Moody’s Corporation

Shavit Bar-Nahum

Shavit Bar Nahum commenced her professional journey as an IO psychologist in consulting, where she aided clients from various industries through assessment centers, strategic development programs and executive coaching. Later, she dedicated 13 years at Bank of America, where she served as a Leadership Development Executive, applying her extensive expertise across various business segments. Currently, she serves as the Managing Director of Global Talent Strategy & Employee Experience at Moody's Corporation, a role she has expertly held for nearly two years.

Through this article, Shavit Bar Nahum discusses how her team navigated the obstacles of adapting workplace strategies to meet evolving employee needs and expectations, combining research-based insights with practical applications to create a flexible, engaging and purpose-driven work environment at Moody’s Corporation.

As the Managing Director of Global Talent Strategy and Employee Experience, could you share glimpses into your roles and responsibilities at Moody’s Corporation?

In the world of talent and employee experience, no two days are ever the same. My daily activities include engaging my team to discuss strategy, execution, processes and project management. Our team has two main focus areas. The first is Talent Strategy, where we design and oversee organization-wide performance management, promotions, talent reviews and succession planning. The Employee experience team is focused on pivotal employee moments at Moody’s and includes developing a new global recognition framework, refining our flexible work approach, and understanding and enhancing engagement and wellbeing through surveys and programs. My day is filled with strategic planning discussion,  brainstorming, and deep collaboration with our broader People team and our leaders across the organization. Our aim is to prioritize the alignment of our initiatives with business needs through regular meetings with business partners. As part of my role, I make it a point to dedicate time to coaching and connecting with top talent across the organization to deepen my understanding of their potential as well as their experience at Moody's.

How does your IO psychology and consulting background influence your daily work and strategy development, particularly in improving processes and enhancing employee experience at Moody's?

My expertise in industrial-organizational psychology and consulting plays a critical role in my daily responsibilities and strategic planning, especially when it comes to process improvement and enriching the employee experience. The discipline of IO psychology provides a solid foundation in research, data analytics and objectivity, ensuring our initiatives are legally sound, adhere to industry best practices, and are benchmarked against leading organizations. This research-driven approach helps in creating well-informed, effective programs.

The consulting dimension, on the other hand, is about applying these evidence-based practices in a way that aligns with the organization's specific business goals and culture. It involves actively listening and understanding the core of our business strategy to see how theoretical principles can be adapted or modified to meet the unique needs of the organization. For instance, while best practices might suggest extensive preparation for talent reviews at six-month intervals, we have tailored this approach at Moody's to better suit our goals and leadership dynamics. Our CEO prefers a more frequent, collective engagement with the executive leadership team every three months, focusing on the broader talent landscape across the entire organization rather than in silos. This adjustment aligns with our leadership's vision and facilitates a more integrated and dynamic discussion on talent management, supporting our growth and evolution as a company.

In essence, my role involves balancing cutting-edge IO psychology research with practical, business-centric consulting to devise strategies that address Moody's immediate needs and position us for future success.

What challenges have you faced while developing and implementing flexible work policies at Moody's, and how have you addressed these challenges?

Implementing flexible work policies at Moody's has been a meaningful journey for us, especially against the backdrop of declining employee engagement across multiple industries, largely attributed to companies' varying approach to work-life balance and flexible work arrangements. Our approach began with extensive research, leading to a pilot project titled "Workplace of the Future," where we experimented with various strategies to adapt our workforce and real estate to the post-pandemic work environment. Through focus groups and interviews, we learned that remote work positively impacted employee engagement and well-being, challenging pre-pandemic norms about the absolute necessity of physical presence for relational equity.

“By giving our workforce the agency and autonomy to navigate flexible work effectively within established guardrails, we not only met their expectations but enhanced their engagement and productivity.”

Unlike some organizations that mandated a return to the office, we chose a different path, more in tune with our company culture and operational needs while preserving the essence of who we are. Our “PurposeFirst” strategy serves as a social contract, balancing the needs of our employees with those of the business. Our employees expressed a desire for flexibility, clarity on expectations and the ability to maintain meaningful connections without resorting to constant virtual meetings. From a business perspective, our priorities were also clear and we prioritized  productivity, innovation, cultural preservation and deep internal and external relationships.

The PurposeFirst policy is our commitment to mindful engagement and cultural continuity. It acknowledges that a balanced approach is necessary while a full return to the office or complete remote work is not feasible. We introduced "Heads Up" days for in-person collaboration and "Heads Down" days for focused individual work, providing guidelines for when physical presence is expected. This model allows for flexibility, encouraging dialogue between employees and managers to determine the optimal mix of in-office and remote work based on tasks and projects. We offered training, toolkits, and guidelines and created an engaging video to showcase our approach. For us, the goal was to create an environment where our employees did not ‘have’ to, but actually ‘want’ to come in to the office to be with their colleagues.

This policy has helped us maintain and increase employee engagement scores and redefined the office as a tool for meaningful interactions rather than a location for work. Our success with PurposeFirst policy highlights the collective responsibility of all Moody's employees to make flexible work effective, adhering to established guardrails while ensuring work dictates the need for office presence.

What advice do you have for your peers in HR and leadership on adapting to their workforce’s evolving needs and expectations?

My advice centers around what I like to refer to as finding the “Goldilocks Moment” in responding to the changing dynamics of workforce expectations and needs. This concept emerged from our experiences and feedback while implementing flexible work policies, symbolizing the importance of balancing various elements to achieve an optimal solution. The critical lesson learned is the value of genuinely listening to employee feedback and understanding the strategic goals of the business and its clients. We observed a broad spectrum of practices in the industry, some of which appeared either too lenient or too stringent for our context. Our aim was to identify a middle path that resonated well with our organizational culture and objectives, finding an approach that was ‘just right’ for our organization.

We discovered that treating employees as responsible adults, providing clear guidelines and trusting them to use judgement to make wise decisions within those parameters led to highly positive outcomes. By giving our workforce the agency and autonomy to navigate their roles effectively within established guardrails, we not only met their expectations but enhanced their engagement and productivity. This approach underscores the essence of internal consulting, which is not about enforcing a predetermined agenda but about creating solutions that are ‘just right’ for the organization's current state and future ambitions. It involves a delicate balance of listening, adapting and aligning employee needs with business imperatives and customer expectations to find that perfect “Goldilocks Moment” for your organization.