How Payoneer's CPO makes a diverse workforce feel valued

• Key insight: Discover how a people-first HR strategy anchors scalable, localized global talent management.
• Expert quote: "Human-centered change management drives better business outcomes," says John Davis.
• Supporting data: Payoneer oversees 2,500 global employees across diverse markets.
• Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

John Davis has travelled the world in his quest to create positive transformations at various organizations. Over his two-decade career, mostly in corporate strategy-based roles, he credits his success to a people-based belief: "It's good business to be human when it comes to managing change."

Now the chief people officer at global financial platform Payoneer, he's putting that core value into action. Understanding that business success starts with people, Davis has worked to revamp Payoneer's culture, and has already seen positive results.   

"I pounced on the opportunity for two big reasons," Davis says. "One, [the HR department] was not at peak morale, engagement and motivation, [and] there were a lot of things fundamentally that needed to be built so that people value it. Second, it's all about the talent and the people: If we can drive the right talent in the right roles and people are highly productive and growing collectively, not just individually, that will drive profitability, better customer service, better product development, better sales, and therefore, better profits." 

Davis also faces the challenge of integrating an international workforce — an area he's already well-versed in: He began his career with a post-college position in the Peace Corps, where his computer science background led him to instruct and integrate information technology within the education system in the Caribbean island Antigua. This was followed by work with multiple companies in Israel. Now back in the U.S. and overseeing 2,500 global employees at Payoneer, Davis says his goal is to create continuity in certain areas across all locations, while making adjustments for local needs. 

"There are going to be certain principles and standards that we expect to be consistent globally, [such as] our core ways of working and our core values when it comes to our culture," he says. "But there also has to be local tailoring."  

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Davis shares his strategies for adopting new technology, making his team more productive and creating policies that make Payoneer's workforce feel informed and cared for. 

How do you adapt your policies to keep Payoneer's diverse workforce happy? 
We use a global framework, and then for various different products, programs, etc., we tailor them to be appropriate to the local nuance. One of the things that came up strongly in our most recent employee engagement survey is the idea of flexible work arrangements — it came up pretty consistently globally, but our work from home policy is very different based on the geography. [We do] what makes sense to give people autonomy and what aligns with local market practice and local talent competition.

We tend to be more generous than the bare minimum of what's required statutorily, but talent competition has a lot to do with it, as well as what our employees value. We evaluate outputs, not inputs. I'd rather work in a company where we treat people like adults, and people really value autonomy. 

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How can new technologies help keep a global workforce aligned, and how are you doing that at Payoneer?  
We are humble about where we're at in our AI journey. We recognize that it's critical, and it has the promise and potential of increasing productivity and potentially driving down labor costs, so it's super compelling. What we've tried to do is say, where are the places where we have a relatively high degree of confidence that AI is going to accelerate business imperatives that we've already identified, and then experiment and learn. 

An example in the people function is around sourcing of talent. AI has a promise of being able to crawl databases and do proactive hunting really efficiently, or crawl our databases of existing resumes that we've received over the years that, in the past, we haven't had the tech to deal with.

Some of the more extreme approaches to AI adoption would run counter to the kind of culture we want to create at Payoneer, which is that our employees and our talent are deeply valued. We're going to do what's right for the business ultimately, but what's right for the business is that people we have are retained, motivated, engaged and loyal — especially with the critical roles and the top performers — and know that they can count on us to be empathetic and sensitive about a transition like this, including providing the upskilling where necessary, and outplacement, which we do when we need to make tough decisions or business priorities have shifted. Obviously it happens in every organization, and some people get impacted by that, but we try to take really good care of our employees and show up for them.

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What is your approach to introducing new technology such as AI to the workforce?
It comes down to articulating the rationale. Generally people resist change — there's a fear of change and what does it mean for me. But once the why is clear, it makes it easier for people to process and digest. Another element of that is including people. We've really made a concerted effort as we've come into the people function, and have started to be rigorous about including impacted stakeholders and consulting with them, and rolling out early versions and draft versions of potential changes for people to give feedback on. These things are core to change management of any type when it comes to technology.