Making Work Work for You

Janice Bryant Howroyd shares practical advice with Indeed’s LaFawn Davis on the right way to use AI for hiring and finding entrepreneurial inspiration everywhere.

Key Takeaways

Skills are teachable. An appetite for innovation is not.
The more you use AI tools, the better they’ll get.
Sometimes, strategy can actually come after success.

Growing up in segregated North Carolina, Janice Bryant Howroyd says entrepreneurship ran in her family: “It just wasn’t licensed entrepreneurship.”

Speaking from the stage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024, Howroyd, who founded the multibillion-dollar staffing and business services giant ActOne Group, explained how her grandmother used to sell barbecue at lunchtime from her dining room table to the white people who lived on the other side of town. She’d also open up her shed, where she cooked food to feed the Black families who lived in her neighborhood. From those formative experiences, Howroyd, who wrote the book “Acting Up: Winning in Business and Life Using Down-Home Wisdom,” told Indeed Chief People and Sustainability Officer LaFawn Davis that she learned the value of “meeting customer demand,” but also the importance of serving customers in such a way that it “elevated their estimation of each other.”

Indeed’s Chief People and Sustainability Officer LaFawn Davis and ActOne Group’s founder Janice Bryant Howroyd on stage at Indeed FutureWorks 2024

“They [all] eventually came to eat at the same table in her dining room,” Howroyd explained.

Howroyd carried those lessons with her when she founded her company in 1978 out of the back of a rug store with a $900 loan. Now 72, the entrepreneur affectionately known as JBH is the first African American woman to build and establish a multibillion-dollar enterprise, leading the largest privately held, woman- and minority-owned workforce management company in the country.

“It’s not just a beautiful journey,” she said. “It’s an incredible future that we’re building.”

In a wide-ranging conversation with Davis, Howroyd discussed how her childhood forged her entrepreneurial instincts, why success doesn’t always start with a clear strategy and the importance of keeping the humanity in human resources. Here are the highlights:

On where she got her entrepreneurial spirit:

Howroyd’s grandmother wasn’t her only childhood inspiration. She also learned early on about the value of hard work by watching the women around her.

“I grew up in a segregated Southern society and attended a segregated school up until my 11th grade year, so I saw people lined up being picked up for work. Later that day, I would see those same people walking home. If you’ve ever seen Whoopi Goldberg’s movie The Long Walk Home, that is an expression of what life and work looked like. Yet inside of that, I saw professionalism; I saw organization; I saw budgeting; and I saw care. All the things we want to achieve in our roles in this world today. Seeing people, who maybe were more intrapreneurs than entrepreneurs, bringing the same values and characteristics to their everyday lives, work and communities was something that was highly visible for me.”

On the no-strategy strategy behind her success:

When she was first building her business, Howroyd said she wasn’t following any particular plan.

“I didn’t have a strategy. I had a hot desire, talent and a few angels along the way. I didn’t take the traditional journey of ‘if you build it, they will come.’ Customers asked us to do more of what we were doing for them in new and different locations and in new and different ways. And that’s when I first realized: 'Wait a minute. I’m going to need a strategy behind this.'”

On why hiring for cultural fit is so important:

Howroyd looks for people who will work well together, but that doesn’t mean she only hires people who are the same.

“One of the things that I look at in terms of developing strategies around hiring is to be certain that we are hiring and looking for a cultural fit. Skills, we can teach.

When I speak of the cultural fit that we look for, it’s about: Are we going to enjoy the spirit of innovation together?
Janice Bryant Howroyd, Founder and CEO of ActOne Group

“It’s not just that you’re going to work well with us, because more of the same does not create a greater outcome. When I speak of the cultural fit that we look for, it’s about: Are we going to enjoy the spirit of innovation together?”

On keeping the humanity in human resources:

In his keynote earlier in the day, Indeed CEO Chris Hyams pointed out that the more people engage with AI tools, the more those tools will improve. Howroyd wholeheartedly agrees.

“For years, I’ve said we must keep the humanity in human resources. That was more of a rallying cry when I started saying it 40 years ago. Fast-forward to today, and it is urgent that we do that.

“My team is using AI every day, and it’s amazing the things we’re learning — and not just about the talent and the accessibility to talent. We’re learning about the behaviors of our clients.

“Let me tell you, AI’s name is Aisha. And Aisha can deliver strongly when she is fed good, healthy information. And she can become that other word I don’t say, she can become that girl, if you’re not feeding her healthy, strong information. Like Chris said, the more you use it — correctly — the better it gets.”

On the importance of…well, FEET:

It’s not what you think.

“In my company, back in the days when we were all in the office every day, we’d see it [written] on the walls: FEET. FEET is the foundation upon which we built and continue to build our company. The F is for Freedom to innovate; E is Excellence in delivery; because Everything and everyone matters; so invest in the Time to understand. That’s been foundational for how we have grown our company from day one.

“That we are here, seeking out how we can grow companies that not only allow people better work, but allow our nation healthier, safer, more secure environments…it’s an incredible task.”

Read more Indeed FutureWorks 2024 coverage:

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Indeed FutureWorks 2024: A Billion-Dollar Founder on AI and Entrepreneurship

On where she got her entrepreneurial spirit:

On the no-strategy strategy behind her success:

On why hiring for cultural fit is so important:

On keeping the humanity in human resources:

On the importance of…well, FEET:

Discover Work Wellbeing

Lead with Indeed Updates

Get the latest insights on the workplace and hiring, straight to your inbox

Get insights and inspiration for the future of work

Get insights and inspiration for the future of work

Recommended Reads