Effective Hiring and Retention Tactics featuring Jennifer Ricks

You've got to put your people first. They're the backbone of the company. Like you said, words on a wall are easy. We have to behave as leaders and treat people the way that they need to be treated. But if you lose sight of the person to get results as a leader, I believe you've gone down the wrong path. I think you need to be able to focus on the results and equally balanced care for the people.

Kate Volman [: 00:00:27

This is Lead With Culture. I'm Kate Volman, and on this episode I was joined by Jennifer Ricks. She is the chief human resources officer for KeHE Distributors. And we did an episode with the certified dream manager, Rebecca, who is over there, because they do have the program in their organization. But this episode, I really wanted to talk to Jen about culture and leadership and what it takes to attract and retain great talent. She has 25 years of experience in the HR world and obviously knows a lot about what it takes to hire great people and also to expand a business because she has been with Kehe for a very long time, so they've seen a lot of growth. She's had some challenges along the way, as we all do when we're building and growing a business. So I wanted to have that high level conversation with her about HR and culture and how people can really grow and scale a business.

Kate Volman [: 00:01:30

That is what we talked about. So we dug into all of those fun conversations and topics, and I hope you enjoyed this episode. Jen, thank you so much for coming on the show.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:01:41

Absolutely, Kate, thank you for having me. I haven't done a lot of these, so I'm looking forward to it.

Kate Volman [: 00:01:46

It's going to be a good time. And talking all about a topic that you are very passionate about, which is culture. You are with Kehe, which is a very large organization. So tell us a little bit about, for context, like what is KeHE, what do you do there? And just a little bit about the organization.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:02:06

Absolutely. So I'm currently the chief human resources officer for KeHE. I am humbled to lead a team of about 120 hr professionals across the country. We also operate in Canada, and we have a subsidiary there. And the company was founded by a gentleman named RK in his basement, and he had one skew, which was a spice. And so that's the humble roots of KeHE distributors. And what I would say is he did it with an intent of to what we say, thank and honor God and all we do. That's the founding value 80 years ago.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:02:41

That's what it was built upon the company, literally when I was acquired from KeHE was about an $800 million company. We are moving towards being a $7 billion company. We operate all across North America. We have distribution facilities where we distribute natural, organic, specialty, and also fresh and bulk foods to retailers all across America. We have supplier partners that we partner with, manufacturers suppliers where we procure the food, and then we distribute it to our amazing customers all across the United States.

Kate Volman [: 00:03:17

And how long have you been there?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:03:18

My 25 year anniversary is this December. I started from the humble roots of being an HR generalist in a 45 person food importer. And then they pulled me into the warehouse operation to be an HR manager. Just from there, I did a region and different areas of HR, supported all the different business functions, and after 25 years, just this last June, assumed the CHRO role. So it's been an amazing run. What I'm most proud of is the work that the HR team has done in partnership with the growth of the business to keep pace.

Kate Volman [: 00:03:53

It's such a cool story. It's like the tech companies that start in their garage, and this is the spice. It's so cool. And you've been able to not only see such growth, but obviously be a leader in that growth. Obviously, culture is an important piece of that, right? In order to bring people on, do the things that they need to do in a way that everyone works together. In your 25 years, what does that look like as far as growing of the business?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:04:22

I think what I want to say to keep it really specific is the one thing that's never changed. People always know what's changing, what's happening that's different, what's new and exciting. And what I always like to look at is what's been steady and continuous, what has really served us well and not changed. And, you know, it is our people, and it's the way that they care for one another, the care they bring to their work, their passions that go beyond their work. We're really big on unleashing people's whole person journey, which includes how do we help them have a higher purpose than just the work they do. There's more goodness in the world. And we've been tried and true, in my opinion, from the founding of Mister K all the way to where we are today, to make sure that our people are seen that way and treated that way. And so everything about our culture revolves around making them the best version of themselves.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:05:16

And that stayed steady and true. Then you go, well, what's changed? Well, what's changed is with the growth and with the expectation of what I would say leveling up in leadership, leveling up in the way we operate and serve our customers and our suppliers. We're going on this journey that HR has a great opportunity of growth to hopefully a $15 billion company to be focused on a way of operating that allows for win win partner success with our customers and our suppliers and then also the Cahi way of leading. We've launched this new leadership model, but really leveling up leadership and setting the pace for leaders so that they can keep pace with this change in this growth.

Kate Volman [: 00:05:58

So how do you do that? I think that's a big challenge in business where we all know we need to feed into our people and help them grow. And there's a lot of things out there that we can leverage. But how do you decide what programs and how to develop your people in the most effective way?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:06:12

Our new leadership model really revolves around the journey. We call it the journey and it's a journey towards always inspiring goodness while getting the job done. So it's the, how you get the work done with the people? Do you put people first? Are you relational? And then it's are you getting the work done to continue the great success we have? And then as you go on the journey, we tell our leaders, near term success, like, what have you done today is great. This is the strategy we're going for. But what's the futuristic, innovative strategy and journey you're going to go on with your team? And so we've really laid out a path which we call the journey to help our leaders see how they get from here to there. You know, what got us here isn't going to get us there. Great leadership work done in our past. But if we're going to grow on this journey to 15 billion and really win with our partners, we have to all level up as leaders, including myself.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:07:09

We all at the senior team hold ourselves to what are we going to do to grow and how are we going to grow our teams. And it takes a commitment, we literally are in the process just now of launching our leadership foundation sprints to get everybody on board with the new model and set expectations.

Kate Volman [: 00:07:26

When you're working on this kind of stuff, talk about how that impacts the team and the way that the team responds to these kinds of initiatives.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:07:38

I'd say it in two buckets. It's the HR, the incredible HR team that I lead. I've never seen or got so much feedback complimentary about my HR leadership team, so I can't take credit. They are rock stars and they really orchestrated the new leadership model. And the journey we're going on. But the way that the teams engaged, it was at the highest level, CEO down. We were aligned on what good looks like, what does raising the bar in leadership look like and how does it reflect our culture? They're not separate. The way we behave is tied exactly to the culture.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:08:15

And I think that that's something that we've always stayed true to. Our culture is our culture. It's stable. It's the core of what we do. And we built our leadership or ways of behaving around that culture. It's not separate from when you look at the pieces in our keystone behaviors, as we call them, our key habits of leadership. All of our culture is infused throughout them. And so it's really getting alignment at the top.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:08:38

Training, educating, coaching. It's in the moment, hard, courageous coaching and feedback on what that expectation of leadership and how we want to behave as leaders and how we want to make our people feel. In my role of head of HR, the one thing that I aspire to is that every single employee, all the way down to the frontline employees, when they go home and talk to their family and friends about Cahi, they feel cared for, they feel seen, they feel that they matter to Kehi beyond the work they do, that their lives and their families lives are important. And I think we have some really cool in reach programs beyond our leadership, programs that allow people to, when they're struggling or having hardship, feel cared for. And so that's another element of our culture that's unique. And that falls under what I would call our KD Cares foundation, led by our foundation president, which it makes us very unique in the culture that we have.

Kate Volman [: 00:09:34

Yeah. And I think about that all the time because we work with people like you. And I always think about what are people talking about at the dinner table? And you want to know that the people that are leaving and going back home from your organization, the conversation when they're talking about work, it's uplifting. It's not bringing people down. That's really what we want to see. And to be able to have that as kind of that central focus of helping people become the best version of themselves. You guys live our philosophy, right? If you help your people grow, the company's going to grow. And that's proven to be true over there.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:10:08

It's true. And I will tell you, there's one of my favorite lines is clear as kind by Brene Brown. And I think that employees can honestly respect you, can have empathy and still say no, you can care about people and still make hard decisions, and both can be true. It's. Yes. And I think it's changing that mindset that to get the numbers, you can't be a people person. You can care for people first and get the numbers. And I do believe that when our people go home, as long as they feel like they were treated fairly, we were empathetic that we saw them, that we saw that they have lives.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:10:40

Our employees struggle all the time. Can you meet people where they are and honor their needs? My CEO likes to call it the platinum rule.

Kate Volman [: 00:10:48

Right.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:10:48

The golden rule is treat people how you want to be treated. What she's going for is the platinum rule, which is treat people the way they want to be treated. And I think that's something that we aspire to.

Kate Volman [: 00:10:59

It's so cool to be able to see that progression and be part of such a wonderful team. And it obviously is a testament to the culture over there. You obviously love it so much, and what you're building, you really do feel like you're part of something really unique and special, and you're helping to create that. So what have been some of the biggest challenges that you've seen?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:11:18

There's always opportunity. Not everything's perfect. And so the first thing I would say is, I've stayed for the people. And the people are the culture. They're the living, breathing examples of the culture that we have built as a whole from the past to honor the past, including my past president and CEO, Brandon Barnholt, and what he did for his tenure. You always have to honor the past. The seeds of the past are in the present. And so I always reflect on that and what it is.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:11:44

It's always been our people. Right? Embodying the culture. And that's what's kept me here, is the people. And then you layer on that, the great culture, but then you go, okay, what are the challenges? Well, I'll give you a great one. Being quite vulnerable is having a culture that says, we care about you first, people over problems. Thank and honor God and all you do. You get a lot of, how could you have taken that action against me? As an employee? I thought, you care about people. And I go back to my clearest kind, like, how do you see and meet people where they are, and how do you help them see where they need to go? Doing it with empathy and care, both can be true.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:12:22

And so I think that's been a challenge over the years of the growth and evolution is as we become a bigger company and we have to make the harder decisions and really get the numbers and keep the culture intact while you're growing that scaling of growth. But keeping that culture intact is probably our biggest challenge and we're up for it. And I just want to be really clear in how I say that is we should not have to sacrifice all of the great cultural elements we have, including our inreach dollars, our giving in our communities, our leadership expectations, our civility code, because we grow. None of those should waiver. They should get stronger and they should serve us in good stead as we grow towards the 15 billion. But that's going to be the challenge. Keeping your eye on what matters and what matters most is people and inspiring goodness.

Kate Volman [: 00:13:08

It's interesting because when we do workshops, we ask, what about your past leaders? Did you really appreciate the most? And what always comes up is tough but fair. It's like those conversations when you have someone and it's almost like you go to that. But wait a second. Don't you care about me as a person? Yeah, but also, we all have jobs to do and it's clearly defined. Like, this is what you're responsible for. And so we also have to be held accountable for the things that we're doing, both good and bad, and being able to move forward. But I think that's a really wonderful leadership quality. To be able to work with someone who you're like, the leader I work.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:13:46

With is fair and it is like parenting, right? There are hard conversations and you have to have the courage to have them be mad at you. As a leader, it's okay to be misunderstood, or it's okay to have good tension, healthy conflict with your team and with your leader. I'm at my best when my leader is direct with me because she cares and I know she cares. If she wasn't, I always tell people, if I'm not talking to you, that's when you should worry. Because I care about you. I'm engaging you in honest, direct, transparent ways with kindness and empathy. I see you. I love you, but this is the expectation, and I don't know how to operate any other way.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:14:27

And most of the leaders I've had in my career have been that way, and I've really aspired to be that way. For my team and for the peers that I support you, we have an obligation to help people get better.

Kate Volman [: 00:14:40

Can you give an example of a leader that you were working with or somebody in a specific role that maybe was a little bit challenged and you had to have some of those difficult conversations and what that looked like on the other side, I think I'd rather.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:14:55

Use a generalization of a stylistic trait that people struggle with, because there's multiple people that I've had this encounter with, and I've actually probably been coached. You're never coaching anything that you don't see in yourself, Kate, like as a leader. If I'm coaching my team on something, I've probably either been there and being coached on it, and that's why I can see it in others. Cause I had to grow through it. So I'm going to use a great example. A lot of really good leaders got to where they got because they were good doers. They executed, they made the company money. They could be trusted and relied on.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:15:30

And so what got you to that promotion at vp or whatever that title was, doesn't get you to the next level, because doing is only one level. Going up to getting things done through others, what we would call unleashing someone's potential, is the hardest job there is as a leader. You can do it yourself. I can easily jump in and just grab work and do it. Be like, I can do it quicker. Teaching and educating and letting people learn by doing and failing fast is harder than just doing it yourself. That's how you got to where you are. So I'm often coaching others on the same trait I had to overcome, which is you're a really good doer, and it got you where you are now.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:16:12

You need to be a good leader and serve your people well. Bye. Seeing the potential in them and directing them to ways in which they can now get to the next level, it's no longer about you as a leader. It's about your team. And that is a situation that I feel comes up a lot that we're constantly coaching to. Probably not just a k, but I believe in corporate America or companies, people.

Kate Volman [: 00:16:37

Aren'T taught how to coach. Like, it's not really a skill set that people learn how to do. And I think that's a really wonderful example because I experienced that in my career. I was doing all these things, and now all of a sudden, I'm, like, managing all these people. I'm managing a sales team. I'm responsible for getting them results or for them getting results, and I didn't know how to do that. I also had to hire and fire people. This is a very small organization.

Kate Volman [: 00:17:04

You know, if you work for a very small company, you don't have an HR department, and you don't have people going through some of this stuff that you guys do. And so I think that's really interesting and important to know. I mean, these are skills that people need to learn.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:17:18

Teachers teach because they can't do those.

Kate Volman [: 00:17:20

They can't do teach.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:17:22

What I would say is those that can do are great, but if they can teach and do, that's the perfect blend of a great leader. And I think with the journey we're on in our leadership model is I just got done partnering with my vp of talent is how to unleash some of these skills in other people versus themselves. You've mastered it in yourself. Great. Now how do you go teach them how to unleash them in others? And you've got to provide some tools and some roadmaps to be able to do that and some real life, what we call learning by doing opportunities to skin your knee or to make mistakes while you're learning, because that's the only way to teach it. You have to have real life experiences, so you've got to be able to do and teach to be a great leader.

Kate Volman [: 00:18:07

So you have seen a lot of growth over the years. We were talking earlier before we recorded, and you've also acquired some companies, which that's a whole other level of building right now. You have a company that already has a culture. Now you're bringing them in and what does that look like?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:18:25

We haven't even gotten to Covid and what that did to the workforce prior to this. But I would say we've been in a five year sprint of coming out of COVID the years of COVID and what changes we had to make for our workforce and what we learned during those times and reinvesting in our frontline employee after that. Like the Life coaching Dreamers program, I'm sure we'll get to at some point, but if I talk about the last twelve months, we acquired two companies here in the states. So a company called Trademark, which is part of Kehi now, and we acquired a company out west called DPI. And they're now all integrated fully. We're one company, one team, one voice. And it's exciting because I will tell you that through the DPI acquisition, I believe myself, my leaders in HR and then other functional leaders actually had real life opportunity to teach, to allow people to own something, to make mistakes, to learn as they go, learn by doing and to really unleash their teams, to execute. We brought a whole new workforce into our people, and now we're in the middle of culture integration into all of our programs.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:19:33

It's another layer on top of their day jobs and so people were stressed. People were probably not always their best selves, but our culture of caring about others first, knowing that we'll get the job done, really proved to be valuable through this past year of integration. And what I learned as a leader, and hopefully my leaders learned with their team, is I couldn't have done that if I operated in the way I used to in the past, thinking that I could solve all the problems and, you know, make all the decisions. I actually was able to step back and be more of a chief roadblock remover or obstacle remover than a doer. And it was really great for me to watch my people and their teams thrive and be successful and celebrate and learn and grow. And it was a tough year, but, wow, it made them better leaders, better people, and it really grew our skill set. So for the future, my team is now leveled up to be able to do another integration like this because they've gone through it. So I'm super excited for the next one, and I'm sure there's another one on the horizon.

Kate Volman [: 00:20:38

Wow, what cool experience. When you go through an experience like that and just in general, when you're enhancing your leadership skills and through all the growth that you've had, you've learned so much over the years. Are you tracking this? Are you keeping data on, like, how you've done it or where you were today versus where you were five years ago?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:20:58

I track my human data one day when I retire. My goal is to write a book. Whether anybody buys it or not, I don't care. But to have someone help me write a book about my life's journey, professional and personal, the lessons I've learned, and hopefully use it to tour and go on, talk about my journey and unleash and inspire others. I'm just a really big believer in the hard times are as important as the good times. And so when I look back, I have tracked the leadership journey, the human journey. I don't know that I've tracked the data around the business and the growth. I have a lot of it up in my mind, but I think the human journey is more important and more interesting to me.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:21:40

So I have done that. That is an aspirational goal of mine. One day, I do believe, through the DPI and trademark acquisition and any other hard thing you go through like that, that really just makes you work really hard. Puts a lot of stress on you, right? A lot of chaos, a lot of flex. You need to flex. Flex yourself to others and flex yourself to what's happening. I do believe that there were some wins and successes, but I believe the struggles and the days where we hit bumps, but I watch them grow through the hard conversations, through the ownership of a problem, through the taking accountability versus blaming someone else, through the collaborative process, across their business partners. There were some tough times.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:22:25

There was people working weekends till midnight, people maybe going at it a little bit. That's normal, right? You get a little tired. But they always returned to joy. They always came back to being a better person and grew through it. And at the end of the day, it was hard. But I believe the dark things and the hard things grow you more than the easy stuff and the stuff that's just simple to do, that you can just. You've done that before. This was all new opportunities for them, things they'd never done in their career.

Kate Volman [: 00:22:53

It's the messy middle. It's not fun while you're going through it, but then when you come out of it. So I love that. I just think it's interesting for people to kind of keep that timeline of, like, what you went through and how it made you stronger, like how it made you become a better individual and then gave you the tools and the skillset to move the business forward in a different way or your life. To your point, right? Like, this is more about just you becoming a better version. You've said courage a couple times, and I'm so glad you did because I think that's really a challenge for a lot of leaders, to be able to have uncomfortable, difficult conversations, those courageous conversations. And the more that you have those, as uncomfortable as they are, the more you have them, the less uncomfortable they are. So you're able to approach them differently, and that's the growth of an individual.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:23:41

If you had to ask me for one word that I think leaders need, and you could take it in so many directions, it's the word courage. It shows up in our civility code. Collaborate with courage is one of our keystone habits. You can build a strong relationship and still have challenges with people, and you can have healthy tension. We talked a little bit about that, so I actually think it takes more courage and the relationships grow deeper when you do have that healthy tension than when you just placate someone and then you walk away frustrated that the situation didn't go as you want. That's just super easy. So what we're trying to encourage our leaders to do is be collaborative, build relationships, but do it knowing that you're going to challenge each other and you're going to land in an aligned place, but you are going to challenge each other. I wanted to just mention about my team, which I was so proud of, is when all of it wrapped up.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:24:30

We had a little bit of an HR celebration day about two weeks ago, and we had a town hall and talked about the wins and talked about the challenges, celebrated, welcomed our new team members into the HR team that stayed from the acquisition. And then everybody got to go to lunch or have a lunch together. And what they talked about was the challenge they had through the acquisition, what they learned as leaders and as people, and what they're excited about for the next one because of going through this. And they did start data points because I want them to do that for themselves because a lot of my team had never gone through an acquisition of another company. So we did do what you were kind of thinking, and I had them really think through thoughtfully and make sure that they did that for themselves because they earned it.

Kate Volman [: 00:25:14

Yeah, we're so quick to move on to the next thing you know. You're very driven, type a, like go getter, successful leaders. It's so easy to just kind of keep forging the path instead of, hey, wait a second, let's take a little bit of time and figure out, hey, what did we learn as a team and what did each of you learn as individuals? And then also for them to be able to go back and say, wow, it's been a really tough year, but look how far I've come. Look at the growth that I've had. And that's an important thing that I feel like it's not part of our routine. Most people, especially in a corporate setting.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:25:50

There'S always something, you know, that's going to get fed to you to do. A mentor of mine used to say about the ocean, there's always another wave right behind the next one. There's always a problem to solve. There's always something coming. But as a leader, can you pull out of the day to day chaos, you know, or the noise of the big machine, and can you pull out and reflect on yourself? And that's part of our leadership. You know, ask. And our model is go on a journey yourself. Self, reflect, grow.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:26:19

How do you get better and how do you bring your team on that journey with you? And they do that same. And I think that's a really important thing to do, is to stop, carve out that time to think about how far you've come, what you still need to do to grow, to get to the next level and celebrate and honor. But we don't do that enough because we are in a very fast moving company, and there's always more to do, but we have to get disciplined and build that muscle. I really believe that as leaders, you have to build that muscle, do that. Your teams need it. My team needs that pause, and I have to carve that out for them. So I think that's a really important leadership takeaway that we're trying to get our leaders to think about as well.

Kate Volman [: 00:26:58

When you think about your team and everyone on the team, and you're bringing new people to join the organization, what are three qualities that every Kehi team member needs to be successful?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:27:12

We actually have a whole HR credo, believe it or not, that we live by, that sits on the board of how we want to show up and behave. But I will say that if we're all learning and growing, there's new concepts emerging from our new CEO and the journey we're going on that weren't there before. So if I had to give my top three, my first one would be like, just be kind. Be a good human. And that's all over our culture. Caring for others and serving to make lives better. And where Kay goes, goodness follows. Just be a good human.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:27:43

I want them to be good people. I really believe that you can be a good human and have empathy and still be courageous. And I believe that that's an art, and I think it's one we have to continue to work on ourselves and teach, and then you have to care about something bigger than yourself. You have to have a passion or a purpose. I always ask people in interviews what gets you out of bed in the morning. Sometimes it's their dog, their kids. Everybody has a different answer, and I love it. I never judge the answer, but if you can't have something that keeps you moving, that's bigger than you, I call it a me corp.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:28:20

You're either a b corp. You think about the greater good, or you're a me corp. You're just so focused on you, and that's all you really think and care about. It's not like a narcissistic way, but there's nothing bigger you're going for to make a difference in the world. I think that goes back to our founding value. Thank and honor God and all you do. You don't have to be religious. There's lots of paths to something higher power, what you would call God.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:28:42

And so we try to really be inclusive and say, how do you see yourself in the world? And there's something bigger at work. And I think that's how we get to our serving. That's why I went to Nepal to serve in the human trafficking and the young girls and women there. It's why I drive my team to think about their passion, and I want to unleash that passion and purpose. So to me, something bigger than yourself, be courageous and just be a good human.

Kate Volman [: 00:29:06

You are definitely helping your team members become the best version of themselves. And one of the things that you have implemented at KE is the dream manager program. We're so excited to see what you're doing with it because you really do have such a strategic plan around getting this out to all of your team members.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:29:27

ugh the program in January of: 2023

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:29:59

Our people are the best people. They put others first. They do not put themselves first. So what I would share with you is, as we're seeing our dreamers go through this program and complete the program, a few things pop out for me. They actually feel seen, they believe and feel cared for beyond the productivity that they bring every day, because that's all they were ever really thinking about. They are thriving and learning and growing personally. And then what I would tell you is they're transforming people around them. They're ambassadors to other dreamers.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:30:34

They're going home and inspiring their children, their spouses, their friends, their communities. They're inspiring their peers. Those are the stories that really get me excited about the future of this program, is watching them be unleashed as humans and them bringing others along on the journey. How does it get any better than that?

Kate Volman [: 00:30:54

That's so awesome. Well, we did a whole episode with Rebecca, who is leading the program over.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:31:00

There, and so, bless her, she's amazing.

Kate Volman [: 00:31:03

There's a lot happening over there as far as just team members just being happier and getting better. Like, that's the thing that's so incredible, is you guys really do have this culture. You know, there's a lot of companies that they can put on the wall. We care about our people, and culture is important, but they don't do the things that actually support that, and you guys are doing those things.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:31:27

A word we haven't talked about yet that's very much woven through our culture is humility. We have to stay humble through this journey, and we've done a lot of great work, but it can be wiped out like that if you don't stay humble and you don't stay focused on what really matters, and that's our people, and that's bringing goodness to them and inspiring change around them in their communities. And I just think that's where we started with this whole thing. Right when you started out in the beginning, what are we trying to do here? What are we trying to protect against? Or what's the biggest challenge? And just like with dreamers, I want us to stay very humble and focused on why we have this program. And that's because we care for our people and we want them to live more what we would call a whole person life. Go on a journey where they're seen and their families feel it. And so it's a blessing. I don't know how else to say it keeps me very humble.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:32:21

Even when we celebrate success, you have to go back to humility. Zachary.

Kate Volman [: 00:32:25

It's so funny. I feel like articles today are all the war on talent. There's this new war on talent. But what's interesting is I remember when I started my career, like 20 years ago, there was always a war on talent. This was a conversation that every CEO and HR leaders, like everyone, was always talking about. How do we attract and retain the right talent? There's really nothing new. Like, I feel like there's no new headlines. I feel like the headlines could be from 15 years ago.

Kate Volman [: 00:32:48

But what are you seeing now in the marketplace? Obviously, a shift like Covid, and there's been a lot now with work from home, and there have been a lot of changes from the. In that regard. How does that look like in the HR space? Like, what are you seeing as far as, like, HR leaders being able to attract and retain great people?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:33:05

Well, first of all, I have to say that I feel very fortunate to have a vp of talent and his entire team that are extremely talented have a good pulse on the market. They've created a great employee value proposition, a great marketing campaign. So we just have an amazing talent team. They're just incredible. As we've just discussed, we have elements to offer the workforce like dreamers, like being an ESOP, an employee owned company, giving back profit sharing, paying a fair wage. Not just a fair wage. We make more money. They make more money with our profit sharing bonus with the ESOP shares.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:33:43

You know, we have employees out in our warehouses that have a million dollars in ESOP. And it's a real thing. Frontline workers, they could never imagine being in that place. That's makes me most proud. So we have a lot of offerings for our people that allows us to attract top talent. So, yes, there hasn't been a year in my career where there wasn't an area that we were struggling with talent. Whether it was professional truck drivers employees to stock the grocery stores, frontline warehouse employees. You're always going to be competing for top talent.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:34:14

But if you stay true to who you are, if you stay true to your culture, and you stay true to treating people with dignity and respect, which is key, and in being fair and seeing them and their family, and understanding the communities they live in, and coming alongside of them when they're experiencing hardship and not abandoning them, when they're not as productive, because they're family's going through a problem, or they have a sick parent, like, thinking about them as the human being, the whole person. You can attract talent. Question is, when they get in our four walls, do they feel all that? That's the retention piece, attracting and hiring. I feel like my team, we've nailed it, but keeping them here with us so they feel cared for and then they're productive is key. I think we get our best employees from our employees. The referral process. I would love to be in a place where everyone we hire comes from a referral. If I have an aspirational goal for my talent and HR team, it's, we have zero hires other than from internal referrals.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:35:21

And we're paying people for that, right?

Kate Volman [: 00:35:23

Oh, that's awesome. I feel like, for sure, being able to have people that are out there talking about you so great that people are looking in thinking, hey, I want to go, I want to work there. I'm going to be part of that team.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:35:34

And Kate, we leverage our dreamers in our marketing campaign, no different than we leverage ESOP owners. We leverage family and friends, which is our referral process. We really leverage a lot of that for our employee value proposition in our marketing campaigns. When you say to somebody, what made you want to work here? It's either, my friend works here. You're an employee owned company, and I know you give back to the employees you serve in your communities and give back through your foundation, or they say there's an opportunity to grow and develop. Those are really important things. Those mean the most to me. Out of anything.

Kate Volman [: 00:36:07

That's awesome. All right. Well, Jen, you are so awesome and doing such wonderful work over there. What is one piece of advice that you would give to leaders who are in a position where they are growing and scaling their organization right now?

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:36:24

You've got to put your people first. They're the backbone of the company. Like you said, words on a wall are easy. We have to behave as leaders and treat people the way that they need to be treated. But if you lose sight of the person to get results as a leader, I believe you've gone down the wrong path. I think you need to be able to focus on the results and equally balanced care for the people. And that'd be my one piece of advice. Do both of those well and it's hard to go wrong.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:36:53

I want to say this as we close out, the Dreamers program has been game changing at Ke to all leaders, I'll challenge you. It's easy to say no to it for a really long time because it takes time. It takes commitment. It takes strong leadership. There's not always financial results as an outcome right away. So a lot of people think that, you know, it's a program that is hard to institute. If you make the time and you spend the right amount of attention on it, it is game changing for your people. And that's what we're finding at CaHI.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:37:23

It's legacy building. You touch one person, you touch 17. So thank you to you and your entire team for investing in us and in Rebecca, who is an amazing dream manager, representative and leader. And just thank you for helping us go on this journey because it's been probably one of my highlights of my entire career.

Kate Volman [: 00:37:40

That's so amazing. I thank you for what you're doing for your people because we love being part of it. And I was telling Rebecca, I said, it's so fun for us to do this with you because you are growing so quickly, you're scaling it, and just being able to work with you on building this within the organization is really cool. And I can't wait until we are together on a stage somewhere and we're talking about all the results and all the things that have happened at Ken, and it's going to be amazing. All right, Jen, you're awesome. Thank you.

Jennifer Ricks [: 00:38:14

Thank you. Take care.

Kate Volman [: 00:38:18

I hope you got something out of this episode. There are so many ways that we can develop our people, to grow our people. And I absolutely love talking to leaders like Jen who understand and really support the philosophy here at Floyd, which is an organization can only become the best version of itself to the extent that its people are becoming better versions of themselves. And it's wonderful to see what ke is doing over there, not only with their dream manager program, but in general, just knowing that coaching is really important to them. Building up their team and the skillset of their team is extremely important. And so if there's one thing that this episode does, I hope that it's to really look at how you are developing your team, what that looks like, whether you need support on the coaching side from the leadership standpoint and doing some business coaching, or maybe it's time to implement the Dream manager program and have your people go through some life coaching. So whatever that looks like for you, I hope that you take some steps or at least just look at what have I been doing for my people lately and what are some ways that I can really support them and help them grow. Obviously, if you are interested in learning a little bit more about Floyd and what we do with our teams, and if you are interested at all in learning about what would coaching look like for you and your people, from life coaching to business coaching to executive coaching, whatever that looks like, we would love to have that conversation.

Kate Volman [: 00:39:41

So you can go to floydcoaching.com and schedule a call with someone from our team. I hope you found value in this episode. Thank you so much for listening. And until next time, lead with culture.