New ServiceNow CPO Canney to drive “special culture and future innovation”
Global HR tech provider ServiceNow has a new Chief People Officer who is already making waves.
Why You Should Care
Jacqui Canney joins ServiceNow from global company WPP, where she served as Global Chief People Officer for more than 100,000 employees.
Prior to this, she held HR roles at Walmart and Accenture.
Gretchen Alarcon, GM of HR Service Delivery at ServiceNow believes Canney can help the team level-up their winning culture of innovation.
ServiceNow is expected to grow beyond expectations in years to come after business wins during the pandemic.
HR TECH giants ServiceNow’s new Chief People Officer Jacqui Canney is set to level-up their team’s “special culture” of innovation and drive it into a new era.
Canney joined the California-based company last month and leads all aspects talent strategy, including employee experience, rewards, attraction, retention, development and diversity, inclusion and belonging for ServiceNow’s rapidly growing global workforce of more than 14,000 employees.
Canney joins from WPP, the global creative transformation company, where she served as Global Chief People Officer for more than 100,000 employees. Prior to this, she held senior HR roles at Walmart and Accenture.
Speaking to UNLEASH, Gretchen Alarcon, VP and GM of HR Service Delivery for ServiceNow, told how she was personally very excited for Canney to get started in HR tech.
“I’m thrilled to have a new HR leader,” Alarcon said. “I have to say, as a former HR person, I’m always so excited to see what a new HR leader is going to bring.
“You know, I think one of the things that’s been really clear from our leadership team as they’ve been going through this search is that ServiceNow has built a very special culture this last 18 months.
It was very important for the leadership team to find a leader who aligned with that culture, who understood what Bill [McDermott, ServiceNow CEO]’s goals were, where the where the organization is trying to go. So they can bring us to that next level.
Gretchen Alarcon, GM of HR Service Delivery, ServiceNow
“For that reason I’m really excited to have Jacqui on board. I just was meeting with a couple members from her team this week and talking about what’s next on the HR technology implementations inside ServiceNow. And, of course, you know, a new leader will have a lot of things that they’re wanting to do to bring forward.
“I’m really excited for this next phase, we’re growing fast. We’ve got a great opportunity in the marketplace. And I think a new HR leader just helps us move that much farther along that along that path. So really excited to have her driving this.”
ServiceNow is one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2021. ServiceNow also was recently named to Glassdoor’s Top CEOs 2021 list. ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott was No. 37 of 50 on Glassdoor’s US large company list, with an approval rating of 95%. He was No. 27 out of 50 on Glassdoor’s UK list, with a 97% approval rating.
McDermott said: “Talent is the heart of every great company. Winning as a team with the world’s best talent is the heart of ServiceNow. Jacqui will be an incredible asset to ServiceNow in our tireless pursuit of building a strong, diverse culture, helping our customers succeed and making the world work for people.”
HR tech winner
Many believe ServiceNow is well-positioned to reach the $15+ billion revenue target the company laid out at its analyst day in May 2021.
The company’s relentless march into adjacent (ITSM) markets such as Customer and Employee workflows and Creator workflows are already proving popular with global customers.
ServiceNow’s products are used both by IT professionals and business users, making them highly sticky in the enterprise. ServiceNow’s competitive moat stems from its large installed base of large customers, breadth of product portfolio, and formidable go-to-market capabilities.
In addition to leading the company’s global talent strategies, Canney’s objective is to provide strong thought leadership for ServiceNow HR tech customers, helping them understand the power of the Now Platform and the company’s employee workflow products to create great employee experiences and keep today’s hybrid workforces engaged and productive.
Alarcon, who also joined ServiceNow from Oracle remotely during the pandemic, understands what it means to take on such a big leadership role at this pivotal time.
“I think one of the things that I really focused on when I first [joined] was that I needed to build relationships from the start,” she revealed.
“Work is the starting point so I told my team: ‘You’re going to see an awful lot of one-on-one requests on your calendar coming from me and that is not because I’m trying to micromanage this, but because I’m trying to get to know you!
“Joining remotely you have to find ways to break in and say, yes, I want to be involved in these conversations and know what’s going on. Because that’s a large part of what makes people successful.”
