Serilda Summers-McGee is a workforce development and human resources expert. She is the Founder of Workplace Change, where she works with clients as Chief Human Resources Officer to assess culture, resolve workplace challenges, and recruit and retain underrepresented executives and staff in inclusive, positive, and high functioning work environments.

Before starting Workplace Change, Serilda was the Chief Human Resources Officer for the City of Portland, and has worked with clients like Wieden + Kennedy, the Portland Trail Blazers, Kaiser Permanente, the Oregon Department of Education, and many others. She believes in fostering cultures that accept people for who they are and empower them to thrive. Her book, Change the WorkGame: Building and Sustaining a Diverse Workforce, goes into depth about how to accomplish this and more.

Highlights from our conversation include:
-Serilda’s approach to working with clients (3:33)
-Defining diversity, equity, inclusion, and transparency (5:33)
-Why many hiring managers fail to find and hire diverse candidates (8:33)
-The various biases that come up in the workplace (9:31)
-How sexism, racism, classism, and elitism play into hiring decisions (13:12)
-What it means to be ready for workplace change (14:23)
-How to be more successful in recruiting and retaining diverse talent (18:35)
-The importance of asking why you want more diversity in your organization (21:29)
-Why you should start by diversifying your network (24:21)
-What an inclusive selection process looks like (25:32)
-How to create a more inclusive culture (29:30)
-What role human resources should play (33:59)
-Why change requires leadership to act (34:59)
-Serilda’s strategy for hiring (35:38)
Her predictions about the future of work (38:00)

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Serilda Summers-McGee, Founder and CEO of Workplace Change

Virtual hiring became a necessity when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the hiring process. Pacific Cycle was in the middle of hiring their VP of Brand and Creative when they were forced to close their offices. They moved forward with the process remotely, making a key hire without the traditional in-person interview.

The entire hiring party joins us via Zoom to share the challenges and successes they encountered. This panel includes Pacific Cycle’s Nando Zucchi (President), Tim Sheridan (VP of Human Resources), Lee Jakobs (VP of Brand and Creative), as well as Senior Executive Recruiter Sara Spirko.

Pacific Cycle is based in Madison, Wisconsin, and is the parent company of legendary brands like Schwinn, Mongoose, and Kid Trax.

Highlights from our conversation include:
-What they thought the hiring process would look like (6:24)
-Their concerns about virtual hiring (9:00)
-How they addressed those concerns (10:40)
-How the team and Sara effectively worked together (12:42)
-Lee’s experience on the candidate side (14:52)
-Why they chose to focus on competencies (18:59)
-The importance of the project (20:37)
-How they involved stakeholders (26:17)
-What their remote onboarding process looks like (27:42)
-Lee’s strategy for getting to know his team and their capabilities (29:39)
-What relocation looks like in a pandemic (31:38)
-How this experience will change how they hire in the future (35:14)
-Sara’s timely advice for talent acquisition leaders (36:11)

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How Pacific Cycle Hired a Key Role Virtually

Dr. Stacey Philpot is a Managing Partner at Executive Development Consulting. She has spent over 20 years as an organizational consultant and has advised Fortune 500 companies and CEOs on how to use leadership development to accelerate growth and increase their competitive advantage. Stacey’s clients have included Apple, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, Nike, and PayPal. Previously, she was the head of Deloitte’s Succession & Leadership Development Practice. Stacey masterfully combines her expertise as a psychologist and executive in her work. She emphasizes a thoughtful and thorough data-driven approach to hiring and joins the podcast to share her perspective on this vital trend as well as three things hiring executives should do as they reset and rehire their teams.

Highlights from our conversation include:
-How our current moment has shifted leadership expectations (3:48)
-Why a data-driven approach can increase diversity and retention (6:30)
-The key to unlocking high performance within organizations (7:52)
-Changes in how companies view leadership (9:09)
-The high cost of hiring mistakes (12:33)
-Why many companies aren’t selecting the right leaders (13:50)
-What makes an effective leader (14:44)
-Why leadership is context-dependent (15:57)
-Understanding common biases (16:57)
-Three things successful organizations are doing (18:36)
-How Stacey helps companies transition to new types of leadership (19:18)
-How companies can use data to improve their process (21:22)
-How companies can move toward an “elastic culture” (24:16)
-Culture fit vs. culture add (25:17)
-Three things hiring executives should do as they reset and rehire their teams (28:15)

Visit HowIHire.com for transcripts and more on this episode.

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Dr. Stacey Philpot on Data-Driven Hiring

Fred Miller and Judith Katz of The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group are dedicated to helping companies recruit, support, and retain diverse workforces. For the last 50 years, KJCG has assisted organizations in creating inclusive, collaborative workplaces that leverage differences to achieve higher performance and engagement.

As CEO and Lead Client Strategist, Fred Miller develops workforce utilization strategies that accelerate higher individual, team, and organizational performance. Fred is a pioneering change agent and thought leader whose work reflects a lifelong commitment to pushing back on the status quo to help organizations become places where human beings can be fully human. He has led transformative change interventions in Fortune 50 corporations, large not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia, including Merck, Allstate, United Airlines, Toyota, EILEEN FISHER, Northeast Utilities, Singapore Telecom, the McArthur Foundation, the City of San Diego, and many others. Read more about Fred and his work at kjcg.com/frederick-a-miller.

Judith Katz is the Executive Vice President of The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group. She has distinguished herself as a thought leader, practitioner, educator, author, and strategist around change management, the development of high performing, inclusive organizations and the issues of oppression and diversity. She’s led many transformational change initiatives in the United States and around the globe, partnering with such organizations as Allstate, Ecolab Inc., EILEEN FISHER, INC., Merck, the City of San Diego, Telecoms of Singapore, and United Airlines. She also co-created the Covert Process Concept and Lab with Bob Marshak. Learn more about Judith at kjcg.com/judith-h-katz.

Judith and Fred have co authored four books on diversity, inclusion, collaboration, trust, authenticity, and teamwork: 
- Safe Enough to Soar: Accelerating Trust, Inclusion, and Collaboration in the Workplace
- Opening Doors to Teamwork and Collaboration: 4 Keys that Change EVERYTHING
- Be BIG: Step Up, Step Out, Be Bold
- The Inclusion Breakthrough: Unleashing the Real Power of Diversity
They draw on their foundational framework, Inclusion as the HOW, to enable clients to achieve higher performance and accelerate results.

Highlights from our conversation include:
-How client needs and attention have shifted recently (4:46)
-Their approach to working with new clients (8:09)
-How to recognize the full potential of a diverse workforce (10:32)
-Why hiring is one piece of a larger strategy (11:14)
-How employee expectations have evolved (11:56)
-What companies need to do to retain talent (13:50)
-New and necessary competencies for leaders (16:29)
Key conscious actions for inclusion (18:15)
-The importance of safety in the workplace (19:13)
-Next steps for companies who are serious about change (21:57)
-How KJCG sets the foundation for hiring success (24:36)
-Why companies should move away from culture “fit” (26:10)
-Ways to mitigate bias in the hiring process (28:24)
-Why organizations need to be thoughtful about onboarding (31:52)
- How COVID-19 has affected their work (35:15)

Visit HowIHire.com for transcripts and more on this episode.

Follow Roy Notowitz and Noto Group Executive Search on LinkedIn for updates and featured career opportunities.

Judith Katz and Fred Miller, The Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group

Talent is critical to every successful company, but hiring at the executive level comes with many challenges and variables.

Roy Notowitz and his team at Noto Group have spent the last decade helping build iconic consumer brands, one hire at a time. Now, Roy is sitting down with some of the world’s most inspiring leaders to dig into the complexities of assembling exceptional teams.

Whether you’re interested in hiring strategy, leadership assessment, or industry trends, you’ll want to tune into How I Hire for the best executive recruiting advice and insights.