Learning COVID-19 Action Recording: Talent Management During a Pandemic at JPMorgan Chase, with Pamela Lipp-Hendricks - 9/03/20

This week’s Learning and Development action call hosted special guest Pamela Lipp-Hendricks, Head of Executive Talent Management at JPMorgan Chase. She was interviewed by i4cp CEO and co-founder Kevin Oakes and senior research analyst Tom Stone. Here are some highlights from the call:

1. The necessities of COVID-19 led to strong problem solving and some new practices. As we’ve learned from many other organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic forced some changes in how work gets done at Chase. For some, simply having 1-3 hours back in their day due to no commute provides more time to get work done (and/or more time with family). As bank branches needed to stay open, Lipp-Hendricks noted that early on some of her team showed flexibility by taking on answering COVID-related calls, in addition to their regular duties, leading to some long hours. A major transition from varied tools to an integrated HCM system continued and deadlines on the project didn’t change. Agile innovation was needed here, and also to resolve technology and remote work issues (e.g., increasing Zoom, Jabber, etc. capacity for collaboration), but the team was able to quickly pivot and problem solve. A specific learning that Lipp-Hendricks noted was the power of having everyone come off mute during small group meetings, as this leads to free-flowing conversation and better brainstorming. Also, to make up for the lack of informal connections around an office, some are making a point of connecting online while having their morning coffee.
     
2. When you have 40,000 managers, manager development is critical. With such a large manager population at Chase, development at all levels is key. A current focus is creating plans at lower levels of management, while also instilling a sense of organic accountability. Lipp-Hendricks noted their emphasis on experiential learning, and on developing a robust organization-wide capabilities database. Such skills and capabilities directories have been repeatedly shown to be a next practice in several i4cp studies in recent years—that is, a practice that corresponds strongly to high market performance, but that relatively few organizations are using. In this case, this is due to the large amount of effort it takes to gather and then accurately maintain the data, but doing so pays significant dividends for learning and development, career management, talent mobility, talent risk, and other areas.
    
3. Managers are incentivized to focus on reskilling their people. With rapid change underway in many roles now and in the years to come, Chase is supporting reskilling needs through curated learning paths, school-based certificates, and degree support. Managers are incented and given credit when they promote talent mobility and development, with consideration paid to the needs of the firm, the team, and the individuals involved. Some key topic areas recently have been listening skills, difficult conversations, remote leadership, and diversity and inclusion.
    
4. What are some likely HR jobs of the future? Leveraging a recent article in Harvard Business Review, participants on the call were presented with a list of potential HR jobs of the future. The consensus was that some of the suggested jobs, such as Director of Well-Being (2025), will arise much sooner than was suggested. Further, at many organizations some of the suggested jobs, such as Human Bias Officer, will likely not be separate roles but rather tasks or part of existing or new roles.

In addition to this recording, please see the the i4cp Coronavirus Employer Resource Center for new research and next practices to help address the COVID-19 pandemic.