The countdown is on: RISKWORLD 2023 is officially a week away. This year’s RISKWORLD opening keynote address will be delivered by Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., the president and CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). A positive and prolific speaker, Taylor is also the author of Reset: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, and his address will aim to inspire RISKWORLD attendees in Atlanta as they continually update and adapt to different work and management styles.
In a recent episode of the RIMScast podcast, Taylor discussed how professionals can reinvent leadership methods; his take on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) labor trends; and the intersection of risk and talent management. Check out a preview of his upcoming keynote and other highlights from the conversation below:
When you kick off RISKWORLD on May 1, what will you discuss during your keynote address?
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.: I am going to spend some time taking us back to March 13, 2020—Friday the 13th—the day when the U.S. federal government and countries around the world decided the world would be different from that point forward. I was working on Reset at the time under another title and it was clear after several weeks that would have to change, because how we worked, where we worked and who would work transformed on that day.
So, I am going to take them on a journey from what was before covid we kind of jokingly refer to as “B.C.”—"before COVID.” We’ll get to now…and really follow how the employee mindset and their relationship with their employers have changed over the past three years. We will identify the pivotal moments and lessons, some positive and not-so-positive, but all instructive.
In the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, many tech companies pledged to boost their talent recruiting and retention efforts in terms of traditionally underrepresented groups. But Bloomberg reported earlier this year that listings for DEI-focused jobs sank 19% in 2022. That was a bigger drop than for generalized human resources or legal jobs overall. What can risk management and HR professionals do to maintain their commitment to DEI during such uncertain economic times?
JT: I’m an optimist. I could read that same 19% a different way: We were understaffed for that very important issue [of DEI in the workplace] until George Floyd’s horrible murder. It was a wake-up call for organizations to build capacity in that area. So maybe it is not just that it is a drop-off year to year, it is that we have finally caught up and we are now in a steady state.
That being said, I am seeing that there are some cuts there. Risk managers and HR managers need to own this—some folks got in the job and, frankly, did not deliver a return on investment. If the DEI, HR or risk officer has not made a compelling case for that investment and a return on that investment to the organization, then you will lose out in the battle for resources when we enter into an environment of austerity. It's just the way it works.
So, my advice is to be very intentional about creating expectations or the business case for your DEI goals and achievements. I have not met a CEO who has said DEI does not matter. They all understand because we have an increasingly diverse workforce, so you get them and now you manage them through the inclusion part. They get it. What they are saying is: Do it right. Do it in such a way where you actually can showcase the return on that investment. And when you can't, then you become susceptible to being replaced, made redundant, or eliminated altogether.
How can risk professionals balance remote work with in-person work? Or how can they help establish work models?
JT: Remote working is a grand experiment. We just approached three years of real experience and learned what does and does not work. We’ve proven that many of the jobs could be done. The questions are more nuanced: Was it optimal? Did you get the same set of results? Did people burn out more? We saw enhanced suicide rates, we saw increased depression and mental illness when people were fully working remotely. It’s [unique] because human beings like to interact with other human beings, by and large.
As a result, we at SHRM and the HR profession are in year three of a longitudinal study and we’re learning a lot about remote work. The headline is, “It worked when it needed to work.” But over time, human beings want to be human. They desire to have that human interaction. So increasingly, it’s not about remote work, it’s about flexibility. And those are really two different concepts.
These are the things that we are experimenting with when it comes to remote work. Anyone who tells you they have figured it out is wrong, because we’re in the middle of trying to understand its impact on inclusion and diversity, culture, and worker productivity, and there are a lot of things we have not solved for yet, because this is a relatively new concept.
You were a lawyer before you moved over to human resources. What inspired that transition?
JT: Frankly, I was a pretty good litigator and could help companies solve for that. What I began to appreciate was how much more effective I could be if we prevented some of these problems—if we gave people workplaces that were free of harassment, ensured that people could come to an environment where it was not hostile every day, we could pay people on time and pay them equitably. And I just figured it would be a much better way to serve and add value to the organization if I was in HR, as opposed to the legal department.
Similarly, many risk managers entered the profession from other fields. What advice do you have for other professionals who are their organization’s de facto risk managers, and vice versa?
JT: Appreciate the fact that you are a risk manager, even if you're in HR, for example. That's because, in a knowledge-based economy, our asset increasingly is people. That is all many companies have, and those people innovate and create new products and new services.
I tell my HR folks all the time that we are managing risks every day on behalf of our organizations, and it's for their most important asset: people.
For more from this discussion, check out Taylor’s appearance on the RIMScast podcast. If you have not yet registered for this year’s RISKWORLD conference, you can do so here: RISKWORLD Atlanta 2023. Taylor’s opening keynote will be at the Georgia World Congress Center Main Stage on May 1 at 8 a.m.