HR Works: The Podcast for Human Resources

In this episode of HR Works we discuss equal pay surrounding the Women’s U.S. soccer team—especially in the light of their recent World Cup victory with two experts Tom Cunningham and Charles Bendotti. Following is a partial transcript. For the full transcript of this episode, go here: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2019/07/24/discussing-equal-pay-and-the-u-s-womens-soccer-team/ Jim: Hello, everyone, and welcome to HR Works, the podcast for HR professionals. We really appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to join us. I am Jim Davis, the host of HR Works and the editor of the HR Daily Advisor. Today, we’re going to talk about gender pay equality, specifically with regard to the U.S. women’s soccer team’s situation. They just won their fourth World Cup victory just about a week ago, and there is a pay equality issue in the works and some lawsuits. It’s a little bit complicated, but here to discuss pay equality in general and the situation with the U.S. women’s soccer team are two guests. I am pleased to introduce Tom Cunningham, Vice President of People at Pariveda. Am I saying that correctly? Tom: You are. That’s close enough. Jim: Excellent. It’s an organization that prides itself on its transparency. He oversees internal learning activities, recruiting HR functions, and office operations, ensuring that the company’s people are supported in their continuous development throughout their journey. Before moving into this role in 2017, Tom served as the office-managing Vice President for the New York market. He was responsible for building, growing, and managing the local market consulting practice. Tom holds a BA from Yale and an advanced degree in music performance from Westminster Choir College. We’re also pleased to introduce our second guest, Charles Bendotti, Senior Vice President of People and Culture at Philip Morris International (PMI). He was the architect behind the global equal salary certification and has been with PMI since 1999, when he started as a business analyst. He was named Vice President of Human Resources Asia in 2012 and was elevated to his current role in 2016. Charles holds a master’s degree in international relations, economy, and law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and an executive MBA from HEC Paris. Jim: Thank you both so much for joining us today. Tom: My pleasure. Charles: My pleasure, as well. Jim: So, just to introduce the situation, I’m sure most of our listeners are aware, but the U.S. women’s soccer team won its fourth World Cup victory just about 10 days ago. And leading up to that team, leading up to that victory, was a lot of discussion about pay equity. Indeed, when the team won, the whole stadium began chanting “Equal pay.” The pay situation is a bit complicated, and we don’t have to get down to the details, but the Guardian did a great job of running down what the men would have been paid if they had made it this far (which, by the way, they never have) and what the women will make. It’s a bit of an estimation, but it’s saying that each woman will have earned $260,000, and the men would have earned $1,114,000 if they had gotten as far. Clearly, those numbers are not the same. So, we’re just here to discuss what’s going on. What do you guys think about it? And what do you think about pay equity in general? So, I guess the first question is, does that sound like equal pay to you? Charles: So, Charles talking here. Let’s make a very clear statement: It’s not equal pay. I mean, if the U.S. women’s soccer team worked for PMI, they would be paid exactly the same as the men’s soccer team. So, I think there’s no question about it. There is no equality on this one. And I think we need to go straight to the point about it and be very clear about what we’re saying. If, as you say, the women’s soccer team generates more revenue than the men’s soccer team, by default, they have to be paid more.

Whether it's failing fast or being agile, leadership has already changed a lot from more traditional approaches. Our guest in this episode brings a lot of expertise surrounding what leadership and the workplace look like today, and what it will look like in 10 years. We are pleased to have Lisa Rueth, the Senior Partner and CEO of Cultivate Leadership, a consulting firm that is dedicated to leadership science, organizational design, and executive coaching. With over 20 years of experience, Lisa has dedicated her career to helping organizations with the mechanics of leadership, human performance, and systems of collaboration. Lisa studied Applied Leadership and Organizational Psychology at the Ken Blanchard School of Business and did graduate work in Authentic Leadership at Naropa University and has a Masters in Social Change, marrying her passion for empowering leaders doing world changing work. Below is a partial transcript of this episode. For the full transcript, click here: https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2019/07/09/hr-works-transcript-this-is-what-leadership-looks-like-in-10-years/ James: Hello, everyone, and welcome to HR Works, the podcast for HR professionals. HR has an important job: predicting the future. The urgency of that job grows with each passing year as various technologies rapidly advance. In a presentation that I recently attended, Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM, stated that skills learned today will be obsolete in 5 years. That stunning fact alone well couches the problem at hand. Technology is evolving far too quickly for employees to keep up, and HR is the exception. Today's guest specializes in what the workplace—and, in particular, leadership—will look like in 2025. I'm pleased to introduce Lisa Rueth, the senior partner and CEO of Cultivate Leadership, a consulting firm that is dedicated to leadership science, organizational design, and executive coaching. Lisa: Thank you for having me. What a pleasure and an honor. James: Absolutely. How about we jump right in? There are going to be a lot of changes to the workplace and to leadership over the next 10 years. For example, I see that there's going to be, by some estimates, as many as 800 million jobs lost globally by 2030. That's not that many jobs, right? Lisa: It's a lot. It's a lot. It's even more important to think through how automation will reshape entire industries. Right? It's not just the jobs that we're losing—it's entire industries and people who have particular skills. Like a large majority of some of those industries will be—think of trucking, right? Think of cars. They're autonomous. Think of trains, transportation, and airplanes. So, what we end up with are people. There's an entire category of people who are skilled for hands-on work that we have, over time—over the last 50 years, become more and more accustomed to outsourcing to other workers around a globalized marketplace. So, losing jobs is a problem within itself, but losing jobs for a particular category of people is also a problem that we have to grapple with.

With organizations losing unbelievable amounts of money to poor employee engagement, I always wonder what stops leaders from properly addressing this problem. In this episode of HR Works, we find a critical ingredient to successful leadership and employee engagement: vulnerability. Today's guest is Jason Treu, an executive coach who helps executives, managers, and employees to maximize their leadership and management abilities and perform at the highest levels. He provides coaching, workshops, keynote speaking, and other training services. Jason also has “in the trenches experience” helping build a billion-dollar company and working with many Fortune 100 companies. He spent 15+ years working in marketing leadership positions in Silicon Valley working with influential leaders such as Steve Jobs (Apple & Pixar), Reed Hastings (CEO at Netflix), Mark Cuban, Mark Hurd (CEO at HP), Paul Wahl (President of SAP), and many others.

If I’ve learned one thing since taking on this podcast, is that change in an organization literally cannot happen without leaders being on board. How can HR managers make that happen? It’s the 100 million dollar question, and we are thrilled to have two experts from Rose Group Int’l to help us answer it. The first of our two guests is Meg Manke, Senior Partner at Rose Group Int’l and culture and leadership expert. Meg has years of experience in leading through transition. From major changes in highly-regulated industries to managing through $100M acquisition, Meg has refined skills in understanding people through change. Her studies in organizational psychology and mastery in leadership concepts ensure that your people are taken care of. Period. Our other guest is Dr. Rachel MK Headley, also a Senior Partner at Rose Group Int’l and also a culture & leadership expert. Rachel brings a methodical and razor-sharp intellect to solve problems that suit her client organization, its ideal culture, and business goals. She has led and managed teams for over 20 years. Rachel enjoys a good challenge and manages big projects, unites diverse stakeholders, guides teams through change, and leads complex and ground-breaking achievements.