As we refined our culture and our offerings to align with our new employee value proposition, we also started measuring in a much more thoughtful and thorough way. What was striking to me is how well a lot of our leaders know the people that they come in contact with regularly but how great the talent was down in the organization that we didnt know very well. Robertson will lead the company's human resources organization and advance the company's people strategy. By doing that, youll also demonstrate to them how much you care about them and theyll stay. Search for specific advisors, products, services, articles, etc. We set benchmarks and goals for engagement, organizational health, transformation, diversity, and inclusion, and more and we adjusted our bonus structures to reflect these new targets. Don Robertson EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual 3w Extremely gratifying . Maybe it might be good to pick their brains for some ideas as well. You know how to drive the car that youre driving. Northwestern Mutual sells two types of term life policies: Annual renewable term life and level term life. Tracy was that way. Anything else was open for experimentation and enhancement and we went all in. Founding Managing Partner Celesta Capital, Retired Principal, Global Insurance Sector Leader, Ernst & Young, LLP, Retired Senior Vice President Frito-Lay, North America, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, General Mills, Chief Executive Officer Groupware Technologies. If you allow yourself as a company to be vulnerable, honest, open and transparent with your employees, they will be much more willing to work with you and wait for you. ei(R5@gD)M4jv#UWBDx9{yBYjV'l jM">S]Uf1]5/U6My2}Jbi{\T0jnI1.z6qrHw67,.P\e2;Hu)LE*nZ FJ;fGS8bY;[34o}7nfBOsu;fF0>}j&gSqJ[*R^ When I went in to present to him, he would be like, What slide do you care about? I would be like, Slide four. He said, Lets go to that. I learned from there on, slide 4 became slide 1. [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] Thats one thing. If you start to look at the percentages of people when they leave a company, most of your attrition comes from people that are down in the organization. 10 0 obj How did we do it? It has got to be in the right location. Therefore, its things like enabling your employees to have a career and achieve their lifetime dreams. Many of us have kids that think they know. It gave me more credibility with them in terms of the ability to build that trusting relationship so I could have more of an impact as an HR leader. For me, I remember the quote in the book and I believe it was you that was, A-players want to work for A-players. The number one thing I would leave you with is diversity and inclusion cannot be a hobby and a separate thing. Build those key relationships early.. The reason for that question is youve been great at giving back and helping people along. . Email . Don Robertson EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual Published Jan 26, 2022 + Follow During this "Great Reshuffling" era marked by workforce shortages across industries, it's never. m+LbPcByzbZ8&@eZre|(wa"A+mc1aDM~_Y#]l$0h+4qm{=9,s}sa^o{{sx]%6\pltk[;:ca$-`\k=O>+Ists:R.xesO{N'Z^5 P`lWwliLi8 7|Oj"4O 0`x >YLAep)^/Y=6P c j.qA\90jV!!`X fx?"$XN Phone . I wanted to soften the blow of that failure in my answer. Youve done all the things to get ready to make a first impression. >> They proceeded me but it was one of the greatest turns. /Type /Action Alongside all the exceptional strengths that it brought to the table, there was one clear opportunity for change. During this Great Reshuffling era marked by workforce shortages across industries, its never been more important for leaders to deliver on their companys employee value proposition. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google, Inc. The faster you get to know them, the faster you can help them accelerate their career and give them exposure. >> Northwestern Mutual ranks 104 on the 2018 FORTUNE 500 and is recognized by FORTUNE as one of the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2018. /CreationDate (D:20230418075228-04'00') With $265.0 billionin assets, $28.1 billionin revenues, and $1.8 trillionworth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to 4.5 million people who rely on us for life, disabilityincomeand long-term care insurance, annuities, brokerage and advisory services, trust services, and discretionary portfolio management solutions. I dont think its that unique. /F7 7 0 R Thats the context of the question. We changed the way we interview. /Type /Catalog The problem is, when youre young, youre trying to prove yourself and do it all yourself. Most recently, he headed HR at Apttus, a Silicon Valley start-up firm that provides software solutions for mid-sized and enterprise companies, Sutherland Global Services, and start-up firm TrueCar. . << Northwestern Mutual is part of the Insurance industry, and located in Wisconsin, United States. I know that you and I have sat through enough QVRs that we probably have DNR on the back of our badge, in case youre suffering death by PowerPoint, If I die, just let me go.. The company is benefiting but the individual is also benefiting. Its interesting that you say that youre a business person doing HR because I dont remember whether it was Tracy Keogh or Meg Whitman. /F6 6 0 R >> /CA 1.0 The third thing is to try to give your employee base as much context as you possibly can. I answered the questions, gave my pint of blood and got off the stage right. For example, our company here now, weve got significant investments were making in technology, particularly significant investments were making in business initiatives to drive a better client and advisor experience. You have some people reading and I know they do want to read. Here at Northwestern Mutual, we built and now consistently maintain 80%+ employee engagement levels across all our business units, across genders, across race, across tenure and more. Im not going to give you the background on this amazing leader that he is the CHRO. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com She came from the business and then went into HR. When you now are that business person who knows HR and youre working with the business, especially coming from sales, talent is everything. >> He works with enterprise partners to maintain a healthy and strong field system delivering comprehensive plans that combine life insurance and investment solutions in support of clients' financial goals. Awards Conference & Dinner in NYC - one of the year's premier What happened is I got in it and I realized my business background, my experience and what I had done was advantageous. Don Robertson. I try to get to know the person at an authentic level. >> They were like, Do you know what we do? I said, Yes, I used to do what you did. You think youve got it all figured out. Senior Business Development Manager. I can teach you a lot of things but I cant teach you intelligence. There are a lot of companies that dont do that, that talent is an afterthought. We changed everything except for our core. What are the strategies? /Filter /FlateDecode Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Get to know your talent down in the organization because theres an incredible amount of talent down there. Aditi Javeri Gokhale holds executive accountabilities for the company's strategy to drive growth, competitiveness, and relevance. 4 Northwestern Mutual continues to have the highest financial strength ratings awarded to any U.S. life insurer by all four of the major rating agencies: A.M. Best Company, A++ (highest), May 2021; Fitch Ratings, AAA (highest), December 2021; Moody's Investors Service, Aaa (highest), December 2021; S . /Border [0 0 0] Unless theyre right out of college, theyre lying because I dont know anyone that has gone through life and never had a failure. 9 0 obj I interviewed you. /A << Tracy taught me a lot about interacting with boards at the board level and those levels. << MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief human resources officer. Unbelievable. If you have never carried a bag as a sales leader and had a quota and held those kinds of things, youre not going to talk to those salespeople the way that I could because I understood the language, challenges and what they were going through. When we started to put in place a lot of these mechanisms around talent management, talent development and career path, what wonderful talent we had that was down in the organization that we probably didnt know as well as we should have known. Believe it or not, I have lost every bit of sanity and Mike Cirelli talked me into a book too, which well probably be talking to you about your sin. I tell people Im getting better every year. Don Robertson is an Executive Vice President and the Chief Human Resources Officer of Northwestern Mutual a $30 billion in revenue, Fortune 90 financial services company; the largest U.S. provider of individual life insurance; and manager of more than $290.3 billion in policyholder assets. 7) "Don is a seasoned business leader who has delivered strong results at . In this episode, George Randle sits down for an insightful interview with EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual, Don Robertson. /Type /ExtGState Thats the one advantage of not being with a crazy tech company. One of the reasons that I have the attitude about is because I was fortunate enough to work with one of the great talent multipliers of all time in business, Jack Welch in GE. What is your best advice to the leaders and managers that are coming up to retain and develop those people? These were some capable people. I didnt get to work with some of those leaders that you mentioned. stream Don Robertson, welcome to the show. As a matter of fact, we spent time figuring out, What is Don not going to be mad about that we leave out because there was such good material in there?. Lets turn it into that. You can start to build internal processes so you can develop. Its no coincidence that the best talent generally works for the best companies and best leaders. Thanks, George. Any company that has the reputation and ability to be a talent engine is going to do a great job of recruiting and developing talent. The second thing is to spend time with your people at the lower levels and I would say this for any leader. Did you have to start to change mindsets about how they looked at great people? I like to say that Al Gore did not discover the internet but SRI did. MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief human resources officer. Retired Senior Vice President Chief Information and Digital Officer, Eli Lilly and Company. /Rect [34.5000000 465 129 475.500000 ] The one thing I would tell myself at 22 is, Dont try to do it all by yourself. endobj E+J%ASc5]5&r|&y; Fortunately, Ive had opportunities to resurrect. That was a big support. I was like, I could do that. I got to slide two and I got pummeled. /ca 1.0 I feel like this is debt that I have to pay to people. Did anybody come to mind who invested in you and your career and giving you good advice? /Rect [34.5000000 120 553.500000 142.500000 ] /SA true Phone Email. I was too aggressive on that decision when I didnt need to make it for about another two weeks. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance is a financial services company that provides its clients various insurance options and investment opportunities. MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 / PRNewswire / -- Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief human resources officer. If they do that, it means the person is performing. /S /URI endobj I started with them in the 80s. I got an Accounting and Finance degree. How do you dig into finding that resilience and discussing failure with people you consider to work there? Theres nothing that youre going to be trying to take on from a challenge at a business level that is going to go from A to Z in a straight line. Theyve been in many times resigned to compliance or overhead. Executive VP & Chief Human Resources Officer . Who do you count as people other than Jack Welch? It brought me crossing paths with you and Tracy Keogh. Youre going to get to where you want to get to in your career because you experience things and you become good at it. I got my CPA with Deloitte way back. Im going to give her that feedback. When she is making this presentation to me, I know its a good presentation for her level but if she wants to be at my level, she is going to get questions asked this way or that way. /A << Robertson is probably best known for his trio of novels featuring Morris Bird III: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, The Sum and Total of Now, and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened.A movie adaptation of The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened aired on NBC in 1977, starring . /Font << Now that companies are allowing much more flexibility and remote capabilities, youre going to have a challenge that anyone anywhere in the world can recruit your talent. People arent going to generally tell you, I got fired for X.. Im looking for someone who has a good attitude because nobody wants to work with people that are negative, especially in this day and age. How do I get there faster, better and easier? What would you tell yourself? Business leaders, John Hinshaw, Mike Nefkens, Meg and Mark Hurd. When I made that transition to HR, I had come out of being a consultant in the defense space in KPMG Consulting. Were already down the path. Don Robertson is now chief human resources officer. Retired Chief Executive Officer MicroTek, Inc. Chairman, President and CEO The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. Cision Distribution 888-776-0942 The best piece of advice I ever got was when you go to present to a CEO or a board, put the most important stuff on the first slide because you may not get off of that slide. I spent a number of years in what I would call the finance organizations, GE Capital is the name that most people would recognize, and then Stanford Research Institute, which was one of the great research institutes on tech. Best Talent: Diversity and inclusion cannot be a hobby. Your employees to have a career and achieve their lifetime dreams < Northwestern Mutual sells two types of life! 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