THE RBL INSTITUTE MINI FORUM WHITE PAPER SERIES | MAY 2019
Ethics & Culture in a Digital
Workplace
Joe Grochowski and Keith Lawrence
Overview
Today it is possible to collect personal and
business data about employees and their
everyday actions (online activity, voice mail,
biometrics, etc.). Software applications with
sophisticated algorithms (“bots”) are able to
make recommendations on where individu-
als are a “better fit” for a job. Such rapid and
ongoing digital advances raise growing risks
and ethical questions as well as questions
about sustaining a culture of candid conver-
sations, trust, and human judgment.
Key Questions Addressed
The RBL Institute conducts monthly “mini
forum” calls with a small group of member
companies on current topics of interest to
exchange ideas and share best practices.
Each participant on this call was nominated
by their organization to discuss the challeng-
es they are seeing as we increasingly digitize
the workplace. During the call, we asked
each participant two questions to learn how
they are addressing this topic within their
company:
1. What are the most critical ethical and cul-
tural challenges your organization faces as
the workplace becomes more digital? What
concerns do employees have about the in-
creasing use of technology in the workplace?
2. What actions are you taking to protect
“the human element” and human judgment
within your culture as the workplace increas-
ingly becomes digital?
Key Insights
•• Digitalization is transforming our lives for
the better. As these systems come online
our world becomes more efficient and con-
sequently richer. It also enables companies
to better serve its customers, however, as
with any major change, there are signifi-
cant disruptions that must be taken into
account.
•• A great digital business strategy can be
detrimental to the organization if you
take out the personal touch and eliminate
human interaction. We can’t afford to lose
the human element in Human Resources.
Special care must be made to maintain
“human toll gates” at critical juncture points
in the process.
Participating Members:
James Buonanno – Alexion Pharmaceuticals
Moritz von Butler – Credit Suisse
Andrew Caggiano – Gulfstream
Maria Quintana – Mondelēz International
Randal Sellar – Shaw Communications
Ashley Hostetter, James Fripp & Frank Tucker
– Yum! Brands
•• Employees and their leaders will need a
new set of skills (or need to be upskilled)
to thrive in the digital world. The acquisi-
tion of digital skills is now a prerequisite for
success. This includes understanding the
power and potential of the various tech-
nologies on the business as well as being
fully aware of how to effectively implement
the change and integrate it into the social
fabric and culture of the organization.
•• HR plays several critical roles in the digi-
talization journey. It must first ensure that
the organization understands the impact
digitalization is having on the workforce
and the right choices are being made to
preserve the critical human touch-points.
HR is central to determining how employee
data is properly collected and used to
mitigate concerns on privacy. HR should
also digitize to improve its own operations,
meet the emerging needs of employees,
and build their own awareness. The HR
function must be sure employees are
fully engaged at every step through ongo-
ing communication and robust change
management.
Digitalization Defined
Digitalization (as defined by Gartner) is the
process of employing digital technologies
and information to transform business
operations. Klaus Schwab, economist and
founder of the World Economic Forum is re-
ferring to it as “The Fourth Industrial Revolu-
tion”. He foresees the confluence of robotics,
artificial intelligence, and other technologies
transforming the nature of how we work.
Challenges in the Digital Journey
Like any major change and transformation
there are benefits and risks that must be ad-
dressed in order to fully tap into the poten-
tial of digital technologies. For example, one
significant perceived challenge is unemploy-
ment. As we invent ways to automate jobs,
individuals in those roles will be displaced.
For example, the advent of self-driving
trucks will impact the millions of individuals
employed in this industry. We must create
room for people to assume more complex
cognitive roles as we move from strictly
physical work that dominates much of what
we do today.
As we look to tap into the potential of new
technologies, we can’t afford to lose sight of
where humans are unique and where they
add special value, such as how they process
information, emotionally connect, consider
context and make decisions (particularly
those that are “non routine”).
Alexion is a global pharmaceutical company
that employs around 3,000 people world-
wide. They are in the midst of a significant
digital transformation, both across the
company and within human resources
(which is in a very early stage). With a focus
on data governance, Alexion continues to
revisit and evolve its digital framework on
an ongoing basis to maintain its relevance. It
must evolve as the business circumstances
change. Having a rigorous cadence for doing
this renewal is important to supporting the
dynamic nature of the company. A huge
part of being successful in HR is having a
strong EQ (emotional intelligence). You can
set up a great digital framework but it can be
detrimental to the organization if you take
out the personal touch and eliminate human
LEVERAGING AGILE TALENT
interaction. You don’t want to lose the hu-
man element in Human Resources.
Credit Suisse is a globally integrated
bank combining Private Banking, Invest-
ment Banking and Asset Management. The
financial services industry is facing significant
disruption from technology, as well as new,
non-traditional incumbents, such as Fintech
companies like PayPal, Amazon Pay and
Apple Pay. Financial services as an industry
is heavily dependent on information and
technology.
The digital transformation at Credit Suisse is
not a pure efficiency and cost reduction play;
it is about being able to serve customers the
way they expect to be served in today’s age.
For example, millennials have a different
way of interacting with their relationship
managers in financial services. They want to
follow their trades or portfolio through an
app on their phone or video chats versus an
in-person office meeting. As a result, rela-
tionship managers at Credit Suisse are being
given iPads to better serve this generation.
This requires a big shift in mindset among
employees that requires a new set of skills.
HR is a) helping the workforce to adapt to
these new ways of working and b) seeking
to attract and retain employees who can
readily adapt to the rapidly moving environ-
ment. However, it is important to remember
that this transformation is not new to the
financial services industry. For example, in
the past tellers used to hand out cash and
then the ATM machines disrupted their work
and they were able very successfully to shift
from the teller working mode to the current
model.
HR at Credit Suisse is helping the workforce
make this shift, while at the same time
digitalizing their own processes and tools, so
that they deliver a more digital experience to
their workforce. In the last eighteen months
they have transformed their technology,
user experience and process landscape
significantly, implementing digital signature,
a new employee portal with live chat func-
tionality for employees, as well as robotics
process automation solutions to support
their back-office teams. This has helped the
HR function better understand the change
management and skill shift that is required
to digitalize. Credit Suisse’s HR function has
been awarded with the automation impact
award from the SSOW organization for their
technology transformation program.
Gulfstream engineers, manufactures and
services the world’s finest business aircraft.
Headquartered in Savannah, Georgia, USA,
Gulfstream operates facilities on four con-
tinents and employees more than 18,000
people worldwide. The introduction of GDPR
has brought attention to the differences in
how data is managed across the two conti-
nents. US employees are raising questions
about what information is being collected,
who is getting it, and how it is being used.
They have become more concerned with
data privacy, and tend to hold their em-
ployers to a higher standard for protecting
personal data than the companies they in-
teract with in their private lives. In addition,
employees are having higher expectations
on the use of technology at work given how
pervasive it is in their personal life.
Mondelēz is a multinational confectionary,
food and beverage company that employs
approximately 83,000 individuals worldwide.
They just started the journey of digitizing the
workplace, so it is too early to identify poten-
tial concerns. They are working now on defin-
ing the end state and how to link technology
to the various HR systems. They initiated an
automation project in their shared services
working for 8 months with an external
vendor to automate some of the recruiting
process. However, they found out that the
complexity of the organization (different titles
around the world) prevented them to imple-
ment this automation change. As a result,
they have postponed the project to work first
on the implementation of Workday to help
them simplify their HR processes first.
Shaw Communication is a Canadian
telecommunications company that provides
telephone, Internet, TV and mobile services
via a fiber optic network. Their digital journey
is encompassing a couple of different lenses
(the customer and their employees). For
their customers they are moving towards
self-service via automation to replace the
traditional customer interactions. The
company is focused on identifying the skills
and capabilities required to be successful
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in the future. They have also found that the
expectations of employees have changed.
They want to do more self-service and less
human interaction. Change management
plays a key role in helping individuals buy
into this transformation.
Yum! Brands is one of the world’s largest
quick service restaurant companies, with
such famous brands at Taco Bell, KFC, and
Pizza Hut. It is a multi-dimensional business
that is moving beyond traditional bricks and
mortar. The industry is radically transform-
ing as digital transforms how people order,
get, and eat their food. With the advent of
kiosks, click and connect, delivery, etc. the
definition of a restaurant is changing. Arti-
ficial intelligence is also recreating the back-
office operations. As a result, the employee
experience is becoming more complex and
they are working hard to navigate through
this. Communication fatigue and workload
are two main challenges. They are seeking to
grow through digital to help create meaning-
ful connections with employees to grow a
sense of belonging through development
programs like Inclusive Leadership, Digital
Know How sessions, and Leading with Heart.
They are also reinforcing the importance
of relationships in their culture because
strengthening the human element leads to
higher levels of employee engagement which
in turn leads to customer engagement.
This transformation is not about reducing
people or saving costs but about growth
and incremental revenue. It is about making
both the customer and employee experi-
ence better. That said, the fear of the
unknown creates the need to effectively
manage the change so that employees are
on board and not scared of the future.
Protecting the Human Element
In the move towards digitalization, there is
a risk of losing the human element as you
remove human interaction and judgment.
Organizations need to be very deliberate
in how they design their work to make sure
this doesn’t happen.
LEVERAGING AGILE TALENT
At Alexion, there is ongoing dialogue about
ensuring the right human tollgates are in
place. Even where the work becomes fully
automated, Alexion is seeking to ensure a
person is involved to do an ethical review.
Personal issues and situations are very
complex. You can try to automate work by
putting in place decision matrixes based on
some pre-requisites to help the machine
make a decision. However, some degree
of human interaction is needed to provide
context and confirm that the right thing is
being done.
Alexion is also seeing a shift in the type
leader that they need, both internally and
for their external hires. They have integrated
technical acumen and awareness into their
leadership profile. They want leaders in the
future that have an understanding of the
impact of technology on the organization
and the employee.
At Credit Suisse they also focus on ensuring
human touch points are in place at the right
moments in the employee lifecycle, having
empathy and human decision making em-
bedded in these moments. The definition of
where in a process a person really needs the
“human touch” is liquid: Ten years ago, peo-
ple wanted a personalized and human con-
sulting experience when they were booking
their travel, this has shifted heavily towards
a digital online experience, without any hu-
man intervention. The reason here is mainly
availability, customer experience and cost ef-
ficiency. This is a trend Credit Suisse sees in
many processes, were digital tools are more
efficient and can at times give better service
than people can. However, human tollgates
at key moments remain a critical component
of digital, automated processes. In HR, they
are being very deliberate about when to
automate and when and where there will be
human interaction around the critical “mo-
ments that matter” in the employee experi-
ence. For example, when an employee gets
promoted, do they get a congratulations
letter automatically or is there an in-person
announcement? Subject matter experts and
an advisory panel are being used to carefully
guide the redesigns.
Mondelēz is in the initial stages of digitaliza-
tion. In their design work they are seeking to
identify where human interaction is essential
to be able to stop the system and make criti-
cal decisions.
Shaw Communication is also fairly early
on in their journey. A key part of their cul-
ture is empowering employees to do what
is right for the customer. They don’t want to
lose this. Part of culture is about empower-
ment of the individual to do what is right for
the customer. This is a north star that is
helping them decide what to automate and
where they want to continue to have human
interaction. They want the digital experi-
ence to enhance the customer experience.
They know some customers want to interact
with technology (through chat or text), but
others want that personal interaction. It is a
delicate balancing act.
Yum! Brands is doubling down on culture
during their digitalization. They are defin-
ing what they want both the customer and
employee experience to be in a digital world
(relevant, easy, and distinctive). They want
to bring their “smart, heart, and courage”
culture to life, and are focusing on the role
of the coach to help with this. They know
that great coaches drive engagement in
both their support centers and in their res-
taurant general manager population. In their
Inclusive Leadership and Leading with Heart
training they want leaders who are inclusive,
focus on the heart, and use humility and
love. This will drive compassion, encourage-
ment, development and help to get the most
out of every person. This includes having the
courage to hold honest conversations and
discuss the undiscussables.
They recognize the need to figure out how
to change the organization and pull all the
levers so that people don’t feel left behind.
In the US the economic environment is the
best it has been in 25 years, and everyone
is hiring. They need to tell the story for the
change in order to grow the business and
the people.
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Words of Wisdom
Collectively on this call were many years of
experience in helping organizations become
more digital while not losing the “human
element”. To leverage these insights each
person was asked to share their final “words
of wisdom.”
•• Put an emphasis on over communicating
what this transition means to employees.
Communicate early on the drivers for
change and the impact on them.

•• Be sure this isn’t being “done to them.”

Invite everyone to join in on the digital
journey.

•• Begin the change with the heart before

you connect with the cloud.

•• Engage employees and customers and get

their view on what’s possible

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