"Companies can now optimize things like rewards and training and development. HR and the way companies communicate with employees is going to be based on personalization." Juan Betancourt, CEO, Humantelligence We're Only Human -- Episode 119 The "one size fits all" approach is being replaced with the "one size fits one" approach at some of the most forward-thinking companies. In your personal life, you expect personalization. Customized movie, dining, or clothing recommendations are becoming the...
Jul 08, 2021•33 min•Ep. 486
"It all has to link back to practical insights and practical takeaways about how best we can come through the current crisis together." Bill Banham, Editor, HR Gazette We're Only Human -- Episode 118 One of the fun parts of the last year has been connecting with new people, finding new resources, and building new communities. Someone at the heart of that is Bill Banham, editor and publisher at the HR Gazette. As someone who covers things happening in the HR industry, he brings a unique and balan...
Jun 28, 2021•23 min•Ep. 485
"Listening without solving... Is really important, because the tendency for a lot of people is when somebody comes to you with an issue, the immediate response is to try and find a solution to the problem when in fact that may not be what you need." Gordon Simpson, SVP Human Resources, DHL Global Forwarding We're Only Human -- Episode 117 Work is changing. We all know it. We've seen it. Hiring is more difficult than ever, and predictions are that it will get harder. Retaining talent is critical....
Jun 10, 2021•27 min•Ep. 484
"There's a lot of blame going around. Rumors, gossip, people are on their guard. So this kind of hidden anger and passive aggressiveness that I have seen, [what's] always an eye-opener with clients is how many people need to be CC'd on any given email. So the more people that are CC'd in anything gives you an indication: there's a bit of fear, and so that shows that there's generally low trust." Faye Ekong, Managing Director, RavelWorks Africa We're Only Human -- Episode 116 In the organizationa...
Jun 01, 2021•25 min•Ep. 483
"So the nerdy neuroscience about the brain is that your brain can't distinguish between a real-time event or if you visualized it. But when you when you walk yourself mentally, emotionally, visually through those things, and you just see yourself doing them and being successful, that's the really key piece." Roger Kitchen, Mental Skills Coach We're Only Human -- Episode 115 High-performing individuals in music, athletics, and even business use coaches to help them accomplish their goals, but hav...
May 14, 2021•26 min•Ep. 482
"What I see is that we're no longer working from home. We're living at work. And so how do we help employees work differently?" Maribeth Bearfield, Chief Human Resources Officer, Bright Horizons We're Only Human -- Episode 114 In the last year, employers have struggled with how to support workers in a rapidly changing environment. Even today as some things change, others stay the same. During this episode, Ben talks with Maribeth Bearfield about how she looks at the human side of benefits that h...
May 06, 2021•35 min•Ep. 481
"If this week a leader acknowledges [employee feedback], next week, the person is eight times more likely to participate again than if the leader said nothing the week before." Ruby Kolesky, Co-CEO and Head of Product, Joyous We're Only Human -- Episode 113 What's your stance on employee feedback and anonymity? In today's conversation with Mike and Ruby from Joyous, they share a bold proposal: stop making employee feedback anonymous, because you're telling them that it's something to be worried ...
Apr 26, 2021•36 min•Ep. 480
My preference in work was not towards optimizing machinery, but helping optimize work processes for people. Tim Gardner, Former Organizational Development Consultant at Kimberly-Clark (retired) We're Only Human -- Episode 112 If you're an introvert in HR, you're not alone. Recently I shared a piece on LinkedIn about introverts in HR and the value of introversion, and the piece received thousands of likes and comments. Apparently my own preference for introversion is in good company! In today's p...
Apr 15, 2021•31 min•Ep. 479
"The platform was up and running literally weeks after the pandemic hit. And through this platform they saved 2,000 jobs, so it's also about saving jobs by redeploying people effectively when the times are needed." Jerome Ternynck, Founder and CEO, SmartRecruiters We're Only Human -- Episode 111 In some brand new research , we found that internal hiring and talent mobility is a key priority for employers in the coming year, and they measure success through increased diversity, lower cost to hire...
Mar 30, 2021•39 min•Ep. 478
"I think as HR leaders, one of the biggest things that we have to do is never lose sight of the people." Erika Lance, SVP of People Operations at KnowBe4 We're Only Human -- Episode 110 According to research, organizations face an average cost of over $3 million for a cybersecurity breach. Do we have your attention? In today's episode, Ben talks with Erika Lance of KnowBe4 about the importance of cybersecurity and how HR can play an active role in supporting this critical business issue. At the ...
Mar 18, 2021•27 min•Ep. 477
"It's about understanding that workforce isn't a recruiting job. It isn't a leadership job. It's everybody's job. If you have needs in the workforce, you must communicate them. And the vehicle to do that is our recruiting team." Betty Jo Rocchio, Chief Nursing Officer, Mercy We're Only Human -- Episode 109 One of the consistent priorities in our research over the last few years for recruiters is to align with the business and build deep, strategic partnerships. In today's episode, you'll get uni...
Mar 08, 2021•32 min•Ep. 476
"We are what we call a conversational AI platform, the main product being our AI assistant, which was built with a really simple kind of mission to create magical experiences for candidates." Josh Zywein, Paradox.ai We're Only Human -- Episode 108 Chatbots aren't new. Most of us have used them as consumers to get support when we visit a website for a cable or mobile phone provider. Plus, in our last report on chatbots in the recruiting technology space a few years ago, we found over 25 different...
Mar 02, 2021•25 min•Ep. 475
"What different actions can we take going forward? So whether it was an implementation to our benefits plan or whether it was rolling out a new piece to our onboarding process, let's do an analysis at the end... Is there anything that could've made this better? Just one little thing that we could tweak so that we can learn from this." Angie Redmon, striveHR We're Only Human -- Episode 107 Today there's no shortage of employer award programs. Every magazine, business publication, website, and tra...
Feb 19, 2021•26 min•Ep. 474
"The way work is getting done is increasingly flexible and it gives the worker the power of choice. That choice serves both the worker and the end enterprise." Dan Beck, COO of Utmost We're Only Human -- Episode 106 Quick, your business needs to fill a talent gap you have, but you don't want to hire a new staff member. What do you do? Hire a consultant? Pick up a freelancer? Snag an independent contractor? Historically, these activities have happened outside the realm of HR, partly due to compli...
Feb 12, 2021•36 min•Ep. 473
"Be gentle with yourself. I think we can all afford a little compassion and we're often able to give that to others easier than we're able to give it to ourselves. Give yourself time for introspection to understand what truly motivates you and let that be your first step." Kristin Richter, Engagedly We're Only Human -- Episode 105 This is a special edition of We're Only Human! Last fall Ben cohosted HR Analyst Day with Jessica from Workology (who you'll hear on today's show). They talked with a ...
Feb 05, 2021•28 min•Ep. 472
"You can reconcile accounting, but you can't always reconcile people." Jeremy Stickling, Chief Administrative Officer at Nussbaum Transportation We're Only Human -- Episode 104 Turnover in some trucking and transportation companies runs nearly 100% a year, meaning they turn over virtually every employee over a 12 month period. But at Nussbaum, the turnover runs under 30% a year. What's the secret, and how can other employers with a field-based or remote workforce apply those principles to create...
Feb 02, 2021•27 min•Ep. 471
I really do believe this is a moment for learning and training that could see a transformation that benefits learners. Simon Greany, Elucidat We're Only Human -- Episode 103 How many times have we in HR and learning been forced to create content in subjects we knew little to nothing about? In today's episode, Ben talks with Simon Greany from Elucidat about how the company supports employers through technology that enables subject matter experts to cocreate learning content. At the end of the day...
Jan 22, 2021•33 min•Ep. 470
"We can't forget about being human." Tom Moran, Chief Strategy Officer, Prodoscore We're Only Human -- Episode 102 When workers gathered to work on assembly lines, productivity was easy: you counted the widgets produced per hour. In the modern workplace, it's a much harder proposition. How do you know when knowledge workers are really accomplishing what they need to be? In today's discussion, Ben dives into those questions and more with Tom Moran of Prodoscore. Prodoscore is a productivity intel...
Jan 15, 2021•27 min•Ep. 469
"We allow business leaders to dictate things based on who they like, who they golfed with the last weekend, and things like that when it should be: 'Who is doing the work and who is a benefit to our work environment and our culture?'" Carla Patton, HR Executive We're Only Human -- Episode 101 One of the challenges in the last year is that the pandemic showed the cracks in the relationships created by poor leadership. In an office environment, there are enough opportunities to smooth over mediocr...
Jan 07, 2021•27 min•Ep. 468
"We map the employee journey and experiences that an employee has. We do things where we can really hear, learn, and better understand the employee sentiment, directly from employees. We have feedback mechanisms built in that allow us to continually evolve, and we really look at that feedback that we get on our experiences as a gift. We welcome it. We want to hear 'what did we do' and 'how did it land' and 'how can we make it better?'" Adella Bell, PayPal We're Only Human -- Episode 100 Today, o...
Dec 10, 2020•32 min•Ep. 467
"So you're about to go into a meeting physically or remotely, you click on the team on the calendar invite and it'll pull up the culture of that meeting. Imagine EQ everywhere, and you're delivering emotional intelligence insights where every person can communicate, collaborate, and connect." Juan Betancourt, Humantelligence We're Only Human -- Episode 99 One of the issues with the tools, the technology, and the processes we use in HR is that we sometimes get away from the human at the core of i...
Nov 27, 2020•35 min•Ep. 466
"Human resources is ripe for innovation right now. Innovation is definitely a place of great opportunity within human capital. We should be constantly looking out for how we can leverage what others have done in other areas and apply it to human resources functions." Karin Wagner, Senior Director of Talent Transformation at UnitedHealth Group We're Only Human -- Episode 98 If you've ever wondered why HR seems to struggle with innovation, you're not alone. For some companies, HR expects innovatio...
Nov 12, 2020•32 min•Ep. 465
"My company is going remote because of COVID. How do I transition our culture over?" We're Only Human -- Episode 97 In today's episode, Ben takes three audience questions: How do we move to a remote work culture? What payroll technology works for a smaller organization? How do I leave a toxic workplace? We are trying out this Q&A series and would love to hear your feedback! Let us know if you enjoy it or if you want to ask your own question. Just send it to questions@upstarthr.com or record ...
Oct 22, 2020•25 min•Ep. 464
"I think you can't make the mistake of designing an optimal, or academically perfect HR operating model in a vacuum. It really must be aligned with your fundamental business strategy and the overall operating model." Lauren Duprey, Takeda Pharmaceuticals This is the first in a fascinating new series of episodes where we interview talent and HR leaders from a select set of IBM Talent and Transformation clients about their innovative practices and approaches. We're Only Human -- Episode 96 What do...
Oct 15, 2020•37 min•Ep. 463
"And to me, just hands down learning is the future of work. Let's just put a period on that. That's how I feel about this. We've entered this era of where there's continuous, rapid change. It just keeps coming for us. Every day we're faced with a new change. And the only way that we can sort of ride those changes or rise to them is through continuous learning." Shelley Osborne We're Only Human - Episode 95 If that statement doesn't convey the sentiment of this episode, nothing will. In this disc...
Sep 30, 2020•26 min•Ep. 462
"One of the things that I find most fascinating about using neuroscience in the [change management] work that I do is that there's a lot of really common misconceptions about neuroscience." Travis Hahler, Google We're Only Human - Episode 94 What is neuroscience and why should we be thinking about it as HR and business leaders? Neuroscience is the study of how the brain works, how we make decisions, and what drives our behaviors. If we can understand some of the underlying evidence and contribut...
Sep 23, 2020•50 min•Ep. 461
"What we're telling customers is that we can help make work more human. First is really putting empathy at the forefront of the employee experience. It's up to HR to work with leadership and create this human experience." Munjal Munshi, Oracle We're Only Human - Episode 93 Organizational agility is a critical part of adapting to and overcoming change. What does this mean in the context of the work HR does? Everything. Our newest data at Lighthouse Research & Advisory show that 96% of employe...
Sep 17, 2020•28 min•Ep. 460
"At the beginning of my career, HR was looked at as a necessary evil. Now it's completely flipped to where HR is the driving force for how companies grow and expand." Eric Storm, Starmind We're Only Human - Episode 92 Skills are the currency of business. Research shows that in the 1980s, 85%+ of organizational value was in tangible assets (property, facilities, equipment, etc.) Today, that has shrunk to just 15% or less, and the rest of value is in intangible assets (ideas, capabilities, intelle...
Sep 10, 2020•29 min•Ep. 459
"We as an industry are driving toward the cliff and the HCM [technology] vendors are competing over who offers better tire pressure." Dror Gurevich, Velocity Network Foundation We're Only Human Podcast Episode 91 How are organizations gathering skill data inside the business? Our research shows that the most common method is also one of the most biased: manager observations. However, Velocity Network Foundation is a nonprofit organization that aims to solve the problem of unverified, unvalidated...
Sep 03, 2020•36 min•Ep. 458
"We need help communicating the benefits we pour our hearts and souls into and making them successful for our employees." Jesse Albro, Flimp Communications We're Only Human Episode 90 Heads up: open enrollment will happen this year. While this seems like the strangest year in, well, forever, it also has some predictable elements to it. That said, how do you plan for a virtual approach to open enrollment? How do you measure the impact of your communications/ How do you support your people as they...
Aug 28, 2020•32 min•Ep. 457
