The Power of Perspective: How Colgate-Palmolive Champions Diverse Thinking

This episode of Cruising Altitude features a conversation with Sally Massey, Chief Human Resources Officer at Colgate-Palmolive. Sally and host Nicole Alvino discuss key strategies for building a stronger and more innovative workforce through upskilling, creating personalized employee experiences, and leveraging diverse perspectives. Sally shares her experiences and insights from her nearly 25-year tenure at Colgate, including the importance of communication, inclusion, employee trust, and adapting to changing employee expectations. The conversation also highlights how AI and continuous learning initiatives contribute to employee development and organizational growth.

Quotes

“ We upskilled everyone so that everybody understood the positives to using AI and also what they needed to watch out for in terms of AI. And then we gave them access to a hub where they could start practicing and using it for their daily work. We're finding that there is a community within Colgate that people are sharing ideas. They're learning from one another. They're sharing best practices. They're getting efficiency in their work.”

“ We try to really use lots of different ways to communicate, whether that's through digital, whether that's through workshops, whether that's through written communication, whether that's through webcasts because people absorb it in different ways. And so it is personalizing the message, but also personalizing the vehicle so that they can get the information.”

“ For myself leading in times of change, I like to get my team together so that we can talk through, brainstorm, challenge each other. And I really think that you get to a better place when you bring in a lot of different perspectives. Perspectives from different backgrounds, different geographies. I think you get to a better answer. And so for me it's about bringing people together with different perspectives so that we can get to a better outcome.”

Time Stamps

[03:15] Meet Sally Massey

[07:23] Strategies for personalizing experiences across generations

[09:10] How employee expectations have shifted

[13:24] Colgate’s AI journey

[19:26] The importance of diversity of thought

[21:29] Sally’s place of clarity and perspective

Links

Connect with Sally on LinkedIn

Thank you to our friends

This episode is brought to you by Firstup, the world’s first intelligent communication platform. More than 40 percent of Fortune 100 companies use our platform to connect with their people, design and deliver personalized communications, and gain engagement insights throughout the employee journey. That’s how they give their employees better experiences from hire to retire. Learn more at firstup.io