Better by Great Place To Work

Summit Series: Season 2: In Conversation with Professor Robert B. Reich

In this episode we interview Robert B. Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentary, “Inequality For All.” More recently he’s co-creator of the Netflix original documentary “Saving Capitalism,” which is streaming now and author of the newly released “The SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How to Fix It” which is available via Penguin Random House or your independent bookseller. Professor Reich in this episode shares hard facts, learnings from his experience, and inspiration to help shape our future for the better.

Summit Series: Season 2: Commit to Closing the Gaps an Interview with Valerie Jarrett

Valerie Jarrett is senior advisor at the Obama Foundation and former senior advisor to President Obama. She led the Obama Administration’s efforts to expand and strengthen access to the middle class, and boost American businesses and our economy. She championed the creation of equality and opportunity for all Americans, and economically and politically empowering women in the United States and around the world. In this episode, she shares stories on how she achieved some of these successes as well as the work she is doing to open CEOs minds to closing the gaps of disparities between communities across the country. Read her New York Times bestselling book, "Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward."

Summit Series: Season 2: Ain't No Mountain High Enough an Interview with Ken Allen of DHL

As a no-nonsense miner’s son from Yorkshire, Ken Allen took on leadership of DHL Express as their global CEO. With operations in more countries than the United Nations, DHL Express is credited with an astounding financial turnaround after years of stagnation in loss. He was voted Germany's number one turnaround leader and is known as “The Singing CEO” in China for his renditions of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Most recently, he has published the book “Radical Simplicity: How Simplicity Transformed a Loss-making Mega Brand into a World-class Performer.” In this episode he shares how this strategy works to transform organizations, with a focus first on people.

Summit Series: Season 1 - Making Every Voice Heard

One way that Workday, the maker of human capital and financial management software, continually innovates is through its employee survey process. Each week, on Feedback Fridays, the company’s more than 10,200 global Workmates receive an email with two questions about their work experience. In this episode, Greg Pryor, Workday’s People & Performance Evangelist, explains how the company aggregates that survey data to help its people managers continue to improve the ways they support their teams.

Summit Series: Season 1 - How to Get Diversity Right

Ellen McGirt, a Senior Editor at Fortune who writes the daily RaceAhead column, believes that 2019’s Black History Month was a complete disaster. An expert on Diversity & Inclusion, McGirt says that race is still a misunderstood issue and that diversity continues to be a problematic debate in American politics and business. In this episode, she shares how some companies are winning at D&I and gives examples of those that still have a long way to go. Subscribe to the daily RaceAhead newsletter at https://cloud.newsletters.fortune.com/fortune/newsletters. 

Summit Series: Season 1 - One-Size-Fits-All for 100,000 People

With operations in 220 countries, international courier and delivery giant DHL Express is a logistics company that has mastered the art of creating a personal touch for every employee. In this episode, host Christopher Tkaczyk chats with CEO John Pearson and global head of HR Regine Buettner about how the company has created a sense of equality for all employees and how its global network of team members all strive toward the same mission while singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”

Summit Series: Season 1 - A People Strategy That Goes Above and Beyond

Kindness, caring, and compassion are the watchwords at tech giant Cisco. Fran Katsoudas, the company’s Chief People Officer, says that in the past year, mental health has been at the forefront of its conversation about workplace culture. “It’s a dialogue that historically has been taboo at all companies,” she says. Recently, CEO Chuck Robbins sent an e-mail inviting employees to share personal stories around mental health issues, resulting in a company-wide meeting that she says has helped every employee feel comfortable to be their whole self at work. 

Summit Series: Season 1 - A Roadmap for Innovation

Derek Bang, the Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer at public accounting, consulting, and technology firm Crowe LLP, asks “Are you comfortable failing or do you feel comfortable challenging the status quo?” A few times a year, the company polls its workforce so that it can empower its team members to innovate with better infrastructure, tools, and processes. As a result, Crowe has been able to greenlight new ideas for improvements and deliver resources to make them a reality.

Summit Series: Season 1 - Advancing the Talent Agenda

In this episode, Kelly Grier, EY’s US Chairman and Managing Partner and Americas Managing Partner, says that if you want to drive a powerful business, you must have a powerful talent agenda. At the leading global professional services company, more than 66 percent of its workforce is comprised of Millennials, who she says thrive on the opportunity to innovate. Grier explains that “Innovation By All” is part of the firm’s daily conversation because it must lead by example to help clients as they experience a rapid rate of change in the marketplace.

Summit Series: Season 1 - A Company That Goes To Extremes

In the hospitality industry, companies often say that taking care of their employees will inevitably result in the best possible customer service for guests. In this episode, Christian Clerc, the President of Worldwide Hotel Operations for the global luxury brand Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, explains how happier employees have resulted in better guest feedback. He also shares an anecdote about how he personally handled an emergency for a high-profile guest with a plot twist that is straight out of the classic Hollywood screwball comedy “What’s Up, Doc?”