HRD
The only independent strategic HR publication
the
HRDIRECTOR
Issue 101
As change
programmes go,
220 countries
and 47 different
languages
is big
Interview
Rick Jackson
Vice President
Global Head
of CIS DHL Express
Also featured in this issue:
Roundtable Abolition of
the DRA, what are the key
implications for employers
and employees and the
legal framework?
Policies & procedures
Bribery, maternity leave,
payroll, chartered standard
and the importance of
managing paperwork
www.thehrdirector.com
Flexible working
Clockwatching is history as
the rapidly changing
pattern of work presents
challenges aplenty
Leadership planning
Fears that the UK will be
left without a rudder, as
leaders seek their fortunes
in emerging markets
Managing career
development Seems
familiar? The way analytics
is being heralded, you
would think it’s all new
100% no paid for editorial
int
Interview: Rick Jackson
Rick Jackson, Vice President Global Head of CIS - DHL Express
That job complete, I went back into IT, in a
European role in Brussels and assisted in the set-up
of the regional business IT function. I worked in the
newly-founded team for two years, then my career
suddenly and totally changed track. DHL Express
had got a new CEO who came in to run the Europe
operation and, to my surprise, he asked me to be his
Chief-of-Staff and run his office. So I was thrust into
a high-level management function, and I continued
until 2010, when the Global CEO, Ken Allen, asked
me if I would join the Certified International
Specialist (CIS) programme. I was part of the team
that had the responsibility of bringing to fruition
a massive scale, global change programme and,
in 2012, this turned into a department in its own
right, under the management of the CEO, and I
was asked to manage it.
What is running a logistics express delivery
company all about? In terms of logistics, it is one
of the oldest industries in the world. Going back to
the very early eras of trade, there has always been
a need to move goods from A-to-B and there always
will be. DHL started the international Express industry
in 1969 by operating a door-to-door express service
transporting documents between San Francisco and
Hawaii. The name DHL is derived from the founders
of the business Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and
Robert Lynn. DHL Express has grown to be the most
international company in the world with 100,000
people in over 220 countries and territories.
deliverance
Change is hard! People fear it, hate it and resist anything
that challenges the status quo and the tried and trusted. So
imagine a change programme that is wholesale, fundamental,
total, and must translate into 47 different languages across
220 different countries and territories? You’d better get your
messages clear. Rick Jackson, Vice President Global Head
of CIS at DHL Express, headed a team that did just that,
in one year flat. Jason Spiller interviews.
Rick give us an idea of how you came to be at the centre of what is, arguably,
the biggest corporate change management and employee engagement programme
of all time. I have to confess right here at the beginning, my background isn’t founded in
HR, it’s IT! It stems back to a computer science and maths degree, and first experience in the
workplace was at the Burton group and Arcadia retail, where I was, for five years, entirely in
an IT environment. Everything I was involved in though was very much aligned with how the
business operated, as opposed to technical IT programming, and most of the work focused
on how the business could benefit from IT. In 2003, I left and secured a post at DHL Express
UK working in the IT department, focusing on RFID technology, HR SAP and managing all the
business IT for Customer Services. As a result of working on HR SAP, the HR Director asked
me to pull together a HR Tactical Projects team to bring different perspectives and inject some
new ideas and approaches into HR project management. This I did for six months, my first
taste of HR, outside of the IT world.
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Give us an idea of how the CIS programme
came about, how you planned to execute it, and
what were the challenges to consider across the
international business? The whole CIS programme
stemmed from the rapid pace the business had
grown. The growth of DHL Express was through
mergers & acquisitions on a large scale and this
brought many different domestic businesses around
the world under the DHL Express brand, which
presented challenges, one of which was competing
with the other integrators like UPS & FedEx, in their
home markets. Before becoming Global CEO, Ken
Allen was charged with turning around the USA
market, which was DHL’s largest loss maker bar none.
Competing with the US integrators, which had a tight
grip on their domestic market, was a huge challenge
and a drain on resources on the global operations of
DHL Express. After much deliberation, the board took
the decision to close down the domestic business in
the US. They took a call that we were never going to
be domestically competitive and we needed to
channel our resources into the international business.
Needing to motivate the workforce on the back of
these major changes led to CIS being born. In the US,
CIS set out to ensure all employees in the newlyfocused international business could feel proud of
being a Certified International Specialist. It was the
CIS programme there that was the basis of where we
are today. In fact, one of the team who works with
me now was part of the original USA group.
We didn’t want an
external company
facilitating the
programme. We
wanted to take our
people and teach
them how to facilitate,
making them the
facilitators of the
change programme
and the deliverers of
the messages
On becoming Global CEO, Ken focussed the entire
organisation on the International business and to
building a profitable network. Motivating and
engaging the people became a number one priority
and the team came together and took the challenge
to motivate and engage 100,000 people across
220 countries and territories who speak over
47 different languages. It was about making
everyone Certified International Specialists and
ensuring they understood why they work for DHL,
how they contribute to the network and to the
success of the business. And, we wanted to reach all
100,000 people in one year. We began with the CIS
Foundation, and sat down to present our challenge,
plan our approach, strategy and implementation
with our learning partner, NKD Learning and
marketing partner, Maverick Advertising.
We needed to understand our limitations and have
confidence in the expertise and knowledge of our
partners. It was always useful having the CEO as
sponsor as he acted as an important focal point.
Of course, changing a company culture is a huge
task and with such a mix of cultures across the
world we had to ensure we designed something
that would be consistent. The experience in
countries with 5,000 people had to be identical to
those countries with 50 people. So we said, right
from the beginning: “whether you’re in the UK,
USA, South Korea, Uruguay or Mozambique, you
will all get the same experience”. And finally, the
only way we were ever going to make this a
success is if DHL employees delivered it. We didn’t
Rick Jackson
Vice President Global Head
of CIS - DHL Express
Rick Jackson, Vice President Global
Head of CIS at DHL Express, was
interviewed by Jason Spiller and
photographed by Stuart Thomas.
int
Interview: Rick Jackson
Rick Jackson, Vice President Global Head of CIS - DHL Express
want an external company facilitating the
programme! We wanted to take our people
and teach them how to facilitate, making them
the facilitators of the change programme and
the deliverers of the messages to the business.
As we progressed, we began an internal
marketing campaign and ensured every country
in the world assigned a CIS country champion,
who worked with the global team, to ensure
local planning for implementation took place.
You talk about “the CIS Foundation”, can
you explain what that is? The CIS Foundation
is the initial programme we embarked upon.
It is a 1½ day experiential learning programme
which outlines the history of the company direct
from our DHL pioneers, explores our customer
structure, our global network and the end-toend business process of how we operate. This
is combined not only with providing fact and
figures, but discussions on the impact on our
customers and network when things go wrong.
Finally, this is all wrapped up with the spirits of
how DHL Express people behave and live by.
The experience uses multi-sensory techniques
to increase the learning; Auditory through
facilitation, Visual through video and animation
and Kinesthetic through activities. On
completion of the programme, there is a test
which allows us to measure the learning and
certify our people. Everyone who graduates is
provided with a CIS Passport, which is stamped
on successful completion of any course. This
has quickly become a badge of pride in the
company and a record of your learning career
in DHL Express.
The usage of films and a passport are
neat ideas, but how can you make sure the
messages and principals stick for long
enough to make the changes permanent?
As I have mentioned, we needed a champion
in every country to be responsible for CIS,
a country champion who owns the process,
takes responsibility for the implementation,
plans the resources, controls the budget and
ensures the messages are embedded across the
organisation. This is aligned with the global
direction, to ensure everyone receives the same
experience. Everyone thought we were crazy,
but this was it, this was the process we worked
by, and we gave them a mechanism to ensure
it was sufficiently funded and all managing
directors were onboard. We began by
implementing a Train-The-Trainer programme
and trained 1200 facilitators globally. Our first
live courses were with the Top 120 Leaders of
the company at the 2010 global conference.
Once they had graduated and could hold
their passport with pride they could go back
to their countries and ensure the programme
was a success.
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What were the first signs of traction in the
change programme? As soon as we started,
we knew we’d struck on something and once
we heard the results from the courses, that
backed up our optimism and we realised we'd
started something great! The team was so
focused and concentrated for so long setting
Since beginning
2013 we’ve
graduated over
1000 leaders
through the first
module of CIM,
with at least one
from each of the
the 220 countries
and territories
we operate in
the programme off, that the first time we
had a chance to really understand the impact,
the Foundation was already in full swing and,
whether it was engaging new recruits or reengaging people that had been with the
business for many years, the positive impact
was the same. Initially, we started to measure
actual delivery, and the goal was to get 100,000
colleagues through the programme in the one
year. Next, we measured the impact in our
annual Employee Opinion Survey, looking at
Strategy, Employee Engagement & Learning and
Development. Working with our EOS provider,
we agreed that a one to three percent year on
year increase in all categories would be a great
achievement. We used the 2010-2011 year-onyear results in the three specific categories, to
measure how the programme was performing
and in each category, we had made great
strides. There was an increase globally of
11 percent in Strategy and seven percent in
both Employee Engagement and Learning and
Development. In 2011-2012, all the categories
have improved again. The best result is that
customers are seeing a change in DHL Express.
Anecdotal stories from across the globe are
telling us we are moving in the right direction.
So, what is the next stage? While we were
rolling this out over 2011, we always kept in
mind “what do we need to do next”?, and
“how are we going to continue what we have
started”?. We understood the knowledge and
skills of all our people were the most important
consideration and if we were to become an
Employer of Choice, CIS would be a major
factor in the company to achieving that. Now
we have a suite of courses following on from
the Foundation, which all 100,000 people will
attend. These have been developed around
specific topics we believe are necessary to
improve the knowledge of our employees as
international specialists. They are delivered in
one hour sessions to allow everyone to attend
without any disruption to service. And again,
they have been designed in an experiential way
and are facilitated by the DHL team. We are
now working on individual functional
curriculums, that are developed by specific role,
covering the knowledge and skills needed to be
successful in your career. Whether you work in
Sales, Customer Services, Network Operations,
Aviation, IT or HR, there is a mix of classroombased learning or eLearning, to help you on
your learning journey.
Finally, we are working on our Certified
International Manager programme (CIM). We
have designed and have begun implementing
our own world class leadership training
programme. It’s top of the range, innovative and
comprehensive for all levels of management.
It involves a multi-layered approach focusing
on knowing yourself, knowing your business,
knowing your people and knowing your
numbers. Since beginning 2013 we’ve
graduated over 1000 leaders through the first
module of CIM with at least one from all the
220 countries and territories we operate in.
What is key to CIM is that we have followed the
philosophy of the Foundation. It is being
facilitated by DHL’s executive board and global
leaders. We have taken over 400 managers,
including the Global Management Board, away
from their roles and countries for two weeks and
taught them how to facilitate a leadership
programme. Just consider how powerful that
is for a manager to attend a leadership
programme and be facilitated by the CEO or a
global leader of the company? It’s immeasurable,
there is nothing like getting engagement from
the very top and the feedback we get from
people from CIM is that they’re seeing an active
change in their leaders which is encouraging
them to perform better.
And all this was done in the shadow of
recession and making a tough decision
about the US market. Absolutely... everybody
is experiencing what's going on in the world,
www.thehrdirector.com
business is tough, and the recession has been
challenging. But you’ve got to keep investing
in people, even when times are tough, and the
companies that come out in best shape, once
a recession is over are the ones that do invest in
people and their development at difficult times.
To date the focus of this change management
programme has centred on training and
development, and I am now working closely
with our EVP HR Global, Regine Buettner, into
how CIS can support the HR organisation to
enhance our HR processes, including Talent
Management and Reward and Recognition.
What is there next for you to do, and have
you achieved all your objectives? For me,
its still full-steam ahead, we need to think
smarter, and really use what we've done so far
to our advantage, ensuring the mindset and
philosophy is embedded into our organisation.
I want DHL Express to become an Employer
of Choice and I will do whatever it takes with
HR to ensure this happens. If you have an
organisation of motivated people, they will
provide better quality of service to customers,
if you have great service quality and customers
experience, then you will increase customer
loyalty, and maintain a profitable network. This
will enable DHL Express to keep investing in
people, skills and knowledge. In terms of my
goal? If the team and I can get 100,000 people
engaged and motivated, knowing how their
role contributes to the success of the company
and our customers’ satisfaction then that is an
achievement we can be rightly proud of, it is
as simple as that!
What do you think the future business
challenges will be? Well, it’s always going
to be how we can we do better for our
customers? That’s the main focus. All around
the globe, businesses are struggling and they
are constantly looking for services that deliver
for them, but they’re also looking for
efficiencies, and that impacts on our business,
as it does across all industries. We can monitor
trading patterns, keep an eye on all markets
and be mindful of pending events that could
impact the economy. We have the knowledge
and the entry into all markets in the world and
the expertise to ensure all our customers can
trade seamlessly, that’s the technology of
logistics. But it helps too, in spades, to have
100,000 motivated people, who are putting
the customer first and always willing to go the
extra mile, and that is proving essential.
And what have you learnt about yourself,
especially in consideration of the fact that
you did not have a HR background? I’ve
learnt that anything is achievable if you are
focused and you really want to make it happen.
I don’t think an HR background is essential to
managing a programme such as this, if you
understand the task in hand, and importantly,
you like people and are passionate about the
business, you can make it happen. As we
began this journey in 2010, if someone had
told me where we would be today I would
never have believed them. I also think having
empathy and understanding for people, how
they think and learn and importantly, helping
them to enjoy their job and enjoy life, that
seems to me to be very important. If a large
percentage of your waking time is spent with
people you work with then you should have
an environment where you are allowed to
grow personally as well as professionally and
your company has a huge responsibility to
make that happen. People want to do
a good job, they want to have a purpose,
if we can provide that then we will have the
most engaged workforce in the world. From
what we have delivered so far it’s humbling
to see people all over the world take on
something like this and own it. I think this
is a game changer in the industry and this is
only the start.
IT people stereotypically, tend to be quite
reserved and analytical, what qualities has
this brush with HR brought out of you? I've
always been an outgoing person, and seeing
what people can do and seeing what a positive
impact we have had on improving performance
is really overwhelming. I’ve never taken for
granted what the team have been able to
achieve. I suppose I have never been your
stereotypical, reserved IT person, but I can tell
you there are many more out there who don’t
fit that stereotype either! Personally, I’ve grown
so much in terms of my capability and my
outlook on life has changed, so has my
management style and my understanding of
the world and different cultures. I am a very
detailed person, but I have made a point of
being open and communicative in everything,
particularly in building a global team to make
this a success, which I’m immeasurably proud
of and its achievements. But if you asked me
now what I will be doing in the next five years,
I don’t know. I know I still have a lot to do
here, and what we’re trying to do in the next
few years is enormous.
HRD
For further information:
www.dhl.com
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