The sun and fun of SPARK HR was well underway as Day 2 of our conference kicked off. From Disney to Chick-fil-A, the world’s premiere HR leaders took the stage to shine a light on what the HR world needs, and how to flourish in the field. The thing they all agree on? Empathy is the make-or-break model HR leaders need to embrace if they want to survive the coming changes to the workplace.
Here’s everything you missed from Day 2 of SPARK HR!
Engagement is Everything
The day started off strong with a conversation led by the leaders of workplace empathy, The Walt Disney Company. Adam Hickman, Ph.D., VP of Org & Employee Dev, Partners; The Walt Disney Company took SPARK attendees through what it means to be a true human leader in the age of AI, and how engagement is the critical point that can lead your business into the future, or let it fall to the past.
Engagement is everything, and in order to keep it, leaders need to ensure their followers have the four most important resources to back their business: trust, compassion, stability, and hope. Let any of these slip to low, and you risk burning bridges in an era of constant change. But if you can embrace the humanity and empathy in your leadership, and keep your employees’ vital needs afloat, you’ll find success.
Brace for Burnout
With everything in a constant state of flux, and the workplace in more consistent turmoil in recent years, the Burnout epidemic had become one of the greatest battles for modern-day HR leaders. Betsy Lopez-Riley, a senior transformation leader with over 20 years of experience, gave attendees the warning the needed, and the advice on how to fight such a growing issue.
The secret? Burnout is built into the system, requiring employees to take on every new task thrown at them, yet never able to deprioritize anything. The only option is to work harder, with no room to work smarter. But leaders can change this, by fundamentally changing their environment to let employees prioritize work and deprioritize what can wait. When a leader has faith in their team, burnout falls to the wayside and commitment and confidence takes its place.
Creating a Culture
When empathy is put into place, and truly embraced by leadership, it starts shaping the actual culture. None know this better than Nicholas Lawrence, Executive Director of People & Culture, local franchise for Chick-fil-A Indianapolis, who went in depth on how HR professionals can not only build the culture they want, but create a legacy that lasts well beyond their tenure.
What Leader Do You Want to Be?
Individual presentations are a wonderful showcase of knowledge, but few things are more informative than a true conversation. So, when Kitty Chaney Reed, former Chief Leadership, Culture and Inclusion Officer at IBM, Tyrese Manigault, Senior Manager of Employee Engagement of NASCAR, and Kimberly Bedeau, MBA, US Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at HelloFresh took the stage, SPARK attendees were given a real treat.
In discussing the future of DEI, AI’s effects on leadership, and how leaders view legacy, the trio broke down just how important it is for HR professionals to own up to what they can’t control, and approach what they can control with as much empathy as possible.
Guiding the AI Change
We know the world is changing; AI is shuffling every expectation we have at every moment, and it’s easy to feel like you’re getting lost in that wave of change. But what if you can guide that change, and lead your business towards the future rather than getting washed away?
Thanks to Chelsea MacMullan, Org Change Management lead for Meta, we have an idea on how the world’s biggest name in tech is transitioning and training their employees for the future, and how HR leaders everywhere can follow suit. With trust from your team, and an in-depth understanding of the technology, you can lead confidently into any future that lies ahead.