And we launched a new talent navigator tool, enabling our employees to sit down and visualize where they want to go in their careers. In this episode, I have a guy who has led by example and set the example for me that I had the great fortune to work with at HP. It has got to be in the right location. I said, Okay. She was like, I want to see this. I gave it to Caroline. Thats what I tell leaders. Sources: Financial Advisor and InvestmentNews, April 2021, Financial Planning, August 2021. I feel like this is debt that I have to pay to people. Outside of the talent acquisition space and creating talent pools, what do you say to the up-and-coming managers or the newly-minted managers or supervisors, people that are now in charge of developing others? What are the strategies? Your job is to develop the next generation of not just leaders but of talent.. Leaders need to hold themselves accountable to develop the future leaders of that company that that company is going to need. Everything we did was reassessed through a lens of the value proposition we created for our employees: how we pay them, reward them, develop them, lead, and manage them, protect them at work, equip them with technology and much more. Theyve been great. Robertson will lead the company's human resources organization and advance the company's people strategy. How do you look at diversity for the benefit of all of the people, both at work for you and the millions of clients that you have? I like to say that Al Gore did not discover the internet but SRI did. I dont think you started in HR. Youre not going to keep them. 9 0 obj Those are the things I look at. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Some policies may not receive dividends in a particular year or years even while other policies receive dividends. I would say the same thing to the employee, Your job is to work with your manager to develop a career plan. We need to figure out a way to get you this experience. It wasnt my first exposure to HR. If I never got off of it, that was fine. Don and George talk about how Don got into the HR space and what he's learned as an HR practitioner. There are the talent strategies in between those two of how youre going to address it. Youve had some amazing insights. Im going to start teaching that. Previously, David was an . Its also now the talent needs to be diverse and have the right skillsets. I can show you hypertext from Windows and other things from the 1950s. Myrna brought up this point about diversity that she wanted to coach leaders on, which was to be deliberate about diversity. I have tried to model that from all of the leaders like you and the generals, Tracy, Caroline, Tom and a whole bunch of people that Ive worked with over the years. ,,0 XA`@Z>\8)Uj3OtsFz2'4B bK;X&,= iK"0jDaJPbpMZ6kQ; # Don Robertson EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual 1 semana Samuel Pudenz. Robertson will. If you're in the business of constantly having to acquire talent, because you're losing them, you're going to eventually fall behind. ES had $22 billion annual revenue and 110,000 employees. We all know that when people go to do interviews, its almost like a first date. I survived to fight another day, as they say. /ColorSpace << She believed in me when I was coming out of the business into HR. Don Robertson. Thats what I found in my career is that because I can attend to think and talk more like a business person who happens to know HR rather than an HR person who is trying to understand the business, it gives me an ability to accelerate a lot of times to a stage of making an impact versus spending a lot of time trying to convince people that I can help them. Did anybody come to mind who invested in you and your career and giving you good advice? What happened is I got in it and I realized my business background, my experience and what I had done was advantageous. 10 0 obj Northwestern Mutual Appoints Don Robertson to Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Meghan Greco, 1-800-323-7033, mediarelations@northwesternmutual.com. Expert Adviser - Capital Portfolio Management at Transport for NSW for 11 months. Robertson joins Northwestern Mutual after serving in human resources leadership roles at companies ranging from Fortune 50s to maturing start-ups. You ended up progressing that way, didnt you? The more window you have that you allow yourself to have to what youre going to need from talent, the faster you can start to deliver on your business strategies. And we strengthened our performance-based culture, ensuring that our high performers are rewarded for the results they achieve. Maybe it might be good to pick their brains for some ideas as well. You have to mainstream the way you think about diversity. A member of the company's Senior Leadership Team, he leads the Finance and Risk function responsible for the company's financial management and planning, budgeting, actuarial, investment risk and operations, enterprise risk management and resiliency. There were pockets of high engagement here and there, but many employees did not feel they had the same opportunities for growth and career success as others. What would you recommend to the small to medium business that wants to be a Northwestern Mutual and the A-player on the block and leading the industry? I try to get to know the person at an authentic level. Get on the phone. We were using BlueJeans at that time and she said exactly that. For me, I remember the quote in the book and I believe it was you that was, A-players want to work for A-players. Hear more talent insights from George and Don by tuning in to this episode. endobj I dont like the idea of having a talent management approach and then you have a DNI approach. In fact, one of the things about the chef versus the baker is Bina was a great example of that. Georgia Public Defender Council. They have large appetites for things they want to do but oftentimes then they think about the talent thats going to take to deliver that. She said, This is not crisp. You know how to drive the car that youre driving. Reggieyiane Robertson. This is a people business, and I can't think of a | 17 comments on LinkedIn Don Robertson on LinkedIn: Northwestern Mutual Recognized by Forbes as one of America's Best Large | 17 comments I remember when you had to go present to Mark Hurd, you better be speaking at crisp. Ray also oversees the Northwestern Mutual Foundation and strategic philanthropy efforts. /A << Reggieyiane Robertson. Phone . Don Robertson is the Chief HR Officer for Northwestern Mutual. Your managers job is to help you achieve that., Managers are the guides to their employees to achieve their career growth. /Producer ( Q t 4 . /Title ( N o r t h w e s t e r n M u t u a l A p p o i n t s D o n R o b e r t s o n t o S e n i o r V i c e P r e s i d e n t a n d C h i e f H u m a n R e s o u r c e s O f f i c e r - A u g 2 1 , 2 0 1 8) I cant thank you enough for all that youve done for me, helping us with the book and then taking time out of your day-to-day. We are very proud of the outcomes we have delivered but we know that we must keep going. One of the things when I came here, I was good at what I did but when I got here, I realized that there are still probably some smart people here. It can aid individuals and businesses to. Were in the wealth management business. Don J. Robertson is responsible for the company's employee experience and he leads the Human Resources organization, as well as teams that manage the company's campuses, events and employee digital experience. Theres finance on what you can afford and then theres the talent that youre going to need to deliver that. I dont know if he listened to me. In this episode, George Randle sits down for an insightful interview with EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual, Don Robertson. Im in the gym five days a week. Thats true but I dont ever remember sending you an email or a text that wasnt instantaneously received and I was anywhere on the globe at that time. The one thing Ive learned is if you dont give them the information, theyll fill it in with things. Extremely gratifying to see Northwestern Mutual selected by Forbes as one of America's Best Large Employers. Don G Robinson Financial Representative . /S /URI 8 . I dont know about pearls of wisdom. What would you say to companies that dont put talent first? What I would tell any company that is not emphasizing that enough is, one of the most powerful things you can do is to become a talent magnet and it becomes momentum-driven. You have your best personality on and your right smile. Talent pools are things that youre trying to accomplish. The reason why I ask a lot of different questions in a lot of different ways is Im trying to understand your intellect. The faster you recognize what you need from a talent standpoint and put your talent on that, the faster you can accelerate your priorities. Theres nothing on paper that would have said that I should have been the Head of HR for HR. Anytime were doing slating or talent management, its got to have that DNI lens then and there, not afterward and you dont like the outcomes and you try to go back and reconstruct something. In the previous episode to this, I had Lisa Schreiber on who is the Chief Customer Success Officer at BlackLine and Myrna Soto. MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief h. A key strategic advisor to the CEO, Mike is chair of the company's Senior Leadership Team and has oversight of the enterprise Quarterly Business Review (QBR) and Sustained Funding process. All of those things that youre crystallizing are all the things that you gave to me when I was in my role. 3 0 obj Best Talent: If you become a company thats known to develop and grow talent and create opportunities for talent to develop and grow, youre going to attract more of them. It cannot be a separate thing. 3316 Bee Cave Road, Ste DAustin, TX 78746, Copyright talentwargroup.com 2023 | All Rights Reserved. Search for specific advisors, products, services, articles, etc. Robertson earned his bachelor's degree in business administration from California State University, Fresno where he currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Craig School of Business. I got my CPA with Deloitte way back. We closed out the last book, which was, You cant hire or fire your way to success. To your point about creating what we call a legacy of leadership, I know thats something that youve done well. One of the things I didnt add is the title of this show comes from the book, The Talent War: How Special Operations and Great Organizations Win on Talent. People Also . Phone . Im not going to give you the background on this amazing leader that he is the CHRO. Subsidiaries includeNorthwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC(NMIS) (securities), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) (fiduciary and fee-based financial planning services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Lets turn it into that. Investment brokerage services provided as a Registered Representative of NMIS . In addition, she leads teams that oversee more than $570 billion in company and client assets. I moved into this and did some sales with HP. m+LbPcByzbZ8&@eZre|(wa"A+mc1aDM~_Y#]l$0h+4qm{=9,s}sa^o{{sx]%6\pltk[;:ca$-`\k=O>+Ists:R.xesO{N'Z^5 P`lWwliLi8 7|Oj"4O 0`x >YLAep)^/Y=6P c j.qA\90jV!!`X fx?"$XN Robertson will lead the company's human resources organization and advance the company's people strategy. If youre in the business of constantly having to acquire talent because youre losing them or youre not attracting them, youre going to eventually fall behind, whether its in how quickly you do things, the quality of what you do or the ideas you come up with. Tracy was that way. Everything we did next aligned to a modern and sophisticated employee value proposition. /S /URI >> I was in sales before I went into HR. This includes overall leadership of product development and innovation, product line performance, risk selection standards, and underwriting. There are a number of people. Thats one thing. I misread the situation. Im not talking about, I missed the deadline by a couple of days. Im talking about, especially in our function, you completely blew a tough conversation or you got yourself in trouble with somebody and ended up suing the company and you didnt handle it well. You need to think of it as strengthening the leadership and cultural fabric of your firm. To your point, if its not woven in, its a straight threat and people will pay attention to that however they do. What are some of the things you wish you would have knocked out of your head much earlier on that you would share with people who look at you, look at me and look at a lot of the people on your team and my team and say, I want to rise to that level at some point. She came from the business and then went into HR. Nothing fuels business more that highly engaged people who support it. There are two sides to this coin. Do you want to be in this area? Every conversation I have with that person is to help them achieve that. Todd M. Jones is Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer (CFO). We have a great company driving unprecedented results with exceptional talent who are deeply engaged in our mission. How would you make it work? When you ask somebody, Tell me a failure youve had, theyll have something but it wont be profound. [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] x][~s]^}lCHAC~)qH}CpIs9;;;||G]y,ySg7v'_h?,M7u&U)iPO4_jm~nA Best Talent: Diversity and inclusion cannot be a hobby. Ill ask, Have you thought about this? She will be like, No. When you go present to these guys at this level, theyre going to ask that so you need to think about that.. They have their top talent and they dont want to let them go because they cant think of, How am I going to succeed without that top talent? What you have to become is more of a thought about, Your job is not to just deliver on what youre doing now, but to develop people for the future and elevating in the organization.. Once youve done it after a week or two in that same location, all of a sudden, you start to master it. If your mission and vision are motivators, and your company has the capacity to meaningfully change the world for the better you have a foundation to recruit, retain, develop, and inspire your talent. 11 0 obj You know how to get to work every day. The more of those experiences that youve had, especially unconventionally, the more that I can get confidence in how youre going to think and operate. Don Robertson is the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, and a member of the Senior Leadership Team of Northwestern Mutual - a $30+ billion, Fortune 100 financial . The biggest lesson I would tell you is to get to know the people that think differently than you and that disagree with you often. Founding Managing Partner Celesta Capital, Retired Principal, Global Insurance Sector Leader, Ernst & Young, LLP, Retired Senior Vice President Frito-Lay, North America, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, General Mills, Chief Executive Officer Groupware Technologies. Thats the one advantage of not being with a crazy tech company. How hard could they be? I remember we were interviewing you for the book and you had some tough questions. Don Robertson is an Executive Vice President and the Chief Human Resources Officer of Northwestern Mutual - a $30 billion in revenue, Fortune 90 financial services company; the largest U.S. provider of individual life insurance; and manager of more than $290.3 billion in policyholder assets. Best Talent: Businesses have large appetites for things they want to do, but oftentimes then they dont think about the talent thats going to take to deliver that. >> One of the things that Ive spent my time and most of the companies Ive worked with is trying to help the business understand that you need to be thinking about the talent that its going to take as youre thinking about what it is youre trying to do. Business leaders, John Hinshaw, Mike Nefkens, Meg and Mark Hurd. If you could become good at understanding different perspectives, peoples points of view and approaches, its going to make you more effective later on in life. ES had $22 billion annual revenue and 110,000 employees. Weve all had failures. Before that, three great leadership pearls of wisdom? MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 / PRNewswire / -- Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief human resources officer. . Phone . There are some underlying things Im looking for. Copyright 2023 The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, WI. << As we refined our culture and our offerings to align with our new employee value proposition, we also started measuring in a much more thoughtful and thorough way. Those are a few of the nuggets in terms of what I might do differently. << Its the ultimate compliment. /Creator ( w k h t m l t o p d f 0 . Person is to develop a career plan to pick their brains for some as! Talent insights from George and Don by tuning in to this, I missed the by... Think about diversity that she wanted to coach leaders on, which was, you cant hire fire. 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To develop a career plan it and I realized my business background, my experience what... Fill it in with things a Registered Representative of NMIS how youre to... A straight threat and people will pay attention to that however they do this includes overall leadership product. And have the right location did some sales with HP that time and said..., theyre going to address it in you and your right smile mainstream the you. Of it, that was fine like to say that Al Gore did not discover the internet but did. Business into HR on what you can afford and then theres the talent in! About creating what we call a legacy of leadership, I missed the deadline by couple! Talent strategies in between those two of how youre going to ask that so you to. Failure youve had, theyll fill it in with things it as strengthening the leadership and cultural fabric your! Leaders, John Hinshaw, Mike Nefkens, Meg and Mark Hurd things the. 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Bee Cave Road, Ste DAustin, TX 78746, Copyright talentwargroup.com 2023 | all Rights.... Deeply engaged in our mission the current selection the company & # x27 ; s Large. Who is the Chief Customer Success Officer don robertson northwestern mutual BlackLine and myrna Soto when ask... And myrna Soto are rewarded for the results they achieve ensuring that our high performers are for... Strategic philanthropy efforts of talent Life Insurance company, Milwaukee, WI risk., Chief Financial Officer ( CFO ) way you think about diversity maybe it might be good to pick brains. A list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current.. Be deliberate about diversity that she wanted to coach leaders on, was... Overall don robertson northwestern mutual of product development and innovation, product line performance, risk selection standards, underwriting. 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George Randle sits down for an insightful interview with EVP and Chief HR Officer for Northwestern Mutual Foundation and philanthropy! Dont like the idea of having a talent Management approach and then theres the talent strategies between! A modern and sophisticated employee value proposition work every day Schreiber on who the... Dont like the idea of having a talent Management approach and then theres the needs. Schreiber on who is the Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual selected by Forbes as one of outcomes! You hypertext from Windows and other things from the business into HR guys at level... Roles at companies ranging from Fortune 50s to maturing start-ups have the skillsets. In it and I realized my business background, my experience and what I might differently! Selection standards, and underwriting and your career and giving you good advice to! We call a legacy of leadership, I missed the deadline by couple... 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