Brooke Green, Partner, Radford Employee Rewards and Talent Consulting
Brooke Green is a Partner and leader of Employee Rewards and Talent Consulting for Aon’s Radford division. She leads consulting teams focused on providing talent management and rewards advice to technology and life sciences companies. Brooke has significant experience developing compensation and career frameworks for various firms, including small start-ups and large global industry leaders. She has been practicing in the San Francisco Bay area for over 20 years.
We sat down with Brooke to discuss the latest technology sector trends given the increased convergence of the financial and technology industries:
What is the greatest challenge financial firms will face while attempting to future-proof their workforce?
Frankly, the greatest challenge may be defining what the future is! New economies, shifting customer demographics and expectations, and new technologies all create a business environment of volatility and constant change that can make determining strategic direction and necessary talent difficult. In general, we think it’s most productive for firms to start building their workforce plans on the principles of agility in action and
response, flexibility in programs and design, and the optimization of unique cultures and values that support their business goals.
What can firms learn from turbocharged companies, such as Facebook and Google?
Turbocharged companies add exponential value to society, changing the way we live day-to-day and transforming our quality of life for the better. They also deliver impressive returns to shareholders and impact the lives of employees. These companies set themselves apart from the pack with more than just high compensation, remarkable perks, and benefits. It’s all about creating a meaningful workplace and overall positive experience. It’s crucial to learn not necessarily what these firms do, but why they do it. Companies that understand “why” and then look for how they can achieve the same effect within their own culture and structure can create truly innovative, valuable, and competitive talent and rewards programs. The copycat approach alone very rarely succeeds.
If you could describe today’s evolving digitally-enabled industry landscape in three words, what would they be?
Customer-centric, data-obsessed, agile
What should firms be doing to ensure they are positioning themselves for success in the future, digitally-enabled industry?
Firms must put the transformation of their workforce at the center of their strategy. Companies should focus on exploring new ways of working, redesigning their organizational structures and rewards to ignite innovation, evaluating their entire employee value proposition to fuel engagement and loyalty, and making strategic investments in new skills and technology to drive their transformation.
What high-demand skills are companies currently focused on developing in their talent pool to stay competitive?
From a technical standpoint, companies are looking primarily at skills and experience with cloud computing, data science and storage, agile development, product management, and artificial intelligence and machine learning. However, because technical skills change so rapidly, there is a renewed emphasis on finding and developing talent with versatile competencies like business acumen, cognitive flexibility, and the ability to analyze and draw insight from data and make strategic business decisions.
If you are interested in connecting with Brooke, she can be reached at brooke.greene@radford.com.