Unapologetically, Uniquely, Us

You mention humility. Given the understanding that there’s always someone better and plenty to learn, how do you still feel confident and comfortable in your role? 
It’s all about alignment to your values and purpose. With every step along the way, as long as my value was to contribute, to “do good” in the world, to be successful, and have those around me be successful—I was confident. 

As I’ve progressed in my role and career, I’ve found that you have to be willing lose your job to make the everyday calls on the kinds of issues at hand that support your values. I’m confident and comfortable in being guided by my value set and by what I believe is right for the company, for the culture, and for our people.

And you know what? If my leaders or the decisionmakers do not agree, that’s okay. My job is to provide my point of view about what I think is right. But there have also been a lot of times in my career where I didn’t have that level of confidence.

When you have alignment—with who you are, the people you work with every day, and the company you work for—you can trust you’re where you need to be.

In the 23 years that you’ve been a HR leader at Nike, how has the profession changed, for better or worse?
HR has always been valued at Nike, but our role has also changed for the better. There’s a specific value that the function brings to the organization. The human resources and people function has a very unique view across the enterprise; there’s some exceptional work that no other part of the company can do as well as us when we’re doing it excellently.

When we’re performing at our best, there’s a virtuous feedback loop. Our activities are informed by the things that are most important to our people and the business. The idea that we’re a steward, an advocate for the enterprise and for all the employees is, to me, a noble role. 

With the crises that have been thrown our way over the years, the role, and the value of our work, is recognized more and more. Because of this increased recognition, we now must deliver sharper results, and real value that can be measured. This is where HR is shifting the most.

And we can’t do it alone. These big issues that we’re trying to solve are very systemic in nature and require multiple stakeholders who are pulling in the same direction to contribute to the end goal. To come back to the idea of a team, there’s very little that we solve as a single HR function—we must work with the entire business.

During your time at Nike, how have employee expectations of their employers changed?
Employees are expecting more and more from their employers. In the United States, employees are looking for benefits and social services that are provided through governmental entities in other countries, but this isn’t the case in the US.

Employees are also looking for a two-way relationship with employers—they want to be invested in versus only working towards the company’s success. They want to be viewed as an individual, and they’re looking for signs that employers are interested in who they are rather than how they show up at work. I didn’t hear much about this in the first 15 years of my career.

Personally, I had a big transition moment earlier in my career when I came out at work, and I shared that I had a wife. That was probably one of the most impactful moments that I’ve had in my career. I realized that the people I was trying to lead needed more from me. The fact that I was so private was going to stand in the way of them forming a relationship with me.

As I think about inclusion in the workplace, it’s essential that nothing is left on the table in terms of being who you are—bringing your whole self. This isn’t without danger, but it’s part of the whole relationship that’s shifting. And I think employees are becoming less apologetic about their desire to show up as themselves.

It sounds like showing that you’re invested in people’s success and that you care about employees are so important right now: How are you and Nike bringing that forward?
Nike has a long history of valuing its people and diversity. 

We’ve historically had very progressive positions on social issues, whether it’s women in sports, professional athlete pay, or race. We’re really uniquely Nike in this way. This track record means we have a solid foundation that is authentic to Nike.

Investing in our peoples’ success is also authentic to the idea of team, coaching and high-performance. The challenge for us is to consistently uphold those concepts and those values which put people at the center of everything we do.

What do you think is driving people to shift roles now? Is there anything that stands out related to the power of employee versus employer? 
For the corporate employee population, there are many people who are reevaluating the combination of work and life, and the role which work plays in their life.

People are taking stock of the trade-offs. They’re asking themselves: “Do I like that I spend more time, in any given week, doing this kind of work, with these people? Do I feel like that’s the right compromise, given the other goals in my life? Does this work allow me to have a family, meaningful relationships or community connection?”

This evaluation of work and life integration is purpose-driven. It’s also flexibility-driven, it’s driven by who you’re working with every day and those team relationships. It’s a very localized decision.

When this equation feels like it isn’t working, that’s where opportunities arise. Flexibility is a huge part of this and is opening up jobs that probably weren’t accessible to people before. 

For the frontline employees, there’s a real push for competitive benefits, pay and financial inclusion to ensure that employees across all parts of our organization can choose to stay, and feel good about that choice. 

You mention that you value “team.” When thinking about engaging people to want to stay, assuming that’s important to them, too, how do you ensure “team” remains possible in a remote environment? And how are you trying to help Nike do that?
This is the challenge of the day: figuring out how to create any kind of team and connection in a remote environment. The key is in consistent convening. It’s important to push through this one-dimensional screen to have some form of human connection. The electric energy of togetherness is something which cannot be recreated through a screen. Our goal is to deliver a uniquely Nike employee experience which is grounded in sport, and create a workplace that strengthens our culture of innovation, team and community, and empowers each of us to do our best work.

Also, fun is so important at Nike. Nike people are world-class funny, clever and smart. When we’re at our best we are working hard, and it’s a whole lotta fun. That’s part of why we’re pushing to start to create forums where we are together in-person again. Because over time, we don’t think that “team” will live in the same way if it’s 100% virtual. 

--

Rebekah Metts-Childers (Partner) and Monica Gupta (Director) are in Brunswick’s Chicago office, Rachael Collins (Associate) is in Brunswick’s New York office, and Grace McMillin (Account Director) is in Brunswick’s Dallas office.