Innovating on a Global Scale With Johnson & Johnson Head of Global Talent Management Michael Ehret

In this episode of Redefining HR, I’m joined by Johnson & Johnson’s head of global talent management, Michael Ehret. Michael and I discuss his background, his work at J&J, how he thinks about innovating on a global scale and more. 

Michael began his career in the finance industry, and his first experience with HR and performance management was as part of a rotational leadership program. The spark of helping people and organizations optimize their performance led him to pursue HR and talent full time.

While Michael’s passion for leadership has been fulfilled in HR business partner and talent management roles, his first leadership lesson was back in his eighth-grade pre-algebra class.

The teacher used the chalkboard to write “Essentials to success: Communication skills, confidence and sense of humor,” Michael says. “And not that I would prescribe that those are the be-all, end-all elements or essentials for success. But for an evolving 13-year-old brain, this hit me like a bolt of lightning. I thought, ‘Wow! I just have to follow these three things, and I’ll be successful? That’s awesome!’”

Ever since, Michael has pursued a greater understanding of great leadership and adding value. Michael eventually came to Johnson & Johnson, where he’s spent 15 years in multiple roles before becoming head of global talent management.

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Enabling Personalization at Scale

The pace of work is accelerating, and the shelf life of employee skills is getting shorter. Michael notes this reality and says that people leaders must embrace agile learning to build and retain great employees. 

Michael and his team think about this challenge daily, especially as they move from large-scale programs for learning to a personalized approach. “So it may not be a library of 400 skills, but what are the few skills that are gonna be so important in jobs and job families? And then how can we connect people to growth opportunities beyond maybe a traditional training?” he says.

The right skills for one organization might not be the right ones for another, however. That’s why Johnson & Johnson launched its first digital talent marketplace, using artificial intelligence, machine learning and third-party support to connect people to a curated curriculum and mentorships for equitable and personalized skills development at scale.

“We’ve worked with a number of third parties, especially on the technical side. We’ve licensed some skills libraries that we can use, and we’ve linked it all up, so that’s all seamless to our users,” Michael says.

Accelerating Digital Transformation

The pandemic forced many companies to change how work got done and how people learned. For Johnson & Johnson, “in some ways, COVID-19 was the ‘Great Acceleration,’” Michael says.

Johnson & Johnson had already been becoming more digitally focused, but the pandemic turned a yearslong transformation into a nearly overnight shift. This was no different for the HR and talent functions, who had to help their employees through unprecedented and uncertain times.

“I think how, in particular, people and people leaders have had to work through this shattering of what was a very fragile barrier of work and life, for all of a sudden, it just became life,” Michael says. 

Johnson & Johnson is moving forward rather than, as some executives seem to wish, return to a pre-pandemic working environment, Michael says. “The reality, for those of us that are just paying attention, that world has gone forever, right? We're building a new world, and yes, there will be some similarities to the old world, but there'll be lots of new things that didn't exist before.

This mindset is all about creating opportunities to think differently, to drive innovation. HR isn’t the R&D department, but Michael believes he and his colleagues still have an essential role in the next big ideas.

“One of the key things in roles like mine is not to create the innovation but to do two things,” Michael says. “One is to create the space for innovation, and then serve as this curator and connecter. Because my belief is that the greatest innovation happens in the closest proximity to the customer base, employee base — and not necessarily in the corporate center.”

People in This Episode

• Michael Ehret: LinkedIn