Patty Babler, SVP, HR, global employee & labor relations and HR operations at Cargill, opened a fireside chat at From Day One’s Minneapolis conference with a candid assessment of the company’s employee experience. Babler discussed how Cargill is rethinking onboarding as part of a broader effort to better support its 155,000 employees worldwide.

“It’s very hard to come into Cargill as a brand new employee,” she told moderator Allison Kaplan, director of innovation and engagement at the Minnesota Star Tribune. Her frankness set the tone for a wide-ranging discussion that touched on AI-powered recruiting, a global portal launch, crisis leadership, and more. 

Closing the Frontline Gap

Until recently, Cargill’s production employees filled out paper time sheets, and their top question for HR was how to access pay and benefits.

“Many of our programs were really focused on our banded populations, more of our professional workforce,” said Babler. To close that gap, Cargill launched Powered by Plants, an initiative that gathered feedback from frontline workers and turned it into action.

The results included flexible schedules, automated scheduling, an employee portal for pay and benefits, and a move away from paper forms. 

The most dramatic changes were made in the HR department. Cargill once took up to two weeks to make job candidates offers, while competitors were hiring on the spot. The company deployed an AI-powered recruiting assistant named to address its slow hiring process. “We’ve reduced our time to hire somebody from over two weeks to within a day,” Babler said, closing a critical leak in Cargill’s talent pipeline.

From Using AI to Doing AI

Babler drew a distinction that she repeated throughout the session. “Instead of thinking about AI as using it, we have to do AI.” 

The difference, she says, is between applying AI to existing processes and rethinking those processes entirely. “It’s really challenging that process mindset we’ve all been used to,” she said. “If we don’t really stop using and get into doing AI, I think we’re going to be behind as HR professionals.”

Consider an unlikely candidate for AI: employee relations. Cargill recently built an agent that drafts investigation reports, analyzes credibility, and sequences events to flag potential problems.

“Our ER specialists are really able to focus on reviewing that information, but also providing proactive employee relations support and consulting,” Babler said. The goal is to free specialists for work that requires human judgment, she says. 

One Portal to Unify 155,000 Employees

Cargill had chased the dream of an integrated employee experience for more than a decade, and its new employee portal, “Cargill Now,” recently went live. It’s built on the ServiceNow platform and unifies HR, IT, procurement, and finance into a single portal accessible from any device. 

“We did go live with a global deployment in all four functions for all of our employees,” Babler said. Over 19,000 employees had already accessed the system a week after the portal’s launch, and Babler describes the rollout as “really, really smooth.” 

Babler credits her team for the successful rollout. “I really think it’s because of the people and the team we have, and I’m so proud,” she added.

Leading Through Crisis, Grounded in Values

With operations in 70 countries, Cargill navigates a constant stream of geopolitical, environmental, and local disruptions. Babler described a crisis action network that connects employee relations teams around the world to respond to disruptions such as plant fires, labor disruptions, or natural disasters. “We have employees both in Ukraine and in Russia,” she said.

Babler says Cargill’s approach is consistent: Put people first, engage managers, and empower local leaders. For example, Cargill deployed on-site Employee Assistance Program (EAP) sessions, group sessions, and individual support when Operation Metro Surge affected some of its workers. “We’re really trying to be flexible and adaptable based on what our employees need, depending on the situation,” Babler said.

Underpinning that flexibility is a set of values Babler says she has found only at Cargill. “We put people first, we reach higher, our word is our bond,” she said. “No matter where you are in the world, our values come out everywhere.”

The Road Ahead: Skills, Speed, and Hyper-Personalization

Looking forward, Babler pointed to strategic workforce planning as a critical opportunity. “We now can leverage AI to think about where those talent needs are, where we have the critical roles,” she said. 

She advocates shifting from jobs to skills, but technology alone won’t close the expectation gap. Employees, regardless of generation, are demanding a different employee experience. “We’re seeing differences in the expectation from an employee experience perspective,” she said.

Her vision involves hyper-personalization that includes using the Cargill Now platform to orient new hires before day one, tell the company’s story, and accelerate proficiency. “How can we do that in a tech-enabled world that is very personalized? It’s hyper-personalization going forward,” she added.

Kaplan closed the session with a question about the future: In a year, with Cargill Now humming and AI tools fully embedded, what changes? “I do think we’ll be much more proactive, we’ll have way better insights and perspectives,” she said. “Think about where we were 12 months ago from an AI perspective and where we are today. It’s not getting slower, it will be even faster.”

Babler ended the conversation with a saying she often returns to: “If your head and your heart are pointed in the right direction, you never have to worry about your feet.” That grounded mindset may be the most enduring tool of all for a 160-year-old company navigating a revolution in HR. 

Ade Akin covers artificial intelligence, workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.

(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)