Presented by Symba, #OpenUpTheWorkforce interviews feature executives advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion for the future of work. In these short audio-only episodes, we talk with the top about what it takes to develop and implement inclusive processes.
In this episode of #OpenUpTheWorkforce, Tina Mylon, Chief Talent & Diversity Officer at Schneider Electric, shares how well-being is woven into their diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy and pragmatic examples of how these priorities intersect at Schneider Electric. Listen here.
How Tina got into HR
Tina kicks off with her key social identities of being a mother, an Asian American, a woman, and a leader. She’s been in the human capital space for a couple of decades, having spent the first half of her HR career on the consultancy side working with companies on issues of culture, leadership, talent organization, and more. The second half has been on the corporate side at two large European-headquartered companies. In her current role at Schneider Electric, she touches upon areas like talent acquisition, branding, talent management, and succession learning, as well as diversity, equity, inclusion, and wellbeing.
She shares candidly that she didn’t grow up aspiring to be an HR leader, but over the course of her education and professional experience she patched together passions for working with people, strategy, and forward-thinking and change-making work, and that drove her to the HR space. Tina shares, “My first job was being a high school history teacher, but there were certain things about those passions and interests that I start to realize after grad school, hey, the HR function and these topics of talent, culture, and people were topics that the HR folks were really connected to with the business and that organically drew me down that path. But I can tell you it was not like a scripted path from day one.” She adds that her experience working with high school students taught her how to take often complex, nuanced topics and simplify the message to be absorbed by her audience, whether that be a customer or candidate.
Care and mental health should be baked into a global DE&I strategy
Schneider Electric employs over 150,000 people equally distributed across the globe, and there is automatic diversity that comes with that. Half of those people are on the shop floor, at the plants, the sites, and distribution centers. Their business model is to “be the most local of global companies providing energy solutions to the world.” Tina shares, “In order for our business to thrive, we have to be able to leverage diversity, we have to create inclusive culture and we have to create equitable opportunities.” Certain populations, depending on the country, may be disproportionately impacted when it comes to certain policies, career opportunities, etc. Tina mentions it’s her and her team’s job to bake inclusion and care into their approach. One example of this is the Global Family Leave policy that Schneider Electric rolled out 5 years ago, which is a global policy that supports maternity leave, paternity leave, bereavement, mental healthcare, and more. Part of building that policy was benchmarking the market appetite by country.
How does Schneider Electric measure the success of their DE&I approach?
Schneider Electric is public about their D&I goals, and because of that they are active about connecting with other companies and sharing benchmarks. Tina is also a member of the World Economic Forum and the Chief Diversity Officer Forum which helps her ideate with the D&I leader community. Tina shares, “Sometimes you get sucked in your company, you end up staring at your own belly button and you forget there's markets moving, there's new ideas coming from talent. There are companies who are leading in a different way and you have to be humble and active to think about that and stay fresh.” DEI is often a labor of love; this work is often driven by people who are contributing as a part-time gig or because they are part of an employee resource group. Schneider Electric leans on an internal advisory board composed of 14 members, half women, half men, all from different countries and varying businesses. They meet quarterly to set the tone and priorities, and move the strategy forward.
How does Schneider Electric define Early Talent and weave them into their DE&I strategy?
Schneider Electric has a long history, operating for nearly 200 years, which means there are employees with decades of experience and also a lot of new talent. Early talent at Schneider Electric are in the first 10 years of their career. A unique aspect of Schneider Electric’s talent development approach is that they follow a “T-shaped” model, where employees have a few domains of expertise but are also provided with horizontal growth opportunities, inviting depth and breadth.
How do you encourage diverse early talent to grow into leadership roles?
Tina stresses the importance of learning how to be a good manager. She recognizes formal people management roles do not come right away, but that it is crucial to begin learning how to influence and build productive and effective teams aligned to the same mission. This is not easy, and the responsibility that comes with managing a team requires preparation and mentorship, which Schneider Electric deliberately impresses upon the next generation of talent to help them prepare for future leadership roles.
How does sustainability tie into Schneider Electric’s DE&I work?
Schneider Electric is working towards net zero, through decarbonization and electrification, to achieve a sustainable future. They are also working towards energy access for all, which translates into encouraging employees to support and spend time in the communities Schneider Electric serves through the VolunteerIn program. They also have a rigorous sustainability school that teaches the big picture of sustainability and what it means to the average customer on the ground. Tina shares, “We feel obligated that each of us has a business and moral responsibility to understand that topic. And that translates nicely from a D&I perspective because it's for everyone, right?”
What do leaders need to do to #OpenUpTheWorkforce?
Tina says, “At Schneider, we're super interested in different flexible ways of working and every company is doing that so it's not like we've discovered this, but how do you really make sure the needs on the ground match some of the ways you can offer ways of working? And it's beyond hybrid work, which is our standard mode, but it's also things about job sharing or gigs (internal/external) or just part-time work.” One example of how they embrace this is their Open Talent Marketplace, which leverages AI technology to match people from around the world for business needs. It’s not corporate or manager driven, but a place where employees can share their data and see the market supply within Schneider Electric. They have about 80,000 people on it now, and have had about 27,000 engagements where people have found a job, a gig, or a mentor. Tina closes with, “I really believe the way of the workforce for the future is much more employee empowered, employee driven with again, smart data, smart technology properly used.” Tina encourages using uncertainty in the world to your advantage.
About Tina Mylon
Tina Mylon is the SVP of Talent and Diversity for Schneider Electric. She joined the company in April 2016. In her position, she serves as Chief Talent and Diversity Officer for the Group and is responsible for the talent strategy and transformation, including talent acquisition, employer branding, leadership, development and learning, organization effectiveness, succession planning, diversity, equity and inclusion and well-being. She and her team work with the company’s businesses, functions and operations to ensure a robust supply of great, diverse talent for Schneider Electric’s long-term success.
Previously, Tina worked for BASF in the U.S and Germany. During her tenure she served as VP of Talent for North America overseeing talent management and talent acquisition and VP of Talent Development and Learning with responsibilities for global learning and development.
Earlier, Tina was a Principal at Aon Hewitt (now Kincentric) in the Talent and Organization practice. She consulted with global leaders representing a wide array of industries in the areas of talent management, M&A and post-merger integration, organizational effectiveness, diversity and inclusion, HR strategy and change management. Also, she served as the Global Leader of 'Insights and Innovations' Research, to drive global research for the firm.
Tina is a recognized global expert on topics of talent, workforce and culture. She is a regular speaker at various organizations and conferences. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including People & Strategy, Across the Board, World at Work Journal, Human Resource Executive, and Human Resource Planning.
Tina graduated from Brown University magna cum laude, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in U.S. and Latin American history. She earned her Masters of Business Administration with a concentration in strategy and leadership from Yale University. Tina, her husband and two children currently reside near Boston, MA, one of Schneider Electric’s global hubs.
Fun Facts:
- I don’t watch TV but I’m an obsessive reader
- My first job out of university was a high school history teacher in NYC
- I have a 107-year-old grandmother who lives in California
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