Speaker 1:
From the library of the New York Stock Exchange at the corner of Wall and Broad Streets in New York City, you're inside the ICE House. Our podcast from Intercontinental Exchange on markets, leadership and vision in global business, the dream drivers that have made the NYSE an indispensable institution for global growth for more than 225 years. Each week we feature stories of those who hatch plans, create jobs, and harness the engine of capitalism right here, right now, at the NYSE and at ICE's 12 exchanges and seven clearing houses around the world. Now here's your host, Josh King, head of communications at Intercontinental Exchange.
Josh:
Hi everyone. Come on inside the ICE House, we are fast approaching International Women's Day on March 8th, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. It traces its roots back to 1908 when 15,000 women marched through New York City, demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights. You could say against a backdrop of Me Too and TIME'S UP that International Women's Day has never been more important or needed, and appropriately this year's theme is Press for Progress.
Josh:
On the organization's website are five ways anyone can press for progress. Number one, maintain a gender parody mindset. Number two, challenge stereotypes and bias. Number three, forge positive visibility for women. Number four, influence others' beliefs and actions. And number five, celebrate women's achievements. Well, today on the ICE House podcast, we're going to try and do all five of those things. Talking with Nancy Mellard of CBIZ, an NYSE-listed firm who moments ago was on the iconic bell podium of the New York Stock Exchange along with her colleagues, leading CBIZ Women's Advantage program, closing this, the largest equities market in the world. What Nancy and CBIZ have done with Women's Advantage to support the firm's female employee base of more than 2000 people in professional roles since she was tapped to lead the program in 2007 with a blank sheet of paper is nothing short of amazing. Nancy Mellard after this.
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Josh:
Since the dawn of this century, the share price of CBIZ, NYSE ticker symbol CBZ pretty much flows in an upward diagonal. Its organic growth and acquisition strategy is one reason why, but the firm's 4,600 associates in 100 US offices specializing in financial and accounting services, as well as benefits and insurance also specializes in building a progressive workplace culture. One of its leaders is Nancy Mellard, the executive vice president and general counsel for its be benefits and insurance division. On her mantle piece is the Missouri Lawyers Weekly 2017 Women in Justice Enterprise Award, the 2016 Stevie bronze lifetime achievement award, and the 2016 Baron of the Boardroom awarded by the Kansas City Bar. But her greatest on honor by far was ringing the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange. Nancy, welcome to the ICE House.
Nancy:
Thank you, Josh.
Josh:
How did it feel to be up there?
Nancy:
It was the most exciting moment I think of my career. It was a combination of pride to be part of one day of a 225 year old institution, but it was also a feeling of accomplishment that CBIZ Women's Advantage and the executive board that joined me was able to stand up there and be so proud of CBIZ and so proud that we were at the New York Stock Exchange.
Josh:
We just watched you ringing the closing bell. You were surrounded by people, including our own Jim Byrne of the New York Stock Exchange, but mostly people from CBIZ. Who did you bring with you and why were they there?
Nancy:
The CBIZ Women's Advantage has a governing board I would call it, but the executive board. And these are women in both our financial services, as well as our benefits and insurance services divisions across the United States, east west, north, south. And these are the women in the leadership that really are shaping the culture of CBIZ as it relates to diversity.
Josh:
We're going to dive deep into CBIZ Women's Advantage later in the program, but as we get started, let's get some business out of the way first, what are you telling your clients about the new tax reform legislation that was recently enacted and how are they reacting? What moves are they making?
Nancy:
It's interesting. First of all, we've said this before, but now more than ever, you need us now more than you ever have before, but it's interesting, as you mentioned earlier, I'm on the benefits and insurance services division side, but my brethren on the financial services side are saying that in fact, it's really important to understand with this new tax law, one size doesn't fit all, whether you are an individual or whether you're a corporation asking, how do I plan for 2018 as an individual, or what should I do looking at my corporate structure. So, because it isn't kind of a box type of tax reform, they need us now more than ever, because it really is a very individual type of consulting arrangement we need to do for them now. And they're listening. Josh.
Josh:
Another major topic that's ripped out of the headlines is that we're very much focused on your area of work in the benefits area, a huge amount of consolidation in healthcare, in the benefits space. We saw last year, the announcement of the merger of CVS and Aetna, which is still pending, United Healthcare and DaVita. And then just a couple weeks ago, these enormous names in business, Amazon and Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and Berkshire Hathaway, Jamie Diamond, and JP Morgan teaming up in the healthcare space. What are you thinking about inside CBIZ about that announcement and how are you helping clients navigate the myriad changes that are happening even as we speak?
Nancy:
Great questions, all of those Josh, we thought there would never be a more exciting time in our industry than the Affordable Care Act. However, this latest with the mergers, this latest with three major employers coming together, it sounds like we're not, but we're all trying to grab arms and talk about how do we reduce healthcare costs. So when we speak with our employer prospects, we are looking at those things. We're looking at, how can we help you to reduce your healthcare cost with your employee base? How can we help you to deliver the best benefits at the lowest cost? How can we keep your employees well? Wellbeing is so important now. And then probably lastly, there is this feeling of employee benefits, particularly in the employer sponsored world, how do I have the best so that I can attract, retain, recruit really the finest of employees. So there's a lot going on in the healthcare industry right now.
Josh:
We're in the library of the New York Stock Exchange. There isn't a sprawling corporate campus Nancy, where we could go out and do calisthenics during lunch hour, but from your perch, with so much experience at the CIAB, the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, you must have some thought about the debate that has been raging really since the election about repealing and replacing ACA, the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, probably some things that need to be fixed, but throwing the baby out with the bath water in terms of innovation and pushing toward wellness from employer sponsored plans that has really changed the lives of so many people who come to work every day and either, you know, sit their butts on a seat instead of standing at a standup desk, smoking outside the office, not having healthful choices in the cafeteria. I mean, a lot of things that are kind of outside our consciousness about ACA, but huge changes in corporate settings.
Nancy:
You're exactly right. In fact, this is the type of conversation, dialogue you were talking about. We're sitting in the library around this table, that we have with our clients day in and day out. But you also mentioned the CIAB, that Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, which I've been honored to be on their board of directors and now on the executive committee, we're looking at really many aspects, but let me focus on two, Josh.
Nancy:
One of them is we must continue to preserve and strengthen the individual marketplace. We must be able to provide those individuals who are not part of a larger employer group to be able to have choices. And it's the kind of choices that you just mentioned, choices of not only good healthcare, but all the other aspects, the wellbeing piece of it, which we are all about if we are focused truly on the reduction of healthcare costs. On the employer side, the employer sponsored insurance has worked for many, many decades. It is not only not broken, but you mentioned innovation. Many of the aspects of wellbeing, reducing healthcare cost, has come through the innovations that employers have been able to put on the table, work with carriers, work with consultants like CBIZ so that we can continue to deliver great healthcare at reduced costs.
Josh:
So at CBIZ, do you practice what you preach? What's the culture like inside there?
Nancy:
I smile because yes, we do. We have been consistently recognized as healthiest employer. We have a very robust wellbeing program. And in fact, I would add one piece and I know you said we're going to delve into it, but so much of wellbeing is about culture. And with what we're doing with focusing on diversity with CBIZ Women's Advantage, that goes to culture, which if you are working inside an employer group with a very healthy, positive culture, you're going to be healthier and more positive.
Josh:
It's certainly been a culture, Nancy Mellard that has attracted you and had you stay for a very long time. I mean, how does a tiger from the University of Missouri find herself at CBIZ and spending the next 26 years of her career there?
Nancy:
Yeah. Yeah. 26 years. I would hope that you would've added, looking across the table, that I don't even look like I could be in something-
Josh:
Six years, most.
Nancy:
Yeah. You're very kind, but I will tell you that what CBIZ has been able to offer me and really what I have been able to grab onto for the last 26 years is my career in this industry, both law and insurance, predate CBIZ. And so I have been able to kind of look at my career, which again, is what we talk about with CBIZ Women's Advantage. But as a trajectory that goes from privately held, to publicly traded, to the New York stock exchange, to Nancy Mellard being on the podium today, Josh, and then being offered the opportunity with a blank piece of paper as you said earlier, to build a women's program over the last 10 years, it's almost like I've had four or five different jobs, but had the real honor, and the benefit of staying within the culture of CBIZ.
Josh:
You allude to that moment that Steven Gerard, who was then the CEO and chairman of CBIZ came to you and gave you that blank sheet of paper, told you to see what you could do to build CBIZ Women's Advantage. What was the precipitating event to that? Was there a reason that CBIZ's culture needed to change and evolve?
Nancy:
Not at all. The precipitating moment was Steve Gerard, who is a mentor and sponsor in my world, he had the vision that said, I want to be a part of a company that truly values diversity of thought, diversity of leadership. And as we well know, these types of programs, but even strengthening a culture like CBIS doesn't happen in a year. And if I have a message to many of your listeners that may pull down this podcast to say it takes time, but never lose focus on what Steve Gerard had, which was a vision of really building a company that had the culture that valued diversity.
Josh:
You've had a long running blog as part of the CBIZ Women's Advantage. In one post in 2012, you quoted from data from the National Partnership for Women and Families about the pay gap from census data. And at the time I think you wrote that women are paid less than men in 423 out of 435 congressional districts in the United States. Since then has the pace of change been fast enough for you?
Nancy:
No. And I can't even qualify my answer Josh, to your question. Now, for all those many people that know me, I'm a very impatient person. On the other hand, no, we are not seeing change fast enough. There are again, many entities, many people working on that parody, but we are not getting where we need to be fast enough.
Josh:
What needs to happen?
Nancy:
I think there has to be more intention, and anyone that knows me, I use the word intentional a lot. We can't expect it to just happen. There has to be this awareness, this conversation and intentional actions to get us closer to that parody.
Josh:
Who do you see sort of really doing it right? Or the intention between employers and their hiring practices, you know, that have really seen the light in this area?
Nancy:
If it's all right with you I won't name a specific company.
Josh:
Sure.
Nancy:
But I will describe the kind of companies that have a level of focus on truly being change agents, making that change. They have looked at possibly their industry or else they have looked internally specifically at their company and said, we will be change agents. And it's those types of companies. But again, that, Josh, goes back to the intentional piece. It must not be one of those things that just happens. We have to focus on making it happen. There are companies out there that in fact do just that. They walk the talk.
Josh:
And what are the key components of that? We can talk about the C-suite. We can talk about boardroom makeup. I mean, most public companies now have female members, but I think you've mentioned and written about in the past that sometimes this is tokenism. And how do you achieve real parody?
Nancy:
Well, first of all, the word tokenism is a difficult one to have roll off my tongue. But what I do like to say, and one of the reasons why I was very definitive in my answer to you when I said no, is because it is still very thin at the top. And that thinness creates this ability for senior management that doesn't have the diversity, so lacks it, to point to it and say, yes, but we have. And that's where the tokenism comes in. What I would prefer is that we figure out how to reduce the thin at the top. I also think, you mention towards the beginning of the podcast, even the #Me Too. And we will get away from that when it isn't thin at the top, when there is the numbers that say it isn't going to happen anymore. But we're not there yet
Josh:
More with Nancy Mellard. CBIZ's executive vice president and general counsel talking about CBIZ Women's Advantage after the break.
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Josh:
We're back with Nancy Mellard talking about CBIZ Women's Advantage. So let's dive deep into what you're doing at CBIZ Women's Advantage and how it benefits your firm. How does the program work and what are some of the successes that you've seen?
Nancy:
First of all, when Steve and I, Steve Gerard and I sat down and he was very much in support of this. It is my opinion from a lot of years of experience doing this, is that you cannot select a group of people to be involved in a program like this because you're then making a judgment about, what about that receptionist who I always say, generally is female, not always, that is your first and foremost salesperson, right? They're the first ones your clients see when they walk in. So this program was created for all women within CBIZ. The other thing is we kept it simple. We really looked at what should our goals be? And at the time, and continuing today, we have three goals, professional development, and that is internally focused on the women, and they choose to do that, it's volunteer, it's not mandated.
Nancy:
Business development. We are on the New York Stock Exchange. We are publicly traded. That means that we must align our women's program goals with the goals of our company, which is revenue generation. And then lastly, women do this really well, but we also had some very selfish reasons because it's a great branding, but we really had as our third goal, national community involvement. And we really, in all of our locations, looked at how do we give back to the communities within which we live and work. And those have been our goals, Josh, all these many years.
Josh:
You talked about revenue generations. So let's talk a little bit about some of the metrics that you judge yourself by. What has been the program's impact on the culture of CBIZ to the extent that you've been able to measure it. And how has the company been able to leverage its success, I think to the tune of 9.3 million dollars?
Nancy:
We have. So business development is our second goal. And we realize that women in business development client facing roles do things differently than men. And that's a really good thing, but because of that, we wanted to be able to one, you're successful when you can measure your goals. And it's really easy if you can track what women to women develop and grow. So one of the business models for CBIZ is the cross serving between our two divisions that you mentioned the financial services and the benefits insurance services. So we took women across the United States and said, how do you cross serve? How do you work with other women to develop business? And we created a whole business development module for 12 months around that. And it's as much, or excuse me, I would say it's less about women learning something new and more about validating and enhancing what they already knew. So we have over the 10 years tracked our business development to that $9 million plus figure.
Josh:
And without Women's Advantage, you think that 9.3 million in revenue would've been significantly less or not existent?
Nancy:
Probably significantly less, not existent because these are very professional women who would've continued, but it was being able to support them in one more way, and we found it to be very successful.
Josh:
The group that you brought to the New York stock exchange today, Nancy Mellard, was CBIZ's leadership team. You were having the meeting for the top 30 up and coming women at the company. Who are the top 30 women, and how does CBIZ Women's Advantage identify this group to bring them to New York.
Nancy:
CBIZ has a leadership. They call it CLC, CBIZ Leadership Council. And it's identified in a couple of ways, but in this particular one that we came together then to be up on the podium today is the executive board for CBIZ Women's Advantage. And it is that kind of governing board. And I don't want to sound too structured, Josh, but it is that group of women who have clearly in many ways raised their own hand, have developed their own careers to get to a point where they have earned the right to be a part of CBIZ Leadership Council.
Josh:
High ranking female executive comes into the company. Do you sort of have your laser in on them to say this is going to be a real good contributor to Women's Advantage? Because so much of CBIZ has been created through acquisition, rolling up smaller firms really around the company geographically. How do you keep your radar out for the future leaders for CWA?
Nancy:
You said it, we keep our radar out. They do get under our microscope very quickly. Acquisition is probably our primary way to get great talent, but I will tell you, Josh, it's really easy to put your finger or tap the shoulder of that woman in a senior leadership position, because almost invariably, that woman knows she has an obligation to pull up, to give back, and she's willing to stand right up, raise her hand and say, I want to be a part of continuing to sustain and grow this successful program.
Josh:
We've talked Nancy about a bunch of ways that CBIZ Women's Advantage benefits the firm, growing revenue by 9.3 million dollars, but in Kansas City where you live, and the other communities where CBIZ has a significant presence like Boston, I know of CBIZ from one of the acquisitions, it was. Tofias, Fleishman, and Shapiro. What are the kinds of things you're doing in the community from a philanthropic and charitable angle that comes directly from Women's Advantage?
Nancy:
When we created the third leg on the stool, the third goal of national community outreach, we looked at identifying what type of a national organization, because Josh, you know we are very decentralized and we are a group of companies that we have acquired over these years. And we said, what is it on a national basis, but still local to the community? And we identified Dress for Success. And in fact, I wished I could pull the year out for you, Josh. But we were given the Woman to Woman award by Dress for Success nationally right here in New York City. So in all of the local communities where they have their local Dress for Success franchises, we have distributed articles of clothing as well as accessories. And then we've also done things like we've gone in and provided them with seminars for these women who are going back into the workforce and needs their suit of armor. And we are very proud of that partnership with Dress for Success. So that is just one major example of what we've done over these 10 years.
Josh:
So many accomplishments evident in that group that you had up at the podium just now ringing the bell. What's next for CBIZ Women's Advantage? More of the same or are you thinking about more innovations within this particular space?
Nancy:
We are not going to sit back on our success today is almost like the new impetus to go beyond. You know Josh, the best way I can say it and then I can go into detail. But 10 years ago, CBIZ Women's Advantage really was ahead of our time. We were doing some incredible things, both internally from a culture perspective, from a retention, recruitment advancement, but we aren't ahead of our time today. There are some really, really good women's programs out there. There's good inclusion and diversity programs. But what we want to be is ahead of our time tomorrow.
Nancy:
I can't tell you necessarily what that's going to look like, but I will tell you that with the credibility that we've built both externally, but most importantly, internally, we will continue a very active role in advocacy. And a quick definition of that is we are going to advocate for those benefit, those programs that will continue to recruit the best talent that we can in all diverse areas. We're focused on women, but I know Steve Gerard's vision many, many years ago was to take our successes and make it not diversity of women, but diversity culturally within CBIZ. And that's where we're going to go. We're going to be ahead of our time again. So watch us.
Josh:
Not every company, Nancy, is going to be like CBIZ. For so many people the revelations last year about Harvey Weinstein and the torrent of stories brought to light about other workplaces has made the Me Too movement and 2017 a watershed year. How do you think, Nancy, that reckoning will change the workplace and opportunities for women in 2018 and beyond? And what are the risks from all of this as well?
Nancy:
I'm stating the obvious when I say it has changed the workplace, and it has changed the workplace forever. I'd like to focus on something that I think is very important with that. Me too, me too movement. And that is that the downside could be that we continue being victims. It am we being women? What I mean by that? And I've spoken a lot about this, Josh, because I'm very passionate about this is if you take on the victim kind of wardrobe, so to speak, then you find that you always have someone to blame. Women should not be victims and we should not be blaming anyone else. We should see the Me Too clearly as our opportunity and our challenge to do those things that we know we can do as opposed to, let's not look at it as if me too means we have someone to blame. We are strong and we can do it by using it as an opportunity and a challenge be even better and greater.
Josh:
As we wrap up Nancy Miller for women or men, what does it take to really succeed in today's corporate environment? You talk about four traits, qualified beyond their title, emotionally intelligent, universally, passionate, and committed those for us. As we wrap up,
Nancy:
I can unpack each of them, but let me start with this. We have to really build the healthiest of cultures within corporate America, we have to raise the issues. Therefore we must have that level of emotional intelligence to be able to identify and raise those issue shoes. Then it's more than that. Josh. We have to provide solutions and then we have to execute on them. And so the way I would unpack those four points that you just made are all three of those. You can't have one without all three of them. If you truly want to be successful.
Josh:
Nancy Miller, thank you so much for joining us inside the ICE house.
Nancy:
I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for the invitation.
Josh:
That's our conversation for this week. Our guest was Nancy Mellard, national leader of CBIZ Women's Advantage a program to support and recognize the power of women both internally and externally. If you like what you heard, please rate us on iTunes so other folks know where to find us. And if you've got a comment or question, you'd like one of our experts to tackle on a future show, email us at icehouse, the ice.com or tweet at us at N Y C. Our show is produced by Pete Ash and Ian Wolf with production assistance from Ken Abel I'm Josh King, your host signing off from the Library of the New York Stock Exchange. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
Speaker 1:
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