For Gillian McKenna, it’s always been about people. As chief people officer for Generation, a global nonprofit tackling unemployment through skills and job placements, she’s spent her career championing workplaces where everyone’s contribution matters.
Based in Glasgow and leading a fully remote, global HR team, Gillian’s approach blends tech-savviness with a deep understanding of what makes people thrive. In this edition of The Big Interview, she talks candidly about balancing wellbeing with performance, how to lead in times of rapid change and why the most meaningful work is always about people, not processes.
How does Generation’s mission to support economic mobility influence your approach to human resources, particularly in fostering a culture that reflects these values?
At Generation, our belief in the power of employment to change lives shapes how we handle all things people. We have clear and consistent values. We believe in going further together, solving problems that matter, bettering our best, empowering and supporting each other, being here to serve and being open and transparent.
These values and our culture aim to ensure an inclusive and supportive culture where everyone can thrive and be at their best. This means offering lots of learning opportunities for colleagues, promoting personal growth, and making sure everyone feels valued and heard. By aligning our HR frameworks with our values, we create a workplace where everyone can contribute to and benefit from our collective success.
In a competitive talent landscape, what innovative recruitment strategies does Generation recommend to attract and retain top talent committed to social impact?
We’re proud of our talented colleagues and are fortunate to have had low employee turnover in recent years. The global team is 100% remote across 21 countries … we aim for inclusion and retention of talent by ensuring we open up all vacant roles to all internal colleagues, providing opportunities for them to apply.
We also seek mission and value-aligned candidates when we’re hiring externally. We’re fortunate to have a very compelling economic mobility mission, which attracts great talent who believe in our mission and want to work with a high-performing team to deliver impact.
Mental health impacts our thoughts, emotions and behaviour, so it’s important for all of us to promote our own and each other’s wellbeing.
With DEI efforts facing challenges globally, what is Generation’s view on the role that diversity and inclusion play in organisational culture and practices?
We see the way that Generation’s 130,000+ alumni successfully bring their diverse talents and perspectives to their workplaces after graduating from our employment programs, with 87% of our employer partners eager to hire Generation graduates again — and we strive to bring those same principles to our own team to make our work stronger.
Ensuring an equitable, inclusive culture for our colleagues across our 21 countries is key, and we want to ensure there’s a sense of belonging for all where we all thrive and we can deliver on our mission. This has always been our focus.
Managing a remote team is challenging, although it has many amazing benefits. We work hard with our Generation employee working group to engage on ways we can continue to foster and build community and we regularly measure employee engagement via pulse tools to ensure we can address challenges, create opportunities as well as strengthen our employee value proposition.
As AI and digital technologies reshape the workplace, how is Generation preparing its workforce to adapt to these changes, both internally and within the communities you serve?
We’re really proactive about preparing our workforce and our learners for the world of work in the age of AI. We focus on digital literacy and using AI tools. Internally, we make sure our team has the AI training and tools to stay competitive and is adopting technology in ways that moves our work forward.
Externally, we’re equipping our learners and graduates with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in an AI-driven job market. These changes span sectors and professions, and we are ensuring graduates not only in technology programs, but also in areas like green jobs, healthcare, customer service and skilled trades are getting AI skills.
Given the increasing focus on employee wellbeing, how does Generation prevent burnout and promote a healthy work-life balance among staff?
The health and wellbeing of all our employees is of paramount importance. A healthy and engaged workforce helps us deliver on our mission. We understand that working in a remote, global and fast-paced environment can be challenging. That’s why we provide resources to help our colleagues maintain their physical, emotional and mental wellbeing. This includes an Employee Assistance Program, access to a mindfulness app and a clear approach to wellbeing with defined responsibilities for our organisation, managers, and colleagues.
Mental health impacts our thoughts, emotions and behaviour, so it’s important for all of us to promote our own and each other’s wellbeing. We’re committed to creating a safe space by raising awareness and normalising conversations around mental health. We aim to do this by implementing positive steps that colleagues can take to support their overall wellbeing.
How has Generation navigated the shift towards remote and hybrid work models, and what strategies have proven effective in maintaining productivity and engagement?
Generation is a 100% remote organisation, and we, fortunately, have not had to navigate the challenges of hybrid and return to office mandates. We retain positive employee engagement scores and experience low levels of attrition, further emphasising the benefits and value of our 100% remote set-up.
Recognising the importance of strong leadership, how does Generation develop leaders who can drive the organisation’s mission forward?
Developing strong leadership is crucial for us at Generation. We encourage everyone to lead, regardless of their role. We offer leadership growth opportunities through secondments, gigs, cross-departmental projects and regular feedback.
We’ve provided coaching skills training for all and are launching our Generation Leadership Development Model for our global team. Our LEAD model focuses on four domains: leverage teams, empower others, achieve results and drive the future. This helps colleagues understand the leadership requirements at various career stages. Our goal is to cultivate skilled leaders, prepared for future roles and deeply committed to our mission and values.
With the rapid evolution of required skill sets, how does Generation approach upskilling and continuous learning to ensure employees remain effective and fulfilled in their roles?
As part of our learning and development agenda, Generation has provided colleagues with learning platforms to lead their own development in terms of acquiring new skills and experiences relating to their personal and professional goals.
As mentioned before, we introduced gigs and secondments to other teams as a means to provide colleagues with opportunities to broaden their knowledge and experience, which have proven to be successful initiatives. More recently, we’ve launched comprehensive AI training for all colleagues to ensure they can upskill and remain up to date with the evolving AI landscape.
In our employment programs, we take a similarly long view. Our graduates master not only the technical skills for a given role or profession but the behavioural skills and mindsets that will help them navigate changes in their roles and progress along a lifelong learning journey. And it works: by five years post-program, 63% of employed alumni have progressed to non-entry level roles.
The pace of change in the world of work is extraordinary. HR as a profession needs to be, and remain, more data-driven, efficient and technology-focused.
With an ageing population that’s retiring later and later, how would you recommend addressing the unique needs and expectations of a multigenerational workforce to foster collaboration and inclusivity?
We’re proud of our multigenerational workforce. Through our external research, such as The Midcareer Opportunity report released in partnership with the OECD, we’ve seen the ways that ageism is entrenched in many workplaces – but also the high value that managers across sectors see from midcareer and older employees.
With workforce demographics shifting to encompass a greater portion of workers over age 45, we want to take advantage of the opportunity to attract and retain a workforce of various generations and age brackets.
We offer remote working and flexibility that has appealed to a multigenerational team, where we can all learn from each other’s different perspectives and unique experiences, regardless of stage in life. Addressing the needs of a multigenerational workforce involves promoting inclusivity and leveraging the strengths of all colleagues.
In the nonprofit sector, how does Generation design its benefits and compensation packages to attract and retain talent while aligning with its financial sustainability goals?
In 2023, we rolled out a transparent compensation and benefits philosophy for our globally dispersed team. We wanted something fair, competitive and straightforward. We made sure everyone knew what we meant by compensation, sharing clear information about salaries and market positions.
We balance external market data with internal fairness, checking benchmarks every three years when possible. We promise fair base salaries based on market, location, level and position, using a mix of multi-sector and not-for-profit standards.
We also set minimum leave thresholds, boosting benefits in many countries to ensure everyone gets fair time off for personal and family events, making our approach more inclusive.
How have you evolved your HR practices to meet team feedback?
Data is at the core of everything we do, across our internal practices and our external programmes. Our Generation Global HR team ensures we evaluate and evolve our people frameworks based on feedback.
We review the feedback gathered from our regular employee satisfaction and wellbeing surveys, stay interviews and our Generation global employee working group to ensure our initiatives are adding value to further our mission and enhance our employee experience.
We also embrace technological transformation, AI and automation to continually enhance the quality and efficiency of our service delivery.
What are the most significant HR challenges and opportunities right now, and how are you addressing them?
The most significant HR challenges for Generation include many of the same ones we see our employer partners and graduates facing as well: adapting to the evolving technological, political and economic landscape.
It will be essential to demonstrate agility in our approach, being able to pivot as needed, all while maintaining connection, community and strong employee engagement in our remote set-up. We will continue to promote continuous learning and professional development, and we will retain our focus on evaluating, continuously improving and strengthening all of our people initiatives, to ensure a supportive and inclusive environment for our colleagues.
These efforts will help address future challenges and opportunities, strengthen, grow our offering and navigate the evolving HR landscape.
And finally, how do you see HR evolving over the next five years?
Years ago, I would have answered this particular question with more ease than I can today. I’m thinking more about how HR might look five months from now or even 15. The pace of change in the world of work is extraordinary. HR as a profession needs to be, and remain, more data-driven, efficient and technology-focused.
HR professionals will need to be extremely agile, add value through strategic partnering with CEOs/executive teams and continuously adapting to and keeping pace with new trends and technologies.