Students in Steve Safier’s and Josh Bellis’ Integrated Talent Management Strategies class were privileged to host Anne Erni, Chief People Officer at Audible, the leading creator and provider of premium audio storytelling, including Originals, audiobooks and podcasts. Anne leads a global team called “People and Places,” combining HR and Real Estate/Facilities management into one team.
Prior to joining Audible in 2016, Anne spent six years at Bloomberg, during which the global workforce doubled, and where her passion for nurturing talent led to the creation of Bloomberg's Global Leadership Forum. Before Bloomberg, Anne was Managing Director and Chief Diversity Officer at Lehman Brothers, focusing on the recruitment and retention of women and under-represented groups.
In her guest lecture to our students, which included robust questions and answers, Anne described Audible’s “Rethinking the Workplace” initiative, a multi-faceted “Hub and Home” approach to engaging current and even future Audible employees in spite of the challenges presented by the pandemic. Faithful to its People principles:
- Be Customer Obsessed
- Imagine and Invent Before They Ask
- Articulate the Possible & Move fast to Make it Real
- Study and Draw Inspiration from Culture & Technology
- Activate Caring,
Audible created a new hybrid approach that included rethinking its business model, organization structure and work processes. This included encouraging people to return to offices when business needs indicated, such as for “strategy storming” sessions, and also offering activities that build wellness, such as creating murals, yoga, group meditation, bowling (Audible has an onsite bowling alley!) and even two weeks of additional vacation.
As for HR’s role during this time of unprecedented change, Anne emphasized to our students how valuable a business partner HR has become to businesses. For example, as Anne described, it is critical to communicate regularly to employees – at Audible, communication included almost daily updates, multiple town halls and informal leadership visits to team meetings. It is also critical to help employees feel engaged in the business and in their communities – in fact, Audible sponsored a number of projects in Newark, the site of its corporate headquarters, and elsewhere. This included an initiative known as “Newark Working Kitchens,” which has fed over one million people. Anne’s team also created multiple opportunities for employees to take breaks during the day and virtually meet with each other casually.
Some of the results of these efforts? Audible has experienced low attrition and a huge increase in the number of applicants for open positions. It is enjoying a meaningful increase in employees’ feelings of Diversity and Inclusion, which the company thoughtfully refers to as “Spectrum and Belonging.” In addition, women in senior leadership roles have increased by 4% points year over year.
Anne’s advice to our students:
- Go to a company where you’re passionate about what they do.
- Continue to diversify your network... now, vs only when you need to connect with others
Thank you, Anne, for a very insightful, thorough and “real world” discussion of Audible’s impressive approaches to change and the ways it cares for its business and its people!.
