Episodes

  • Sustained change, Communication and Feedback loops with Kevin Grossman

    Sustained change, Communication and Feedback loops with Kevin Grossman
    Jun 2 2021
    Kevin W. Grossman is the President of Talent Board and the Candidate Experience Awards. Founded in 2011, it’s the first nonprofit research organisation focused on the elevation and promotion of a quality candidate experience with industry benchmarks that highlight accountability, fairness and business impact. Kevin has over 22 years of domain expertise in the human resource and talent acquisition industry and related technology marketplace. He’s been a prolific "HR business" blogger and writer since 2004, and his first business book on career management titled Tech Job Hunt Handbook was released in December 2012 from Apress. His second book, titled The Business Impact of Candidate Experience, will be released in 2022 by Kogan Page. Kevin holds a B.A. in Psychology from San Jose State University, is an HCI certified Talent Acquisition Strategist (TAS) and Human Capital Strategist and has learning certificates from eCornell on HR Analytics and Diversity and Inclusion. An avid reader, a grateful father and husband, he writes regularly about responsible parenting and personal leadership at GetOffTheGround.blogspot.com. How long has Kevin been in the HR space? (05:51) Kevin says it’s been just over 22 years.Prior to his career in HR, he was in the high tech, marketing and communications and university relations industries.He says that he is more focused on recruiting and technology areas of HR.Kevin always had an affinity for recruiting, hiring and retention. What motivated Kevin to get into HR? (10:16) When Kevin was in high-tech marketing and communication, he worked for an agency in silicon valley and helped them with product and service launches.He says he enjoyed the work he was doing and stayed for almost four years.An opportunity at a startup presented itself. They had an algorithm that matched candidates in their communities to companies.He learned what it was like to source and recruit individuals and fell in love with it. What problems have Kevin identified in the industry, and what is he doing about it? (27:21) He says they are trying to help companies understand what impacts their recruiting and hiring efforts, and eventually, their retention. The problem is sustained change, continuous communication and feedback loops.From the research they do every year, they’ve identified communication and feedback as a challenge.Kevin says when COVID hit, they’ve seen the resentment rate in companies go down, and the positive rating go up.They found that there was more empathetic communication going on between employers and candidates and also employers and their employees.The level of communication was higher than they’ve ever seen and was more transparent and empathetic, and candidates were more forgiving.He is worried that they are going to see the empathetic communication decrease as things normalise again.  How has the landscape in HR changed because of COVID? (38:15) People had to get comfortable with virtualising everything.HR had to get comfortable answering a lot of questions they didn’t have the answers to.Another challenge he identifies is how to keep the workforce safe. One of HR’s functions is to keep them safe, and they had to figure out how best to do that while also keeping the company going.Kevin says COVID allowed companies to rethink their emergency preparedness and how they address these things.Companies have figured out remote working works, and that is something that we will see going forward. How does Kevin see the industry as a whole change over the next five years? (40:41) Kevin believes technology will be more pervasive in the recruiting and hiring process and in the talent management process.He hopes people will be given the opportunity to share their voice and thoughts more.He also believes we are going to learn to better manage the technologies we choose to employ. What top tips can Kevin give to people who are new in HR? (43:56) Always remember the journey to the job you now have and what the experience was like, both the good and the bad.Always be mindful and positive, and keep that in mind in every single interaction you have.  Kevin’s book recommendation: The three-body problem Cixin Liu  Improv for democracy - Don Waisanen  Connect with Kevin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwgrossman/ Talent Board Website: https://www.thetalentboard.org/
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    47 mins
  • Being in Denial About Problems is a Problem with Natasha Saeed

    Being in Denial About Problems is a Problem with Natasha Saeed
    May 26 2021

    Natasha Saaed is a legal advisor at Direct Law and Personnel and is currently studying towards an LPC/LLM. She has three years as an HR Professional.

    How did Natasha get started in the industry? (00:52)

    • Natasha says that she’s been working at DLP for nearly three years now.
    • She never thought that she’d become an HR professional and just stumbled into it.
    • Natasha graduated in 2018, and when she thought about HR back then, she thought of people who handle your payments.
    • She started her LPC because that was a logical progression for her from an LLB. 
    • There was a big enough period between graduation and registering for the LPC for her to look for a part-time job. She applied at DLP and been there ever since.

     

    Where do Natasha’s drive and determination come from? (06:22)

    • Natasha says growing up, she was interested in medicine and wanted to study in that field.
    • When she was 18 years old doing her A-levels, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma.
    • She feels that she always had a lot of drive and determination, but it became stronger after her diagnosis.
    • At the time, she had her exams ahead of her and didn’t want to fall behind. The chemo took a lot out of her, and she couldn’t take her exams when she planned to and had to postpone for a couple of months.
    • Being in hospital as much as she was, she decided she didn’t want to get into medicine and study law.
    • She had to change schools, choose different A-levels and ended up being the top learner in her class.

    What is one of the problems Natasha identified in HR throughout her journey? (20:57)

    • According to her, many HR professionals either don’t realise there is a problem or are in denial about a problem. That is one of the biggest problems that she identified.
    • She says when people are in denial, the problem gets unbearable, and it could have been a lot easier to address it at the starts. 
    • The second problem she identifies is HR professionals sticking to processes as if they are only black and white. 
    • She feels people have to consider all the facts instead of blindly following a process.

    How does she think we can overcome and address the problem? (25:30)

    • She says if you know that something is not working out can make people feel uncomfortable, they often don’t acknowledge problems because they don’t want to make a big deal.
    • According to her, HR professionals don’t need to make a big deal of problems. They do need to acknowledge them, and how they approach the matter will make the difference.
    • HR professionals should not be scared of rocking the boat. If they know there is an issue, they need to get onto it right away and know what outcome they want to achieve. 

     

    What tips would she give new people coming into HR? (30:42)

    • Natasha says they should constantly learn.
    • They shouldn’t think that they know everything they need to know.
    • She also thinks that HR professionals should always look for the facts and understand what you are doing and the long term effects you will have in each scenario.

    Natasha’s book recommendation:

    The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

    Connect with Natasha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natasha-saeed-511948203/

    Visit the new digital platform for HR Professionals at https://s2gnetwork.com/
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    33 mins
  • Company Culture and Remote Work With Brett Putter

    Company Culture and Remote Work With Brett Putter
    May 19 2021
    Brett Putter is an expert on company culture development. He is the founder and CEO of CultureGene, a culture leadership software and consultancy services platform helping companies build strong, functional cultures while transitioning to a remote or hybrid work model. Brett has written two books on the subject of company culture - Culture Decks Decoded was published in 2018, and Own Your Culture: How to Define, Embed and Manage your Company Culture was published in September 2020. He writes a popular blog on culture-driven companies and is a sought-after speaker.   Who is Brett Putter? (01:04) Brett says that he is originally South African but emigrated to the UK 20 years ago.A couple of months ago, he decided to move to Portugal.Before starting CultureGene, he ran an executive search firm for 16.His work was all about people, HR and working out the human element of being human. For how long has Brett been involved in company culture? (01:50) Five years ago, he worked with three companies where he was asked to find them senior-level executives. He mentions that these three companies all had a clear understanding of their culture.He was asked to find candidates with the right skills and experience to fit the job description and then match them to match them with the company’s values.Brett says that these searches were a lot harder to do than usual, but after he saw the impact the candidates had on the company and the business’s success, he realised that there was something there. Since then, he’s been focused on helping companies define their culture and embed it in their employees. Describe the moment you decided to make the shift from executive search to company culture (06:10)  Brett says after working with the three companies, he started telling other clients that he will help them define their values and then help them find candidates who match those values as part of the search.He would then go ahead and help them define their company values, but they didn’t really know what to do with the values once they were defined.He realised that he enjoyed the searches less and that building and defining the culture interested him more.One of the things he enjoyed about the culture was that he could immediately see the impact he made on the organisation, and when he realised that, he decided to make it his primary focus. What other problems has Brett identified in HR or related to HR? Brett feels that HR has always been deemed as an annoying function, but the pandemic has in some cases where they had a role to play in helping manage employees through the pandemic,He says HR professionals now have to step up and be at the table and make themselves valuable.Another problem is that HR professionals are not doing enough to understand how remote companies operate.He doesn’t think that we are going back to the way things were, and many companies will transition to a hybrid work environment. To do so successfully, HR professionals will have to know the best practices for remote work. Brett says HR’s role in remote work is not only about ensuring employees have the right internet and the right chair but also about understanding the Zoom spiral of doom where systems are not designed for remote work. Employees spend too much time on Zoom, communication is too synchronous, and systems are not designed for effective remote work.He describes the Zoom spiral of Doom as being on Zoom a lot because people can’t read what they need to read about you, your processes and your documents. Because you spend so much time on Zoom means you don’t have time to do work during the day and start working at night, which will lead to exhaustion, you don’t connect socially anymore, which forces you to be on Zoom more, and you end up being lonely and depressed.   How does Brett contribute towards solving the problem of HR professionals not doing enough to understand how remote companies operate? (17:58) Brett says because he develops software for distributed teams to help with their culture development process, he decided to study remote working companies. He discovered that remote companies over-index in 9 key areas, define even the smallest processes, and document them. He says social connection and the elements around well-being are important and remote companies train managers to encourage environments of transparency and psychological safety. Remote companies focus heavily on recruiting and onboarding because they don’t have face-to-face where you can trust your gut. He went on to build the nine best practices remote companies focus on into his culture development process. Brett’s book recommendation: Own Your Culture by Brett Putter An everyone culture by Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey and Matthew Miller Connect with Brett on:  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettonputter/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BrettonPutter Email: brett@culturegene.ai CultureGene’s Website: http://www.culturegene.ai/
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    31 mins
  • Empathy and Compassion with Joy Stephens

    Empathy and Compassion with Joy Stephens
    May 12 2021
    Joy Stephens is a Board-Certified Life Coach specialising in corporate leader coaching.  She focuses on executive and individual coaching, specifically around Career Transitions, Relationship Building and Inclusive Leadership Skills.  Seeing the need for a more in-depth understanding of the impact of empathy and inclusion, she developed a series of workshops in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion space. She believes that empathy and compassion are the keys to better leadership, better communication, and stronger working relationships.  She imbues all of her workshop facilitation with the goal of recognising the humanity in each other.    How did Joy get started in her industry? (01:05) Joy says she spent about 20 years working in corporate America in research and development, manufacturing, sales and marketing, and corporate training.Throughout her journey, she started to realise that we don’t pay attention to our people anymore.She decided that she has to get other managers to understand if you want people to be their best, instead of just work harder, you have to get to know them.Getting to know them means you have to show empathy when it is needed, listen to them and apply soft skills or use something that is called inclusive leadership. When did she decide to get involved in her field? (2:32) She became aware of the connection between what she was feeling and what she wanted to do and realising that she could turn it into a profession in 2012.When she realised she could have a career helping companies with their inclusion sparked the interest in her.Joy says that she was also interested in coaching people and got her board certification to become an executive coach.She went on to put an inclusion and diversity curriculum together and shared it with the company she was working with at the time.She decided she could do more for more people by going at it on her own and left corporate America in 2018 to start her own company. What was the most significant catalyst in Joy’s career? (03:59) Joy says she started on her journey by being exposed to real team building. She says that people use the phrase team building and then go out to get dinner and don’t get to talk to each other and get to know one another.The team building she was a part of was more in-depth, where they talked about how they became the person they are.She says by talking to one another about who you are, and what you experienced, you discover so much more about the people you are working with, and you end up seeing them as a three-dimensional being. You don’t see them as someone with just a title anymore but as a person with a family who has hopes, dreams and aspirations, problems and baggage. Through this exercise, she got to know the people she worked with, and it helped her trust them more and build stronger relationships with them which helped inclusion in her workplace.The event that had the biggest effect on her was the death of Michael Brown, who was shot dead in Missouri. The event had such an effect on her that she considered quitting her job to march in protest.She says the fact that other people were having shallow conversations at the time and were not even aware of what happened and what she was going through started her journey towards diversity and inclusion and helping other people understand someone else’s experience. What is one of the problems Joy identified in HR throughout her journey? (10:44) From her point of view, HR tends to be more about systems and compliance. In addition to that, HR has become a function where we ensure that everyone received a certain set of training modules.To keep the employees safe and keep the company safe, HR has to ensure everyone meets the letter of the law and makes sure that when something goes wrong, it gets handled.Joy feels that HR has become a profession where everything is a checkbox exercise. She is not denouncing it. She says that there are specific requirements set by law, and HR professionals must ensure they meet those requirements.She says that many companies put diversity and inclusion under the same HR system, although it is a personnel development function and should go along the lines of leadership training. What are Joy’s top tips for new HR Professionals? (26:25) Joy says to remember that everybody hurts, but when you understand that everyone comes in with their own set of experiences that shape how they see things, you give them more grace and space to be who they are and helps you to meet them where they are and bring them to where you need them to be.People should set the standard of how you and your work will be viewed.    Joy’s book recommendation What if by Dr Steve Robbins Connect with Joy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joy-stephens-newheights/
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    30 mins
  • The Problem with HR Interview with Kathy Daniels

    The Problem with HR Interview with Kathy Daniels
    Feb 4 2021
    Kathy writes, speaks and consults in all areas relating to employment law. Kathy is the lead tutor for employment law programmes at the CIPD, and she writes extensively for them and speaks at training events and webinars. Kathy has written an employment law textbook which is currently on its 5th edition. She writes and speaks for various organisations including MBL Seminars, Instant CPD, DataLaw, Croners etc. She is a regular contributor to the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Programme and the Small Business Growth Programme. She had done work on CIPD programmes for ICS Learn and wrote materials for them. What are notice periods, and who do they protect? (0:21) The rights relating to notice protects both the employer and the employee directly. It covers the employee so that if you are dismissed, you have to get a certain amount of notice. It protects the employer because it says if the employee resigns, the employer must also receive a certain amount of notice. The amount of notice has to be set out in the contract of employment. This protects the employer in the way that they won’t just have employees disappearing on them. If an employee doesn’t work, notice what you can do about it. You cannot do much about it, unfortunately.You cannot chain employees to their desks and say they cannot leave until they have done their work. The only thing you can do in a situation like that is sue for any damages that your organisation experiences from not having the employee working there. What formula is in place as a strategy for notaries? (2:42) When they are working out what notice to give an employee, they look at the contract as a starting point. They have to provide contractual notice and a redundancy situation they give contractual notice or statutory notice, whichever is longer. Statutory notice is one week for every year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks. If an employee has worked for at least a month, they get a week’s notice anyway. If the contract is silent on notice, it shouldn’t be because notice is one factor that should be included in a written statement of initial employment particulars. If it is silent, then when the employee is dismissed for any reason, you would still have to give such notice. If someone has been employed for less than four weeks and their contract doesn’t state anything different, they would not be entitled to a notice period.  What is the significance of having a Paylon Clause or a Garden Leave Clause, and what happens if a director does not have one? (5:37) Paylon stands for pay in lieu of notice and what that means is that instead of keeping the employee on a payroll, you work out how much they would have earned during their notice period, and you pay it as a lump sum, and they leave immediately. However, if you have not got a Paylon clause, this is breaching contract because the contract says you will give x weeks of notice, and if you do not provide that notice, you are technically breaking the agreement. A Paylon clause will say that they reserve the right to pay you in lieu of notice and terminate an employee immediately, so you do not have the right to pay somebody in lieu of notice if it is not started in the contract agreement.  What happens if the termination happens due to misconduct or a three-month notice period, and there’s a month during which the employee is needed could an employer change their minds? (21:56) If an employee has been dismissed, following a series of warning, they do get their notice. A lot of people do not realise this. If it is gross misconduct, then it’s summary for an immediate dismissal which means they do not get any notice. In a situation where an employer thinks, no they really want the dismissed employee back, Kathy warns that this situation can be rather tricky on employee relations. Looking at it legally, the contract has ended so you can’t end the contract, and suddenly one person says it is back on after changing their minds. The employer could go to the employee and say that they have made a mistake and they would like them to return to work, and the employee could accept this gesture or not, but you cannot impose it on the employee to return to work after the contract has ended.  Aston Business School Their goal is to enhance enterprise and enterprises. They are part of an elite group of international business schools who hold the gold standard of 'triple-crown' accreditation from AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS, and appearing in the top 100 for Business and Management Studies (QS World University rankings 2020). Resources Connect with Kathy: LinkedIn Aston Business School: Website Connect with Levi: LinkedIn
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    37 mins
  • The Problem with HR Interview with Scott Laidler

    The Problem with HR Interview with Scott Laidler
    Jan 28 2021
    Scott Laidler is an experienced health coach and personal trainer. He has personally delivered more than ten thousand private training sessions and as many more online coaching calls. He was the sole fitness trainer for the Fantastic Beasts film Franchise at Warner Brothers Studios. He is a weekly Health Columnist at the Daily Telegraph since 2015, and he is a corporate wellness consultant to multiple blue-chip corporations.  How did Scott come to be where he is now? (1:03) For Scott, it started with his fitness journey. He was 16 when he joined his first gym. He had grown up watching action movies like Karate Kid, Rocky and so on. He wanted to see if he could emulate the kind of physiques and sequences that he observed within the films. He started to educate himself about training and fitness.He would spend thousands of hours just trawling through articles and forums etc. He tried to learn as much as possible because he believed that he should be as informed as possible to be genuinely efficient.Over the next few years, Scott started to see results, and it all happened during a time where people were not going to the gym like in the days of Schwarzeneggar where fitness was a subculture. People would ask Scott what he was doing to get the results, and so, Scott started to become a personal trainer before he even understood it to be a job. Scott went to university and pursued a psychology degree. During his second year, he became intrigued by business and entrepreneurship. It led him to realise that the best way to combine psychology, business and health into one was to become a personal trainer and start his own fitness business.  What is Scott’s esoteric approach to fitness and wellness? (8:07) Scott believes there is a wholeness to the business. He does not think that you should aim to be different in your business than in your personal life. He says you cannot have ethics in one place and not in another. He believes the same things goes for the body.You cannot have a stressed and compromised mind and not have the same reflection in your body and health. Scott’s approach offers as much value as he can in the work he is doing. He believes that anyone can be dogmatic to a training program, and he thinks you need to take into account what happens before workouts and build an understanding of what your body needs on any given day. Once you build an intuitive understanding of your body’s needs, you can move away from being dogmatic with any training program because you do not have to feel guilty about listening to your body. Scott is a big believer in Karmic law. He reminisced on a story where two years after graduation, he decided to take a six month by going back to Kansas. He had been on his way to a close friend to say goodbye when he realised he did not have anything to read on the flight. He was thinking to himself at the time that he wanted to learn more about sales, having already extensively researched entrepreneurship. He had hoped he could buy a book on the subject somewhere at the airport. When he stopped at his friend’s house, she handed him a present, saying it had reminded her of him when she ran across it, and it turned out to be Zig Ziggler the Art of Selling and this truly solidified his belief in the law of attraction.  What is the biggest drawback being experienced in the professional or personal health industry today, and what Changes have Corona brought to the industry’s working world? Scott states that there is a price for everything. If you over-index on one modality or one area of training, then over-indexing by definition will have its consequences. If all you do is lift weights, you will accumulate muscle tension, and you will have compression in certain areas. If you never stretch out or train your mobility work or take rest times, you will run into problems. If all you do is run or only do endurance run after endurance runs, the run is no longer efficient. The run could be made more efficient with prerequisite strength training. Still, you also need to consider the recovery aspects, and that doesn’t necessarily mean stretching only but also areas like ice baths, saunas, massages, etc.Corona has impacted the fitness industry quite a bit. Scott believes it has made us more mindful about things like how we spend our working day and its effect on our long-term and short-term health. Fitness professionals are being mindful over whether or not pain is being experienced throughout their working day because of their posture, muscle tensions, stresses, and if so, they cannot output the same quality of work and feel as good about the working day as they usually would. Scott believes that now there is more of a focus on making sure that the working environment is healthy. He urges people to consider the things they used to do, like walk to the train station or go to gym on the way home from work, now with the pandemic that is not happening anymore, and you have to ...
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    32 mins
  • The Problem with HR Interview with Amanda Smyth

    The Problem with HR Interview with Amanda Smyth
    Dec 18 2020

    Levi interviews Amanda Smyth, head of people at Chopstix.

    Amanda is an experienced senior HR leader that enjoys developing and delivering people strategies and plans. She doesn’t only partner with Exec Board members but all other levels too, supporting and guiding decision making through effective stakeholder relationships, business knowledge, credibility and trust.

    Tell me more about who you are and your experience in HR (0:40)

    • She talks about growing up in Southern Ireland, and how she ended up in the hospitality industry.
    • Her first job, moving to London, was in HR with London Underground
      • back when HR was called Personnel
    • She talks about how HR has changed in the last 30 years, and why community is vital for HR professionals.

    What would you say is the biggest drawback being experienced in the industry today? (07:52)

    • She hasn’t experienced any drawbacks herself but notes that it’s due to being open to change.
    • She hopes that people will start realizing the value of HR once again.

    What changes do you think are needed, and how should we go about it? (12:27)

    • Embracing cultural change, and getting in the right mindset.
    • Attitude and recognition.
    • Preparing for the future workforce.

    What do you think the future HR looks like without change? (15:28)

    • HR could lose its voice and value.
    • It will become merely a support function.

     

    What advice would you give New HR Professionals, and current HR professionals who are serious about the industry? (17:54)

    • A career isn’t all about climbing a ladder.
    • Amanda gives a few pieces of advice.


    Connect with Amanda - LinkedIn
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    18 mins
  • The Problem with HR Interview with Laura Capindale

    The Problem with HR Interview with Laura Capindale
    Dec 18 2020

    Levi interviews Laura Capindale who started a Facebook group called HR Crowd.

    Laura helps SME's achieve engaged and high performing employees by providing tailored people management solutions.

    Introduction (0:14)

    • Laura talks about her career.
    • Launching the “HR Crowd” Facebook group.
    • Levi gives some background on himself and his career and DLP.

    People tend to have unrealistic expectations when it comes to HR (4:40)

    • How can you be the best you can be?
    • What happens inside a company when there are problems?
    • DLP has changed its approach in working with HR over the last 20 years:
      • PAC; People, Accountability, Communication
      • CIPD is great, but it doesn’t teach you enough.
      • Stronger2gether network

    Tell me more about who you are and your experience in HR? (13:35)

    • Laura talks about how her career has changed over the years.
    • She started the Facebook group “HR Crowd” to help small business owners.
    • She feels it’s still not enough, as there’s a big divide between small businesses and large corporations.

    What would you say is the biggest drawback being experienced in the Industry? (15:30)

    • Rigid mindset.
    • People don’t understand the value of HR.
    • The recent issues from people working remotely.
      • Risk assessments.

    What changes do you think are needed? And how should we go about it within the industry? (22:07)

    • Looking at the needs and wants of future generations
    • How staff is managed.
    • Being more inclusive.

     

    What do you think the future HR looks like without change? (23:50)

    • Employee burnout is a major issue.
    • How are we adding value?
    • Levi talks about how dealing with employee issues is very similar to raising children and teaching them right from wrong.

     

    What advice would you give New HR Professionals, and current HR professionals who are serious about the industry? (32:07)

    • Self-awareness.
      • Not only of yourself but also how others perceive things.
    • “Help me help you”

    Bonus Question - What book would you suggest our audience should read? (37:17)

    • Don't Sweat the Small Stuff ... and It's All Small Stuff - Richard Carlson

    Connect with Laura - LinkedIn
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    22 mins