The Platinum Rule: Why Treating Employees Uniquely Matters
In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I’m joined by Geri Morgan, Chief People Officer at Intellum, to discuss crafting a purpose-driven and personalized employee experience.
As Geri explained, this means connecting with each person on their unique needs and motivations. It may sound difficult for managers, but technology and simple solutions can assist.
For example, using pulse surveys to uncover what wellbeing, work-life balance or development means to each employee. As Geri noted, the pandemic required greater focus on wellbeing strategies, but it starts with asking employees what that means to them individually.
The Power of Purpose
Intellum also focuses on their mission of "improving the way the world learns" and baking that purpose into the culture, along with their core values like creativity.
As Geri compellingly put it:
"People want to work for a place with a strong purpose - something that goes beyond helping drive profits but helps the community and environment."
This sense of purpose is vital for fulfilment and engagement. Combined with the Platinum Rule of understanding each employee, companies can craft cultures that unify and excite.
Episode Highlights
Treat employees uniquely based on their individual motivations and needs (the “Platinum Rule”)
Build an engaging culture by connecting work to a meaningful mission and purpose
Incorporate AI thoughtfully to automate tasks while still prioritizing human connections
Fuel skills-based organizations with Design Thinking for HR
Traditionally, the role of HR has focused on administrative tasks and policy enforcement — all of it essential, but none of it transformative. But today, that's no longer the case.
🎙️ Automatically generated Podcast Transcript
Geri 0:00
I believe you actually need to operate by the platinum role, treating people the way that they want to be treated. And so it's connecting with them on an individual level, understanding what their needs and motivations are, what are they looking for? And who are they as a whole person?
Chris Rainey 0:22
Geri, welcome to the show. How are you?
Geri 0:24
Wonderful. Thanks for having me, Chris.
Chris Rainey 0:27
Nice to see. I feel like I'm like in your music store. Right now. Water Records behind your fuel guns. See behind you is full of record, one of them being Daft Punk. And where is this in the office? Where are you right now?
Geri 0:40
Yeah, so we're in Atlanta. Right now at the Intel home office. This is our music room. So we've got lots of instruments and we can jam and rock out and be creative. So this is a big part of you know that our culture is to celebrate music. Yeah, super fun. Is
Chris Rainey 0:59
it soundproof the room? Because it's like music times where people can play I've always imagined like, I'm surely gonna be rocking out all day.
Geri 1:09
Awful hours. Yeah. After hours. Exactly. Yep.
Chris Rainey 1:14
I can imagine somebody a sales team or restaurant other members are saying Would it be too pleased? Today, but how you been? Anyway, it's been a while since we last spoke up
Geri 1:22
doing awesome, things have been really exciting. We've made a lot of progress. I'm newer to Intel. Um, so I've been with the organisation for 10 months. And I think we've been able to accomplish what I've done in multiple years with other teams and other organisations. So like, I'm super pumped about this, this year, couldn't be feeling better, honestly,
Chris Rainey 1:44
amazing. Probably good for the audience. And tell them a little bit more about you and your background. And that sort of the journey and why you joined and then a little bit about the business. Yeah,
Geri 1:53
happy to. So I'm Jerry Morgan. And I am one of those people and culture professionals that chose this career on one of the few I didn't fall into it. And I knew right after college that I wanted to focus on HR connecting people with the businesses and really enjoy the variety, seeing the full cycle that our role offers. And I believe we're the secret ingredient to every company is being able to focus and connect the people with the operations. So out of college, I started with a Kroger Company, which is a world class retailer here in the US, and was able to be part of their leadership development programme, and really saw how you could bring the core values to life in a way that your customers even notice your values and the importance of employee engagement and training. From there, I focused in the technology space. So I've worked with in pharmaceutical technology, real estate technology spaces, and have had a lot of fun putting together some fantastic people first cultures and we've been recognised as top workplaces. And then taking me to where I'm at today I serve as the chief people officer for Intel them and and tell them is single destination for all things education. So whether your audience is internal teams, customers or partners, we have a SASS platform that helps design learning initiatives from the ground up, allows you to track or engage your audience all kind of through that single destination, which is super unique.
Chris Rainey 3:36
What What was it to you trusted you personally, to the business.
Geri 3:40
So the team is what attracted me. So I was impressed by the product and what I learned about the organisation, the mission connected to me on a personal level. So our mission is to improve the way the world learns. So that connected me and then once I had a chance to meet team members, and really feel and build off of that energy, I knew like this was going to be the next opportunity for me to just really help them with their their goals and what they were trying to accomplish. It was just a perfect fit from that.
Chris Rainey 4:13
Well, on that point. I know one of things I was going to talk about is job fulfilment. And you know, we all know that employees now are seeking more than just a job. They want fulfilment, right? They want it to be connected with their why and their purpose. How do you think that's going to shape HR moving and work moving forward?
Geri 4:30
My advice is to always focus like on the foundation, I'm a very visual person so like the pyramid, the foundation of your company and your culture and how people can feel connected which drives that job fulfilment is your mission. You know, I shared with you that was a real driving force of why I joined Intel them as people want to work for a place that has that strong purpose, that compelling mission, something that's going beyond just helping drive price fits, it's helping the community, the environment, the world around them. And then on top of that is your behaviours or those core values, those things need to be not just signs on the wall, things displayed in your office or on your virtual environments, they actually need to be lived. And so really making strategies around what does the mission mean for everyone training and activating your managers to talk about the mission and the values, providing examples of what that looks like, that's really going to help drive that fulfilment, I think also another element, so it's kind of moving up the pyramid. So you've got your mission, your values now is like the skills and getting to the core of the role. So upskilling and rescaling and the investment that you're making as an organisation and professional growth and development. One of the things that we talk about in terms of like the job fit, and a motto that I use to connect this with our leaders is that we want to be an organisation where people feel excited for Monday, or our team members are made for Monday. So it's, yeah, I mean, it's
Chris Rainey 6:16
made for Monday, much. You definitely need a made for Monday and tell them t shirt 100 All right,
Geri 6:23
we Yes, we need to roll that out. Like this Sunday, the Sunday scaries, the Monday morning blues, those are a real thing. LinkedIn actually did a study earlier this year. And I think it was like 80% of people feel stress, just going into Mondays. And so that's not a good place to live, you know, that's not creating engagement or fulfilment? How can we be a different type of culture? How can we connect with people and get them excited about Monday providing that environment where they know that the work that they're doing is making a difference that they're feeling valued? And can focusing on those team members and what their personal needs are to get them excited for Monday morning? Where
Chris Rainey 7:10
do you see companies make mistakes? When it comes to that? Or can they do different? I
Geri 7:14
think that it's not a one size fits all. And so that's where I think people make mistakes, they treat people the same way and consistent. So it's almost like the golden rule is treat everyone the way that you want to be treated. But I believe you actually need to operate by the platinum rule, treating people the way that they want to be treated. And so it's connecting with them on an individual level, understanding what their needs and motivations are, what are they looking for, and who are they as a whole person. And then that will create that avenue a roadmap for that person on how you keep them engaged, how you recognise, reward them, and then creating that beautiful magical made for Monday culture.
Chris Rainey 7:59
Firstly, golden rule to platinum rule is, is that a Jerry Morgan original, that was
Geri 8:09
a conference that I just really liked it,
Chris Rainey 8:11
I'm gonna use it now. I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick with me too, because that was really good. Like, it's the common misconception of treat everyone how you want to be treated, but it's like, no treat everyone however you want to be treated. See Your point
Geri 8:23
being it goes to Career Planning and Development, I think that we're doing a lot as HR leaders, you can also apply it to communication, you know, the way that you're delivering feedback, or simply sending an email, there's little tweaks that you can make based off of that individual and their preferences as it relates to communication. So it really can apply across the whole spectrum of the things that we're that we're working on on a daily.
Chris Rainey 8:49
Yeah, no, no, I love that. How are you connecting that with employee wellbeing, in terms of how you think about that, and prioritise that?
Geri 8:56
Yeah, I mean, there is that it's a perfect segue to employee wellbeing for sure, because different people have different needs. And so the pandemic, you know, kind of ripped off the band aid and said, like, there's stress in our personal lives, and that shows up in the workplace. People during the Great resignation, chose to quit and or were quiet quitting, and really put the pressure on organisations to say, how are we focusing on wellbeing? How are we coming up with well being strategies and what are we doing and providing to our team that supports that they need to be preparing those strategies and developing those approaches? And I think there's growing desire and demand for alternative work lifestyles, so we did a pilot at my former employer around a four day workweek, and based off of that, there was like 80% of people said they would not want to go back to five days. So we Yeah. And of that it was even like 20% said, no amount of money would even come. So it wasn't even a compensation thing like I, you know, I wouldn't go back to the five day work week, if you gave me a 20% increase that wasn't even enough motivation. And so it's understanding those different needs
Chris Rainey 10:21
of how does that affect business, though? Did they see an increase or decrease in productivity? And in terms of deliverables?
Geri 10:27
I mean, on it, it's not going to be the fit or the solution for everyone. And so each team and every department has different needs. But we need to understand as an organisation, what does work like fit mean, for it's not work life balance anymore? You know, it's this whole integration of who are we and what are our unique needs, because So kind of going beyond just the basic benefits that we provide, I always recommend asking your team members do starting with a simple survey to say what does wellbeing or wellness mean to you that will help inform what possible solutions those teams and those groups or pockets of people are looking for. And then you have unique almost menus of well being initiatives or well being offerings that are available across those departments. So some, in more of a customer facing role, they might have more defined schedules. Or if you're in a product support role, you may have to be on call. But there are other solutions that can help support the overall well being, and you just have to work with those leaders to get creative. So that 410 schedule isn't going to work for everyone. But maybe it's every other Friday, there's a half day. And so maybe you can be creative with more of that work life integration. Yeah, there's policies like unlimited PTO, and some investment and offering things for career development and advancement. So that also you from a well being, a lot of people are wanting to see that there's a career path. And so what are those resources or investments that you have available for those individuals that that is what wellness looks like to them? So it's, again, it's a personalised approach. And we need to be leaning in to starting to figure out what are the well being strategies, because it's a it's going to show up in engaged poor engagement, poor productivity, and high turnover, if we fail to recognise that individuals are demanding more wellbeing options from us. It's
Chris Rainey 12:39
interesting, you say like, a lack of clarity on someone's career path view is impacting people's well being right, we don't think that I think we made that connection.
Geri 12:46
That's a great point, because it is this holistic, you know, it's the whole person. So it's the physical or emotional wellness, which, you know, I think we think of most often, but there's the professional wellness, there's, you know, financial wellness. So it's really beyond just like those benefits, you know, EAP, but it's other elements, even what's surrounding us in the media, you know, that has an impact on our overall wellness. Right now, you can't ignore AI and the buzz that's going on about AI. And for some of our team members, AI is a threat. And so helping people feel safe and comfortable with how the organisation is using or evolving their technology and use cases of AI. But you know, AI could also be a tool that can help with well being, it can transform those tasks, automate those for us, allowing us to develop new skills, use new skills and add value in different ways. So it really comes down to us and how we're the story that we're telling how we're showcasing some of these threats are these things that are going on in our lives and around us and being personalised with you know, some of those situations and, and helping define some solutions, talking about it and educating our leaders to be able to have these conversations
Chris Rainey 14:12
to Yeah, now more than ever, when it's just about support our managers and leaders, it was hard enough before you add hybrid and remote teams. As well as they're gonna have their own personal day to day deliverables and well being at the all into one. They definitely need our support and guidance right now. What do you think about movement and sort of the connections because we've been putting it and building relationships and connections with employees as we go more and more remote? What do you how do you think that relationship is going to change between the employee employer and how and how we communicate?
Geri 14:50
So I think this is still so important. It is the first word and our job titles humans, so we're there to focus on enhancing those connections, even beyond, you know the types of work environments or settings. So some of the things that we're working on to help with supporting strong connections is looking at our technology. And so what type of technology is helping us understand where people are at, you know, in terms of goals, performance management skills, all of that will help us understand, you know, where people are today? What are they being recognised for? And what are we asking them to focus on? So I think technology and increasing the mindset, you how are we engaging with team members is a key element of building those connections. There's some insights that can be gleaned, and really can help us focus on the areas where connections are cracking, you know, if there's a tool that can help, you know, with a daily or weekly check in, you know, how are you feeling personally? Or how are you feeling in your role this week, one to five, you know, you're able to reach out and maybe prioritise your one to ones with first those people that checked in at a one or two, they're struggling. And so I think technology can help us make sure that we're spending our times and building those connections in the way that the our teams need us the most. And then it's refining our approach with the leaders to like you were talking about the managers, the leaders are the core of the culture. And so how are we preparing them to have successful connections with their team members, one of the things I hate is, you know, when we're only doing review cycles, or check ins on goals every six months, and it's like, okay, if you got to a like on your post on tick tock or social media, every six months, is that going to be satisfying and fulfilling for you. So you just have to be receptive to the evolving needs of our team members communication, and the frequency needs to be rapid real time and a meeting to get the right attention at the right time on different topics. And so really dedicating the time to focus on building connections, and giving managers the the access and the tools to be able to do that there is a recent Gallup study that found that only 23% of employees are engaged at work, but just terrible to think about. So that's shocking. Yeah, one less than one of four. So, you know, I think that building those connections can help us the, you know, not not one of those statistics. And you know, we're highly engaged team members and having meaningful connections across the organisation. So it's, again, taking the mission vision, you know, having that purpose driven culture, but then personalising it with those connections, the goal setting and the manager relationships, it's really going to help foster that higher performing culture. One of the other things that we love to do is getting our team members together on their common interests, too. So
Chris Rainey 18:16
say, walking off to work together. Yeah,
Geri 18:19
exactly. So and that can be done in hybrid environments. You know, when you do have team members, and a common setting, you can do that virtually, through other workshops, you know, building a succulent garden, you know, together or later this month in support of our creativity, core value. We're having origami making classes together. And so different things like that require very little investment of time, you're bringing people together to build those connections. We also have common interests channels to that help people connect on different topics, like gardening and book clubs, parents groups, you know, where you can show off all your finger painting masterpieces. So, you know, again, it's like that well being it all kind of comes together with creating those opportunities for people to connect.
Chris Rainey 19:17
Yeah, no, I love that. And you made a point there, like, a lot of times we think there needs to be these really expensive solutions or technologies. But you mentioned so many simple things. Sometimes they have the most impact and build the strongest bonds.
Geri 19:30
You know, one element of the intelligent culture that I love is our culture Council. And so we have team members that apply to be on this group, this annual planning group that organises all of these events. And so they have the budget and they really get to present and bring to life, these events across the organisation. So they're always new and changing, and it's a highly desired function within the company because you're bringing those connections. You're Making those memories for your team members. So I think those are also simple ways that you can focus on the engagement level and creating those opportunities for connections.
Chris Rainey 20:13
I love the idea of the culture council because it because then it doesn't kind of feel like a another HR initiative are like our business initiative, right? It's like, it feels like it's the voice of your true voice of the employees through the culture Council, any cost and use, I'm sure, I'm only guessing you can benefit from that diversity of four perspectives, backgrounds, insights on the council. Because a lot of leadership teams and leaders think they know what their employees want, but sometimes they're the most disconnected. So having a coach council was great. And giving them the budget and flexibility. One of
Geri 20:52
the unintended consequences is it also helps with skill development. So there are financial planning and marketing skills with promoting the events, negotiation skills, if they're, you know, selecting vendors or individuals to host or facilitate some of the functions. And then there's a chair. And so there's, you know, some informal leadership opportunities for that skill development to what
Chris Rainey 21:18
what you've seen the trends from your customers inside of the platform, obviously, we serve HR leaders, Chief Learning officers, and many, many leaders that listen and watch the show and come on, what are some of the trends that you're seeing in things like gamification in training? Is that still, is that still something popular? Or is it VR? Is it you know, what, what are the things that you're hearing from clients that they want and need? Yeah, so
Geri 21:41
we haven't mastered VR yet. Got some fun ideas along those lines, not just the gamification, because I think that all started, you know, Candy Crush, and, you know, Apple watches with hitting your rings and reading certain number of books over time. So there's those smaller incentives that, you know, I think, now we're just part of our everyday life. But it's really a step further to that, and what our clients are using, and what we're using internally is reputation based gamification. And so it's not just rewarding the learners with badges or certificates of completion, it's actually showing off the skill level. So you've mastered something and you've achieved a level of mastery that supports, you know, something unique and special. So it's not everybody gets the badge or the certification in that area, you know, it's something that requires higher level of knowledge to complete. So it could be Excel. So looking, being able to show off who are your masters in that or who has implemented an innovative idea. So it allows you to identify kind of who has achieved that reputation for that topic or for that skill set. And so that is a huge piece. There's also a lot of micro learning and more development around those shorter learnings. You know, so it's the bite size, anything less than five minutes on those micro learning experiences. And I think that it really hits back to our wellbeing conversation that we're, we need flexibility, we need to meet people where they're at, and we're competing for their time and attention with so many other areas. So let's incentivize and break things down into these smaller micro learning sound
Chris Rainey 23:38
like like, like the YouTube shorts, or like Instagram reels in them, they get to get to the point. Tell me what was it what it is, I feel like the new generation coming for almost gonna demand that as well. They're gonna be like, Okay, I'm gonna sit here and watch an hour long session, like you're gonna, you're gonna lose them Don't go wrong, they will watch that if they're really, really interested in it. But if you want to capture people's attention, go to them rather than try and pull them to you. If they're already consuming content in that way, then you need to create that same way. What are you kind of seeing right now in terms of sort of the wider labour market in your space and how that's going to change as we move into 2024?
Geri 24:20
Yeah, there's been a chronic shortage and labour and skilled talent. And I think this is a lot coming out of the layoffs that have been really prevalent in the tech space. There's a lot of talented people in the labour pool right now. And it's leading to a flood of applicants. I'd say that there's we're seeing hundreds of applicants for our postings and maybe 10% meet the criteria that we're identifying in the role. So some of the things that I think those that are leading and aware of this are they're starting to look at new talent pools, and training for the skills that are needed so that upskilling not only existing team members, but thinking about upskilling in the hiring process, I really liked the podcast that you had recently with Shandra Sanders. And so that was all about upskilling as a key part of that talent recruitment strategy, and how we're going to be successful in the future. I mean, the truth is that we have a ageing workforce. And so we need to start future proofing. Because it's going to be a greater shortage, so it's not going to stop. And the other thing that we can do is continue to watch and incorporate AI in the workplace, you know, not so much on the recruiting process, but in the workplace to help balance with the skill set and reviewing job descriptions to identify what are those tasks? And where can technology help deliver on that. And then that allows you to focus on what are the real skills that you need kind of what's the remainder of the role responsibilities, and that helps you identify the right person we can we can train for the tasks or we can leverage technology. But what are those core skills that we need for the other things that we don't see that we'll be able to leverage technology to help with? Yeah,
Chris Rainey 26:18
and like you said earlier, also frees you up more to focus on the human. And that's often new your thing in the way that you and your own team work. Now, you've been able to automate a lot of that traditional HR process. It's an evolving
Geri 26:31
process, we're still working on figuring out how we can leverage AI in our processes, and automating it this year has been a lot of technology reviews and assessments for us. So we've implemented a couple of new technologies already, we're in the process right now, the technology assessment. So that's something that we're really leaning into. And in these vendor assessments, we're asking, what is your roadmap? What how are you incorporating AI? What does that look like? And so really putting some pressure on the vendors to to say, how can you help me focus where I want to be focusing, which is, you know, building connections, supporting the managers supporting the teams. So I think that is something that's allowing us to, in the future state to spend more time, but we've been leveraging a lot, we've been able to do more, because we're leveraging technology to help with some of those tasks. And when opportunities present itself for you know, presentation, development, analysis, tonnes of communication, we've been able to put more out, which is been great, because that's more of an engaging, and a continuous cycle of information, kind of like the goal analogy, like we can just offer events or messaging or even internal chances for communication. Once you know, every month know right now we can put things together once a week. So we're able to offer more and yeah, compete, complete that engagement cycle more frequently. Love
Chris Rainey 28:08
it, I'm sure there must be some pressure from customers as well, right, given what you do and offer as a business, from an AI perspective in your search, because I can see a lot of use cases in your product of where how AI can have an impact. Yeah,
Geri 28:22
as a huge part of our product roadmap, we have an entire team in our engineering group that is dedicated to AI and machine learning. We were able to participate just recently, and one of our biggest clients, hackathons. And it was focused on AI. And so we presented two solutions that were very well received. So I can't share all the details about
Chris Rainey 28:47
Costco to beans.
Geri 28:52
Ya know, we're really excited about how AI will be folded into the product to allow our clients and customers to do even more and kind of get some best practices built in. Last
Chris Rainey 29:05
question before I let you go, we covered a lot in five minutes, by the way, and you're still just the coffee still hasn't when worn off. You still are full of energy. I love it. What advice would you give to sort of CPO CHRO sort of future those that are going to be sitting in your seat one day? Probably a whole new set of challenges along the way, what advice would you give to them and then we'll say goodbye.
Geri 29:30
All right. All right. So my advice is to focus on building those connections expanding your network, not just within your organisation but also spend time dedicate time on getting to know your network outside of your organisation and reverse mentoring. That's something that I wish I would have had that advice a long time ago. Being able to spend time you know at all levels throughout the organisation, mentoring, you know, graduates or college students and getting feedback from them. So that's I think a key piece is helping you stay connected as an HR leader to the needs of the emerging workforce as well.
Chris Rainey 30:12
That's a good point because we will still get mentorship of someone above but reverse mentorship is just as important being connected. For fun the next generation coming for Right, yeah, helps you be a little more proactive. Yeah, you want to see into the future on the past because a lot of mentorship comes from top down. And in this kind of, yes, it's really valuable. But a lot of the Insight is from previous perspectives and a time, which was very different. Versus the new generation, as we just discussed during the episode, right. have different expectations come through. Brilliant, Chris. Yeah, no. Don't give me too much credit. Where can people connect with you? If they want to reach out say, hi,
Geri 30:51
please? Yeah, please connect with me on LinkedIn, would love to keep growing and expanding the network and hope to see you at some of the events coming
Chris Rainey 31:00
up? Yeah, I knew the business was the best way to check out the business to learn about what you do.
Geri 31:05
And telecoms got a we have a tick tock page so you can follow some fun stuff. There are LinkedIn and you can subscribe to our newsletters. We have learning science and other industry specific publications. So please check us out. And
Chris Rainey 31:22
I love the fact that you're able to tick tock says everything right that you already get. You're already there. You already got you're already thinking ahead. Listen, is really a pleasure. Super, super fun. And I wish you all the best until next week. Thanks.
Geri 31:36
Thanks, Chris. What an honour
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