Greg Selker’s work is all about technology, but he’s been thinking about labor unions lately. That may seem like a mismatch—after all, unions have been systemically weakened in the US and haven’t been a major force in the tech industry. Selker is managing director and North American technology practice leader for Stanton Chase, the executive search firm.
But with interest in unions growing in the tech sector and beyond—from Amazon to Starbucks—Selker thinks it’s time for CFOs to prepare for union drives and negotiations. He recently told CFO Brew about how he’s helping executives turn labor confrontations into something more productive.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
At a company that has unionization pressure, but no union yet, what’s the CFO’s role?
If you haven’t unionized yet—which a lot of these companies haven’t, particularly technology companies—then your options are: How can we proactively get ahead of the curve, begin to address the issues and concerns of our workforce, and do that in the most cost-efficient way possible?
And that automatically is going to lead you directly down that road of automation, business intelligence, data analytics, and AI. That is what is going to allow you to address issues and concerns, and pay for more benefits for your workers, while at the same time finding ways to drive greater efficiencies and cost reductions into your business that might result in fewer workers working, but they will be happier and more productive.
What other skills beyond those strategic ones should CFOs develop for negotiating with labor?
Well, I think the overall trend globally is for the best CFOs to be people who are business-oriented executives, as opposed to accounting-oriented executives. The CFO today needs to be someone who really does understand the big picture, who is able to connect the dots, who has this strategic business picture as well as the financial data to back it up and be able to relate to people and communicate about it from a people-to-people perspective.
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Labor negotiations can often be confrontational: CEO vs. workers. How can the CFO support her workforce and the executive? Do you have to pick a side?
When you present trends of where the business is going, and you have a story to tell about that business, and it is grounded in data that is irrefutable, and that is communicated in a way that shows you understand the implications of your story, of the data…if the CFO is doing that, then it’s not really about taking sides. The side you’re taking is the side that is going to deliver the best outcome for the business, meaning the business replete with its workers, its employees, its investors, and its customers.
You may not always get everybody to agree on the best course of action, but you can get them on the same page and get them asking the same question, it’s usually productive for negotiation.
Yeah, in the case of unionization efforts, or negotiating with an existing union, that’s where it comes down to, what are the asks, what are the issues that are underlying the asks? What are the business ramifications for our shareholders, our customers, and our workers? So if you can get everyone to align on this is what we're talking about, it certainly makes negotiation and makes the ability to reach a conclusion far easier.