets
• Interview questions - why do you want Juniper and what can we offer you?
• Candidates want to know Juniper’s culture and responsibility before the job details
• The focus on soft skills and emotionally intelligent leadership
• Titles, pay levels and motivation
• Changes in the way we work - it’s not just in/out of office
• Anticipating needs in an unknown future - utilizing data and trends
• Using personality tests - only for team building and training, not hiring

Resources/Links:

Eva Andres on LinkedIn

Juniper Website

Global Mentor Network Website

Global Mentor Network on Twitter

Global Mentor Network on LinkedIn

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

My guest today is Chief People Officer of 2K, Bobbie Grafeld.  She leads 2K's People Team, including HRBPs, talent acquisition, total rewards, talent and organization development, employee relations, people operations, and DEI. 2K is a videogame publisher managing some of the most creative, respected and premium brands in games today.

Founded in 2005 within Take Two Interactive, 2K develops and publishes interactive entertainment for PC, console and mobile platforms. Their world-class team of engineers, developers, graphic artists and publishing professionals are stewards of a growing library of critically-acclaimed franchises such as Battleborn, BioShock, Borderlands, The Darkness, Mafia, NBA 2K, PGA TOUR 2K, Sid Meier’s Civilization, WWE 2K, and XCOM.

In this episode, I talk with Bobbie about her 6-year career break to start a family and returning to the workforce as an admin at  PayPal. From there she found a path through Walmart to 2K. You’ll hear about HR challenges in tech-related fields, the importance of training managers at every level, AI as an HR tool, and pivoting quickly during the pandemic.

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Bobbie’s non-linear path to 2K
• Surprising differences - perception vs reality in the hiring process
• HR challenges in tech-related fields
• Qualities that stand out in potential tech employees - soft skills
• 2K’s Manager Academy training
• The costs of having poor managers
• AI’s impact on the HR space
• Standing out as a candidate - then and now
• Data - distilling down, and curating/synthesizing to support the story
• Generational differences and communication
• Joining 2K during the pandemic
• Giving back and corporate responsibility
• Building the tech workforce for the future

Resources/Links:

Bobbie Grafeld LinkedIn

2K Website

Global Mentor Network Website

Global Mentor Network on Twitter

Global Mentor Network on LinkedIn

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

Our guest today is Megan D. Burkhart, EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer at Comerica. Comerica Inc. is a financial services company headquartered in Dallas with three major divisions: commercial banking, retail banking, and wealth management. Megan’s position oversees Diversity & Inclusion, HR Operations, Technology & Risk, HR Consulting, Learning, Talent and Organizational Change Management, Talent Acquisition and Total Rewards.

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton, and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Megan’s background and path to her current position
• Employees’ and job candidates’ wishes and desires post-Covid
• Reimagining benefits packages
• Career development - it’s not just about “moving up”
• What has and has not worked at Comerica
• Performance and incentives
• Retaining top talent with retirement benefits
• Keeping in communication with great employees that leave the company
• Balancing compensation in a competitive market
• Leadership development programs
• Investment counseling around stock purchases, 401k’s and retirement
• Psychological/soft skill development and situational leadership training

Resources/Links:

Comerica Website

Global Mentor Network Website

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

My guest today is Ola Snow, Chief Human Resources Officer at Cardinal Health. Ola oversees the company’s Human Resources, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Community Relations, Communications, Environmental Health and Safety, Security, Real Estate, Facilities and Aviation organizations. Her passion for DE&I has propelled her to become a co-executive sponsor for the company’s DE&I Council and an advisor for the company’s Black and African American Racial Equity Cabinet, two internal groups charged with challenging the status quo and ultimately helping to advance DE&I within the organization. Snow’s leadership has been recognized by several organizations including Top 50 HR, Columbus Business First and the National Diversity Council.

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Dr. Diane Hamilton, and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories about how to drive transformational impact in your organization. We talk with innovative thinkers across various industry sectors to hear about the best tools, resources, practices, and strategies to help you and your team reach the top of their game.

Register for free on GMN.net to have access to our full library of content and resources on professional development.

Discussion Points:

• Ola’s path to her current success
• Shaking up the status quo at Cardinal Health - curiosity, transparency and truthtelling
• A “comprehensive listening strategy” with employees
• M&A failures - culture clashes and lack of time
• Recruitment for ‘careers’, not jobs
• Employee retention and engagement
• Management roles are completely different than five years ago
• Leadership training - listening and soft skills
• What employees expect from their leaders these days
• Vulnerability to set the tone as a leader
• Looking outside your industry and company size for best practices
• Simplifying and streamlining

Resources/Links:

Ola Snow at Cardinal

Ola Snow LinkedIn

Global Mentor Network Website

Global Mentor Network on Twitter

Global Mentor Network on LinkedIn

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn

Our guest today is MetLife EVP and Chief HR Officer Susan Podlogar. In this episode, our discussion focuses on MetLife’s wellness programs and initiatives. Susan provides actionable steps you can take to start building your own company’s wellness culture, which is proven to create empathy and connection within your teams. She also shares metrics around the direct and indirect costs of poor employee health, and the impact wellness has on a company’s bottom line. 

Leaders Playbook is a podcast hosted by Thuy Vu and Dr. Diane Hamilton, and powered by the Global Mentor Network. We share stories from innovative thinkers across various industries about how to drive transformational impact in your organization.

To read the notes for this episode, visit:

https://globalmentornetwork.net/podcasts/Leaders-Playbook/episodes/Nurturing-Wellness-through-Empathy-and-Connection-with-Metlife39s-Susan-Podlogar

Resources/Links:

Susan Podlogar LinkedIn

MetLife 

Global Mentor Network Website

Dr. Diane Hamilton LinkedIn