Cadence’s Tina Jones on the Power of Inclusion Groups & Top HR Skills

“Being comfortable with numbers, analytics, and data is becoming more and more important to being an HR leader. You have to speak from a place of data to be credible and to have influence.”

On this episode of the Better podcast, Tina Jones, senior VP of global human resources at Cadence, talks about a unique approach to making the company's top 100 leaders accountable for creating more equitable teams.

Hint: it involves their paychecks.

She also shared how to avoid mistakes around inclusion groups by tying their input to business strategy so they’re more than networking and social groups.

We also dove into the most important skills HR pros — newbies or veterans — should have.

On the impact of tying leaders’ bonuses to progress around creating more equitable teams:

Something that we put into place a number of years ago has been linking the top 100 leaders' bonuses to progress we make with respect to ESG. A piece of that is hiring and pure representational diversity. Hiring more women and retaining our women after we get them is an example.

When you're measuring things and you're reporting on them, leaders who are very goal-driven tend to pay more attention. By putting it in a bonus, suddenly you've got leaders calling you and saying, "Oh wait, how can I make change here? How can I be a mentor? How can I attract more university students to the company and bring more diversity?"

It’s bigger than just a hiring goal and has some very subjective components. We definitely look at the attitude of the leader, how much that person is going out of his or her way to be a mentor, to drive change in their organization, to represent Cadence externally in areas we think are important beyond just the technology. Is their team really changing in complexion, and culture, and attitude?

On common mistakes to avoid when it comes to inclusion groups:

The mistakes we've probably all made over the years is that these groups can be sidelined and become networking social groups, and not be listened to as a way to create business success.

For example, we want to empower the women at Cadence to have a serious voice on policies, development, mentorship, and things that are business critical so we can hopefully move those areas in a way we wouldn't be able to do without their voice.

We’ve brought women together from all over the world and broken them into groups around their interest areas. That can be around: Are our policies equitable? Do women have a voice when we're sitting around a table working on a problem together? And if they don't, what do we need to do to help managers bring people together in a more inclusive way, and pull out people's voices, and make sure we're innovating and getting different perspectives and not just hearing from the same people?

[Attend our annual company culture conference May 7-9, 2024, to hear more from Tina on the impact of inclusion groups]

On where companies can begin to transform their ERGs:

There's a lot that can be done incrementally with a little shift in mindset on how we listen and how we incorporate feedback. We can bring their voices in without asking for millions of dollars of investment, without totally transforming what you call your ERGs, without having the CEO bless it before you go and do it.

To the extent companies already have ERGs, maybe you tilt the conversation a bit more toward what can they do to make sure you bring their voice back before you make decisions — whether it's mentorship, development, or how you recruit.

On top HR skills:

I do think there are some core skills. Are you a good communicator — written and verbal? Are you a good project leader?

People in HR need good judgment, need to be a strong communicator, and need to be agile and able to adjust.

Also, being comfortable with numbers, analytics, and data is becoming more important to being a HR leader. You have to speak from a place of data to be credible and to have influence.

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