Cruising Altitude

Firstup

If you are a leader at a company with over 30,000 employees, managing employee experience is a little different. Problems are more complex, and implementing change is more difficult. In this podcast, we will talk to leaders who are designing the best digital employee experiences in the world - from the front lines to the back office. Life is different over 30,000. Welcome to Cruising Altitude. Hosted by Firstup Founder and CEO, Nicole Alvino.

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Top 10 Cruising Altitude Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Cruising Altitude episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Cruising Altitude for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Cruising Altitude episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

How to Create One Employee Superapp to Rule Them All with Richard McColl, VP of People Technology at Walmart

Cruising Altitude

07/05/23 • 28 min

This episode features an interview with Richard McColl, Vice President of People Technology at Walmart. Richard applies Human Centric Design, Design Thinking, AI, and Technology to the associate experience at Walmart. Prior to joining Walmart, Richard served IBM for over 18 years, having held several leadership roles including Vice President and Senior Partner, Talent Technology Practice Leader. And on this episode, Richard is discussing the ins and outs of Walmart’s Superapp, applying design thinking to the employee journey, and crafting one seamless digital experience that can do everything from inform employees about their credit score to support their mental wellbeing.

Quotes

*”Our associates shouldn't need to know all of the different business platforms that we use to support them. What they should do is enjoy an end-to-end experience that stays with them and is frictionless.”

*“As we think about superapps at Walmart, we don't just think about people experiences as a standalone container. We also think about people experiences and how they're embedded with all of the capabilities that that persona will need to be effective.”

*“We've had many different benefits programs available to associates. And we pride ourselves on that. But if you have those across a number of different systems, you're putting a friction point of discoverability, navigation and different experiences and logins. All of those things create the potential of lower adoption.”

*“When we haven't used design thinking from an end to end approach to implement a tool that's part of a process and not an experience, we've missed the mark.”

Time Stamps

[2:41] Flight Plan: Get to know Walmart and the intricacies of leading People Technology there

[5:54] First Class: What are Richard’s best practices for fostering a great digital employee experience at Walmart?

[8:38] What’s a superapp?

[13:45] How is Walmart incorporating educational experiences into the digital employee experience?

[17:25] Turbulence: What can we learn from the bumpy employee experiences?

[25:56] Smooth Landing: What advice would Richard give other employee experience leaders?

Links

Connect with Richard on LinkedIn

Learn more about Walmart

Thanks to our friends

This episode is brought to you by Firstup, the company that is redefining the digital employee experience to put people first and lift companies up by connecting every worker, everywhere with the information that helps them do their best work. Firstup has helped over 40% of the Fortune 100 companies like Amazon, AB InBev, Ford and Pfizer stay agile and keep transforming. Learn more at firstup.io

The Human Factor: Jami Schultz Unlocks the Power of People at Canon USA

Cruising Altitude

06/14/23 • 39 min

This episode features an interview with Jami Schultz, Senior Director of Employee Relations and Development at Canon USA. Canon is a leading provider of consumer, B2B, and industrial digital imaging solutions. In her role, Jami makes sure employees love their jobs, and she solves people problems every day. In this episode, she’ll share what tools, ideas, and programs set her, the company, and employees up for success.

Quotes

*“Employee Relations is really the employee's first go-to person for any issues, questions relating to their employment experience. Whether it's about their career, their performance, if they're having issues with their manager or a coworker. That all comes to their HR business partner first.”

*“One of our strongest assets in our culture is the people. So many people at Canon, if you ask them what's one of the things they love most about their job, it's the people. It's the relationships that we have with our colleagues, with our management team. And that's definitely what I have found, too. It is just such a collaborative, collegial environment.”

*“I've always said, ‘If you are gonna spend so much of your day to day in a job, you better like the people that you're spending all that time with.’”

*“Now we've really settled into what we call a hybrid work style for the majority of our employees, where we are all in the office together two days a week on the same two days, and then we're able to work remotely three days a week. So I love to say I think it's the perfect balance in terms of time together in the office to be collaborative, to have that experience of connecting with each other, but also having the flexibility to work from home.”

*“One thing that has been very important to us for a couple of years and became even more so coming out of the pandemic, was doing our employee engagement surveys... That's really important because that gives us direct feedback from the employee population as to things that they think are working, things that may not be working as well. It's listening to that feedback and actually making meaningful changes as a result of that feedback.”

*“Sometimes it's those cross-divisional recognitions that mean so much because it's wonderful to know that your manager or someone in your management chain is recognizing your work. But to hear that someone else in a completely different division is recognizing your contribution and thanking you for that work is very, very meaningful. So I think that was a big strategy for us, was finding a way to give employees on the spot recognition that they were looking for.”

*“A lot of times HR will help almost serve a mediator function. We will help the employee and the manager find a better way to communicate, make sure that the manager is properly communicating the expectations to the employee, and making sure the employee fully understands the expectations.”

*“The big lessons learned for the future are definitely communicating. Giving as much advance notice of important things as possible, and just being able to react and respond quickly to changing outside circumstances.”

*“Always listen. Listening is so, so, so important. If you really listen, first of all, it lets the person that is coming to you with an issue feel like they're being heard. And that's often what an employee needs, just as much as anything, is to be heard.”

Time Stamps

[00:00:00] Jami’s start in HR

[00:02:30] How HR can problem-solve

[00:04:56] Maintaining positive relationships with employees

[00:10:16] How Canon uses engagement surveys

[00:17:36] Celebrating employees for a positive company culture

[00:24:27] Navigating the hybrid workspace

[00:30:34] HR as a mediator

[00:37:47] Listening as the end-all, be-all

Links

Connect with Jami on LinkedIn

Check out Canon USA

Thanks to our friends

Boosting Employee Productivity With a Digital Toolkit with Tope Sadiku, former Global Head of Digital Employee Experience at the Kraft Heinz Company

Cruising Altitude

05/31/23 • 27 min

This episode features an interview with Tope Sadiku, former Global Head of Digital Employee Experience at the Kraft Heinz Company, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world with $25 billion in global sales. Tope has recently moved into her new role as the Strategic Planning Lead, Transformation, Agile and Digital Revolution at Kraft Heinz where her focus is to increase employee productivity and creativity through the use of technology. And on this episode, Tope is describing her work and research on how we move, achieve objectives, connect, and collaborate between physical and virtual spaces.

Quotes

*”Technology is like a part of the medical toolkit. I used to call technology my medicine. I had access to a number of different tools and solutions [to] address the symptoms and even the root cause.”

*”When it comes to transformation, there's a difference between disruption and destruction. There is some level of disruption and sometimes we can get very excited to the point of destruction. Knowing where that line is very, very important.”

Time Stamps

*[9:40] The Flight Plan: Get to know the Kraft Heinz Company

*[16:43] First Class: Best EX practices at the Kraft Heinz Company

*[23:44] Turbulence: EX lessons learned

*[25:13] How does Tope lead in stressful situations?

Links

Connect with Tope on LinkedIn

Learn more about the Kraft Heinz Company

Thanks to our friends

Transforming Your Business through High Performance Culture and Diversity with Marlon Sullivan, EVP and CHRO of Johnson Controls

Cruising Altitude

05/17/23 • 30 min

This episode features an interview with Marlon Sullivan, EVP and CHRO of Johnson Controls International. Johnson Controls is a world leader in smart buildings and creating safe, healthy, and sustainable spaces. Here, Marlon works in every part of human resources. He focuses on talent acquisition, retention, and leadership development while defining a high performance culture that includes diversity and inclusion.

In this episode, Marlon defines a high performance culture, and what HR elements businesses should focus on. He also emphasizes the importance of diversity and inclusion for true positive transformation.

Quotes

“What is critically important for how we define a high performance culture is leveraging that of diversity, equity, and inclusion. That includes all of those elements with a focus on three core components, talent, people, and culture.”

“Having not formally been in human resources before, it was exciting, a little bit challenging in the beginning. Because I was bringing more of a business perspective. But what I also found is that was part of what helped to differentiate the offering. That I could bring to the role that I was playing, but also how HR could play a differentiated role.”

“Transformation is not only a change in culture. It requires a change in the skill sets, the competencies, and the pace of business. And as we continue to drive this differentiated offering in the marketplace, it's allowing us to be a leader in the industry, and hopefully not only transform ourselves, but also transform the industry itself.”

“Now clearly we're not big tech, but we've been through a big technology transformation and that will continue. It's allowing us to welcome a different type of talent and team to the organization. And in particular, it allows us to make a difference. A part of what we talk about in terms of our employee value proposition is that of purpose. And so to be able to join a company where you can make a difference, not only for customers, but also for our communities, for the, for the climate, for the planet. And it inspires a lot of folks, and it's part of why I am here at Johnson Controls.”

“Here at Johnson Controls, it's not an exaggeration to say that we're saving the planet. And when you consider that 40% of the world's emissions come from buildings, then obviously smart building technologies are a differentiator. And it's been a big win for us because job seekers want to work for a company that provides meaningful work beyond just traditional competitive compensation and benefits.So when we talk about the power of purpose here at Johnson Controls it, it means a lot. And we go out of our way to make sure that we're able to measure it.”

“In order to be a highly effective HR leader that helps to really leverage human capital to drive outcomes, you have to understand the business, right? You have to understand the mission, the strategy, the operating model, the go to market channels, the value proposition. But you also have to understand the market within which we're competing.”

“There's nothing better than the taste of success. And being able to see that success and however it's measured, whether it's customer satisfaction or positive impact on the planet with CO2 carbon reduction, whether it's financial metrics, operational metrics, or just thinking about the excitement of our people and the fact that they love to work here. I mean, all of them are successes and we go out of our way to celebrate that.”

Time Stamps

*[00:16] Marlon’s current role

*[01:15] The war for talent

*[02:59] Johnson Controls’ transformation

*[06:21] Empowering meaningful work

*[08:32] Understanding HR and business

*[10:28] How to build an employee value proposition

*[17:57] Defining goals and success

*[21:32] Overcoming roadblocks

*[24:23] Combining HR and AI

*[26:43] What matters most to employees?

Links

Connect with Marlon on LinkedIn

Check out Johnson Controls

Thanks to our friends

How to Foster Belonging in a Hybrid Workspace with Alice Fournier, CIO of ISS Americas

Cruising Altitude

05/04/23 • 47 min

This episode features an interview with Alice Fournier, CIO of ISS Americas, a workplace experience and facility management company that improves business performance and enjoyment. In her role as CIO, Alice drives technology-led transformation. She’s an experienced leader, and she’s dedicated to empowering her teams to grow and thrive. And on this episode, Alice is sharing how to foster belonging, equity, and opportunity in the workplace.

Quotes

*”Great leadership in a hybrid world has those elements of understanding, ‘When do I need to nudge my team? When do I need them here?’ And there's tools that help you, right? Some software has tools that help you understand how people are connected or not. But there's also the human component. As a leader, you need to be really attuned to when people hit that point where you need to get them together. And that's part of solid hybrid leadership.”

*”In a company where you can be you, you can be yourself, you can feel that you belong... I mean, these things are profoundly important in the employee experience. We've all had times in our careers where we didn't feel that way, and that really impacts the way we perform, the way we engage with each other and the way we serve customers. And so that place of belonging is an important component for us.”

*”What does that look like in an office? To be able to engage, to have the real experience, to be with people and get to know them on a human level. We need that. We absolutely need that. No technology will ever compensate or be the same thing as this one-on-one human experience. There's just nothing like it.”

Time Stamps

*[2:45] The Flight Plan: Get to know ISS Americas

*[11:30] First Class: Best EX practices at ISS Americas

*[35:02] Turbulence: EX lessons learned

*[44:35] What advice does Alice have for other tech leaders?

Links

Connect with Alice on LinkedIn

Learn more about ISS Americas

Thanks to our friends

How to Market Your EX to Top Talent with Francesca Luthi, EVP and Chief Administrative Officer at Assurant

Cruising Altitude

04/17/23 • 38 min

This episode features an interview with Francesca Luthi, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer at Assurant, a global business services company that supports, protects, and connects major consumer purchases. It’s a Fortune 500 company that spans 21 countries, and partners with leading brands to create an enhanced customer experience. At Assurant, Francesca oversees business functions to help execute the company’s overall strategy. This includes global human resources, brand and marketing, communications, corporate social responsibility, and more. She focuses on building up the company’s global brand and reputation among customers, employees and shareholders. And in this episode, she’ll share how to effectively manage employee feedback, deliver a consumer-grade digital employee experience, and market your EX to top talent.

Quotes

*”Our employees make a decision to come to work at Assurant. It's a lot about what they do and the role that they're in, but also the connection to the company and vision, mission and values. So it requires us to not just assume a cookie cutter approach. But to be willing to change and adapt to our growing and diverse workforce.”

*”I think about our employees as our single most important customer. Because they are the key to delivering for our customers each and every day. I think about the basic marketing principles around attracting a customer and sharing that value proposition. And really explaining what does the company do, what does it stand for?”

*”Very similar to the principles that apply to customer experience, you want human-centered design. And in this case, it's employee-centered. It starts with the employee and what do they need to achieve? And really thinking about that journey. How can we eliminate friction and continue to make it a generally positive, ideally delightful experience along the way?”

*”Empathetic leadership is critical. Transparency and humility in terms of what we're all feeling, what we know, what we don't know. I think that's one of the golden rules in terms of leadership. Because the reality is for as much as we may be in leadership positions, it doesn't mean that we are somehow all-knowing. We are taking feedback and input and trying to make the best decisions we can.”

Time Stamps

*[5:04] The Flight Plan: Get to know Assurant

*[6:45] First Class: Best EX practices at Assurant

*[30:11] Turbulence: EX lessons learned

*[34:50] How does Francesca lead in stressful situations?

Links

Connect with Francesca on Linkedin

Learn more about Assurant

Thanks to our friends

How to Create a Magnetic Employee Value Proposition with Michael Trout, VP and CHRO at State Farm

Cruising Altitude

03/15/23 • 36 min

This episode features an interview with Michael Trout, VP and CHRO at State Farm, leaders in mutual insurance and the largest property, casualty, and auto insurance provider in the U.S., with over 60,000 employees. Michael has been with State Farm for more than 30 years, having served in different leadership positions including VP of Operations in Human Resources. And on this episode, Michael is discussing how to improve employee value proposition, why you should accept a lateral position change, and using AI to customize the digital employee experience.

Quotes

*”My director wanted somebody who understood the business but could also communicate with the employees, create followership, connect with employees and build relationships. That's the skill that's probably helped me throughout my whole career is you have to be able to speak business. If you can't speak business, you lose credibility in the boardroom.”

*”I wouldn't give up the lateral moves for anything, because they gave me the foundation across multiple areas, but gave me the flexibility, the agility, and the foundation so that when I did move up, I didn't have to learn as much because I had that foundation across multiple channels.”

*”It's always about promotion, promotion, promotion. My argument is, ‘Learn as much as you can so that when you're promoted, you have a leg up and you have an advantage over the people who don't have all of those experiences across the organization.’”

*”Once someone feels like they belong in the organization, that's when the magic starts happening. They then understand the mission and the purpose. The job becomes a lot more fun because they feel like they fit there. They have great relationships.They have a mission that they can get behind. That's when they start their career and can build out a career in the organization.”

Time Stamps

*[8:01] The Flight Plan: Get to know State Farm

*[10:49] First Class: Best EX practices at State Farm

*[30:17] Turbulence: EX lessons learned

*[33:33] Smooth Landing: Michael’s advice for other EX leaders

Links

Connect with Michael on LinkedIn

Check out State Farm

Thanks to our friends

How to Improve your Digital EX Through Proactive Data and Analytics with Bill Taylor, Managing Director of MSCI

Cruising Altitude

02/23/23 • 32 min

This episode features an interview with Bill Taylor, Managing Director at MSCI, a global leader in investment services and solutions. Bill has over 20 years of experience dedicated to managing the digital infrastructure at companies like JPMorgan Chase. He brings with him an “engineering mindset” of solving problems instead of just fixing them. And on this episode, Bill is discussing the benefits of shifting employee communications to video, why it’s important to offer accessibility options by default, and how MSCI leverages data to be proactive instead of reactive.

Quotes

*”We've changed the mindset of the team to be proactive instead of reactive. When we think about traditional workplace technology or IT types of support, it's often responding to problems that people are having, fixing it and moving on to the next problem. My team has evolved and invested in tools to be proactive. We use the tools to help us get in front of certain issues and at a minimum inform people about what those might be. But ideally actually fix them before they impact a large portion of our organization.”

*”We built a customer success team that is interacting more with our employees so we can understand better about what their needs are and get ahead of them. It has created an environment where our employees feel comfortable, they know who to go to in order to help them get what they need.

*”We have all these potential [accessibility] solutions that we can offer to people to help them. Just because I'm not hearing about them or physically seeing someone who may have a specific disability doesn't mean that they don't need them. So that's when it struck me. I needed to get the information out there, let people know that these solutions or features or functions within applications exist.”

Time Stamps

*[3:07] The Flight Plan: Get to know MSCI

*[6:02] First Class: Best EX practices at MSCI

*[6:31] How can you be proactive to predict and prevent issues with the digital employee experience?

*[27:05] Turbulence: EX lessons learned

*[30:11] How does Bill lead in stressful situations?

Links

Connect with Bill on LinkedIn

Learn more about MSCI

Thanks to our friends

Changing Employees’ Lives for the Better with Christopher Shryock, SVP and Chief People Officer at Sam’s Club

Cruising Altitude

12/07/22 • 35 min

This episode features an interview with Christopher Shryock, SVP and Chief People Officer at Sam’s Club, a chain of membership-only retail warehouses. They have 600 clubs nationwide and another 200 internationally. Christopher heads all things HR-related for the over 100,000 Sam’s Club Employees. Before Sam’s Club, he spent about 14 years at PepsiCo serving in global HR leadership roles. And on this episode, Christopher talks about why you should rethink hiring based on interviews, how to simplify employee processes, and the real reason why it pays to have a diverse workforce.

Quotes

*”Having one system is not sufficient to create a great employee experience, but it is a necessity. Because if you don't even know where your associates are, if you can't even have and track basic detail and information about them, how are you ever going to provide them with something that's going to be personalized and relevant?”

*”I want to make sure that my team is interacting with the business on areas that matter. And that's about identifying and developing talent, building organizational capability, and holistically solving associate problems. So it's not about automating away communication between HR and the business. But we want to make that much simpler, more relevant, and that we are communicating on things that really matter.”

*”We're trying to understand who's likely to stay with us and who's likely to perform better. So understanding and assessing simple, basic cognitive ability, what preferences and experiences people have, and a little bit of situational judgment... And part of why we do that is because we hire people that perform better and stay longer. But the other reason we really do that is trying to remove as much bias from the system as early as we possibly can.”

*”When you have a diverse associate population that feels included, they collaborate more, they come up with better ideas, and they have more ownership, not only for their work, but for the outcomes of the company.”

Time Stamps

*[4:54] The Flight Plan: Get to know Sam’s Club

*[7:58] First Class: Best EX practices at Sam’s Club

*[24:19] Turbulence: EX lessons learned

*[33:17] The keys to a first class employee experience

Links

Connect with Christopher on LinkedIn

Learn more about Sam’s Club

Check out Live Better U

Thanks to our friends

Welcome to Season 3 of Cruising Altitude!

Cruising Altitude

02/28/24 • 1 min

Welcome to Season 3 of Cruising Altitude, the podcast to help you deliver exceptional employee experiences at scale. This season, we’re introducing our new host, Nicole Alvino, founder and CEO of Firstup.

The mission of our podcast is to help you deliver irresistible employee experiences so you are empowered to retain and grow your top people, deliver a high performance organizational culture, and ultimately move your business forward.

This is hard at any size organization, but for those organizations with 30,000 employees or above, this brings additional challenges and opportunities to really elevate that employee experience.

We have an incredible lineup of guests who have managed employee experience with organizations over 30,000 people. They will share their best practices on how to engage from the back office to the frontline, how to leverage generative AI for good, and how to continue to use data to deliver on personalized experiences at scale.

Let's get ready to take off for Season 3 of Cruising Altitude brought to you by Firstup.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Cruising Altitude have?

Cruising Altitude currently has 49 episodes available.

What topics does Cruising Altitude cover?

The podcast is about Management, Enterprise, Productivity, Podcasts, Human Resources and Business.

What is the most popular episode on Cruising Altitude?

The episode title 'Introducing Our New Host, Nicole Alvino!' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Cruising Altitude?

The average episode length on Cruising Altitude is 32 minutes.

How often are episodes of Cruising Altitude released?

Episodes of Cruising Altitude are typically released every 14 days, 2 hours.

When was the first episode of Cruising Altitude?

The first episode of Cruising Altitude was released on May 26, 2021.

Show more FAQ

Cruising Altitude

Firstup

Top 10 Cruising Altitude Episodes

FAQ

How many episodes does Cruising Altitude have?

What topics does Cruising Altitude cover?

What is the most popular episode on Cruising Altitude?

What is the average episode length on Cruising Altitude?

How often are episodes of Cruising Altitude released?

When was the first episode of Cruising Altitude?

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