Melissa Cee - Chief HR Officer, TIAA Global Asset Management - YouTube

Welcome to another CHRO Conversation hosted by the Center for Executive

Succession here at the Darla Moore School of Business in Columbia, South

Carolina. My name is Anthony Nyberg and today we're joined in conversation by

Melissa Cee of TIAA, thank you very much for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

So a lot of conversations lately in the HR world

have revolved around HR becoming more strategic, more business oriented, have

you experienced that and if so can you share what that means to you?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm in a business line HR role supporting our asset management business

at TIAA, and certainly I have seen a big transformation in the last probably four

or five years of not just getting yourself to the table, but if you're at

the table you have to understand what the business does, what the business

challenges are, what the goals are, what we're trying to do, you have to

understand the financials, so from an HR standpoint we usually...

And that's a big deal when you're in the financial services.

we usually steered clear of you know sort of you

just glazed over when the financials happen, but you have to understand the

full scope of the business, the full challenges of the business and

really when you're at the table and part of the leadership team, you're thinking

about the success of the business, you happen to specialize in HR and you know

are responsible for the talent and the development and the leadership, but

without understanding what the business is doing and what they're faced

with, you're not going to be the effective leader they're looking for. so

So this new interest or new expectation that HR will be strategic, has that

led to additional challenges or different challenges in the work?

It has certainly because it's a shift and I think HR has made a shift

certainly we've seen it at TIAA in the past, I've been there six years so when

I joined there, HR was you know taking direction from the business not really

contributing or having an opinion about where we should go, but rather wait until

the business leaders make the decision and then we'll let you know what we need

you to do, so in other words sit back, wait they'll tell you what to do,

you go do it, you're a great HR partner if you do exactly what we need you to do,

and so that is no longer the HR talent we're looking for, but rather we're

looking for the HR talent that understands the business, understands the

challenges, understands the clients and the competitive landscape, but then also

understands how you make a difference from a strategic standpoint with HR.

Has that talent been readily available or is that also a challenge for you?

It's challenge and we like to develop our own talent at TIAA and so I think part of

what we have faced is some of the talent isn't going to be able to make that

transformation and so you know they are more comfortable waiting to be

told what to do and then they can do it, the talent we're looking for is the

talent who walks into a room and doesn't know what the issue is and what

needs to be done, but can help problem-solve, can help solution and can

be part of the resolution together with the business and with the confidence and

the experience level to then go back and you know figure out we may not have the

answer they're looking for, we'll have to build it, we'll have to find it, we'll

have to figure it out and we have to deliver it, and oh by the way it's

changing really fast you don't have a lot of time to to come back and deliver that with them.

So these sound like really radically different competencies that

you're looking for now and I think what I heard you say is listening,

trying to understand what's really going on in the business is critical, how do you

find these people or how do you train them?

So I'll tell you, you have to

know what you know and know what you don't know and be confident enough to

say I need to learn so I can be better, and so you know sometimes that's hard

for some of our HR colleagues, we don't like to admit what we don't know so I

went into the asset management space and I knew what asset management was

at a very, very high level, I didn't know all the products, I didn't know all the

investment performance, I didn't know all of the challenges, I didn't know we were

in the almond business and the real estate business and all of this, and

so I quickly knew if I was going to be successful, I needed to find a friend

that I could phone a friend and so we had a top talent leader had been there

for 10 years and I went to him one day and I said

Jose I'd like to ask you to help me, I need to know and

understand the business better and I can go learn it outside I can read about it

but I understand that we have the best people in the business right here, would

you be willing to help me, could you be my safe place to call and say I don't

understand what they were talking about in this meeting and in return, so you

could be my business mentor, and in return I know your top talent, I know

your leadership development, I know you're going places and are working to

be a better leader with greater opportunities, perhaps I can give that to

you as well, and so we have probably two years ago

struck up that balance, we still have it today, if I call him he knows what I'm

looking for and always helps me know and understand the challenges of the

business better and I help him from a leadership development and thinking about his career...a bit of a barter.

So really partnering, and not just servicing.

And I would say that

fast-tracked my learning, because I was courageous enough to say I don't know

what I need to know today and I don't know what they were talking about in

that meeting, can you please help me?

And understanding the business,

I mean it seems obvious but I presume that has made a big difference?

A big, big difference especially as we're growing, as we're changing our

organizational structure and model, when you understand the

businesses and the challenges and what we're sort of moving away from and where

we're going to, you can be that better organizational design partner.

Well now that brings up; then I think I understand TIAA has really been changing

particularly in the HR space and you're known for this also for becoming more

customer focused is that right, and what does that mean for HR?

Yeah, so TIAA has

a new CHRO, Skip Briggs who joined us about four years ago and he's a change

agent and he was hired to be that change agent for HR, probably spent the first

two years fixing the foundational work, you can't say you're gonna be strategic

and innovative in HR if you don't get the basics right, so you know the payroll,

the experience, the candidates were having as we were trying to bring them

on board, and strengthen our foundation, added a

bunch of technology so that we were better, faster and then upgraded some of

the talent through internal development, but also going out and attracting the

talent we needed and then we said to our business without really a lot of

marketing or fanfare, but through the transformation of HR they started to

feel a different HR support happening and the pool was rather than, oh gosh I

got to remember to call HR and tell them what I need, the pool was, where's

HR, you know, is Melissa coming to the meeting? So if I'm not in a meeting I

missed and I think that's that's a big part of what the success of that

transformation has been.

That's actually really exciting to hear, so it has

been about HR really contributing to their bottom line, helping them run their

business better and through that, less dictatorial about HR having direct order

people around and rather now getting invited...

And no marketing needed, it was

your performance and your contribution which made them want to ask for more.

So that is really very exciting.

It's an exciting time.

Do you think that's true in, is TIAA unique that way isn't it an exciting time in HR in our field?

I think it's an exciting time in the field, so I think you know if we were to look

at other finance, certainly my industry, financial services, but other companies

they are looking for that value add and that thinking and strategic I don't know

the answer so I'm not coming with my products that are on the shelf but

rather we have to figure out what the answer is and then figure out how to do it and build it.

So you have a long, strong history in the financial services field,

and not a lot of HR people come from that particular background,

how is HR unique in the financial services and what can

you do as HR people to really guide that progress?

So I think what's unique is

the financial services space has turned very competitive, you know, market

conditions, expansion globally, terrorism, you know, when you're in charge of the

people and the human side of the business, all of these things impact what

you do, how you do it, and what success looks like, so I think you know given the

competitive landscape, the talent, you have to go get the talent and

we've thought outside of the box, so some of the solutions you know in this day

and age talented people don't have to go where the job is, but rather you have to

help your organization figure out if you really want the job in New York and

the person that the talent that we're after is in San Francisco, can we make

that work and I would say that from an HR standpoint and from a alternative

work schedule, alternative locations probably half of our leadership team

today in asset management lives and works in different places and makes it work.

That must be a pretty remarkable challenge in and of itself of trying to

coordinate all this.

It is, but technology certainly helps so if I'm in my office

in Florida or in my office in New York, New York I can join the meeting in

person, in Florida I can join the meeting in person also through video, we tend to

be where our clients are, but as we as we continue to grow and expand it becomes

harder to be where you need to be, so certainly the technology, but

also the flexibilities because again talent has options and as an

employer you have to recognize and respect those options and sort of meet

them halfway, it's not just about who's gonna pay the most to make you move to

where you don't want to be, the retention play is also if I can be where I am and

what's important to me personally and also be challenged professionally it has

a longer hold on the retention and the commitment to the company.

When we attract the talent and we start to think flexible what can we make work here, that

would make us unique to the competition and also give what we're looking for, you

know, everybody can pay to attract talent, everybody gives your benefits, your pay, your

promises, what-have-you, everything that is a standard offering, it's the softer

and the more unique offerings, it's the culture, it's the values, it's who are

you working for and people are working really, really hard, long days,

long hours, it matters in this day and age where they give

their time and what they're getting back and when you have a company that's

willing to meet you partway or say, it's no problem we

have an office in San Francisco you can work there. What is very important and

what you have to stress upfront as you're attracting that talent, is it's

dependent upon relationships and so when you are new to the company and you have

an arrangement like that, you have to spend a lot of time where you need to be

to build those relationships, to understand the challenges to feel the

environment so that when you're not there, you know what's going on.

This sounds like just another place where HR is leading the way.

Correct.

So thank you very much for joining us,

I appreciate it and we look forward to the rest of our visit with you.

Super, me too.