UPS CEO Carol Tomé explains what ‘job number one’ has been during the pandemic - Fortune
With the holidays approaching, delivery firms like UPS move center stage—which is why Ellen McGirt and I decided to talk to UPS CEO Carol Tomé for this week’s Leadership Next podcast. Tomé took the job at the start of the pandemic after retiring from a 24-year career at Home Depot, where she ended as CFO. She had plans to live out her life on her farm in northwest Georgia. But her colleagues on the UPS board, where she was a director, had other ideas. “They came to me and said, ‘Hey Carol, we’d like you to be considered.’ And I’m like, me? Am I not too old? And they said, ‘You’re not too old.’” (For those who are wondering, Tomé is 64. That’s young in my book.)
Tomé says “job number one” during the pandemic has been taking care of the company’s half million people. UPS tracked employees’ “likelihood to recommend” as a place to work and found it sat at 51%. “That meant 49% wouldn’t recommend us as a place to work. My hair was on fire. I said no, this is not the place I want to work... So as a leadership team, we set forth a goal to get that metric to 80%.” So far, they’ve gotten it to 61%, but “we’ve got a lot more to do.”
With the holidays approaching, delivery firms like UPS move center stage—which is why Ellen McGirt and I decided to talk to UPS CEO Carol Tomé for this week’s Leadership Next podcast. Tomé took the job at the start of the pandemic after retiring from a 24-year career at Home Depot, where she ended as CFO. She had plans to live out her life on her farm in northwest Georgia. But her colleagues on the UPS board, where she was a director, had other ideas. “They came to me and said, ‘Hey Carol, we’d like you to be considered.’ And I’m like, me? Am I not too old? And they said, ‘You’re not too old.’” (For those who are wondering, Tomé is 64. That’s young in my book.)
Tomé says “job number one” during the pandemic has been taking care of the company’s half million people. UPS tracked employees’ “likelihood to recommend” as a place to work and found it sat at 51%. “That meant 49% wouldn’t recommend us as a place to work. My hair was on fire. I said no, this is not the place I want to work... So as a leadership team, we set forth a goal to get that metric to 80%.” So far, they’ve gotten it to 61%, but “we’ve got a lot more to do.”