0:00:12
Well, welcome back to The Work-Life Equation podcast. Here we explore how people navigate, curious, caregiving, and everything in between. I'm Priya.

00:00:20
And I'm Paul. Today we're joined by someone who brings a unique perspective on people, purpose and places that support both Jenny Guldseth, Chief People and Cultural Officer at Allianz Life over two decades in HR. Jenny's work is centered around creating inclusive workplaces and providing real support for working families.

00:00:41
Welcome to the podcast, Jenny.

00:00:43
Oh, thank you so much.

00:00:45
It's a pleasure having you here. From leading HR strategy to driving employee engagement and reimagining workplace benefits, you've been passionate about building environments where people thrive, especially when it comes to access to quality childcare. So, tell us a little bit about the employee engagement and well-being and what you've heard from employees over the years, what their biggest challenges have been, especially around balancing work, parenting and caregiving.

00:01:16
Sure, absolutely. Well, thanks. Pleasure to be with you both today. Excited about sharing kind of our story and our journey here into this. You know, just in general, you know, I started my, my kids are later in life, right. So, it wasn't right away. And I will tell you, the first 10 years of building my career without kids was a whole lot easier than having a career and then finding, you know, kids in my, in our lives and trying to figure out this balance. Right. I mean, that's what it's all about. And it's very different for every single person. When we think about our employees and the balance that they're trying to create, we hear a lot about just being plain old, exhausted, tired. The balance of everything between work, having a career, navigating childcare, getting your kids to and from school. This idea about flexibility is so critical and certainly has changed in 20, 20 plus years, in 30 years maybe of HR. The flexibility need that our parents have today is much different and much more pronounced than it was before. And so really trying to answer that call is certainly, you know, top of mind. Employees are talking about it a lot. And then maybe I would mention, you know, the time management that goes along with being a parent now. Right. Having to be all places at once, you know, no matter what activity your child is in, school changes, the time changes, the traffic situation changes. Right. So, I'm really trying to navigate this. I think it's tough for all of.

00:03:00
Us parents today, you know, before the podcast started, we were having a nice personal chat where it turns out you and my wife went to the same university, graduated the same, and turns out you were on the same track and field team together. I think it's appropriate that I ask you the personal question here. You were an HR professional before you became a mom, before you became a working parent. When you think back, is there something in your personal story that said, okay, this is different, this is something I'm going to have to think differently? You then used that personal experience to inform what you were doing as an HR strategy leader.

00:03:41
Yeah. So, fun. Yeah. And maybe I had a lot of thinking a lot about that question. Just, I mean, brings back maybe a memory that I shouldn't be so proud to admit, but I think it's kind of fitting for this story. So, obviously, like I said, it started late with having kids and really focused on my career for the first 10 years. And as part of that, there was a colleague of mine who had three small kids. And so often she would have to leave early or she wouldn't come to work because, you know, somebody was sick or, you know, and then with three, as we all know now with kids, you know, one kid gets it, the next kid gets it, the next kid gets it, it's out of pocket for two weeks and we're trying to figure it out, you know, and best keep up. And at that time, I remember thinking, well, really? So, she gets to be gone another day, right? Or really, we have to be in at 9:00 today. Or really, you gotta leave again at 2. Really? And I remember thinking about this, and I remember having a conversation, her name was Kate. Remember having a conversation with her because I was like, you know, is this really what being a mom is about? And she goes, it really is what being a mom is about. And I will continue to do my best work if you just give me the flexibility, I need to handle my family first. Again, I went into that thinking, oh, I can't believe this. And then after that conversation, really had a newfound respect for working parents. And then once I became a parent, it was incredibly important to me to have leaders and managers and support around me that enabled that same flexibility that she taught me years ago when I wasn't ready to know that. So, you know, I just can't emphasize enough that people, you learn so much from people around you. You don't know other people's stories, what's happening around them. So, to be able to have candid conversations and be able to ask for help and say, here's what I need, and then be able to give that. It's very rewarding in the end. So. But that was a learning lesson for me and something that I'm not proud to admit, but certainly has helped me in my career and then when I became lucky enough to become a mom. So, I'm grateful for it.

00:06:10
I mean, it's incredible that you're sharing that story and, you know, it went into how you. We were just in a. In a previous podcast episode talking about caring cultures and, you know, the manager lottery. And it clearly feels like you were an empathetic manager who is like, tell me about what's going on. And we're willing to support her.


00:06:28
So, kudos to you. What were concerns you had to address internally when you were bringing a child care solution to the table? What kind of resistance did you have? And how did you get leadership buy in? Sure.

00:06:42
Yeah. This was big at Allianz. This was a big shift for us to move into Allianz Bright Beginnings and bring it on site. And I think certainly the cost was a big concern. Right. What is this gonna take? What is it gonna do? Are we setting up whatever we're building for the long term, not just for a year or two? Right. Are we going to have enough kids? Right. The workforce is going to change. Is this going to be around for a long time? And we really wanted to make sure that we were building that case. We also were concerned about the partner that we chose to go with. We knew that this would not be successful unless we had the right leadership team, the right vendor to really bring us along because we wanted this to be a differentiator for us. So I think those were three primary concerns. Right. But we. But we spent a lot of time on it. Just should we or shouldn't we? Right. You know, is this really going to help our employees? And in the end, has been just the best thing that we could have done. I speak from experience. My two boys were at the center here. They're now into high school and so proud. But the stories and the tenure that it has created from really talented people who have opted to stay here because truly, because of the center has been worth its weight in gold. I hate that I even questioned the cost. Would we have enough people? Best decision, truly, we make here following.

00:08:23
On that with the center. And you said how the conversations have changed in your 20, 25 years in HR. When you think about the rise of Gen Alpha and we're seeing growing concern around parenting and educational spaces, childcare is a hot topic for employers. You have a great example in Allianz, but when you're talking to colleagues at other firms, you're talking even newer employees within firms. What is the conversation like about the importance of childcare and how either using a center model as you're doing, or through other strategies, you can support those younger employees who are asking different questions than perhaps they did 20 years ago?

00:09:05
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think just being first and foremost, I think there's just a willingness to talk about this, right. That there never was. Twenty years ago, you kind of hit it. Yes, I'm a parent, but my career comes first, right? Like, I'm all career person and don't worry about me. I got this all under control. And now I think what we've seen is a shift of people saying, I can do both, but I need help, right? I need support. I need to figure this out. And that's where this discussion that we have with our younger talents, that really is focusing. How can you help me? Help assist me? And the child care center is just a really great tool to enable that. Right? So as people are thinking about extending their family or thinking about options, right. They want to be in a company that they can grow with and have the resources there at their fingertips. And this just. This helps with that. And I think that's really important. I think the shift has also, just when I look at my peers and other companies, is really to find that balance. You know, it used to be, you know, here are your three benefits that you have, and you have medical, dental, and life insurance and, well, and a 401k. Yeah, you, right. And now it's, you know, this community of support that became even more important, I think, through Covid of people realizing, wow, right, There's a lot of choices that I have here in raising my kids or having this career. And having all those options be open is really critical. So, you know, I think they've really enabled a lot of different choices or a lot of different options that we probably didn't have 20 years ago that we now have today. And certainly being able to support from a child care function, not just someone from backup care to in person care to, hey, you know, help me with these options. Let me tell you about some community resources. I mean, we're getting all of this from our team here at Allianz Bright Beginnings. And it's really great.

00:11:09
I have one follow on question to that. You have all these great benefits and you lay it all out, people can take advantage of them. The centers are but how do you work with managers to help them message those policies correctly so you don't have the managers? Well, in my day, we never had something like this. This is pretty good. That, of course, really reduces the benefit of what you're trying to achieve. How do you work with those managers so that you're all on the same message, more or less?

00:11:36
Yeah, we do a lot of communications around that. I think that's really important, right, that you don't want all the managers like me back in the day saying, well, come on, you can toughen up. You can do this. Why are you leaving at three? I should again, I'm the head of people and culture. I should never say that out loud. So I don't know why I just publicized that on a podcast. That said, I think we have a responsibility, ability to do a lot of education around the options that are available. Right. The flexibility that we can create. We do, you know, meetings. I'll. Manager meetings. We do direct communications about, hey, here's some parenting classes that are available. Hey, you know, your employees the best if they need resources on these three things here, we've got the toolkit ready for you. So you have the answers right at your fingertips to help right in the moment when you. When a person may be asking the question or thinking about it. So I think you can't underestimate the power of communications. Good communications, clear, concise, short. You don't need a book on all these things. Right. But that's been really helpful for us to help, and we incorporate into our new manager training. Right. So as people are thinking about the amenities here on campus or choices that they have that they know about it right away.

00:12:58
That's so great, because I think what people need is at this time of such incredible cognitive load, I have to be in office, I have to be hybrid. I could be both. I have kids changing schedules, et cetera. Just having that available at their fingertips is amazing. What would you say to other HR leaders? I mean, you spoke so eloquently about how the child care centers had an impact both on you personally, but for people around you as the number of generations in the workforce have changed, Your own kids have gone from being in childcare through to now, high school. What would you say to other HR leaders around supporting this continuum of what is a family? There's a family definition. Could be, I have a pet, I have elderly members in the family. I have children. Have you seen that shift? And what advice would you give other HR leaders like yourself?

00:13:56
The advice I would give In a simple statement is it's absolutely worth the investment. You know, the cost of these things is not cheap. Right. And yet neither is hiring an employee turnover. Right. I mean you can be, you do the comparison of all this and it's in line, it's worth the investment. When Covid happened, in addition to you had a lot of people getting Covid puppies and animals. We even went so far as to look at could we get a doggy daycare on site in addition to our childcare facility that did not pan out. We found another vendor who could help sort that need. But I think you just, you really have to find ways to enable people to do their best work. And this is one of the ways that as leadership teams, as organizations, you can do that and take so much stress and so much anxiety off of your employees plate that it really enables them to do the great work. So there are so many stories of talent who've moved through the organizations, not all the times up, but into different roles across organization. And they will say the reason they were able to take that leap, to do that jump was because they knew their kids were in good hands. And to be an employer to enable that is special. Right? I mean the stories, the pictures we've had graduating classes, my son will be, you know, one of the first three classes when he graduates. And the parents, many of the parents I still work with, you know, we've talked about we're going to get our kids together and show them the pictures of Allianz Bright Beginnings to here's where they ended up at 18 and to know that we were just part of somebody's life like that. It's bigger than a company, it's bigger than profits and revenues. It's a really big part of the community and something that I think leaders should be really proud of.

00:16:09
Jenny, I can totally understand why you punted on the puppies. I can see all your competitors saying Allianz, they've gone to the dogs. What have they done here? That is communications came in and said, Jenny, this isn't going to fly. But when you think of to follow on to Priya's question about the investment and how you look at the return on investment in HR if you're going to roll out a new benefit system, you're going to roll out a new portal, you're going to price it out with all kinds of vendors because it's a huge amount of money, it better work and there are going to be bugs. You're going to have people in there to make sure. Everything works as well as it can on rollout when it comes to thinking about. And there's a price tag for that when it comes to thinking about the investment that you're making in your people and the investment that you're making in the culture that you have. People who enrolled their kids in the Allianz Bright Beginnings and are still working there and their kids are about to graduate from high school. How do you quantify that investment when you have to present it to the person who's going to write the check for it or to write many checks for it year after year?

00:17:19
Yeah, I'd say part of it. We're very fortunate here at Allianz Life to really understand and live by the values that we set. And one of the values that we have here in the organization is about caring, integrity, excellence, respect and caring. So this really falls in line to the strategy of our values. And so that makes it a little bit easier when writing the check. Right. But there's always a trade off, Right. When we look at our total rewards package, we have to look at, you know, here are things that maybe aren't being utilized to the full success extent, and here are things that are, and where are we going to invest the money? Right. So you have to look at it in totality. That said, you know, when Covid hit, obviously very tough time, we had to shut down the center for a period of time. You know, obviously we all did. And then we lost a number of family members. You know, once we did reopen, you know, they had found alternative care or they decided to stay, stay home and parent, or they, you know, had a family member that said, oh, I'll step in and, and take over care. And we were worried, like, if we keep, you know, enrollments down, if this stays continuous, like, what do we do? Right. This is still a big investment. And the leadership team at that time said, no, this is something that we're going to continue to invest in. We, you know, kept all of our teachers, we will find a way to make this through. And, you know, here we are now five years after, but it happened, you know, within short time. We're back to our highest counts that we've ever had of childcare. Right. You know, people talk about it outside of our company. So the, you know, I don't want to say, you know, checks automatically write themselves. Yet the value that this is providing is, is tenfold for our employees. They really, really value it.

00:19:18
That's so wonderful to hear. And the commitment of employers to say that this is you know, this is core to who we are, and that it aligns to your overall values is incredible. How do you manage this globally? You have 70 countries, 140,000 employees. How does that work out? How do you keep this equitable? And I think that's one of the things we certainly saw employers talk about during COVID was how do I make sure this is consistent across my workforce?

00:19:48
Right. Well, I'm. I will say I don't think we've solved that yet, but Allianz Life is part of Allianz SE, right, based in Munich, Germany, to your point, 150,000 employees worldwide. And there's a lot of different differences between that. Right. Different cultures, different needs, different, you know, backgrounds of what, what people need from a child care perspective. But I think what we've been able to do is really create the platform to have the discussions, to be open about it. What are your needs? Here are three tools that you can use. One of them includes a center. Right? Come and visit it, take a look at it. You got to be able to live and breathe. That was one of the helpful things for us, even when we were deciding whether or not to put our center in, was touring other companies and seeing what they were doing and saying, oh, I didn't even know that was a possibility, or, oh, maybe we shouldn't do this, but we should do that. So I think that's really enabled the global culture to have those discussions and talk more about it. One thing that's fun is obviously we've got, you know, people who come in from, you know, or transfer in to work here from different Allianz companies. And, you know, getting them into the center, seeing what it's about. Their kids are joining, right? So they may not even speak a ton of English. And yet our center is able to help them through and navigate and be inclusive of all. And that's certainly core to our alliance se, you know, mission and who we are. So it's helpful. It's fun to be part of that message and to create that space in our center.

00:21:31
I'd like to sort of piggyback on Priya's question. Operating in 70 countries, when you think, you know, we're talking about what you're doing here in the States, but. But how does what you're doing here around childcare influence what other offices may be doing in other countries and vice versa, when people, as you said, come from other countries and they say, look, hey, in this office, we do X, is there a lot of cross pollination? And if so, are There any sort of stories you could share around how that reinforces and strengthens what you're already doing?

00:22:05
Yeah, that's a great question. I'm very fortunate to work with a number of HRDs around the globe. We call HR directors is what we are globally, so forgive me for using an acronym, but this team of HR leaders talks all the time about challenges that they're facing with their workforce and different solutions, which is so nice. I've got my own kind of team that's globally seeing things shift and change and maybe what's working in London can work here in Minneapolis, Minnesota and vice versa. Right. So we constantly are having those discussions, learning from each other, seeing what the trends are, and that helps across the board. So I don't know if we've had any true. Like this person went here. But what. But really when we have people that come internationally into Allianz life and see the center and see what we're doing and, and then they're bringing that back to their organization and saying, here's something cool that I saw and that we did. That advertisement is worth its weight in gold and certainly has brought new conversations that wouldn't have happened before without this global network community.

00:23:20
So you had a community of parents and you have a community of HR professionals across alliance. Clearly there's two big communities. It helps on both ways, for sure, professionally and personally. But as a leader, how have you managed to stay grounded in this mission while overseeing such a large workforce? I mean, 150,000 people across is a very big and interesting problem. What keeps you motivated at work and to continue doing this work?

00:23:52
I mean, we are. I, you know, prior to joining financial services industry, I worked in a number of different industries and I always gravitated to, you know, the bigger mission that we share. Right. And that's what I'm very proud of. Working for Allianz globally is that that is core to who we are. We are here to serve and that is our customers, number one. But then also our employees. Right. Who make everything happen on the daily basis. This. So, you know, it really gets a little bit easier when you, when you really believe in what we're here to do from a company and then this company who, you know, I've been here for 18 years and I will tell people the reason, number of reasons I won't, I won't leave until they kick me out is really about the mission and the values. We really believe in this. So if you're at a company that really owns that to the core to their Heart of what they. What their mission is. It's much easier to work there, to understand, to give the little extra, to work a little bit harder. What this company has done for my family and my kids, I'm very, very grateful. So it makes me a very loyal employee and excited to kind of continue to have these discussions and find solutions for everyone.

00:25:17

Jenny, this has been great. One final question for you.


00:25:23
You know, what's one lesson you've learned from listening and working with parents and caregivers that you think every business leader should know?

00:25:37
That's a loaded question. But maybe I would say, you know, you just never know what someone else is going through. Right. You really have to be open and you really have to listen, because the problem might not be what's on the surface. You know, if I think about myself as a working parent. Right. My husband also is a working parent. We have three wonderful children. We also are the host family for two wonderful boys from the Bahamas through an international exchange student or program. And on any given day, something could be different than it was before. And as a leader, right, to have the pause, to have the care concern, to say, here's what's going on today. How can I help you navigate? How can I make it easier? How do we stay still, get this work done that's so important to get done for our customer? You know, I think that's a lesson that I learned time and time and time again. You never know what's happening with someone else. You really just have to listen and pause and find solutions for them. And because they're out there, they're out there, and it matters. It matters to employees, right, that they're heard, that they're seen. Seen that they're valued for everything that they're bringing to the table, including, you know, a parenting journey or a caregiving journey or, you know, what they're giving back to their community. Something, you know, that's as valuable to them as it is to you as the employer.

00:27:29
Well, I take my hat off to you not only for the. The fact that you're such a big advocate, but that you have. I have two boys, and I can tell you we run out of food constantly. The fact that you have two of your oars.

00:27:44
More times than I can count.

00:27:48
Well, Jenny, thank you so much for sharing your insights and for the work that you do. You're such a big advocate for childcare, the caregiving economy, and just being a caring employer. I've learned so much through this conversation. We really appreciate your insights.

00:28:06
No problem. My Pleasure. I'm very proud of our partnership. Thank you, guys for everything.

00:28:11
I love talking to her. I loved her energy. But most of all, like, right out of the gate, she sort of reflected and admitted where she had, like, her younger self had made a mistake. And I would argue that being able to sort of own that, admit that mistake is probably really contributed to making her the great leader that she is.

00:28:30
Own it, I think, but also fix it. I mean, how incredible, right? And the fact that, you know, she took that to say, how do you cut under the surface, look at what's going on in people's lives and say that there is something on there. So don't look at the surface, look below it. And keeping that as a consistent lesson and continuing to pass it along, I thought was incredible.

00:28:53
Yeah. And I think, as you know, gigantic financial services coming as they look at the long term, and she's part of looking at the long term with their investments. I think that's inspiring. The way that one of her kids is going to be in this alum class of kids who started in the center at Allianz all these years later shows, one, that the investment pays off and two, how important it is for retention of key employees like her.

00:29:18
Yeah, the fact that it was her first community, I would have never thought about it as this big retention tool. We've always seen it as a productivity people's hang around. But to hear real life stories of people saying, I'm here because Allianz recognized me as a human and supported me at an important time in my life and they continue to want to work for those employers is a really powerful story. So, I love speaking with her and.

00:29:48
To our listeners, thank you for being a part of the work life equation. Until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.

00:29:55
And this episode is brought to you by Bright Horizons.