Smart data use isn’t just a business mandate for Megan Ackerson, CHRO of sales performance management solution provider Xactly Corp. It’s a personal passion as well.
“I could really spend hours geeking out about that stuff. I am a nerd at heart,” she says. “I think workforce data is among the most underutilized data that companies have at their fingertips.”
That’s why Ackerson and her team are doubling down on workforce analytics, “regularly” doing deep dives and sharing insights with leadership to strategize for everything from headcount to attrition to DEI.
“There is a lot of data that we can unlock to better understand our current and future workforce,” says Ackerson. Those efforts, as part of a “roadmap” to transform HR at Xactly, which employs about 800 people, are happening alongside AI adoption—such as through a pilot program leveraging the tech to guide individual development plan creation, which saved employees and managers 150 hours of manual work.
While data and AI are key to HR’s future innovation, culture is the underlying catalyst, she says. Ackerson—who joined Xactly in 2021 from Brillio and previously held HR leadership roles at Hitachi Vantara—recently shared with HR Executive how Xactly is transforming HR to become a more strategic driver of the business.
HR Executive: What lessons on rapid growth did you bring with you from Brillio to Xactly?
Ackerson: I joined [Brillio] literally at the kickoff of the pandemic, at least here stateside, so we really didn’t know what to expect. One of the biggest challenges was making sure that we weren’t having a rash, knee-jerk reaction. We saw a lot of companies doing layoffs, and we deliberately wanted to steer away from that because we didn’t know what was going to happen. I talked to the team about furloughing employees rather than doing layoffs, and that included our recruiters as well. We weren’t hiring, but we also weren’t ready to let go of our recruiters. We also looked at and talked to employees about, would they be open to and consider taking temporary pay cuts during that period of time? And folks voluntarily agreed to that, and we implemented that at a senior leadership and executive level.
We made our bets well because as things started looking up and we realized that there’s this digital transformation happening and there was a huge uptick of movement of folks between companies and demand for technical employees, we were poised. We still had our recruiters on board and we had this goodwill with our employee base because we did not lay them off, so we were able to make that pivot. We were hiring anywhere between 350 to 500 people in one quarter; during that time that I was there, the bulk of the hiring happened within a truncated period of nine to 12 months, where we rapidly grew in response to the digital transformation and the uptick of business that we were seeing.
HR Executive: Now at Xactly, where are you focusing to make the HR function a strategic driver of growth?
Ackerson: It’s not a one-pronged strategy. When I first joined, I really needed to take a moment, a pause, to check in with our business leaders and the company at large: How are we doing? Where are we going, in the short term and the long term? Because when I think about a people-led organization and strategy, you have to be in lockstep, attached to the hip with where the business is going. That’s where we started.
That speaks to some of the business partner capability—embedding that business partnership and that solution orientation, architect mindset throughout all the functions—whether you are in compensation or talent management or in the business partner role.
We can think short term and long term about laying out what has become our two-and-a-half-year road map—to put in the compensation building blocks, the talent management strategy and to continue to build out performance culture. We’ve been rolling out OKRs to the organization, that next level of calibration with performance and talent reviews and individual development plans.
And we’re leveraging AI along the way. We’re trying to put wood behind the arrow, to help build up the talent capability from within the organization.
Read more Insights from a CHRO here.
HR Executive: How are you differentiating the employee value proposition to attract and retain Gen Z workers?
Ackerson: Every generation comes into [the workforce] with their own experience. But there’s a level of adaptability that companies and senior leaders need to find within themselves as we apply things to that next generation and think about what motivates them, what inspires them and what’s of value to them.
The Gen Z folks are digital natives. They have been born with technology at their fingertips, and they’re much more fluent at adapting to the different technologies that are coming forth. They have social platforms at their fingertips, which drives some of their expectations around transparency and the speed of communication.
I hear folks say sometimes that there is a level of disloyalty within this next generation, and I think we need to break that myth. The Gen Z population has seen multiple generations before [them] being very loyal and committed to companies—and then seeing those companies quit that employee base. As they learn from that, they’re saying they’re taking a little more control of their lives to say, “I need to be more mindful about how I want to self-prioritize my needs along with the company needs,” and that’s not disloyalty.
HR Executive: How is your HR team looking to culture to connect to these and other workers?
Ackerson: Companies can have the smartest strategies in the world, but at the end of the day—and I know it sounds cliché—it’s people who are going to carry through and execute on your strategy and your vision. It’s people who are going to be in front of your customer base or your partners. Culture shouldn’t be underestimated.
If you really want to pay attention and foster the right culture, it’s recognizing that it’s not owned by just your senior leaders and your executive team, and it’s likewise not simply owned by the HR organization. Culture is the DNA of the organization, and it guides how we make decisions, how we behave on a day-to-day basis.
With that in mind, from an executive standpoint, we continue to look at what’s important to the employee experience. We recently implemented our first NPS, evolving from simply using engagement surveys. There are case studies that show that NPS has a direct impact on the experience that customers have and your overall company performance. We have been continuing to modernize and evolve our talent management programs to support career development for individuals, and that then allows us to evolve and modernize our compensation and rewards programs for employees. Likewise, we’re investing in creating an environment of belonging and diversity and inclusion for folks. We continuously evolve some of the benefit programs that are going to support the different stages of life in which people are at. These are all ways in which we help to foster the right culture and the environment that we hope to continue to carry forward to our customers.
HR Executive: How are you bringing your people along with you on the transformation?
Ackerson: Change management is non-negotiable; it’s the ticket to the game. If you think about a change initiative, the hard part isn’t coming up with the idea or the plan. The hard part is in how you align and execute against that—and 70%, if not more, of the challenge has to do with employees. That’s because we have this wonderful environment of diversity, where folks are coming with different lenses of experience and exposure. We need to adapt to that and not assume there’s a one-size-fits-all way to explain and communicate and get people aligned. We have wonderful diversity in the audience, so we should have diversity of approach and messaging, and spend the time to bring people along. Change management is super, super critical.
Change management doesn’t have to be a process. “Here’s a set of templates that you complete, make sure you go through this process and check off this box that you did communication AB and C.” Change management should be conversational.
We should be able to work it into some of our formal and informal conversations.
If I had kids and was thinking about moving states … would a parent pop that on their kid and say, “Hey, guess what? Tomorrow we’re going to move states and you’re going to a new school.” No. We’re planning in our heads, we’re greasing the skids and seeding it with them well in advance. “Here are the reasons Mom or Dad have this wonderful opportunity to take on a new job.” Or, “We’re going to move closer to Grandma and Grandpa.” You’re selling the value proposition and tying it into why it’s important for the family and them as well. Eventually, you get them aligned and coming along with you in the process. Maybe they aren’t making the decision around whether or not you change states, but you can create the opportunities where they can make a decision: “Go wild and choose what you want to decorate your room as.”
The same thing applies in the work environment.
HR Executive: Is there advice you’ve received that has shaped your approach to HR leadership?
Ackerson: There are a couple of pieces of advice that folks gave me really early on around understanding what is urgent versus important. Admittedly, when I was much earlier in my career, it was first in, first out—as opposed to stepping back and saying, “All right, let me look at some of that bigger picture.” It was wonderful advice that I still use to this day, and I use that too to manage the expectations of some of my internal and external clients and as I coach folks in my team.
The second piece is to focus on what you enjoy and where you have strengths, and then find help to cover those areas that are less of a strength or perhaps your blind spots. I love the team concept because we all bring strengths to the table, and no one has to feel bad about not being the expert in all areas. That’s where you can lean on and leverage the expertise that everyone brings to the table. And you’ll have much stronger solutions.
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