Unique Approaches to Common Challenges with Riceland Foods CHRO Lionel Riley

Lionel Riley 0:00
The words that really kind of settled me where I’ve had experience where I’ve worked with great HR. And I know what it looks like, and it’s not here, but we need that.

Rob Stevenson 1:03
Okay, welcome back. All of you, wonderful recruiting pals out there in podcast land. It’s me, Rob, your host here with me today on the show is the Chief Human Resources Officer over at Riceland foods as well as Air Force National Guard Lieutenant Colonel Lionel Riley Lionel, welcome to you. How are you today?

Lionel Riley 1:28
I’m doing excellent. Thank you for having me. And I look forward to a great conversation today.

Rob Stevenson 1:34
Me as well, I am so interested in the fact that you maintain your rank and activity in the armed services as well as being a C-level HR professional at this huge company. I don’t want to ask the very basic boring question, how do you do it? But how do you do it?

Lionel Riley 1:50
That’s a good point. I’ll tell you, Rob, for me, it’s just been kind of natural par for the course. Right? You know, I’ve been in the military as long as I’ve been in corporate America. So it’s been a note marine of two simultaneous careers, at the same time, so I was in college was always in the National Guard. And my first corporate career was always in the National Guard. So there’s never a break of one or the other. They’re both in simultaneous. And I’ve been doing it private for the last 25 years. And honestly, it’s just a way of life. You know, a lot of planning, Greg, calendar manager is key. But again, it’s been par for the course since the beginning.

Rob Stevenson 2:30
When I speak to folks about recruiting veterans, they often share that servicemen and women struggle to transition out of active duty into the corporate world. I’m guessing that wasn’t as much of a challenge for you, because you were doing both at the same time. So the skills that serve one in the corporate world and learning how to, you know, build a resume and put your best professional foot forward and get those jobs, those skills were, you know, available to you right along. But is that something you’ve noticed? Have you noticed, you know, friends in the Armed Forces struggle to transition?

Lionel Riley 3:05
Yeah, you know, struggle is relative, right. So there are some who have excellent transition, who start planning a year, two years ahead of time, which is awesome. And there’s some who hit some, they retire on a Friday and Monday, it’s like now. But you know, one of the things I’ll say from the Armed Forces standpoint, and corporations, from law enforcement standpoint, they do have a great transition program, it’s you have to take those resources and use those options and resources are available to help further your long post your military. And then today, what corporations today, a lot of them have a great transition, as well as being saying, Hey, we recognize the skill and talent that service men and women have, and we want that skill and talent brought into our companies. So they’re being more intentional and discipline about hey, how do we assist in making that transition are easier, right? I mean, as small things are thinking about, hey, what to wear, right? When servicemen know what to wear every day of your 20 year career, you’re wearing a uniform every day, you don’t have you don’t have to understand what business casual is, or cocktail hour attire is or anything like that. communication challenges, right? So you have a hierarchy in the military, and you have a structure as far as communicating. And then in corporate America, it can get a little bit convoluted, right? You have a manager, you have a supervisor, do you have a group level leader or a higher leader, and who do you communicate directly and all of that, but so again, I say, struggle is relative, but there are transitions where the Euro professional and taking up those resources at the military provide a year in advance or just getting ready to be at the end of your career and not taking any resources. The struggle is relative.

Rob Stevenson 4:47
I’m glad to hear that those resources exist and they exist also for recruiting organizations to connect with, right. And it’s, you know, active duty is such a unique life experience. Perhaps recruiters other thing to think about it in the same way as they think about the rest of their DNI strategy where it’s like, okay, these folks aren’t just going to end up in your hiring funnels. If you’re deliberate about it, if you’re connecting with some of these organizations that represent veterans or directly with the armed the branch of the armed forces, then you’re actually going to have a chance to get them into your company.

Lionel Riley 5:21
You know, to that point, just real time on my calendar today, after this, I have a call with the military recruiting representative. And so we’ll be talking about setting up a virtual recruiting fair for military officers who are transitioning out of service. So again, real time we then Riceland, and we are being intentional about identifying talent. I said, Hey, you can we know you have the skills, education experience, and we have opportunities, and we want to marry them together. And a lot of times, you know, corporations or some, I think get it wrong to get tied up on having a match skill for skill. And to me, it’s not it’s not the case, there’s so many transferable skills that come from the military. today. I’m a sitting squadron commander in intelligence Squadron, right. So if you think about intelligence, and then with a targeting background about, you know, how do you ultimately provide weapons and effects on identify targets? Right, so what kind of skill do you need it in the civilian world, whereas a lot, there’s a lot of analytical trade craft skills that apply that transition over critical thinking skills, the ability for time management, project management, etc. So it’s not from a corporation to military, so one to one, but there’s so many transferable skills, discipline, exposure, cultural experiences, that military members who’ve had the privilege of serving overseas, that just be able to bring immense value to your corporation.

Rob Stevenson 6:48
As you said, very different cultures, very different expectations, hierarchies in military versus the corporate world. What is the overlap for you in terms of your leadership? Where do you see like, Lieutenant Colonel Lionel bleeding over into Chr? Oh, Lionel, and vice versa?

Lionel Riley 7:04
This is a good question. And I also have some Latinos who think that they able to tell you pretty upfront, quite frankly, what they are. But for me, it’s around the discipline of communication. So you know, one thing about the military, and the rank, you know, sometimes you’re the decision maker, period, right, you gather the facts, you get input from your teams. But at the end of the day, you hold the D, which is the decision making authority. And I that carries over even into the you know, my currency HR role, right? Because a lot of decisions that I collaborate with business leaders, collaborate with my peers, collaborate with my team, gather input, gather data, but the end of the day that D lies with me to make that decision for the majority of the causes. So decision making authority is one, two is just really kind of modeling what you expect. You know, there’s a lot of military members, enlisted and junior officers, well, that looked to me, and not only look to me, but only look to me to see what I’m doing, how I’m responding, communicating, recognizing my people working in collaboration with other squadron commanders across the base, same thing on the CHR o roll, right? There’s a plethora of employees out there that, you know, some that don’t even know that, you know, I get feedback on where they heard me here, they saw me in this meeting, they saw me respond on this. So it’s always important that I feel that you know, people are watching, regardless and really, regardless of rank, and even title two people are always watching. So I’m very mindful of that. But those are two big factors that just kind of carry over all the time. One is just, you know, a people watching you from afar. So be mindful of what you’re doing and how you’re treating others. And then to, you know, gathering data and details is important. But in the day, you’re in a position to make a decision, and you need to make that decision.

Rob Stevenson 9:03
Yeah, that’s an important call out about progressing in one’s career taking on more responsibilities, more highfalutin titles is that when you’re an individual contributor, you can put your head down, you can crank on something, your direct supervisor is paying attention to you and maybe their boss, but probably not too many other people are like they know who you are, but they’re not really tuned into your work as much. But you do have that visibility, the more you excel, and people are paying attention, people are taking cues from you. And that is one of those leadership skills. I think that is often not explained or not taught to people, you were elevated into this position because you executed so well as an IC. And now you have this whole new world of responsibility. So when did that kind of become clear to you where you’re like, oh, wait, people are actually really paying attention to what I’m doing.

Lionel Riley 9:47
So early on in my career, I’ve had a lot of experience and great opportunities in various companies and various levels of authority, but you know, probably clearly in back in the day in my retail day Is of Walmart at 17 years of Walmart corporate through various HR roles, and then, you know, getting elevated to that manager level role to where you first have a responsibility for team right for goals to deliver goals really set by you. And then so my conversation in my tone and my mannerisms had to change because again, I am now responsible for four to five team members who are watching the way I react, they’re watching the way out respond, and are also watching the array respond to criticism, or I will say feedback, right, just as important as to be clear and crisp on your goals, and ensure your team has all the resources it needs to be successful. It is super important to make sure that you are collaborating, and that they are also seeing you in times of I’ll call it for frustration, how you respond and react because again, they’ll go back and model what they see in you. So I’ve had a lot of experiences to where I’ve just had to kind of take a step back, relax, take a breath and say, Hey, is this the P one decision that needs to be made right now? Or do I have actually opportunity to kind of go, relax, think about it, and then come back with a strategic response. Because again, no one knows team members are watching and modeling my response and behavior.

Rob Stevenson 11:21
It’s so important to kind of put yourself in the shoes of your reports. Someone pointed out to me one time that if you have direct reports, probably everyone in that person’s life like all of their like inner circle a team they probably all know who you are like they’ve they’ve heard you be talked about complained about that never occurred to me before that it’s like oh, right, like this person is gonna go tell their significant other or their best friend or their mom, about their their boss was a real jerk today, the perspective of your impact on these people’s life. It’s so outsize than merely just the job you have in front of you. Right?

Lionel Riley 11:54
Yeah, you know, that’s a good point. I have weekly, bi weekly one on ones with my direct reports. And you know, I just asked them sometimes, like, Hey, what are you telling your spouse? What is your spouse hearing, right? Because I get it, right, because there are goals that are in place, and there are tasks that need to be completed. And you know, HR till this day revise is a thankless job, HR is not an eight to five job. So there are tasks that need to be completed after hours sometimes, and but I am always mindful, and it is 100% true. I’m always mindful of individuals and lives, right? Families, friends, kids, events, church events, school events, excetera, just life events, I’m always mindful. And I really do share that with my team as they listen, you know, writing is going to be here. So if there’s things that are need to take priority, from a family standpoint, you’re not gonna be able to get that time back, let’s open communication. And let’s make sure that we have our follow ups in place to meet our deliverables. But again, you take the time you need to be as successful on the outside is, as I want you to be successful on the inside. But I do have that conversation. I asked him again, I just say, what did your spouse say about that? What were they thinking? Or if I haven’t met him yet, I’d be like, I know, when I meet your spouse, I already know what to expect, because there’s been some some tasks that’s been assigned, as you know, call some, some headaches. But, you know, it’s I think it’s just the EQ of a leader. And that just situational awareness, you have to be mindful. Today’s environment in the world is just fast paced, very polarized, and been in human resources, you tend to take on all of that, right? I mean, just because of your employees, my peers, etc. But I’m very mindful with my, with my team, to let them know, Hey, I know they have lives outside of here. It’s important for them to be just as successful in our lives as they are in our careers.

Rob Stevenson 13:49
I like how you said that Riceland foods will be here. You know, I try to remind folks that like your work is never done. You’re never just like, that’s all of my work. It’s like, look, those emails or if someone’s going to reply to those emails you sent, there’s going to be more stuff to do tomorrow. But just the way that you said it, right, some foods will be here made me think about how Riceland foods is this almost 100 year old company, over a billion dollar company has been around forever, we’ll probably stick around forever. And it’s like, you know, inside the tech bubble that I sometimes podcasts within people may not be familiar with it, but it has certainly impacted their lives. If you’ve eaten rice in America, you’ve you have interacted with Riceland foods, I promise you, but for a company like this 100 year old company, multi billion dollars. What are the kind of responsibilities for you as Chr? What is sort of taking your attention right now?

Lionel Riley 14:39
Yeah, well, you know, again, like you kind of mentioned rice list, it’s the largest Miller and marketer of rice in the United States, right? It’s kind of like a hidden secret not so hidden secret, but it is you know, you process and and market more than 2.5 million metric tons of grain each year. And then just to me that that’s kind of mind boggling, right? But you know, I have the privilege to to lead the HR function for a company that, you know, serves and partners with over 5500 Former members in Arkansas and Missouri and ship products, you know, over 25 countries. So I don’t take that privilege lightly. And I’m very humbled by it. But when you talk about specifically about HR responsibilities, whether, you know, we’re talking about a rice meal or plan our corporate, you know, human resources, human resources, we’re out in the meal, or we’re at, you know, or you’re talking about a big tech company, people as human resources. If you have people, you need human resources, you’re gonna have people problems, you’re gonna help people concerns, but HR is HR recruiting, retaining talent, recruiting top talent, expense control, benefits, ensuring we have succession plans in place, right, what is our human capital strategy? How do we again, retain the top talent? How do we compete, I mean, an area to where we have other production facilities and factories that are, you know, we’re vying for that same talent, right? So we got to look at benefits, we got to look at compensation, we got to look at, you know, what’s going to make Reisman be that employer of choice, just like every other company out there. So, you know, HR tell people, it’s really discipline agnostic, right? Because again, if you’re in a human resources, role, or function, you’re dealing with the same five to six key variables that any other HR leader, I have some little nuances, right, that makes them different. But for the majority, it’s the same again, how do we get talent? How do we keep talent? How do we control calls? How do we ensure everyone feels like they have a place of belonging within our company, and we have engaged leaders to help push our goals across the finish line?

Rob Stevenson 16:47
I’m really glad you said that line all because, you know, we’re coming up on 400 episodes of this podcast, and I’ve got, you know, I’ve been able to speak with folks from basically every size company, every level of seniority in every sector. And that was my experience, too, is that wherever people are doing this job, similar challenges start to crop up, or folks. And this is kind of what I tell people, when I’m meeting them, for the first time about being on the show, I’m like, Look, the challenges are known and finite. But those solutions, those challenges are as varied as the individuals themselves. And so that’s like, what the show is about, it’s like, okay, how do we take? What are the challenges that someone out there listening is probably going to have at some point in their career, and just hear about your own unique approach to it. So just hearing you reiterate that it’s like, okay, so I haven’t been making that up. That’s the operating thesis of the show holds true, at least in your estimation. So thank you for giving me that validation. But it is really interesting, because again, like this is 100 year old company, this is not like a five year old tech company, where I’m speaking to their head of talent, who was also their recruiting coordinator, who was also their Chr. Oh, basically, you know, like, here’s, you know, you have how many employees, you know, 10s of 1000s of employees, over a billion dollars in revenue. And yet here you are saying that it’s the same kind of challenges you might face anywhere during the role.

Lionel Riley 18:01
Exactly. And one, to your point that you kind of skipped over. I’ll just say first, congratulations, coming up on 400 episodes. That’s Thank you. Keep up the good work.

Rob Stevenson 18:13
Thank you very much. Yeah. What are some of those challenges that you contend are common across size and shape of companies that you’re dealing with right now

Lionel Riley 18:21
in real time, so we just ended our open enrollment season, right. So you know, which that was a three week process to ensure all employees were afforded the opportunity to sign up and enroll in benefits for next year, right? There’s always changes and benefits across the board benefits usually go up each year, we’ve done a good deal of negotiating and containing that price. But to be very transparent. This year, we had a slight increase, we’re also able to add some extra benefits. But the bottom line employees are looking at every two weeks how much is coming out of my paycheck, right, regardless of what the benefits that were added, what how much is coming up out of my paycheck. So we had a slight increase this year. But one thing that was super important to me, is that we had enough enrollment sessions, we have representatives on site to be able to answer those questions individually, from employees to ensure that they were fully fully educated on what’s available, what’s new, and exactly how much this is going to cost. And when it goes into effect. Again, it seems like a no brainer type stuff. But you know, it’s not no brainer. sigh We’re being intentional. We had over 30 sessions. I mean, from covering all shifts, I’m starting at six in the morning, starting at 7pm. We had virtual sessions. And again, for me, partnering with our broker and representatives, it was imperative that we had enough of those resources on site at each of those meetings and facilities to be able to again cover the benefits in detail because it’s a big deal, right? Some people employees don’t care. They’re just going to check the box and then are some who really do care and have all the details of previous prescriptions and needs, etc, etc. But we look at this as a major part of again, being that employer of choice, why Riceland versus another company? Oh, well, here’s why we cover X amount of benefits, or this is an additional company pay benefits that we offer. So that’s just one real time that we’re facing right now, just completing open enrollment, making sure every member is educated on making a decision.

Rob Stevenson 20:29
Benefits are one of the great differentiators, I think, in companies like, I think you assume that you’re going to receive a competitive pay. If you are sufficiently you know, if you’ve been around the block a couple times in your career, you assume that like if you’ve chosen thoughtfully that you’re going to have a manager who is understanding about time off about work life balance about these kinds of things. That is all sort of like table stakes. And then, but you know, some companies cover chiropractic and some don’t, you know, like, if you have if you’re not the picture of health, if you’re someone who just checks the box, maybe it’s not a difference maker, but for the rest of us, it does make a huge difference. And it just feels like this, like the benefits question is, is not quote unquote, like a sexy, but it’s something that everyone cares about as when every company absolutely has to have when you said you had these kind of working meetings, was this like, are you sort of like surveying the employee base to understand what it is they care about? What what was taking up all that time?

Lionel Riley 21:27
Yeah, so a lot of the work in media was taken up time was really the prep with our provider, right? Making sure that we had the PowerPoint, presentation deck crystal clear on explaining the benefits, what you receive when you receive what’s different from last year to this year, and whether the enhancement that the company has made, you know, good examples, again, we’re in our corporate headquarters in Stuttgart, Arkansas is the right capital of the world, that cutting capital of the world. And just through different listening sessions and receiving feedback from multiple employees, one the enhancements and again, not to just focus on benefits, but one of the new enhancements this year was pet insurance. So again, there were some who was like, why are we doing this, but I’ll tell you, there was a lot, which is the majority of sand. Thank you, thank you for hearing me, a lot of people have a vested interest in their pets. And we heard that was able to negotiate it and get that offered this year. So we’re super excited to be able to listen to our employees, and provide a solution based on their feedback. But going back to your original question, just put up on again, what are the benefits? What’s the difference? How much is it gonna cause when they go into effect, and again, company enhancements, so at least we want to make sure that was crystal clear to all our employees. And we also want to make sure that employees had that one on one time, if needed to be able to talk to a rep, specifically about their specific situations and family makeup.

Rob Stevenson 22:57
Yeah, I mean, it’s employee engagement, right? It’s employer brands getting this stuff, right. And as you say, people are paying for it in a way and so to be able to make sure that they use it, and that they know how, and they know where it is, and what it is and what all they get that feels like really, really crucial, especially as you get larger. Now. Lena, I want to ask you a little bit about how you wound up in this role. Because you have this interesting background, you’ve been in parallel in the Air Force National Guard, while forging your own career, you had a pretty significant stint at Walmart, I want to say it was like 17 years you were there at Walmart. And so I feel like at that point, with that much tenure, you maybe could have been there forever, you know, probably they were really pleased with you. And they would have you know, I’ve spoken to some folks from Walmart, and they’re pretty good at at, you know, internal mobility and development and all that stuff. So there would have been a reason for you to stick around. However, you decided it was time to move on. So let’s like fast forward, you know, 16 and a half years and tenure at Walmart. How did you know it was time to leave?

Lionel Riley 23:59
It’s different for everyone. But for me, when you say leave, sometimes that’s has a negative connotation, right. But for me, it was the right time. For the right choice for the next step in my career had an opportunity to explore as reached out by a recruiter and had another opportunity to explore a senior director role, broader responsibility. Throughout my 16 years, I’ve had several positions within human resources from recruiting, to HR business partner to investigations, etc, how a lot of time working on a lot of fun projects, but to be able to go into a new role direct report to a CEO for a trucking company, and have broader HR responsibilities. I knew it was going to be a good stepping stone to me to actually, you know, get to a place where I actually own a p&l more, have more direct reports, and have more of the strategic piece getting introduced to having some border director interaction and all of that which is now If you fast forward to where I am today, just pay dividends, it was the right time for the right move, for me to be able to get out and just stretch my wings, even more Walmart massive company, a beast, oh, my HR education and experience and exposure to them. And definitely still things that I’ve learned and accomplished during that time. I’m bringing even to my current role. But it wasn’t an overnight decision, it was tough, you know, I still tell people that I have a lot of blue blood left in me. But again, it was just a good opportunity to kind of elevate another level, more exposure to be introduced to sea level players, and have a little bit more strategic vision and oversight from human resources function.

Rob Stevenson 25:47
Yeah, you know, it’s always difficult to change jobs, because you’ve built up all this internal credibility, you have this sort of cachet with your as an organization, it’s easier to stay in a job than it is to start over and reprove yourself and remain everybody, maybe even relocate all that stuff. And even more so the case, when you’ve been somewhere for 17 years, right? It’s hard enough, when you’ve been somewhere for like two or three. So you had to be pretty sure that we’re the place you were going to land was going to work for you were the kind of questions you were asking when you were in the interview process. And they’re like, Do you have any questions for us, Lionel? And I imagine you were like, boy, Dubai? What were some of those things that you were hoping to learn about the company?

Lionel Riley 26:26
Yeah. So you know, you already have your initial research phase, right when you’re considering other companies. So I’ve done my extensive research reached out to existing company members who work for the company to get some insight reached out to other people who had relationships, or have done businesses with that company before to get some insight. And then the main thing was really about the leadership, this was an opportunity for the role to be a direct report to a CEO. So I really want to understand his vision of HR. Right? And not necessarily me and my skill set. But what is your vision and understanding of human resources? Different leaders have different expectations, right, either they’re seen as HR as the policy police, or they’re seen as the fund committee chief, right? Neither of those is my true calling for human resources, right? Yep. I understand policy and governance, and all of that. But that’s not the number one job of human resources. And then, and switching to the other side is, you know, I’m not also going to be the fun, though, the fund committee as well engagement, employee engagement, recognition, service awards, all of that very, very key. But it’s a hybrid role of what we’re responsible for, for human resources. So I really want to understand what his understanding of human resources to ensure that they aligned with my expectations, and also the growth that I needed, that I was making the decision to leave a very, very stable company, to come to a new company, right to make sure that it was just going to align with me professionally, and personally, as well. So I really won’t understand his vision, what was the top three challenges that he needed saw from an HR standpoint, and what it looked like on a two to three year trajectory, right, because I’m coming into a new job, learning a new discipline, meet new people, multiple terminals, because I was in the transportation industry. And again, the first six months, which is going to be catching my breath, meaning people understand the little nuances, then the next six months would be really kind of going into the valuation. And hey, what do I need to roll out for the next year. So I want to make sure I had enough runway, if you will, to be able to assess, identify, and then roll out kind of my strategy.

Rob Stevenson 28:42
So it sounds like you were pretty clear about what you needed. But what did they say in response that made you feel like okay, yeah, it’ll, that’ll be the case here.

Lionel Riley 28:49
You know, the words that really kind of settled me where we need good HR, I’ve had experience where I’ve worked with great HR. And I know what it looks like, and it’s not here, but we need that. And then to me, it was just saying, Hey, I know what good HR looks like, I know what great HR looks like, I have the skills, the capabilities to be able to bring that if relied on that will get through the barriers and the speed bumps and the hard transitions and all that if we’re aligned on that, then I’m ready to go.

Rob Stevenson 29:23
I love that that’s just buy in right there that tells me that it’s like they’re not just viewing HR as a box, they need to check the URL we like we have to have it you know, like they’ve seen this function contribute at a really high level and they’re like, We need that here. They see this room for growth and upgrade in their department and like you’re potentially the man to do it. Well, Lionel, we are creeping up on optimal podcast length here. Before I let you go though, I was hoping I could have you share some advice to the folks out there in podcast land for everyone forging their career in this space. What advice would you give them so that they can continue contributing at a high level go after bigger, better jobs?

Lionel Riley 29:59
So you know One is just tell people never stop learning right? You can learn from your direct reports you can learn from your peers you can learn from your higher ups you can learn from people outside of the industry, relationships are key and always just know that you can receive a nugget or two from anyone on anything so never stop learning to is you know, as an old military San we had an infantry it was complacency kills. So my number two nugget for your listeners is, you know, never become complacent. You know, your know when you can get through your day. And you still have a lot of brain energy left at five o’clock, six o’clock or whenever you punch out, challenge yourself. Don’t get complacent. Always strive to get better. And always strive for your team or your peers to get better. Don’t settle for complacency because again, just like the old infringer days, complacency kills. The third thing is, don’t be afraid to change. sounds cliche. No, it’s not new or rocket science. But I will tell you Don’t be afraid of change and the unknown. When you have a skill, set experience, and exposure all in your toolkit, you can forge new paths. And sometimes those new paths, those undefined paths, and roles are the best ones and the most meaningful that will just set you up on a higher trajectory when that time comes.

Rob Stevenson 31:32
In other words, aim high fly fight win.

Lionel Riley 31:34
I love it. Go Air Force.

Rob Stevenson 31:38
This has been great loud thank you so much for being here and sharing your experience today. I’ve loved chatting with you.

Lionel Riley 31:42
Thank you Rob gratulations on our your podcast.

Rob Stevenson 31:48
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