Podcast
Podcast
- 09 Mar 2022
- Managing the Future of Work
Iron Mountain's hybrid workforce transformation
Joe Fuller: Records management may seem like a mundane industry, but it’s at the epicenter of the forces shaping business today. It touches on every major issue related to the workforce. And it’s at the heart of trends like digitalization that have been greatly accelerated by Covid-19.
Welcome to the Managing the Future of Work podcast from Harvard Business School. I’m your host, Harvard Business School Professor and Visiting Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, Joe Fuller. My guest today is Edward Greene, Chief Human Resources Officer of Iron Mountain. We’ll discuss how the 70-year-old company is staffing up for its own ongoing digital transformation and how it manages a hybrid staff in consisting of both frontline essential workers and remote white-collar workers. We’ll also discuss how the worker shortage is affecting the search for people to occupy jobs ranging from truck driver to data analyst. And we’ll talk about how to achieve diversity, equity, and inclusion goals by employing strategies like promoting from within. Edward brings a wealth of HR management experience to his current position, including stints at Fidelity Investments and Voya Financial. Welcome to the Managing the Future of Work podcast, Edward.
Edward Greene: Joe, thanks for having me.
Fuller: Edward, as a senior executive in a company that is doing business with essentially every other company that has a major office-space profile in the United States, you’ve got a lot of insight into how people are managing work outside the company. But you’re also CHRO—Chief Human Resources Officer—of Iron Mountain, which has both what we think of now as essential frontline workers—driving the trucks, picking up the documents, running shredding machines, as well as executive staff. So you’ve got a corner-office view of the entire topology of what has happened to work during Covid, and we’re really keen to hear about it. Tell me a little bit about Iron Mountain. Give us an update on Iron Mountain’s strategy.
Greene: We do have relationships with about 95 percent of the Fortune 1000. But you’re exactly right; we are most known probably for our paper storage and shredding. But you’re going to start to hear more about our path to digital transformation. We took stock of where we were and all those relationships that you refer to. And we started to look at what were a lot of the evolving customer needs—things like secure IT asset disposition, areas of fine arts and entertainment services, which is a really interesting business, our data centers, all areas of innovation.
Fuller: So was that accelerated by Covid? Or was this already well underway, and you were moving to the Cloud and digitalization and all those types of services?
Greene: The work actually started before Covid, shortly before Covid, but I think it got accelerated through Covid. When you start thinking about our areas of expertise being around protecting these assets, being able to access and manage these assets, I think became even more prominent when people weren’t going into the office and people needed to access their information. Our workforce, as you made reference to earlier, is a blended workforce—the white-collar, blue-collar, office, frontline worker population—and there were different needs going on through Covid. So our office population has had the ability to work from home. We have a robust remote working situation that, quite frankly, we’re still in and working through. But the majority of our workforce is in those warehouses or out in the field, in the trucks, shredding, et cetera. For that office population, our biggest job has been supporting those in the company that have been out on the front lines. And part of what I’ve been doing as a CHRO is lifting that up so that people understand the importance of each of our roles, but how they’re different in the time of Covid.
Fuller: What kind of challenges have your frontline workers confronted? It must have been a very strange environment for them, often having to serve accounts that are also largely shut down. They are integral to your value proposition, because they’re the face of Iron Mountain that is seen by your customers at their sites. What have they experienced? How have you kept them motivated and moving forward and coping with a lot of uncertainty in their day-to-day work?
Greene: The commitment that “Mountaineers” have to the company and to our customers, it’s palatable. They really are the ambassadors to our customers. They became even more important through Covid. Having visited a number of the sites coming on board, it is a familial approach.
Fuller: Edward, you mentioned, of course, that Iron Mountain features a blended workforce. You have a significant number of office-based workers, digital workers, knowledge workers. That’s an important constituency. You also have your frontline workers, the drivers, the shredders, the warehouse people. When you think about the workforce’s experience through Covid, across those two populations, what are the most important similarities in terms of what they’ve experienced? And what are the most interesting differences in your view?
Greene: The common thread for both populations, really, was their mental and physical well-being. The difference is, for those on the front line, there wasn’t an option, in the sense that they were out serving our customers directly in a pandemic [about which] we didn’t have all the information. And then, when the vaccine came, still lots of unknowns. For the other side of the house, those that were impacted by no longer going into the office, yes, they had the mental and physical piece, but theirs was more whether it was the right chair—because they had been using the dining room chair instead of their office chair—or the right screen or the right lighting—very different in terms of the day-to-day impact, but still had an impact, particularly when we think about the physical and mental well-being.
Fuller: How do we take the people we’ve got and equip them to do the jobs that we see emerging in the future? That is, I’m presuming, a concern for Iron Mountain as you undergo this digital transformation. How do you view the role of the company in upskilling, reskilling people, attitude about promoting from within versus going out into the spot market for labor? What’s your approach?
Greene: It’s huge, and it’s an incredibly important area. And let me address it in two areas: one, for the front line. So we are very focused on the development, retention, and, really, promotion for that population. We have a program—called the Sentinel training program—which is a peer-to-peer coaching program to really work with those drivers and warehouse workers, giving them direct coaching to move them through a process to upscale and expand their capabilities, with a goal—establishing with them what success looks like—to move them through the organization. On the other side, for those office workers and managers, we have launched a management development program—a new program that’s also very similar to that peer-to-peer, but it’s small cohorts—that we really leveraged the LinkedIn learning modules and direct coaching from some of the leaders to bring leaders through on how do you manage in today’s environment. And for me, it is so important for that management population that we really upskill them and really equip them with understanding the employees that they manage. Because we also know that employees leave managers, not companies. So if we’re not equipping our managers, so we’re speaking to that workforce. And then, on the front lines, the reason the Sentinel program has been successful is because we’re meeting our employees where they’re at, and we’re beginning to show them there’s opportunity. So we’re beginning to invest more there. And we recognize—that’s the joy of my job—in that blended workforce, with lots of different programming going on.
Fuller: Does Sentinel link to career-advancement opportunities, or is it keeping those workers’ skills up to date in their current role?
Greene: It’s really both, but the former is the real charge that my CEO, Bill Meaney, has for me. We’ve just brought in a new head of learning and talent development. As we build out that area, she’ll be working very closely with me to really take that talent that’s coming through Sentinel. How can we move them up further into the organization? We also recognize we have quite a bit of diversity on that front line. How do we funnel that further through the organization? So it’s a real exciting time for us to think creatively and differently on how we manage and grow talent.
Fuller: Those decisions and those choices and those investments that you’re making in those programs in bringing in more leadership, in learning and skills development—can you describe how you think about that through a hard-nosed, clear-eyed business lens? Everyone can imagine taking someone who’s got an entry-level job and giving them some more skills and some opportunity. That’s a nice thing to do. That’s a noble purpose. But what about the ROI? What kind of key business indicators improve, such that programs like Sentinel or the investments you’re making now, can be explained to shareholders?
Greene: At its core, if we either are to think about why people stay at companies, many times it’s because they have a relationship. They are seen, they are heard. There’s a comfort factor. When you add in that we are going to work with you to develop, when you add in that your voice, things that you say, actually impact what the business does, how we treat our customers, that has deep and lasting and institutional effects. And I talk a lot with my leaders about relationships. Think about relationships that matter to you. You take the time. You’re intentional. They’re not transactional. Well, we need to apply that to our employees, because you’ll have lower turnover. You’ll have greater productivity. You’ll have greater innovation and agility in your workforce when you have folks from different backgrounds, different experiences, but vested in the end result—the success—of Iron Mountain. But it starts at the core—in having that deep relationship and your employees know they’re not transactional, they’re not immediately replaceable. It’s about being smart in business in delivering value to our customers.
Fuller: Well, you’ve had a rich career and a background in both management and in labor law. You spoke with great conviction and passion on that subject. Our observation is that the type of insight you just shared is not all that widely held in large companies. What are they missing? Do you have any idea, thoughts, as to what it is that causes so many companies not to see the cost benefit in the way that you do at Iron Mountain?
Greene: In many of these companies, the leaders all look the same, and their experiences are the same. And, say, they’ve gone deaf—in the sense that they’re not listening to what’s happening deeper in the organization—they feel they already have the answer. And when you really listen to what else is going on in your organization, and you bring that to the forefront, you’re demonstrating your stated values—at least here at Iron Mountain—that you matter. And when people feel or employees feel that they matter, they’re going to give more. And so I think it’s unfortunate that many companies don’t embrace what, at the outset, sounds very easy, but to develop that discipline, to actually listen, but then take action on what they’ve heard.
Fuller: Certainly, what we’ve detected is that a lot of senior management teams have great confidence in what they’re doing, in that they are advancing the careers of particularly their lower-paid workers. But they also have a rather stylized characterization of those workers, what working conditions are like, what those workers’ lives outside of work are, which often does lead to blind spots. Let’s go to the other side of turnover. We’re all being treated to messages in the media about the Great Resignation. Is it affecting your ability to staff? And when you reflect on it, what do you think’s driving it?
Greene: So, Joe, we should not be surprised that, at this particular time—pandemic, social injustice, racial injustice, climate disruption—that everyone is taking stock, really evaluating their life, where they are, what’s important. I think we need to embrace that—in fact, encourage that—in a healthy way. We’re spending a lot more time ensuring on the mental and physical health of our employees as we move through this period. But I think it’s incumbent upon companies to embrace that their employees are lifting their heads up. And it’s incumbent for us to have the right value proposition for them to stay. You cannot take it for granted today. If you remember all too well, back in the ’90s, war for talent was all in the technology sector. The difference today? The war for talent is in every sector. And its global, because we are a global company, with 25,000 employees. So we need to be clear, having a singular focus on who we are as a company, what we value, valuing our employees, and then making those investments to move our employees along. We know we have a lot of frontline workers. They don’t want to change jobs. They’ve been doing it a while. They enjoy the comradery. But they want to be respected, well paid, and valued.
Fuller: You touched a couple of times on the topic of diversity/inclusion in these comments. Certainly in the 10 or so years I’ve been deeply studying the future of work, I haven’t seen a level of engagement and, I think, genuine commitment on the part of companies to advanced diversity/inclusion, to try to innovate in accomplishing that. What are you doing specifically at Iron Mountain? And, given your breadth of experience in your career, going back to when you were in labor law, what do you anticipate are going to be the hardest things for companies to get right to accomplish that goal?
Greene: So, Joe, it’s a little… as an African American executive that’s been around a while, I don’t want to be pessimistic. But I do think there is this reckoning that we’re still in, post the George Floyd murder, and many companies being very quick to want to engage in some activity so they could check a box. This is not a “check the box.” This is institutional and systemic, and we need to be comfortable in that space. So here at Iron Mountain, we recently hired the first Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, a woman by the name of Charlene Jackson, who had spent time earlier in her career on Wall Street really focusing on the culture. So where are we? We are really trying to build DE&I into the DNA here at Iron Mountain. And it goes hand in hand with the cultural evolution, cultural transformation work, that we’re engaged in. So there aren’t any quick fixes. We, like many companies, we’re setting targets. We have targets for women leadership, with BIPOC population, particularly here in the states. But I would tell you, my CEO is pushing hard to think beyond the numbers and checking the box. There clearly are some things we need to do. But are we seeding the organization that it can become a culture of learning and belonging, that one day we’re not in a place where we need a chief DE&I officer, that everything that we do is fully integrated?
Fuller: It’s also interesting how many companies have denominated the challenge purely as recruiting. And you alluded to something earlier, which is very consistent with some of our work, which I’m interested in hearing more about, which is frontline workers in the United States skew toward BIPOC populations and are actually heavily female. So now, that’s not true across all industries, but if you take industries that have a large number of frontline workers who are making in the teens in terms of hourly take-home pay, things like that—$12 to $20 an hour—you have significant African American, Latinx, female segments of the population who already work for you. And they’re a talent pool that’s accessible to you and diverse. What are your thoughts about how, as you go forward with this mission, you use that as a talent pool in new ways to make the organization more diverse throughout levels of management.
Greene: So, Joe, what’s important there is, one, we are. But it’s a strategy that’s both-and, it’s not an either-or. And so, for that population that’s deeper in the organization, if they don’t see immediately or in the short term what’s possible for other people that look like them in the organization, you will lose folks. One, because the development cycle takes a while. It’s not like people are immediately upskilled every six months; they’re progressing. And there’s a whole different set of skills, when you think of our population from going from warehouse workers to managers to shred supervisors, et cetera. What I think is really important, though, and the real dialogue is, there are plenty of BIPOC professionals in the marketplace. Where are they? And why aren’t they in these respective organizations? And that’s why you have to be very mindful of the numbers game. We are very deliberate in looking at our diversity numbers to be real clear—from the director and above and everybody else—because we want to ensure that we aren’t just focused and hitting diversity numbers, because everybody is coming in through the front line. We want to ensure that the decision makers, the P&L leaders, look different. They have different experiences, and they’ll help us innovate differently. There’s been plenty of work over there at HBS talking about the business imperative around diversity. And successful companies that have diverse leadership are more successful in the stock market, quantitative.
Fuller: I want to change the focus a little bit, because you’ve got experience in the not-for-profit sector, and you’re on the board of one of the great institutions of Boston—the Museum of Fine Arts, of which I am a member and donor.
Greene: Thank you.
Fuller: And I’m curious what you’ve observed about those types of institutions, whether it’s the MFA or others, the impact of Covid—not so much on the business model, but on those workforces, and what are the challenges they’re going to face, given all the turmoil that institutions like that are confronting—everything from their development opportunities, fundraising, to shutdowns, start-ups, the whole business model of receiving people being disrupted or educating people being disrupted.
Greene: Yeah. So I would tell you that they are experiencing the same pain, and maybe even more. For an institution like the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston or any of our museums, it’s all about earned revenue. And when people no longer come through your doors, you feel the pain. I think all employers are wrestling with how do you effectively manage a hybrid workforce, because you are hearing people slowly coming back. We’re slowly—at manager discretion—having some folks come back, but nothing formal until Q2 of 2022. No different at places like the museum. If people are coming, we have to have people in there to serve them. So it’s striking a balance. Employees all have different comfort levels, depending on what’s going on with the pandemic, with Covid, then Delta, then Omicron. I mean, it’s been a rollercoaster. So I think all of us have to learn to be flexible, agile, but clear on what our values are and how we manage our workforce.
Fuller: So would you describe the issues around workforce and around human assets in the philanthropic sector, the not-for-profit sector, essentially the same as the corporate world? Or were there any important differences?
Greene: Well, I think in the nonprofit world, you don’t have the same flexibility around compensation. So there are tighter margins in the nonprofit community. So you have to move quicker in a nonprofit setting than you would, perhaps, in that corporate setting, which, for me, is a danger, because think what you lose when you have to make some tough decisions quickly. That bounce-back takes longer, that recovery takes longer. So for yourself and anyone that’s listening that is a supporter of all of our museums, art institutions, theaters: Please continue to give, because it’s those philanthropic dollars that are helping these institutions recover—and get their sea legs—to be able to effectively rebound.
Fuller: So, Edward, as you think about Iron Mountain and its evolution, as you go further into this digital transformation, what challenges are you going to face in terms of making sure the company’s got the right workforce in place, has a talent pipeline, is continuing to sustain the traditions of a 70-year-old company and that critical familial atmosphere, what’s that going to take and what do you think your workforce and the company are going to look like in 2032?
Greene: So the real challenge, particularly over the next five to 10 is, how do we upskill? How do we prepare the talent that we have today? And then, how do we infuse new talent into the organization? It is only going to get harder to retain and attract talent. So we are going to have a laser-like focus on our employee value proposition that will ensure that, if you’re here or if you join us, we’re going to be developing you and giving new opportunities for you to grow.
Fuller: Well, Edward Greene, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Iron Mountain, we’re really appreciative of your time and you sharing your insights with us.
Greene: My pleasure. Really enjoyed it, Joe.
Fuller: We hope you enjoy the Managing the Future of Work podcast. If you haven’t already, please subscribe and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts. You can find out more about the Managing the Future of Work Project at our website hbs.edu/managingthefutureofwork. While you’re there, sign up for our newsletter.