After realizing that a career in investment banking wasn’t for her, Julie Lodge-Jarrett went to a career fair in Detroit to stand in a long line, wondering if she could talk to someone about a job at Ford Motor Company. She landed in HR, and after a multi-decade career at Ford, she accepted an offer to become Chief People and Purpose Officer at DICK’s Sporting Goods in 2019. In this episode of People and Strategy, Lodge-Jarrett joins host Mo Fathelbab to discuss topics including how DICK’s promotes civility in a retail environment, and the organization’s use of “dialogue circles” to encourage healthy debate and discussion among team members.
After realizing that a career in investment banking wasn’t for her, Julie Lodge-Jarrett went to a career fair in Detroit to stand in a long line, wondering if she could talk to someone about a job at Ford Motor Company. She landed in HR, and after a multi-decade career at Ford, she accepted an offer to become Chief People and Purpose Officer at DICK’s Sporting Goods in 2019. In this episode of People and Strategy, Lodge-Jarrett joins host Mo Fathelbab to discuss topics including how DICK’s promotes civility in a retail environment, and the organization’s use of “dialogue circles” to encourage healthy debate and discussion among team members.
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Mo Fathelbab:
Welcome to today's episode of People and Strategy. I'm your host, Mo Fathelbab, President of International Facilitators Organization. People + Strategy is a podcast from the SHRM Executive Network, the premier network of executives and thought leaders in the field of human resources. People and Strategy is the podcast delivering in-depth conversations with HR executives and people leaders to advance the field of human resources by providing engagement and thought leadership to senior executives. In today's episode, we'll be discussing the topic of workplace civility. Civility is a cornerstone of workplace culture that allows people and businesses to thrive by fostering respect and empathy among everyone. However, according to SHRM research, US workers report that incivility is increasingly prevalent in their workplaces. Joining me today to discuss workplace civility is Julie Lodge-Jarrett, Chief People and Purpose Officer at Dick's Sporting Goods. Julie joined Dick's in 2020 following a multi-decade career in HR and human capital management at Ford Motor Company. Julie, welcome to People and Strategy.
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
Thank you, Mo. I'm happy to be here.
Mo Fathelbab:
Well, thank you. How are you today?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
I'm good today. It's a good day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Thanks. How about yourself?
Mo Fathelbab:
Lovely. Although it's just gotten cold all of a sudden after a lovely spring, but great to be with you. Let's dive in, Julie. So could you tell us a bit about your journey to becoming the CHRO at Dick's and what led you to your career in HR?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
Sure. I will say my journey started really when I went to college at the University of Toledo. It was never my intent to end up in HR, if I'm being honest. My undergrad was in marketing, I stayed and ended up getting my MBA. However, I was part of an incoming freshman four year program called Leadership UT, and in this program, it took a cohort of us through all four years and it taught us skills like complex problem solving and community engagement and the importance of leadership at all levels and how to be a good member of a team. And I would say that that program gave me the foundation to explore other options and to potentially lean into HR in the future. I also ended up teaching that class when I was a GA in grad school.
But when I graduated, I started my career with a investment banking company, with a brokerage firm, and I quickly realized that that was not for me. And so I went to a career fair in Detroit, Michigan and stood in the long line for Ford Motor Company and ended up meeting this recently retired labor relations rep. And through that exchange, he convinced me that I might be pretty good negotiating with the UAW. And as you mentioned, that was more than two decades ago. And after sitting in nearly every seat within HR, after working and living around the world with my family, I got a call in late 2019 from the now CEO of Dick's Sporting, Goods, Lauren Hobart. And that was four years ago, and that's how we ended up here.
Mo Fathelbab:
And the rest is history as they say.
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
The rest is history. That's right.
Mo Fathelbab:
Wonderful. So really your starting point was more in business, not HR. In fact, I heard you say you've never taken an HR course. So how has that business experience shaped your skills and abilities as a CHRO?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
Sure, and I worked for a CHRO once who told me I should never actually admit that I hadn't taken an HR course, especially in front of an audience of SHRM members perhaps. But I actually think that my background in business really helped shape how I show up today. The reality is HR is a service function. We are here in support of the business, and the more we can immerse ourselves into being business leaders first who have deep expertise and acumen in the function that is HR, I think the more we earn the right to have a seat at the table at all times and in all discussions. And I really encourage my team to look through two frames in any decision that we make about how we spend our time and the type of work that we do.
The first is always, is the work we're doing adding business value? I think there needs to be a direct linkage and cause and effect. I think it's a cop-out to say we can't measure the effect and the impact of our work on the business, and we need to have those analytics to be able to prove out that the work we're doing is driving the business forward. And this can't just be an internal assessment. It can't be us looking at ourselves thinking we're amazing and doing amazing work. We also need to be testing that with the business and with our internal customers. And I'd suggest that if you aren't at the table for the whole discussion and you're just part of a discussion that involves people that we're not all the way to [inaudible 00:05:24] yet from being a strategic business partner.
The second lens that we also need to always look through and we're uniquely positioned to be in HR is the work we're doing enhancing the employee experience. We have the responsibility, I believe, to be advocates for our employees, to be the voice of the employees when their voice isn't being heard to the extent that it should or could. And if we do this right, we know and we've done deep studies at Dick's. We know there's a direct correlation between our top quartile of stores from a teammate satisfaction perspective and our top quartile of stores from a customer satisfaction. We call our employees teammates and we call our customers athletes. And so we know empirically that happy teammates deliver happy athletes, and we also know that happy athletes spend more money. So if we get it right, we're directly impacting the success of our business.
The last thing I'd say, Mo, is a practice that we've really been trying to reinforce is the importance in HR of doing what I call raise our gaze. And so we've got to remember that there's a whole big world out there that's outside of the company that we're in and outside of the work that we're doing. And there's some really good stuff happening. And so how do we understand and identify what does great look like across all of the different practices within our function and who's doing that best in class? And how do we find them? And how do we learn from them? How do we listen to a podcast or read a book or attend a conference where we're able to connect with a network of people doing similar work? I think the majority of what we do is not intellectual property, and so there's absolutely no reason for us not to connect and really rise that tide and lift all ships.
Mo Fathelbab:
Wow, amazing. Really amazing. That's a good segue to my next question for you, Julie, which is civility. Obviously if there's not civility, then those are not going to be happy teammates. So really let's talk about the lack of civility. It's a big topic these days, in politics and even in the workplace. In fact, there was a SHRM survey that found that two thirds of workers say they've experienced or witnessed incivility in their workplace in the past month. So what does Dick's do to promote a culture of civility and respect with employees and with customers in a retail environment?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
I think the first thing that we do is acknowledge the reality of it. As sad and as frustrating as it can be, we live in a nation with a bit of an exposed nerve right now, and retail is at the crux of that. And what we found when our now CEO, Lauren Hobart and I started to visit stores even back to 2020 is we heard from our teammates that they didn't feel like we had their back. Historically in retail, the customer is king. And so they do no wrong and you do everything you need to do to make sure they're happy. And the reality is there are many times where the customer isn't right, where the customer isn't treating our teammates with the civility, with the respect and dignity that they deserve. And historically, we trained a leader that if they saw some conflict or tension between an athlete and a teammate that you would intervene.
The first thing you would do is apologize whether or not we did anything wrong. The second thing you'd do is you'd remove the teammate from the situation and then you'd do everything you could to make the athlete happy. And what we found was not only were we not being fair to the teammate, but we weren't holding the athlete accountable for living what we call our zero tolerance stance, where we say we have no tolerance for anyone who treats other humans with discrimination or harassment or a lack of dignity and respect. And so through this courageous feedback from our teammates, we completely changed how we approach an intervention, how we teach and how we expect our leaders to show up.
So going forward, what we expect is when there's a conflict, the leader still intervenes and it goes something like this. I would say, "Sir, I can tell you're unhappy and I would like to do everything I can to help you get what you came in here for today. But I want to start by saying that at Dick's Sporting Goods, we don't tolerate lack of respect and we expect that everyone's treated with the dignity that they deserve. And how you're treating my teammate is unacceptable. So we've got two choices. You can choose to be civil, and if you do, I'd love to help you get what you came here for. Or if you don't think you can do that, I'd politely ask you to leave."
And that small step paid big dividends to our teammates to create greater civility within our stores and to create that reciprocal agreement between both our internal teammates as well as the people who walk into our stores to say, "We expect on both sides, everyone to be treated with dignity and respect." And we've got a sign across all our 900 stores, but then we bring that sign to life and that stance to life through the interaction model that I just described.
Mo Fathelbab:
That is absolutely beautiful. I love that. Thank you for sharing that with us. So what other initiatives specifically or programs have you all set up to address workplace civility and employee wellbeing?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
I've got a couple examples I'd love to share, but I want to start by reinforcing the nuance that civility or lack thereof is not synonymous with misalignment or disagreement. I think it's our responsibility in HR to create the conditions by which you can have messy but healthy debates and discussions. And you can do that in a civil way even if you're not aligned and on the same page. And again, in 2020 we started, but we still regularly facilitate what we call dialogue circles. So that'll be my first example.
We created the conditions by which teammates could come together mostly in person in our stores and distribution centers, but we now do them virtually across the company as well, that allow for a conversation to be had on topics that historically would've been seen as taboo in the workplace. We've talked about everything from responsible gun reform to women's reproductive rights to civil and racial conflict in the world and here in the communities in which we live and work. And we've created the space to allow for diversity of thought, discussion and always education across the group of teammates who come together because we're Pollyanna if we think those conversations aren't happening. So we might as well facilitate them in a way that allows for a safe and constructive dialogue to occur.
The second example I'd give, and this is a little bit about civility, but it's even more focused on the wellbeing part of your question, Mo. And that's we know from research that the average American is just $400 away from a financial crisis, and the vast majority of our workforce are part-time teammates. So they're not earning a complete living working for us. And 45% of our population is 25 or younger. And I don't know about you, but when I was 25, I didn't necessarily know where my next meal was coming from or how I was going to pay for the night out tomorrow, let alone pay for an unexpected expense that came up.
And so we launched what we call our Teammate Relief Fund, TRF, and it's a nonprofit that we started that Dick's can donate two-thirds of the money and teammates have to donate a third of the money. And we create this fund where any teammate or any of their family members, if they have a financial need that they can't cover, they can apply to receive up to a $2,000 grant. And I'm super proud to say that in the last two years since we've launched, we've raised and given back over a million dollars to our teammates, covering everything from a broken car window, to a spouse's cancer treatment, to natural disaster impacts for houses and teammates' property. And I think that's a great way of showing how as a company you can bring civility and the importance of wellbeing, but have it be a team effort where the teammates chip in as well. And it's a real pride point for us.
Mo Fathelbab:
I love that, especially how the teammates also are chipping in because I think that fosters a sense of community. It's not just getting it from the company, so to speak.
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
That's right. And I give today, but I might need to receive tomorrow. So we also reinforce that any one of us could be in a position of need as well as in a position of being able to pay it forward. And I think that we've got a lot of success stories that show both sides of that story.
Mo Fathelbab:
Amazing. So with the election coming up, I know that things can get a little tense, and it sounds like you guys have some processes in place for having these tense conversations. But I'm wondering how do you decide on how to take on those issues and how do you train your leaders to handle those conversations?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
I would say it's not easy, but 2020 was a great practice year for a lot of things, and this was one of them, and I would argue it's even more complex in 2020 because while we had a presidential election year, we also were combating a global pandemic. And so we know that our 55,000 teammates are a microcosm of the nation, and about half of them are on one side of the aisle, and about half of them are on the other side of the aisle, and definitely will not be in alignment around candidate or platforms.
And so we definitely realize that conversation is going to happen, although I'll be honest with you and tell you that we're not facilitating dialogue circles around presidential candidates. I would say that should be off limits. You can talk about topics, but not candidates. But we are doubling down on reinforcing our zero tolerance stance. Again, everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, agnostic of whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or support one candidate or the other. And how do we make sure when the nation feels so divided, we're at least creating a culture where we feel more united and feel like we belong, at least inside our four walls.
Mo Fathelbab:
United, belong, civil conversations. I think we need more of that even outside of Dick's Sporting Goods.
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
Amen, Mo. We sure do.
Mo Fathelbab:
Yeah. So Dick's has proudly taken stands on issues like limiting sales of certain guns in stores. How does your company decide on which issues to take a public stand?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
It's a good question, and to be honest, one that we've had a lot of debate and discussion on in the past, and I would say that our default is not to publicly enter the conversation. Our default is to remain quiet on the things that where we don't have something to say or where we don't think we authentically have earned the right to have a point of view. But there are a few things where we are going to decide to be public, and firearms is a great example of that. We unfortunately found ourselves a part of this story. We sold a gun to the Parkland Shooter months before the shootings occurred, and thankfully we didn't sell the gun that he used, but the reality was we did everything right, and somehow this young man still ended up with multiple firearms in his possession, and that didn't feel good. And we didn't want to be part of that story anymore, and we felt like we had the responsibility to be part of the change that we wanted to see across the nation.
Mo Fathelbab:
You're amazing. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. I have one fun question for you. So I understand that you were a competitive athlete. Can you tell us a little bit more? What was your sport? What's your athletic background? And maybe more importantly, how did that impact your outlook in business and leadership?
Julie Lodge-Jarrett:
This is a fun question and a much easier question than maybe some of the others. I played all sports growing up. I grew up in a neighborhood of all kids around my age, and we were always outside playing sports. But my personal favorite and one that I still play today is basketball. I grew up on a basketball court and a football field because my dad was a high school coach. And I would say that what I learned from being a student athlete and now even what I continue to learn as an adult who happens to be athletic, is the importance of work ethic, of resilience, of grit. Sports taught me how to win and how to lose with civility, and we don't see that necessarily all the time on the courts and fields today. It taught me good sportsmanship, how to be a part of a team and to know when to lead, but to also know when to be willing to be a follower for the good of the team.
And all of those skills are directly transferable to our professional life, I would argue they're transferable to my life as a parent and as a spouse, and they're directly impacting the decisions I make as a people leader as well. Because just as in sport, a coach has to change the way they approach each individual athlete because they all respond differently to different feedback and different styles. The same needs to be true for us as people leaders, knowing that we've got to figure out what motivates and what disincentivizes each of our teammates. And I think a lot of those lessons that I find help me be most successful today were lessons I learned on the court as a kid.
Mo Fathelbab:
Amen to that. Thank you so much, Julie, for this wonderful conversation and for taking the time to speak with us today about workplace civility. We really appreciate your perspective and thought leadership. You can follow the People and Strategy Podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Also, podcast reviews have a real impact on podcast visibility. So if you enjoyed today's episode, leave a review to help others find the show. Finally, you can find all our episodes on our website at shrm.org/podcasts. Thank you for listening and have a great day.