“Top of mind for us at Mastercard is delivering improved experiences across the board – whether that’s for our employees, prospective hires, customers or other stakeholders.”

So says Michael Fraccaro, Chief People Officer at the Fortune 500 payments giant when UNLEASH sat down with him at UNLEASH World 2024 in Paris to discuss how Mastercard is thinking about and using technology from a talent perspective.

Through the talent lens, Fraccaro highlights how the 34,000-strong organization has “transformed” its talent acquisition strategy through the use of AI and other tech, resulting in enhanced experiences for hiring managers and prospective candidates alike, both through quicker times to hire and increased connections.

A particular efficiency play Fraccaro highlights is the introduction of automated interview scheduling, which puts interviews directly into available space within the calendars of hiring managers, eliminating multiple communications back and forth.

“We’re scheduling interviews 90% faster as a result.”

“We’ve also collapsed circa 80 market-specific careers sites into one global careers site, building a stronger and broader pipeline of leads for our recruiters and creating a more integrated user experience for our prospective employees,” he explains.

AI as an experience enhancer

Like many others in both the payments and HR space, Mastercard and Fraccaro are looking closely at what AI can do for its talent operations and the wider company.

While Mastercard has been using AI to tackle fraud, Fraccaro explains the company has recently been “bringing AI into the fold to help enhance experiences for our employees – delivering personalization and reducing friction in their workflows and everyday tasks,” he says.

“For my team in HR, we’re exploring AI and automation, especially where we have a lot of data-entry and manual processes.”

“We’ve also been using [AI] for more robust data and insights, helping our teams be more agile when it comes to analyzing and addressing employee feedback,” Fraccaro adds.

The potential for AI is endless, and we continue to ground our approach in ethical and responsible use.” 

People at the heart of technology progress

Michael Fraccaro, Chief People Officer, Mastercard

Part of future-proofing Mastercard talent includes ensuring staff are “excited about AI” and feeling they are adequately prepared for the changes it will bring. 

Fraccaro says people are “always at the center” of Mastercard’s technology journey.

Using “very intentional” techniques such as on-demand and experiential learning, leader-led discussions, ongoing storytelling and regular touchpoints for employee engagement has allowed the company to “bring employees along” on that journey.

“We’re encouraging our employees to test and learn with emerging technologies – always through the lens of ethical and responsible use,” he says.

“In the case of AI, we’re promoting testing and learning for their daily work – we see some are using it to summarize meeting notes or emails, and others are using it for faster review of data and insights.”

Mastercard has also launched a three-tiered AI learning strategy, consisting of foundational learning, role-based skill-building, and re-skilling for new roles to help its talent be prepared for the changes AI will bring.

AI is a “great tool” to support Mastercard employees, he says, but a human being is always involved with the decision-making.

“Our well-trained leaders are these decision-makers, applying critical thinking and a human touch, augmented by AI,” Fracarro states.

Unlocking internal talent opportunities

Technology is also helping to connect existing skills within the organization to where they are needed most.

Mastercard is addressing the issue of identifying and deploying for needs through its talent marketplace, Unlocked, at the “scale and speed that our business and markets demand”, Fraccaro says.

Launched in 2022, Unlocked is an internal opportunity network that allows any of Mastercard’s 34,000 employees to find short-term projects, mentorship and volunteering opportunities – which has also allowed the organization to tackle working challenges such as collaborating in hybrid workspaces, supporting our wellbeing, and recruiting and retaining top talent. 

What’s more, the platform is also a vehicle for internal mobility at Mastercard, Fraccaro adds: “We’ve seen 1/3 of employees who take part in a short-term opportunity make an internal career move of some sort.”

The majority of projects and mentorships are cross-functional and cross-regional, he says, meaning talent leaders can access skills and perspectives regardless of location or business they might have previously been unable to access – all without spending any budget.

To give a sense of the impact we’ve seen, we’ve had over 700,000 project hours logged, with nearly 90% of employees registered on the platform, and more than 35% of them engaging with the platform on a monthly basis,” Fraccaro explains.