Top transformation tips from leaders at Mercer, Charles Schwab, and more

Now that change is the only constant, it’s safe to say that transformation is the only pathway to long-term success. With 45% of CEOs fearing that their organizations won’t be viable in a decade if they stay on their current paths, every leader is looking to enact high-impact changes to future-proof their businesses.

But while many executives are talking about transformation, far fewer have the tools and insights needed to enact winning strategies. Rather than letting uncertainty hinder your change efforts, we brought together a few of the brightest minds in business and HR and put them in conversation during Gloat on Location Minneapolis.

To no one’s surprise, their conversations were filled with eye-opening insights and little-known transformation secrets. In fact, their advice was so good we’ve decided to share the most important takeaways so that visionary leaders across the globe can use them to take their organizations’ change journeys to the next level.

4 key takeaways from Gloat on Location Minneapolis that every HR leader needs to hear

Over the course of four hours, Olivier Vankerk, Jess Von Bank, Samantha Morris, Meghan Loendorf, Hayley Emerick, and Jason Averbook took to the Gloat on Location stage to provide step-by-step transformation guidance. From a session on employee-led career growth to a masterclass on skills and AI, here are some highlights from our time in the City of Lakes.

#1. Gain buy-in from financial leadership early on

Getting budget approval for your new initiative often feels daunting, which explains why so many leaders put it off. While it may be tempting to delay these conversations, Samantha Morris, Organizational Development Partner at Molson Coors Beverage Company, explains why that isn’t in your best interest. “Get that CFO conversation out of the way and do a little homework to quantify the value [your initiative] can have. Put it in their language. Because once the CFO loves it, you’re golden,” she explains.

Financial leaders often hesitate to invest in new technology—unless they’re presented with a business case they can’t say no to. Mercer’s Jess Von Bank sheds light on a powerful perspective shift that will help change how executives view these investments. “It might be easier for a CFO to think about a technology investment than a headcount investment,” she notes. “Has anybody ever presented a business case that way? I want to invest in this piece of technology because I would otherwise have to build a team to do all of these things. I think that’s really important to understand because we often get questions around business case justification and proving ROI.”

#2. Prioritize cross-functional collaboration throughout your journey

Beyond partnering with your financial team to align on spending, it’s important to work cross-functionally throughout every step of your transformation. In fact, Olivier Vankerk identifies collaboration as one of the most important pillars of every successful transformation. “If you major in one thing, it’s your ability to collaborate and bring a community of people together who have all of those skills and all of those abilities. If you can connect with others in the organization and facilitate a dialogue and you can be humble enough to bring expertise that you recognize you don’t have together, you will accomplish what all those people together are doing,” he notes.

Megan Loendorf, Senior Manager, Organizational Development at Charles Schwab has witnessed the value of bringing people together firsthand. In describing how her organization’s talent marketplace has benefitted the business, she explains, “Another runaway success for us has been the cross-functional collaboration impact… When we look at both projects and mentoring, 70% of those matches are between individuals in different units, increasing cross-functional visibility, collaboration, and ultimately mobility was one of our key goals of bringing on board a talent marketplace. So seeing these early results in just the first 60 days or so has been really thrilling for us.”

#3. Skills visibility is non-negotiable

While no two transformations are the same, skills will likely play a crucial role in virtually all journeys. In fact, Mercer Senior Partner Jason Averbook warns that a lack of skills data can spell major trouble for companies, noting, “Those organizations that don’t have this information on skills, I personally think it’s worse than not having money because you’re going to go out of business faster than fast. No way you’re going to be able to keep up.”

Vankerk elaborates on this point by explaining how skills visibility enables organizations to better allocate talent resources and empower employees to reach their full potential. “We miss opportunities to deploy, to invest, to fill roles every day because we can’t see [skills]. And so to circle back to why, what is the kind of data that we’re after, we’re after data that helps us understand our talent better [and] helps our talent feel recognized… for the skills, experience, and potential that each of them has. That creates real engagement, that provides demonstrable business value, and it allows a company to solve its core issue, which is how do I deploy the right people to the right place so I can serve the consumer to the best of our ability.”

#4. Maximize technology’s impact by pairing it with the right culture

Rather than relying solely on technology to drive your change agenda forward, our Gloat on Location speakers recommend cultivating a dynamic culture to serve as the foundation for every element of your transformation, including the digital aspect. Reflecting on the success of Charles Schwab’s recent talent marketplace-powered transformation, Senior Manager HR Transformation and Change Hayley Emerick credits employee advocacy and transparency with their platform’s rapid adoption. “We’d tried something like this with other programs in the past. It wasn’t very sticky. There was some apprehension and a little bit of doubt,” she acknowledges.

“But I’ll tell you today, there is no doubt this is one of our greatest successes. We have over 400 highly engaged change champions who are disseminating information, evangelizing the message, sourcing projects, sourcing success stories, bringing forward challenges, bringing us feedback, finding creative solutions to drive adoption, and just in general figuring out how to embed our tools and culture into the fibers of our company,” she concludes.

Want more expert-backed transformation insights? Check out 3 visionaries, 1 strategy to get guidance from Josh Bersin, Al Gore, and Arianna Huffington.