Meet Kelly Mawhinney, Partner at Mercer, recorded together live on the mainstage recently at the RCC Retail HR conference. In a wide-ranging and fact-based plus experienced-based conversation, we learn how retailers and HR professionals from other industries are navigating the roadblocks of talent attraction, the varied needs of in-store and hybrid team members, and the expectations of a values-driven workforce.
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. I'm producer & host Michael LeBlanc, and this podcast is produced in conjunction with the Retail Council of Canada.
Meet Kelly Mawhinney, Partner at Mercer, recorded together live on the mainstage recently at the RCC Retail HR conference. In a wide-ranging and fact-based plus experienced-based conversation, we learn how retailers and others are navigating the roadblocks of talent attraction, the varied needs of in-store and hybrid team members, and the expectations of a values-driven workforce.
About Kelly
As a global People & Culture leader I enable innovation and organization transformation through talent leadership. My focus is the expert delivery of all HR disciplines, through leadership roles in professional services or as an industry CHRO. My specialization is Future of Work and HR Transformation.
Intently client centric, digitally oriented, and experienced in pragmatic change leadership, I leverage People, Culture and Technology management disciplines to lead inclusive teams and business transformations. I've worked with SWIT - focused on women in technology, and support mentoring for STEM development in girls and women.
I've enjoyed international experiences supporting Banks, Governments, Entrepreneurial and Multinationals across North America, Caribbean, and Western Europe while being based in Toronto, New York City and Amsterdam.
About Michael
Michael is the Founder & President of M.E. LeBlanc & Company Inc. and a Senior Advisor to Retail Council of Canada and the Bank of Canada as part of his advisory and consulting practice. He brings 25+ years of brand/retail/marketing & eCommerce leadership experience with Levi's, Black & Decker, Hudson's Bay, Today's Shopping Choice and Pandora Jewellery.
Michael has been on the front lines of retail industry change for his entire career. He has delivered keynotes, hosted fire-side discussions with C-level executives and participated worldwide in thought leadership panels. ReThink Retail has added Michael to their prestigious Top Global Retail Influencers list for 2023 for the third year in a row.
Michael is also the president of Maven Media, producing a network of leading trade podcasts, including Canada's top retail industry podcast, The Voice of Retail. He produces and co-hosts Remarkable Retail with best-selling author Steve Dennis, now ranked one of the top retail podcasts in the world.
Based in San Francisco, Global eCommerce Leaders podcast explores global cross-border issues and opportunities for eCommerce brands and retailers.
Last but not least, Michael is the producer and host of the "Last Request Barbeque" channel on YouTube, where he cooks meals to die for - and collaborates with top brands as a food and product influencer across North America.r
Michael LeBlanc 00:04
Welcome to The Voice of Retail podcast. My name is Michael LeBlanc, and I am your host. This podcast is produced in conjunction with Retail Council of Canada. Meet Kelly Mawhinney, Partner at Mercer, recorded together live on the main stage recently at the RCC Retail HR Conference. In a wide ranging and fact based, plus experience-based conversation, we'll learn how retailers and HR professionals from other industries are navigating the roadblocks of talent acquisition, the varied needs of in store and hybrid team members, and the expectations of a values driven workforce.
Conference Host 00:39
Today, we have special guests, Kelly Mawhinney, Partner with Mercer to chat about ghostbusting strategies for talent acquisition with The Voice of Retail podcast host, Michael LeBlanc, please welcome to the stage, Michael and Kelly.
Michael LeBlanc 00:55
The structure today is we're gonna get an assessment from Kelly about the state of the nation, so to speak, where we have a bit of data, then we're going to talk about what's working, what's working both at table stakes. So, what works for everyone, then we're going to kind of dive down into what works for in-store staff and warehouse and then office support, head office support and then some general advice, but first, I had a question for you. So, we could read your impressive background, obviously very accomplished in your field. Most people here would know of Mercer, of course, but tell us something we don't know or might surprise us about you or Mercer.
Kelly Mawhinney 01:36
It's a fairly unknown fact that I went diving early on in my life and I really wanted to see a shark and I was diving in the Turks and Caicos and the dive instructor who was with me, because I was a newbie, said yeah, you're not gonna see a shark in these waters, not a chance and I went out on a boat with all these like geared up guys. They had knives, they had all their gear. It was all guys and then me who was all like, was, and we got in the water, and we went down in a nine foot Tiger Shark went right by and I was so excited. So blown away, and we got back to the boat. The guys were all like, Oh my God, I've never seen that. It's so cool and I was like, I brought the shark. I manifested this shark.
Michael LeBlanc 02:23
You bring the shark.
Kelly Mawhinney 02:24
I bring the sharks.
Michael LeBlanc 02:25
What a great way to start. Well, like so you're gonna, you'll present us some slides. Now what we wanted to establish was a bit- oh, there they are.
Kelly Mawhinney 02:33
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 02:33
Your slides are ready. So, let's, let's take a look at those for about 10 minutes and then we're gonna chit and chat about them.
Kelly Mawhinney 02:37
Yeah, so folks, I wanted to give you this, which is hot off the presses and something that our clients, frankly, pay quite a bit to be a part of, this is global HR trends and we've boiled it down to have a strong Canadian view and there's absolutely a lens that all of you can look through to see it from a retail perspective. So please, we'll have all this information and then Michael, and I'll chat. So this is just giving you the lay of the land in terms of the industries who were, were surveyed the organization type the org tight, you'll see that retail is the 8% in there. So, 8% of respondents were from the retail sector. Not, not a lot, but this is a global survey. So, there's many, many numbers behind that 8%. So, here's where we're at with the state of the nation for HR in Canada.
Kelly Mawhinney 03:35
So, we're really still focusing on upholding diversity, equity and inclusion. How many folks are into that as part of their career right now, I know if you're an HR, but some folks who have a very strong focus, that's great. So, it's still clearly on the dial and we'll find out sort of where we're at with that. Focusing on company culture development. So, culture, so we, many of us move from being HR to being people and culture in our titles, at least and we're working really hard at bringing culture along, though I will say I think it's lagging quite a bit relative to the people management pieces that we do and that's usually just because we don't have a lot of bandwidth. Impacting total well-being, well-being stays on the map. Many of you built out well-being capabilities in your organizations. That's, again, still in its infancy, really, and enabling new ways of working. So, we talk about it constantly. This is, I speak every month, and we've talked about RTO and flex work pretty much at every conference, and everything to do with acquisition and turnover.
Kelly Mawhinney 04:44
So, this is our top of mind and in enabling a skills-based organization. So, this is where we get into that upskilling, reskilling folks traveling along with their kitbag of capability, almost as if they were doing gig in a gig economy, but they're doing it inside your organizations. So a whole lot of stuff here, but I'll look top line and say, employ-, improving the employee experience is, is top of mind and so I'm probably going to reference the employee experience a lot and for me when I talk about the employee experience, it's that very individualistic, very flexible bag that each and employ-, each employee carries along with him full of his or her stuff that matter to his or-, him or her. So that's what we're looking at there and then we're looking at, you know, strategic workforce planning that's been on our dial for quite a quite a bit of time, but again, we're think-, we're still trying to get to the strategic part of workforce planning.
Kelly Mawhinney 05:46
So those are some top-of-minds and then I'll look to designing talent processes around skills, and then rethinking comp philosophy. So, touch on comp for just a second. So, at Mercer in my career domain, where I'm the partner for that line of business, we have a very strong focus on compensation and as you folks know, compensation it's got a big focal point on it right now. So, any of us who are looking for comp personnel are having a hard, hard time. So, we, there is a specialized group of HR professionals, they always have been, the demand for them now is through the roof. So, everybody's out there trying to fix the equation of the employee value proposition, what are they going to do, first, they're going to try to do something with compensation and rewards. So that's been a big, big factor in what we do in the workplace, we do a lot of workforce and executive compensation work.
Kelly Mawhinney 06:46
So, I'm just going to motor along because we'll run out of time. So, this is more information. We're trying to, there's things like and it gets kind of consultant-y, I find in some of the words, but resetting for relevance. So, but this is all employee centric, it's meant to be. So, the notion of, for instance, working in partnership, so this is the two sides of the coin of the employee employer. Now, we've talked about it forever and a decade, and it's tended to be employer driven, but you know, now with the turnover issues, that we're facing attraction and retention, that that partnership equation of, you know, who's first in the relationship sort of thing has shifted. So that dynamic has, has more parity now. We're not there yet, employees are still, you know, catering to the employer, because they get paid to do so, but they absolutely have more power and control than they have ever had, but there's a long way to go.
Kelly Mawhinney 07:40
So, this, I want you to, you guys to see sort of what's going on in terms of, you know, these stats, it's interesting information. So, 79% of companies in Canada, say they have a living wage. 21% of organizations have adjusted compensation. So, all employees have a living wage, you're gonna see a lot of this. It's like, we're saying this, we're doing this, yes, it's on our mandate, but you're gonna find that our progress is not great, and this is across all industries and all organizations. 69% offer flex work options. 75% have no plans to provide job security for gig workers. So yes, flexibility, no, not really. So there's a lot of push me pull. 88% deliver minimum standard of health care for all employees and all locations, but total wellbeing initiatives are less than 72%, you're gonna see a theme along these lines and I think for all of you, because your HR practitioners for the for the most part here, you're going to realize why you keep having this sort of overwhelming cognitive dissonance in your work, because it's this kind of push pull that we're all dealing with.
Kelly Mawhinney 08:59
So, 74% of the firms have said, yes, we're reset, we're working with, in partnership with our employees, but when you look at the data of what's really happening, you know, you have very low numbers of actual take-up. So, 34% ensuring the responsibility of DE&I and an individual and team level. 27% setting new work guidelines and improving collaboration. So, the things the levers that need to be leveraged are not, so there's lots of hopes but not a lot of action, or certainly not felt action. Again, more, I think, meaningful stats, flexibility, which we're going to talk about a lot, flexibility 33% are better supporting the benefits needs of their mobile workforce and I would you know, so again, we've got a lot of remote going on a lot of our to a lot of challenges. They're, only 33% of the surveyed population globally are supporting that.
Kelly Mawhinney 10:04
Affordable health care and we feel it in Canada every day as a citizen about you know, dentals not covered and derms not covered dermatology, whatever all those things are, I know all our friends talk about these things as do our employees. 18%, only 18% are investing in new health and risk protection programs. So we're talking about risk these days a lot more as it pertains to people, people risk and what I love about that for HR personnel, we've really gotten on the map in terms of business, because people actually for change want to, I shouldn't flag it, but they want to know more about what we think and what we do than they ever have, i.e.: the other business leaders. We always wanted to be at the strategic table.
Michael LeBlanc 10:50
Now you're there.
Kelly Mawhinney 10:50
Were there, yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 10:51
It's a lot like, it reminds me of during the COVID era, you know, pre COVID era, not many people were talking about supply chain supply chain professionals, what supply chain people did. Now that simmer down, everybody's talking about people, and you might find yourself in those discuss-, discussions. So, let's, let's pivot off some of the data that you showed to us.
Kelly Mawhinney 11:10
Sure, absolutely, do you want to go off this?
Michael LeBlanc 11:12
Yeah, you can leave that up, if you want.
Kelly Mawhinney 11:13
It's great, it's great stuff to talk about, and maybe there's another slide that we might reference later on and so I wanted to start with a kind of on understanding. So, you set the table quite well and continuing the metaphor, I want to understand what's table stakes versus differentiators for all functions within retail organizations. So, whether, whether they're working in the store, whether working in office support, no matter what they're doing. I mean, I see compensation come up a lot, it's probably something that everybody has to agree on. What are the kinds of other things like, we talked about employee branding for, for example, that the company needs to have a mission and feel like they're doing, like are these kinds of table stakes and then we'll kind of get into what's different for the different constituencies.
Michael LeBlanc 11:13
Sure.
Kelly Mawhinney 11:57
The cool thing, and the challenging thing that's going on right now is a lot are table stakes. So things that we're lagging on and have been talking about for 10 plus years are sort of all coming to, to the table. So, I've got clients, for instance, very notable ones in the public sector, who, you know, they, most of them have a unionized environment in some aspect and they have compression on senior roles, compensation and different things and so as we travel along in any of those, in retail as well, as we look at that we absolutely have to look at flexibility. So we need to look at everything that we can put together and an employee value proposition that will be their choice. What do I want to choose, I want portability, I want flexibility and this may not sound like new news.
Kelly Mawhinney 12:48
The new news is if you don't do it, I'm going to leave. Right, I have choices and I know from an employee brand standpoint, I know how to, I've learned over the last 10 or so years, how to establish my brand. I know how to do that, I know how to market myself, I know how to reach out on LinkedIn and other vehicles to get new roles. You know, there's just, there's just an abundance of ways that a person can take their kit bag and travel on down the road. Even the fact of people going to other organizations that used to have stigma, you can go but we'll never have you back. Those were rules for some big corporations that if you ever leave us we'll never have you back. We have in our organization boomerangs and it's a proud, you know, thing that people boomerang and come back to the organization. We send, we send people off and then we're saying hey, come on back and I certainly know in my Holt experience in, in the HR role, again, creating that sense of some brand and, and personal and you know, understanding how to market your company brand as well as part of your personal brand.
Michael LeBlanc 13:58
Where does, where do ideas like ESG fit in not ideas, but concepts of strategies around ESG, is it important at the table stakes level? Can you, can you be an employer of choice without it as a general, not without it, but you know what I mean, like not-
Kelly Mawhinney 14:13
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 14:14
This culture that kind of talks about that much, can you [inaudible]?
Kelly Mawhinney 14:16
I'd say it's more, it's more of an emerging consideration. Now as much as, you know, when we look at ESG and it was on our chart, where it fit into the, to the ethos and it was it was definitely there, but I think in based on my experience with Holt, it's absolutely there and, and folks are building out on it, but I think it's in a, you know, an earlier phase, if I can say that, then things to do with well-being and then things in our HR kitbag. Things to do with well-being, things to do with diversity, and they're, they're linked, of course, but I think that's part of it. The linkages have not necessarily been made that to where it is and it's, as you know, well-being’s standing alone, diversity is standing alone, ESG is standing alone and we're trying to further them, but we're still in silos even in HR and sometimes ESG, obviously, is not all in the HR platform, you know?
Michael LeBlanc 15:11
Nor should it be.
Kelly Mawhinney 15:12
Exactly.
Michael LeBlanc 15:13
So, you'd see these linkages, more starting to form now more to become an employer of choice. That's, that's what, what is-
Kelly Mawhinney 15:23
Yes.
Michael LeBlanc 15:24
Helping frame the discussion?
Kelly Mawhinney 15:27
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 15:28
Let's, let's talk about, you know, we came up with this idea of ghostbusting. I heard it from a bunch of, a bunch of you, you and retailers, about just, you know, let's is that a real thing, I hear anecdotally often is, in your practice, are you who-ing it off and just, I was reading a, I think it was a pizza big pizza company was offering a free pizza just to show up for an interview and because they, you know.
Kelly Mawhinney 15:49
Yeah, how many people in the room are involved in TA, and anyone, recruitment TA. Yeah. So we feel for you, I know what you're going through and certainly we leaders who are involved trying to staff and stabilize our groups, where there's just constant churn going on right now and TA folks are just in an endless, you know, sort of round of hiring at all levels, whether it's from, you know, stores, warehouses, to head office and in terms of ghostbusting, what I was saying earlier, between us is, it's kind of we're getting our comeuppance, so it used to be that employers were felt to be, you know, ghosting employees, prospective employees, not answering us not giving us, you know, an opportunity demanding, you know, too much, you know, too many certifications and through the moon and then things started to shift because of the talent shortage, in part where firms started to say, well, no, we don't need that degree, or we don't need that certification.
Kelly Mawhinney 16:54
So, it's really a demand and supply component, and that has shifted, and so the ghostbusting is very, they've learned bad behavior, in part, from us frankly. So, there's, you know, we weren't necessarily, we, in any of our industries, providing employees with the best service and I don't mean to, to press on TA people at all, but we, you know, we weren't necessarily. We weren't, frankly, set up to give them the best service or respond to everyone or whatever that all looks like. So now, it's the shoe shoes or on the employees’ feet, for, you know, walking where they want to walk and so somehow to go forward, then we need to inculcate that partnership, human centric, and that language is going to come up more and more relationship in all of our organizations and also, we can't be striated the way that we are.
Kelly Mawhinney 17:52
So, we can't have you know, Ivory Tower, folks over there and stower folks over here. You know, all of you will have a somebody who heads up stores, and someone who heads up warehousing and distribution. So, all of those individuals need to come to the table and also, there's a huge role here, too, for CEOs. I think that there needs to be an evolution for the CEO roles because they tend to sit so remotely and they tend to focus on, you know, I'm a digital guy, I'm a fashion guy, I'm a product guy, but we're not seeing the connection across all of these organizations to provide them their due and so that comes up with, you know, looking at things like how do we have, you know, how do we satisfy stores, or warehouses or fulfillment places to have any kind of hybrid, or have any kind of
Michael LeBlanc 18:46
So, it really boils down, in those, in those realms, with flexibility more than hybrid, but lets you open the door. So, let's talk about hybrid a little bit. There's a very boisterous conversation going on almost daily. Some of you may have a blend, I was, you know, you read in the paper, some organizations are demanding or threatening their employees to come back to work others, they're trying to entice them with cappuccino machines, or whatever. You know, as you think about that there's four, talk of the four-day week, as. Put that into frame for us. How much of that, first of all, I guess the question is, do you see that as a sustainable ongoing trend, we didn't talk about the data that this is probably could be for many, many years. So where do, where do we sit in terms of organizations being an employer of choice to offering flexibility, it's not for everybody. Again, we're talking more about store support. How do you see that? What's, what's your lens that you look at that through?
Kelly Mawhinney 19:40
So, hybrid is here to stay. Remote work is here to stay. Employees are not going to come back easily and if they do come back, they're going to use their time wisely to go somewhere else that isn't demanding that of them in terms of people who need to be in physical locations to do their jobs. The, we, we absolutely and I was, you know, working with a, with a client in this regard who's head of stores, and looking at what can we do for store personnel, well, we actually have some other data with respect to, to hiring and attraction retention and we need to be creative with what those personnel have in terms of their hours, their time, their choices. So, they may end up, you know, building a block of time, that they're gonna go to the organization, and do their work in the way they want to. So that's going to bring complexity to anybody in physical locations where people need to be, you're going to need to accommodate them. So yes, they need to be there sometimes, but then there's going to be compression of their work, or there's going to be elements that you need to split out from the work that could be hybrid. It's, it's going to be complex and more work to be done.
Michael LeBlanc 20:56
To layer on that complexity. In your practice, are you thinking about, worried about researching, you know, for younger associates, younger people getting started the mentorship, the camarader-, camaraderie, the just being part of a culture, you know, I feel like that there's a risk there. What do you, how do you think about that and that tradeoff between I want to go in and be part of something.
Kelly Mawhinney 21:19
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 21:20
And I want to learn, and I want to be present versus, you know, versus flexibility. How do you, how are people making those tradeoffs and what advice can you give to everyone about having that conversation?
Kelly Mawhinney 21:29
Yeah. So, there's interesting complexity here to your point. We've done studies for clients that came to us and said, we're sure our productivity is falling by people not being here and we're sure, in that productivity, there's a lack of engagement and a lack of culture and all of these things. When we did, when we put the data together, the stats don't support that. So, we need to have a mindset shift, around.
Michael LeBlanc 21:55
So just, just so I can put a point to that.
Kelly Mawhinney 21:57
Yes, please.
Michael LeBlanc 21:58
When you talk productivity, when I talked to executives, during COVID, scale of 1 to 10, they were at an 8 to a 9 around their confidence and productivity. Has that gone down or is, is there still productivity-, is your research still showing that productivity is fine?
Kelly Mawhinney 22:13
Productivity is fine and I think,
Michael LeBlanc 22:16
It's adherence to the culture and to the [inaudible]
Kelly Mawhinney 22:19
Yes. So there, there's, I think there's a lot of confusion in terms of how do we deal with the fact that we have all these towers that we've leased or bought, that we can't put bums in seats, well hey, the bums in seats don't take your costs down, right but we also know that we share with all of the other employers who support these businesses who now have no business restaurants, little shops, all that sort of thing. So, the whole organizational machine, if you will, is shifting to try to understand what do we do with this. It's really not different in stores, because in many places, the uptake in online shopping is, you know, changing the nature of how people coming into stores looks like.
Michael LeBlanc 23:05
And the nature of the role for associates in, in many stores. I want to ask one question about, there's always this anecdotal conversation around, we're missing that water cooler talk, that innovation, that bright ideas, I've never seen any academic research that supports that, that, that that actually happens, but it is, you know, we're talking about a very conventional workplace because a lot of employers are like, let's do more offsets, let's do more different things. Have you seen and what are your thoughts on this kind of innovation gap that may be perceived, or maybe real?
Kelly Mawhinney 23:36
Somebody said something perfect to me, I was at a speaking engagement a month-, last month, and another speaker said, I have culture, it's in my home, I have my culture, I have my meetings, I have my, you know, water, I have my coffee, I have all the culture, my music. So, this, there's a shift in what people perceive as their office culture and that's where I was going, there's already a shift in how people consider culture. So do they need to get together to have that and argue-, we would argue that you don't.
Kelly Mawhinney 24:09
So, when you look at who's coming in, who's not coming in, and then for groups that have never had that wholesale opportunity that have all come back, everyone is questioning whether that actually adds value to their life. So if they strip out the annoyances of the expense of coming to the office, the commute and all the crap, if they strip that out, would you still want to be there with everybody, if it was just like your home and you just rolled out of bed and went-, no, they're not seeing that as a value add particularly in terms of a culture engagement, belonging, they have that in zoom. They have that in the one day a week they go into the office, they have that in the stores for the three days that they may work full time in the future, however, that's going to look.
Michael LeBlanc 24:55
It's so interesting. I think we're early days in the overall, like we're early innings to use a sports metaphor, on understanding this because I think there's, there's merit, as I said, for the younger executives, younger associates to just kind of learn from, it's a little hard to learn over zoom.
Kelly Mawhinney 25:09
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 25:10
We'd say so we're just trying to all figure it out. I'd love to hear your feedback.
Kelly Mawhinney 25:13
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 25:13
Everyone here, I'm sure you're all thinking about it. Let's get back to ghostbusting for a sec. So you've established helped establish it happens, is there any best practices about you know, we see it, I see it at three levels, like don't show up the interview, you know, don't show up to the job and I've even heard of people just leaving the job and not even saying that I'm leaving the job and then like, disappear. So let's assume that it's, it's happening, like, you know, if I'm the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man, and you're, you know, one of the Ghostbusters, what are the solutions for those kinds of things?
Kelly Mawhinney 25:44
So heavy burden on recruitment right now you guys know it, you're feeling it heavy burden on, on TA and all folks in that arena, because it is a tough time, you really have to look at your recruitment hygiene, you have to look at everything in your lifecycle from attraction. So, in your brand, in attraction, you know, things like glass door, make sure that it's clean, make sure that you've got something proactive there, you may not know how many people actually go online to see what people think of your brand, of who you are, of the CEO. You know, there's a lot going on, people are much more aware and savvy about what they're getting into and what they can use it for.
Kelly Mawhinney 26:24
People are way up on the 'What's In It For Me' factor. So, people who may or may not have been so much in the last few decades absolutely are now and we're also teaching them to be so. So you absolutely have to have good attraction and you need to take a look at what is your employee value proposition. So, it has to be made up of the things they actually want. So, and that has to be communicated to them in a way that is compelling. So, you can't just be boise about ‘here we have some stuff’, or ‘here we're a good company’, you really have to do a lot of work to market to, you know, to, to reach out to enlist, and timing. We all know, the timing of the cycles are way too long, I got into the gig I'm in right now and it was like you guys are killing people, there's no way we're gonna hire anyone, when you think we're going to do this panel and this test and this panel, and this, no, it's going to be this panel, this panel a test and it's all going to be compressed into.
Kelly Mawhinney 27:22
And so, you've got to train your internal clients who are hiring in so many ways, you've got to get them to streamline, these are the three things I must have. That's it, get it clear, get them to get clear, you've got these internal clients, who are you know, not narrowing down what they need, they have to, and then they have to follow a game plan and you have to inform them what the game plan is going to be. You guys are in a leadership role much more than you ever were before. It's not order taking one on one any longer. It's ‘absolutely, I'm a professional, and I can do this for you’ and we know in most of our firms, we're using external recruiters less and less at many of the jobs outside. Even, even at the junior executive level where people are doing it themselves. So there's so much of a burden on TA right now you really have to get your processes streamlined, you really have to market yourselves and you really have to be proactive and get bums in seats quickly but to your point you there's more to it, it's complex still you get their bum and seat and then they're like yeah, I don't really like this job.
Michael LeBlanc 28:28
And, and it probably would, you would agree that there is some time in this very agile changing environment, that outside talent outside resource talent, the recruiters of the world can bring a lot of expertise in terms of what's happening today for executives. Now, last, we’ve got one minute left. Two starts, that people should start doing sum it all up for us in a minute.
Kelly Mawhinney 28:49
Yeah.
Michael LeBlanc 28:49
Two things they should start doing today to be successful and be the employer of choice. What would they be?
Kelly Mawhinney 28:57
So, you absolutely need to influence what the employee value proposition is going to be and you need to understand what your company is. So, there's everything going on out there is certainly from a comp and rewards basis that is sort of the, the, you know, the ultimate, you know, piece in that employee value proposition. Nobody works, to not get paid. So, everything in there has to be flexible, meaningful, competitive, you really have to know your categories of jobs, you need to do your job architecture, you need to know who's on first and it's dynamic. So it's a lot of work right now, but you really need to understand what are our top jobs and nobody go out, in none of this we all need the best talent, you don't, find out what talent you need at what levels and so on again, more job architecture, understand your environment so that you can narrow it down and, and carry on stop doing, that's kind of it don't be this big be this small. You know, be very focused. I need to hire A, B, C and This is what I'm, you know, I'm going after, this is what, my must-have and drive your internal clients to get on point.
Michael LeBlanc 30:06
Well, wise advice, lots of data. We threw a lot of data at you. I hope you appreciate and absorb some of that. Now, where can we get in touch with you, on LinkedIn, you're a LinkedIn person?
Kelly Mawhinney 30:15
Yes, absolutely. So, if you do Kelly Mahwinney, it shows up as Kelly Elizabeth Mahwinney, and I'm the top person you'll find for LinkedIn.
Michael LeBlanc 30:22
Perfect. Thanks so much for being on the panel. Let's hear it for Mercer, Kelly. Thanks.
Kelly Mawhinney 30:27
Thanks very much.
Kelly Mawhinney 30:28
Good job.
Michael LeBlanc 30:28
All right.
Michael LeBlanc 30:30
Thank you. Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Voice of Retail. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on your favorite podcast platform so new episodes will land automatically each week and be sure to check out my other retail industry media properties Remarkable Retail podcast with Steve Dennis, and the Global E-commerce Leaders podcast. Last but not least, if you're into barbecue, check out my YouTube barbecue show Last Request Barbecue with new episodes each and every week.
I'm your host Michael LeBlanc, consumer growth consultant, president of ME LeBlanc & Company Inc, Maven Media and keynote speaker. If you're looking for more content or want to chat, follow me on LinkedIn or visit my website meleblanc.co.
Safe travels everyone!
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, employees, organizations, work, employer, HR, retail, culture, ESG, folks, part, stores, Mercer, hybrid, support, table stakes, TA, flexibility, terms, job