February 19, 2025 • 21 mins
Ever wondered how small businesses can effectively manage HR without a full-fledged team? Join us as we uncover valuable insights with Reanna Werner, the innovative founder of HR Branches. She shares her journey as a chief problem solver, crafting HR solutions tailored for small businesses.
- Overview of HR Branches and its services
- The importance of HR for small businesses
- Understanding employee well-being and business well-being
- Challenges of HR compliance in small businesses
- Key HR strategies for a successful operation
- Keeping informed on federal and state HR changes
- Building effective leadership and company culture
If you need HR help, reach out at 719-244-9640 or visit hrbranches.com.
We welcome your questions! If you would like to learn more about us or connect for a conversation, please visit www.pasleycommercialinteriors.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Randi Lynn Johnson (00:00):
All right, Welcome everybody.
We're rolling along.
We're in February now.
Um and with us, if you remember, if you've been following along
, we had Brian Werner told usall things taxes, but today
we're super privileged to haveBrian's other half, Reanna
Werner.
Welcome.
Reanna Werner (00:20):
Hello, hello, happy to be here.
Thanks for inviting me in today.
Robin Pasley (00:25):
Of course, and Robin, I'm here! Reanna, thank
you so much for coming in today.
We're excited to hear what youhave to tell us about HR
compliance, how to do that.
It's a big lift on theshoulders of business owners and
(00:49):
, um, there's so many things toknow and to stay in line with in
order to not get in trouble butalso to serve our companies and
our employees as well.
So thanks for being here andsharing your knowledge with us.
Reanna Werner (01:02):
My pleasure.
Yeah, hr is such a complexbeast.
Randi Lynn Johnson (01:08):
Yeah, so tell us like, who are you?
Reanna Werner (01:13):
That's the ultimate question I'd like to
figure out.
You know, professionally I amthe founder and chief problem
solver of HR Branches.
Hr Branches has been aroundserving Colorado small business
for gosh almost the last eightyears.
We specialize in supportingsmall businesses with employment
(01:36):
matters, employment decisions,making sure that businesses are
protected through riskmanagement, as well as quality
leadership skills andcapabilities.
So it's a little bit of awicked web that we do, but
really all roads lead to riskmanagement and risk mitigation
(01:59):
through top-notch employmentpractices Because unfortunately,
your employees are your biggestasset but your biggest risk
Sure.
That's good yeah.
Randi Lynn Johnson (02:13):
So you're at HR branches and you own HR
branches, right, I do own HRbranches.
Reanna Werner (02:20):
It's my baby.
It's my little baby.
Yeah, not so little anymore.
We've grown substantially.
So my medium-sized baby.
Robin Pasley (02:32):
What's the scale of your company right now, your
team and everything?
Reanna Werner (02:35):
Okay, so we are at a total of well, the whole
team all together.
We've got some big, excitingthings happening this year, so
we're a total of seven mighty,mighty amazing team members.
Oh gosh, On average, we've beengrowing about 30% year over
(02:56):
year.
As I looked at just last week,we support about 5,000 local
employees here regionally andthen statewide about 7,500.
Wow, that's awesome.
Yeah, we do great work, yeah.
Randi Lynn Johnson (03:12):
So tell me more about HR branches Like what
do you guys do for businesses?
Reanna Werner (03:18):
Yeah, great question.
We have a pretty basic businessmodel.
We're a membership-basedorganization.
What our philosophy is is thatunderstanding human resources
practices isn't just a one-timeproject.
We can come in and do aone-time project, but we would
(03:38):
fail on our face.
The reason why is we don'tunderstand your business or your
culture or the leadershipphilosophy, and so we believe in
a long-term relationship withour clients, to where we get to
know the leadership, the cultureand the business itself, so
employment can align perfectlywith those best practices.
So within each membership, thecore foundation of who we are is
(04:01):
we have an online HR platformcalled HR Branches Online.
This is over 800 pages of tools, resources, documents,
checklists everything you wouldever need to know in order to
self manage your own HRpractices.
But the problem is is you lookat all this stuff and you're
like I don't know what to dowith it.
(04:21):
So we always pair everymembership with consulting time.
So every single one of ourmembers has their very own HR
manager and their HR manager.
You have their direct phonenumber, their direct email and
you call them and they get toknow you.
When you combine the HR manageras well as the HR branches
(04:42):
online, what you get is kind ofpower right, because the work's
already done for you in HRBO andyour HR manager, as well as the
HR branches online which youget, is kind of power right,
because the work's already donefor you in HRBO and your HR
manager can say hey, let's hopon HR branches online.
We've got three options for youand you have the baseline From
there.
We're only customizing, so itgives you a lot of bang for your
buck.
And then, as you grow in yourmemberships, you receive
(05:02):
additional benefits handbooks,audits, harassment prevention,
training, and the list goes onand on.
Randi Lynn Johnson (05:10):
It's so great because what I'm hearing
that you provide for businessesis so we know, like huge
corporations they have in-housewhole HR teams yeah, teams.
But you guys are so well suitedfor small businesses where they
don't maybe have that capacityto have a full thing.
But you provide the resources.
Reanna Werner (05:31):
Absolutely Small business has been left behind in
the world of HR.
Unfortunately, most smallbusinesses are expected to
follow and adhere all of theserules, compliance laws.
There's so many things that youhave to implement within your
business, but most of the timesmall business owners have no
(05:52):
clue what they're supposed to do.
I mean gosh.
Many times a year I go and givepresentations to our community
on just basic compliance thatyou need to know in order to
just manage your basic HRfunctions and every single time
I get a hand in the air thatsays I didn't know about three
(06:14):
quarters of the stuff.
You were talking about.
How do I find out about it?
And the sad answer is is thatyou have to piecemeal it all
together and have some sort ofbaseline knowledge on how all of
these laws and rules andrequirements fit together, both
federally and statewide.
Oh my goodness.
Randi Lynn Johnson (06:32):
That's a lot it is a lot.
Reanna Werner (06:34):
It's scary when you actually dig deep down into
it and have a clearunderstanding of everything that
impacts your businessemployment-wise everything that
impacts your business employmentwise.
Randi Lynn Johnson (06:50):
So would you just tell us a little bit about
what it means to employeewellbeing and, ultimately,
business wellbeing, to have agood HR system in place?
Reanna Werner (07:00):
I love the term wellbeing.
I think that's an importantword to use to describe
employment practices.
When you look at compliance,really, the true essence is that
law or that rule was put intoplace to protect your employees,
right, but you also have thehealth and the well-being of a
(07:20):
business too.
And you, as a small businessowner I'm assuming I'm talking
to mostly small business ownershere is that you have to figure
out a balance between both.
Right, I do truly believe thatemployees, as a small business
owner, you invest in bringingemployees into your business as
an investment.
Right, there is no way abusiness owner can afford to
(07:42):
employ an employee withoutseeing a return on that
investment.
But, just like a computer, youhave to take care of that
investment.
Right, you have to run thosecontinuous updates, aka training
.
You have to make sure thatyou've got solid communication
happening, expectations.
You don't go into your computerand say, well, you know, I
really want my computer to dojumping jacks, but instead it's
(08:04):
putting out data input.
Right, you have to set thoseexpectations and those
communication standards and thattraining.
You have to be able to set youremployees up for success,
because us as leaders are onlyleaders.
Success factors is the successof others.
(08:25):
So we will never be successfulwithout the success of our team
members, and I think that youhave to keep that intentional in
your mind.
So, while we can go down thepath of compliance and
doop-a-doop-a-doop-a-doop-a-doop, when it comes to the best
interests of your business, Itruly believe it's investing
(08:48):
into your employees, and whenyou have good, productive
employees who are happy andthriving and see a future with
you, your compliance risks aregoing to be mitigated as well.
Of course, there's certainaspects you need to still adhere
to, but healthy, happyemployees is the beginning, and
(09:08):
I don't mean happy just like dowhatever your employees want you
to do.
There's a delineation right.
You can't allow your employeesto walk all over you.
Oftentimes that showsfavoritism, because what one
employee wants from you is notwhat another employee wants from
you.
You do have to have consistencyin your practices as well.
Robin Pasley (09:26):
Wow, that's so fantastic, so much stuff to keep
up with and that's so greatthat you have.
I love that you have a like aplatform, as well as this person
to person consultation as well.
You know they sound like theygo hand in hand um two tools in
one speak.
Reanna Werner (09:45):
They definitely are.
Um, it's funny.
It was a happy little mistakeof mine when I first created HR
branches.
I sat down at my computer allthose years ago and I started
creating HR branches online andI had the silly, naive thought
in my mind that I was going tocreate the online platform and
then I was going to sit on abeach, drink Mai Tais and watch
(10:05):
the money roll in.
Randi Lynn Johnson (10:07):
Boy.
Reanna Werner (10:11):
It didn't work out.
As I started launching theplatform, I realized that I was
missing one critical componentof what I was launching, and
that was that human element.
There's just so many parts andpieces to connect and people
want to talk to people, abouttheir people, Right?
So once I quickly implementedthe HR manager to you know,
(10:38):
support HR branches online.
That's when the business modelreally made sense.
Oh, that's great, yeah, but nomore beach for me.
That's great, yeah, but no morebeach for me Not yet.
I don't know if I could sit ona beach 24-7.
I'd get really bored.
I know I was going to say metoo, I don't sit, still well.
Randi Lynn Johnson (11:00):
Yeah, good, well could you tell?
Our listeners if they're, youknow, because I'm sure they have
some sort of HR thing in placethat you just have to when you
have employees and things.
But if there's somebody andmaybe their systems aren't quite
shored up or they can, you givethem just three things that
they should be thinking aboutand if they need help, we're
(11:24):
going to send them to you, butthree things for them to be
thinking about.
Reanna Werner (11:29):
You know, this year is going to be a critical
year in employment, and it'sinteresting because, as we're
sitting here talking, presidentTrump is getting inaugurated
into his second term, literallyas we're talking and from what
I'm hearing, as I keep my ear tothe ground, and what he's said
(11:50):
is that he is going to sign arecord setting amount of
executive orders, and just todayalone, much less you know, his
first 90 days or 100 days ofpresidency.
We're going to have to keep ourear to the ground on these
executive orders, federallyspeaking.
So this is number one watch thefeds, because there's going to
(12:13):
be a lot of activity.
What I find interesting is thatI'm not speaking politically,
I'm just speaking.
You know administration wiseand administration philosophies.
This administration coming inis going to be more business
friendly.
It just is.
I don't care about yourpolitical stance and I hope you
(12:34):
don't care about mine, it justis.
Now, with that said, we'reprobably going to see some
reversals from rules andrequirements from the last
presidency or the lastadministration.
So we're going to see somerewinding of history, but we are
(13:00):
also going to see a hugeemphasis in immigration.
Now, as we know, border controlis a top priority of this
incoming administration.
Of this incoming administration, the first level of defense for
immigration is border control.
Second level of defense isemployment.
(13:21):
Employers are looked at andrelied upon to police
immigration.
That's the I-9 form right.
So you have to make sure thatyour I-9s are in tip-top
condition over the next fouryears and going forward.
So that's going to be a big one.
So keep an eye on the agendaand objectives of this
presidency, especially in thefirst hundred days.
We're going to see a lot ofchange.
(13:42):
Okay, watch the feds.
Watch the feds Exactly.
Do you have another one for us?
Number two would actually bewatch the state.
Interestingly enough, we have astate administration who does
have differing philosophies fromthe feds, which is going to
(14:04):
create.
We had cohesiveness last weekin the federal and the state
administration.
Now we're going to see a littlebit of a butting of the head
Because of that.
You're going to have to take awatchful eye and understand how
state requirements and laws areimpacted by federal and vice
(14:26):
versa.
As an employer, you really wantto take the position on any
compliance matters where you seeconflicting rules.
Whichever rule best benefitsthe employee is the rule you go
with.
Okay.
So a good example is here inthe state of Colorado we have
paid medical leave.
Now, right, the family program.
(14:48):
At the state level you haveFMLA Family Medical Leave Act.
They're similar but they'realso conflicting.
Right, state of Colorado has alot more employee favorable
outlook because it applies toall employers in the state of
Colorado, it's paid leave and ithas a few extra provisions that
also benefit employees.
(15:09):
Fmla, which is through the Fedside, only goes into effect
after you have 50 employees.
It's unpaid, so the statelegislation or state requirement
would best benefit the employee.
So you go with the stateperspective.
So we're going to see a lot ofthat too and it's going to be a
little confusing.
Okay, which applies Always gowith the most employee favorable
(15:31):
perspective or philosophy.
Interesting, I feel like I'mmaking your head spin here.
It's fine, this is great.
Randi Lynn Johnson (15:42):
And I know that we're recording it because
I can just go back For sure.
Do you have a?
Reanna Werner (15:46):
third.
Yeah, it kind of circles backaround.
Number three really circlesback around to the beginning of
our conversation.
Be mindful of your culture.
Develop yourself as a leader.
The stronger leader you are,the better your business will be
(16:06):
.
Employment wise.
If you, let's put it this way,culture and leadership go hand
in hand.
All right, the way you show upas a leader creates the company
culture.
Why?
Because our team membersemulate us.
They don't listen to us.
If I walk into work and say behappy every day at work, my team
(16:29):
members are going to be likescrew you, right.
But if I go to work happy everysingle day and I share a jovial
environment where people wantto be, that will bring the
happiness into the environment.
Um, be mindful of how you showup.
Be mindful of how you act.
(16:49):
Be mindful of how youcommunicate with your team
members.
Um, your culture is everything,and culture isn't a set of
words on the wall.
It's a feeling that youremployees get when they work
with you and then it filtersthrough to the feeling of your
customers, because how youremployees feel about working
(17:12):
with you will eventuallyresonate within your customer
base and, honestly, a goodquality leadership philosophy
resulting in a good culture isgoing to mitigate most risk for
you.
Robin Pasley (17:25):
Wow, wow, that's fantastic.
What a 30,000 foot view, butwhat a view that really helps
establish who you want to be asa business owner.
Reanna Werner (17:36):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and I think it's you have
to be intentional.
I I've met so many leaders whoare good people, um, who believe
that they're good leaders andthey have the potential to be.
They just don't pay muchattention to it.
They don't intentionallydevelop themselves as a leader
and so you kind of end up, uh,flapping in the wind and using
(17:58):
your gut, and that's tough to do.
Robin Pasley (18:03):
And having that approach where you're mindful
what you just said is soimportant, mindful of they watch
what I do, they listen to whatI say, they don't just do what I
say to do do what I say to sayyou know say what I say, to say
you know this, this idea ofbeing a better example as a
leader and thinking about yourculture that you're developing
(18:23):
all the time.
Reanna Werner (18:25):
That's really important.
Yeah, oftentimes we do employeeengagement surveys for our
clients and two of my favoritequestions to ask is describe
your leader in three words andthen describe your culture in
three words.
And it's amazing how they'renever really the same words but
there's a lot of congruencybetween the two.
(18:46):
Yeah, you know I've seen theleader's words will be direct,
communicator, fast, paced andemotional.
And then you look at the wordsof the culture and it's
demanding, harsh, I can't keepup overworked, you know.
(19:08):
It's interesting how it filtersthrough.
So if you ever get a chance,ask your employees honestly
those three words that describeyou as a leader in the culture.
It'll tell you a lot.
Randi Lynn Johnson (19:22):
Yeah, that's great.
Well, thank you for that andthank you for joining us.
If people need HR help, wherecan they find you?
Reanna Werner (19:32):
Um, they can find us at hrbranchescom or just
give us a call.
We're people people.
We much rather talk with you.
So give us a call at719-244-9640 and we'll be able
to help you out.
It's very easy to get set upwith us, but definitely stalk us
online and learn a little bitmore about who we are.
Randi Lynn Johnson (19:52):
And one last thing I wanted to mention.
You guys have recently rolledout a podcast have recently
rolled out a podcast.
Reanna Werner (20:06):
Yes, we have.
As of last week, january 15th,we rolled out and launched our
very first podcast episode forthe show Show Me Yours.
Show Me Yours is all focused onus having candid conversations
with business owners about theirnumber one mistake that they've
made in business, lessonslearned and, just vulnerably and
(20:29):
with a little bit of laughter,sharing all of the business
bloopers that we've had.
And yeah it's been great.
It's turned out to be a lot offun.
We just had a commercial that'sgoing to be launching for the
podcast and, yeah, lots of goodstuff in our show notes as well,
so that people can pop over andgive you guys a listen.
(20:50):
Wonderful, and Robin, we'regoing to have to have you come
and join us in grandma's livingroom, ah good.
Randi Lynn Johnson (20:59):
And thank you all for listening and we'll
catch you next time.
Thank you.
All right, Welcome everybody.
We're rolling along.
We're in February now.
Um and with us, if you remember, if you've been following along
, we had Brian Werner told usall things taxes, but today
we're super privileged to haveBrian's other half, Reanna
Werner.
Welcome.
Reanna Werner (00:20):
Hello, hello, happy to be here.
Thanks for inviting me in today.
Robin Pasley (00:25):
Of course, and Robin, I'm here! Reanna, thank
you so much for coming in today.
We're excited to hear what youhave to tell us about HR
compliance, how to do that.
It's a big lift on theshoulders of business owners and
(00:49):
, um, there's so many things toknow and to stay in line with in
order to not get in trouble butalso to serve our companies and
our employees as well.
So thanks for being here andsharing your knowledge with us.
Reanna Werner (01:02):
My pleasure.
Yeah, hr is such a complexbeast.
Randi Lynn Johnson (01:08):
Yeah, so tell us like, who are you?
Reanna Werner (01:13):
That's the ultimate question I'd like to
figure out.
You know, professionally I amthe founder and chief problem
solver of HR Branches.
Hr Branches has been aroundserving Colorado small business
for gosh almost the last eightyears.
We specialize in supportingsmall businesses with employment
(01:36):
matters, employment decisions,making sure that businesses are
protected through riskmanagement, as well as quality
leadership skills andcapabilities.
So it's a little bit of awicked web that we do, but
really all roads lead to riskmanagement and risk mitigation
(01:59):
through top-notch employmentpractices Because unfortunately,
your employees are your biggestasset but your biggest risk
Sure.
That's good yeah.
Randi Lynn Johnson (02:13):
So you're at HR branches and you own HR
branches, right, I do own HRbranches.
Reanna Werner (02:20):
It's my baby.
It's my little baby.
Yeah, not so little anymore.
We've grown substantially.
So my medium-sized baby.
Robin Pasley (02:32):
What's the scale of your company right now, your
team and everything?
Reanna Werner (02:35):
Okay, so we are at a total of well, the whole
team all together.
We've got some big, excitingthings happening this year, so
we're a total of seven mighty,mighty amazing team members.
Oh gosh, On average, we've beengrowing about 30% year over
(02:56):
year.
As I looked at just last week,we support about 5,000 local
employees here regionally andthen statewide about 7,500.
Wow, that's awesome.
Yeah, we do great work, yeah.
Randi Lynn Johnson (03:12):
So tell me more about HR branches Like what
do you guys do for businesses?
Reanna Werner (03:18):
Yeah, great question.
We have a pretty basic businessmodel.
We're a membership-basedorganization.
What our philosophy is is thatunderstanding human resources
practices isn't just a one-timeproject.
We can come in and do aone-time project, but we would
(03:38):
fail on our face.
The reason why is we don'tunderstand your business or your
culture or the leadershipphilosophy, and so we believe in
a long-term relationship withour clients, to where we get to
know the leadership, the cultureand the business itself, so
employment can align perfectlywith those best practices.
So within each membership, thecore foundation of who we are is
(04:01):
we have an online HR platformcalled HR Branches Online.
This is over 800 pages of tools, resources, documents,
checklists everything you wouldever need to know in order to
self manage your own HRpractices.
But the problem is is you lookat all this stuff and you're
like I don't know what to dowith it.
(04:21):
So we always pair everymembership with consulting time.
So every single one of ourmembers has their very own HR
manager and their HR manager.
You have their direct phonenumber, their direct email and
you call them and they get toknow you.
When you combine the HR manageras well as the HR branches
(04:42):
online, what you get is kind ofpower right, because the work's
already done for you in HRBO andyour HR manager, as well as the
HR branches online which youget, is kind of power right,
because the work's already donefor you in HRBO and your HR
manager can say hey, let's hopon HR branches online.
We've got three options for youand you have the baseline From
there.
We're only customizing, so itgives you a lot of bang for your
buck.
And then, as you grow in yourmemberships, you receive
(05:02):
additional benefits handbooks,audits, harassment prevention,
training, and the list goes onand on.
Randi Lynn Johnson (05:10):
It's so great because what I'm hearing
that you provide for businessesis so we know, like huge
corporations they have in-housewhole HR teams yeah, teams.
But you guys are so well suitedfor small businesses where they
don't maybe have that capacityto have a full thing.
But you provide the resources.
Reanna Werner (05:31):
Absolutely Small business has been left behind in
the world of HR.
Unfortunately, most smallbusinesses are expected to
follow and adhere all of theserules, compliance laws.
There's so many things that youhave to implement within your
business, but most of the timesmall business owners have no
(05:52):
clue what they're supposed to do.
I mean gosh.
Many times a year I go and givepresentations to our community
on just basic compliance thatyou need to know in order to
just manage your basic HRfunctions and every single time
I get a hand in the air thatsays I didn't know about three
(06:14):
quarters of the stuff.
You were talking about.
How do I find out about it?
And the sad answer is is thatyou have to piecemeal it all
together and have some sort ofbaseline knowledge on how all of
these laws and rules andrequirements fit together, both
federally and statewide.
Oh my goodness.
Randi Lynn Johnson (06:32):
That's a lot it is a lot.
Reanna Werner (06:34):
It's scary when you actually dig deep down into
it and have a clearunderstanding of everything that
impacts your businessemployment-wise everything that
impacts your business employmentwise.
Randi Lynn Johnson (06:50):
So would you just tell us a little bit about
what it means to employeewellbeing and, ultimately,
business wellbeing, to have agood HR system in place?
Reanna Werner (07:00):
I love the term wellbeing.
I think that's an importantword to use to describe
employment practices.
When you look at compliance,really, the true essence is that
law or that rule was put intoplace to protect your employees,
right, but you also have thehealth and the well-being of a
(07:20):
business too.
And you, as a small businessowner I'm assuming I'm talking
to mostly small business ownershere is that you have to figure
out a balance between both.
Right, I do truly believe thatemployees, as a small business
owner, you invest in bringingemployees into your business as
an investment.
Right, there is no way abusiness owner can afford to
(07:42):
employ an employee withoutseeing a return on that
investment.
But, just like a computer, youhave to take care of that
investment.
Right, you have to run thosecontinuous updates, aka training
.
You have to make sure thatyou've got solid communication
happening, expectations.
You don't go into your computerand say, well, you know, I
really want my computer to dojumping jacks, but instead it's
(08:04):
putting out data input.
Right, you have to set thoseexpectations and those
communication standards and thattraining.
You have to be able to set youremployees up for success,
because us as leaders are onlyleaders.
Success factors is the successof others.
(08:25):
So we will never be successfulwithout the success of our team
members, and I think that youhave to keep that intentional in
your mind.
So, while we can go down thepath of compliance and
doop-a-doop-a-doop-a-doop-a-doop, when it comes to the best
interests of your business, Itruly believe it's investing
(08:48):
into your employees, and whenyou have good, productive
employees who are happy andthriving and see a future with
you, your compliance risks aregoing to be mitigated as well.
Of course, there's certainaspects you need to still adhere
to, but healthy, happyemployees is the beginning, and
(09:08):
I don't mean happy just like dowhatever your employees want you
to do.
There's a delineation right.
You can't allow your employeesto walk all over you.
Oftentimes that showsfavoritism, because what one
employee wants from you is notwhat another employee wants from
you.
You do have to have consistencyin your practices as well.
Robin Pasley (09:26):
Wow, that's so fantastic, so much stuff to keep
up with and that's so greatthat you have.
I love that you have a like aplatform, as well as this person
to person consultation as well.
You know they sound like theygo hand in hand um two tools in
one speak.
Reanna Werner (09:45):
They definitely are.
Um, it's funny.
It was a happy little mistakeof mine when I first created HR
branches.
I sat down at my computer allthose years ago and I started
creating HR branches online andI had the silly, naive thought
in my mind that I was going tocreate the online platform and
then I was going to sit on abeach, drink Mai Tais and watch
(10:05):
the money roll in.
Randi Lynn Johnson (10:07):
Boy.
Reanna Werner (10:11):
It didn't work out.
As I started launching theplatform, I realized that I was
missing one critical componentof what I was launching, and
that was that human element.
There's just so many parts andpieces to connect and people
want to talk to people, abouttheir people, Right?
So once I quickly implementedthe HR manager to you know,
(10:38):
support HR branches online.
That's when the business modelreally made sense.
Oh, that's great, yeah, but nomore beach for me.
That's great, yeah, but no morebeach for me Not yet.
I don't know if I could sit ona beach 24-7.
I'd get really bored.
I know I was going to say metoo, I don't sit, still well.
Randi Lynn Johnson (11:00):
Yeah, good, well could you tell?
Our listeners if they're, youknow, because I'm sure they have
some sort of HR thing in placethat you just have to when you
have employees and things.
But if there's somebody andmaybe their systems aren't quite
shored up or they can, you givethem just three things that
they should be thinking aboutand if they need help, we're
(11:24):
going to send them to you, butthree things for them to be
thinking about.
Reanna Werner (11:29):
You know, this year is going to be a critical
year in employment, and it'sinteresting because, as we're
sitting here talking, presidentTrump is getting inaugurated
into his second term, literallyas we're talking and from what
I'm hearing, as I keep my ear tothe ground, and what he's said
(11:50):
is that he is going to sign arecord setting amount of
executive orders, and just todayalone, much less you know, his
first 90 days or 100 days ofpresidency.
We're going to have to keep ourear to the ground on these
executive orders, federallyspeaking.
So this is number one watch thefeds, because there's going to
(12:13):
be a lot of activity.
What I find interesting is thatI'm not speaking politically,
I'm just speaking.
You know administration wiseand administration philosophies.
This administration coming inis going to be more business
friendly.
It just is.
I don't care about yourpolitical stance and I hope you
(12:34):
don't care about mine, it justis.
Now, with that said, we'reprobably going to see some
reversals from rules andrequirements from the last
presidency or the lastadministration.
So we're going to see somerewinding of history, but we are
(13:00):
also going to see a hugeemphasis in immigration.
Now, as we know, border controlis a top priority of this
incoming administration.
Of this incoming administration, the first level of defense for
immigration is border control.
Second level of defense isemployment.
(13:21):
Employers are looked at andrelied upon to police
immigration.
That's the I-9 form right.
So you have to make sure thatyour I-9s are in tip-top
condition over the next fouryears and going forward.
So that's going to be a big one.
So keep an eye on the agendaand objectives of this
presidency, especially in thefirst hundred days.
We're going to see a lot ofchange.
(13:42):
Okay, watch the feds.
Watch the feds Exactly.
Do you have another one for us?
Number two would actually bewatch the state.
Interestingly enough, we have astate administration who does
have differing philosophies fromthe feds, which is going to
(14:04):
create.
We had cohesiveness last weekin the federal and the state
administration.
Now we're going to see a littlebit of a butting of the head
Because of that.
You're going to have to take awatchful eye and understand how
state requirements and laws areimpacted by federal and vice
(14:26):
versa.
As an employer, you really wantto take the position on any
compliance matters where you seeconflicting rules.
Whichever rule best benefitsthe employee is the rule you go
with.
Okay.
So a good example is here inthe state of Colorado we have
paid medical leave.
Now, right, the family program.
(14:48):
At the state level you haveFMLA Family Medical Leave Act.
They're similar but they'realso conflicting.
Right, state of Colorado has alot more employee favorable
outlook because it applies toall employers in the state of
Colorado, it's paid leave and ithas a few extra provisions that
also benefit employees.
(15:09):
Fmla, which is through the Fedside, only goes into effect
after you have 50 employees.
It's unpaid, so the statelegislation or state requirement
would best benefit the employee.
So you go with the stateperspective.
So we're going to see a lot ofthat too and it's going to be a
little confusing.
Okay, which applies Always gowith the most employee favorable
(15:31):
perspective or philosophy.
Interesting, I feel like I'mmaking your head spin here.
It's fine, this is great.
Randi Lynn Johnson (15:42):
And I know that we're recording it because
I can just go back For sure.
Do you have a?
Reanna Werner (15:46):
third.
Yeah, it kind of circles backaround.
Number three really circlesback around to the beginning of
our conversation.
Be mindful of your culture.
Develop yourself as a leader.
The stronger leader you are,the better your business will be
(16:06):
.
Employment wise.
If you, let's put it this way,culture and leadership go hand
in hand.
All right, the way you show upas a leader creates the company
culture.
Why?
Because our team membersemulate us.
They don't listen to us.
If I walk into work and say behappy every day at work, my team
(16:29):
members are going to be likescrew you, right.
But if I go to work happy everysingle day and I share a jovial
environment where people wantto be, that will bring the
happiness into the environment.
Um, be mindful of how you showup.
Be mindful of how you act.
(16:49):
Be mindful of how youcommunicate with your team
members.
Um, your culture is everything,and culture isn't a set of
words on the wall.
It's a feeling that youremployees get when they work
with you and then it filtersthrough to the feeling of your
customers, because how youremployees feel about working
(17:12):
with you will eventuallyresonate within your customer
base and, honestly, a goodquality leadership philosophy
resulting in a good culture isgoing to mitigate most risk for
you.
Robin Pasley (17:25):
Wow, wow, that's fantastic.
What a 30,000 foot view, butwhat a view that really helps
establish who you want to be asa business owner.
Reanna Werner (17:36):
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and I think it's you have
to be intentional.
I I've met so many leaders whoare good people, um, who believe
that they're good leaders andthey have the potential to be.
They just don't pay muchattention to it.
They don't intentionallydevelop themselves as a leader
and so you kind of end up, uh,flapping in the wind and using
(17:58):
your gut, and that's tough to do.
Robin Pasley (18:03):
And having that approach where you're mindful
what you just said is soimportant, mindful of they watch
what I do, they listen to whatI say, they don't just do what I
say to do do what I say to sayyou know say what I say, to say
you know this, this idea ofbeing a better example as a
leader and thinking about yourculture that you're developing
(18:23):
all the time.
Reanna Werner (18:25):
That's really important.
Yeah, oftentimes we do employeeengagement surveys for our
clients and two of my favoritequestions to ask is describe
your leader in three words andthen describe your culture in
three words.
And it's amazing how they'renever really the same words but
there's a lot of congruencybetween the two.
(18:46):
Yeah, you know I've seen theleader's words will be direct,
communicator, fast, paced andemotional.
And then you look at the wordsof the culture and it's
demanding, harsh, I can't keepup overworked, you know.
(19:08):
It's interesting how it filtersthrough.
So if you ever get a chance,ask your employees honestly
those three words that describeyou as a leader in the culture.
It'll tell you a lot.
Randi Lynn Johnson (19:22):
Yeah, that's great.
Well, thank you for that andthank you for joining us.
If people need HR help, wherecan they find you?
Reanna Werner (19:32):
Um, they can find us at hrbranchescom or just
give us a call.
We're people people.
We much rather talk with you.
So give us a call at719-244-9640 and we'll be able
to help you out.
It's very easy to get set upwith us, but definitely stalk us
online and learn a little bitmore about who we are.
Randi Lynn Johnson (19:52):
And one last thing I wanted to mention.
You guys have recently rolledout a podcast have recently
rolled out a podcast.
Reanna Werner (20:06):
Yes, we have.
As of last week, january 15th,we rolled out and launched our
very first podcast episode forthe show Show Me Yours.
Show Me Yours is all focused onus having candid conversations
with business owners about theirnumber one mistake that they've
made in business, lessonslearned and, just vulnerably and
(20:29):
with a little bit of laughter,sharing all of the business
bloopers that we've had.
And yeah it's been great.
It's turned out to be a lot offun.
We just had a commercial that'sgoing to be launching for the
podcast and, yeah, lots of goodstuff in our show notes as well,
so that people can pop over andgive you guys a listen.
(20:50):
Wonderful, and Robin, we'regoing to have to have you come
and join us in grandma's livingroom, ah good.
Randi Lynn Johnson (20:59):
And thank you all for listening and we'll
catch you next time.
Thank you.
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