Above all, HR leaders and their teams must build a culture of trust. This is increasingly challenging, as the ways in which employees feel best supported are not only highly individualistic, but also ever evolving. So how can leaders develop a work culture that meets a variety of needs? Be curious.
Stacey Walker, CHRO of Fortive, explains how approaching her role with transparency, and as a learning opportunity, can make all the difference with culture—and other emerging challenges in the workplace.
In today’s world of work, building trust is essential for organizational success. What practices should HR leaders implement to build trust, to ensure employees feel valued and supported?
I believe HR leaders play a pivotal role in cultivating trust and fostering a culture of inclusivity and collaboration, especially amid a distributed workforce and different work models. That’s why HR leaders should prioritize curiosity, flexibility and understanding.
By engaging in an open dialogue, asking questions and seeking to understand diverse perspectives, leaders can foster a sense of connection while breaking down barriers and building stronger relationships. As a CHRO, it’s never been more important to model this behavior, recognizing that it takes effort and humility to continuously improve communication and deepen engagement across the workforce.
I think transparency is a cornerstone of building trust. This means having honest discussions, both about successes and challenges, to create an environment where our people feel heard, seen, valued and supported. At Fortive, we strive to build trust and foster a strong culture in our distributed workforce by focusing on individual experiences and a continuous learning mindset.
This strengthens our unique culture, as Fortive leaders aim to model humility, transparency and flexibility in the workplace. We champion a constant pursuit of excellence in which high expectations are balanced with high levels of support, creating an environment where everyone feels empowered to succeed and grow.
Supporting managers is also crucial to creating a workplace where all employees feel valued. We ensure they have the right skills for meaningful conversations, provide guidance to give constructive feedback, and offer resources to support professional development.
Ultimately, trust-building is not about being nice—it’s about creating a workplace where everyone feels safe, supported and empowered to contribute their best work. When HR leaders prioritize inclusion, transparency and continuous improvement, they can foster a culture of trust that drives better outcomes for their organization and teams.
With the rise of AI and automation, concerns about job displacement and ethical implications, how should organizations balance leveraging technology for HR efficiency while ensuring human-centric decision-making and maintaining employee trust?
AI is here to stay. While it’s essential to be purposeful and thoughtful about how we use it in our HR workflows, at Fortive we’re also leaning into our curiosity and learning by doing across our organizations.
We’ve provided all of our team members with AI-based tools and governance to support their productivity in things like writing emails, and even learning about our Fortive Business System. It’s been well received across the organization and it’s helping unlock opportunities for team members to get to the “great stuff,” including the strategic and creative work they do on behalf of our customers.
I believe a holistic approach centered on creating value for both employees and the organization through thoughtful integration, ethical considerations and continuous learning can unlock greater engagement and productivity. It’s important to be intentional about integrating emerging technologies to ensure both efficiency and human-centric decision-making.
As organizations and leaders embark on workplace transformation, they need to recognize and strive for the balance between the potential of technology and value for their employees, business and customers.
As for governance, it’s truly as important as learning through experience. Leaders should consider establishing a robust framework to mitigate bias and ensure thoughtful decision-making. While we’ve all heard concerns about AI replacing employees, I see it as an opportunity for organizations and individuals to gain efficiency.
In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, it’s essential to embrace learning and skills development, and AI can widen access to technical training and job opportunities, allowing talent from non-traditional academic backgrounds to explore careers in technology or gain new skills. Every HR leader and professional can harness the power of AI responsibly with the tools available, while driving growth and inclusivity within the workplace.
What innovative HR initiatives are you currently spearheading at Fortive?
At Fortive, we embrace AI and technology to streamline HR processes, enhance business operations and improve the employee experience. For example, AI helps our HR teams process information more quickly, summarize meeting outcomes and next steps or fine-tune job descriptions.
Additionally, through our Fortive Business System and a culture of continuous improvement, we empower teams to build new skills and rapidly adopt new ways of working, often leveraging tools like AI and machine learning. This approach gives our employees the tools they need to learn, innovate, and grow.
Embracing technology also means giving people the tools and resources they need to be productive and succeed. As part of investment, we established The Fort, an in-house innovation learning hub, over five years ago with a goal of driving faster growth, greater impact, and more opportunities for our team members through emerging technologies.
What measures has Fortive taken to foster a culture of life-long learning and empowerment among its workforce, and how are these initiatives impacting overall productivity levels within the organization?
Our company supports employee engagement and empowerment through collaborative, hands-on experiences underpinned by a culture of high standards and life-long learning.
For example, we encourage everyone to get involved in kaizen, an intensive problem-solving event where there is no hierarchy, just a focus on unlocking fresh value. At these events, we set our sights high, check our titles at the door, contribute courageously and go after what others might think is impossible.
We have a unique and expansive approach to innovation, too. Anyone at Fortive can pitch for funding for innovative ideas developed on small teams as part of our innovation process. And anyone within Fortive can become an innovation champion, with continuous on-the-job training. We also offer internal innovation boot camps held year-round, where anyone can join a team immersed in learning new skills and developing innovation ideas.
We recently introduced an AI assistant for our global team focused on our business system resources, and a one-stop generative AI toolset. This toolset, created by The Fort, includes multiple Gen AI applications in one secure place, making it easier than ever for our people to access tools for creating and analyzing content, processing images, and more.
As a result, these tools enable everyone to quickly solve complex problems and grow their skill sets. For example, they can focus on creative and strategic priorities across the business. Also, they can gain valuable AI experience and foundational knowledge needed to succeed as new technologies play a more prominent role in the workplace.
By integrating new tools across an organization, any leader can create more efficiency and space for teams to solve complex problems, innovate quicker and ultimately, deliver more value for customers and stakeholders.
