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Engaging, honest conversations foster positive results

October 23, 2019/in Culture, Diversity & inclusion crew, events, experience, forums, hector, heritage, hispanic, hispanic and latino, hola, latino, leader, life, malvern, opening, opening remarks, reactions, recent events, remarks, senior, voces /by marcin

Engaging, honest conversations foster positive results

Hispanic and Latino Americans have made vast and vital global contributions and their positive influence is felt in all aspects of life and society. They represent an array of distinct and vibrant cultures, each of which enriches our communities.

Recently, in recognition of National Hispanic Heritage Month, Vanguard’s Hispanic/Latino Organization for Leadership (HOLA) sponsored several small forums entitled HOLA VOCES at its Charlotte, Malvern, and Scottsdale offices. Each forum featured opening remarks from a HOLA leader, followed by a facilitated discussion focused on the Hispanic experience that considered reactions to recent events including the El Paso shootings and rising tensions around immigration.

In his opening remarks during a Malvern session, Hector M. Salcido-Torres, Fund Financial Services senior line manager, said, “You should be comfortable having conversations that are uncomfortable. It is impossible to leave it at the door. You may not agree but at least break down the barriers.”

Hector, an eighth generation Arizonan of Mexican descent, shared his grandparents’ experiences of attending segregated schools and being punished for speaking Spanish. Hector encouraged the audience, “Push yourself, drive yourself for the people that came before you. Being lazy is an insult to the people in heaven who are rooting for you.”

During the ensuing small group discussions, which included crew of Cuban, Salvadorian, Peruvian, Mexican, and Puerto Rican ethnic origins, thoughts and reactions were openly shared. Understanding that collective minorities will be the majority in the U.S. by 2030, crew universally agreed that they sought to assimilate, but also wanted to show up and be their honest selves. “I feel recent events in the U.S. have had a significant impact on the Hispanic and Latino community,” said Sejla Karalic, senior project manager in the Institutional Investor Group. “And some of the issues really resonate with me as an immigrant to this country.”

HOLA will sponsor several more VOCES forums thorough out the coming year, to bring crew from all walks of life together to share and learn from each other. “My experience with HOLA started with curiosity, which led to involvement, and now engagement,” said Nicholas Fernandez, Emerging Leader Development Program participant. “Being a part of events like the VOCES series makes me feel closer to my heritage and more at home at Vanguard.”

-Constance H.

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Data analytics at the heart of Vanguard’s client experience

October 2, 2019/in Culture, Day in the Life analysts, analytics, client, cxd, data, data analysts, digital, digital experiences, experience, experiences, focused, marketing, results, retail marketing, team, teams, vanguard, vanguard's mission, work, working /by marcin

Data analytics at the heart of Vanguard’s client experience

Imagine a world in which you are a detail-oriented analyst focused on results and outcomes, encouraged to ask questions, and empowered to work with a team developing innovative solutions. Within the Client Experience & Digital (CXD) group at Vanguard, our high-performing teams are doing exactly that, and the data analysts are central to this work.

I’m writing this as a new team member, having joined CXD only a few weeks ago. People have asked me to describe what it’s like to work in CXD and what makes CXD different from other groups within Vanguard and places where I had previously worked. I started my career working with large databases within IT divisions, and then moved into direct-to-consumer retail marketing and marketing technology as those solutions gained prominence in the mid-2000s. I was aware of Vanguard’s mission, and as a woman and working mother, Vanguard’s focus on doing the right thing for both investors and employees was attractive to me. Two years ago, I was fortunate to join Vanguard’s Retail Marketing Analytics group, where I led a team of data analysts, before my recent transition to CXD, where I serve as a data analytics manager.

Three things come to mind when I consider what it is like to live and breathe analytics in this specific context and, in my experience, make working within CXD unique.

1. The first is POST-IT NOTES, which are used daily in brainstorming sessions, in mapping out client journeys, and in tracking progress against goals. They are representative of the way we work and our team structure, and they also provide decorative flair to the office walls. The work we do here is very visual – after all, the journey labs are focused on improving Vanguard’s digital experiences which is, in and of itself, inherently visual. They also come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes optimized to get a specific job done. I see this as being symbolic of the way our teams are structured and representative of the diversity of skills and backgrounds that help make our teams high performing.

2. The second is IMPROMPTU CELEBRATIONS. We work in short sprints, rapidly iterating to consistently move forward by taking one step at a time. This leads to celebrating small wins along the way. We might applaud the automation of a process or the results of an experiment because we are happy when we can see that we are making digital experiences better for our clients, or when we can quickly learn that something did not work as we had hypothesized. These celebrations also acknowledge personal and work milestones. We take pride in the work we do, and we look for ways to recognize the fact that we are making progress both personally and within our CXD journeys.

3. The final item is a high level of PEER-TO-PEER COLLABORATION. The data analysts are embedded within a “full-stack” agile team with strategists, developers, designers, and researchers. You might think this means analysts are without the support of an analytics community. This is not the case! The analysts continue to work closely with other analysts across CXD, thinking through approaches and validating findings while sharing knowledge with their analytic peers.

I think it is interesting that our analysts come from a variety of backgrounds and work from different strengths. It shouldn’t be surprising that we have individuals with quantitative experience. However, we also have team members with degrees in communications and people who started their Vanguard careers as phone representatives. Within this context, analysts switch between the technical and non-technical to continually ground decision making in the data, design and execute experiments, and craft data stories that are meaningful to the business. All of this happens so we can improve client experiences in support of Vanguard’s mission to give investors the best chance for investment success.

– Jane M.

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Advertising…at Vanguard??

September 18, 2019/in Culture, Day in the Life, Our mission Mid-level specialist /by fanwar

Advertising…at Vanguard??

Meet Bonnie D. She is an Advertising Manager who did not expect to find herself in the financial services industry. Now after having spent a number of years in creative roles at Vanguard, one thing she says she never takes for granted: “I laugh every single day.”

If you’re seeking an environment where you can make a difference and develop professionally, learn more about our MBA programs at www.vanguardjobs.com.

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Bringing your authentic self to work

August 14, 2019/in Culture, Day in the Life, Diversity & inclusion /by kkilgarriff

Bringing your authentic self to work

In this podcast, Kahlilah D. shares her journey to becoming a Senior Financial Advisor at Vanguard. Further, she speaks to her experiences in staying true to herself in the workplace and how that has positively impacted her relationships with her clients.

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Navigating a complicated home life

When I Iooked to return to the workforce after spending six years at home with my three children, the most important factors for me when searching for firms were culture and fit. I did quite a bit of due diligence and received a great deal of feedback about the firms I was looking at, especially from senior professional women. In the end, Vanguard stood out for its values as well as its focus on supporting women in the workplace.

Not long after I joined Vanguard three years ago, my husband was diagnosed with ALS. Since it was early in the diagnosis and his particular form of the diseases was rather slow moving, there was not much we needed to do to adjust the way in which we managed our home life with our kids. For this reason, I chose not to share my husband’s diagnosis broadly with colleagues in work situations. It wasn’t because I thought there would be any negative perception, I just wanted to keep it private. That being said, my supervisor and my team were aware of the situation and I knew I had flexibility in case of emergencies or other obligations, which was important to me.

Last fall, it became increasingly difficult to keep my husband’s diagnosis, and how it was affecting our family, to myself. It felt more and more like I was hiding something instead of simply being honest about everything, so I decided to share my story more broadly. Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I sent to my department, comprised of over 90 teammates:

“Early on in my tenure in [this department], I was asked to participate in a Culture and Inclusion panel on “covering,” which is a way of toning down part of your identity to fit into the mainstream. It is related to “passing” which is to be in the closet about your true identity. Both require energy and both should not be necessary in a culture of inclusion. Since becoming the [department] sponsor of Culture and Inclusion, I’ve given a great deal of thought to these concepts. While I’ve embraced parts of my identity as a mother, a woman, an Asian, and someone from the “outside,” there is one part of my identity that I have sought to hide. Nearly two years ago my husband was diagnosed with ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Many of you may have participated in the ice bucket challenge a few years ago in support of ALS. It is a progressive, degenerative neuromuscular disease where victims lose the ability to control their muscles including eventually those needed for breathing. This past week my 10-year old daughter agreed to speak at her school assembly about her dad in an effort to raise awareness as part of her year-long “Think Care Act” project. When the principal asked her why she wanted an opportunity to speak at an assembly she said that while she is nervous about public speaking, she wanted to “try something outside of her comfort zone.” Which leads me to why I am writing this email. I wanted to try to get out of my own comfort zone and walk the talk of culture and inclusion. I believe strongly that there is a culture of inclusion and empathy here in [at Vanguard] and I hope each of you will find the courage to be your authentic self at work.”

The outpouring of support I received after sending that email was stunning. The best and most unexpected outcome was that so many people reached out with their own stories of health or family struggles. It was a gift to be able to connect with others on a more personal level.

Since becoming more open about my personal journey, I was recently asked to lead a session called “Navigating a Complicated Home Life.” The session was one of several “Candid Conversations” that were being orchestrated by the divisional organizers of Vanguard’s Women’s Initiative for Leadership Success (WILS) program. It was a small session of about twenty women of all ages and demographics, many of whom I did not know. I expressed with the group how I was trying to manage my home life, and the more I shared, the more others were willing to tell their own stories. No two stories were the same. The only common thread was the authenticity of the struggle. Some people spoke and others just listened with open hearts and minds. There was empathy, advice, tears and strong emotions. I left realizing this is why I had come to Vanguard. Work is not just work. Work is a community. Work is where we spend the majority of our time, time that could be spent with family, friends and other communities. I’m thankful to work at Vanguard where I believe everyone can be their authentic selves and feel supported by those they work with.

– Liz F.

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