YouSaid · the spoken record

Christine Hurtsellers

lines on the record: 61
first: 2021-07-09
most recent: 2021-07-09
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And what do I mean by that? Is that there are dark times where the markets go crazy, certainly spring of 2020 was one of those examples. But the decisions that you make in the light are when you're thinking about the facts, when you're kind of meditating and you have a calm mind, because that's where people make mistakes. They get overly emotional. They react, they panic, things happen. So again, are you being a deer in the headlights and don't doubt decisions you've made when you were calm and in the light when things get rough?”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would say, oh, that's such a great question, Terry. One of the things is get comfortable being wrong. And so, you know, and what I tell you, why do I say that is back when I was... Out on the training floor, and it was a picture of a deer in the headlights. And why I had that is I would every day look at that and say, am I being that deer in the headlights? Because as much as you know you can stay in the investment game, oh, it's like 60% of the time you're right and the rest you're wrong, people don't like to be wrong. And sometimes we're naturally risk averse. And so what I would do, I kept that deer in the headlight photo right on my desk. And one thing that I would say to the team and I continued to say to myself and advice that I would give you as far as investments and career, I always tell people to, and this would go to market turmoil, don't doubt in the darkness things you decided in the light.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Career, and then after that point in time, and you find your true genius or passion, that's when you actually start to specialize and go a little deeper.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, certainly expand your mind in creative ways as we just talked about. But also I would say for our young talent, I always remind them don't specialize too quickly. Take some risks with your career as you go into finance. There are so many great people that you can learn from. So make sure that you start building relationships early on. And the thing that I find, you know, sometimes on the investment side, senior investors can be kind of scary. Sometimes you get these like big personalities or whatever. But you find human nature with people. If you catch them at the right time, people love to share. They love to give back. They love to explain to you why did I do this trade? Why am I thinking about this way? So just for our young talent to not be shy, to find those manners, to create those relationships and to make sure that you try a lot of different things early in your”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, as far as my favorite books that I've read. Oh, yeah. I would say, you know, one of my very favorite books, I love Steinbeck, going back to being sort of a dark fixed income investor. If you read something like Grapes of Wrath, you absolutely want to jump out a window. But one of my favorite books is East of Eden. By Steinbeck, and again, I just love non-fiction that has you study human nature and human interaction. Those are the types of things that I absolutely love.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Those are the things, qualities in a highly technical world that I think are underrated as far as what to do to be a good investor”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, right now I'm reading the handmaid's tale. It's going back to shows and series and things that you stream. I thought, wow, you know, I've actually never read anything by Margaret Atwood and books are always better than TV. And so I'm reading that. One thing, it's funny. People in my lives, whether it's team members or whatever, will give me gift me, you know, the latest non-fiction book about leadership or markets and things. And you know what, Barry? I almost never read that kind of stuff. So, you know, if you were to look at my reading list, it's all fiction. It has nothing to do with finance. But again, I think, you know, when you look back over the years, I think to be a good investor and advice for young people that are thinking about it is to really push the way that your brain works through creativity, through reading fiction, through music.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, one of my early mentors was Rob Capito, who's president of BlackRock. And got a funny story. I met him years and years ago giving kind of a talk at a conference. And why was he an important mentor to me? He said to me, I was working in Ohio at the time. And he said, Christine, you got to get out of Ohio and move to the East Coast for your career. And I had three kids at the time. So not the most obvious thing. But, you know, I listened to him and he gave me great advice over that period of time in my career. And I moved east and I never looked back.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They shine through in the series. It's funny. And so when you think about leading and you think about leading through COVID-19 and everything, right, it goes back to just trying to have a sense of humor and to really care about your people. And so even though it's a comedy about soccer, I find that it has a lot of good messages as far as how to lead well.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, Barry. One of my favorites that I'm recommending is a show on HBO Max called Ted Lasso. And so I highly recommend it to viewers. Why do I like it? I'll just give you in a nutshell. It's a funny, funny series, and it's about an American football coach from a college who's hired by a major soccer franchise in the UK to be their coach. And he's kind of this goofy southern person. And I live in the south, so I didn't mean anything by that, but he's just really wonderful and in over his head. And people should just watch it because it sort of one of these things where you're in over your head, you've got to pivot, but the qualities of the human being, you know, his compassion, his ability to motivate and communicate as a leader are actually”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Higher rates would be a good thing, right? If you think that real growth justifies it. And also there are a lot of business models. A lot of our clients, whether it's pension funds or insurance companies,”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think they're going to be very slow. I think what will happen is the market, even 100, is pretty aggressive in that timeframe. I think the Fed is going to start raising rates to move quickly. So again, I think that the market's probably going to get ahead of itself in foresting too many Fed increases and what actually is delivered. But for now, that part of the market, that part of the curve, what the Fed is doing moves slow, seems pretty logical to me.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It certainly barry, you know, the Fed is going to watch data, so they're mindful of all of that. But again, I would say the Fed also loves to, not loves, but has learned, right, as post-global financial crisis, to try not to surprise the market and to move slowly. So typically, they announce that they're thinking about tapering and then they start to give you more details. And so realistically, what's the soonest that they're probably going to really back off from some of their initial support call that early next year, so early 22. And then once they do that, we've learned from them they're going to wait at least another year, 18 months most likely before they actually try to raise the rate. So the market is pricing in, I believe, called 100 basis points in 23. Is the market wrong in this? I think no. I think that it's going to be a while.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Two and a half, you know, excuse me, say that the high yield spread to a tenure treasury. Let's just call it 2% or 2.5%. So if you get some of these competing asset classes at attractive yields relative to equities where you're like, huh, I can clip a coupon and I can earn 4.5%. Again, I think that's where things get pretty challenging for the equity market. Long way of saying, I think once you get to like two and a quarter, two and a half, it's going to take the air out of the bond balloon. So we've got to be very careful.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. And I think we're in a tricky spot, right? As Barry is, you know, the Fed starts to remove the support of the bond market through purchases. And you said, at what level on the 10-year does it start to disrupt the growth? I think you hit on a really important theme early on. It really goes a lot down to the housing market. You know, again, that is the most important asset that most Americans have. And so if you get 10 years up to, say, two and a quarter, two and a half, I think that really starts to create some potential challenges for the equity market because does housing start to roll over? So that reduces the momentum. At what level, if you going back to our conversation about high yield earlier on, so let's just say to ourselves, okay, 10-year interest rates go up.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are missing right now? Some that talk a lot about this, I think they're still underestimating how important All of the stimulation has been to the calmness of the markets and the growth that we have, in addition to fiscal. So again, I think Jerome Paul and the governors are spot on in what they're doing, and I fully support everything that they've done.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think, actually, I think Jerome Powell is exceptional, as was Janet Yellen. And I would do what he's doing. And it's communicate, communicate, because there's a lot of risk in the market given that the Fed does have so much that they're doing in terms of unconventional support of the markets. And they're being very slow. They're communicating, being very careful. And so all this, you know, sometimes market participants will say, oh my gosh, the Fed is behind the curve and inflate. They're going to lose control of the market. Well, listen, if you're the Federal Reserve, it's like fool me once, fool me twice. We sort of believe that growth was strong and inflation was strong and kind of got worried, you know, in taper tantrum or fill in the blank of different things that have happened in the market. And they're like, well, you know what? We're going to be judicious. We're going to be careful. We're going to be slow. And I believe absolutely it's the right thing to do. And I think what market participants”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And, you know, the massive amount of debt that the U.S., I mean, just a lot of things could point you to say, now it's going to be really hard to believe the Fed can completely walk away from the markets in terms of everything they've done and that the world economy, the U.S. economy, is strong enough on its own without intervention to support those types of yield levels. I don't see it.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But can the economy, the way that I'm looking at it, sustain a real growth rate this year's different a real growth rate that high, particularly given challenges with immigration and labor force? No. So if yields were to go high due to inflation, it would be very damaging, more of a stagflation event. And again, not good for real growth. So Barry, as much as I think, oh, gosh, this is consensus. Am I still saying that treasuries are going to stay low? Yeah, I do. I just think it's really challenging to get what we call escape velocity out of this low-growth world structurally that we're living in.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“an aging world, people needing yield. I remember sort of conventional wisdom is like, oh, you know when people age are actually going to start draining assets and that's going to be inflationary. I don't really believe that. So it's a good question. Can we get back to a four percent 10 year and real growth being stronger than where we are today 10 years from now if we have Tesla has automatic cars and all kinds of wonderful things are happening? Yes, we can. Is it going to happen near term? If it is, it's an investment opportunity for folks. And so you should jump on board if yields really rise because people may over index right now on inflationary pressures.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So 10 year tenure, well, you know what? That's right. That is a great question because you've got to balance bury the ingenuity and the productivity of the human spirit, which is pro-growth and very exciting, which is some of these natural headwinds of”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The next year or two drain liquidity. They have been doing massive support of risk assets. You know, things are going to get choppy. So we're trying to be very diligent, look at what we're doing, but keep some dry powder.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, sort of your lower risk budget, so you don't want to be over your skis in terms of the overall risk that you would take because the opportunity to stretch just isn't there in many of the sectors that you and I have been talking about. So you got to be careful, you got to be super, super diligent as far as what areas make sense, what securities do you really believe, and try to keep some dry powder to react. But when is this going to happen? You know, you wake up every day, and early in my career, Barry, for people that might be listening that are early, is this axiom, is that it always feels terrible at the lows and it always feels great at the top of the market, right? You're at the top of the market. It's like, of course, the economy is great. Life is good, and that's when it all falls apart. So you've got to be mindful. Are we there yet? No, but as the Fed starts to...”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah. You have to, you know, you can't, the cost of sitting in cash barry is also quite high, right? So call return on cash zero. So you've got to come up with some things to do for your clients. And so as you say, what do you do? You fly a little closer.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All this kind of activity really in the spring of 2020. I mean, just prices gapped out so wide. So people do need to be mindful that emotion and fragility can certainly affect this sector. And that's why it was called high yield, not your best quality. But again, for now, logical words price, just given how low interest rates are and how many clients and business models really need higher yields in order to have the savings or hit their targets.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They're called 160 basis points over treasuries. Is that's not the tightest they've ever been. You know, they have been narrower, right, believe it or not, if you look at spread relative to the risk-free rate. And plus, you know, you have good economic momentum and you have the market when you think about high yield or these credit rating agencies, right, that rate the debt. And we're seeing more upgrades than downgrades, meaning that credit, you know, the balance sheets are repairing. And so the economy is helping this sector. So near term, it's logical that yields are this low, but it's certainly longer run. This isn't our call for today, but longer run when the economy gives a hiccup and things get choppy. We've seen this before. These asset yields, if you will, can go from 250 to north of 6% in a heartbeat. So a little treacherous, but yes, I mean, you see.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Old Barry, we call high yield. One of the things we say is we call it the asset class formerly known as high yield. And you're absolutely right, right? That is what we call it. And as you say, you know, it's been challenged for quite some time. And so what really is going on inside of there? And it goes back to the issue you were raising is that treasury rates or interest rates are so low. So when we think about high yield specifically, we kind of divide it up into two things. When we think about the risk premium versus Treasuries or sort of the spread. And when you look at, say, the higher quality, high yield,”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, there are going to be some inflation risks potentially, but long run, lots of people around the world are aging. So you think about China, you think about the United States. And productivity, what's it going to be? But at the end of the day, people are telling you we don't think that real growth is really going to be that strong or that robust. And so really that is the reasoning behind why are long-term rates still so low.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You very certainly one contribution, as you say, is really the Federal Reserve's buying program, right? So they continue to buy lots of treasury securities and certainly mortgage-backed securities as well. So that's of an effect. But when you peel it back, why is the long-run bond market or those 10-year yields still anchored is so low? If we think about it, it's telling you what does the world believe what we call terminal Fed funds really is. And so when you think about that, what does that mean? That's like the real rate where Fed funds can be in order to...”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“really focus on the facts, right? But also I would say for my career specifically, I spent most of it in what we call structured products as we were talking about. And I think that is a great market because you can kind of combine the discipline of the fixed income investor also with the enthusiasm of the housing market and interesting things going on in the world. But overall, I think coming out of it, you know, just balance of as a leader. As a leader, I like to use this phrase with people. When you lead people, you need to have what I call authentic optimism. And why is that? It's like you have to believe that the world is a better place than that your strategy is going to deliver and you're adding value. But you have to face things authentically. Because also employees don't want you to just be telling them stuff that isn't true, right?”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Barry, first of all, as you say, with fixed income versus equity investors, now, you know, I get to work with both. Is you're absolutely right just to start out fixed income investors tend to be cynical or more cynical because for them, success is par, right? Every dollar that you invested and you have all kinds of downside risks. Hey, I got a dollar back. Yeah, I got a dollar back and a little bit of coupon or I love what we call 40% or 50% or points like high yield. So that sort of explains to everybody. Whereas equity, they're optimistic, right? Oh, this company's growing, isn't this wonderful? And so even in our employees, you do see a mindset difference. And so kind of going back to your question, though, of how did fixed income prepare me for this role, I would say, certainly Certain level of”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Work flexibility of being able to work in the suburbs and not commute is accelerated. But this is just an acceleration of a very natural trend that we see.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We watch it pretty closely, and I think we've always had a big level of assets in securitized product. We're very good at it avoid investment management. And we do watch it. It's a little bit of a slower moving train, Barry. But I think what people had often forgotten about the millennials is this, is that they would say, well, you know, they're different. They want to travel. They want to do X, Y, and Z, and they don't want houses. And we've had the theme that, no, no, you just forget these people are going to live until they're 100s, right? So they're growing up slower. They're doing things slowly, but ultimately our millennials as household formation going to happen absolutely it is. And these are important demographic trends to watch. So I think COVID just accelerated it as people were working in apartments, as well as it certainly.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would say it's a little bit more isolated. Now, granted, houses are the largest asset for most Americans. It's a very important part of their net worth. And so the housing market getting volatile on us is not a good thing. I mean, however, as you just referenced, Barry, I think a lot of this is a combination of low interest rates and its demands right now. We see even building houses as getting more challenging based on commodity prices going up. So this is a period of time we're going through. Plus finally, you know, millennials are forming housing finally or households quicker than ever as a result of COVID. So I would call this more of a tactical risk, if you will, not a systemic risk like the global financial crisis was. There's just not enough leverage in the system.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Barry, just from a kind of an investor tactical view, when you think about asset classes and what you recommend to your clients, housing related securities would be really towards the bottom of the list. Because as you say, house prices have gone up very quickly. The government, the Federal Reserve, has been buying securities, you know, agency securities associated with housing. So you have a combination of sort of a federal push liquidity event there, as well as you've suddenly got all of these people all over the place. We're bidding up the housing market. And in fact, just recently, housing crisis came up again and they continue to skyrocket. So thinking about, but is the housing market today within itself enough to really be the seeds of yet another financial crisis? I would say no.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's sure, Barry. And this is something when you think about it, so certainly Freddie and Fanny were prominent in the GFC, right, as we went through the financial crisis and the U.S. housing market. So the seeds of the global financial crisis began in the 90s, and as the markets grew and Freddie and Fanny got more aggressive on what they were underwriting and competing against one another, things that explain part of that journey. But again, lessons learned, though they were highly levered institutions and they had guaranteed debt.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, yes, Barry. I worked at Freddie Mac and left there right at the end of 2004, but worked there and managed a variety of assets there. So back in the day, pre-GSC or global financial crisis, they had these very large, what they called retained portfolios. And so kind of going into Freddie, I worked quite a bit on what are called collateralized mortgage obligations or CMOs, then what we call mortgage derivatives. So think really esoteric product, you know, sort of what we call interest only or principal only securities. So a lot of structuring, just a lot of deep knowledge around the housing market. Really interesting time in my career because at that point in time, the GSEs of Freddie and Fanny were huge in terms of their participation in the mortgage market, and they had these very large portfolios at the time.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At Alliance, I was part of a team that really just focused on mortgage product, mortgage derivatives way back in the day. It's such a bad word now post the GFC. We actually managed sort of CDOs that they were called. So think about structured mortgage product. It was a growing business at Alliance Capital, but again, most of my career, you know, from the very beginning has been was focused on really the housing market, aspects, securities. And so that's sort of was my original path and my love.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yep, that's right. Yeah, yeah. And I know Barry, you know, a lot of times people will say, oh, wow, who are you? What's your role? And wouldn't expect that I had raised five children, including one with special needs. So, yeah, so you're absolutely right. So that drives a lot of my passion, right? When I think about the industry and where we need to go and what can we do differently and how can the legacy or the world that I leave behind my story, how to make it a better place. So I do think I bring a certain level of understanding and empathy as far as how complex the working world can be to navigate.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“From some of our competitors. So let me just tell you this is I've heard some competitors say, well, you know, the senior people, you know, we're going into the office. We want people to see us because you kind of lead by example, right? Well, you know, I've had five children. One of the things about me, I have five sons, right? And one of my sons. Is on the autism spectrum, which has its own unique challenges and opportunities. And I think long and hard, how do I want to lead by example for VOI investment management in our people? And it's with understanding flexibility and enabling them to succeed in their careers. And so that's the approach we're taking. So are you seeing Christine herd sellers every day in the office, even though we're still closed, hoping that people will follow my example? Absolutely not.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I agree with you. Barry, I think it is a big advantage. And listen, we don't have all the answers yet, but some of the things that we're doing as far as this hybrid world is we're going through a whole process as far as what different technology do we need to be putting into people's homes and how do we change what our workplace looks like if it's a little bit more of a hoteling space. So we're literally renovating as we speak two of our offices to accommodate that, our New York office and our Atlanta office. So we don't have all of the answers, but we're giving it a lot of thought. And we do think that this is going to make VOI investment management continue to be the best places to work and a place of choice. And again, just going to flexibility, going to workforce diversity, we've got to pivot. And I'm very mindful of this. And this is a little bit different, Barry.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And when you think about what a female person is dealing with uniquely, and all employees, all employees, but when you think about children and balancing and you look at the overall U.S. statistics about who's dropping out of the workforce, it's the working mothers. And so if you as an employer are saying, okay, you have to come in just as the industry is really an industry that has not done well in terms of diversity and inclusion with our employee population.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes. People need to come back. Do they need to be here five days a week? Absolutely not. Do I think that people should be mandating you have to be in Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday? No, that's also not flexibility. So we're taking an in-office flexible approach. And Barry, I could go on and on. I have so many views around this. But, you know, what are employees telling us and where am I really concerned and where do I think people and leaders may be missing it? It's our female employees particularly.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you know, it's so interesting watching all of this unfold as we learn, Barry. So starting with what we're doing and thinking about it broadly is we're going to be what's called hybrid. I mean, we don't think 100% in the office is right, nor do we think 100% virtual is right. And so we've gone through very robust surveying of our people and thinking what's the right thing to do. So why are JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley going back? You know, I would say very real. You want to maintain your culture. You want to maintain teamwork. And on the investment side particularly, when you think about alpha and idea generating, being a part like this for so long can impact your investment results because sort of those sidebar conversations where you get good ideas as an investor from your people, you know, you really can't replicate that on Zoom or with a telephone call.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To help people adjust through this, more flexibility, things like that. So when employees really feel like they understand where you're coming from, that you're authentic, that they believe you, and that also you see them and you're becoming more flexible, expanding your mental health benefits as an example as people were dealing with COVID. And certainly as the summer continued and we had George Floyd, the murder of George Floyd and the emotions associated with that and having conversations and really working towards how are employees feeling about all of these different things they're dealing with. I think those are the key things that really helped get us through 2020. And so as a result, thankfully our employees continue to really be engaged and want to work with fully investment management.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That they won. And so that would just be one small example of the things that we do that make our employees really feel proud of what Voya does and that we make the world better for our communities and our clients. But I would say pivoting to twenty twenty specifically because certainly I mean as a leader, I was like, I don't know if we're going to win this again. How are our people doing? And we were certainly surveying them and trying to stay connected in a virtual world. But I think what really resonated with the team in 2020 was just a transparency, the transparency of leadership, of seeing them, and trying to say, well, this is what I know and this is what I don't know. And here's kind of what we're going to do about it. Because again, when you think about it, times were pretty uncertain last year. And so just being authentic, present, voyativited very quickly in terms of benefits and trying to”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Barry, thank you for mentioning that. And that's something you're absolutely right. We've been named that by our employees for six consecutive years. And it's not something that we take lightly. It's an honor and it's something our employees vote on. And, you know, in the context overall, as far as why are we winning this year after year, and then I'll pivot to COVID specifically, really goes to two things that come out from our employees consistently. They love the teamwork, the approach, the open-mindedness, and we spend a lot of time investing in that and psychological safety and different things as a company. So they love the teamwork, and they also love the fact that VOA is mission-driven, and we give back to our communities. And so we give, as an example, we give all employees 40 hours or a full week of paid leave to go out and volunteer in the community.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Where I would talk about how the business was doing, how the clients were feeling. We tried a lot of things with our team. We do no meeting Fridays in the summer to try to give them some bandwidth because people are just plugged in all the time. And so some of the issues really when I think about the business, you know, the markets after the Fed came in sort of calm down, right? So the real challenge is once we got through the spring really was keeping our employees healthy as they were dealing with working from home, kids, kids not in school, feeling a bit detached. So we spent a lot of time and energy and we still do on thinking about how can we be a good place to work for employees in a world like we have today, which is virtual.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, Barry, all of us, I think in the industry, right, we didn't have a lot of answers. It was really surprising. And in fact, I think at the beginning, you know, if you would have asked me, hey, Christine, how long do you think the people are going to be working from home as a result of this pandemic? I would have told you, oh, six weeks. You know, the summer's coming, things are going to get better. And actually, we've been at work from home for over a year at this point, and we're still working from home and won't be back until the fall. So what did we do? Didn't have a playbook, but a lot of listening. We were able from a technology standpoint to move pretty seamlessly from in the office to out of the office. But then it was a matter of how in the world do we keep our employees engaged? So we tried a lot of different things. We did, you know, webcast.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. And so again, as we hear a lot of the rhetoric in the market of, oh, you know, our private assets, do people really understand them? Or, you know, is it a bubble, you know, with the growth of private assets? And again, I would say no. I mean, certainly there are risks and opportunities within any broad brush sector of the market. But again, it's highly logical, just given the state of the world and investment opportunities, that these types of asset classes continue to.”
2021-07-09 · Masters in Business · Christine Hurtsellers on the Business of Trust (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source