Four HR Officers Create A Solution To Connect People To Work

 



The Covid-19 pandemic is not only a global public health crisis, but it has also caused massive economic disruption. The most recent jobs report indicates that hiring has slowed, but beneath these disappointing numbers is a nuanced story of organizations reducing their workforce. In contrast, others can't fill their open positions fast enough to meet the demand for products and services. Connecting displaced workers to these opportunities and getting them back to work as quickly as possible is the idea behind People + Work Connect.

The platform, created by chief human resources officers from Accenture, Lincoln Financial Group, ServiceNow, and Verizon, and powered by Accenture, enables employers at no cost to connect with other employers to quickly identify and fill jobs in locations where there is a need.

The platform gives organizations a map of the workforce available to fill jobs they have open and offers organizations that have furloughed or laid off people quick and easy visibility into demand so that HR professionals can connect.

With over 265 companies from 95 countries and more than 400,000 roles on the platform since April, their journey and success thus far offer a few lessons on how we as people, teams, and organizations can innovate, especially during challenging times, to tackle large, difficult problems. Based on my interview with Christy Pambianchi, Verizon's Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, here are five keys to their success that we can all apply to our work and our life.

Move Beyond Siloes to Shift the Paradigm


The four CHROs, Christy Pambianchi from Verizon, Ellyn Shook from Accenture, Lisa Buckingham from Lincoln Financial Group, and Pat Wadors of Procore (formerly of ServiceNow), met on March 24th to discuss how to best respond to the COVID-19 crisis that was unfolding. According to Pambianchi, given the disruption's speed and scale, they realized that no one company or even industry could address the problem alone, so they decided to join forces to find a solution.

  •   One unifying mission

They realized that they needed to push through boundaries and bring down the barriers to serve one mission: put people back to work. Pambianchi adds that "When we decided to own the unemployment numbers as a collective problem and not just focus on our own workforce needs that is when something important shifted."

  • From competition to collaboration

They decided that the most effective way to navigate the crisis was to reach beyond their organizations' walls and take care of talent more holistically. Building bridges across their businesses meant shifting from a model of competition to collaboration. They all agreed that while companies were going to compete with their products and our services, they would not compete for talent. Instead, they would put employees at the center and "lift up talent" by building relationships to get them back to work.


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Ignite the Power of Purpose

They went from concept to building the first version of the People + Work Connect platform and launch in two weeks. They did so by meeting every evening after work. They were powered by a belief that in those uncertain times, HR leaders had a responsibility to use their platform to step up and lead with empathy, passion, and compassion in a way that helps employees, the economy, and society.

Build Community, Networks, and Relationships

One of the reasons they were able to move quickly from concept to launch was by clarifying their goals. They aimed to get people back to work faster and smoother by reducing friction points in connecting people to work and work to people.

However, they knew that it did not mean they had to create a perfect platform. Instead, it was an opportunity to create a platform that allowed the critical human to human connections, relationship building, and trust within the HR community that was necessary to achieve their goals. The platform needed to create a coalition— a way for the community to engage with each other in nontraditional ways. As Ashley Goldsmith, the Chief People Officer at Workday described, the HR community quickly and powerfully embraced and spread this idea. 

Find a New Currency

Companies are better connecting people with work by thinking more about their employees' skills and capabilities and not just their job title. HR leaders can better share talent when they think about skills as the new "career currency." For example, one food and beverage company wanted to hire mechanics that they needed for their fleet. They were connected with an airline on the platform that had mechanics in need of work since people are flying less. In the past, these industries wouldn't think to share talent, but the skills-based approach to People + Work Connect allowed them to tap into what employees can do and not what they are currently assigned to do.

Accelerate Change

COVID-19 has, by necessity, opened employers' minds to new ways of working and managing a remote workforce. By broadening what they look for in talent beyond narrow criteria such as job title, geography, schools attended, etc., the HR community has an even greater opportunity to look at talent more holistically. Through the networks and relationships created, they can better match employees based on their actual skills to jobs requiring those capabilities.

Pambianchi and her founding colleagues see the platform as a powerful way to unlock people's talent and skills. They hope that these collaborations foster a more resilient workforce and break down some of the barriers that are causing inequities around the globe and instead create an economy that serves everyone. Pambianchi adds, "None of us have been here before. In times of uncertainty, it's of the utmost importance to lean on a community and collectively determine how to navigate forward. This model of cross-industry collaboration is going to be our new normal and what we gain from our united response to this pandemic."


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