This week on the Be Epic podcast Matt sits down with Jonathan Caldwell, SVP and Chief People Officer at Valvoline. They discuss a wide range of topics in HR including human resource management and how it integrates into an organization, Jon's keys to success for leading his team, the importance of mentorship and how to create stickiness with an organization for employees to want to stay.
Episode Transcript:
Jonathan Caldwell 0:00
A lot of organizations, you know, Valvoline included, you're sitting on so much rich
data, whether it be related to, you know, talent acquisition, compensation, turnover,
diversity, that can really drive the actions that you take to optimize company performance.
Matt Waller 0:22
Excellence, professionalism, innovation, and collegiality. These are the values the
Sam M. Walton College of Business explores in education, business and the lives of
people we meet every day. I'm Matt Waller, Dean of the Walton College and welcome
to the Be Epic podcast. I have with me today, Jon Caldwell, who is Senior Vice President
and Chief People Officer at Valvoline. And Jon has spent his entire career in human
resources. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Thank you so much for
joining me, Jon.
Jonathan Caldwell 0:58
Thank you, Matt. Pleasure to be here. Appreciate the opportunity.
Matt Waller 1:02
Well, congratulations on your tremendous career. You know, it's very clear to me that
you've, you've done super well. And now you're Chief People Officer of Valvoline,
Inc. that's quite an accomplishment.
Jonathan Caldwell 1:19
Thank you very much. It's, you know, I joined Valvoline about six years ago with with
the hope that I would end up in this role. And it actually happened a little bit sooner
than I expected. So.
Matt Waller 1:33
So before we get into your background, and in talking about human resources management,
if you wouldn't mind, let's start by talking about Valvoline, Inc. I mean, everyone
recognizes the brand for sure. But if you wouldn't mind telling us a little bit about
the company, that'd be great.
Jonathan Caldwell 1:51
Absolutely. So Valvoline is a is a global organization, about three and a half billion
in annual revenue. And about 12,000 employees, there are two, I would say fairly distinct
business segments that make up Valvoline, the retail services business, so a lot of
people are going to know that by kind of the signage, the Valvoline Instant Oil Change
stores that that span the US and Canada, we have about 1600 stores in the US and Canada.
And then we also have a global products business segment. And it within that business
segment, you really got two channels. The Do It Yourself channel, which is the consumer
packaged goods side, you change your own oil, and you know, but you and you purchase
it from a retailer like Walmart, AutoZone, Advanced Auto, or do it for me, which is
made up of just a number of a network of installer channel, tire stores, dealerships,
etc. who also utilize our our products, our oil, in vehicles that they service. So
we've been in business, we were the original motor oil. We've been in business since
1866. Very proud of of, you know, the legacy the brand, and I'm especially proud of
the culture that we have within our organization as well.
Matt Waller 3:15
Well, I know, you know, one thing that comes to mind, and I don't know if this is
true or not. But when I think of Valvoline, something else that comes to my mind is
racing.
Jonathan Caldwell 3:26
Yeah
Matt Waller 3:26
and one thing that I thought of one time is I thought I can see how racing being involved
in racing might be good for Valvoline creating, you know, motor oils, it probably
allows your scientists to really figure out the limits, if you will, of of these kinds
of products. Is that true at all?
Jonathan Caldwell 3:26
It is you know, it does a lot for our brand and your evidence of that, right. When
you thought of Valvoline it was one of the first things that you thought of so we
do believe that that's been a very long standing partnership that we've had, specifically
with the NASCAR team Hendrick Motorsports. They've got some of the best drivers in,
you know, in the game and Kyle Larson won the Cup last year. And then he's a part
of that team. And we do we have a lab here in Lexington, and some of the scientists
and you know, engineers that we have in that team work closely with with Hendricks,
every 10th of a second counts.
Matt Waller 3:49
Yes.
Jonathan Caldwell 3:59
They're looking for every single advantage and when you're at that, you know, everyone
is performing at such a high level. So anywhere that that we can, you know, work with
them to obtain a bit of a competitive advantage. We're happy to do so.
Matt Waller 4:43
I know you're located in Lexington, Lexington, Kentucky.
Jonathan Caldwell 4:47
That's correct. I grew up in the northern part of the state very close to Cincinnati.
But have lived in Lexington a fair amount of my life as well. And it is it's it's
kind of big enough, small enough, I'm not sure if it's a small city or a really big
town. We got the we got the university here, University of Kentucky. And then I do
think there are a couple of distinctive cultural elements. Where you know, it is it
is bourbon country here. It's horse country. And you know, and we have a basketball
team here, too, that does fairly well from from time to time. So
Matt Waller 5:24
Indeed,
Jonathan Caldwell 5:26
It's interesting, I think how we connected indirectly was through the University of
Kentucky hosting the SEC MBA competition.
Matt Waller 5:36
Yes.
Jonathan Caldwell 5:36
this past year, and Valvoline was the sponsor for that. So
Matt Waller 5:40
thank you for doing that.
Jonathan Caldwell 5:41
Yeah, we really enjoyed it got to meet some members of the team from the University
of Arkansas there as well, and just such a talented group across the board, we were
happy to be a part of it. Part of the team, part of my team, the Human Resources team,
we also include community involvement, corporate giving, corporate communications,
and so a type of sponsorship or partnership like that with the university really,
is driven by, by that team.
Matt Waller 6:10
You've worked in human resources and banking for quite a few years. And, and now Valvoline,
and now you're SVP and Chief People Officer, and you've been that, that role that
level for almost three years. So you're at the top of HR now, but you've started at
the very, very beginning, as in as a recruiter, and human human resources manager.
So you've seen human resources from a lot of different perspectives and a lot of different
companies. So I'm curious, is human resources management in banking, similar to what
you would see it at Valvoline? Or is there a difference?
Jonathan Caldwell 6:57
I would tell you, it's very similar. To me. The role in the function human resources
plays is more company based leadership based versus industry driven. How does that
organization view human resources? Is it a key part of the business? Is the you know,
the leader of HR part of the executive team? Is it more of a, hey, we understand the
talent and culture helps drive our business results? And and so you know, thus, that's
how we position and view and partner with human resources? Or is it more of policy
procedure, you know, payroll benefits, the things that you do have to provide employees.
And so that may, that may lead you down a little different path and view of what the
HR function looks like for an organization. I tell people, ironically, there are a
lot of similarities in banking. So I was at Fifth Third Bank for about 14 years. And
you've got a commercial bank and a retail bank and branch banking. And if you think
about even my description of Valvoline, where we have these two distinct businesses,
you've got the retail side of the business, which is our Valvoline Instant Oil, change
storefronts, just like branch banking. And then you've got kind of the commercial
part of our business where we sell through retailers like Walmart, AutoZone, or installer
channel customer. So in that way, there are a lot of similarities, then, of course,
you have the same types of corporate functions that you support, finance, IT marketing,
legal, etc. It's certainly a different, there are some differences, you know, certainly
in the types of roles, but in an odd twist, the structures, the business setup is
similar. And then in the end, it really is all about people and supporting leaders,
the best we can.
Matt Waller 8:51
Well, absolutely. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to really talk about
this I mean, leadership. I mean, business is about people, the more you are in business,
the more you realize business is about people now you've got to be able to deliver
something you've got to have, you've got to be conscientious, you've got to be trustworthy,
and you've got to have competence and capabilities. But it's all about people.
Jonathan Caldwell 9:19
Absolutely. And, you know, I would tell you my strategic, you know, guideposts as
it relates to leading, leading our HR team, you know, when I took this role, about
two and a half years ago, developed a few keys to success for our team. And one of
those really was, you know, driving results through our people leaders, equipping
our people leaders, enabling them, empowering them, holding them accountable, to really
provide the right experience the right workplace, to bring the team together to enable
those results. It, it's it's not that that's some groundbreaking by any stretch. But
but it was the one thing that that was a mindset shift for our team was, it was almost
kind of disproportionally investing in our people leaders, given the role that they
play in delivering that great workplace experience. And so I did have a handful of
team members that that felt like, well, I don't want to leave all employees behind,
right? I mean, hey, we're here for all employees. And, of course, that's correct.
But, you know, in my mind, if we really focus on building great people leaders, those
people leaders will build a great workplace for our team.
Matt Waller 10:44
Absolutely. You know, that kind of gets to something interesting. A couple of colleagues
of mine, and I, we worked on a book for a few years, called Values Driven Authentic
Leadership. But we, we interviewed lots of leaders in various areas, I mean, everything
from Mike Duke, who's the former CEO of Walmart, to the former CEO of Tyson, to the
chancellor of the university, and really a wide variety of industries. But we asked
them, you know, what are the your top values, personally as an- and as a company,
of course, the the number one value mentioned was integrity. But in in the discussions,
we became clear that a lot of these very successful leaders really thought mentoring
was important that is being mentored and mentoring both formally, not just informally.
I was curious, what- what's your experience with mentorship and its importance?
Jonathan Caldwell 11:59
You know, I would, I would agree, that mentorship, that connectivity to the organization,
when you're newer into your career, if you can, you can learn a lot from someone who
isn't your direct manager or in your chain of command, if you will, who's willing
to pour into you and kind of, you know, pay it forward, if you will, and share with
them things that they wish they knew, when they were in their 20s that have that have,
maybe they tripped over or that have helped them get to where they are, I think you
use the term Matt, informal and formal. And I would agree with that, I think it's
finding the right balance. So for us, last year, we implemented a new mentor program,
we partnered with with a third party had about 25 mentor partnerships that we assigned.
And we really focused the formal mentor program there on inclusive leadership, not
that the conversation couldn't vary. But we wanted to provide a topic for our leaders
to talk with their mentees about because sometimes, that's hard, you know, I don't
know where to start, if I've never done this before. So we found that to be very successful,
that focus on inclusive leadership, and hoping that if you introduce mentoring in
a formal way into an organization, that it kind of jumpstarts and builds that muscle
within the organization so that now they can be more prevalent, and occur more informally,
I do think that they're generally going to be more productive if you can, if those
you know, mentoring, relationships kind of form, naturally versus being prescribed
by an organization, your hit rate is going to be a lot better. But I do think that
where our organization was and where a lot of organizations are, sometimes you do
need to plant some seeds for that muscle to be built.
Matt Waller 13:55
So I have a rule that I always have at least one mentor, at any given point in time
right now I've got two. And I always am mentoring at least one person. Right now I'm
mentoring more than that, formally. And of course, I mentor people informally, like,
you know, Associate Deans and things like that. But I really have tried to be very
intentional about being other focused. In other words, rather than focusing on me
and my career, and how am I going to succeed, really trying to help other people succeed.
And I really feel like it's given me an advantage, focusing on others and really trying
to rejoice in their successes when they succeed, really being able to mourn with them
in their failures, learning to have that kind of empathy you know is so powerful.
Jonathan Caldwell 14:54
Absolutely. And my guess is and we've learned this through our formal mentoring program
last year. Here when we had kind of a celebration at the, at the conclusion of the
program, that the mentors over and over again talked about, I feel like I gained and
learned more from this partnership than than my mentee did. And, and, you know, so
I think some of that is probably the feel good of giving back. But then I think they
also learned that it was a two way street that hey, I may be, you know, a decade or
two older than this individual or grade level or two higher in the organization than
this individual, but boy, they can teach me a lot, you know, through the, through
this conversation?
Matt Waller 15:34
Well, you know, I, I saw a study that was, you know, this concept of belonging, right.
You know, they found that one real key success factor in belonging is volunteerism
of all things, in other words, to be, say, an MBA group, a group of MBAs, if they
engage in volunteerism together, where they're, they're giving to some group or entity
together, that increases the degree to which they feel like they belong more than
just saying, Hey, you belong, we want you to belong,
Jonathan Caldwell 16:16
You can always find 10% more base salary somewhere else. I mean, you know, the most
talented employees are always going to be able to find a higher salary, you know,
a different role, you know, somewhere else, and then they go there, and they can probably
find 10% more somewhere else, right. But I do think, to your point, Matt, what really
creates that stickiness with an organization is the satisfaction that comes from being
part of something bigger than the job that I do or the paycheck that I receive. And
so I think that starts with the connection with your team. And then if you and your
team, you know, and you see, you're also part of an organization that gives back to
the community, I think people really want to feel good about not just the role that
they play, but the organization that they work for. And they want to feel connected
to the broader team, that they're a part of.
Matt Waller 17:12
You mentioned something I'm going to want to ask you about, because I, I should know
the answer to this, and I don't. And that is total rewards. That's I know, I'm sure
that's been around for a long time, but it's kind of new to me. What does what does
that mean,
Jonathan Caldwell 17:28
Total rewards is largely comp and benefits, but it's also making sure that, you know,
are you providing the right workplace experience? The right recognition? It can, it
can extend into cultural, you know, what do you provide as a workplace culture? It's
kind of a, what do you get, as part of the employment agreement as being an employee
of Valvoline or any any other organization? You know, what's provided to you?
Matt Waller 17:29
So is that fairly? I mean, I'm sure it's been around awhile, but is it kind of fairly
new from popularity? First-
Jonathan Caldwell 18:04
Probably for I would say, the last decade or so 10 to 10 to 15 years, but-
Matt Waller 18:10
Well I'm usually about 15 years behind, so that that makes sense. But, well, yeah,
I even saw a position post to that local company here. It was, like, Senior VP of
Total Rewards. And like, wow, I'm seeing this all over the place now. I had never
seen it in the title before.
Jonathan Caldwell 18:30
It's, you know, it is one of the interesting things, one of the things I've enjoyed
about HR is, you know, I think a lot of times if someone who's outside of HR, what
do you think of where you think of maybe the employee relations angle with the talent
acquisition angle, payroll, right. I mean, some of the core tenants of, of HR, but
you do have a varying degree of roles and skill sets required. So something in a comp
and benefits. I mean, you know, the lady who's our Director of Benefits here, is a
CPA, there is a ton of math and statistics and analytical work required, you know,
working with actuarial, you know, things like that. Comp is the same way, you know,
the talent acquisition role, there's a lot of, you know, a sales acumen or skill set
that can be involved there, right, because you're really marketing and promoting roles,
to prospective candidates, and so on and so forth. So it is a, I would say, generally
a broader field than most would imagine. But a lot of organizations, you know, Valvoline
included, you're sitting on so much rich data, whether it be related to you know,
talent acquisition, compensation, turnover, diversity, you know, engagement surveys,
or any lifecycle surveys, onboarding, engagement, exit surveys, that can really drive
the actions that you take to optimize company performance. So you know, there's so
much knowledge that can be derived by hey, the best hires, the ones that stay the
longest are the ones that we were able to promote within our stores. Where do they
come from? You know, what, what questions or responses do we receive to particular
questions that help us predict, you know, turnover down the road?
Matt Waller 20:24
So, John, I've heard good things about the culture at Valvoline. But I know that you've
been really driving the advancement, strengthening the culture there. Would you mind
talking a little bit about that? How you've done that?
Jonathan Caldwell 20:41
Yes, I would tell you one thing that brought me here to Valvoline almost six years
ago was the feel from the culture and the people that I met through the interview
process. And that's one of the things that certainly keeps me here, six years later.
A couple of years ago, I moved into this Chief People Officer role. And, you know,
we've got a strong set of core values like many organizations do, and my CEO, and
I were trying to determine how do we best bring this to life. And we have a number
of people who have been with Valvoline here in the Lexington market, especially for
many years, in some cases, maybe their entire career, 15, 20, 25, 30 years. But then
we, like myself, many joined the organization in 2016 2017 2018, as we separated from
Ashland, to become our own publicly traded company. So we were trying to really kind
of refresh our values, renew the culture, understanding that we had this mix of people
who've been here for a really long time, and others who have joined the organization
more recently. So the way that I think we did that, and ironically, it was, it was
an idea from, from, from my CEO, our CEO, and, and if you ever want to change effort
to really stick from an HR perspective, there's nothing better than if it's leader
driven, or executive driven. And so he had been recommended and read a book by Patrick
Lencioni, called the ideal team player. And in the book, it basically kind of spoke
to three cultural attributes that that he found critical, that if individuals who
are truly team players, and then create that ideal team culture, are hungry, humble,
and smart. And, and by smart, not IQ, but more EQ, or people smart. And so we actually
partnered with Lencioni's consulting firm, the table group, and started, you know,
kind of with this book with these teachings at an executive team level. So our executive
team kind of went through an engagement with them, really understood what it meant
to be the ideal team player, living out those three attributes of hungry, humble and
smart, and then also operating more as a first team. So you know, the other thing
we learned there as part of being a team player is, how do you define your team. And
for us, our role was, hey, we need to spend more time as an executive team, than we
do with our direct report teams even. And so those two concepts, I think, have really
advanced our culture in the last couple of years, both, you know, kind of keeping
our head up, how do we operate as a first team in a better way to play a broader leadership
role in the organization, then I just lead HR, and Mary is our CFO, so she leads finance.
No, Mary and I and the rest of our leadership team, we really lead the organization.
So how do we best do that? And then, you know, back to the hungry, humble and smart,
the value in in those attributes, those ideal team player attributes, I think one
is when you really pause and think about it, you know, who are the people that you've
enjoyed working with through your career the most? They're hungry. So they're, they're,
they're, they're, you know, they're really, they're achievers. They're working hard.
They're asking, what else can I do to- to help out? They're humble, they don't need
to be out in front pounding their own chest. They lift up the team around them. And
then again, smart, are people smart. The way I simply kind of think about that person
is back when we had office phones, and you'd see someone come up on caller ID like
the name there are certain people who when they call you, you're like, oh, I'm excited
to talk to this person. Then there's others that are kind of like, oh, boy, you know.
So, you know, those people that really build great relationships and are people smart.
Those are the people that you want to work with as well. And we found that one the
value of that was just the simplicity of it, it was very memorable. It's simple, it's
easy to understand. And then two, it did seem to describe Valvoline when we're at
our best. So I don't want to tell you that all 12,000 of our employees are hungry,
humble and smart. But I think a lot of us really are. And when we're at our best we're
operating in that, in that mode hungry, humble and smart.
Matt Waller 25:22
Yeah. And I think if you know what you're shooting for, you're more likely to hit
it.
Jonathan Caldwell 25:29
Absolutely.
Matt Waller 25:30
So knowing that you want to have a team that is hungry, humble, and people smart.
You're more likely to get there if you know, that's what you're trying to do. I think
it also helps people learn, it can also help you evaluate them. I could see if you're
evaluating people based on humble, hungry, humble and smart, you know, it's kind of
like, hungry. There's some people that will just jump in there and volunteer to help
or do something. They're hungry. Even if they're busy, they'll they'll, how can how
can I help you with that? Or they'll send you hey, I know you're trying to work on
this, I found this article, it might help you. But the humble piece, I think is so
important, too. It would be hard to live life very long, and not really be humble
if you're seeing things clearly, you know.
Jonathan Caldwell 25:31
Yeah. well, and I think I think you use the a couple of terms that I think are earlier
map that are related around authentic, you know, I would add vulnerable, self deprecating,
and even if you think I think this also speaks to the elevated role that the HR function
plays within organizations now as even as a society, I think, you know, we we're starting
to realize that, you know, those things matter. And people follow, you know, originality
and authenticity and vulnerability. And it's okay to say, I don't know the answer
here. I need your help. And I think you know, a lot of those traits are similar to
people that you would also describe as humble. And even to your point, it's been it's
been a game changer for us. And it is something that we've even woven into our our
talent acquisition and interview process.
Matt Waller 27:18
Well, John, this has been really interesting. Thank you so much. I feel like I've,
I've learned a lot from this talk and, and also, congratulations on your amazing success
in your career in human resources. That's very impressive.
Jonathan Caldwell 27:37
Thank you very much, Matt. I appreciate the opportunity and have enjoyed it as well.
Matt Waller 27:43
On behalf of the Sam M. Walton College of Business, I want to thank everyone for spending
time with us for another engaging conversation. You can subscribe by going to your
favorite podcast service and searching. be epic. B E, E P I C.
Matthew A. Waller is dean emeritus of the Sam M. Walton College of Business and professor of supply
chain management. His work as a professor, researcher, and consultant is synergistic,
blending academic research with practical insights from industry experience. This
continuous cycle of learning and application makes his work more effective, relevant,
and impactful.His goals include contributing to academia through high-quality research and publications,
cultivating the next generation of professionals through excellent teaching, and creating
value for the organizations he consults by optimizing their strategy and investments.
