Get to know: Emma McTague
Senior vice president and chief human resources officer, Oshkosh Corporation
Leading a global company’s human resources strategy through the Great Resignation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic is not for the faint of heart, but Emma McTague is up to the challenge. In fact, the Ireland native says this era of her 30-year HR career is “tremendously exciting.”
It’s this positive outlook that will be the focus of McTague’s presentation during St. Norbert College’s CEO breakfast at Oshkosh Corporation’s global headquarters March 23. Her session, titled “Leading through the Great Exploration,” will examine the way leaders can reframe the Great Resignation to their advantage.
“For a period of time, we froze in this Great Resignation and one day we sat back and said, ‘Why are we on the defense?’ How can we flip it as an organization and embrace the new workplace and where we are today?” says McTague, who has been with Oshkosh Corporation for eight years, the last two of which she has served as senior vice president and chief human resources officer. “We made it a positive, which overnight changed our approach.”
The company launched a monthly pulse survey to better understand the needs and values of current employees as well as to help attract new ones. The surveys revealed that Oshkosh employees, of whom more than half are Gen Z and millennials, craved more career experiences, flexibility and community.
“As an employer, we better understand our employees’ needs and can flex to that,” McTague says.
By implementing programs around the top values of employees, McTague says in Q4 of last year Oshkosh Corporation turned a corner and saw a significant decline in both office and production department turnover, with both trending toward pre-pandemic rates.
“We are seeing positive results we are thrilled with, but we will continue to pulse the organization,” she says. “We will not be complacent.”
— Amelia Compton Wolff
Wine industry first
The Blind Horse Winery in Kohler released the wine industry’s first NFT-labeled wine in collaboration with crypto company VaporFi. The 2019 cabernet sauvignon features an NFT label from The Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Each NFT corresponds to a cartoon ape — the Bored Ape NFT featured on the label was purchased by VaporFi for $246,000. Thomas Nye, general manager and master winemaker of The Blind Horse Restaurant & Winery, said this is just the beginning of collaboration between cryptocurrency and traditional off-chain industries. “Decentralized finance and crypto is so new that it’s difficult to envision how it will all come together to impact our lives,” he said, “but I do think that blockchain technology’s impact on traditional business is inevitable.”
New business network
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Alumni Relations Office recently launched a UWO Alumni-Owned Business Network — a new effort to support, promote and connect with businesses owned by university alumni. The goal is to grow the 90-member network, which began in October, over the coming months. “We hope the network will provide greater exposure to these businesses as well as provide an opportunity for alumni to connect with fellow alumni business owners and entrepreneurs,” Alumni Director Christine Gantner said. To join the network, businesses must be independently owned and operated or a nonprofit and operate as an LLC or similar. To learn more, visit uwosh.edu/alumni.
Adventure on water
Door County Maritime Museum (DCMM) is establishing a sea scout unit — called a “ship” — for local youth in Door County. A division of the Boy Scouts of America for more than 100 years, the coed sea scouting program promotes citizenship and boating skills through instruction and practice in water safety, service experiences and knowledge of maritime heritage. Sturgeon Bay previously had a sea scout program as recently as the 1980s. In February, DCMM hosted a “Join Night” for its new ship with representatives from America’s Boating Club, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary and Bay-Lakes Area Council Scouting District.
