The HR world is small, and it gets smaller as you move up in the industry.

Jacqui Canney’s career path is a good illustration of this phenomenon. Before she became CPO at HR software company ServiceNow, Canney spent more than two decades at Accenture, where she connected with Pam Craig, the firm’s former chief financial officer, who helped her land her first C-suite role with Walmart. At Walmart, Canney got to know Bill McDermott, then CEO of SAP, who would later tap her to lead HR at ServiceNow.

Guidance from these mentors, coupled with experience at two companies that are considered incubators for top HR talent, helped shape Canney’s strategic and values-driven approach to HR today, she told HR Brew.

Thinking with a product mindset. When Canney joined Accenture (then Arthur Andersen) in 1989, she was a recent college graduate looking for a stable opportunity that would allow her to use her accounting degree. She spent several years working as an auditor, with 90% of her time on the road. After tiring of all the travel, Canney pivoted to HR and “fell in love with it,” she recalls.

Keep reading here.—CV

A coalition of organizations spearheaded by Pete Stavros, a co-head of global private equity at KKR, is advocating for legislative reforms that would make it easier for larger companies to give employees part ownership of their firms.

All about ESOPs. The structure of the benefit, known as an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), was made possible by the 1974 Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and is often offered as a type of retirement plan. Companies typically offer shares to their workers through a trust, with the amount of stock they receive growing as they spend more time at the firm. ESOPs differ from other types of stock repurchase programs in that they don’t require workers to dip into their own wages or savings to buy shares of the company.

The coalition, which is called Expanding ESOPs and includes partners such as Deloitte and UBS, posits that this benefit has potential to boost wealth generation as well as lower employee turnover. “ESOP ownership can be a significant win for all stakeholders of a company, including both employees and business owners,” Kim Blaugher, executive director of UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management, said in a statement.

How HR can make ESOPs work. Should more companies become interested in ESOP formation in the future, their success hinges in part on good HR practices, said Joseph Blasi, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University. Research suggests that in order to see positive outcomes from ESOPs, employers can consider the following.

Keep reading here.—CV

In Grease, Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta sing the lyrics, “You’re the one that I want.” Gen Z is singing those same words, but the one that they want is job security.

Some 69% of students and recent college graduates said job security is very important when considering a new role, according to a report published by the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Handshake earlier this year. But HR leaders would’ve guessed otherwise, with 58% reporting that compensation is these young professionals’ top priority.

The labor market could be behind the disconnect, Jim Link, CHRO at SHRM, told HR Brew. Many Gen Z workers started their careers amid the Great Resignation, when the labor market was hot, he said. Now that it’s cooled, it makes sense that younger workers want stability.

Link shared with HR Brew how people pros can help Gen Z employees feel more secure at work.

Keep reading here.—MC