upskilled
upskilled
5. COVID-19 and a Shift Toward Agile Talent Development
GUEST: JEANINE DELAY, AVP, GLOBAL TALENT, SUN LIFE. With COVID-19, all eyes are on safety and security—at the individual level, in our work lives, and in our public institutions. How does a financial services company like Sun Life Financial respond to the demand for products and services that protect personal health and wellbeing? How do they prepare employees to meet customer needs quickly and efficiently?
Amy interviews Jeanine Delay, Assistant VP of Global Talent at Sun Life Financial about innovations in learning and development that have helped Sun Life Financial respond to the crisis. This episode is a recording of a Cantina Coffee Chat covering:
- The impact of COVID-19 on leadership and employee development
- Learning on-demand and the transition to Agile teams
- Innovative approaches to employee engagement
Amy 0:06
Hey everybody, I'm Amy Baron, and this is upskilled solutions in the learning universe, where I talk with professionals in education and workforce development, about practices and perspectives that catalyze positive change.
Amy 0:24
Welcome to upskilled. This is the first episode of the podcast and a lot has happened since we first started COVID-19 has turned people's lives and careers upside down in ways we never could have imagined. The idea behind upskilled was to highlight some of the innovative work happening in education and workforce development, which is now needed more than ever,
Amy 0:48
and to share those ideas with a wider audience.
Amy 0:52
I lead the education technology practice at Cantina consulting and one of the most exciting parts of my job
Amy 1:00
The conversations I get to have with people out in the world, about the ways in which they're bringing new ideas and tools to the market that help educate and support people in their jobs and in their lives. One of those people is my guest today, Janine delay, Assistant Vice President of global talent at Sun Life here in the Boston area. And today, Janine and I will be talking about COVID-19 and a shift toward agile talent development. So welcome, Janine.
Jeanine
Thank you, Amy. Really excited to be here with you and the cantina crew for this coffee chat. And we are so happy to have you. So um, before we get started, Janine, can you just tell the folks here a little bit about your background and what you do at sunlife? Sure. Thank you. Yes, I've I've been in learning and development for a number of years over 25 years and have supported various parts of businesses. So sales service, It. And within the last year I joined the global human resources team. And so I'm head of talent development for sunlife globally, so North America, Asia. And we were responsible for leadership development, employee development, learning technologies we live we have a learning management system. And I'm also a certified coach. And so I coach leaders also.
Amy 2:28
Great. So it's an amazingly rich background and we're very delighted to have you with us at the cantina coffee table. Thank you though. Um, so suddenly financial is a leading financial services company that helps clients achieve lifetime financial security and live healthier lives in this unprecedented time with COVID-19 and of course, some of the social issues that that are coming up
Amy 3:00
equity issues. What is happening in your work? How has your work in effective? Yeah, our work has been,
Jeanine 3:11
I'd say, affected in that we were on the path to do some really good work. And that path has been accelerated. So let me start with clients, you know, as the pandemic hit, and because we have offices in Asia, we were watching this really closely. We knew that we had to respond and get clients, whether it was financial protection, loans and so on, or even access to health. So
Jeanine 3:40
in some cases, we immediately Well, we move to work from home in literally 24 to 48 hours. Most employees were working from home already on some basis, but we went 100% to work from home and had already been that way in Asia but in North America
Jeanine 4:00
And so that was that was a huge shift to have the entire workforce working the way you and I are talking now.
Amy How many employees is that?
Jeanine There's there's over 32,000 employees. So
Jeanine 4:16
yes, pretty significant. for clients. As I mentioned, in Canada, we have some Health Solutions. And there was a digital product that we were working on. And we accelerated the implementation of that. And so what we're happy about is that, you know, we're a financial services company, we could be slower at implementing then maybe a smaller startup. But we implemented this product within a couple of weeks to get health services available to employees of the companies that we sell to. In the United States. Some of our employers asked us to open up benefits so annual enrollment, so that their employees could get other benefits.
Jeanine 5:00
Some individuals asked for grace periods to pay premiums. So lots of focus on how do we take care of people, which of our clients are actually sick from COVID? And how do we respond? And so the your ability to response in large part is due to this shift to agile teams. Yeah, and Right, so the the work at the company on moving to agile teams has also been reflected in the HR suite. So, right, tell us a little bit about that transformation. Yes. So I'm sure many people are familiar with agile teams, self managed teams, the use of design thinking to innovate and to create, you know, minimum viable products for clients quicker, involve clients in the process. So in in the leadership space, some examples of accelerated change
Jeanine 6:00
The CEO does a video every two days to all employees about what's happening with COVID. What are we doing for clients what's happening for employees? leaders of each region of sunlife are having town halls that are live kind of like Facebook live sessions, talking about what's happening answering employee questions and concerns. reorganizations have been paused and halted for now so that we can get through this period.
Jeanine 6:32
And just the the thing that's been great is the acceleration of communication that's real and authentic. You know, we're not, we're not putting together PowerPoint decks and formal presentations. These are real conversations. As an example, you know, with the with the death of George Floyd, we immediately had an employee Town Hall and address the issue of racism and systematic racism and
Jeanine 7:00
While we were already on the path to diversity and inclusion work, we're accelerating that path.
Jeanine 7:07
In the learning space, we put together some learning materials very quickly for employees to understand some of the timely conversations that are happening. I'm not talking about generic diversity and inclusion, it's more, how do you how can you be an active ally, to employees, to peers, to people in your personal life and so on?
Jeanine 7:29
Let me pause there and just check in. Is this resonating with you? Is this what you were looking for?
Amy
Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is all really interesting in terms of leadership in terms of how we can use technology to reach a large employee base. The use of video we know in the learning space is huge, right? Obviously, you know, in your regular consumer culture, we know video is very prolific, but it's also
Amy 8:00
being used heavily in the learning space. And you were telling me earlier about some of the kind of on demand videos that you're doing at sunlife. In the learning space. Do you want to talk a little about that?
Jeanine
Yes. So we call it my learning minute. And so the intention is you don't have a lot of time to perhaps attend a long course, do you have a minute or 90 seconds to watch a video from somebody in the company? We started with senior leaders, but now it's pretty much anyone who wants to contribute to topics that are relevant. In the beginning again, we started with formal videos made by our event services team. Now we're just using iPhones or the camera app on the laptop. And we do a bit of editing, but it's okay. Do you want to learn a bit about time management or about wellness during COVID? Here's my learning minute and then links to additional resources on our learning management system.
Jeanine 8:56
Example. So that's the idea of kind of learning on two
Jeanine 9:00
Man, right? Like, yeah, learning to the learner in the in the moment that the learner needs it. Yes. The other thing we're hearing, Amy is that because of all the zoom meetings, we're having people are getting zoom fatigue, they're tired of sitting in front of their, their computer all day. And so we had been working on a mobile app solution. And we accelerate the development of that it's coming out next week. So employees can use their device to listen to podcasts or watch videos, be wherever they want to be, and get that learning or, you know, participate in some of those town halls and so on. So that's coming out in a week. The other thing I want to mention is the use of playlists. So, you know, many people here probably use Spotify or Apple Music and you can create your own music playlist. We're using that technology for our learning assets. So do you have some favorite videos around design thinking or
Jeanine 10:00
Remote Management, some articles you want to post, you could put together a playlist, and I could follow you and say, Okay, what is she recommending?
Jeanine 10:11
In the learning management system, so that's been pretty successful as well.
Amy
So that's a really great way to develop talent, right? Because if you've got some great leaders or managers with with with great management skills, you might be able to recommend a playlist to a colleague and you know, whether it's someone you're trying to bring up in the organization or someone that is already a you know, a senior person, but who may want to emulate some other, you know, leadership skills is, is having those kind of playlists that are tailored, that are that are that are led by people in the organization and the ability to follow them is really cool. It's really kind of personalized learning.
Jeanine 11:00
You know, we talk about personalized learning. Right. And I think the other thing COVID has done for our culture is that
Jeanine 11:09
it's created so much more in formality. And we're seeing people with their children on camera with their dogs and cats. And so when it comes to creating those videos or learning people are not as fussed about putting something together, you've probably seen this, but you know, people are doing music videos, or, you know, just sharing things about how they're taking care of their mental health or their wellness, how they're focused on fitness. And then of course, that can go into other topics. But I think that's been awesome because it just encourages people that doesn't have to be perfect doesn't have to be formal. Share what you have, and other people have really responded to it.
Amy
And this is something that old folks like us can take a page from the youngsters, right? All the tick tock videos and price you know, is
Amy 12:00
It's an engaging medium people like to watch videos and if your dogs in it all the more engaging so right. So in terms of engagement in terms of getting your employees to really focus on the skills they need to develop, what are some of the tools you're using to increase engagement? Right?
Jeanine
So one of them we're just piloting right now is the use of badges and gamification. So, if you and I complete certain programs, we're going to get badges that we can display on our profile. We're still working through the details of like, what would be would there be actual financial incentives or prizes, but at least at this point, we know there'll be some bragging rights that I'm I have this certain credential working on that.
Jeanine 12:47
Right now around engagement. The other thing I want to mention is a we're using a social learning platform to change behavior around diversity and inclusion. So it's a platform
Jeanine 13:00
Where you participate as a team of about, you know, say a group of 300 employees that are in the same organization? There are short videos, there are articles, but then there are questions. And you're answering and sharing your experience, but it's someone intimate. So it's safe. You know, it's as safe as it can be with us group that size. But again, we've got everybody in the organization having a conversation about, you know, what can I do as a white person to support my black colleagues? Or what if I don't understand certain concepts that I'm hearing about in the media? And so that's really had a huge engagement, particularly in the United States.
Amy
And you can go and learn about Juneteenth if you don't already. It is absolutely that's what today is and I thought funny having this today because I know a lot of people or organizations are giving time off and what have you, but as long as people are reflecting and learning and growing that
Amy 14:00
Really the the main goal here, so
Amy 14:04
so so gamification credentials, I mean, those sound a lot like, you know, things that are out there in the consumer culture. And it's always great, of course, when those practices and behaviors are kind of brought into the learning space, because it really does create engagement.
Amy 14:24
So what about returning to the office is, is that happening? Are there any tools that you're using to help people?
Amy 14:37
With the return to the office? Is there going to be a return to the office? It's on right?
Jeanine
Yeah, there will be a return to the office but depending on the location. So in in the United States, we have buildings that are maybe three or four levels high, so it's less of an issue in Toronto. You know, we're in a 36 levels skyscraper.
Jeanine 15:00
So you think about elevators and things like that.
Jeanine 15:04
Our, you know, our management has said, we're not going to require people to return to the office that don't feel comfortable. And we're not even talking about time to do that right now, we're thinking that we're going to go somewhat last so that we don't clog up the transportation systems and so on, because we're working really well at home. But we are looking at things like, could we have a virtual reality tour of the new office space and how you're supposed to move around the office post,
Jeanine 15:37
you know, COVID or still during COVID? So those are some things we're thinking about.
Jeanine 15:43
How might we do things differently? How might we re reconfigure the office so that if you went there, it's, it's more for safety but also safe collaboration.
Amy 16:00
So that is really interesting about using virtual reality to orient, I mean, because now you think about it, people have gone into an office for however many years. Every day, it's kind of been the same, they get their coffee, they do their whatever, but it's going to be totally different now, like, what can I touch? Where can I go? How can I. And so this idea of having a virtual reality, orientation to the office in the new environment and how it's going to be, and the ability to kind of familiarize yourself with the behaviors that you now need to practice and the way you know, something had been talking about one way hallways, right, like that. So that's, that sounds really interesting, really, a really innovative use of virtual reality technology.
Jeanine
Yeah, I mean, the big thing is we want employees to feel safe. And so that's the piece you know, how am i watching a video in advance, prepare you so that you're ready to go in when it's time and you're not?
Jeanine 17:00
losing sleep over it and feeling anxious.
Amy 17:04
Yeah, that's, that's really cool. And I mean, you know it, I have a lot of conversations with, with people out there in the learning and education space about virtual reality. And sometimes people are kind of looking for a reason to use it like, Oh, this is such a cool technology, like, how can we incorporate this into our product or our program? And, you know, we always say at Cantina we always say, it's not about finding a use for reality about for virtual reality, it's about identifying a problem that can be solved using virtual reality, right? You know, you don't want some artificial tool that you're just throwing out there for people to you know, you really want a practical reason to have to use it and this sounds like an absolutely perfect fit for that. Yeah, yeah.
Amy 18:00
Thanks. So it's 20 after and I wanted to open the floor for some questions. I see a lot of familiar faces out there, which I'm very happy to see. Thank you all for coming. So, we did get a question here, which is, what advice would you give other talent development leaders about how to address employee needs? Right now, you've said a little bit about this, but I don't want to show our band on that. Yeah, I would say, um, you know, make sure you're tuned into employee needs. How are you gathering employee needs?
Jeanine 18:44
You know, where we're using employee user groups for feedback and pilot testing things?
Can employees help you co create some of the solutions?
Jeanine 18:50
You know, in a recent initiative we did in the United States for leaders as an example we we had our head of human resources, participate in
Jeanine 19:00
focus groups with managers to ask them what do you need for support? And how, how can you consume it in a way that's helpful to you? What we ended up with was a customized playlist for that group based on certain topics. And at the time, we partnered with coaching group ICF, New England, who was looking to do some philanthropic work for coaching week in May. And so we offered laser coaching to managers 30 minutes of coaching on those topics that they had told us they were struggling with. And some of them were related to COVID. So hopefully, I'm answering this question. I mean, involve the employees in the discussion of needs in the solution creation in the implementation of them and then try to do Minimum Viable products. Yet something that you know, I've been in learning and development for a long time and it's a shift right, we like to do things really well. High quality
Jeanine 20:00
And instead to say, hey, let's just try this, this is, you know, how quickly can we get something to you that you're going to feel excited about, as opposed to, I'll come back to in four months. Yeah.
Amy
So the idea, the idea of, of active learning, as you know, we say in the learning world is, you know, you can watch it, you can read about it, you can take it in, but until you actually do it and are involved in it, that's when the learning really solidifies. But there's another interesting related question here in the channel about new wellness needs and new skills that are going to be needed as we go back to the physical space. Right. And so the question is, are you leaning at all on technology for some of that, for wellness, for wellness needs, and for new skills that may be needed now stress reduction or new skills that are needed?
Jeanine
Yes. So we do have whole pathways in our learning management system on wellness
Jeanine 21:00
You know, meditation, yoga. So these are all available to employees on their, you know, home computers as well, using technology for that.
Amy 21:11
Yeah. Is there a particular platform that you're using for like social learning?
Jeanine 21:17
Yes, it's, it's called Kaleidoscope and it's through a vendor called hive learning HIV. That's the social learning platform we're using. Okay, and what kind of things does that offer? for folks who aren't familiar with it? Yeah. So it offers some standard content around diversity and inclusion. And then you can also add in your own content. So as an example,
Jeanine 21:44
there are pathways about particular topics, there's a pathway about being an ally, you know, we throw that word around, but what does it actually mean to be an active ally, to people of other groups. And so, we've created that but then we've also
Jeanine 22:00
inserted meeting guides for leaders. So, Amy, if you and I were in Kaleidoscope, there might be a place where it says if you manage others, here's a discussion guide for you to have with you to meet with your team at a team meeting. So sunlife has created those pieces. So it's not just off the shelf.
Amy
And that is so important to because many people don't know how to have these conversations, right. I mean, like, this is something we see in the education space a lot. Like there's so much diversity in terms of how teachers talk about these difficult issues. And a lot of that revolves around comfort level, how comfortable is the teacher talking about it? Right. And so different students are getting different amounts of this kind of conversation and we know how important conversation is that it's all about opening dialogue and talking and games out in the open so, so it sounds like you guys are doing a really, you know, good job.
Amy 23:00
With this and how well, people do, you know, people actual employees inputting into the system and not just accessing things that are already there.
Jeanine
Yes, we have some pretty active inclusion networks at sunlife. And so I mentioned the conversation we had about race a couple of weeks ago and our black excellence Alliance group hosted it, but many people participated as panelists and asked questions. So some of them were leaders, some of them were, you know, employees.
Jeanine 23:34
So, yes, we're doing a good job. And yes, we still feel like we need to do a better job and do more and be more active.
Amy
Yeah, that's great. So another question came in on the channel, what techniques have you used to keep your remote teams connected during this crisis?
Jeanine
So some things that we're doing so as I mentioned, each each country or each business group has townhall meetings every
Jeanine 24:00
Every two weeks at least, and some of them are formal presentation, not formal, but they're scripted. You know, I'm going to talk about these couple of things. And some of them are called the asked me anything sessions. So it's with the senior leader and you submit questions in advance. There are also teams doing coffee together, lunch together. And as I mentioned, some teams have done
Jeanine 24:25
music videos together, or photographs, you know, we've kind of gone through that period of wearing a funny hat to a zoom meeting, and we're not doing so much of that anymore.
Jeanine 24:36
But those are things we also have. So we use workplace which is a Facebook product for companies. So we have chat, and we have group chats where we can talk to each other during the day and say, Hey, wellness check. How are you doing, Amy? How are you feeling today? Yeah. and encouraging people to take time off like particularly now that we're coming into summer. There's there's a lot of messaging coming.
Jeanine 25:01
around taking time off for your family flexibility pledges coming out from leaders. I'm not going to schedule meetings during this time and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to be better about it and model it.
Amy
Yeah. One of the one of the things I've seen from one of our clients is, they have kind of a game thing going on. Every week. There's some kind of game like, yes, word games or come up with the, you know, Scrabble auction for the picture, or Yes, it's like that. And that's really good community build.
Jeanine
Yeah, it is. Actually last week for pride. We played drag queen bingo, which is the first time we've ever done that. And it was hilarious. It was fun. We had maybe 170 employees doing this and it was it was just great.
Amy
Oh my god, that sounds fascinating. Yeah, do another whole episode on that.
Amy 26:00
Does anyone have any questions that we haven't covered about the topic today? We we've been doing all the talking. If you all have other things you want us to talk about, we're happy to do that. If not, I think we'll call it a day because we are just about at the half hour.
Amy 26:20
Okay.
Amy 26:27
Well, thank you all so much for coming. I hope this has been informative for you. Um, we are Cantina. We are an innovation shop in Boston. We do strategy, design and development of digital products and experiences. We work with cross industries. And we are so lucky to have had Janine delay today from sunlife. And thank you all for coming.
Jeanine 26:52
Thanks, everyone.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai