Voices of HR

Employee handbooks with clear policies that protect your business from legal risks and retaliation claims and are compliant with employment laws can be useful tools for HR. But if it's been a while since you updated your handbook, you need to listen closely to our next guest, Jake Sitman, Chair of the Employment Law and Labor Relations Group for the law firm Fitzpatrick, Lentz, and Bubba. He’ll share his insights on writing and...

HR pros often have to navigate situations where the company's interests may conflict with the needs of individual employees. HR veteran Jackie Plunkett has extensive experience as both an in-house practitioner and as a consultant. Today, she shares her insights on how to build trust and respect with employees while also reducing employer risk. 

Highlights

[2:46] Poor employee relations can be corrected

[6:06] Building relat...

Companies are missing golden opportunities to hire high performing talent that’s being trained and certified right now by nontraditional workforce development programs. To help your organization tap into traditionally overlooked talent communities, we’ve called in Michelle Sims, CEO of YUPRO Placement. Michelle tells us, "For 40 years, the trend has been to use a four-year degree as a proxy for your skills when, really, a piec...

For many companies, employing formerly incarcerated individuals may seem like a high-risk proposition. However, there are more people with charges and convictions than you realize. And there are plenty of moving, life-changing success stories that show that fair chance hiring can be good for your business. Ken Oliver, Vice President of Checkr.org shares his own success story and tells us that “fair chance hiring doesn’t mean hire e...

Although some companies have been cutting back on their DEI efforts lately, Mita Mallick, the Head of Inclusion, Equity, and Impact at financial software company Carta, says, “Now’s not the time to put DEI on the back burner. There’s a business case for creating an inclusive workplace and fostering a culture of belonging. Right now, in the US, 40% of individuals identify as non-white. That number is rapidly changing. That doesn'...

Leveraging competitive benefits that appeal to everyone is a challenge for a lot of HR pros today. According to Amy Spurling, the founder and CEO of Compt, “A lot of companies have really great programs, but when they start looking at utilization, it's usually around 3 to 5% per thing that you're offering. It is very low. And so you're spending across each individual thing and getting incredibly low utilization. The cha...

Success in attracting top talent is every bit as important as winning customers, but many small businesses focus more on marketing their product than marketing their company to potential new hires. According to Thad Price, CEO of HR tech company Talroo, “Many job seekers want more; they want a career path. They want to be part of something bigger. This requires you to rethink how you attract the candidates that want to grow with yo...

When Yahoo's Chief People Officer, Lisa Moore, announced that they were moving away from annual performance ratings in favor of more frequent one-on-one feedback meetings, she got a standing ovation. Get a glimpse into how and why one of the world's most recognizable brands pivoted in its approach and built a sense of trust and engagement among employees.

Highlights

[2:27] Strategic changes needed at Yahoo and what ha...

Consistently developing college grads and early-in-career talent into long-term high performers is a constant struggle for employers. It may take developing an internship or mentorship program or investing in a financial wellness program. For insights on attracting and developing these high-potential workers, we've called in Paloma Thombley, VP of People at Handshake.

Highlights

[2:43] Handshake’s secret to better-than-ave...

HR pros in the manufacturing industry can attract and retain talent by measuring and delivering data that backs up HR’s effectiveness. Joanne Taylor, Vice President of Operations for Clear Employer Services, tells us that we need to hire not just for what we need today but for where we need to be in five or ten years. “Look at the data and the projections from a sales and marketing and business strategy and how does that shape the ...

HR consultants and leadership coaches are resources that should be leveraged to help your team, reduce your workload and help you succeed. As Hema Crockett, the co-founder of Gig Talent, tells us, these skilled experts aren’t interested in taking your job and want you to tap into their knowledge.

Highlights

[3:42] What HR often needs help with

[5:44] Sourcing HR consultants and leadership coaches

[8:59] Fear of an HR consultan...

Federal laws are on the books that require physical safety and prohibit harassment and discrimination on the job. However, handling complaints that accuse managers, or even executives, of being disrespectful or abusive can be legal gray areas that leave HR caught in the middle. Dr. Gary Namie, Director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, and Suffolk University Law Professor, David Yamada, share practical ways to address these deli...

Consciously building a culture of kindness and empathy may be the key to attracting and retaining high-performing talent for the long haul.

Berta Aldrich: “So tell us about what these culture champions look like and who are they and what is their charge in your organization.”

Claude Silver: “I will say they are global. They are in all of our offices. They have their own jobs. They have day jobs. They have been, you know, anointed i...

Susan LaMonica on brand and culture:

The most successful companies, over a sustained period of time, have alignment of all of their different elements. When you think about brand and culture and facing off to your various stakeholder groups, it's really important that those two be aligned. And so when we think about delivering value to our customers, we have a brand commitment, and our colleagues have to deliver against that br...

Jason Lauritsen on Employee Performance:

What you’ve experienced is a production style of management that was born out of the Industrial Revolution in an era where we were taking people off the farm, putting them in factories to basically do jobs that were better suited for machines, but we didn’t have the technology to build those machines yet. So we had to get people to behave like those machines.

We’re still stuck where we think...

Many businesses are tapping into the specialized knowledge and experience of freelancers, consultants, and independent contractors to complete key projects. While freelancers bring needed expertise and fresh perspectives, they're not employees of the company. And yet, it's up to HR to recruit, screen, and keep track of this valuable external talent. To help you navigate this trending workforce shift, we've called in Sha...

Maintaining an environment where your employees are confident about speaking up, taking risks, and adapting to change is just as critical in good times as it is during challenging times. The key is to create a culture built on psychological safety and resilience. For ideas on how to accomplish that, we've called in Anna Gullstrand, Chief People & Culture Officer at Mentimeter.

Highlights

[4:15] An HR leader as a successful ...

There’s a watershed talent shift going on in many workplaces, and companies that focus on executing the right employee retention strategies will be rewarded. But it’s probably going to require taking a different approach to what you’ve been doing. To provide you with a fresh perspective, we've called in Paaras Parker, Chief HR Officer at Paycor. 

Highlights

[2:13] Why the focus shouldn’t be on turnover

[4:58] Individual contri...

Some companies work so hard at trying to get diversity hiring right that “analysis paralysis” sets in. And as a result, no meaningful action gets taken. For some ideas on how to move forward, we asked Anna Lenhardt, Chief People Officer at Tomorrow Health.

Highlights

[2:25] Establishing a diversity strategy as your company is growing

[4:16] Encouraging openness to a diverse talent pool

[6:44] Overcoming pushback to DEI

[8:37] Leve...