UpClose with the LEGO Group
In this series we take you UpClose with some of the world’s top HR leadership teams who share their experience, insights, lessons learned and how they are shaping the future of work for business and society.
Episode 1/4 - UpClose with the LEGO Group
The LEGO Group’s mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow through the power of play.
Episode highlights
LEGO’S mission, purpose and journey to where they are today
The LEGO Leadership Playground (Be Brave, Be Curious, Be Focused)
How The LEGO Group is embracing people-powered digital transformation
How as a leadership team they support each other and make decisions
DE&I - LEGO play is for everyone, and so is our workplace
Speakers
Loren I. Shuster, Chief People Officer & Head of Corporate Affairs
Melissa Kantor, Vice President, People Analytics and Insights, and Head of Product, People & Talent
James Holden, Senior Director Human Resources
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Chris: So, let's dive in. I want to start with the most important question of this whole interview; what's your favourite 🔗LEGO set, and why?
Melissa: I love the 🔗1989 LEGO Batmobile. Any Batman product, really! I love that 🔗movie. I remember watching it and wanting to be Batman back in the day.
Chris: That's pretty cool. I love the fact you're specific about the date as well.
Melissa: Absolutely! There's a lot of different Batmobiles out there.
Loren: When you're a fan of Batman, you need to get the specifics right.
Melissa: Absolutely!
Chris: What about you, Loren? Last time we spoke, there was a lot of LEGO in the background.
Loren: It's super tough. There's always a lot of LEGO sets in my office, but probably my favourite at the moment, which you may have seen in our last call, which is the 🔗Titanic.
It's not only my favourite because it looks absolutely extraordinary when it's built – it's a huge build! 10,000 pieces – but I got to build it with my nephew and don't tell anyone, but he built 99% of it. I put a few bricks. But it's just a phenomenal set. The details are extraordinary.
James: So, for me, my favourite set of movies is Star Wars. 🔗The Y-Wing from 1977 is just like the ultimate! And I was so pleased when it was brought out because I still remember the original movie: the Y-Wing going into a town, the attack run; I think it's one of the most underrepresented spacecrafts. Everyone loves the 🔗Millennium Falcon, but the Y-Wing I built 2 Christmas's ago.
Chris: I love that. I love the fact that in each of you, it evokes an emotion and the memory - the childhood memory - of you watching the movie, and it brings it all back, right?
For me, it was the Millennium Falcon. We couldn't afford it growing up, but my mum came home from a market and she somehow got hold of one. I treasured that thing. I was like, “Literally mine!” None of my brothers and sister could play with it, as well. But it's like the emotional connection that you have to it; it sticks with you as part of your childhood. Right?
Loren: Yeah, and that's what's so wonderful about the LEGO brand. When you tell people that you work for the LEGO Group, including border official, the guys or gals who take your passports, often they'll ask, “What are you doing here?” I'll say, “Oh, I work for the LEGO Group.” And they not only smile, they give you a story.
Chris: Exactly. No matter what country, or culture, or background, LEGO transcends all cultures and all languages, which is pretty cool. On that point, then, what would you say is the 'why' and 'purpose' of LEGO?
Loren: This is very important.
Chris: No pressure.
Loren: 🔗The mission of the company is very clearly stated. I think it is synonymous with our purpose, which is to ‘inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow’, the builders of tomorrow being the children who are going to inherit the planet from us and, you know, how to inspire them in a fun and exciting way through learning, through play experiences, through building experiences, the joy of building, the pride of creation; to hopefully build a better world for themselves and for future generations.
Chris: I don't think you can add to that now?
Melissa: (Laughing) No!
Chris: How would you say, Melissa, it alines with your own purpose?
Melissa: So, my own purpose loosely canters with ‘horses through tangled spider webs’. It's basically about trying to drive value – envision - through chaos and disorder. Whenever you're delivering change or growing a new function, it's exciting and chaotic, especially to navigate that change successfully so you achieve the value at the end. I get a lot of energy from it. So, of course, I'm doing all of that to try to support the overall LEGO brand mission, which is super exciting.
Chris: It's interesting when you talk about purpose; LEGO is a company that so many of the leaders have gone through the 'Leading With Purpose Programmes' that you do, ot whenever I speak to someone at LEGO, the fact that every single leader can define it so clearly and concisely, it always amazes me.
Loren: We have – probably approaching – 1500 colleagues who have been through the programme. It is important you have individuals who are clear about their own purpose and what's meaningful for them, what’s useful for them as an individual, then we all understand and connect with the LEGO Group's purpose. Then to find that intersection, that overlap, is where work becomes more than a job but something of a vocation, and something that we're all passionate about.
Chris: Yeah, definitely. James?
James: The process you go through is very powerful. So, my purpose is to spark the fire of potential because I have faith that ‘fish can climb rocks’. Going into that process, I knew that I was very driven by potential in people, in organisations, in systems. But, as you go through the 'purpose' development process, it's actually the diversity of inputs that helps you. I only landed at my purpose because five or six other colleagues spent two days with me, listening to my stories, listening to why I was the person I was, and helped me shape that.
Chris: Isn't that interesting, because when I went into the programme with Melissa, that was my biggest takeaway. What others could see in me, and helped me to define my purpose, was to be the Unbreakable Artists; that ‘Dance's into Life’. Growing up, I went through a lot of trauma at home. My escape was in creativity; whether it was LEGO, or painting, or drawing, sort of the Unbreakable Artist. I realised that where I get energy is from creativity, and creating, and I didn't even see that. It was actually the group that came to that realisation, and then dances you to life. I actually dance, so the ‘Dancer into Life’ is really around talent development. One of my biggest passions is seeing someone coming and helping them grow and develop and thrive. I didn't even realise it myself, but through that discovery of the group, super powerful, what people can see.
Loren: Absolutely. We actually did it before Melissa joined, which is why she went on a separate process. But when you do it as a group - and we have built on the experience - it builds a lot of cohesion amongst the team members, and I think we'll get to some of the themes of how we worked as a team, but I think some of the bedrock of how we function as a HR Leadership team was really formed on the back of that programme, and sharing our histories, our narratives, our stories, and playing back to each other. You know, what we saw as other people's gifts.
Chris: Yeah, I remember myself and Shane got a call from Nick at the time saying, “Come along”. I was like, “Aw, I don't have time for that, it's very fluffy.” I was very sceptical! I'm being honest. Then, one hour in, I'm sharing my most traumatic times as a child and my crucible story with the group and, suddenly, you've created this really strong bond. I've shared more with the strangers than I have with some of my closest friends and family members. That’s how me and Melissa met!
Loren: That's how we met, as well. We came to your graduation.
Chris: Yeah! And there were tears. There were smiles. There was, you know, the range of emotions that were evoked amongst that group of strangers we’d never met, and we've all stayed in contact; we've got a WhatsApp group, we do have our graduation group.
James: We have an annual meetup.
Chris: Do you?
James: We have in the calendar ‘Living on Purpose’ anniversary in June, yes. Standing invite once a year.
Chris: I think now more than ever, over the last two years, purpose has really come to the forefront. People had a lot of time to think about, 'what is my purpose? Where do I want to work?’ Where do I want to spend my time?’ I've had a lot of friends, family members – I think everyone, really – had that time to think, 'Is this really what I want to do? Do I really want to be working in an organisation that aligns with that?' I think that's why we're seeing this Great Awakening, Reimagination… There's a lot of disruption that we're seeing in the workforce.
Chris: What are some of the projects you're working on that you're most excited about? At the moment?
Melissa: That's what I was thinking, 'What to do?' I think, for me, we're in the midst of a massive transformation, and we're launching Workday, which is the final component for that foundational layer this year. For me, that represents a few years of hard grit-
Chris: Especially for you!
Melissa: -Yeah, and it was hard! Yes, super exciting, because as part of that, it wasn't just implementing technology, it was simplifying processes, trying to understand where we can add the most value, changing behaviours, and a lot of that hard work is still to come, but the foundation will be in this year. For me, that means we can now really aim forward looking for what we want to deliver as a HR Team - which is really, really exciting - to have this strong foundation to lay on.
James: I think, for me, the job I spend most of my time in is that I'm the HR partner for operations. So, manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, and the team has done a phenomenal job to get through COVID. The supply chain was super, super stretched. But, we're also on a very aggressive programme to build more capacity. What I love – as in 'linked to my purpose on potential' – is ‘what is possible?’ in terms of a supply chain and the capabilities. Not just, 'let's not just build it, but let's actually build something as responsive as we were through COVID, but bigger and faster'. We will discover something new - I'm convinced - in order to be able to do that. That's what excites me.
Loren: I've got a super long list. I think both what James and Melissa are sharing are elements of a four-year journey, which we labelled ‘modernising the HR function within the LEGO Group’, which I took over the function four years ago. Both Melissa and James were new to the team. We had some colleagues who have longer tenure, so a good mix of new and higher tenured colleagues. Then we embarked on this modernization journey to make HR a very business-focused function. So, of these different elements of that journey, the part that probably excites me the most, (outside of the fact that the LEGO Group has performed exceptionally well across our different stakeholders, and commercially and financially, which I think the HR organisation has very clear line of sight on, and I'm very proud of) is the fact that we're now looking at the next iteration of that.
So, we're starting to look at 'how do we create more fluidity and flexibility in our partner community'? Very often in organisations, partners are anchored to one particular function, or one particular business group, or business unit. And it's very hard to get them to focus on activities outside their own area. You risk some 🔗silo mentality, and you lose cross fertilisation opportunities. We actually have a design where the partners are allocated to particular functional areas, but they report to one person within the HR organisation.
We have the opportunity now to unlock greater fluidity and flexibility, because there're different initiatives that the business requires at different points in time that you want to put either more capacity or more capability against, and that's very hard when partners are locked 100 percent on operations or 100 percent to marketing. That's one thing I'm very excited about.
Chris: What's the biggest challenge in changing that, because that's been quite a traditional approach, and moving into more of an agile approach where you can be more flexible? What's the biggest challenge?
Loren: When I speak to my fellow CHRO's about this, they're all envious. They're like, “Really? One pool? Really? You move them around?” Where we're just starting to experiment with moving them around, and one of the challenges is that they feel they don't have the time to do anything else.
One foundational exercise that we need to undertake is to better understand how partners are spending their time. Say 20% of a partner's time is spent in 🔗reactive mode, and potentially even responding to requests that they shouldn't be engaged in, that are tactical or transactional, and not related to our key strategic business priorities? We're doing an analysis-time motion-type of study over the next few months to get a better understanding of how different partners are spending their time. Then we could look for patterns, free up some time, and then we have a list of priority projects. The list is around 15 projects that the business would like us to - or different parts of the business - would like us to look at. So, we're starting with two of those, and we need to prove that the model can work.
Chris: Is that where you come in, Melissa?
Melissa: Absolutely. I think it's interesting in the partner product space because it goes hand-in-hand with some of the work that's going on in the more technology and digital side where we're also shifting to a more cross functional product team mindset. All of those things underpin ‘how do we get - as Loren puts it - cross fertilisation’, and different functions and different perspectives coming in together to share knowledge? And then, of course, understanding the data, the insights on what does the ‘workforce planning’ look like?
Loren: I could go through a long list, so you just stop me-
Chris: Go for it! Got for it!
Loren: -I'll give you one more since we have a campfire.
Chris: I wanted to talk about that at some point, as well.
Loren: We have a leadership model at the LEGO Group called 🔗the Leadership Playground, and the Campfire is one of the mechanisms in which we enable the organisation – and different individuals and teams in the organisation – to step into their leadership roles and qualities. And we have playground builders. Every year we solicit volunteers, pretty much one from every team in the organisation, so it ends up being like 15-1600 colleagues, who raise their hand, they say, “I want to be a Leadership Playground Builder”'. And we train them.
That's the session we were doing today with about 75 of them. We train them with different design, thinking skills, with different initiatives on how to bring an activity – it's very often a 'nudge', but we call it a mission – how to bring missions into the team to stimulate discussion around some of the key themes that the business is facing. This year, the business is facing Digital Transformation, Wellbeing, DNI, as three examples. We're educating the Leadership Playground Builders to stimulate discussion within their teams as how their teams can relate to playing a bigger role in each of those key priority areas.
Chris: I love the fact that you're putting it in their hands, and creating a very strong connection and brand around that. You could have just called it something very boring, as opposed to building the strong brand around it.
Loren: It's a big part of our culture. And James could speak to the fact that we treat all employees equally, and I don't think all companies do this. We have LEGO retail associates who work on an hourly basis, paid on an hourly basis, in our stores. We have hourly production workers, about 15,000, or approaching 15,000. And even in the factories – amongst our production colleagues – we're training them on leadership behaviours.
James: We have campfires in each of our factories around the world, and every team gets involved in some sort of campfire activity. I remember the first time I went to the factory in 🔗the Czech Republic, where they had been working on this for a few months, and I was getting a tour and I stopped and said, "What's that over there?" The guy with me said, "Oh, that's where somebody has their campfire." And it was a mirror where they have the campfire, because they use the mirror to say 'the person that's going to change things is the one looking in the mirror'.
Chris: No way.
James: And they love the campfires so much that there were scheduled cleaning activities that were part of the production; they'd found a way to do that while things were running, and didn't need unnecessary downtime, or needed less downtime, and then allowed them to have more time to have their campfire sessions as a team. You would have never have come up with that idea unless you'd given it to the team and said, "Okay, how do you want to engage with each other?" So, a mirror on the production floor.
Chris: I love that, because, like so many of the people I speak to, one of the areas where they struggle to engage is those communities that are off site, right? Field workers or factory workers. Like, how do we engage that part of our workforce, and putting it in their hands? Normally, we come up with an app or something that we think is going to work as leaders, but actually putting it in their hands, and then coming up with stuff like that, is - and there's a story, again. The story behind it. Each person that joins, they're going to be told that story of what that means.
Loren: Exactly.
Chris: And that really sticks with people.
Loren: Yeah. That shapes culture. That's what the Leadership Playground is about; the leadership culture.
Chris: From a decision-making point of view, one of the things when we launched a series that the audience were really interested in is 'how do HR Leadership Teams make decisions? What does the decision-making process look like?' So, I'd love to hear more about that.
Loren: I'm also curious to hear what my colleagues have to say.
James: I think the way we'll probably answer is it shows a bias to our approach to things. One of the things that we do really well is be clear on the strategic direction; rather than the day-to-day tactical decision - I mean, those happen in the moment - but the very good process of, ‘what are we really trying to drive as the HR function?' and then making sure we aligned to that.
A really good example at the moment is we're doing a significant talent intervention. Each function could come up with a reason as to why the intervention needs to only fit their function, but what we've done is a very good job of calling out, saying, "Okay, we're going to do this, but we're going to do it in a way that we've got a common platform, but we've got the freedom for each of the functions to tweak and tailor it".
A little bit like the campfire example. We didn't orchestrate the idea of the mirror and do it during the shift, but that came up from the team. I'm convinced the same will come out of this talent intervention, that will have a common approach. But the actual way it gets executed in each function, and the specific topics we cover, the function will own.
Loren: That's absolutely right. I would have said it almost word for word.
We spent a lot of time up front, and this is actually how the executive leadership team operates as well, within the LEGO Group; 'spend a lot of time upfront on strategic alignment'. Whether that's for a corporate strategy, which is – in our organisation – three or four years, and we're now just doing our planning 23 to 25, or it's for the upcoming year. We've spent a lot of time in a room together – last few years have to be in a virtual room – ensuring that we are all aligned and we iterate. Then, during the year, everyone is empowered and trust each other, and expects that everyone is going to be working towards that overall strategic alignment.
That provides a great framework for people to feel trusted and enabled to get stuff done. Of course, the foundation of that is a little bit of what we were discussing at the beginning, is that there's also a lot of trust in this HR leadership team, which I'm also really proud about, and it's great to be a part of it, because we did so much work as a team when we were forming about 4 or 5 years ago when we did the Purpose work, and we've done various iterations of that. There's quite a lot of cohesion and trust between us as individuals, that the combination of individual connectivity and strategic alignments leaves a lot of room there for us to go about and get stuff done at a good pace.
Chris: It's interesting that you always start from the relationship piece of that trust and forming that bond up that makes that 'yes, we have this business goal and target, but then we have the freedom below within the framework that you're going to trust each other to deliver based on the target of the wide values of purpose, as long as we're all aligned here, that we can be more free'.
Loren: Exactly.
Of course, it's not perfect. You know, stuff breaks down, and relationships are breaking down. But what I value about this team is that we're able to acknowledge a breakdown, quickly engage each other, and then recover quickly. I think a sign of a good relationship, or a healthy team, is not that trust doesn't break down, because it's breaking down in relationships all the time – no one has malicious intent – but it's how quickly can you call it out, address it, recover, and move on, because that strengthens the relationship.
Chris: That's healthy as well, right? We're talking about innovation. Mistakes are going to be made. We're going to have to pivot often. If the last two years have taught us anything, it’s that we're pretty resilient. There's so much fear from other teams that I speak to that 'we have to get it right, immediately!' Or, we have this two, three-year plan, which almost seems crazy now to even have now. Also, you have to have that trust and freedom to be able to experiment, and know that your team's got your back.
Loren: Exactly.
Melissa: To build on what you two said; one of the things that resonated when I joined the LT is 'how little time we spend on day-to-day operational stuff'. And part of that is obviously trust; we all trust each other to get our stuff done. We have a great network, so we can reach out offline if we need to. It also speaks to the calibre of the leadership team participants; they're all probably the highest calibre I've worked with; they all know their stuff and get it done, which means when we come together as a group, we can focus on strategy, we can focus on where we really add value. And for me, I find that we prioritise what we take into LT discussions really well.
Chris: So, spending less time focused on each person's individual areas as opposed to the overall arching goal? But you trust that everyone's pretty much delivering on what they need to be delivering on?
Melissa: Yes, and if they're not, or they're struggling, I think everyone feels comfortable with that, too. The campfire is all about creating a safe space to put their hand up and say, “I'm struggling here. I need James's help on something”, and I value that. I know I've reached out for many of my colleagues for help many times, and I think they've done the same.
Chris: Yeah, it's very important. What about from a people analytics perspective; when we first spoke many years ago, you were just kind of getting started in that space. I'd love to hear an update on where you are now.
Loren: It's come a long way. Our team has grown a lot.
Melissa: It has! It's come a long way. Of course, there's still a lot more we want to do. I think when we first spoke, we were just really HR reporting, and just trying to get the right numbers out the door. Now, it's great to say that we have complete trust and faith in the deliveries that we make, and the numbers are there. All that noise is dialled down, which means we don't have to put as much effort into all the operational sorts of tasks we used to do. We can put value where it's needed. And I think Loren alluded to, you know, the business is doing well and growing, and part of that growth is obviously bringing in the right talent to be able to meet needs.
We have done a lot of work on recruitment capacity planning, being able to forecast the amount of roles we think are going to land in the organisation. We can be staffed up to accommodate. We've done a lot of strategic initiatives here and there. I think the one thing I'm probably most proud of, and I think I probably mentioned this to you last time, we were just kicking off a 'data driven insights learning programme' for all of PO&D, and it's blended really well.
James, you can offer your perspectives as well; about a year and a half ago, we launched 🔗Visier, which is a people analytics solution. We put in a massive amount of effort into adoption embedding for that.
We had a three-stepped approach; the first approach was 'lay the foundation', just get the thing done. The second approach was 'build the habit', and this is where we just wanted people to go into the solution, get used to learning it, and we weren't really worried about them getting value from it just yet, we just wanted to build the habit. Once the habit was built, then you go into step three, which was 'grow the competence', and that's where we're at now, where we're fast maturing in that space, where we have a lot of people, partners, and other colleagues in PO&D, and across the business, going in not just to look up a number, but they get curious, and they'll do some analysis work.
We have some great examples of partners out there building their own analysis to see what's going on, so they can support business needs. I'd like to think that we still have work to do, of course, but I think we've absolutely shifted the mindset from 'people analytics as a reporting function' to 'people analytics as a strategic function' that can bring great insight and value into delivering the business.
Loren: Yeah, and I think the penetration and usage rates on this year are probably amongst the best of all their clients.
Melissa: I think it's the best, actually. I'm sorry, I'm so proud of that! It's not just me and my team, it's all the partners really leaning in!
Chris: Do you think this is part of your culture? What do you think is behind that?
Melissa: I think it's a couple things. One, right from the leadership team - from Loren's perspective - we place value on data understanding, and data driven insights, in a way that I don't think I've seen in other organisations. We didn't have to earn that mandate to prove there's value; the leadership team accepts there was value in that already. Then it was a case of 'you just push and push and push', and its hard work change-managing.
Loren: And we measured it. We measured and created transparency, and then we KPI'd. But we recognise that we didn't want people to use it just because we're tracking them, but that is one mechanism, as well. But it was holistic, as Melissa shared.
Chris: Was there much training that had to be done with the leaders? What was the feedback from the managers and the leaders that were using the dashboard and accessing the data?
Melissa: Yep, so I think it depends on who you ask. Everyone's in a different area of maturity. Within the people partner space, we had some folks right away who loved it, absorbed it, very little training at all. We had some that needed some hand- holding, which we are happy to do. If you look more broadly across the organisation, we do have some people leaders themselves outside of HR logging into the system and having a look at some things, and they're very welcome to do that. But our delivery model very much is to work with your partner to better understand those insights.
Chris: Okay, so they can work directly with their partners or the partners that you mentioned earlier?
Loren: Exactly. At least now, the data is being visualised. Whether it's an executive leadership team report, (we have our monthly performance tracking, where we look at various data around total headcount, attrition rate, recruitment, and that's happening in each of the different functional areas) that how the data's being visualised and presented is completely consistent and coherent. Which wasn't the case before where people were scrambling around making their own PowerPoint slides. Not very effective or efficient.
Melissa: It is much more consistent, and it drives with one source of truth. That's not just Visier; that's through all of what we do and people analytics, which I think is very, very helpful.
Chris: Have you seen more inbound traffic where people are coming to you and the team, asking/requesting?
Melissa: Yes, actually, we just had a meeting this week where we did analysis for the amount of work we have, and it's fifty headcounts worth of work for ten years; not quite that dramatic, but it's great to see the amount of pull that’s coming in. We've had some new joiners to my team as we're scaling up and they've never seen the amount of pull in their careers before. They're excited and gobsmacked, but it's great to see.
The pool isn't just basic questions; it's really in-depth detailed analysis. We actually have to think about ‘Oh, gosh, do we even have the data? How do we weave it together? Where's the storyline?’ and that's really interesting to see.
Chris: In terms of deciding what you're going to work on, do you just go back to your overall mission and focus, and start there?
Melissa: We have the strategic goals that we wanted to function, and that sets our priority. Outside of that, we try to do a mix of hypothesis testing and exploratory analysis based on the requests that come in. If we have a request that comes in that takes a significant amount of time, we look to see which one is going to have the most impact to the business.
Chris: Over the last few years, we’ve talked about 🔗the Great Resignation, the Great Awakening; how are you responding to this sort of War on Talent, that people are moving organisations and there's a lot of disruption around us? How are you reacting to that as a team?
Melissa: I think I can add a point. I'm sure Loren and James will have a build, but I think we're super grateful at how well we try as an organisation to look after our employees. We really haven't been impacted, knock on wood, by the Great Resignation. I think our focus is on continued engagement, and continuing to persevere.
Loren: There's so much discussion around the so-called Great Resignation. There are distinctions between what's happening in North America, what's happening in different parts of Europe, and also different industries.
The most encouraging thing I’ve observed is where we started that discussion. It's around purpose. So many companies, and so many employees, and so many job seekers, are looking first and foremost for something that they connect with in a meaningful way. They have choices out there. In the LEGO Group, we're super lucky. We're turning 🔗90 years in August, and we have a purpose and a mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. That is very easy for people to connect with.
One thing people have that many, many people around the world – many prospective candidates and employees, and current employees – have is a direct connection with the brand; they either grew up with it, or they connect with the building experience that they have today. It's not something that we need to make up. In some industries, it's less evident as to what the purpose is. For us, it's about really staying true to that.
We're also privately held by the same family, at its 🔗4th generation, and that also deepens and creates a lot of integrity of what the company stands for, and the fact that we want to hold on to this purpose for the next generation. We're looking long term. That's the overall umbrella, our so called 🔗'People Promise', which is what succeeding and growing together falls under.
We have a genuine Northern European and a Danish company; we're very people-orientated, very collaborative, and the political social system in that country is one that takes care of its people. I think we start with a lot of critical foundation that has been reinforced, but we can't rest on our laurels.
The single most important dimension of why someone would select to work at the LEGO Group, or stay at the LEGO Group, and maybe even other companies, is the purpose. Very close to that is what is the growth story? Is there opportunity for the brand? Is there opportunity for the product? Is there opportunity for me within that growth story? If a company is growing and expanding its reach, either through product innovation, or channel innovation, or new markets, whatever it may be, then individuals can see that this is a place where I can grow.
I think that's how we have been trying to reinforce our employee value proposition, if you want to call it that.
James: Just to build on what Melissa and Loren was saying, I think what makes a big difference is what we've done over the last two years. Obviously, organisations have spent time x`listening to their employees as they've gone through all the changes. For us in the LEGO Group, we didn't need to start doing that, because we already had a well-established process. I can give a good example of that; in the factories, we actually got the feedback that we were listening too much, and giving too much information. What they were wanting us to do was actually understand the situation, make a decision, and then say clearly how the regulations were going to play out in that situation. But that's played a big part in us being able to keep people engaged. It's just a continuous listening process.
Chris: It's interesting how we had to become master communicators over the last two to three years. Many leaders I've been speaking to are like, "Chris, I've never learned so much about communication." It was interesting that I saw some HR leaders really excel and fly in that environment, and others really struggle, because different time zones, geographies, legalities, are different across the world. So, it was quite a very tough time.
Loren: To build on James's point about the factories and something that I said before about treating employees equally. Over the last two years, again, we decided to offer different financial benefits to support people in different situations. Last year we actually performed super well as a company, and so there was an additional pay-out. We treated all employees the same.
In the first year, there was a lump sum payment that, whether you were an hourly worker in Mexico, or the chief Peoples’ Officer of the company, it was the exact same lump sum. Even though that means a lot more to the factory worker in Mexico than it would for me, financially, it’s an important signal that we send to all of our employees, that each employee plays a vital role in what the LEGO Group is all about.
Chris: Is that the first time you've done that, in that way?
Loren: Six years ago, there was a bonus from the family. If I remember correctly, it was like a one-month bonus or something. And that was paid, again, equally to everyone.
Chris: Amazing. What was the reaction that you got from that?
James: Oh, super positive! Just imagine that sense of equality! The way we communicated it was that everybody had been through significant adjustments. For some people, it meant they were actually in the factory every day, because we had to keep reducing. Some people had not even been in the office for 15 months, because the office was closed. It was to acknowledge everybody and their families. In order to get someone to a factory, there would have been disruption at home; children were being home-schooled, and that person would have had to go into work, get on the shuttle bus, get into the factory… It enabled us to acknowledge to everybody in an open and transparent way, and the reaction was firm.
Loren: And the amount of people that reached out to me and said that, "You know, the best thing about this is the fact that we're doing the same thing for everyone". That we're treating everyone equally; whether you work in a retail store, on the shop floor, or factory, or you're a salaried employee.
Chris: Yes. What a message that sends, right? On that point, what do you love most about working at LEGO?
Loren: Oh, I'm curious to hear from my colleagues.
Melissa: Oh gosh. I think for me, there's a few things. First and foremost, it's the team I work with; both my leadership team colleagues, as well as my insight’s function, they're just a great group of absolutely brilliant people, and I am grateful for them every day I go into the office.
I am eternally grateful that LEGO is such a great company and has an ambition to be a great company. They take reputation very seriously and that's something that resonates with me. I think it goes back to the purpose discussion we had earlier where I'm grateful to work for a company that really takes social responsibility as seriously and as embedded throughout the organisation that LEGO does. And then, as a mom with two boys at home, I am grateful for our hybrid working model that gives me the time to get home to see baseball games and all sorts of interesting things.
Loren: And discounted LEGO.
Melissa: Oh, are you kidding? Look at my entire office.
Chris: I'm on WhatsApp, "Melissa send me some LEGO! Send me some LEGO!"
Chris: When you first started working in the company, we connected, and that was something even three years ago I said, "Why did you choose LEGO?" because you, if I remember correctly, you were self-employed.
Melissa: Yeah! Even I'm surprised, actually! I love contracting.
Loren: We're holding on to her! Don't go anywhere!
Melissa: I always joked that this is my first proper job. Before this I worked as a contractor for years and years and years, and before that as a consultant. I'm grateful to be here and you're right, when I joined, I was like, "Oh my gosh, permanent employee?"
It was quite a mindset shift for me, actually. I don't think any other company would've tempted me to even consider it. When I met with Loren and other colleagues, I was absolutely over the moon with the drive for excellence, the drive for commercial reality, as well as being able to pull that off with such a kind and caring atmosphere that really embraces social responsibility. I think that's a unique mix that I don't think I've seen in any other company anywhere.
Chris: It's so genuine. When I spoke to you, you were a single mum, two kids.
Melissa: It's been brilliant. And the kids, as Loren said, they love all the LEGO that I bring home, and the bragging rights at the playground!
Chris: I bet it's like, "My mum works for LEGO".
Melissa: Very true.
Chris: What about you, Loren?
Loren: There's so many things. First of all, I love the brand. I love the brand as a kind of a consumer, and as someone who likes to build with LEGO, and who built with LEGO sets when I was growing up. I like the possibilities that the brand offers us as a business, I love the fact that we look at performance in a very balanced way. We have our 🔗Four Promises and each of them is consequential. It’s important to me that we talk the talk.
I think we're able to attract some of the best and most talented people in the world, too. All are super, super decent human beings and care for each other. It's a fantastic place to be, and I'm seven and a half years into it. Someone's going to have to kick me out!
Chris: What about you, James?
James: There're three things. I joined just after Melissa, like three-and-a-half years ago. I remember sharing with Loren and the HRLT that there were two things that really struck me in my first few months, and they were the things I was looking for when I was trying to find a company.
One is that LEGO is very diverse in thinking. I thought I'd been exposed to a lot of different thinking in my time with a company over a very long period of time, and have moved around the world, but what I love in the LEGO Group is that there are people of so many different backgrounds. There are former consultants, there are people that have worked in lots of different companies; I don't know until someone tells me their background just how long they've been in the company and what they've done. I love that because I get different ideas and different stimulus.
The second thing is, it's a really inclusive culture. I have never felt so welcomed. I've worked in four different countries around the world, with my family, and I've never felt as welcomed as when I joined the LEGO Group. And it's been the same over the last three-and-a-half years as I've worked on different projects.
The third one – I didn't know when I joined – you fall in love with the way things are done. All of us have faced big business challenges over the last few years, but every time we've done that there's been a strong purpose, a strong understanding; I've never been told, “James, just go and sort it out”. I've felt like if there's an issue here, we need to address it and we can engage together on this, and that's what keeps me.
I want to work with people that want to solve problems, but want to do it in a purposeful way. That's what keeps me here.
Chris: Amazing. I think that's a nice way to wrap things up. Thank you so much for sharing your personal journeys and experiences, and keep up the amazing work.
Loren: Thanks for your interest.
James: Thank you.
Melissa: Thank you
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