Arkansas Talent

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In this Episode, we discuss the future of AI with Chris Hill, Director of IT at Windstream Communications. Chris will discuss what AI is, how we are using it already in our daily lives and how accountants and hr professionals could be using the technology to help with their communication and productivity. He will also give us a sneak peek into what he predicts the future of AI will be. 

Chris is a native of Arkansas, and graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in Management Information Systems and later earned an MBA from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He also holds a certificate in Business Analytics from the Sam Walton School of Business. With 24 years of experience in Telecommunications and Information Technology, Chris has served in various leadership roles with Alltel, Allied Wireless, AT&T, and Windstream. At Windstream, he spearheaded the creation and deployment of Robotic Process Automation and ChatBot programs. Chris brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the field of IT and is excited to share his insights with you.

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode, Chris and Stephanie discuss the hottest trends in recruitment and how to utilize them to help your organization attract, recruit, and retain talent in your organization. First, we discuss recruitment challenges that corporations are facing today and what candidates are actually looking for. Lastly, we discuss what we think are the top 6 recruitment trends in today's job market including; employer branding, hiring for soft skills, partnering with an experienced specialized recruiter, flexible work arrangements, skills-based hiring, focusing on employee experience during the recruitment process, and employee retention. Join us as we dive deeper into the conversation and discuss how you can home in on your recruitment process to hire and retain top talent. 

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In today's show, we get a sneak peek into the financial industry here in Arkansas with Eric Mangham. Eric is Arkansas Federal Credit Union’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mangham is responsible for all financial functions including accounting, finance, and payment solutions. He also leads the collections, compliance, risk management, and facilities departments. Arkansas Federal is the largest credit union and one of the largest financial institutions in Arkansas. Eric shares strategies on retention, including how he’s managed to have incredibly low turnover, even through COVID, and a headquarters location change, as well as some industry innovations at AFCU. 
 
Prior to joining Arkansas Federal Credit Union in April 2012, Mangham served as a federal examiner with the National Credit Union Administration. As an examiner for NCUA, he was responsible for reviewing the safety and soundness of credit unions in Arkansas and surrounding states.

Mangham is a frequent guest speaker and lecturer at National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions (NAFCU) related events, focusing on leadership and risk management.

Mangham serves on the board of directors and is chairman of the Better Business Bureau of Arkansas. Mangham also serves as vice-chairman of the board of directors and chairman of the governance committee for Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkansas. He has also served as chairman of the finance committee. Mangham serves on the steering committee for NAFCU’s CFO Committee and serves as a faculty member for Southwest CUNA Management School.
 
Mangham earned a Master's and Bachelor's of Business Administration from Lamar University.  Eric has been married to his wonderful wife Ashley since 2012, and they are proud parents to their nine-year-old son Ethan.

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode, Chris and Stephanie discuss one of the most important topics in the job search and talent acquisition industry…. HOW TO CRUSH THE INTERVIEW! Stephanie and Chris have over 25 years of experience in recruitment and have worked with thousands of candidates throughout our careers to help them through the interview process. They share a step-by-step guide on how to prepare for the interview and the importance, types of interview questions, what questions you should be asking, and how to follow up after the interview is over. More importantly, they have had years of experience hearing the client’s feedback on how the interviews go from their perspective, so they will share a lot of Do's and DONTs and some helpful tips to CRUSH your next interview! 

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode, Chris and Stephanie have a conversation with Bill Sowell, CEO & Founder of Sowell Management. We discuss Bill's incredible career and what led him to start Sowell Management. We discuss all things talent, including where he looks for talent, remote philosophies, and how he's built his company culture centered around Core Values. We also get a sneak peek into the world of investment advice, how to choose an advisor, and current market conditions. 

Bill is the Founder and CEO of Sowell Management, a $4 billion (AUM/AUA)* Registered Investment Advisory (RIA) headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Over the last 22 years, Sowell Management has been recognized and profiled numerous times including Barron’s Magazine (2020) and Forbes (2022) as a Top 100 RIA in the US. Bill began his career in financial services in 1990 and was an early “broker” to fully embrace the industry trend toward fee-based advisory services. In 1995, Bill became a fiduciary to his clients when he began his fee-only practice in earnest, and in 2001, Bill and his wife, Cindy founded Sowell Management together. They have worked as a team for more than 20 years.

Bill was born and raised in North Little Rock and his roots in the state of Arkansas run deep. He attended the University of Arkansas, Little Rock, and both of his children attended the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. In 2020, he was named Business Executive-of-the-Year by Arkansas Business Publishing Group. Along with his community commitment, Bill has served as past President of the Rotary Club of Little Rock and was named a Paul Harris Fellow in 2000. Bill has been a past board member and board chair of Leadership Greater Little Rock, which seeks to develop community leaders with the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Bill has been a board member of numerous nonprofit organizations including Riverfest and Museum of Discovery. He holds numerous licenses, such as Series 7, 24, 51, 63, and 66 securities licenses, as well as Life, Health and Disability insurance licenses. Bill is also in demand as a speaker and RIA industry leader and proponent. In his free time, Bill enjoys taking advantage of Arkansas’s natural beauty, especially golfing, boating and duck hunting. #WPS. 

To learn more about Sowell, go to www.SowellManagement.com. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-sowell-0778a33b/  

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode of Arkansas Talent, we discuss in detail, how to create or update your resume for entry, mid, and senior level candidates. This includes six sections of the resume, our advice on formatting, and some things you shouldn't include. In addition, we also share advice for updating your LinkedIn, so its job search ready, which is just as important as keeping your resume updated. For resume or LinkedIn examples, please get in touch with Chris or Stephanie, or if you have specific questions about our recommendations, feel free to reach out via LinkedIn. 

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode, Bethany Wallace discusses ways to prevent and remedy toxicity in the workplace. The prevention piece largely focuses on communication and gratitude. She also addresses ways to remedy toxicity with some tips on conflict resolution, communication, and self-reflection. 

Bethany Wallace partners with mission-minded organizations to build better workplaces through soft skills solutions, including consulting, training, career coaching, executive coaching, professional writing services, and keynote presentations. Bethany presents research at conferences and contributes to publications and podcasts, including HigherEdJobs, Lensa, Glassdoor, College Recruiter, Zip Recruiter, Jobscan, Flex Jobs, the New York Daily News, Human Resources Online, Life After Teaching, Love Your Story, and more. 

Bethany has also published three books, Hindsight 2020: A New and Selected Poems by Bethany Wallace and Mama Meditations: Devotional Book & Gratitude Journal for Moms, Volumes I and II. She manages a blog and podcast focused on gratitude, GratitudeCup.com. Bethany worked for 12 years as an English faculty member and career services director. Bethany earned her Master of Arts degree in English Language and Literature at Arkansas Tech University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Lyon College.

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode, Chris & Stephanie talk about Core Values and why it's important to create or reestablish them for your organization. They recently read the book Traction by Gino Wickman and went through this process by creating their own Core Values.

One of the concepts in the book was about the importance of creating and living by Core Values within your company and how it can shape the culture, productivity, and success of an organization, if done properly. Forbes discussed a study done by LinkedIn that stated that 59% of respondents in Europe reported that they would not work for an organization that does not share their values, with 55% reporting that even a pay increase would not change their mind and the figures rise to 87% for workers in the US!

Join us for a brief discussion of how to create Core Values and the benefits to any organization. For more information on Traction and creating Core Values, go to Traction by Gino Wickman - Get a Grip on Your Business (eosworldwide.com). 

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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 Mike Harbour, President of Harbour Resources
“Delivering Excellence in Leadership and Personal Development”

In this episode, Mike Harbour shares strategies from his revised book, "Quit Losing Talent" that comes out in a few months. Mike shares some groundbreaking steps that organizations and leaders can implement today to quit losing their talent. 

Mike is a veteran serving as both an enlisted soldier and medical service corps officer in the U.S. Army. Mike has almost 30 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry as a leader in hospital operations, leadership training and development, sales, talent management and executive search. Mike launched Harbour Resources in 2006 and has coached, trained, and developed thousands of leaders. Mike has published over 290 episodes on The Lead Up Podcast. He is an author of Power Principles, Quit Losing Talent and Co-Author of Breaking Average. Mike’s focus and his company’s mission are to deliver excellence in leadership and personal development solutions to help you lead others, lead yourself, hire “A” players for your teams, and develop them to be high performers. Mike is the proud father of 2 Kids and husband of 30 years to the beautiful Connie Harbour. 

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin. 

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In this episode, we discuss the coined phrase of Quiet Quitting and discuss our findings on whether this is actually a real phenomenon or if there are other factors at play. While the coined phrase and its viral nature might be new, actual data suggest quiet quitting is anything but a new movement. A Gallup poll of worker engagement shows that employee engagement remained relatively stable between 2000 and 2022  actually going up slightly over that period. We discuss in this episode that we think the real culprit might be employee burnout and discuss ways to detect and remedy it in your workplace. 

For more information, staffing, or career advice, get in touch with Chris Chunn and Stephanie Shine via Linkedin.