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External Partners Alumni Search Submit Return to home Search Search About About Olin Home Why Olin Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Leadership & Strategy News & Media Events Contact Us Programs Programs Home Explore Our Programs BS in Business Administration MBAs Specialized Master's Doctoral Executive Education Dual Degrees Faculty & Research Faculty & Research Home Faculty Directory Research Research Centers Olin Brookings Commission Olin Award Student Resources Student Resources Home Career Services Center for Experiential Learning Entrepreneurship Academic Calendars Student Organizations For Current Students For Military Veterans Admissions Admissions Home Scholarships & Aid Attend Program Events Visit Olin Ask a Student Student Profiles Request Information Refer a Candidate External Partners Alumni Better Together: Steve Degnan Season 4, Episode 5 December 12, 2023 34-minute listen Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on Spotify About News and Media On Principle Podcast s04 - Season 4 Better Together: Steve Degnan Better Together: Steve Degnan As the pandemic waned, Purina leadership wanted workers back in the office. But as Steve Degnan learned, it was not without controversy. The Big Idea Bucking a trend. Making an unpopular decision. Leaders do it all the time. Why did Purina do it in this case? How did they approach this decision&＃8212;not only making it, but implementing it? What did they learn, and what can we learn? Episode Description In the wake of the global pandemic, some of the loudest voices in corporate America proclaimed the end of work as we know it. Lockdown, it seemed, had proven workers could be productive from home. Work-from-home came into vogue. We&＃8217;d never have to commute to the office again, some suggested. But as pandemic-era restrictions eased in mid-2021, Steve Degnan, then chief human resources officer for Nestl&＃233; Purina PetCare, joined other senior leaders and prepared to bring its workforce back. All of them. In-person. &＃8220;It was not without controversy,&＃8221; Degnan, EMBA 2008, recalled. &＃8220;It was our belief that better work happens when people are together. But we did lose people.&＃8221; Indeed, about 30% of Purina&＃8217;s workforce declared its dissatisfaction with the return-to-work policy, which launched in 2022. The company, for years a leader in worker satisfaction ratings on jobseekers website Glassdoor, saw its scores plummet in the wake of the decision. Beyond their basic belief that employees work better together, Purina leaders had also just gone through a process to combat &＃8220;big company diseases&＃8221; such as lumbering decision-making and single-stream work processes. They&＃8217;d fostered greater agility in their work teams, empowered team members to make decisions, coached effective collaboration. &＃8220;That work was being blown up,&＃8221; he said. Degnan, now retired, recalled how senior leadership knew it would have to spend some of its cultural capital to implement a decision that many rank-and-file employees would support&＃8212;but that a small and vocal group would not, including a large share of Generation Z and Millennial team members. Why did Purina buck what seemed to be a trend in its approach to the workplace? How did it manage the communication of that requirement? What were leaders willing to sacrifice to make that decision&＃8212;and what were they not willing to sacrifice?&＃160; Related Links More about Steve Degnan More about Andrew Knight Bloomberg: &＃8220;People Working in the Office Spend 25% More Time on Career Development&＃8221; (paywall) A version of the same story that&＃8217;s not behind a paywall Nestl&＃233; Purina PetCare McKinsey & Company: &＃8220;Americans are embracing flexible work&＃8212;and they want more of it&＃8221; Business Insider: &＃8220;Here's a list of major companies requiring employees to return to the office&＃8221; Nina Leigh Krueger: Her On Principle episode, &＃8220;Out of the Box&＃8221; Credits This podcast is a production of Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis. Contributors include: Katie Wools, Cathy Myrick, Judy Milanovits and Lesley Liesman, creative assistance Jill Young Miller, fact checking and creative assistance Austin Alred and Olin&＃8217;s Center for Digital Education, sound engineering Hayden Molinarolo, original music and sound design Mike Martin Media, editing Sophia Passantino, social media Lexie O'Brien and Erik Buschardt, website support Paula Crews, creative vision and strategic support &＃160; Download the podcast transcript PDF Contact Kurt Greenbaum, Communications Director One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 [email protected] 314-935-7196 Warning: Undefined array key "SCRIPT_URI" in /var/www/html/about/news-and-media/on-principle-podcast/s04/s4e5-degnan.php on line 2231 Deprecated: urlencode(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /var/www/html/about/news-and-media/on-principle-podcast/s04/s4e5-degnan.php on line 2231 Share podcast Apply Now Visit Us Request Info One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130-4899 [email protected] 314-935-7301 News & Media Events Faculty Directory WashU Center for Career Engagement Washington University home Olin Links Sitemap Privacy Policies Title IX Accessibility ©2024 Washington University in St. Louis