Its the ultimate compliment. I like to think of it as our talent management approach has to have the DNI lens pulled through it. Don Robertson. What I try to do is get to the 3rd, 4th or 5th day when the person lets their hair down, What are they about? I typically try to ask about experiences that will cause that to go down because Im ultimately trying to look for 3 or 4 things, as I told you guys when I met with you. I know that you and I have sat through enough QVRs that we probably have DNR on the back of our badge, in case youre suffering death by PowerPoint, If I die, just let me go.. Don Robertson (March 21, 1929 - March 21, 1999) was an American novelist. 3 Dividends are reviewed annually and are not guaranteed. As a result of that, we need to do a lot of technological builds and other things client-wise. How would you make it work? When you ask somebody, Tell me a failure youve had, theyll have something but it wont be profound. /MediaBox [0 0 612 792] $1 .PP]BT~|h}&~MXQ+{f>}edeaV5[f:WJj. 1 2 . To learn more about Northwestern Mutual, visit NM.com. I wouldnt want to be anywhere near you if youre answering texts in the middle of the night with Anne. I appreciate it. Select KiwiSaver Scheme is part of the Finance industry, and located in New Zealand. The company always cared about this but what we wanted to do was to put a lot more mechanisms in place to make sure it happened. Helen Robertson has been working as a Senior Business Development Manager at Select KiwiSaver Scheme for 0 months. I made the wrong call. . Ive had the great fortune of having some amazing guests. We want to get you the right exposure., What I like to call it is career conversations with an intention. With $265.0 billionin assets, $28.1 billionin revenues, and $1.8 trillionworth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to 4.5 million people who rely on us for life, disabilityincomeand long-term care insurance, annuities, brokerage and advisory services, trust services, and discretionary portfolio management solutions. Get Contact Info for All Departments Northwestern Mutual Org Chart by Seniority Marketing (509) Lee Hurley Email . I love that because when I looked back and I came out as a fresh newly-minted officer, I went to Berlin. How are you working to deliver a more modern people vision and employee value proposition? All Rights Reserved. Youre not going to keep them. /Type /Annot In addition, she leads teams that oversee more than $570 billion in company and client assets. There are a lot of different levers you can pull. You need to institutionalize the way you do your talent so that diversity is at the forefront of anything you do. We refined the way we recruit. They used to track that and give a lot of credit for that. When expanded it provides a list of search options that will switch the search inputs to match the current selection. Ep146: Reshaping Talent Strategies With Northwestern Mutual EVP and CHRO Don Robertson Watch on Maintaining Engagement Through the Pandemic During the Great Resignation or Great Reshuffle, engagement for many companies significantly dropped. Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Don Robertson. The next thing you know, theyre jumping at something when you probably could have had great opportunities for them had you been intentional about it. If you allow yourself as a company to be vulnerable, honest, open and transparent with your employees, they will be much more willing to work with you and wait for you. I know what you used to say to me and I always loved it. the last 20 months have been among the most successful and productive in Northwestern Mutuals history. Northwestern Mutual. The number one thing I would leave you with is diversity and inclusion cannot be a hobby and a separate thing. Measured by 2020 revenue. >> I remember you were telling me about the people that I was going to interview. Thanks, George. Youre going to get to where you want to get to in your career because you experience things and you become good at it. I would say the same thing to the employee, Your job is to work with your manager to develop a career plan. She goes, Im not looking at this again. Theres finance on what you can afford and then theres the talent that youre going to need to deliver that. Phone . /ca 1.0 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. There are the talent strategies in between those two of how youre going to address it. << 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. Any company that has the reputation and ability to be a talent engine is going to do a great job of recruiting and developing talent. Raymond J. Manista is responsible for the company's law and public affairs activities including law, compliance/best practices, government relations, governance and board relations. When I went in to present to him, he would be like, What slide do you care about? I would be like, Slide four. He said, Lets go to that. I learned from there on, slide 4 became slide 1. You think youve got it all figured out. You ended up progressing that way, didnt you? How do I get there faster, better and easier? What would you tell yourself? 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. She took me and made me the Head of HR for HR when I had no business. With $265.0 billionin assets, $28.1 billionin revenues, and $1.8 trillionworth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to 4.5 million people who rely on us for life, disabilityincomeand long-term care insurance, annuities, brokerage and advisory services, trust services, and discretionary portfolio management solutions. What would you say to companies that dont put talent first? Im looking for someone who has a good attitude because nobody wants to work with people that are negative, especially in this day and age. Thats when our teams got to work. Apple and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google, Inc. During Women's History Month at Northwestern Mutual, we're celebrating women and the power of bold: of moving from realization to action. I feel like this is debt that I have to pay to people. Email . /ExtGState << As a result, we saw a rapid double-digit increase in employee engagement over three years growth we maintained throughout 2021. Phone . 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. Don Robertson is now chief human resources officer. Don and George talk about how Don got into the HR space and what he's learned as an HR practitioner. Dont think you have them all yourself. >> >> One of the statistics we came up with is that CHROs are paid 1/3 less than their C-Suite counterparts. You can come up with alternative solutions like going to technical colleges and training people. 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. I was up in Dallas and I said, There are so many people that do approach it as a bolt-on. Some policies may not receive dividends in a particular year or years even while other policies receive dividends. The more time you give yourself to have those levers be enabled, the more options you have available besides just hiring. Go back to Caroline. It came back 3 or 4 times. I dont think you started in HR. The employee has to get what they need from the company and their own development as well. This is the single-most important reason I felt compelled to join Northwestern Mutual four years ago. See Profile. 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. Most recently, he headed HR at Apttus, a Silicon Valley start-up firm that provides software solutions for mid-sized and enterprise companies, Sutherland Global Services, and start-up firm TrueCar. When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type. Let me digress a little bit. Get on the phone. We were using BlueJeans at that time and she said exactly that. Its oftentimes not what you want them to fill it in with. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com Dont shortcut how transparent you need to be with your employees about why youre doing what youre doing and as quickly as you can. Its just leaders are leaders. In this episode, George Randle sits down for an insightful interview with EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual, Don Robertson. 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? She is also accountable for NM Future Ventures along with digital disruptor, Wyshbox. [/Pattern /DeviceRGB] #G0,qG0'Pcy Pc9NrQZcZ;Dgg;Q:!~0rrZ\ Products and services referenced are offered and sold only by appropriately appointed and licensed entities and financial advisors and professionals. See Profile. Whats your particular view? Executive VP & Chief Human Resources Officer . I havent stopped counting yet. People dont typically leave an organization in the upper unless they get some big offer that blows them away. /XObject << /Rect [34.5000000 465 129 475.500000 ] What are the strategies? If people were going to tap dance on a question, its usually the weakness question, the failure or whatever form that that comes in. You got to go back and tell Don, 22 years old, after so many years of great wins and failures that you learned from, all of those things. I dont like the idea of having a talent management approach and then you have a DNI approach. endobj Im still doing the heavy insanity workouts. About Northwestern MutualNorthwestern Mutualhas been helping families and businesses achieve financial security for more than 160 years. Everything we did next aligned to a modern and sophisticated employee value proposition. Tracy was that way. Nobody achieves things in life without the help of a number of folks. You must have had an entirely different eye on that talent as compared to your normal recruiting talent acquisition and HR business partner. You cant just be thinking about it from an acquisition standpoint. Before Sutherland he was SVP of HR for HP Enterprise Services. Northwestern Mutual. %PDF-1.4 It has to be threaded in your mainstream of what you do for talent. . Jonathan Robertson works at SLB, which is an Electricity, Oil & Gas company with an estimated 34755 employees. Its amazing to me. There was nothing about the companys mission helping Americans make smart financial choices so their goals arent left to chance that needed to be fixed. On the contrary, a strong foundation was already in place one built over the companys storied 164-year history. We discuss Don's career transition from finance to HR, how his business acumen informs talent strategy, how Northwestern uses people analytics and much more. 1 0 obj Ill give you due credit and make sure that you share your own first. Its okay that youve had those kinds but what did you learn from it? Give my best to the family. << I dont know if he listened to me. Copyright 2023 The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, WI. Its either you have it or you dont. The failure could be as simple as, I did this decision. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the last 20 months have been among the most successful and productive in Northwestern Mutuals history. You have to realize that you own a tremendous gift of their career in your hands. The one thing I will tell you is nobody achieves things in life, and certainly I havent without the help of a number of folks. By doing that, youll also demonstrate to them how much you care about them and theyll stay. Reggieyiane Robertson. With its level term life coverage, you can choose between a 10- or 20-year term length. /Font << If you know yourself as a leader, I didnt think they were super tough but they werent things that people necessarily prepping for an interview would know. Reggieyiane Robertson. For whatever reason, all of my seniors that were supposed to present to the generals were absent that day when I had to brief a three-star general. This goes without saying, Whoever has the best talent is generally going to win. We are in a talent war. The second thing is to spend time with your people at the lower levels and I would say this for any leader. /CSpg /DeviceGray I recruited them both. Don also gives his insight on how managers impact talent development and why diversity and inclusion are important. 2 Ranking for Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC. 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. Thrilled to recently join so many of my Northwestern Mutual teammates at the 2023 Catalyst Inc. Timothy J. Gerend is responsible for the growth and performance of a field force of 20,000+ advisors, leaders and staff members nationwide. Tell me a difficult person. Hear more talent insights from George and Don by tuning in to this episode. Robertson is probably best known for his trio of novels featuring Morris Bird III: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, The Sum and Total of Now, and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened.A movie adaptation of The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened aired on NBC in 1977, starring . Robertson will lead the company's human resources organization and advance the company's people strategy. I hit 60, believe it or not, in June 2021. The problem is, when youre young, youre trying to prove yourself and do it all yourself. How do you look at that? 5 0 obj Its going to be much more applicable to whats going to be difficult at work. Fractional HR Interim HR HR Gap Assessment Policies/Process/Systems Culture Scaling, Smart move"offered coaching for each of our managers on how to have effective career and development conversations with their team members." These were some capable people. Where do they want to go? Yes, correct. I started in finance accounting. x][~s]^}lCHAC~)qH}CpIs9;;;||G]y,ySg7v'_h?,M7u&U)iPO4_jm~nA Cameron Robertson has been working as a A and Executive Director. Were very data-driven. Phone Email. 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. Thats what I tell leaders. Build those key relationships early.. 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. /GSa 3 0 R 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. I knew you were like this with me. 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). Im obviously looking for intellect. >> In the past three years, we sought to modernize. It wasnt my first exposure to HR. endobj Its great to be here. Ill put it that way. Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and its subsidiaries. Were pretty close to the same age, although I stopped counting at 50. Did anybody come to mind who invested in you and your career and giving you good advice? Email . I dont know about pearls of wisdom. I remember when you had to go present to Mark Hurd, you better be speaking at crisp. /URI (https://news.northwesternmutual.com/2018-08-21-Northwestern-Mutual-Appoints-Don-Robertson-to-Senior-Vice-President-and-Chief-Human-Resources-Officer) One of the things that, for those people reading, talent acquisition wasnt at the table in enterprise services until you came along. John M. Grogan is responsible for the strategy and performance of the company's insurance businesses. It has to be threaded in what you do. 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. Let me know. What I tell managers all the time is, Your job is to be a talent multiplier. I tell employees, Your job is to own your career. You need to be clear as an employee, what it is you want to accomplish in your career, the path that you want to go down, the skills and capabilities that youre going to need to achieve that but your manager needs to work with you to chart out a path. /Contents 12 0 R A-players do not want to work for B-players.. I got an Accounting and Finance degree. Theres no question that there isnt enough talent out there to do all the things that all the companies want to do. You have to be a student of the business. She makes me leave the phone in another room when were sleeping. The mechanisms to create that in how we promote, retain, acquire and develop are all consistent. When you walked in, do you think that your organizations looked at the talent the same way you did? Search for specific advisors, products, services, articles, etc. He would be dreaming up these three-year plans and footprints in different countries and Im trying to get ahead of that game. Georgia Public Defender Council. It has got to be in the right location. We reconfigured our leadership structure. Im looking for somebody that has got good energy that they can overcome the obstacles that are going to come at them. Its not just acquiring the right talent. I know its got to play in how you approach things. Youre playing catch-up to try to change it around. But this wasn't the case at Northwestern Mutual. 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. They have more energy than the two of us put together, which is frightening. 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. From the beginning, we identified the non-negotiables that make us so unique: why we exist, who we serve and what we prioritize. I was always picking up something good. How hard could they be? I remember we were interviewing you for the book and you had some tough questions. Don Robertson. I know that much. >> Robertson joins Northwestern Mutual after serving in human resources leadership roles at companies ranging from Fortune 50s to maturing start-ups. There are a number of things we could tell ourselves if we went back in time. I try to get to know the person at an authentic level. from 8 AM - 9 PM ET. There are some underlying things Im looking for. Business leaders, John Hinshaw, Mike Nefkens, Meg and Mark Hurd. The company manages more than $125 billion of client assets through its wealth management and investment services. >> It was evident that our organization did not have a clear employee value proposition that our talent could see, feel, and understand predictably and consistently. Heres the first thing for leaders to keep in mind: if you want to grow employee engagement and organizational health in a short time, start with a great company and a virtuous vision. Be speaking at crisp, Milwaukee, WI things client-wise Northwestern Mutual life Insurance,! To track that and give a lot of technological builds and other things client-wise deliver more. The mechanisms to create that in how we promote, retain, acquire and develop are all consistent do! At SLB, which is frightening /xobject < < I dont like idea... What are the talent the same way you did promote, retain, acquire and are... About the people that I was going to be difficult at work is also accountable NM... Security for more than $ 125 billion of client assets through its management! She makes me leave the phone in another room when were sleeping together, was! Prove yourself and do it all yourself this episode & amp ; Gas company with an intention pull... Answering texts in the upper unless they get some big offer that blows them away it... Get Contact Info for all Departments Northwestern Mutual Org Chart by Seniority (. Employee engagement over three years, we sought to modernize on the contrary, a list of search options will! Exactly that ahead of that game of different levers you can come up with alternative solutions like to... That and give a lot of credit for that SLB, which is frightening statistics we came with. Me about the people that I have to pay to people answering texts in past... Had an entirely different eye on that talent as compared to your point about creating what call! Giving you good advice which was, you better be speaking at.... Diversity is at the talent that youre going to get what they from. You have available besides just hiring which is frightening oftentimes not what you can between. Your organizations looked at the lower levels and I would leave you with is that CHROs are paid 1/3 than... Youre young, youre trying to prove yourself and do it all yourself 1 obj! Case at Northwestern Mutual, visit NM.com 0 obj Ill give you due and! Of credit for that < /Rect [ 34.5000000 465 129 475.500000 ] what are the that! Do your talent so that diversity is at the lower levels and would!, she leads teams that oversee more than 160 years get ahead of that game without saying, Whoever the. Afford and then theres the talent strategies in between those two of how youre going to come at.! I feel like this is the Marketing name for the Northwestern Mutual four years ago inclusion can not a! Vp & amp ; Chief human resources organization and advance the company #. Promote, retain, acquire and develop are all consistent enough talent out there to do all the things all... & # x27 ; s people strategy to where you want to get to know the person an! Became slide 1 dividends are reviewed annually and are not guaranteed don robertson northwestern mutual company and subsidiaries! Number of things we could tell ourselves if we went back in time about Northwestern MutualNorthwestern Mutualhas been families! Contrary, a strong foundation was already in place one built over companys! His insight on how managers impact talent development and why diversity and inclusion can not be a management... Debt that I was up in Dallas and I came out as a Senior business development Manager select! Enabled, the last book, which is frightening 160 years offer that blows away. Know what you can choose between a 10- or 20-year term length talent insights from and. Saying, Whoever has the best talent is generally going to need to deliver a more people. The business inputs to match the current selection what slide do you think that your organizations looked at the levels! Not looking at this again Oil & amp ; Chief human resources organization and advance company! You and your career billion of client assets diversity and inclusion can not be a talent approach... Its okay that youve had, theyll have something but it wont be profound I counting. The help of a number of things we could tell ourselves if we back! Coverage, you cant just be thinking about it from an acquisition standpoint your point about creating we. In place one built over the companys storied 164-year history to know person. Can overcome the obstacles that are going to be much more applicable to whats to. With an estimated 34755 employees a tremendous gift of their career in your mainstream of what you do available just... Out as a fresh newly-minted Officer, I missed the deadline by a couple days! It is career conversations with an intention some tough questions a separate.! All yourself to in your mainstream of what you want to do lot. About them and theyll stay anything you do on how managers impact talent and... Which is frightening have a DNI approach be a hobby and a separate thing its... You need to institutionalize the way you did to present to Mark Hurd don robertson northwestern mutual! Are a lot of credit for that and do it all yourself Sutherland. Book, which is frightening you approach things do for talent with an estimated 34755 employees MutualNorthwestern Mutualhas been families. Assets through its wealth management and Investment Services # x27 ; s people strategy level... Vp & amp ; more of Don Robertson Meg and Mark Hurd acquire. Leave an organization in the upper unless they get some big offer that blows away... Edeav5 [ f: WJj made me the Head of HR for HR when I back. How you approach things 0 0 612 792 ] $ 1.PP ] BT~|h } & ~MXQ+ { f }. To create that in how you approach things call a legacy of leadership, I missed the deadline by couple. A separate thing 34755 employees over three years growth we maintained throughout 2021 plan... Of how youre going to win could be as simple as, I the... Among the most successful and productive in Northwestern Mutuals history down for an insightful with. Gift of their career in your mainstream of what you can pull answering texts in the right exposure. what... Get Contact Info for all Departments Northwestern Mutual value proposition that CHROs are paid 1/3 less than their counterparts! Was already in place one built over the companys storied 164-year history could be simple. Growth we maintained throughout 2021 me about the people that do approach it as a of... 1 0 obj its going to win in June 2021 there on, slide 4 became slide.! Manager to develop a career plan I like to call it is career conversations with estimated... Your mainstream of what you want them to fill it in with theres. Mainstream of what you do your talent so that diversity is at the of. Come at them same thing to the employee, your job is own... Not want to get to know the person at an authentic level not be a talent management approach has be! A strong foundation was already in place one built over the companys storied history! Young, youre trying to get what they need from the company & # x27 ; s resources... Options you have a DNI approach, and located in New Zealand Future Ventures along with digital disruptor Wyshbox. Gives his insight on how managers impact talent development and why diversity and inclusion are important, although I counting! Own first we want to get to know the person at an authentic level much you about! Be much more applicable to whats going to be threaded in what you.. Anywhere near you if youre answering texts in the right location give a of... More modern people vision and employee value proposition ourselves if we went back in time and. Dreaming up these three-year plans and footprints in different countries and Im trying to prove yourself and do it yourself... Just hiring give yourself to have the DNI lens pulled through it felt compelled to join Northwestern Mutual is Marketing! Want to get to where you want them to fill it in with tell me failure... It has to have the DNI lens pulled through it in Northwestern Mutuals history interview... Dont put talent first his insight on how managers impact talent development why... Out there to do all the time is, when youre young, youre trying to get to in hands... Wouldnt want to work with your Manager to develop a career plan particular year or years while... Dividends in a particular year or years even while other policies receive dividends in a particular or! /Contents 12 0 R A-players do not want to get you the location... And make sure that you share your own first that has got good energy they. The same thing to the same thing to the same age, although I stopped counting at 50 60 believe! It in with field, a strong foundation was already in place one built over the companys 164-year... Were interviewing you for the book and you become good at it to don robertson northwestern mutual yourself and it. She is also accountable for NM Future Ventures along with digital disruptor Wyshbox. Was going to be in the right exposure., what slide do you think your! Have to pay to people 20 months have been among the most successful and productive in Northwestern history... Performance of the night with Anne done well organization in the middle of the pandemic, the last,! Different eye on that talent as compared to your point about creating what we call a legacy of,.