St. Jude – Supporting People and Connecting Employees to their Mission

537 – St. Jude – Supporting People and Connecting Employees to their Mission

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Guest: Annette Green, Chief People Officer, ALSAC/St. Jude

This episode of At Work in America is sponsored by Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement, and insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes. The current business and hiring environment has redefined what it takes to succeed as an HR professional, requiring HR leaders to adapt and innovate at lightning speed to help their organizations remain competitive. Download the 2022 Paychex Pulse of HR report to discover the tools and tactics your peers are using to deliver on both HR and business objectives – faster and at scale – while still meeting the evolving needs of their employees. Visit payx.me/PHR2022 to download your copy, today.

This week, we met with Annette Green to discuss why employees are making the move to mission driven non-profit organizations.

– Career journeys from the private sector to non-profit organizations

– Importance of the mission behind an organization

– Attracting and retaining talent

– Creating a culture with a relevant mission

– The power of reskilling/upskilling to reduce turnover

Thank you, Annette, for joining the show today!  Remember to subscribe to At Work in America wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript follows:

Announcer 0:26
Welcome to At Work in America sponsored by Paychex. We welcome a wide and exceptionally impressive array of guests, business leaders, HR leaders, academics, practitioners, consultants and authors to talk about the most timely, relevant and challenging issues that are influencing the workplace today. At Work in America digs in behind the headlines and trends to the stories of real people making a difference in the world of work. And now here are your hosts, Steve Boese, and Trish McFarlane Steed.

Steve 1:00
Welcome to the show, Trish. How are you today?

Trish 1:02
I’m good, Steve, how are you?

Steve 1:04
I am well, I am very excited for today’s show. We have a great guest. And we have a great topic, we’re going to be talking all about making the move from sort of traditional business, if you will, to a really mission driven non-profit organization. And we’re going to hear the story of someone who’s done that and also learn a little bit about the story of just an incredibly important and compelling organization that she works out as well. One that people will know right just from their name. Yeah, before we welcome her to the show Trish let’s thank our friends at Paychex of course right for all their support.

Steve 1:42
This episode of At Work in America is sponsored by our friends at Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement, and insurance solutions for businesses of all sizes. The current business and hiring environment has redefined what it takes to succeed as an HR Pro, requiring HR leaders to adapt and innovate at lightning speed. To help their organizations remain competitive. You can download the 2022 Paychex pulse of HR report, discover the tools and tactics your peers are using to deliver on both HR and business objectives faster and at scale, while still meeting the evolving needs of your employees. Please visit payx.me/phr2022 to download your copy today. And many, many thanks to our friends at Paychex.

Steve 2:27
Alright Trish, we should get right on to this. It’s a great topic. It’s a great guest our guest today, we’re lucky to have her it’s Annette Green. Annette is the Chief People Officer of ALSAC, which is the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Annette and her employee experience team are responsible for providing strategic oversight that helps position ALSAC a leader in creating moments that matter in the employee experience journey. The team focuses on the key belief that our audience experience will only be great if our employee experience is greater. Please welcome Annette to the show. How are you today?

Annette Green 3:05
I am wonderful. How are you?

Steve 3:07
We are well it’s so great to have you what and just when I heard about this, we had the opportunity to do this I was super excited just because wow. Like what a what an organization it’s legendary right and and we’re gonna get into some of those details. But maybe at first maybe tell us a little bit about you. I did Lincoln stalk you today, I will admit, and your your career journey is quite compelling. You worked at another bunch of kind of famous organizations along the way too. I’d love to learn a little bit more about that.

Annette Green 3:35
Absolutely. And, you know, it’s it’s actually been so rewarding as far as the career journey that I’ve taken because most of my career was about 20 years in the hospitality industry. And you’re not going to learn anything more about how to value people, take care of people so that they ultimately take care of your guests at the hospitality side and of course are donors here. The going through and having those experiences working with in hospitality. And so I was definitely blessed to have those experience experiences during that time. And kind of joke because I did start at a very large fast food organization. That is the parent company of like KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, very large international organization, had the pleasure of than working for an organization in Brinker International, which has Chili’s and Maggianos. And I had a chance to when I was with Chili’s. Chili’s was just then making the very strong commitment to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital with their commitment as a partner. And so I was here when the commitment was made.

Annette Green 4:44
And I was physically here on campus when we broke ground and what is the Chili’s care center that sits right over my left shoulder today. And that was ago so it definitely came full circle for me. After I moved in transition from Chili’s ended up into beautiful town. Florida with an organization named Bloomin Brands Outback, Carabas, Fleming’s and Bonefish, and, of course kind of joke, I ate my way through my career. But it gave me an opportunity to work with some amazing people. And what was great about the interactions that I had throughout that time is that because of the relationship I had when I was at Chili’s, and they started the create the chili pepper kind of campaign that they had, I had a chance to really understand what el sac was. Most people don’t know that ALSAC is behind what is the fundraising and awareness side of St. Jude. And so when they called and said, we have an opportunity of ALSAC, they typically go into explaining this huge marketing and fundraising arm and I could stop them and say, I know exactly who you are. And I don’t know what the job is. But yes. So it’s been a great journey to get here today. And that’s a little bit of why and how I got here today, in addition to the fact that for me, this is both personal and professional, to have the opportunity to work at such a great organization here in Memphis, Tennessee.

Trish 6:00
You know, thank you for sharing that. I love that you moved from 20 plus years of taking care of people right through through one of the greatest ways that we can care for each other, which is through our stomachs, right? Food is one of the the most caring things we do for each other with eating. But can you talk a little bit about what alsek is, and, and maybe that mission and what really drew you to it. I myself have spent a number of years with St. Louis Children’s Hospital, and very familiar with the fundraising side of things like that. But, you know, for us, it was always very important to have employees who were so deeply tied to the mission of what we’re trying to accomplish. So can you talk a little bit about the mission of alsek, and how that relates to the way you’re helping St. Jude?

Annette Green 6:49
Absolutely. Most people know the mission of St. Jude of finding a cure, saving children. And that mission has been strong with us, since our founder, Danny Thomas started that back in 1957. And his goal was to ensure that no child was turned away, you know, based on race, gender, or the inability to pay, and they’re there to me is no other greater mission to help support the children and the future that we have. So alsek actually came before St. Jude. So ALSAC was formed by Danny Thomas, he reached out to a number of his friends and colleagues to start what was the fundraising side. So if you look at kind of like the time and frame 60 years is how long St. Jude has been here, because they started in 1962. But alsek actually started in 1957. And the purpose of that was the raise the money to start building this beautiful hospital. And there’s a great story behind that too, as it relates to Danny Thomas wanted to purposely put it in a place of which of course at the time, Memphis, Tennessee being segregated in a huge focus from diversity and what was happening during those times in the late 50s, early 60s, he purposely picked Memphis, Tennessee to show that no child would be turned away based on their background, their minority their age or religion, and made a very strong statement by putting that here in Memphis, Tennessee. So el sac for those that don’t know is American, Lebanese, Syrian associated charities. And that is the focus of being able to show our founder was Lebanese and being able to show the culture and the background and the importance of taking what was his culture of giving back. And being able to support children by then starting St. Jude, and St. Jude Children’s Research hospital has continued to focus on the support of children around the world and being able just it’s just one hospital here in Memphis, Tennessee that does all that work around research. And it’s just a really beautiful mission to have. And to be a part of ALSAC that helps to raise the awareness for them is even greater.

Steve 8:49
Annette thank you like, Thank you for the for the background on that. Because it was kind of I mean, like everybody probably listening to this podcast, we’ve heard of St. Jude at the hospital, right? We’ve seen we’ve maybe donated over the years we’ve participated in fundraising I was I was on a cruise not that long ago that one of the activities was a fundraiser for St. Jude hospital. Right on deck. It was really fun. And so people know that, but they don’t know some of that background in that story. Right. And also the fact that maybe they’re less aware that this must continue as well. Right. And you said that alsek was started five years before the actual hospital was was created because the funds needed to be raised. And the funds actually still need to be raised. Right? Because one of the things we know about St. Jude says, Hey, this the care for these these families and these children is you don’t you don’t present bill this massive hundreds of 1000s of dollar bill at the end of their care.

Annette Green 9:42
That’s the beautiful part too is that children that come here, families that come here we take care of the whole person. So when a child and family first shows up, they’re paired with a clinical care team that takes care of their needs, supports them in that journey through education through support but we also do pay for all the bills, the travel, the housing, anything that they may need from that standpoint to be able to support them. So they’re not left with all these medical bills following what is already a very hard time and obviously any family’s life. And so that is very different of a model. And there’s no other model like that out there within any other nonprofit that you have this fundraising awareness in support to than a non-profit. And the reason it was set up that way is so they could focus on finding that cure. And we’re focused on ensuring that they have the resources and the support to be able to do that. So that one and the other don’t get too much off track. And they can support one another at the end of the day to be able to give back to those families.

Trish 10:42
Yeah, absolutely. You know, one of the things that we talk a lot about on the show with all different types of employers, both for profit and non-profit are some of the challenges that we’re all facing right now. When it comes to finding talent keeping talent, can you maybe give our listeners some insights on maybe pre pandemic? And post pandemic? has, has your search for talented individuals to join this really important mission changed? How has it changed? If it has? And where do you stand today on kind of the way that you’re approaching a very, just a very interesting time in hiring?

Annette Green 11:22
Yeah, I would definitely say interesting time in hiring is a good way of kind of describing that. I actually joined last February. So I’ve been here for about a year and a half. And so I joined during the pandemic, when I first started coming into the office, it was pretty quiet as we still were being we’re on campus with the hospitals safety is our first and foremost area of focus. And so even from that standpoint, coming on board and meeting and integrating into this culture, we really wanted to make sure we set the stage for how do we continue to drive that culture for our new employees, who may or may not be able to physically come on campus, because being that close to the mission, obviously recruits you every day. And I can tell you, I’ve yet to walk on campus that I don’t look around, see these buildings and have that moment of how proud I am to be here. But from a recruiting standpoint, we actually have had a record hiring year based on the fact of the amount of support we wanted to give to ALSAC and the number of people that we’ve brought on board. And what occurred during the pandemic that I saw from the outside looking in before I came here is that people were leaving their positions to go focus and be someplace that was purpose and mission driven. And so of course, when I got here, this was a great opportunity to focus in on the fact that, you know, we are kind of the Google and Apple of non-profits, this is where all people want to come work, our brand is very strong.

Annette Green 12:46
We’re taught charity, you know, to a tap charity, United States and people know our name. And we want to use that and be able to focus on that. But the other side of it too, is that we have a great opportunity to really focus in on people that just found that after working really hard in a very dynamic, stressful type of work environment do want to come places and lead those positions that the Googles and the organizations out there that obviously are top brands, because they want to go work someplace that is mission driven, that is purpose driven. And of course, it’s our commitment, once they get here to continue to foster that engagement and be able to ensure that they stay here for much longer. The average employee here is about seven years. Now we have people that have been here for 30. And so it’s not uncommon to come across a 10, 15, 20 year anniversary. But we have had people that have been here for an average of about seven years is kind of what we look at where the average in the US is five. And so there’s a lot to be said about that. Plus, we have lower turnover than anyplace else in the industry. And a lot of that has to be said around the fact that yes, the mission draws people in like a magnet. But we also do some amazing work when it comes to the development of our talent. Being named as best places. And number one for innovators is extremely helpful for people to understand, yes, we have the hospital. But if you want to be able to be a part of a marketing, fundraising, innovative, challenging, growth related organization, we can give you that all day long. And I think that that’s another part of the story that we sell, in addition to of course, the mission being the number one reason people come here.

Steve 14:23
Yeah, thank you for making that point. And that because the question I was kind of going to come up with next was, yeah, if you’re the the equivalent of the Google, or the Apple of the non-profit sector, that’s awesome. And the mission is so compelling, you don’t really have to sell people about the work that you’re helping to achieve is not some of the most important work in the world. So that’s easy, right? That’s compelling. But can it be easy to sort of just No, no, no? Okay, that’s good enough. Now, we don’t have to worry so much about things like development, things like engagement, things like work life balance and all the things that the issues that every employee A player has to worry about can be easy to just to say, Oh, hey, we’re we’ve got this big mission here. So, you know, keep quiet over there.

Annette Green 15:08
Yeah, um, I, I definitely see what you’re saying we are, we’re very open organization, we care a lot about our people. In fact, one of our culture pillars is people first. And we don’t just say that from other organizations, I will tell you after working for very large public companies, of course, they focused on training, of course, they focused on leadership development, any organization should. But it wasn’t until I came here that I saw that the in depth focus on truly developing our people, the world class training that we have in place, the way that we were able to extend that both virtually because in person went away, and you didn’t want to lose that, because you couldn’t physically do those same trainings before. I mean, they turned on a dime to ensure that there was a focus on on leadership development, but not just like to get to the next roll, but truly to engage people on how to be better in the role in the seats that they sit in. Because we say often and we mean it, you lead from every seat. So we want to make sure that you’re in a place in which you can lead from every seat with the right level of professional development. And what I would say too, and I’m sure other organizations have done it. But I will I will probably brag a little bit and say that we absolutely leaned into the well being work life harmony, what does that look like? We really focus in on wellness Wednesdays and thoughtful Thursdays. And in addition to kind of leadership development, we really focus on the whole, you, we really take the time to not only train our managers about that, but to talk to our people about feeling like they’re in a safe place when it comes to being able to support themselves and take care of themselves.

Trish 16:42
I think those are are really unique ways to do what’s beyond maybe what the industry sort of average sort of company is doing, if you will, I would love to hear what you all do in terms of, you know, it is a great mission. People are drawn to that. There’s also that side of I think when you’re working, especially with children who are ill. And you’re seeing that every day as part of your job, it can be very stressful in a whole different way than just maybe the fundraising aspect of your job. Or if you’re someone that works within St. Jude itself, right in maybe a medical capacity or some support capacity. Could you talk a little bit about what you do to help maybe from a mental standpoint, if people are dealing with children who are very sick and in quite honestly, some don’t make it right, and you get very attached to them? So how do you handle that as an organization? Is that something that you think about from the minute someone starts their position with you? Or is that, you know, maybe through this training and development, as you’re kind of throughout their career? How do you handle that?

Annette Green 17:53
Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s always going to be hard when you come into an organization where you know, we are, we are receiving the hardest of medical situations, children are referred here, they don’t walk in the front doors of regular hospital, they were referred from other doctors and other hospitals, because they have reached a point in which they know that this is a very hard disease to cure or research that needs to be done to increase kind of the work that’s being done in a particular medical field. So these are hard cases, which makes it very hard because we don’t always have always the outcome that we’re looking for. Now we can definitely say that if you go back to the beginning of the history in which we started, there, the statistics were 5%, maybe 10%, from survivor rates on many cancers, whereas now it’s at 90 and 95%. So there’s also a piece to celebrate there around the research that we’ve been able to, to to provide and in the support we’ve been able to give families but you’re right. There’s a piece of that, that in which we want to be able to understand how do we take care of our employees, we really, really started to open up not only just EAP and employee assistance programs for counseling, but we just finished an entire month where we talked about like, your mental wellness, your health is something you shouldn’t be embarrassed about. And we really took out the stereotype that mental wellness, mental health was anything that you should shy away from, we should talk about it. We have our business groups that really focus in on that as well within within their BRGs that we have an effect us around mental health and wellness.

Annette Green 19:29
But when it comes to also the fact that we have a lot of former patients that work for us too, and being able to celebrate that and being able to know that they’re here we have parents of children of that were St. Jude, a part of St. Jude, we also have bereaved parents that work here because even though that outcome wasn’t ideally what they would have wanted, they still want to support this mission in a way that helps to move that that mission forward. And so when it comes to taking care of employees, I mean we have count Have slurs on staff. We have counselors that we provide through EAP. But all in all, trying to make sure that we’re also there for one another. And we talk openly about how do we support one another during these times, but also know and be proud of the fact that how much further we have taken this mission because of the work that has already been completed. So it’s that balance, it’s about talking about it. And it’s being really open with our feelings and understanding that this is a mission. That’s a hard one. And it’s an important one. And it’s a one that we should also make sure that we don’t forget those that we’ve lost, but also celebrate those that are with us today. And actually even work here also.

Trish 20:36
I love that. Thank you.

Steve 20:38
Annette, I have a question that I’ve asked this, over the years, a couple of different times when we’ve had the opportunity to talk with people from non-profits or organizations that were really kind of mission forward and had a compelling kind of obvious mission. That’s pretty easy to rally behind. And since you’ve got a background, right, yeah, you talk about your background in hospitality and food service. And look, I love Chili’s as much as the next person and the Outback, and all this, maybe not as easy to rally folks who work in those kinds of companies or others around the mission. Right? And so my question is this like, like, if you’re a people person, an HR leader, or even just a business leader and say, I don’t know, maybe you’re making industrial solvents or, you know, someone builds the PVC pipes, right, that go into the plumbing systems? Maybe not as obvious, compelling, Let’s rally around, wow, this pipe is awesome that we’re making this week, what are some of the things you’ve observed or learned or would recommend about, hey, let’s, can you find that kind of connection to a mission or to say, quote, unquote, knowing that not all missions are equally important, right? In the grand scheme of things? Like, that makes sense? You know, like, sometimes I feel like, it’s gotta be hard to rally folks around, you know, industrial solvent manufacturing, for example.

Annette Green 21:59
Yeah, I mean, what I would say is, every organization has its own culture, every organization kind of builds around their own values, what they believe and what are the behaviors that they want their leaders to adds to it to kind of have and exude. That’s where I would say that you want to lean in on and really celebrate. So you may not get excited about the thing. But you can get excited about the culture and the give back of that organization. It’s why we do partner with so many great organizations, that because they partner with us, they’re able to create a culture within their own employee base to say, hey, you may work here at BestBuy. But you also are giving back to this mission at St. Jude. And so whether it’s through your own employee giving, whether it’s through kind of donations of customers and kind of celebrating that partnership, you’re creating a culture within yourselves. And so it’s less about like, what did we put on the plate and more about the experience, but it’s also about the experience of your employees, and being able to create something in which they can get jazzed about, they’re excited about the leaders they work with. I mean, it’s a true statement that people leave leaders. And so you really want to make sure that as a leader, you’re kind of getting people excited, engaging them focus on their development. And so even though it might not be the thing, it’s about what the company stands for, from a culture and a give back, and what are they doing for sustainability? And what are they doing for their own kind of give back to make the world a better place? And that’s why I think we have so many wonderful partners and sponsors, because they know that they can create a culture around giving back to a mission like this as well within their own organization.

Steve 23:37
I love thank you for sharing some thoughts around that. Because I think it’s important right to say, how do we find that? I don’t know. Because every you can go work anywhere, especially now. Right? As we record, this, today was another robust employment report in the United States, right? There’s 11 and a half million open jobs in the United States right now that you can kind of go work kind of anywhere, right? Lots of folks can. So what are the things that you can do as an organization to make your place, the place where people want to be? Right, so thank you for that.

Trish 24:10
I think that if you’re someone who’s, you know, making PVC pipe, if you’re making maybe tubing that, you know, for different things, connect that to organizations that that goes to so for example, I mean, all of the manufacturers that create, you know, parts and pieces that go to support St. Jude and their mission of saving children’s lives. I mean, I think that’s where a lot of organizations who are maybe on the manufacturing side aren’t making those Yeah, celebrate your customers.

Steve 24:42
Right, right. Because St. Jude and other great places like St. Jude are buying supplies and materials from all kinds of organizations.

Trish 24:50
From a fundraising standpoint, it goes the other way too, right. So figure out who are the people who were building, you know, the building So we’re putting all of the different supply pieces in if you go, although where all the inventory comes from, those are the various organizations that you’re going back to to say, look what you’re building and making and creating those little pieces come together to help save this child’s life. Right. And we want to partner with you now more in terms of fundraising as well. Right. So there, as you mentioned, Best Buy for is an example. Yeah, I think that’s what rallies people together. And it really does make you feel like you’re in a partnership, you know, with each other as opposed to not understanding where your time goes, or yes, I’m just sitting here as something goes by on an assembly line. It’s there’s so much more to it that can tie you to the mission.

Steve 25:44
Annette, last thing for me is a lot of people don’t love to do the generational kind of workplace conversations. I love them. I don’t care. I’ve been talking about when it was when we could bang on the millennials for many years. I love doing that. I’ve now turned my focus on Gen Z and Millennials. I have a Gen Z child who many of those stereotypes have you seen especially since you’ve been over? And maybe even before that, though, right? Even even in your in your prior roles. But since you’ve been at ALSAC and doing what you’re doing there? Are you seeing as you’re either with employees that are there or candidates maybe that you recruiting younger cohorts, etc? Do they seem more? Hey, we care more about values we care more about this organization stands for we care more about things that are not, quote unquote, the traditional things we were taught, say, people of our generation were taught to care about when finding employment is that really, are you seeing that in your experience?

Annette Green 26:41
Yeah, I mean, this, this is one of the few times that we have so many generations within our workforce and even more to come and I’m I’m with you, I have a Gen Z, you know, son, as well. And so just kind of getting into the heart mind. Here’s the interesting thing. So when you think about like the silent generation, like my parents, they would have stayed in their job for 30 years, my father did, he worked at AT&T for 30 years until he retired.

Steve 27:02
Mine did as well at AT&T until he retired.

Annette Green 27:05
For that generation to like dig in hard work, get it done. Never think about going anyplace, here’s my loyalty, here’s my focus, I’m going to climb the company ladder at this place only. But then you go to the boomers, and you get into a place where you know, they do value having that longevity. But in the value kind of, you know what is maybe out there, but they’re a little bit more open, you know as to what is happening, but they do value and still kind of want to kind of grow, maybe we’ll stay a little bit longer. That generation X and millennials oh my goodness, if they stay in a job for 18 months, like good, Anya, I mean, there’s a lot of movement that’s happening there. And so there’s a little bit more job hopping, because that particular group saw up, I’m gonna get ahead and do it quickly, I’m gonna go to the next Job and Job pa job hop. And it’s not a bad thing, it just kind of generationally kind of switched over time. And it’s not that they were disloyal, they were just loyal to their development. So then you get into the Gen Zers. And I think that they have a little bit more in common with those boomers, they’re never gonna admit it. But there’s a little bit more of that they’re looking for a little bit more of that longevity. And they are, I mean, most of them are what in their late 20s. Now, and kind of kind of the range of between, but they are looking for a little bit more of that, hopefully, longevity, and they will go someplace else. But they’re asking you to be a better company for them. So it’s why most organizations, if you’re hearing the voice of your people, as we do often we talk about that we want to listen to the voice of our employees, all of them.

Annette Green 28:35
But some of the ones that are the most vocal and hold us the most accountable, or maybe falling within that Gen Z, they’re telling us, I want you to take care of my well being, I want to focus on sustainability, because the world in my future is very important to me as well. And they’re asking for those development tracks, they don’t necessarily want to leave to go get it, they’re asking you to create it. And that’s one of the things that I’m excited about being here versus maybe some of the other organizations I’ve even worked for, nope, no harm or foul. But there’s an opportunity here to work within so many different parts of our organization, you come in into one group, you can kind of write your ticket within other parts of the organization because we will rescale you to do so we’re upskill you recited skill you we’re going to rescale you to be able to move within the organization and we create programs to be able to do that you can go do a tour of duty for six months, you can do a target assignment for three months. And we will give you that opportunity to try out your skills someplace else, which is why I think we do such a great job with one lowering our turnover, because we’re able to kind of provide those opportunities, but the other side of it is those Gen Z are going to hold us accountable. And we’re going to step up and make sure that we can be that organization that they’re looking for in addition to that mission and purpose that initially led them here. So that’s kind of my thoughts. Obviously, I can kind of talk a lot about the generational side too. But to me, it’s up to us to ensure that we keep their attention and they definitely kept my attention. I mean, my second day here I was on a call talking about space travel. And I almost got confused as to whether or not I had signed up for the right company.

Steve 30:04
That’s an odd one.

Annette Green 30:06
I’m just saying what happened was, if we go back in time I started, basically, the day after the Super Bowl had just aired our inspiration for kind of a spotlight. And it was the obviously the inspiration for was the focus on and in all civilian spaceflight, and the fact that we had seats on there, plus, we had one of our own St. Jude employees, who was also a former went up into this spaceflight and traveled around the world for three days. So on my second day here, they’re talking about spaceflight. And I had to take a moment make sure I didn’t sign up for NASA. But I mean, it’s those type of opportunities that excite people. I mean, where else would you go that you’re talking about this incredible mission? Oh, and by the way, we’re putting, we’re going into space, like, where else can you find that?

Trish 30:52
I love that. I love that. And you know what, and I think a lot of the things that you’ve shared with us in this conversation are very progressive. It shows that things like you mentioned a couple times sustainability is so important, you know, your own just having open discussions about your feelings, that that is something as a Gen X or trash. I grew up in public accounting, where we were told no, you, you keep that inside, right? We see prey on the inside, like a winner. You know, so I think that’s different. I think that you’re right, a lot of organizations are still trying to catch up to that. So that certainly is more compelling. If you are, say, maybe many younger edge of Gen Z. People just now going into college getting out of college, they they are much more apt to have those conversations. And so the sooner that those of us who are a little bit older, kind of get comfortable with that, too, then the better off we’ll be because I think you’re right, they will stay longer than probably what maybe our contemporaries have done in our careers.

Annette Green 31:56
Yeah. That’s exciting.

Steve 32:00
Just sounds to me, I guess the last thing I’d say was like a lot of what you talked about in that, and the way you approach talent, development, and nurturing folks and providing opportunities for folks, you’ve not guessed, it’s the classic nonprofit model, right? Because I spent a lot of time in higher ed, which was another type of nonprofit. But it was definitely always this scenario where I felt like we were always being told no, because we just didn’t have resources, we didn’t have funds we didn’t, there was everything was, Oh, we’re nonprofit, we can’t do blah, blah, blah, right, compared to Google or Apple that we talked about earlier, right? It doesn’t sound like at least you think that way at all about how you approach what you’re doing, and how people are compelled to not only to come to ALSAC and St. Jude, but also to stay.

Annette Green 32:45
I would say a lot of that has to do with our leadership to I mean, one of the other main reasons I’m here is our CEO is very forward thinking, he just really pushes us to be able to kind of think ahead and think beyond just where we are today. I mean, we’re already having conversations about what does 2030 look like and beyond. And I would say that that push and that openness, I mean, coming in, and it’s like, we need to think in the gray and think outside the box and do all these things. It’s not just the words that are used, just because it sounds really good, meaning there’s activation behind it. And so I’m yet to bring a creative, innovative idea from a people standpoint, I mean, even to even to go back to I changed the name of the whole department within the first six months, which I wouldn’t normally do. But here are needed to show that we were different. And so going from human resources to employee experience, set the tone that we were going to be focused on the employee experience no matter what. But to know that I had that that encouragement myself and that support. And quite honestly, it was an expectation to be able to kind of raise that bar to a place where we’re going to focus on our employee experience, so that they can focus on this great mission, and everything that we need to do to take care of our employees. We have definitely lifted up over the past even a year and a half. And of course beat before to be able to get to the place that we are today. So it comes with great leadership as well and that support.

Trish 34:07
It sounds like such a really great place to work.

Steve 34:11
I’m not I would sign up right now. I think we’d be remiss if we didn’t sort of end with where we want folks to go to learn more obviously, you can learn all about St. Jude St. jude.org. You know, there’s some really, really I was like poking around the website right before the show. I’m ordering some swag, like the gift shop on St. jude.org is really, really cool. There’s cool shirts and all kinds of stuff. So I’m getting some swag. That’s for one but like an Is there anywhere else we might want to direct people other than that obvious place. Are you hiring folks right now? Should we go send them somewhere?

Annette Green 34:45
So we just started our fiscal year. We kicked off the beginning of July so we’re like a weekend to our new fiscal year and we are hiring and we have great opportunities. Our internship just kicked off and we have internships throughout the year, not just at this point of the time during the summer. We’re about we have fall and spring. So definitely check that out. If you go to our set careers, you’re also going to learn a lot about our history. In addition to that, you’re going to see some people that are on there from kind of a video standpoint that you can listen, and they were telling you about what it’s like to work here. So you don’t just have to listen to me, obviously, I love where we work, I love our people. But if you want to hear straight from them, that’s also where you can find it on our ALSAC career site to and learn all about our mission or history and of course, the great opportunities that we have here.

Steve 35:29
So we will definitely get that in the show notes. And you may get an application from my Gen Z kid from one of those internships so I will probably put in a good word for him.

Trish 35:40
And then that from a fundraising standpoint, while we have you, a lot of our listeners are, you know, business executives in companies of all different sizes, where can they go if they would like to connect with you about supporting the mission at St. Jude, working with you at ALSAC and giving back? Where can they go?

Annette Green 36:00
They can always contact me directly. And we can give you some information about ways that they can kind of start that journey, going, of course to st jude.org will be a good first start as well. Being able to kind of show that that that support and being able to kind of focus in on where they can learn how they can best support the mission by understanding the mission. But we can give you more information, they are welcome to call me. And I can also give you some additional context to that you can put into your notes for them to reach out to you directly. But being able to kind of focus in on where we can tell a bit more about our mission. And then in addition to that, if they want to be a sponsor or be a part of supporting that from an employee basis, we have amazing teams here that helped to set up those relationships and give them a little bit more information about the impact that they can make.

Trish 36:43
Good. That’s what we’d love to hear from listeners to at least consider this consider the mission, it’s very important. And in would be a good way for your organization to come together for for something really outstanding. So I hope that hope they check out the show notes and they can get the links to all the places to connect with you.

Steve 37:03
Great stuff. Annette Green, Chief People Officer of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. I just want to say it one more time. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today.

Annette Green 37:14
Great. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure.

Steve 37:17
Awesome, great stuff, Trish, loved it. Good stuff, we’ll put all the links we talked about in the show notes everywhere you need to go. I want to thank of course Annette, one more time. Just thank you. Thank our friends at Paychex, of course for all their support. And thanks to our friends for listening.

Steve 37:29
This is a really good show and we’ve been killing it lately. Go back and check some of the archives. The Gentle Barn show was great. The dance show Without Limits Dance Company shows an interesting. We’re hitting some great stuff lately. So I hope everybody’s enjoying that. So with that said, my name is Steve Boese. For our guest Annette Green, for Trish McFarlane, thank you so much for listening to the show. We will see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai