Embrace Career Accelerator Programs to Nurture Top Talent

Encourage employee retention through learning and development

How can upskilling both set your company up for success and help make employees feel empowered on their own career journey? How do these programs impact talent attraction and retention? 

Transcription:

Alyssa Place (00:07):

Afternoon, Everyone thanks for sticking around. I know we're getting close to happy hour time, so I really appreciate it. I'm Alyssa Place, Executive Editor at EBN, and I'm so excited to welcome Lynne Luque, Chief People Officer at NerdWallet. Lyne has over two decades of professional experience, both as an HR professional and in advisory services, and she is now working to build people and cultural programs to scale at NerdWallet, both to support people but the company's business growth as well. Lynne has also worked at Envoy and as the Global Human Resources Director at X previously Twitter.

Lynee Luque (00:48):

You had to remind me of that.

Alyssa Place (00:50):

I know. I have to remind everybody that that's what it's called now. Well listen, I'd love to start off by just kind of taking a look at what's going on at NerdWallet today and specifically about the company's development programs, career accelerator program and the Leadership Empowerment Accelerator program that you've spearheaded there.

Lynee Luque (01:14):

Well, thank you everyone for sticking it out like she said, because I know I'm standing between you and drinks, which always is a tough spot. So one thing is you listed off a lot of development words and stuff, so I'll start with that. At NerdWallet, we really do have a belief that investing in the people that are there already, so existing employees is one of the best investments we can make. I was reflecting a little bit at who reports to the CEO. So NerdWallet is a 14-year-old company and more than half of his direct reports have been there eight or nine years. So it really is about, and as you can imagine in those first couple of years of existence, it was like the CEO in a room with a desk. So it wasn't this massive business that needed all these teams. So it's really starts with our CEO walking the talk of wanting to leverage the people that we already have there. So that as the overarching umbrella and theme, we really strive every single year to take a look at what ways can we continue to invest in development so that our folks can grow alongside the business. That doesn't always mean a promotion right away, but I always say it's preparation meets opportunity. That's the nice sweet spot. So we can prepare them and as the business grows, they'll be able to take advantage of that. And really the programs you mentioned are aimed at preparing people to take advantage of growth opportunities.

Alyssa Place (02:55):

So can you talk us through those programs and what the differences are between them?

Lynee Luque (02:59):

Yeah, so we have many general programs and one thing that we noticed when we were developing our diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging programs as well as just developing our general development programs is that there was an opportunity to intersect both of those. So many of the normal development programs were targeted towards already existing people managers or already existing leaders. So they all had rich opportunities there. But what we know is we wanted to increase our representation of historically underrepresented groups in tech and specifically at NerdWallet. And what we saw is they weren't represented in management or in leadership at high enough rates to say that we were really developing those skills within those populations. So looking at two problem statements and finding that intersection, we decided to take our leadership blueprint and attach it to populations that were a little bit lower where we do have underrepresented folks available to participate in those programs. So one of them, the CAP one is aimed at mid-career professionals, mostly individual contributors, so they're not yet managers. And really we want them to grow so that they are ready when the business is ready to take advantage of an opportunity. The other one LEAP is targeted at the population that's right at the cusp of leadership. So they're just one promotion away or one big job away from being part of our leadership team. And so we're investing in them with some of our leadership blueprint.

Alyssa Place (04:54):

And these programs didn't exist until you arrived, so what was the process of saying, I have this idea and eventually actually getting these established programs off the ground?

Lynee Luque (05:08):

Yeah, well, again, it started with our CEO and the mission of the company. Really we want to spread access and opportunity. We talk about it in terms of finance, but how do we make that mission a reality for the folks that are inside our walls? So that was kind of maybe the origin story is just how do we provide opportunity? How do we prepare our folks? How do we make sure that we're pulling up leaders from within the LRE existing company? So that's kind of like the premise. Now, I loved the last panelist. I think it was both Dominique and Lisa had mentioned the concept of test and learn. So as you can imagine at a growth company, I don't know the size of company that people are at, but a lot of this is like, let's try it, see if it works, see what the feedback is. So taking the data of we want to move the needle on underrepresented groups and we know that career investment helps retain folks, that was kind of like that first set of data that helped us get that test out there. And then as we started rolling the programs out, we have feedback mechanisms in order to see is it working? Should we make a modification? Is this really helping us achieve our goal?

Alyssa Place (06:37):

And could you share some of the modifications that you had to make when you got that feedback?

Lynee Luque (06:43):

Yeah. Well, we're in the process of making some modifications right now as we speak. One of the biggest ones is we, were a smaller organization as of today, we're only around 700 people, which again, depending on what size companies everyone works at, but we saw some panelists here from very large organizations, 700 is small. When I started three years ago, we didn't have a built out learning and development team or even DEIB team. This was just a generalist HR team. Let's see what we can do with what we have. So we did have to leverage outside vendors in order to establish the curriculum and bring it in-house, which is a great scrappy way to do things. But as most people know, it takes away the ability to tailor it to your company, take the concept of just off the shelf and you don't get to make a lot of modifications. So that's our biggest modification going into year two on this is how do we make this more NerdWallet? How do we make it more specific to our people and our business needs? And we do now have staff that specialize in curriculum development and program and development. So that's probably the number one modification that we're going to make. So it could just be more specific to our folks.

Alyssa Place (08:05):

And is the end goal to essentially make sure that no one ever leaves NerdWallet or what is your hope for these programs in terms of using it as a recruitment tool, a retention tool, and also just kind of pushing forward diversity and the larger values of the programs?

Lynee Luque (08:23):

So I'll speak personally, I want people to have the best career they possibly can. And I know sometimes that means leaving an organization Now as the chief people officer of NerdWallet, of course I want to retain, especially the people that I'm talking about now, which are high potential employees, I want to retain them as long as possible, as long as we want and they want. But turnover is like unemployment. You don't want it to be zero. You want some movement in the organization. So I know that's reality. Our number one goal was what I stated a little bit earlier is how do we prepare them to take the next big opportunity? That doesn't necessarily mean promotion for us. We have a more broad definition of career development. That could mean taking a lateral move, but in a different business group or business line or functional role.

(09:19)

So moving from HR to engineering doesn't happen often, but we want that to be a possibility. So one is just like are they moving and are they tackling our company's biggest problems? That's a big indicator of success for us for the program. Another one is retention, right? So are they staying long enough so that we can see them grow in these new roles and tackling these new problems? I wouldn't say that promotion is off the table. It's not the sole purpose of the program, but it's more of a secondary benefit when a promotion is available. Yes, I would love these employees that are in the program leap, that is to prepare them for leadership on the cusp of leadership. Yes, I would love to see them in a leadership position at some point. So not the primary goal, but more of a secondary goal.

Alyssa Place (10:21):

And when you think about, obviously the programs aren't open to every single employee, but it perhaps would benefit the entire organization. Can you talk a little bit about the trickle down effect when you have specific programs and how it could really make a much wider impact for the organization as a whole?

Lynee Luque (10:42):

So as the last panelists, last two panelists shared a little bit is like no program is going to be applicable to every single employee. That's true in any of the things, benefits that we offer learning and development. They're always going to be higher impact for some groups and a little bit lower impact for other groups. One of the nice things about the test and learn philosophy is we really could use this as a testing ground. And if something was great in this program and we could scale it and spread it across the company, then we will. So one example of that is in these development programs, there was a one-on-one coaching aspect where participants were able to get certified coaches a few hours with certified coaches. There was a lot of value. That was one of the most highly rated aspects of the program. And so we started some internal programs that are available to everyone, a mentorship program now where folks could get coaching from more senior employees. For our right before C-suite level, we've offered a group coaching offering. And this is all based on learnings that we had from these programs. So I'd say it's a great testing ground and if something is a gold nugget, then we're going to see if we can scale it across the organization.

Alyssa Place (12:16):

And specifically when you think about DEI, why is it so much more impactful to have programs that are a little wider in terms of their scope? I mean, you're talking about leadership, career opportunities. How does that kind of advance DEI and really weave it into the fabric of the whole company?

Lynee Luque (12:38):

So number one, both myself and our head of DEIB, she's not here so I'm speaking for her or on behalf of her, but both of us share a philosophy that DIB is best when it's integrated into every part of the employee life cycle. One of our huge goals is like, let's not have one person in charge of this. At the end of the day, let's have everyone be as well-versed and committed to evolving this topic. That's our end goal, not to just continue to expand specialists in that field in the organization. So I would say just kind of like that premise is something that we operate from.

Alyssa Place (13:24):

And could you share some success stories from either of these programs just within the first year that you did this, what really stood out to you as things that made you feel like, oh, this is really worth the time and investment that we're making?

Lynee Luque (13:39):

Well, number one, we do, just as everybody said, and I'm so glad that I'm in good company here, we do assessments every so often and we do an employee survey two times a year. One of the things that we decided to do was tag if an employee had been part of that program so we can still maintain confidentiality of any of the responses of how they think their career's going, how engaged they are in the company. But we could look at the tag to see if there's a difference between the populations that participated in the program and the populations that maybe haven't gone through the program yet. And we've seen very positive results there. So that's kind of a holistic response to that. Now, I would say more specifically, I had someone on the HR team that went through the program. She went through the mid-level program, so a little bit newer to her career, and she was definitely newer to the role that she had at the beginning of the program.

(14:43)

One piece of the program is also that the executive that the person ladders up to meets with a person every quarter. So we had our quarterly meeting and at the beginning of the program, she was not as confident as I thought she should be. And we talked about that a bit. And she started to work on confidence and instilling confidence in others as part of our coaching plan and as part of our leadership and development plan. Now, this woman, I recently had a baby. I was gone for several months, so several months passed. I just had my latest meeting with her. And it's just a world of difference. Her mastery of what's going on in the business, how she speaks about her work, how she speaks about the content. It was just really refreshing to see after a long break to see that material difference. So I know it's working, again, not a perfect promotion story or anything like that, but I could see her showing up as a different professional and that makes it worth it to me.

Alyssa Place (15:53):

Yeah, I think that's a really interesting point that it's not necessarily about everybody ending up in the c-suite. It's about instilling confidence. It's about making people feel good about their careers, essentially. What is a good leader to you? You mentioned that confidence is important. What are some of the qualities that you feel are so important for leaders at NerdWallet and just leadership in general?

Lynee Luque (16:23):

And I heard that I missed a really fabulous speaker on this yesterday, so I didn't get to hear what she said. I would be very interested. First thing for me is understanding the landscape, understanding the business that you're in, whatever business that is. So that should be the north star and the guiding light for anything that you decide to do. Another thing is, and a little bit biased here, but having that growth mindset. I started my career, my full-time career post-college in 2000. Some of the jobs we're talking about today and the things that are the highest earning, they did not exist in 2000. You couldn't get a degree in that. So I think that kind of growth mindset and consistently, constantly learning mindset, that curiosity was really helpful for a leader. I also think just empathy. You are there to get the best out of your employees so that you could do the best for the business and offer more and have a really, really positive cycle. I've just seen the opposite of someone who's very self-focused or narrowly focused. There's no way that people are going to run through walls for you. And sometimes you don't have a direct dollar to give someone for an extra piece of effort. It's because they believe in you, that's why they work harder. So those are a couple of things.

Alyssa Place (18:00):

And what is next for either both of these programs or what are some of your other goals for NerdWallet and the direction that you hope to guide people through?

Lynee Luque (18:10):

So for these programs specifically, we are bringing things in-house. So I'm very excited to see what two looks like now that it's a bit more tailored. There's another element that we're pulling in. As you can all imagine, we have alumni now, so people have graduated from this program, what do we do with that population? So now we have an alumni strategy that we plan to roll out in 2024. So I'm super excited to see what happens there to kind of follow the career for multiple years of some of these graduates. I would say when we're in the midst of thinking about and solidifying our 2024 people agenda, and one of the main items is development, it still is how do we ensure that our folks are getting what they need from the organization so that they can stay engaged and stay giving their best to us at NerdWallet.

Alyssa Place (19:13):

And how would you advise other HR professionals? I mean, so many of the things that we've heard and talked about at this conference, there is a lot of stress over the cost of these benefits. There's so many needs that employers are trying to meet and perhaps developing a professional career is just something that they're like, well, that's why you come to work. So how would you advise leaders to prioritize that as its own thing when they're thinking about their strategies?

Lynee Luque (19:47):

That's a big question. We can have a 30 minute session on that. I would say that I have been at organizations that don't have nearly the resources that NerdWallet has or nearly the resources that Company X had that I was formally a part of. And we are getting scrappier. We're not immune to everything that is going on. And I have our head of learning and development here now, and one of the things that her team had trialed, which is kind of like a scrappy version of Cap and Leap, is she implemented a program called Nerdtracks where people could job shadow or shadow others. So really the whole thing is how do we have leaders teaching leaders, employees, teaching employees? So I'd say there is a way to get scrappy about this and kind of achieve the same thing, which is just the element of a bit of coaching, a bit of guidance, exposure, opportunity.

(20:52)

That's really the aim of these programs. So you can do it in a lower cost way. So I just say that to say that luckily we can invest in some of the more premier stuff like the cap and leap, but we know that it may not be a year to scale cap and leap in that intensive, robust program to everybody. So we're thinking about other ways to do it in a more scrappy, cost efficient way. So challenge people to do that. I mean everyone here is experienced and intelligent, but don't be afraid to start small like that. Our Nerd Tracks program is probably one of the most highly rated things that we've launched so far. And it took a person some hours to get people who wanted to be shadowed and people who wanted to shadow someone. It doesn't take much more than some program management.

Alyssa Place (21:46):

Yeah, I think that's interesting. I mean, sometimes it feels like you talk in circles about an idea and then it just never goes anywhere. So what is your advice or perhaps personal experience for opening up the circle and going instead of just saying, we should do this. Alright, let's talk about it some more and talk about it some more and around and around we go, how do you get forward momentum and get these programs really going in kind of a speedy, scrappy manner that you're talking about?

Lynee Luque (22:16):

This is an interesting question for me because I obviously long career have taken every personality assessment that's out there and all of them have one thing in common, which is I'm a doer, I am a get stuff done person. So I would say it's my nature to guide and push my teams to say, get something out there. I have degrees so it's not like I can't study and stuff like that. But I really think that the best learnings come when you put a product out there and get that feedback or put a program out there and get that feedback. So I would say number one, it starts from the top or from their leaders at every level. So if you're working with a team or working with colleagues, I think giving them that permission to test and learn. That's number one, creating a culture where it's okay to fail.

(23:20)

It's okay that I'm going to put a test out there and 50% might work and 50% are like, Ooh, I'm a little embarrassed about this. Let's not talk about it anymore. So I would say luckily we have a culture and environment that allows for that at NerdWallet. Another thing though is I know it's not in everybody's, especially possibly newer to role or newer to career, it's hard to think about failing when you're early. So I would also say providing permission examples. So something we do in our monthly all hands is like, how did you fail too? So it's fallen off a bit since I've been on leave, but let's not just celebrate the wins, but let's also celebrate areas where we launched something and it didn't go that well and what did we learn. So I think that there's ways, if you don't yet have that culture, like small things you can do so that you could start to change the culture to be one of more, let's test it out and see what happens.

Alyssa Place (24:26):

And you're obviously, you've created these programs, you're motivating so many people to become leaders. Just to finish up, what motivates you? What's the source of motivation that keeps you in this space and innovating on new programs?

Lynee Luque (24:41):

Yeah, I have a story in that I did not start in HR. I don't know that I thought that there was going to be a career path for me and I would be sitting here as chief people officer. However, unlocking people's potential has always been something that's inspired me. So when I was in high school, I would volunteer for programs where I could talk about what I did in high school and how to prepare for tests or how to think about colleges. I did the same when I was in college. And so it's always been an interest of mine to help others fulfill their potential, whatever that is. I have so many opportunities to do that in the seat that I'm in and I'm inspired by the smallest wins in the smallest stories. So that really continues to fuel me.

Alyssa Place (25:41):

Listen, thank you so much. I really appreciate your candor and sharing so much about NerdWallet and your own personal experiences. We do have a couple minutes left if anybody has any questions. No. Alright, well we'll give everybody their four minutes back. But again, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And enjoy the rest of your time here, everyone.