[00:00:00] Lisa: Ever wonder why certain companies get a spot on those top employer lists have a listen to this episode for some insider information on how to craft a compelling culture that employees want to be of. My guest is Deborah Scott, who is vice president of HR and facilities operations at Panasonic Canada.
Debra is passionate about refining Panasonic's corporate culture and works to foster an environment where employees feel both welcomed and respected under her leadership. Panasonic Canada earned the honor of becoming one of GTA's top employers in 20 20, 20 21. And hopefully again, in 2022, and the winners are officially now.
Debra. And I had a great time reconnecting nearly 25 years after we last across paths. I know you'll enjoy her warmth and energy as much as I did enjoy.
Hi there. Welcome back to talent management truths. Today. I'm joined by Deborah Scott. Debra is currently vice president of human resources and facilities operations at Panasonic Canada. I'm really thrilled to have her on the show. We go way, way back. We met briefly when we were both working for.
The big banks, a subsidiary of the banks. So Debra is part of the executive team at Panasonic and recently was instrumental in having Panasonic awarded one of the GTA top employers awards, which is a huge accomplishment. So, I'll let Deborah fill us in on what all was involved there, but first off, welcome to the show.
Debra.
[00:03:18] Deborah: Thank you, Lisa. It's great to be here. Thanks for inviting. My
[00:03:22] Lisa: pleasure. It's good to catch up. So, so maybe you could start by telling us a little bit about your role and what you oversee at past.
[00:03:31] Deborah: Sure. So, as you mentioned, I'm the VP of HR and facilities. So basically anything employee related, which includes in my role, the employee environment.
So the facility, you know, how we, we run our building and we actually own our building and Mississauga, which is our main headquarters for the Canadian division of chemists. So there's a lot that goes into that. So basically anything that touches an employee, whether it be a policy, a procedure, or where they sit in the building and how we control the environment, is part of my overall responsibility.
So it's kind of soup to nuts from the building to the employee experience over.
[00:04:10] Lisa: Yeah, it's kind of interesting. Right? I've seen this in a couple of uh, scenarios, a couple of different organizations where facilities has been put together with that overall responsibility for HR. And I liked how you explained it, right.
That it's about the employees environment, everything that touches them in their experience. So how do you, I don't know how, what's it like. Really day to day balancing those two, they seem different, you know, on the surface. How do you balance your responsibilities between these periods?
[00:04:37] Deborah: Yeah, well, they are very different.
You know, very different issues come up and, and problems that need to be solved. But at the end of the day, I do kind of look at it through that lens of, you know, this is the entire employee experience. And what we do in our building really determines the. The experience that our employees have both new and employees who've been there for quite some time.
So I have two different teams. So one team manages the facilities aspect of things. And then of course I have the traditional HR team, which does, you know, comp benefits, recruitment, all of the generalist level HR activity. So on the facility side, you know, I'm very lucky to have somebody. Who manages that who's got a very good facilities background and has worked in some really large office environments.
One of the challenges we have is that we own our building. So this is unique especially nowadays where, you know, companies typically lease office space and. We actually own the building. And so with that ownership comes, you know, challenges of heating and cooling and facilities maintenance, both inside and out.
We have a team, a small team of maintenance people who fix everything when it tends to break down as it does, especially when you're in an older. So, you know, I've learned a ton along the way about the things you need to do in an office environment. We also have a warehouse attached to our building.
So there's a mirror housing issues and things that come up that you have to deal with, which also play into the employee experience. You know, things like making sure people are keeping health and safety. Top of mind, particularly in a warehouse environment where you've got lift trucks, you know, zooming around, picking up product and getting things ready to.
On the HR or the traditional HR side of things, you know, we have the typical day in the life of an HR professional, which can never be planned. You, you have the best intentions every day. You have a list of things you want to accomplish. And inevitably there are things that pop up that you never thought you were going to be dealing with, which, you know, typically hijacks your day, so to speak.
Most days actually, not to mention the whole COVID pandemic situation and how that has, you know, added some huge complexities and time-consuming activities to the HR plate, the traditional HR plate, as well as the facilities plate. So, yeah, I mean, if we talk about that you know, on the traditional HR side of things, you know, it's about equipping people to work remotely in a very short period of time, making sure that everybody has the technology that they need.
And there's managing and leadership in a remote environment, which many of our leaders had not done before. You know, on the facility side of things, we still had a core group of employees that were deemed essential because of the types of business products that we sell. That needed to be in the office.
So then how do you protect those people and keep them safe? And how do you make sure that everybody is, you know, getting their temperature checked every day and continuing to make sure that they're masked and you have supplies in the building. So, you know, you can see that although the functions are separate, they really do.
They intervene and quite a bit, which can be very interesting, but also very challenging because oftentimes employees come to HR and, or facilities looking for answers. And, you know, as you know, with the situation being so fluid and changing often on a dime, you have to keep up to speed on what's happening so that you can coach and provide information to anybody who asks who's part of the.
[00:08:04] Lisa: Oh for sure. Oh my goodness. I just, my head spinning a little bit with just thinking about how busy you must have been over the last 20 months.
[00:08:12] Deborah: Oh, it's been, it's been incredibly busy and, you know, doing things that we've never done before. I mean, you know, we, haven't had to make sure that employees are healthy coming into the building and restricting access to certain areas to try and keep people safe that have to perform a function that keeps us operational.
And then, you know, the whole remote working situation is a huge challenge for both managers and employees. Who've never really had to do it before. You know, it's typically been sales employees and, you know, a few others sprinkled around that work from home occasionally, but Panasonic prior to the pandemic was a very traditional workplace where, you know, 95% of the employees would go to the office every day and work.
And so that's a huge change. Managing that change has been very slow, but at the same time, people are very happy about the fact that they now have this ability to work from home. In many cases, of course, you have the outliers who love to go into the office everyday and we can't wait for it to reopen.
But the whole managing in a remote environment is definitely challenging for, for many managers. Some respond very well, others, not so much.
[00:09:25] Lisa: So what kinds of support did did you offer to help people make that transition?
[00:09:31] Deborah: So training training, and lots of training online training on, you know, how to manage during a changing situation, how to manage remote employees.
Increased communication was the recommendation, you know, for all managers, touch points, having more touch points than you've ever had before, which is really a challenge for a lot of managers. You know, if you think about those managers and we all know managers like this, who typically are not the best communicators, maybe don't communicate or make an intention to communicate with their employees on a regular basis.
Moving into that remote environment kind of gives them more of an opportunity to. Disappear from the communication discussion almost. Right. So if you don't have regular touch points with your employees, you don't really know how they're doing. So it's helping and providing some coaching and training to those managers about how do I move from being in a physical workspace where I walk by somebody's desk and, you know, I might stop and chat for a few minutes and maybe it'll come up.
You know, how are you doing? How's the. To moving into a remote environment where you may not have established a regular point of contact with your teams. And then you have your employees feeling quite isolated and feeling like they don't have anyone to depend on. So it was a very strong recommendation from the beginning that all managers establish, you know, whether it's bi-weekly weekly, whatever makes sense for them have a touch point, even if it's just to say.
Hey, how you doing? You know, how's your, how's your workload, but how's life in general. You know, there've been so many curve balls thrown at employees, working in a remote environment. It's not all, you know, smiles and, and wonderful scenarios. We've got people who have young children who had to homeschool while working at the same time.
So that presents issues with ability to connect during certain times of the day. A whole host of other issues. So, you know, if I could use one word to describe the importance of what a manager had to do throughout the pandemic, it's really about communication and just making sure you continue to have that link and that opportunity to discuss.
Anything with
[00:11:37] Lisa: your employees and having the it's surprising to me, cause I still facilitate leadership development programs from time to time, as well as, coaching and podcasting and so on. But you know, it's surprising to me how many leaders I do meet that still resist having the regular touch point because I've always, I kind of grew up in environments where that was the norm.
so it's, it's a, it's a bit surprising and yet that's the best way to keep your finger on the pulse because we can't assume everything's okay. Right. If in the absence of information, it doesn't mean everything's goodness or that everything's bad, but we do need to check in and it's a way to be proactive.
I'm wondering what. You know, something that I see cropping up now too, is a fatigue because you have to be so intentional when you're virtual, right. To, to spend time with your staff, for instance, to, you know, you can't just pop over, pop by you got to book a meeting to have a conversation about something meaningful anyways.
So. Now people are sort of getting the point where like, I don't want to have a meeting about every little thing. So what are you seeing in your neck of the woods when that, when it comes out of that?
[00:12:43] Deborah: Yeah. Well, meetings are still the primary way to connect. Although, you know, we have other vehicles like using teams chat.
Some teams is the platform we use for all of our virtual meetings in our company. And teams, chat has become quite popular, you know, rather than. Having to set up another meeting for something you know, you can just ping to someone on the team's chat and, you know, they can respond to you fairly quickly.
If it's just a quick question that doesn't require. The other thing that our employees have started to do is set up a 15 minute meeting. You know, meetings don't have to be 30 minutes or an hour. And, and I think we have that traditional mindset when we're setting up a meeting that, oh, it's got to be 30 minutes or an hour.
It doesn't have to be even set up a five minute meeting, a 10 minute meeting, a 15 minute meeting. If it's just a small issue that doesn't take a lot of time to decide. So people have become creative. But definitely meeting fatigue is a thing like it's a, it's a really big thing in every organization.
I'm sure. As you mentioned, you know, I used to be able to walk down the corridor and talk to somebody for five minutes about something and, you know, have a little personal conversation at the same time established connection. Much harder to do in the virtual environment, because, you know, you might have a few pleasantries as you start the discussion, but you know, people are so tired of having all these meetings, you kind of, you know, cut to the chase, get to the point and then move on because you know, people are meeting heavy throughout the day.
So that has been a definite challenge. And I think we do lose some of that connection with other. Throughout this virtual environment, I think it's inevitable. As much as I like working virtually because I'm more productive and you know, it gives me time to focus. I do miss the in-person live connection with others, for
[00:14:25] Lisa: sure.
Yeah. So I think with this idea of live connection, this is why I'm seeing so many companies choose to go hybrid so that they're giving people some choice so that it's not like you have to be in the office all five days or three days
[00:14:38] Deborah: minimum or, you know, or
[00:14:39] Lisa: exactly at home for four and in the office, one, like there's some flexibility based on what's appropriate for who they have to meet with, or what's going on for their day.
[00:14:48] Deborah: And we've done exactly that. Exactly what you've described. There haven't been bright spots as a result of the pandemic. It wasn't all doom and gloom. You know, this did force our company Panasonic to really evaluate that need for, or want for traditional businesses to, you know, operation everybody coming in the office five days a week or whatever it was before.
To say, okay, this not only becomes now a benefit for employees. It becomes a requirement in order to stay competitive, because now that employees have been in a situation where, you know, we're going on two years of being remote, yes. You have meeting heavy days and it can be monotonous. And there are things about it that are perfect.
But what it does give you is. The option to control your life in a way. So, you know, you don't have to race out the door at a specific time and, you know, worry about traffic and dropping off your children and all of these things you, you can in some respects have some more control over your life. And I think that is something that was really missing, particularly for women in the workforce.
You know, we have the children and oftentimes I'm not, not being sexist or, or trying to say that men don't do their fair share. But what I am saying is that oftentimes if it does become the woman who is doing a lot of the child rearing and some of that activity, which then puts extra stress on. Well, my goodness, am I going to be at work on time?
My child is sick. I have to take a day off. You know, all of these, these things that the pandemic has helped a little bit with. Just because, like I said, you can control your own life a little bit. So someone wants to schedule a meeting at 9:00 AM and you have to drop your children off at school, you know, at 9:00 AM, doesn't work for me.
How about nine 30 or nine 15? Whereas in the previous environment, prior to the pandemic, you know, someone schedules a meeting at night, You don't really have that option to, to reschedule in many cases or people don't feel confident enough to request a time change. So then you're, you know, making all kinds of crazy things happen to get yourself there for nine o'clock.
So, you know, I think that you don't have a choice as an employer not to provide some sort of flexible work options for your employees, particularly if their jobs afford it. Of course, there are always jobs. You know, don't really well, or you just can't do in a flex work option hybrid environments. So, you know, warehouse employees as an example, or in our facilities team who need to be there to maintain the building.
But where we can, we must do this because we know that we're in the period of quote unquote, the great resignation we've experienced a higher level of turnover than we ever had in my time at Pearson. So you have to stay competitive and providing that kind of hybrid option for employees where you can is.
[00:17:32] Lisa: Yeah, I think the competitive piece is, is one of the key rationales to offer to, to leaders that might be struggling with it, for instance, you know, with why it's not just about FaceTime anymore. It's that employee value proposition and being able to attract and retain the best people. So you know, let's, let's talk a little bit about.
You've had a bit of high, higher turnover, right. Which is seems to be a shared challenge among everybody I talked to. And yet in the same breath, you were able to be acknowledged by the GTA top employers. Can you tell us a little bit about how that came to be. You know, such a shining star experience in, in a year that was otherwise quite difficult I'm sure.
[00:18:14] Deborah: Sure. Well, you know, we, this was our, our third year in a row that we've been acknowledged in the winners circle for GTA top employers. And we're super proud of this accomplishment, particularly in a year that has been very difficult for everybody. So, you know, The thing that we really try to strive for is to ensure that we're continuing to refine and address our employee environment, policies, procedures, practices, make sure that we are remaining competitive and how we do that is to compare ourselves to others.
I think that, you know, you have to look outward and see what other companies are doing for their employees. In order to make sure that you are doing what you can do to both attract and retain your key employees and talk top talent from out there in the world, wherever they may be. And I think Panasonic offers some really unique things that other companies don't.
I think our culture is very special. You know, the company was started over a hundred years ago in Japan by a gentleman and, you know, I'm sure he never envisioned that the company would explode the way it did over those hundred years. But, you know, we have seven basic principles that are the core of everything we do.
they're really, they're not business. I mean, they are in, they're not at the same time. They're very basic principles of how to treat each other, how to run a business ethically and morally you know, people before products.
There, there are all these the sayings that are part of our principles that really hold true in everything we do. You know, anytime we make a change to a policy, let's say. You know, we have to keep those principles in mind to ensure that we're continuing to align with the roots of our company and what would kind of skim.
It might shoot stuff have done in this situation. You know, he was way ahead of his time in terms of leadership capability and somebody who understood how to run an organization and an ethical and responsible. So those those principles, you know, as cliche as it sounds are very true to who we are as an organization.
And I think that gives us a leg up when we're attracting employees, we have, you know, quite a few long tenured individuals in our organization. And I think that speaks to the culture that we have created and it's evolved over time. And I'm certainly not the person who has, you know, created and evolved the company into what it is today.
As a, as a GTA top employer, I've had. But, you know, there've been many things done along the way to push us into that winner's circle and, you know, family friendly benefits ensuring that we have a good onboarding process, making sure that our managers are, are equipped with the right competencies to manage employees and making sure that we also don't have people in our organization who are not living our principles, you know, because that really.
Would be going against the culture that we're trying to create. So, we give people a lot of autonomy to do the work that they do. And many, many other things that I'm sure I'm not mentioning at this moment. But you know, from a facility side of things, we try to create the best environment we can within the shell that we're, we're living in.
So to speak. The building that we own was built many years ago, so lots of updating retrofitting, modernizing and you know, the company has spent significant amount of money. Ensuring that we are keeping our building an attractive place and a comfortable place for employees to come to work every day, you know, establishing things like a prayer slash quiet room.
We have an onsite fitness facility, which, you know, we, when we were all in the office, we would bring in a fitness instructor to do classes at lunchtime. We have an onsite cafeteria, which is subsidized by the organization. So employees can enjoy, you know, good healthy meals for. Price that you would never see on it on the street.
So those are just a sampling of some of the things that we do for our employees that they really love. Something else that we're very cognizant of is time off. So, you know, as an example this year we're giving all employees three additional vacation days between Christmas and new year so that they can enjoy the time with their families after such a busy and difficult.
We're very cognizant of that. We know that time off is probably the best gift you can give to anyone. So wherever we can, we give extra opportunities for that. So we also do half days before, long weekends in the year, which is also very appreciative, you know, for people who want to go up to their cottage or people who want to just have an afternoon off and go out for lunch.
It's it goes over very well with our employees
[00:22:55] Lisa: that love it. Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like you're, you are really creating, cultivating an experience from, you know, multiple angles, right. To really provide something that's that people's view is about valuable. So there's a few things that you mentioned in there.
So I just wanted to go back to the principles piece for a minute, because when you were talking about them at the, you know, as guiding principles, it kind of sounds like what other organizations call them? Yeah, but maybe it's
[00:23:20] Deborah: different. So yeah, they're there, the seven principles are really values that the company lives in breeze. You know, things like customer first people before. Contribution to society. That's another one that we're, we're very committed to giving back, you know, we just actually a couple of weeks ago, or maybe it was last week, we did a project called smiles for seniors.
So employees were asked to volunteer to create these smile boxes for seniors who are living in long-term care or live on their own and who may not have family or anyone close by to help celebrate. Putting together box of goodies for them to enjoy over the holidays. You know, these, these are really important things for us to do as an organization.
And it helps to connect employees from different parts of the organization that might not otherwise have the opportunity to do so. So, yeah, we really do live our principles. Yeah, for sure.
[00:24:14] Lisa: So was it the company founder that created these? Cause you said he was ahead of his time, so, wow. So those are long standing principles,
[00:24:22] Deborah: very standing and still very much core to everything we do.
So of course our headquarters, main headquarters are still in Japan and the basic business philosophy and seven principles are still, taught to our new employees. they're the things that are core to all of the activity that we perform as an organization. So it's something that's ingrained in.
You know, all onboarding and everything we do as an organization, you'll see it everywhere is basically, well, I'm
[00:24:51] Lisa: glad you brought that up because something, you know, when I'm working with, with talent leaders, HR leaders around, embedding values, taking the values off the wall and actually living into them as an organization.
You know, I talk about the principle of embed and thread. So, you know, and it could be, this could be with any kind of. Program, you're trying to do where you're bringing language because we know language precedes behavior. So how do you, keep it top of mind in many different contexts so that people gradually over time really embrace them.
And then it's just, it's just part of, well, as you said, it guides decisions to policies and decisions and everything you do becomes core. So it sounds very, very well done in this.
[00:25:35] Deborah: Absolutely and, you know, promoted and, you know, we're all reminded of the seven principles on a regular basis and it might sound really hokey, but honestly, I, I joined the company 14 years ago and I was provided with books.
So, the founder of the organization did have some books published about, you know, business and management and leadership principles and all of these. And I read the books and, you know, these are things that stick with me today. You know, if, if you have a situation that comes up, you kind of reflecting, okay, what would kind of scared you?
Or I know a lot of people call them K because you still want to be true to the organization that he created. And it's amazing that a hundred years later we're still practicing and living the principles that he created for the organization. And I think that that's a huge. Part of the company's ongoing and long success.
I really do. Yeah.
[00:26:26] Lisa: I think it is. It's like a code, right? Like, you know how it helps it helps people figure out how things get done around here. Yes. You know, try and Intuit that, you know, just by watching people, right. It's it's like, there's actually an agreed upon way of getting things done. Yes,
[00:26:45] Deborah: absolutely.
That's the company mantra, if
[00:26:48] Lisa: you have, so you know, something that I'm fascinated by is this concept of how to build. Buy in and how to influence as a HR talent leader facilities as well in your case. So, you know, how would you say you, you do that in your current organization? I'm just wondering if the guiding principles come into play at all, but I'm
sure
[00:27:09] Deborah: they're in the background somewhere.
I, you know, the core of everything I've done in my career in HR, I think it stems from having. Good positive relationships with people. And, you know, there are a lot of technical elements of HR, but I think when it comes right down to it, at least from my perspective, I see HR as, you know, human connection, establishing human connection, respecting people, having them respect you as well.
And of course, you know, You're trusted and respected when you demonstrate that you are competent in your field. But I think at the basic root of everything we do in human resources is about that human connection. So, you know, not looking at somebody as what they do, but rather who they are. So, you know, trying to establish some sort of relationship, positive relationship, not always the easiest thing to do.
But I think with, you know, increased communication, constant communication comes true. Which is, you know, the backbone of developing any kind of relationship and being able to influence. So I think, you know, over the years being at this company, I have developed really good, long lasting, trusted relationships with people.
And in doing so when an idea is presented or when a suggestion is made, yes, there are, you know, business cases and things to be made, but it's really all about. Okay. Do I trust this person? Do I believe what she's telling me? Do? I think this is going to have an impact on our organization in a positive way, but it's really about having that connection with somebody and having them understand that you're, you're presenting ideas from a good place, you know, to try and evolve the organization in a positive way.
But I would say communication, trust and relationship. Our three key things that have boded. Well, for me over the course of my career, in terms of being able to integrate. The HR function and being strategic in introducing new things.
[00:29:07] Lisa: Yeah. It's like a fundamental baseline, really. Like those things have to be in place.
so I will ask a follow on question. So I'm curious, you know, how you see this, if that's the foundation having that trust, that relationship in place, then what are the tactical aspects of. Asking for buy-in or influencing people like even with somebody you have a good relationship with. Not initially kind of get, like, why are you suggesting this?
Why are you proposing this? Or, you know, or have money for that. So where do you go then? Like, what are the, what are the kinds of tactics that you pull out of your pocket?
[00:29:42] Deborah: All of, about the metrics, it's all about, you know, what is the ROI we're going to get for doing this Debra? And without having really clear ideas about numbers and how this is going to impact the organization from a financial perspective, we're not going to get anywhere. So it's really all of them. Yeah. So I think you have to present, you know, the full picture, not, not just the financial picture, but also the impact positive or negative that a change or something new that you want to implement is going to have on the organized. But certainly that financial piece is key without showing how that's going to impact the organization.
We won't get out of the gate. As far as the conversation goes. So that's, that's the first part. And then also of course, you're only going to introduce change if it's deemed to be a positive change. So then you can talk about how the impact is going to be on the employees and then going from that point forward.
But the finance pieces is key just to have the initial part of the discussion and get somebody.
[00:30:41] Lisa: Yeah. And it's connecting to, to that, to that bottom line. I think a lot of professionals that I speak with in our, in our area discipline is, you know, sometimes they struggle with. It's being able to speak intelligently to the numbers feeling like that's beyond them, or why should they have to, and the reality is you need to know enough about it and understand that the people you're trying to convince or persuade that this is the right avenue to take.
They need to see you as credible and as somebody who understands where they're coming from, you kind of get to get in their shoes. The other thing is, you know, we, we deal with being, you know, a cost center versus a revenue generator. So there's not always that direct, line, you can draw it. The savings or the productivity increase writer.
Sometimes it's a bit of a leap of faith, you know, that, you know, we believe this is what will happen and we need time to really show it. And we need to work on that sustainment aspect that I think gets left behind so often.
[00:31:38] Deborah: You're absolutely right. And the other thing, Lisa is that there's often a soft benefit that can't be measured.
When you implement a change. So yes, you, you try your best to show metrics and how things are going to impact financially when you're suggesting making a change or implementing something. But sometimes those benefits are softer. You know, they might, they might impact in a positive way, employee morale, or, you know, retention and things like that.
And it's hard to, it's hard to put that into some sort of financial measurement depending on what aspect you're looking at changing or improving. But wherever I can, the finance piece has to be included or else, like I mentioned, it's a non-starter we need to have a discussion about how things are going to be impacted on the financial side.
Or even
[00:32:22] Lisa: if you can't give exact numbers. Like sometimes that's kind of the ask, but the point is what are the financial leavers? The ways that we'll be able to, you know, to the degree before the, before snapshot and then the after, but you know, with the morale. Well, if you can. Increase morale that has a direct impact on productivity and on retention and retention or well, turnover is very expensive.
So it's, I think it's helping. Connect back to those things that do matter to the bottom line, even if you don't have the exact numbers, always, you know exactly.
[00:32:58] Deborah: That's exactly
[00:32:59] Lisa: right. Yeah. Well, so we're, we're at kind of like nearing the end of our, of our time together. So I was wondering if we could maybe wrap up with a question that I love to ask, which is around, you know, when you look at your, your career and you've, you've worked in, in several places, you've got really broad perspective, in the area of talent and HR.
What would you say has been the biggest lesson you've learned over the years? That's such
[00:33:23] Deborah: a big question. you know, I think the biggest lesson for me personally has been to be confident in my ability Because, you know, when you believe in yourself, others believe in you too.
And I think that early on in my career, when I was starting out and just getting my feet wet into the HR area, I wasn't super confident, but as I continued working and especially in new environments and being a sponge and just learning from as many people as I could, not just on the HR side, but really understanding the business.
Of the companies that I've worked in. And I think that's been a huge strength for me is, you know, yes, I'm, well-versed in HR and that's where my, the bulk of my experiences. But I really am curious about how the business operates and what makes things tick and how roles impact our operational and profitability, our operational capability and profitability.
So I guess it's two things it's, it's confidence in your skillset and your ability to do your job, but it's also about. Being a sponge and learning from as many people as you can, as often as you can. And I'm learning every day. I mean, this is not something that ever stops. It's a continual evolution of who you are as a professional.
And I think that if you close yourself off to not learning after a specific period of time, say, oh, I've been in HR 25 years, I've got this, I know what I'm doing. I think that's, what's so exciting about working in a company like Panasonic. It's a very diverse company. We have multiple different lines of businesses and, you know, the things we do are really interesting and, you know, trying to understand and learn from others is key to continuous success.
I would say.
[00:35:06] Lisa: Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. I think that sponge metaphor really spoke to me there it's that openness, right? What's we're always learning. We're never, we're never slowing down from that, you know, the day we think we're done, we're done.
[00:35:19] Deborah: Yeah, absolutely. We're always, I mean, especially in the last two years, I think I've learned more than I've learned in the last 10.
Just trying to keep pace with what's happening with this pandemic and trying to evolve. Change and make sure that our employees are well-equipped to do their jobs. I mean, you know, we could go on and on, but the learning never stops. And like you put it well, you know, the day you stop learning is the day you stop.
I think you have to continue to learn and explore and understand in order to support the business. And that's really what our role is all about at HR is supporting the business to reach its
[00:35:53] Lisa: goals. I agree. Well, thank you so much. It's been, we could go on for another couple of hours. I'm sure. So we could, there's so much, so much ground to cover.
Thank you very much for coming on and sharing um, little peek behind the curtain at Panasonic and what makes the organization so great. And the work you're doing, I really appreciate
[00:36:09] Deborah: it. It was my pleasure, Lisa, and again, I appreciate you inviting me to be part of this podcast. I think you're doing great work and I hope you have a great holiday.
Thank you.
