Give my best to the family. 10 0 obj 8 0 obj What are you going to do differently? Its going to be much more applicable to whats going to be difficult at work. They have their top talent and they dont want to let them go because they cant think of, How am I going to succeed without that top talent? What you have to become is more of a thought about, Your job is not to just deliver on what youre doing now, but to develop people for the future and elevating in the organization.. Expert Adviser - Capital Portfolio Management at Transport for NSW for 11 months. When we started to put in place a lot of these mechanisms around talent management, talent development and career path, what wonderful talent we had that was down in the organization that we probably didnt know as well as we should have known. I love it when my son tells me, Do you dont understand, dad? Im like, I dont. There are a lot of things you can learn by getting together people. What was striking to me is how well a lot of our leaders know the people that they come in contact with regularly but how great the talent was down in the organization that we didnt know very well. Ive never had an HR job. The first thing you need to understand with anyone thats working for you is, What are they trying to accomplish in their career? Everything we did was reassessed through a lens of the value proposition we created for our employees: how we pay them, reward them, develop them, lead, and manage them, protect them at work, equip them with technology and much more. We had pages and pages. Were you like me at that moment where theyre talking to you about HR and youre thinking, Did I do something wrong? Ive had the great fortune of having some amazing guests. I remember you were telling me about the people that I was going to interview. Executive VP & Chief Human Resources Officer . They proceeded me but it was one of the greatest turns. /GSa 3 0 R Im going to put you on this project so you can build some of that. Congrats Don way to lead in a tumultuous time !!! -md/uHFHbk/,=:Eat$5T8&6fR7-WtB?J4;~D|=]=^q;Sb?As%(QX&pZLUFU5J"|0Y5QZiCoN$- Youre leading, guiding, coaching and mentoring how you develop, attract and source talent. Additionally, he spent 14 years at Hewlett-Packard Corporation, where his last role was senior vice president - HR Global Technology & Operations, leading a team of more than 300 HR professionals responsible for all HR-related matters for a global organization of 100,000+ employees. 2 Ranking for Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC. I havent stopped counting yet. How do you look at diversity for the benefit of all of the people, both at work for you and the millions of clients that you have? They wanted somebody with that kind of experience. Don earned his bachelors degree in business administration from California State University in Fresno, where he currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Craig School of Business. Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. One of the things that, for those people reading, talent acquisition wasnt at the table in enterprise services until you came along. Todd M. Jones is Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Don J. Robertson is responsible for the company's employee experience and he leads the Human Resources organization, as well as teams that manage the company's campuses, events and employee digital experience. In addition, she leads teams that oversee more than $570 billion in company and client assets. People arent going to generally tell you, I got fired for X.. I knew that if we were very intentional about what we were trying to do then we would mechanize all the pieces in place underneath it to make it happen. /Border [0 0 0] /SA true The failure could be as simple as, I did this decision. I dont think Im on email eighteen hours a day anymore. Subsidiaries includeNorthwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC(NMIS) (securities), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) (fiduciary and fee-based financial planning services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). We combine the expertise of our financial professionals with a personalized digital experience to help our clients navigate their financial lives every day. Build those key relationships early.. There are a number of people. Im going to give her that feedback. When she is making this presentation to me, I know its a good presentation for her level but if she wants to be at my level, she is going to get questions asked this way or that way. Its great to be here. The key is then to figure out, How do you use the experiences that they will experience working for you and the things that they do every day to deliver for you but also deliver for them?, For example, if Im talking to somebody on my team and I know they want to eventually have my job and weve sat down and looked at the experiences that theyre going to need and the gaps that they have then every time we have a conversation, I can direct it to, This is something that you need to work on if youre going to do that someday. Leverage a lot of smart people. /A << When I was working with you, talent was always on my brain, How are we doing it? Download our app for fast, easy, and secure access to your accounts and moreanytime, anywhere. Northwestern Mutual ranks 104 on the 2018 FORTUNE 500 and is recognized by FORTUNE as one of the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2018. Don J. Robertson is responsible for the company's employee experience and he leads the Human Resources organization, as well as teams that manage the company's campuses, events and employee digital experience. The best piece of advice I ever got was when you go to present to a CEO or a board, put the most important stuff on the first slide because you may not get off of that slide. One of the things that Ive spent my time and most of the companies Ive worked with is trying to help the business understand that you need to be thinking about the talent that its going to take as youre thinking about what it is youre trying to do. What was interesting is I was coming up probably the mid-level manager. Not all products and services are available in all states. Ive tried a lot of different techniques over the years. I used to ask myself, Why do you think that is?, Ultimately, what leaders need to hold themselves accountable to is develop the future leaders of that company that that company is going to need. Northwestern Mutual. I had fewer pointers there. Aditi Javeri Gokhale holds executive accountabilities for the company's strategy to drive growth, competitiveness, and relevance. [ 8 0 R 9 0 R 10 0 R ] When I was in finance roles, a few times, I had HR reporting to me. She goes, Im not looking at this again. Theres nothing on paper that would have said that I should have been the Head of HR for HR. Its the ultimate compliment. What do they want to be?, Its not what they want to be when they grow up because its not about a specific job, Do you want to be a senior leader? >> Northwestern Mutual and its subsidiaries offer a comprehensive approach to financial security solutions including: life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, annuities,lifeinsurance with long-term care benefits, investment products, and advisory products and services. MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief human resources officer. The one that Ive landed on that works best is I start the question by describing a failure that Ive had. Best Talent: If you become a company thats known to develop and grow talent and create opportunities for talent to develop and grow, youre going to attract more of them. << Managing Director and Director of Asset Management Robert W. Baird & Co. Arbitrator, Mediator & Advisor Weber Advising, LLC, Global Co-Managing Partner and Chief Strategy Officer K2 Integrity. I had the good fortune to work with you and for you twice. /S /URI Don and George talk about how Don got into the HR space and what hes learned as an HR practitioner. I answered the questions, gave my pint of blood and got off the stage right. Im talking about some significant stuff because most people that Im going to be interviewing with have had those kinds of things. Get to know your talent down in the organization because theres an incredible amount of talent down there. Reggieyiane Robertson. I was always picking up something good. Ive been doing this for many years and last time I checked, I still havent cornered the market on all the great ideas. One of the reasons that I have the attitude about is because I was fortunate enough to work with one of the great talent multipliers of all time in business, Jack Welch in GE. >> Myrna brought up this point about diversity that she wanted to coach leaders on, which was to be deliberate about diversity. Phone Email. You can always hire externally but you also can build internal marketplaces. You remember the old days when the company would sell a product and then they would try to bolt on the services as an afterthought. Ultimately, what we have to do as businesses is to get away from requisitions and more instead of creating talent pools. We discuss Don's career transition from finance to HR, how his business acumen informs talent strategy, how Northwestern uses people analytics and much more. You and I both used to do services business. I got an Accounting and Finance degree. You cant ignore any piece of that. I know its got to play in how you approach things. Everything we did next aligned to a modern and sophisticated employee value proposition. Dont think you have them all yourself. She took me and made me the Head of HR for HR when I had no business. Email . Go back to Caroline. It came back 3 or 4 times. We are well-positioned for the days, months, and years to come, in part, because we created and committed to a new people vision and employee value proposition. Don G Robinson Financial Representative . The final question before I close out is if you could go back and tell 22-year-old accounting finance, Don Robertson, what to do differently that would have accelerated your career, made your career easier, made it better and allowed you to take care of more people, what would that advice be? In this episode, George Randle sits down for an insightful interview with EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual, Don Robertson. Hear more talent insights from George and Don by tuning in to this episode. When I went in to present to him, he would be like, What slide do you care about? I would be like, Slide four. He said, Lets go to that. I learned from there on, slide 4 became slide 1. With $265.0 billionin assets, $28.1 billionin revenues, and $1.8 trillionworth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to 4.5 million people who rely on us for life, disabilityincomeand long-term care insurance, annuities, brokerage and advisory services, trust services, and discretionary portfolio management solutions. >> Legal Assistant . A key strategic advisor to the CEO, Mike is chair of the company's Senior Leadership Team and has oversight of the enterprise Quarterly Business Review (QBR) and Sustained Funding process. The company manages more than $125 billion of client assets through its wealth management and investment services. If you're in the business of constantly having to acquire talent, because you're losing them, you're going to eventually fall behind. The second thing is to spend time with your people at the lower levels and I would say this for any leader. I understood organizations org design and how to deliver to the business. Best Talent: Diversity and inclusion cannot be a hobby. She came from the business and then went into HR. Ray also oversees the Northwestern Mutual Foundation and strategic philanthropy efforts. Phone . If you learn early in your career how to influence those kinds of people or at least how to understand them better so you can speak a common language, its a very powerful thing. Subsidiaries includeNorthwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC(NMIS) (securities), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC) (fiduciary and fee-based financial planning services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Its just leaders are leaders. Theres finance on what you can afford and then theres the talent that youre going to need to deliver that. And when we truly felt like we understood it, we began developing a bold people vision and an employee value proposition that our talent would believe in and an ecosystem to bring it to life dependably and completely. We took those precious pillars of our company off the table. Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and its subsidiaries. If you allow yourself as a company to be vulnerable, honest, open and transparent with your employees, they will be much more willing to work with you and wait for you. You were always like this. Tell me a difficult person. Where do they want to go? I dont think its that unique. First of all, you need to institutionalize the way you do your talent so that diversity is at the forefront of anything you do. /URI (https://news.northwesternmutual.com/2018-08-21-Northwestern-Mutual-Appoints-Don-Robertson-to-Senior-Vice-President-and-Chief-Human-Resources-Officer) . Don and George talk about how Don got into the HR space and what he's learned as an HR practitioner. For whatever reason, all of my seniors that were supposed to present to the generals were absent that day when I had to brief a three-star general. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance is a financial services company that provides its clients various insurance options and investment opportunities. x][~s]^}lCHAC~)qH}CpIs9;;;||G]y,ySg7v'_h?,M7u&U)iPO4_jm~nA 1 2 . See Profile. { d[-Xy7bx"zIuQ6MnCFk?0n^t0nV0}P\wT+1p;{nu(Vo,.e+!ajAu \vj3Y'#Tqf$i8wy_mn-gKU>$rY_ lBQ#qz5g:0|v64Ia\q(CA2`m=D^"aDtG)1c/d,XW3j"2 ciQgyIRbJQ)U#K&m2j[va Ive been asked it in so many different ways. There are a number of issues out there that companies are facing. Theyve been great. Retired Senior Vice President Chief Information and Digital Officer, Eli Lilly and Company. Your managers job is to help you achieve that., Managers are the guides to their employees to achieve their career growth. $1 .PP]BT~|h}&~MXQ+{f>}edeaV5[f:WJj. Robertson is probably best known for his trio of novels featuring Morris Bird III: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread, The Sum and Total of Now, and The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened.A movie adaptation of The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened aired on NBC in 1977, starring . MILWAUKEE, Aug. 21, 2018 / PRNewswire / -- Northwestern Mutual today announced the appointment of Don Robertson to senior vice president and chief human resources officer. I remember I was a young officer. /SMask /None>> Schlifske joined Northwestern Mutual as an investment specialist and later led a variety of the company's investment operations as well as different parts of its business operations. endobj Believe it or not, I have lost every bit of sanity and Mike Cirelli talked me into a book too, which well probably be talking to you about your sin. Northwestern Mutual. Don Robertson EVP and Chief HR Officer at Northwestern Mutual 3w Extremely gratifying . Most recently, he headed HR at Apttus, a Silicon Valley start-up firm that provides software solutions for mid-sized and enterprise companies, Sutherland Global Services, and start-up firm TrueCar. Georgia Public Defender Council. /Length 13 0 R I started with them in the 80s. The gist of it was this was right around the time when the HR function was starting to realize as a function that they needed to have people that understood the business as well as understanding the domain of HR. Robertson joins Northwestern Mutual after serving in human resources leadership roles at companies ranging from Fortune 50s to maturing start-ups. Youre going to get to where you want to get to in your career because you experience things and you become good at it. q(G;9)3G2e]PCb# &8.th3geRyLJ* The people leaders have to be an extension of the leadership teams. Check out the latest Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More of Don Robertson. Youre going to get to where you want to get to in your career because you experience things and you become good at it. Its oftentimes not what you want them to fill it in with. How hard could they be? I remember we were interviewing you for the book and you had some tough questions. Whatever happens with special teams, well just deal with. Its about the ecosystem and the full team that you put together. All Rights Reserved. They dont need an adjective and a title. When typing in this field, a list of search results will appear and be automatically updated as you type. When they first approached me on it, it was predominantly because HP at that time was having some challenges in how they were doing sales, sales development, learning new development and Cisco was cleaning their clock. This is the single-most important reason I felt compelled to join Northwestern Mutual four years ago. Im obviously looking for intellect. Investment advisory and trust services are offered through Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company (NMWMC), Milwaukee, WI, a subsidiary of NM and a federal savings bank. I was up in Dallas and I said, There are so many people that do approach it as a bolt-on. *Based on Northwestern Mutual internal data, not applicable exclusively to disability insurance products. She is also accountable for NM Future Ventures along with digital disruptor, Wyshbox. Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Thats what I tell leaders. /Title ( N o r t h w e s t e r n M u t u a l A p p o i n t s D o n R o b e r t s o n t o S e n i o r V i c e P r e s i d e n t a n d C h i e f H u m a n R e s o u r c e s O f f i c e r - A u g 2 1 , 2 0 1 8) Our challenge was helping employees reconnect with our mission, rediscover that few pursuits are more noble, and recognize once again the significant impact they were making in real peoples lives every day. Reggieyiane Robertson. Ive used the analogy for those people that are pro-football or soccer but there are not too many soccer fans, except Mike Cirelli, who reminds me all the time. I had a major pull me aside and he said, Be good, be brief, be gone. That was it. Previously Don was the Chief People Officer of Apttus. Weve married up, which was not expected of us. Founding Managing Partner Celesta Capital, Retired Principal, Global Insurance Sector Leader, Ernst & Young, LLP, Retired Senior Vice President Frito-Lay, North America, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, General Mills, Chief Executive Officer Groupware Technologies. Thats when our teams got to work. Do you want to be in this area? Every conversation I have with that person is to help them achieve that. How do I get there faster, better and easier? What would you tell yourself? It requires a level of expertise technologically, subject-matter experts and a number of different things. Before that, three great leadership pearls of wisdom? All right. I started in finance accounting. I feel like this is debt that I have to pay to people. What is the workforce planning? I remember working with Maneesh. I dont know why Caroline is in my head to this day on that one particular term. Businesses live and die on the quality of their talent. But this wasn't the case at Northwestern Mutual. They were like, Do you know what we do? I said, Yes, I used to do what you did. Get info about his position, age, height, weight, draft status, bats, throws, school and more on Baseball-reference.com Congratulations on this impressive achievement, Don. I had come up with a quote and my co-author, Mike, has me saying that at every speech we make that you ought to be treating your human capital with the same rigor, focus and discipline that you do your financial capital. Unbelievable. %PDF-1.4 An example of that is sometimes how it can be difficult. 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