CHRO COVID-19 Action Recording with Splunk's Kristen Robinson - 7/31/20
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to cause unprecedented impact to business, employers, and employees, HR leaders continue to face both short- and long-term challenges. Since March, i4cp has held a weekly series of calls specifically for CHROs and other HR leaders to discuss problems and share ideas. Each week, hundreds of executives join these calls to hear from their community and access the latest research from i4cp's Coronavirus Employer Resource Center.
This week's featured guest is Kristen Robinson, Chief People Officer at Splunk.
In response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and its unprecedented impact to business and employers, i4cp holds a weekly series of standing calls to help HR leaders navigate this unpredictable time.
On i4cp’s July 31, 2020 CHRO/HR Strategy COVID-19 Response series call, HR leaders from wide range of organizations joined special guest Kristen Robinson, Chief People Officer at Splunk, a fast-growing, data-centric software company with about 6,000 employees based out of San Francisco, California.
Some highlights:
- Having a
CEO and/or board members with human capital management backgrounds, as
Splunk does, is very valuable. It reduces or eliminates the need to
convince top leadership of the importance of human capital issues. Such
organizations have seen this benefit even more so during the past several
months of the pandemic and focus on racial justice issues. As many CHROs
have been relied upon so heavily during these challenging times, hopefully
more will later find themselves occupying CEO or board positions.
- The
response at Splunk to the coronavirus pandemic (as we’ve also heard from
some other organizations) really demonstrated to their employees that they
have a people-centered culture, one that is focused on their well-being.
Inclusivity has also increased, as having large virtual meetings democratizes
and levels everyone’s involvement (i.e., a video square on the screen.)
Robinson gave a specific example of this from one of their interns who
noted that being the only woman in a group can be easier online than in a
physical conference room. She also noted the increase in Slack team
channels, including their use as a transparency-enhancing back-channel
during large meetings.
- Many
working parents are really struggling to handle kids at home while they
are working remotely. Given that organizations can’t create daycare services
or facilities right now to help their employees, Robinson said that the
most helpful thing HR leaders can do is make sure managers are flexible
with their team members’ needs to deal with family issues. This is
important for all parents with school-aged children, but according to
multiple news reports is impacting working mothers the most.
- Reaching out to get input from the workforce is more important than ever. Implementing a more robust listening strategy was already trending in HR prior to the pandemic, but it is critical now given the pace of change and the wide range of ways it has impacted various employees.
In addition to this recording, please see these resources:
- The i4cp Coronavirus Employer Resource Center - new research and next practices to help address the COVID-19 pandemic