Jenny Dearborn is an expert in two areas many lawyers struggle with—technology and data. The Data Driven Leader: A Powerful Approach to Delivering Measurable Business Impact through People Analytics, Jenny's book, talks about how to use the data that many companies are collecting to move the business forward. Recognized as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Tech for five consecutive years, Jenny is a thought leader in human resources (HR), human capital management (HCM), the future of work, and data analytics. She is the CEO of Actionable Analytics Group, an advisory firm that supports HCM and education tech startups from seed to IPO.

Jenny previously served as Executive Vice President, Human Resources and Global Head of Talent, Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness & Learning at SAP, the world's largest B2B software company. She was responsible for the learning, development, talent management, succession management, and organizational development of more than 90,000 employees worldwide. Jenny was also the Chief Learning Officer at SuccessFactors, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, and Docent (now Sum Total Systems), leading award-winning teams that drove measurable business impact.

Attorney Ryan McConnell caught up with her recently for an issue of The Recorder affiliate Corporate Counsel.

RM: What are the biggest changes you've seen in your time as a leader in learning and human capital management?

JD: The most influential change is that many more savvy, forward-thinking business leaders are investing in and prioritizing developing their human capital. I've been in corporate Learning & Development (L&D) since the mid-1990s when there was a dominant self-fulfilling prophesy of corporate executives expecting very little of HR, thus they didn't invest in the best HR talent, technologies and systems and, not surprisingly, they got very little from their investment. We've made a lot of progress but there's more to do. When the C-suite doesn't get that their people are their most important asset, their companies don't earn the return they could on that asset. When they do, we see new focus and rigor around analytics and measurement, as well as the technologies that enable them, which both drive and track performance goals and business outcomes. In fact, using data and analytics to fully understand all forces impacting performance is THE differentiator between okay and great leaders—not just in human capital but in business overall.

One critical change not yet happening is that every HCM leader, and leaders of any corporate function for that matter, must carefully track what is happening and what topics are trending in their company's boardroom. They may have regular contact with the CEO but tuning into the board will enable them to get in front of problems before they occur and anticipate mandates that will come from the CEO before they reach the point of crisis.

RM: What will it take for corporate leaders to change their attitudes about HCM?

JD: People they respect have to tell them that managing human capital matters. There's actually a very interesting and positive trend coming from the institutional investment community about HCM. Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, recently issued a series of very clear and compelling communications directing corporations to make fundamental changes to, what I might call, the soul of a company: it matters how you treat people, culture impacts how employees treat customers, diversity is important, we should play a positive role in the community.

HCM leaders have been saying this for years, but when Larry Fink calls HCM an "important investment issue," and "a competitive advantage," corporate leaders listen. He even cites statistics that we've been beating the drum about, like: companies on the list of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For earning long-term, excess risk-adjusted returns of 3.5%, and a 2015 Harvard Law School study that found a positive correlation between HR initiatives and outcomes like Return on Assets, Return on Earnings, Return on Investment, and Return on Capital Employed. I look forward to seeing the impact of what we may one day call "The BlackRock Effect."

RM: What do you see as key intersections between HCM and Legal? 

JD: The one that's top of mind for me right now is compliance programs. As a corporate compliance expert, you know that at the end of April 2019 the Department of Justice (DOJ) came out with updated and far broader guidance regarding the factors prosecutors should consider when evaluating the effectiveness of compliance programs to determine how to prosecute or resolve enforcement actions. I found them very exciting as well as radical and surprising.

I served as Chief Learning Officer at five global technology firms. These firms frequently saw compliance training as a means of denying culpability should an employee break the law. As long as we had airtight training records to show that we met our legal responsibility, we could defend ourselves, whether the topic was information security (change your password every six months), physical security (don't let anyone without an employee ID badge into the building), or sexual harassment (don't do it).

Now the DOJ says evaluating compliance isn't just about mandatory training completions but whether compliance programs meet three criteria: they are well designed, effectively implemented, and actually work. Of course, as an L&D professional, I know it's not enough that people take training—training has to actually make a difference. It's a sea change that the DOJ gets this too.

I see corporate counsels and HCM leaders needing to work closely here and not just on how to approach this new guidance. Any company that doesn't have a culture of compliance is going to have a tough time. And culture starts at the top with the corporate board, the governing body for the CEO, and executive staff. That's who sets standards for corporate values, behaviors, and purpose—everything Fink says is important. They decide and set the tone on treating employees well, dealing ethically with customers and suppliers, and shaping a culture of respect for the law. So Legal and HCM leaders, through board influence, should be natural allies in thinking, strategizing, and closing any gaps between their company's current compliance culture and the one they need.

RM: The Future of Work is a topic you write and speak about extensively. What are the key actions companies should take to anticipate changing needs and forces?

JD: Successful companies will take two core sets of actions regarding the Future of Work.

• First, given the rate of technological change in what's often called the Fourth Industrial Revolution, companies will plan for uncertainty. They will focus on teaching their people not just WHAT to learn, but HOW to quickly learn new skills and adapt to new realities. Learning and adapting have been the hallmarks of surviving and thriving in every previous industrial revolution. This one is no different. There has never been a more important time to invest in learning and development, and it's never been more critical to calibrate training efforts for this new era. It goes way beyond an X, Y or Z technology skillset, although equipping our workforce for a digital future is certainly table stakes for every organization regardless of size and nature. We must rethink our entire approach on what it means to learn.
• Second, companies will expand their approach to strategic workforce planning to include people AND some level, or multiple levels, of artificially intelligent machines. Some of these machines will significantly change people's jobs. It's hard to predict how many humans will be impacted given the velocity of technology change. But savvy leaders will also recognize and maximize the benefits of automation and how it can free up and/or assist employees to do higher-value work, allowing them to focus on skills that only humans can accomplish by using empathy, creativity and problem-solving.

Ryan McConnell is a lawyer at R. McConnell Group—a compliance and investigations boutique law firm in Houston, Texas with Fortune 500 clients across the globe. McConnell is a former assistant U.S. Attorney in Houston who has taught criminal procedure and corporate compliance at the University of Houston Law Center. You can visit the firm's "compliance by design" page for compliance guidance mapping which maps corporate compliance programs to various regulatory guidance. Send column ideas to [email protected].