Melissa Thompson is the Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Ford Motor Company. In this interview with host Tony Lee, Thompson discusses how to attract and retain talent in today's competitive market and the role culture plays in talent acquisition.
Melissa Thompson is the Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Ford Motor Company.
In this interview with host Tony Lee, Thompson discusses how to attract and retain talent in today's competitive market and the role culture plays in talent acquisition.
This episode of People and Strategy is sponsored by ADP.
Speaker 1:
Business success requires thinking beyond today. That's why ADP uses data driven insights to design HR solutions to help your business have more success tomorrow. ADP, always designing for HR talent, time benefits, payroll and people.
Tony Lee:
Hi, I'm Tony Lee, Vice President of Content for the Society for Human Resource Management and the SHRM Executive Network. The SHRM Executive Network is the premier network of executives and thought leaders in the field of human resources. We advance the HR profession by engaging executive practitioners to create solutions and drive success for people and organizations. I'm excited today to speak with Melissa Thompson, the Global Head of Talent Acquisition for Ford Motor Company. Melissa brings more than 25 years of experience from a range of industries and has spoken often about the changing world of talent acquisition. Melissa, thank you so much for being here.
Melissa Thompson:
I'm delighted to join you today.
Tony Lee:
Wonderful. So let's just start at the beginning. Why don't you share how you became interested in HR and in talent acquisition?
Melissa Thompson:
For sure. So I actually have my MBA in Human Resources. One of my very first courses at University of Texas was organizational behavior and it was, the angels didn't sing, but it was a near thing. It was one of those things where I absolutely recognized that this was the space that I wanted to be in. And I spent probably the first 15 years of my career on the generalist side of HR and then dabbling into recruiting. And at the point in 1997, when I joined Dell, that's when I had the aha around talent acquisition and the impact it can have on an organization. And it's how I ended up spending the last 20 years really focused more in the talent acquisition space. I'm very passionate about what talent acquisition can do to support the business and really excited about my opportunities to really have an impact at Ford.
Tony Lee:
Oh, that's wonderful. By the way, we have met. You participated on a panel that I moderated, our talent conference last year and little did I know that as a native tech and I could say hook them horns and it would mean something to you. So that's very exciting.
Melissa Thompson:
Absolutely.
Tony Lee:
All right. So the great resignation. It's on the mind of every HR Executive. So what's your take on this increased level of turnover? Is it here to stay?
Melissa Thompson:
I don't know that it's necessarily here to stay, but as someone who really specializes in that thinking about talent acquisition, how we go get talent, how we think about retaining talent, I think there were two things that we have to start thinking about because it's probably not going anywhere anytime soon. So one is, we finally have to focus and improve the internal candidate experience because we've heard for years and years that candidates leave our organizations because it's easier to get promoted by leaving than to get promoted within the organization. So an intense focus on how do we create internal marketplaces? How do we create opportunities for internals and make it as easy for an internal to apply for and get a job within our organizations as it is for an external.
And then on a broader umbrella, I think that organizations really have to consider revamping their employee value proposition and really given clarity around why join us. Why stay with us. Both messages being really, really clear so that you are not in the spin of the reshuffle. Instead, your organization is beginning to both do more retention and win more talent for your own organization.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. No, that makes perfect sense. And company culture and purpose becomes a big piece of that. There are lots of factors that contribute to attracting and retaining employees. And I know Ford has a deep commitment to its purpose. So can you share how that purpose helps drive, hiring and retention?
Melissa Thompson:
Yes. So I want to start by just saying that the purpose is to help build a better world where every person is free to move and pursue their dreams. It's this really rich purpose statement. And I joined talent acquisition at Ford in November 2021. So I've been around a little more than three months and we are rethinking everything around talent acquisition to help people understand things that are happening inside Ford people may not have an awareness of. We've been extraordinarily fortunate in the last year to 18 months where we've introduced new versions of our iconic brands, like the Mustang, like the Ford 150, and like the Bronco that are just being eaten up and taken in by the market. How do we infuse that same excitement when people understand the things that Ford does around helping in communities around really thinking about not just how do we make money, but how does Ford add value to people's lives?
Tony Lee:
Well, certainly a key purpose and one that I'm sure appeals to the candidates that you're talking to. Another aspect of that is making sure that your diversity recruiting is what it should be, particularly around the recent discussions now in the NFL with the Rooney rule and Brian Flores, what's important to ensure success when trying to hire diverse talent.
Melissa Thompson:
So I have been on the soap box for quite some time, saying that the Rooney rule is not effective. And the reason that it's not effective is that it doesn't go far enough. So it requires that you interview a diverse talent pool, but there are no requirements about hiring success. So here at Ford, what we're looking at is how do we think about diversity in three specific ways throughout the talent acquisition life cycle? How do we make sure that we are attracting a diverse talent pool at the top of the funnel? How do we then ensure that there is a diverse slate, at least 80% of the time? And then how do we ensure that we're getting diverse hires?
So when you're measuring in these three spaces, this helps you to see where your diversity may be falling out, whether that's gender diversity or ethnic diversity or disabilities, all of these things that we need to focus on, because we know from the metrics and the data, the more diverse you can make your organization, the more likely you are to be innovative, to be successful, to meet your revenue targets. There's just a plethora of information around what the value is around diversity recruiting. And you probably know this about me already, I could be on the soap box for fully an hour, talking about how we need to stop just discussing diversity recruiting, and instead put the metrics behind it, put the dollars in so that we're doing the attraction, hold hiring managers and recruiters accountable and then start to see the success.
Tony Lee:
All right, so let me ask you a follow up. And it's something I believe you and I have talked about before. We know that CEOs, the C-suite, even boards, are being held accountable for diversity recruiting and metrics are being followed carefully, but are enough hiring managers being measured. You mentioned that it's important to me to put metrics in place to make sure hiring managers are hiring diverse candidates. Should there be incentive payments? Should there be carrot and stick for hiring managers who don't hire diverse candidates? How do you see that working?
Melissa Thompson:
So I think that we don't make it clear enough what the business case is for hiring managers. One of the things that we are going to be doing is rolling out a training course that's called Winning Talent. And it really is focusing hiring managers on understanding what their role is throughout the recruiting process. And a big segment of that training is around diversity hiring and what the hiring manager's role is in making sure that is successful. So if there is a way that we can combine the metrics for the recruiter and give performance metrics for the hiring manager, we're going to try and put that in in the second half of this year.
Tony Lee:
That's great. Well, an early good luck. I'm hopeful that it will be as successful as you'd like it to be. Let's pivot a little bit. We've talked a little bit before about millennials and gen Z and what drives them in terms of wanting to engage with the company and stay with the company. And we know that social issues have risen to the top, climate change issues, stakeholder capitalism. I know that Ford is dedicated to its communities and sustainability. How is progress being measured in that regard?
Melissa Thompson:
We know the interesting thing is if you look at the history of Ford, all the way back to Henry Ford's days of putting in a living wage and helping to drive the middle class, our commitment to sustainability and our engagement in communities where we work and where we live are huge selling factors for our candidates. So one of the things we're going to be focusing on this year is how do we begin to get that information outside of the Ford four walls, and really help people understand the things that Ford is doing today to drive sustainability, to really engage with our communities.
We were one of the first, as the pandemic hit, to really convert our factories over to helping to get PPE and helping to support the efforts of our healthcare workers. There is literally a ton that's being done in Ford proper and in the Ford fund that is really exciting and engaging and goes beyond just Southeast Michigan. So I'm spending quite a bit of time finding what those nuggets and kernels are and figuring out how we get them outside so that people can really see the things that we're doing.
Tony Lee:
No, that's great. So I'm curious, do you feel like that you have a different approach for younger workers as they're coming to Ford, as they're trying to stay with Ford and not be lured elsewhere? Or do you think it applies to the entire employee population that even the baby boomers are thinking about retiring or thinking about social issues?
Melissa Thompson:
Yeah. I think that baby boomers had not demanded this social accountability as gen Z's has, but I think as they've seen the example of gen Z, they're starting to really use their voices around. This is something that I expect a company to do as well. I think it's part of corporate responsibility that you're really thinking about these things in terms of re-engaging with your community, giving back to the community and really thinking about sustainability and what are the things that big corporations that have the dollars and the capability are delivering back to our communities?
Tony Lee:
Well, I can't believe we've gotten this far into the interview without having to mention the pandemic, but here we are. Thankfully, the pandemic seems to be waning. However so many other issues, inflation, global insecurity, obviously the supply chain, had a significant impact on Ford. So what's your philosophy on handling constant change as an HR leader?
Melissa Thompson:
So the pandemic may be heightened it, but I think this has always been the case, which is that communication cannot be overstated. In times of great change, communication has to come in a number of different ways. You can't just do emails. You can't just think put things on the internet. You can't just tweet. You've got to do a variety of things to communicate both internally and externally around what you're doing with relation to the pandemic. At the same time, I think that HR leaders have to lean into the gray areas.
We have to be flexible about policies and practices and thoughts that we're putting in place that may then be impacted by Omicron or Delta, and be ready to pivot quickly and return to, or head for a new normal as we begin to open up, which please let that be as we get into the spring and summer of this year. But really leaning into that flexibility and not being hardened fast on things like remote work. There were a lot of organizations that wanted to be first to say, "We're going back to the office". And then they had to be the first to wind that back out. So really keeping some flexibility can make a difference in your messaging.
Tony Lee:
I'm curious because you're in a unique position where a lot of your workforce is in manufacturing, they are in plants in person. And yet you have a lot of back office operations that could work remotely. Is there a challenge balancing that? Do you have employees who feel like it's not equitable if I have to be in and others can be out? What's your thought there?
Melissa Thompson:
So we've laid it out that there are roles that are site dependent. There are roles that can be hybrid, half in the office, partially in the office, partially out of the office. So generally close to an office. And then there are roles that can either be fully or partially remote. And really thinking of that in that continuum has helped people not feel like there's so much of the we, they. It's based on the role that you're in and the value that you're delivering to Ford, and whether you literally need to be in a plant in order to put the widget in place versus if you live in the Michigan area and as the office is open in April, you actually want to be able to be in the office so that you can reengage in a different way.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. Now another aspect of this of course is employee burnout and Zoom fatigue and all of that. And we've written a lot about it at SHRM, but something we haven't spent a lot of time talking about is executive burnout. So what are you doing professionally and personally to stay balanced, to avoid burnout and what are you doing as you care for your senior team and other senior leaders at Ford?
Melissa Thompson:
First, I'll say that I have a philosophy that says, I believe in work life balance, as long as we understand it will never be 50/50. There are going to be times at 70/30. There's going to be times when it's 20/80. That to me is balance. We have a practice at Ford of doing check-ins at the beginning of most of our meetings. And some of those can be fun check-ins to say this summer, when the pandemic goes into a locked closet, what's the place that you most want to go? Or they can be, what's keeping you up at night at right now. And how can we really talk through those things?
You probably have caught this from other conversations you've had with me, which is that I believe you should have fun at work. And so I like to find ways that we can interject fun, whether it is playing games or thinking of ways that we can be creative together, building a vision board, each person on my direct report team, and then sharing back what you put on your board and why you think we'll actually make that vision by the end of the year. But here's the nuance, and it's much like the gray area comment I made earlier, which is that there isn't a silver bullet for burnout and we are in particular on my team, very focused on if you do not feel well, take the time because this is not heart surgery.
If you're not here, it will be fine. I often say there's no such thing as recruiting emergency. So really making sure that we're keeping an eye on these things because the burnout is very, very real and doing those check-ins, having those touch points, but also having these things that you can do where you step away from the work and you enjoy spending time together, even if you're not in the same room together. I think all of that is really, really important.
Tony Lee:
Couldn't agree more. One last question. So if you were advising someone who's just starting off in HR, maybe they just got their degree, they're just getting their first job. What would your advice be?
Melissa Thompson:
Don't put yourself in a whole right to begin with. Don't say, "This is the thing I'm going to do, and I'm just going to stick to it until I get to the end game. If you've decided you want to move into HR, try different aspects of HR. Find out what gets you energized. At the beginning of this conversation, I talked about my career, but I skipped over the fact that I spent time in corporate. I spent time in small independent companies. I worked for an RPO for a few years and I really have played across the gamut of HR before I made that decision when I went to Dell to really focus in the talent acquisition space.
So in addition to trying different things, don't hesitate to reach out to people that are either recent in their career in HR and find out their learnings or people that have been in HR for 15, 20, or however many years I've been there, to really say how has it been for you? What have you learned? What are the ropes to skip and the ropes to know? So not getting stuck is really important.
Tony Lee:
Well, that's great advice. Although you and I know the truth, that recruiting is where it's at, but that's okay. Well, Melissa, thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us today. We really, really appreciate it. And for more information on the topics we've discussed today, or for further details on the SHRM Executive Network, please visit www.sherm.org/executive. That's it. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1:
Business success requires thinking beyond today. That's why ADP uses data driven insights to design HR solutions to help your business have more success tomorrow. ADP, always designing for HR talent, time benefits, payroll and people.