The content highlights how Cisco’s Francine Katsoudas revolutionized the company’s HR department for increasing the wellbeing of the employees as they need to be managed with care and empathy. Cisco has been ranked no. 1 in the best places to work for the last 2 years.
HR Culture’s Evolution at Cisco
HR was a label to prevent unionization which was brought after witnessing few strikes like the Borax Strike. The strike was terrible to the extent as to the managers were buried up to their neck in ant hills, helicopters were shot and the brand of both employees and firms were damaged. When the entire concept shifted to HR the result was powerful.
Katsoudas and her team acknowledged that she based the HR initiative on people over enforcement and communities over dispute management by changing the name to People and Communities. Some communities can grow in a company around race, sex, tenure, progression, and capacity. These groups will provide a base of support for their members once established and promoted. They may also provide insights into which groups are over and underperforming for the HR organization and allow data collection to figure out and forecast problems and bring in best practices.
During the pandemic, the group support system is especially important as many feel lonely, depressed, and alone. Community members may discuss how they have resolved similar challenges and provide any employee struggling with their work, circumstance, or just feeling lonely and alone with concentrated assistance. This move centered on the well-being of workers and the balance of life/work. After all, during this pandemic, the ugly reality is that while productivity is up since people have lost their family and friends to overwork, it is always up, and it’s not viable.
Changing the name of the unit to make it better reflect what it can do over what it must do, by policy, is one of the most courageous things in HR. The explanation why Cisco is one of the best places to work is its HR department, which unusually focuses on topics such as empathy and awareness of employee needs over just compliance. The efforts of Cisco go beyond keeping the organization out of trouble to emphasize the balance of work/life and care for the communities in and around the company.
Not only has Katsoudas’ initiative to make HR into the organization of People and Communities made Cisco the best place to work, but it also provides an example that others can use to make the world a better place.
