Mentorship can be a game-changer, but how do you create relationships that truly make an impact? In this episode, DeMario Bell, Senior Community Manager at Culture Amp, explores what mentorship looks like in today’s evolving workplace. From his infectious energy to his deep passion for community building, DeMario shares thoughtful insights into how People leaders can build a rock-solid mentorship program. This episode explores the impact of hybrid work on mentorship with the removal of water coo...
May 22, 2025•51 min•Season 7Ep. 4
This week, Carmen sits down with Matt McFarlane, former Senior Director of People Experience at Oyster and now the founder of FNDN (Foundation)—a consultancy dedicated to helping startups and tech companies master their pay practices. As a thought leader in compensation strategies and pay transparency, Matt brings invaluable insights to one of the workplace’s biggest challenges. In this episode, Matt and Carmen dive into crafting compensation strategies that align with your company’s vision, bui...
May 08, 2025•49 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Get ready to dive into a high-energy, mischief-filled conversation with Emily Hinks, the Founder and CEO of Mischief Makers, a future-of-work agency shaking up the way organizations collaborate. Showcasing what can only be described as a mastery of collaboration, Emily and her team are the secret sauce for industry giants such as Spotify, Netflix, IDEO, and the United Nations. This episode unpacks what it takes to master hybrid work principles and why copy-pasting someone else’s model just won’t...
Apr 24, 2025•53 min•Season 7Ep. 2
Welcome back to World of Work Season Seven! We are so thrilled to be back for the very first episode where Carmen sits down with her former Culture Amp colleague – organizational psychologist, Craig Forman. Craig and Carmen team up to discuss non-promotion-based employee growth strategies and how People leaders can use the data they collect to build thriving workplace cultures. Drawing from his diverse career journey, including military service and corporate leadership, Craig emphasizes the impo...
Apr 10, 2025•52 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Join Carmen for an exclusive conversation with Tony Jamous , CEO and co-founder of Oyster! In this episode, he peels back the curtain of his incredible journey—from growing up in Lebanon to building a revolutionary global employment platform. Tony shares the inspiration behind founding Oyster, rooted in his passion for making a positive impact and challenging the constraints of national borders. This podcast episode was produced by Quill ....
Dec 12, 2024•45 min•Season 6Ep. 5
As the importance of diverse talent has continued to rise, conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have remained top of mind for many PeopleOps leads. While much has evolved since 2020, a pivotal year when many organizations made bold commitments to DEI, who has truly followed through? Enter Daniela Herrera an award-winning DEI professional with over 17 years of global experience in talent operations, recruitment, and leadership. Dani offers valuable insights on accountabilit...
Dec 05, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 6Ep. 4
This week, Carmen chats with Cloey Callahan , Assistant Director of Development and Alumni Communications at SUNY New Paltz and former Digiday Worklife writer, to discuss what makes Gen Z tick at work. As a Gen Z-er herself, Cloey shares why this generation’s approach to jobs, loyalty, hybrid work, and even mental health is shaking things up. This episode explores the importance of making space for meaningful conversations about Gen Z’s needs, going beyond surface-level assumptions, and embracin...
Nov 28, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 3
This week, Carmen is joined by Julie Fedele , founder of the Portfolio Career Club and author of The Portfolio Careerist , a popular newsletter for professionals looking to create flexible, meaningful careers. In this episode, Jules dives into how she helps individuals learn to love their work through the development of a portfolio career. She shares her journey to discovering fractional work, a model that’s gaining traction among senior-level professionals and executives. Combining this new str...
Nov 21, 2024•36 min•Season 6Ep. 2
Welcome back to New World of Work! In the first episode of season 6, we dive into a topic that’s been on the minds of HR and PeopleOps leaders everywhere: how can HR teams use artificial intelligence in their work? Dr. Kait Rohlfing, PhD , is a trained industrial organizational psychologist and former Sr. Leadership Trainer and Facilitator at LifeLabs Learning. Recently, she helped write a playbook on how PeopleOps leaders can leverage AI in their work. In this episode, host Carmen Amador ...
Nov 14, 2024•39 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Welcome back New World of Work! In this mini-series, we are focusing on the power of distributed teams to take companies at all growth stages to the next level. In the final episode, Katie is joined by Anamaria Dorgo and Sophie August, co-hosts of the Mapping Ties podcast and expert internal community builders. Anamaria and Sophie are both passionate about the power of internal community, and the importance of nurturing them properly- and not forcing them when they aren’t wanted. The...
Apr 18, 2024•50 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Welcome back New World of Work! In this mini-series, we are focusing on the power of distributed teams to take companies at all growth stages to the next level. How do start-ups and entrepreneurs leverage global hiring to build teams made up of top talent? Host Katie McCauley is in discussion with Fredrik Thomassen, founder and CEO of Superside . Superside has been a distributed company since its inception, and uses a global hiring strategy to recruit the best creative talent the wor...
Apr 04, 2024•36 min•Season 5Ep. 2
In this mini-series, we are focusing on the power of distributed teams to take companies at all growth stages to the next level. Webflow has been a pioneer in leveraging a distributed workforce since 2013, VP of People Mike Podobnik joins Katie to discuss how Webflow has grown and expanded with its team, and the lessons learned along the way. They discuss the challenges and opportunities of a global workforce, and how to foster community across borders. Join Oyster's Free People Buil...
Mar 21, 2024•32 min•Season 5Ep. 1
In this episode, Rhys and guest Lauren Razavi explore the world of living as a digital nomad. Lauren has been nomadic since 2013, and is the author of Global Natives, a book about the past, present and potential of work from anywhere. Lauren is also the VP of Communications at SafetyWing, an insurance platform for digital nomads. In this episode, Lauren and Rhys discuss what it would mean to build a country on the Internet, how companies can think about remote and flexible work, and why work fro...
Oct 05, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Rajeeb Dey calls himself an ‘accidental entrepreneur.’ After starting a venture to help give students a voice in their education when he was 17, he’s gone on to launch a national entrepreneurship competition with the government of Britain, and founded Learnerbly, a curated online learning platform that helps organizations make learning part of their culture. He and Rhys have an interesting and enlightening conversation about why continuous learning is so important in the age of AI, the importanc...
Sep 21, 2023•43 min•Season 4Ep. 6
What does it mean to ‘neurodiversify’ the workplace, and more importantly, why is it important? In this episode, Rhys sits down with Conner Reinhardt, COO @ Mentra, to help answer those questions. Conner and the Mentra team help neurodivergent jobseekers find employers that value their unique skills, and also help educate PeopleOps teams about neurodiversity. Join Rhys and Conner for an educational chat about embracing neurodiversity in the workplace, what PeopleOps leaders can do to create welc...
Aug 31, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Welcome back to New World of Work! In this episode, Rhys sits down with Ivori Johnson, Interim Head of People, Talent, and DEIB at ChartHop, for a discussion on influencing and convincing C-suite executives of the value and importance of the PeopleOps function. They will discuss making a clear case for the value of the function, especially in remote/hybrid environments, how Ivori uses her DEIB background to be an effective leader, and the PeopleOps ‘PR’ problem. Ivori will share her strategies f...
Aug 17, 2023•36 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In this episode, Rhys interviews Amy Spurling, founder, and CEO @ COMPT. COMPT is an all-in-one innovative reimbursement platform that is revolutionizing benefits. Not a vendor platform by design, Amy and her team built COMPT to allow organizations to offer truly personalized benefits and stipends. Rhys and Amy dive into why personalization is the way to optimize benefits, especially for a distributed workforce, and how COMPT supports local vendors. Rhys asks Amy if benefits and stipends can eve...
Aug 03, 2023•37 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this episode, Rhys sits down with Massella Dukuly, Head of Workplace Strategy + Innovation @ Charter. With over a decade of experience collaborating with PeopleOps leaders to enhance organizational effectiveness, Massella emphasizes the impact that a robust and trusting relationship between PeopleOps and employees can have. The repercussions of a breakdown in these relationships are felt throughout the entire organization, highlighting the need for PeopleOps leaders to find solutions and prev...
Jul 20, 2023•50 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Welcome back to a new season of New World of Work! In the inaugural episode of season 4, Rhys sits down with Yen Tan, Co-Founder @ Kona, a Slack integration that allows managers to track morale across their teams. Yen and their co-founders started Kona in their dorm rooms after having a bad experience working remotely and knew something had to change. Since January 2020, they’ve interviewed over 800 leaders to discover their pain points when managing remote teams and built Kona to solve them. In...
Jul 06, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 1
As we learn to navigate this new world of work, one topic that’s become a hot-button issue for many organizations is navigating parenthood in the workplace. Juggling a full-time job while raising children is no easy feat, and it’s not always easy to predict what tomorrow will look like—especially for busy working moms. In this special panel episode of New World of Work, Rhys sits down with three working moms to get their perspective on navigating motherhood in the workplace today. Featuring Kim ...
Mar 16, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 7
From mass layoffs to sky-high inflation, we’ve all seen the devastating impacts of economic turbulence. During times of economic uncertainty, just keeping the organization afloat can be a tall order for many leaders. As a result, companies often put crucial initiatives like diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts on the back burner—despite their best-laid plans. In this episode, Rhys explores how PeopleOps leaders can take steps to prevent this from happening and instead continue prioritiz...
Mar 02, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 6
During turbulent times, the leaders who are able to embody agility, adaptability, and perseverance will thrive—and so will the organizations they lead. One way to do this effectively is by leaning into the practice of scenario planning, which is one of the topics Rhys covers in this episode along with his guest, Maggie Kolkena. Rhys and Maggie discuss why scenario planning is a critical component of strategic or annual planning, and how organizations can optimize the practice for success. Maggie...
Feb 16, 2023•44 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Transitioning from one role to the next isn’t always easy, and changing industries altogether can be an even bigger challenge. However, if you’re able to transfer key skills from one role to the next, that transition can be a whole lot smoother. That was the case for this episode’s guest, Jessica Zwaan, who has made the leap from law to PeopleOps and all the way to her current role as C hief Operating Officer (COO) at Whereby, a company that’s making it easier than ever for remote and distribute...
Feb 02, 2023•35 min•Season 3Ep. 4
In recent months, we’ve all witnessed the sad headlines containing the dreaded L word: layoffs. It seems that week after week, another major company is doing a big round of layoffs, impacting thousands of people and families. In this episode, Rhys sits down with an expert guest who believes that many layoffs could have been avoided if these companies had processes in place for people planning and needs forecasting. Warren Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Doublefin, an automated and collaborativ...
Dec 22, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 3
The world of PeopleOps today is becoming increasingly data-driven. Business leaders are demanding more from their PeopleOps teams, and employee metrics are high on their wishlist. Tracking key metrics like retention rates, turnover rates and employee engagement is becoming a non-negotiable part of the job. In this episode, Rhys sits down with Julie Jeannotte, HR Expert and Researcher at Officevibe. Julie is an expert in employee engagement metrics and tracking data to gain valuable team insights...
Dec 08, 2022•42 min•Season 3Ep. 2
To kick off the third season of New World of Work, Rhys explores a topic that’s highly pertinent to the working world today, whether you’re an entry-level employee or a CEO: workplace well-being. The pandemic has made us all uniquely aware of just how precious our health, happiness, and personal relationships are, which is why many business leaders are making more of an effort to prioritize the well-being of their teams. To learn more about what’s new in the world of workplace well-being, Rhys s...
Nov 17, 2022•37 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In today’s fast-paced world, many of us are constantly looking for new ways to keep up with demand, speed things up, cut out the middleman and be more efficient overall. As many PeopleOps leaders will know, there’s always room for improvement, and operating procedures, process and documentation are important areas to focus on if they hope to help their teams become more efficient, productive and satisfied in their roles. In this episode, Rhys sits down with Chris Ronzio, the founder and CEO of T...
Sep 08, 2022•36 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Although there’s great talent to be found everywhere these days, this doesn’t always translate into diverse hiring practices. As PeopleOps leaders, it’s important that we act as champions for diversity and inclusivity as we build and scale our teams. In this episode, Rhys sits down with Hugh Chichester, the co-founder of Niya, a diversity hiring platform that connects underrepresented talent with global job opportunities. Supporting refugees and migrants, ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQ+, neurod...
Aug 25, 2022•40 min•Season 2Ep. 6
By viewing the entire company as the end product, business leaders can create everything from offer letters to benefits packages with a user-first design mindset. Similar to the teams that design and build the products that are ultimately shipped to clients and customers, PeopleOps leaders have a golden opportunity to create touchpoints that the entire staff can use, thereby creating a real difference within the organization. In this episode, Rhys sits down with Richard Mabey, the co-founder and...
Aug 11, 2022•36 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Helping new hires feel welcome and valued isn’t a new idea, but studies are showing that it could be more important than ever—especially in a remote working world, which has created unique challenges for new hires and people managers alike. In this episode, Rhys discusses the importance of onboarding and retention with two guests from Bonusly: Lisa Schmuttermair, a PeopleOps Specialist and Laura Saracho, a Content Marketing Manager who weighs in from the people manager perspective. As an engagin...
Jul 28, 2022•39 min•Season 2Ep. 4
