[Transcript]
John Duisberg (00:09):
Today I'm super honored and super grateful to have a wonderful guest, a wonderful leader, Sonya Tolson, the Chief People Officer at McLarens. And Sonya, I definitely want you to share some more background, but I believe you joined McLarens in 2022 and have over 20 years of experience in overall HR strategy, leadership and culture enhancement. But welcome, Sonya, so thankful for you joining us today.
Sonya Tolson (00:38):
Thank you, John. I'm so excited to be with you and everyone, and I'm so happy for you. Congratulations on your new little one.
John Duisberg (00:44):
Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. And before we dive into the interview, for anyone who's new to the Cooleaf podcast, I just wanted to give you a little bit of background. We started this about two years ago, and the idea is that there's so many good things that are happening that leaders are doing inside of their organizations to really elevate culture and employee experience to attract and retain the best people. And we just want to share those experiences. We want to share what's working, maybe what hasn't worked right. And so we will invite leaders onto our show just to speak about their lessons learned, the strategies that they're deploying, and any advice and best practices that we all from a community can learn from to be better leaders inside of our organization. So that's the background, that's our intention today. And with that, I'll jump right in, Sonya. So wanted to start us off with just giving our audience kind of just a little bit more context about your role from a leadership perspective at McLarens, but also as an organization overall. I know it's around 2,300, I think, over 40 countries around the world. So tell us a little bit of context, that background for our audience to kick us off.
Sonya Tolson (02:03):
Yeah, happy to do so. Thank you, John. So I do have the distinct pleasure and privilege and honor of serving as our global Chief People Officer here at McLarens. I would sum up my primary responsibility in that role in just this brief sort of statement that I'm responsible for ensuring alignment between our human capital strategy and our business objectives. In its simplest terms, that's my role. Tell you a little bit about McLarens. We were founded in Scotland back in 1932, and we're a leading independent global insurance services provider. So what does that mean? We really focus on complex commercial and specialty markets. Think aviation is one of our specialty markets. Natural resources is another. Our core services include loss, adjusting, risk management, even forensic and technical, non-ad adjusting and consulting work. And we also do some pre risk surveying services. We've got, as you said, John, nearly 2,400 employees scattered across 230 or so offices. And we're in about 45 countries all over the globe now. We hit on all the major regions, North America, LATAM Caribbean, EMEA. So that's kind of our footprint. And yeah, that's a little bit about McLarens.
John Duisberg (03:49):
Wonderful, wonderful. I feel like maybe it feels a little bit about how I feel at home right now. I have my hands full with these two little ones, but it sounds like you have your hands full with such a huge global footprint. But I love Sonya, how you opened it up with just simplifying it. You're aligning your people talent strategy with business impact. So I just love the simplicity of how you just nailed that right from the beginning. But with this over almost 2,400 people around the globe. Tell us a little bit just to start, how do you approach employee engagement culture? What does that look like today in this global environment for you at McLarens?
Sonya Tolson (04:38):
Yeah, it's a really good question. I think one thing that's important to say is we really aspire to live by a set of shared values. Those values guide our actions. They shape our culture. Really, our values are accountability, excellence, respect, knowledge, teamwork and thought leadership. And so we really strive to live by those values. But importantly, and I started out introducing myself as global chief people officer. When I started with McLarens, I was actually offered the role of Global Chief Human Resource Officer. And in conversations with my CEO, he said, we are an organization that's all about our people. Our people are everything. It's the foundation of who we are and what we do. So what do you think about changing your title to Chief People Officer? And so we did that, but it really highlights the importance of people in our business. They are truly the driving force behind everything that we do.
(05:48):
And without them, we have no business. So a strong culture is critical. And I think there are a couple of keys to having and maintaining a strong culture. I think recognizing the value of your people is absolutely number one. I think the second thing I would say is keeping your finger on the pulse of the organization, measuring engagement, checking in on the employee experience. How is that going? How do people feel about working for your organization? When I joined a couple of years ago, one of the first questions I asked was, have we ever done an engagement survey? And in fact, I learned we did one back in 2019, and I looked at the results and they were quite favorable. So we had a 76% overall engagement survey result, and we benchmarked ourselves against other professional services firms. We were seven percentage points ahead of the benchmark.
(06:52):
And I thought, well, that's a great start. But I also realized that since 2019 we had grown considerably both in terms of our footprint globally and the number of people that we have. And we also grew quite a bit by acquisition. And so there's a lot that goes along with that as you're that, John, you've recently been involved in that. And so a lot goes along with that. And I wanted to recalibrate and see how we were doing with our engagement. So in 2023 last year, we did our My Voice employee engagement survey. And the results were even better than the 2019 despite the amount of growth and rapid growth that we had experienced. So we had an 80% overall engagement score that was five percentage points above the benchmark. And the third party that we engaged to do the survey for us said, oh, you guys will be really lucky if you can get 65% participation rate.
(07:55):
And we had a 77% participation rate. So I think that speaks to the strength of our culture and that people really do want to have a voice and believe that their voice matters. So that's the second thing I think that contributes to a strong culture. I would say the third thing for us is we've got this really unique entrepreneurial spirit and it's underpinned by a humility, a servant leadership. I do a lot of interviews in my role, and when I'm speaking to people, I often tell candidates, I'll often tell them, this is my favorite job that I've ever had. And it's because of the culture, it's because of the people I get to work with. I've worked with some really smart people over the years with degrees from top schools and across the nation, but having that element of humility and servant leadership is huge.
(08:52):
And it goes to thought leadership, one of our values, I think inspiring that entrepreneurial spirit and then that permeates down through our organization, our managers at every level on the engagement survey, our management effectiveness rating was 80%. And I know I'm throwing some stats out there, but these are exciting things to me. And it really speaks, I think, to how healthy our culture is and how engaged our employees are. We know that the number one reason people leave companies is because of their manager. So to have a manager effectiveness rating, that's that high feels really, really good. But those are the things I would attribute our strong culture to.
John Duisberg (09:38):
I appreciate that, Sonya. I love, near and dear to my heart, one of the things you said, the entrepreneurial spirit for sure. There's a lot we can dive into. And I want to do that into our next topic as well, which really is, it's an interesting question slash theme slash thing that I'm hearing from a lot of leaders right now, which is this concept of developing an employer brand. And on the surface you could say, well, yeah, that's what our marketing team does. But actually the more from an HR leadership perspective, the more leaders I'm speaking to, they're saying, no, wait a minute. What about your internal employer brand? And there's kind of this coming together around strong internal employer brand equals strong employee engagement. And so with the things that you shared about the McLarens culture, I wanted to learn from you, and you could share with our audience a little bit today.
(10:52):
One, how did you, the McLarens team decide to take on this project, if you will, of rebranding or really just kind of putting a new focus on your employer brand? Tell us a little bit about what that experience has been. What's your role as the Chief People Officer, been any kind of lessons learned so far? Just wanted to kind of tee up this. This is what I'm hearing from a lot of other leaders and it's a little bit different. It's okay. Yeah. Employee and surveys and engagement, but employer brand really. So talk to us a little bit about how this got started, what this looks like for you, your role, and just give us this context around employer branding in terms of how it relates to employee engagement.
Sonya Tolson (11:40):
Sure. Happy to do so. Another really great question. So we were in a leadership team meeting, John, and we were discussing how we could enhance our recruitment efforts. And one of our leaders said, I think we have to first know what we're trying to attract people to and what then keeps them here? And that was the start of it. And immediately I thought employer value proposition, we've got to start there. What is our brand? Who are we as an employer? We all know that candidates these days are really savvy. They're looking for value that the employer can bring to them. Everyone knows there's a war on talent, and we in our business exist in a very competitive, highly saturated market. So being able to differentiate ourselves from our competitors in the same way that you want to do that as a part of your broader corporate brand, we wanted to be able to differentiate ourselves in the market from our competitors, from an employer standpoint. So we're not only trying to attract and find the top talent, but we know they're shopping us.
(13:06):
We also realize that we've got this largely remote hybrid workforce, and therefore it's become increasingly important and more important than ever. I think really to understand what motivates our colleagues. So we knew that if we could crack the code on the value that we offer as an employer, then we could not only attract that top talent, but probably realize, not probably, but assuredly realize better outcomes, better outcomes in terms of employee engagement and retention, yes, but also employee productivity and revenue, things that are true business drivers. And so that's why I felt like an employer value proposition was really important for us to understand and get our heads around. My role in this process, I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by a team of really, really strong individuals who are great at what they do. And my director of HR for our EMEA region has really run with this particular project, but I've been involved every step of the way.
(14:14):
And it's again, back to aligning that human capital strategy with corporate objectives. So I just wanted to make sure that every step of the way we were being true to who we are and our vision and mission as an organization, how we went about this. We needed to first understand what it was about McLarens that made us special. What's our secret sauce? We did that by engaging a third party first, and we partnered with them to speak to our leaders and our employees across the business at every region, every business unit, all were represented. And they held these focus groups, and what we heard was a real consistency and a resounding kind of collective voice around three main themes. We've come to call them pillars, and each one begins with a P. So our three pillars are around purpose, progress, and place. What does that mean?
(15:23):
Purpose is about the work that we do. The work we do really positively impacts people and communities all across the globe. It's about making a difference when it matters most progress is all about career development and growth opportunities, developing your expertise and delivering excellence. Again, one of our values. And then the third pillar is on place. And that speaks to being in a thriving culture, a culture of empowerment, a culture of support and belonging. One of my favorite quotes that I remember reading, I wasn't involved in the focus groups. I think there's real value in having a third party do that, but one of my favorite quotes that came out of one of those focus groups on the topic of place, thriving in a culture of empowerment was something to the effect of, what was it? It's a fun, it's a fun to work somewhere where you can have a big impact.
(16:27):
And the openness to change here is fantastic. And man, that really was resounding and resonated with me personally. So we decided with those three themes, that while there will be points in time where we are leaning on each of them both internally and externally, our primary focus for external candidates was going to be on progress. We wanted to speak to that career development and growth opportunity the most for our internal associates. We're focusing on purpose and place. We want them to know at the end of it all, it's all here. And that became kind of our payoff line, if you will. We were calling it a tagline at first, but it's really become our payoff line. We want candidates to know. The payoff is that you can find everything you need here to grow and develop your career. You can find a place where the work you do is meaningful and makes a difference in the lives of people, and that your voice is heard, that your thought leadership matters, and you can have a sense of belonging. So we think if we get this right, we will have that enhanced recruitment, higher retention and engagement will follow.
John Duisberg (17:51):
I love it. I love it. Sonya, really interesting too. You said, just to go back, it started with recruiting, and I think in my mind, we're wanting to attract customers all day. So it's like we got to be upfront the why behind why you want to work with us as an organization. Well, same thing, right? Why does a candidate want to come and invest their future and time and energy and everything, their family with McLarens as an organization? So I love that how that came together sounded like through a third party series of guided, facilitated focus groups to really at different levels of the organization, to really surface up themes, what really, really matters. And so then you landed on these pillars, the three Ps, purpose, place, and progress. And so boom, right there, you got your branding.
(19:02):
I'm thinking about the Google Slides or PowerPoint deck right there, and then focusing it for external candidates in terms of that progress message. But then the purpose and the place message for internal, that was super helpful to just to kind of hear how it started to come together. My next question, which perhaps is some of what the audience is thinking, which is that sounds great. Well, how do you bring that to life? How do you communicate an EVP across the globe, right? Over 2300 people. So talk to us a little bit about, okay, you did the work, you got the foundation set. Now how do you activate the EVP? What are some lessons learned when it comes to actually activating, deploying that?
Sonya Tolson (19:52):
Yeah, in fairness, John, I have to tell you, we are just on the cusp and just getting started with the deployment. So we just completed our employer value prop playbook and toolkit that we'll use for guiding how we roll it out. So we're just starting to dip our toe in the water, but it is going to be, I think, a huge undertaking. And you point out rightly that in a global organization, we've got to be ever mindful of the different cultures and not just cultures. Again, it's not just about geography, but also what about the businesses that we're acquiring? How do these themes resonate with them? How do we mesh those cultures and be respectful of the differences in the various cultures? So we're thinking about those things, trying to be intentional about how we message our brand, our employer brand across the different cultures.
(20:56):
Some of the strategies that we have undertaken already include a revamp of our company vision and mission statements, and these are kind of foundational to the EVP work that we did. A clear message that came out of our My Voice survey was that not everyone felt connected to our vision. They couldn't quite figure out, well, how does my job connect to that grand vision that we have as an organization? So our hope and endeavor over the coming year is to really help everyone make that connection regardless of the role that they play within the organization.
(21:39):
We're trying to do this through multiple channels and with the help of a fantastic marketing department that we have. It's town hall meetings, it's video recordings, it's having our CEO speak and other key leaders speak and record videos of them, including and incorporating our employer brand messaging in those videos, formal meetings, written communications, social media, our webpage, our careers page, and even in informal communications because we want the language of our value proposition to become part of our regular vernacular. Not some gimmick, but something that we're constantly talking about. We've also incorporated our values into our recruitment and performance management processes, and we revamped our new hire onboarding process. So these themes are just reiterated across multiple media. And then last but not least, and importantly, I think we have a rewards and recognition program, but it really highlights the elite of the elite across our organization. However, one of the key things that we're looking at in selecting those individuals is how well do they live out our corporate values? We will soon be, we have actually just solidified a partnership with Cooleaf, which I'm very excited about. And so we're going to be looking to incorporate our branding message in that as well, as well as our values.
John Duisberg (23:20):
Oh, that's wonderful, Sonya. And I thought it was interesting that you said that you and the marketing team, your team, have developed a playbook. And so this is a resource that it sounds like you're going to be able to pull from for town hall meetings, for internal communications, for social media posts, and it's that everyday messaging that essentially reinforces back to the pillars to just remind folks, this is the why behind why we have this and bring it to life. So I really like that idea of a playbook that we're all working, the whole executive team, all managers. We have a playbook that is guiding us. So I don't know, I'm always picking out little nuggets that I hear, but I love that. So this is super helpful. I know there's probably a lot of questions and we wanted to make sure we're giving time for our audience to just direct access to you to be able to get feedback from you in terms of some of the lessons learned. But before we jump into our q and a, we always like to wrap things up with a key kind of takeaway, something that you can leave our audience with as an actionable next step or a lesson learned that you found it's really meaningful. So what comes to mind for you as we wrap up our interview today here, son?
Sonya Tolson (24:52):
Yeah, I would say, John, one of the biggest things that I think will be most impactful in deploying our EVP is engaging our employees in the branding process. So we engage them from the very beginning when we held those focus groups, but even in the artwork that we have, the collateral that we'll use to post on our careers page and on job postings and things of that nature, we used actual employees in those photos and images of various parts of our business and no business unit was left out. So there's representation across the entirety of the business in everything that we did. So I think that's a big one. Involve your employees in your process. And then I would just say focus on authenticity and alignment, aligning to who you are as a business and where it is that you want to go, and make sure that what you are creating from a branding perspective is truly authentic and resonates with people across your business. I think the last thing I would just say is it's probably going to be an ongoing journey. We do not have it all figured out yet, and we will continue to learn as we go, and it'll probably be iterative to some degree. But yeah, those are the things I would say.
John Duisberg (26:27):
This is wonderful. Sonya. Thank you so much for just being willing to share your lessons learned, and I love how you ended that with getting employees involved and having that authentic voice to reflect everything from artwork to graphics to make sure that representation is there. So love that. Thank you.