Podcasts

91- Mindi Cox, Chief Marketing & People Officer at O.C. Tanner, on moving from employee engagement to employee fulfillment

Mindi Cox, Chief Marketing & People Officer at O.C. Tanner, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about moving from employee engagement to employee fulfillment and the work required to change culture.

Timestamps:

• (17:37) Why we should be jealous Mindi gets to work at OC Tanner
• (19:38) Moving from employee engagement to employee fulfillment
• (25:00) Looking at the value of your work situation beyond just your salary
• (33:41) The self determination theory applied to work: autonomy, mastery, and connection
• (39:00) How to change your company’s culture
• (42:15) The Southwest Airlines culture
• (47:35) Her definition of a Modern People Leader
• (48:00) The career advice she’d give her 22-year-old self

90 – MPL’s biggest 8 learnings from HR leaders in 2022.

Today we shared MPL updates for 2023 and our 8 biggest learnings from 2022.

Timestamps:

• (2:55) MPL updates for 2023
• (5:40) MPL origin story
• (17:08) #1 Flexibility (plus trust) is the name of the game
• (24:06) #2 DEI & the future of work are connected
• (31:13) #3 Everyone would benefit from therapy (especially HR)
• (37:52) #4 Think of the employee experience as a product
• (42:51) #5 The role of the CHRO is really f****** hard and not going to get any easier
• (51:40) #6 Gen Z isn’t afraid to ask for all of the things we’ve always wanted
• (1:03:15) #7 People are rethinking their purpose portfolios
• (1:09:46) #8 Career advice for HR practitioners

89 – Julia Soffa, Principal Internal Communications Manager at Guru, on how information overload is hurting our bodies

Julia Soffa, Principal Internal Communications Manager at Guru, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about information overload, the golden rule of communication, how to build an attention audit survey, and why we should all embrace JOMO.

Timestamps:

• (10:03) When Julia started noticing digital debt in her personal life
• (15:00) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Guru
• (16:47) Her role as Principal Internal Communications Manager
• (19:00) Information overload is hurting our bodies and the businesses that we work for
• (23:41) The attention audit survey
• (28:01) Going from 6% remote to 65% in just two years
• (30:45) The golden rule of internal communication
• (36:36) How to structure an attention audit survey and the surprising responses they’ve gotten
• (39:22) Why we should all embrace JOMO
• (43:22) The 4 P’s of meetings
• (46:47) How she thinks about digital rituals
• (50:54) Her definition of a Modern People Leader
• (52:01) The career advice she’d give her 22-year-old self 

88 – Lars Schmidt, Founder of Amplify Talent, on 2 things HR pros should prioritize for their careers

Lars Schmidt, Founder of Amplify Talent, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about what you should know if you plan to make the jump into HR, the 2 most important things for HR practitioners to prioritize their careers around, and the ways HR will look different in 2023.

Timestamps:

• (3:20) Recent launch of Amplify Academy’s Diversity Council
• (4:37) Lars’ career story and how he started Amplify
• (9:36) What happened in 2015 for the open sourcing of HR
• (15:20) Getting out of the zero-sum mindset that in order to win everyone else has to lose
• (18:45) HR is now a destination function
• (20:00) Where there’s room for disruption within HR
• (22:20) What you should know if you’re making the jump into HR
• (30:00) The 2 most important things for HR practitioners to prioritize their career around
• (34:00) The importance of having peer networks
• (39:36) On whether the economic uncertainty will hamper progress made over the last few years
• (43:03) People moving away from the startup scene for more stability
• (46:25) The current state of HR tech
• (52:05) 7 ways HR will look different in the new year
• (57:00) The idea of choice
• (1:00) Built For People
• (1:01:38) Lars’ definition of a Modern People Leader
• (1:02:16) The career advice Lars would give his 22-year-old self

87 – Amy Lavoie, VP of People Success at Torch, on how to make DEI work

Amy Lavoie, VP of People Success at Torch, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about Torch’s people success scorecard, the importance of measuring your people programs, and what their research uncovered about how different groups perceive progress on DEI efforts.

Timestamps:

• (8:48) Why we should we jealous Amy gets to work at Torch
• (9:44) Torch’s people success scorecard
• (15:45) The biggest surprises in 2022 from a people perspective
• (18:11) The biggest challenge for people teams in 2023
• (24:50) Is HR making progress in measuring the impact of their programs?
• (29:27) The indirect signal that HR sends when they hold engagement data captive
• (33:22) Feedback doesn’t define your company, it helps it continuously improve
• (36:06) Executives think they’re doing better on DEI efforts than managers
• (38:10) We can no longer rely on one-size-fits-all programs to make a meaningful impact on DEI
• (48:47) The discrepancy between how men and women perceive progress on DEI initiatives
• (50:30) The over reliance on benchmark data
• (52:23) Amy’s definition of a Modern People Leader
• (53:58) The career advice she’d give her 22-year-old self 

86 – Kelly Keegan, VP of People at Built In, on building the people function of the future

Kelly Keegan, VP of People at Built In, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about how she’s thinking about building the people function of the future and why everyone in HR could use a therapist.

Timestamps:

• (12:17) How she’s thinking about the future of the people function
• (16:26) What companies can do to make the recruiting function more sticky during economic downturns
• (22:34) Why Built In scrapped their HRBP model for something new
• (28:30) What’s going to separate the best people teams from everyone else
• (33:23) The strongest leaders are the ones constantly observing and looking for trends
• (40:40) Everyone in HR (and everyone else) could use a therapist
• (45:00) How Built In uses Modern Health for their people
• (49:00) Most common fears for people going into therapy
• (52:02) How she defines a Modern People Leader
• (52:20) The career advice she’d give to her 22-year-old self

85 – Recharge’s Michael McArthur (SVP People) & Ashley Grech on reducing toil.

Recharge’s Michael McArthur (SVP People) & Ashley Grech (COO) joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about why Recharge is focused on reducing toil, the 3 pillars of what it means to work for a great company, and the work they’re doing on the career development front.

Timestamps:

• (5:00) How Ashley and Michael would describe one another
• (7:30) Why we should be jealous that they get to work at Recharge
• (9:20) Building the people roadmap from scratch at Recharge
• (12:13) Recharge’s journey from a self-funded startup to a series B startup
• (15:33) How a COO and SVP of People look at the employee experience from a slightly different lens
• (19:48) How Recharge has managed change these last couple of quarters
• (21:13) The 3 pillars of what it means to work for a great company
• (24:50) Why reducing toil is something that they’re focused on
• (28:30) How Recharge is looking at career development
• (34:18) What manager development looks like for Recharge in 2023
• (37:20) How Ashley’s sales career has helped her become a better COO
• (45:49) How Recharge is being more intentional about culture as they grow
• (47:28) Michael’s definition of a Modern People Leader
• (47:55) The career advice Ashley would give to her 22-year-old self

84 – Sara Gorjão (Chief People Officer, tb.lx by Daimler Trucks) on the Human Energy Crisis

Sara Gorjão, Chief People Officer at tb.lx, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about the Human Energy Crisis we’re facing, tb.lx’s experiment with the 36-hour workweek, and why being a perfect people leader isn’t possible.

Timestamps:

• (14:50) why we should be jealous that Sara gets to work at tb.lx
• (19:50) Sara’s mission and how it’s connected to her role
• (22:52) How Sara checks in with herself and manages her energy
• (30:45) The flashlight system for examining ourselves
• (33:51) tb.lx’s experiment with the 36-hour workweek
• (41:21) How they measured productivity during the 36-hour workweek
• (49:40) Being a perfect people leader isn’t possible
• (52:44) How Sara defines a Modern People Leader
• (56:30) The career advice she would give to her 22-year-old self 

83 – Amanda Ono (CHRO, Kroll Digital Services) on change leadership &2023 planning

Amanda Ono, CHRO at Kroll Digital Services, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about 2023 planning, her biggest learnings scaling a company from 90 to 250 employees in one year, and navigating change as a leader.

Timestamps:

• (10:27) Amanda’s experience as both an operator and HR leader
• (14:00) Why we should be jealous Amanda gets to work at Kroll
• (16:39) Budget season and 2023 planning
• (19:11) Taking the best of both cultures when integrating after an acquisition
• (23:11) Lessons learned growing from 90 to 250 employees in less than a year
• (24:59) Who should be on your “change council”
• (27:05) The importance of a strong communication plan
• (42:00) Her definition of a Modern People Leader
• (42:29) The career advice she’d give to her 22-year-old self 

82 – 2023 Planning for People teams

Today we reflected on the last couple of episodes and then we discussed 2023 planning for People teams.

Timestamps:

• (6:30) Operating your people function like it’s a product of your company
• (8:30) The 3 products that every company is building
• (12:17) The domino effect that led up to the layoffs (19:20) Making the Chief People Officer role more commercial
• (22:59) Using your core values as a lens for everything your people team does
• (27:50) Building the employee experience like a house
• (33:00) The importance of going on a listening tour as the new people leader
• (36:23) 2023 planning for People teams

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81 – Jim Bartolomea (SVP, Global Head of People) on building the people experience like a house

Jim Bartolomea, (SVP, Global Head of People and Places) at ClickUp, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about the challenges he’s most excited to tackle as ClickUp’s new people leader, building the employee experience like a house, and getting buy-in as a new HR leader.

Timestamps:

• Why we should be jealous he gets to work at ClickUp (12:49),
• the challenges he’s excited to tackle first as the new people leader (14:22),
• place being an important part of culture and connection (16:45),
• building the employee experience like a house (23:10),
• onboarding is your first chance to make a great impression (24:40),
• applying the core values lens to everything you do in the people function (30:45),
• the importance of career conversations (33:38),
• getting buy-in as a new HR leader (36:10),
• your org design and operating model create clarity (40:00),
• promoting managers that aren’t built to be managers is a big mistake (42:50),

• his definition of a Modern People Leader (50:20), and more.

80 – Jessica Zwaan (COO, Whereby) on people ops as a product & recent layoff in the news

Jessica Zwaan, COO at Whereby, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about the recent layoffs in the news, how we can raise the CPO role to be looked at as more commercial, and why you should treat people ops as a product.

Timestamps:

• why we should be jealous she gets to work at Whereby (6:01),
• layoffs this week (8:35),
• the domino effect leading up to layoffs (17:15),
• outside of the CPO role, women only make up 20% of the other C-Suite roles (20:15),
• raising the people role to be more commercial (23:49),
• there are 3 products a company is building at one time (30:35),
• you need a unique selling point for employees to really stand out in the market (38:35),
• 2 biggest challenges when trying to move to this new way of working (44:07),
• how she defines a Modern People Leader (52:51),
• the advice she’d give to her 22-year-old self (53:51),
• and the people problem she would fix with a magic wand (56:24).