Better People Podcast

In this episode, Debbie Kemp, Chief People Officer at Biz2Credit shares her experiences and challenges of transitioning from a large organization to a rapidly growing one. She provides insights on building a leadership team, fostering a culture of learning, and developing talent in a small but mighty company. The importance of mentorship and effective communication in employee engagement and growth is also discussed, along with the significance of understanding the business as an HR professional and driving revenue growth. Kemp emphasizes the need to meet the organization where they are and shares valuable insights on building a strong culture and leaving a lasting impact.

Debbie Kemp is the Chief People Officer at Biz2Credit, a leading player in small business financing technology, with extensive experience in leadership and human resources roles at organizations like BRANDED and MediaCom. Debbie has excelled in shaping corporate culture, optimizing talent acquisition, and fostering diversity and inclusion. She brings a wealth of expertise to her current role, where she focuses on streamlining business financing processes and enhancing productivity. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Debbie discusses her career journey from Goldman to different industries and her current role at Biz2Credit
• She discusses the cultural differences between a 50-person organization and a company with hundreds of employees
• Foster a culture of learning and mentorship to empower employees.
• Regular communication and engagement surveys keep employees involved and informed.
• Addressing digital transformation challenges while enhancing customer experience.
• Understanding the business and driving revenue growth through HR.
• Building a strong culture and investing in talent.

Resources:

• Biz2Credit
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Debbie Kemp:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Holly DePalma

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 07:01 - “I really love meeting people, and so it's nice to be able to understand the organization and the leader, our founders, and what may work with them and what may not work with them. And so that is finding those profiles and making a few introductions to just get an idea fit.”
• 11:45 - “We want to make sure that they're getting developed. So we also have these micro-learning sessions. We're actually going out with a kind of training right now for our sales. Anyone who's stuck in a customer touching a customer. So a few different roles, and it's really focused on customer experience. So we're linking that with LinkedIn learning some microlearning, like through teams or WhatsApp. So they're little micro sessions. And then also some coaching sessions on calls.”
• 13:25 - “Often the discussion with particularly Gen Z and the millennials, is that they need to constantly be what's next? What's next? What's next? And that can be challenging for smaller organizations when there isn't always a clear “what's next”. So, having their input on how you get there to the what's next is a must be a really positive experience for people.”
• 21:35 - Holly: “This has been a particularly challenging couple of years for folks in the HR profession. And, most people sort of talk about all they've done that they didn't think they were ever going to have to do, including being a safety officer, etcetera. What are some of the things that you see that are most different or that you have experienced in the last few years?”
  Debbie: “I think one of the things that are different is just a lot more listening. So I'll just say I spend a lot more time actively listening, just being that ear.”
• 19:20 - “A large challenge outside of everything else that's going in the economy, is just communicating in a way that our employees feel a part of what we're doing. And not being spoken to, but actually understand where we are.”

In this episode, Holly Marrone, Executive Director/Chief People Officer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, joins host Holly DePalma to explore the challenges and achievements of HR and organizational development in higher education. They discuss topics like transitioning to hybrid remote work, implementing assessment tools, and removing barriers to employee success. The conversation highlights the significance of relationships, learning, and understanding people's needs, while Holly shares her career aspirations and vision for the future of work.

Holly Marrone, the Executive Director/Chief People Officer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, brings over a decade of experience in HR and organizational development. She has successfully led teams and implemented strategies to drive employee engagement and foster a culture of inclusion. With her expertise in talent management and her dedication to creating positive work environments, Holly has made significant contributions to the field of higher education. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Graduate school exposed Holly to the world of organizational consulting and executive coaching, fueling her passion for HR and OD work.
• Building relationships, earning trust, and producing results have been crucial in navigating the complexities of a large organization like Penn.
• Holly's ability to see the future and lead others without fear has been her greatest accomplishment in driving organizational change.
• Understanding the cultural aspect of physical presence and the need for human interaction is key in designing the hybrid remote workplace.
• Finding the right balance between productivity and distractions is crucial in creating a successful hybrid remote workplace.
• As an HR practitioner, create connections and support individuals where they are in order to have a tremendous impact on their lives.
• Holly envisions herself as an architect of the future of work, seeking opportunities to transform organizations and contribute to societal changes.

Resources:

• University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Holly Marrone:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with our host, Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 09:01 - How you work with people is core and, and I'm a humanist, I believe so deeply in the beauty of, of people and that people want to ultimately do well and want to thrive. And if you can find out what their goals are and how you help advance those and partner with them while also advancing yours, it's, it's the magic, you know, elixir to everybody being successful.
• 25:01 - And so when an employee brings you a problem, we have to kind of spider that out and understand the complexity and, and do some root cause analysis to understand what is really happening. Is it people conflict, or is it task conflict? Is it a mix of both? Does it look like it's people conflict, but it's really about the process? And so I think understanding, you know, people conflict versus task conflict is really important.
• 19:22 - I mean we are certainly as leaders in organizations juggling many, many different things post Covid-19 and challenges, and really we tend to call them, I think people call them the softer side of things. They're really more the human side of things.
• 14:57 - Holly DePalma: So in talking about sort of this new world of work and it, it sounds like you have some people who are home, some people you're kind of a hybrid model. How is that, how do you, how was that working?
  Holly Marrone: So for me, you know, the forward-thinking nature of this was right before Covid-19 happened. I had already kind of spoke to my boss about this concept of reimagining the workplace. And I said to her, what if everybody's not in the building all the time?
• 22:54 - Holly Marrone: I'm not educating students, or I'm not, you know, doing research, or I'm not doing those, but if I support those people who are, if I can remove the obstacles if I can recognize what gets in the way of them being successful, and I can help them get around those, then I can contribute to that ultimate success of the organization.
  Holly DePalma: The way that you very succinctly laid out how you contribute to the results of what's happening in your organization is a powerful way to look at things and your impact that you have as an HR leader, as somebody who is there to support, maybe not, you know, do the experiments or do the teaching, but you're there to support.

In this episode, Jillian Moulton, Chief Human Resources Officer for JW Player, discusses three key topics: manager development and engagement survey results, the shift towards a coach-focused approach, and creating alternative paths for career growth. She emphasizes the importance of a people-first culture, challenges and opportunities in a remote-first organization, and making employees feel heard and supported. JW Player's managers strive to understand employees by listening to individual perspectives and considering data.

Jillian Moulton is an accomplished HR leader with extensive experience in various organizations, including her current role as Chief Human Resources Officer at JW Player. With a strong background in people and talent management, Jillian has played instrumental roles in shaping company culture, optimizing operations, and driving organizational excellence. Join us as Jillian shares her insights on HR strategies, leadership, and creating a thriving work environment. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• JW Player's Leadership Lab program provides training, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration opportunities, fostering autonomy and responsibility among managers.
• The ability for managers to admit “I don't know” and foster open dialogue with their teams is seen as a crucial skill for effective leadership.
• Offering alternative paths for career growth allows employees to find the right fit.
• JW Player promotes a people-first culture that values transparency and mutual understanding.
• The remote first environment brings challenges in terms of connection and cultural understanding.
• Measures like team meetups, improved communication tools, and active employee resource groups help overcome these challenges.
• Making employees feel heard and supported prevents burnout and improves job satisfaction.

Resources:

• JW Player
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jillian Moulton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with our host, Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 24:15 - I feel like the way that our culture is, is that we have a lot of really hard, hard workers. And so instead of having to be like, where are you? It's more like, go take a mental health day. And so I want to make sure people feel heard. I also, I hope they feel like they have the ability to reach out to, to someone to help them, right?
• 14:57 - We also believe very much in transparency where we can, even if it's painful, like that's one thing I think that has helped us through the, the very tumultuous times we have is we've always tried to be really open, not talk about it the fastest, but talk about events and issues when we feel like we understand how we're going to approach them, but that, that creates a culture of really like if we share with you, we're giving you that responsibility to come to us with, you know, your whole self.
• 25:33 - So in coaching we call that like the thing behind the thing, like really getting at what's going on and not staying surface. Because if you stay at the surface level, you're going to miss a lot. So that's awesome. I love that that's been a lesson that you've learned from.
• 11:04 - But it's the coaching habit and that, that's the whole premise, and it's really to help leaders become more coach-like in their approach. And it's all about asking more questions. So it's asking more, telling less, that's exactly what you were getting at. It frees you up as a leader. It helps, you know, it saves you time, and it really builds up the people that that work for you.
• 24:15 - Margaret: with everything that you've done, all the experience that you've had, what is one thing that you've changed your mind about?
  Jillian: Oh, that's a great question. One thing I've changed my mind about, Hm, I think maybe there was a period in my career where I got really data-focused, like we were talking about engagements.

In this episode, HR executive from One Inc, Jeffrey Robinson, discusses the challenges and opportunities of managing a distributed workforce. They emphasize the importance of clear communication, performance management, and empathy in remote settings, as well as building trust and celebrating successes. They also share tips for recruiting the right people and developing a passionate team in HR.

Jeffrey Robinson is currently the Chief Human Resources Officer at One Inc, where he develops and executes HR strategies aligned with the organization's goals. With extensive experience in talent management, performance management, and organizational development, he provides strategic leadership in articulating HR needs and plans to stakeholders. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Robinson's diverse career in different industries has helped him understand the importance of the people and talent that drive every business from an HR perspective.
• Robinson's passion for recruiting stems from his early career experience in recruiting tellers in New York and Chicago and extended to exploring different ways to retain talents through training, onboarding, compensation, and benefits.
• One Inc has a distributed workforce with about 400 employees in the US and Mexico, 200 employees in India, and 60% of employees working remotely.
• Performance management is an opportunity for improving engagement and feedback.
• Empathy and vulnerability are key components of successful remote leadership.
• Empowering employees to understand their roles and purpose is crucial to keep them engaged

Resources:

• OneInc
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Jeffrey Robinson:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 16:49 - I think the challenge is in building cohesiveness, stickiness from an organizational perspective, and not just on the broader level, right? We have a mission, we have values, we have an organizational strategy that people can go to one inc.com and, and, and see who we are, what we do.
• 18:03 - When we were all in the same building, we could all get around the water cooler, right? Get a cup of coffee and I could say, Hey Margaret, how are you doing? What's going on in finance? Right? What's going on in marketing? What's going on in sales? Right? And, and that's not the way it's done anymore. Now you have to be more mindful of opportunities to bring employees together to share information, have a level of transparency that's a two-way street between employees and, and managers and their direct reports and the organization to our employees as well.
• 19:55 - And communication obviously runs through so many things. It's the communication of just updating your employees, so they know what's going on. It's the social communication that, so people just feel connected, and they get to know each other. It's the transferring down of really important information. It's the sharing successes.
• 25:19 - So you're getting all this feedback from your employees, and you have to care enough about them to look at what you're getting and to say, is there a message here that I have to be picking up on? Is there an opportunity to train them because they might be missing something? Is there an opportunity for me to say, Hey, you don't seem like you're having a great day today, is something going on? Or is there an opportunity to praise them and recognize them for something that they've done?
• 31:59 - Jeffrey: You're just looking for how do you contribute, how can I contribute to this organization? How do I, how do I fit? And so it's you and your manager creating that level of connection and that level of focus. Clear priorities, clear goals. What are we trying to do here? Why does it matter? All of those things absolutely, positively have to happen in order for someone to feel good about their, their work and want to jump on these Zoom calls and, and, and want to be engaged in these, in these meetings and want to contribute to those meetings.. Margaret: Yeah, understanding what your role is, what your purpose is, great to understand what the company's purpose is, but you as an employee to be fully engaged. You're right.

In this episode, Dr. Lisa DeRoché discusses the significance of mentoring in HR and her dissertation on entrepreneurial behaviors. She emphasizes the need for building relationships, empathy, and leadership support in HR mentoring programs. Dr. Lisa also provides useful tips for starting and growing successful mentoring partnerships in organizational settings.

Dr. Lisa DeRoché is the Chief People & Equity Officer at Roosevelt Institute, where she shapes the culture of a team driving progressive research to strengthen democracy. With a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, she provides strategic direction for human resources and advances innovative HR systems and processes. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Mentoring is a powerful HR development tool that assists career advancement and promotes positive outcomes such as job satisfaction for employees.
• Taking a risk and being vulnerable can lead to wonderful experiences in professional growth and building trust.
• Entrepreneurial activities include creating new programs and products, innovative hiring, expanding business functions, opening new businesses, and using data.
• Leadership support, engagement, and communication are essential to the success of mentoring programs.
• Patience, compassion, role modeling, offering safe spaces, and creating a sense of community are critical behaviors that foster entrepreneurial attitudes.
• Start informally and promote it internally
• Engage in working through a plan that suits your organization's culture

Resources:

• Roosevelt Institute
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Dr. Lisa DeRoché:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 11:02 - “You have to be willing to use your voice even when immediate trust is not there. Y you know, and that's one of the, you know, points of my HR experience that has always been a challenge, both as an employee, you know, individual as well as a manager and a leader. The opportunity to build trust with, you know, another is, is potentially the block that can stop or start a career and or your engagement and being happy in your day-to-day work.”
• 31:04 - “As I've grown and matured in my career, I've always felt as if you have to please everyone, right? And I recognize in the various environments that I've worked in that, you know, it's important to please everyone, but you'll never get to that point. It's impossible to please everyone. You have to remove the mindset of, you know, the fact that you are attempting to please everyone, but go in with the mindset that you are a trusted individual, especially as an HR leader”
• 25:20 - “But so many people are like, are in that place where, how do I get started? What do I do? What should it look like? What would you tell somebody? What would be the, you know, one or two pieces of advice that you could give somebody who is thinking about creating the first mentorship program in their organization?”
• 29:06 - “And you know, what I tell the members that I talk with and, and that I support in rolling out mentorship programs here at our organization is, yeah, it doesn't have to cost anything really other than some time initially. And you can start small and those people, you know, if you even pair up have one pair to start, they will benefit from it. You will do something good, right? And, and so it's worth it to start. It's, it's just worth it to just start at, at whatever level and then have it grow organically and, and all along the way people are just really benefiting from it.”
• 10:07 - Lisa: You don't, you know, you haven't met these people before and that's really the hard part, you know, it's like going to a cocktail party and like, oh, I have got to get out here and talk to people, right? So it was really a wonderful opportunity.. Margaret: Interrupt. So, so yes, take the risk, right? Enter the relationship, start, you know, do it. But I think, and maybe this is part of the risk that you're talking about, I mean, you allowed yourself to be very vulnerable.

This episode, IQ Solutions Vice President of Human Resources, Jillian Bernstein, talks about leveraging data for employee engagement and well-being, manager engagement, and the importance of work-life balance and kindness in career success.

Jillian Bernstein is the Vice President of Human Resources at IQ Solutions, a federal contractor focused on communications and web design for federal health agencies.

Prior to this, Jillian progressed from an HR Generalist to Vice President within the HR team at Walker & Dunlop, and then spent ten years of practicing HR in the real estate finance world. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• How to use data for DEI and benefit analysis
• The importance of pulse checks and stay interviews in addition to surveys.
• The amount of time employees spend at work compared to their home.
• How to use work groups to build employee connections.
• Ways to create employee loyalty.
• How companies should treat their employees.

Resources:

• IQ Solutions
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jillian Bernstein:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 18:23 – “So what do you feel your pull is? Like what's, what's exciting to you? Do you want to be helping with different innovation work? Do you want to help with different business development opportunities? Do you want to help come up with diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging activities and get involved in the company that way? So really this is a great way for us to outreach to our employees and because sometimes people get so focused on the project that they're working on, this also allows them to have kind of more breadth in terms of who they're interacting with on a day-to-day basis.”
• 29:16 – “I do feel like we've had such a transformation and I don't know if it's more Gen Xers kind of coming into the ranks, but even my boss who I reported to, our chief financial officer, and he's a baby boomer, but he has been ever since day one at, at IQ. I remember the first week I was there, my son had started kindergarten and got sick in the classroom, and it was, I was so embarrassed because it was my first week, I was like, I am so sorry, but I need to go pick up my son. And he's like, go family, go, go, go. And I was like, I don't know that I could work anywhere else that doesn't have that. And I think if companies don't provide a family first mindset, that we really are doing our employees a disservice.”
• 32:40 – “I truly believe as an HR professional, again, if you're not coaching, and you're not seeing the employee as a whole person, then we're not doing our jobs as an HR person in terms of how we're structuring policies. And I think you'll get more loyalty out of employees if you have the flexibility that if you have a one-year-old at home and the one-year-old isn't feeling good that day, you're going to need to stay home. And that's okay.”
• 42:44 – “Just bring kindness to work with you every day and in your interviews and in your career. You just want to be gracious and kind. And I think that honestly will take you so far. And I think the other aspect of kindness is showing a kind of, not overly eager, because that could be off-putting for some people, but like a tempered solid eagerness to learn and to also be a little bit humble if you ever make a mistake and be like, I want to learn how to do that and do that better. And I think that that goes a long way too.”
• 34:19 – “You have to be intentional about it and that's why we saw it getting really carried away and we, we needed to kind of make sure that people rolled back, and our typical workday is 8:30 to 5:30, assuming an hour, people take an hour for lunch. But we have early birds, we have night owls, and that's okay. We want people to work when they're able to work and, and juggle family priorities too. So the thought really is like, just get the email ready, send it during that window though. And that way you can kind of feel like you did what you need to do. And then in the morning before you run off to take your kids to school, send all those emails that you worked on last night at 10 o'clock if you want, but don't do it then.”

In this podcast episode, EmpiRx Health’s Chief People Officer, Alisia Gill, shares insights on transparent hiring practices, fostering inclusivity in the workplace, and measuring and addressing violations of core values.

Alisia Gill is the Chief People Officer at EmpiRx Health, a dynamic company driven by a groundbreaking pay-for-performance financial model that ensures guaranteed savings. With a customized approach to population health management and an exceptional, personalized customer experience, EmpiRx Health boasts impressive client retention rates that exceed the benchmarks set by the industry. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• The importance of establishing a clear North Star to guide the organization towards its goals
• The importance of transparency in creating a sustainable company culture
• How to invest in managers for a better workforce
• Why managers should receive coaching based on 360 feedback surveys
• The value of senior leaders undergoing extreme ownership training
• How to recognize managers as culture carriers and people leaders
• How to foster ongoing conversations with clear expectations for success

Resources:

• EmpiRx Health
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Alisia Gill:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 03:41. “Let's figure out how we can think about human capital management in a more integrated fashion, because the organization isn't going to do what we needed to do if we haven't figured that piece out. We need to have our people ops part. We need to have our learning and development, because we're developing people who don't have to give us the best that they have to offer. They don't have to, they can just show up to work and go home.”
• 04:53 “There needs to be an individual's North Star so that everybody knows where they're headed and going in the same direction. And no one feels misled. Nobody feels confused. You don't have all these ridiculous inefficiencies. You find more opportunities to collaborate. Innovation becomes possible. All these things, if you get the people part.”
• 13:27 “If you are like me, you're a culture fit. And really, this phrase is really culture add and really understanding. We want you to understand what we do here and how we do it, and, like you said, does this make you say, ‘I'm gonna self-select out?’ Or does this ignite your, your sort of excitement and your feelings here?”
• 26:12 “Many companies that would never hire a learning specialist, company less than 10 years old, they’re not caring about that. But we care about that because we know that our employees care about that. They, they, everyone wants to believe that when they get off the, you know, on their career trajectory with, they want every role that they have to be advancing themselves professionally. They don't want to feel as if they've gone backwards or stagnant.”
• 36:46 “We also have a partnership with a company called Valor Performance. We have an executive coach for every single people manager in the company. They meet with them twice a month to work on things that are based on 360 feedback survey that's part of that work, where every employee has an opportunity to provide feedback anonymously, and all the stuff that happens in those coaching sessions with our people managers are the things that get worked on.”

Dave Glenn, VP of HR for United Methodist Communities, discusses his successful recruitment and retention strategies, which utilize technology such as an app that gamifies employee referrals and an AI algorithm for a caregiver retention model. He also prioritizes data and AI in refining their hiring processes, emphasizes the importance of middle management in retention, and continuously strives to learn and improve.

David Glenn, the Vice president of HR at United Methodist Communities, joins us for this podcast episode. With over 100 years of providing care to seniors, United Methodist Communities embodies values of compassion, respect, stewardship, and service, which are evident in every aspect of their work. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Incentivizing employee referrals for recruitment via text, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Twitter.
• Utilizing employee referrals has led to a great retention rate compared to job board hires.
• The goal of expanding this program to other industries in the future.
• Using data to refine hiring questions and processes for better retention.
• The importance of pride, work mission, and safety for employee satisfaction.
• Embracing change and new ideas to improve efficiency and employee satisfaction.

Resources:

• United Methodist Communities
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Dave Glenn:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Margaret Uhrich:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 03:37 – “But basically our applicant tracking system shoots out all of our job openings to the folks who have enrolled in this app, and then they can refer their friends and family, their social media followers to our jobs. And what it does is if when that goes out, it goes out through s m s text, email, Facebook, which I know a lot of employees are not on Facebook anymore. Their grandparents are, but not them. That's LinkedIn. WhatsApp, I believe, and Twitter. And so, so they could send it to any or all of those media, and if that person responds to that link, they get credit for it. So the system recognizes who, who referred them and then gives 'em credit. So, so it kind of gamifies it a little, it, it tracks, you know, how many people have sent jobs out and how many have come back, been interviewed or been hired so that we can reward folks for their diligence.”
• 5:57 – “So when you post a job on Indeed, it doesn't discriminate. You know who, who's getting that advertised, right? It goes out to everybody. But with this app, our individual employees, we would hope they would refer people like themselves, you know, their family members, their friends, perhaps they're like-minded. And if our employees are committed, hopefully we’ll get somebody similar who would be a great hire. So those people tend to respond, greater percentage of them respond, and they're quicker to hire. And as I'll, I'll point out in a few minutes, our retention rates are much greater for those individuals.”
• 8:08 – “Yeah, so I'll give you some examples. For instance, 12 month retention. The first year, typically from our Indeed hires, we retain about 63%, but through employee referrals, 78%, once you get out though to two years, typically we retain 35%. So it drops almost in half. But employee referrals 63%, so 35% versus 63%. And then when you go out three years, 26% for job boards, 57% for referrals. So we hang on to these people much longer when they come referred.”
• 10:47 – “So not only is it really helping you with your recruitment, I have to imagine it's helping to engage those really committed employees that you have. Definitely. And I think it helps their retention if their friends are working there or a family member. I mean, there's some families, we have two and three members of the family working in the same building.”
• 19:30 – “You can have the best senior leadership, but if you don't have good middle management, you're going to fail. So we've established something we've called UMC University, where quarterly we bring managers and potential managers in and train them on various aspects of management, the nuts, and bolts things, the HR law, you know, which I usually do, but there's, there's finance, there's IT. But then getting into things like emotional intelligence and, and other leadership qualities, bringing in other speakers. So we're just getting into it actually in a couple weeks, our second round of training. So we're very intentional about that, and we're going to keep that going forever, hopefully, and, and really help to develop these folks.”

This episode, OmniCable’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Cora Walker, talks about the importance of acknowledging company culture during significant company changes, the need for investment in leadership to create an engaged and positive work environment, and how to create a positive company culture.

Cora Walker is the Chief Human Resource Officer at OmniCable and is a strategic business partner with generalist and talent acquisition experience in highly demanding, client-centric environments.

Cora has been recognized for her ability to cultivate relationships and collaborate in complex, matrixed organizations to achieve business objectives. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Why company culture is so important.
• How a company's culture is created.
• The importance of your employee's mental and emotional well-being during changes.
• Creating a one-pager blueprint for a company’s culture.
• The value of investing in leadership development.
• Why looking after your employees and leaders is fundamental to a company’s success.
• What evidence of cultural buy-in from employees signals.

Resources:

• OmniCable
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Cora Walker:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 09:35 – “Tomorrow you're going to come, and we'll be owned by someone else, but ultimately you will come here and do the same job, you'll have the same opportunities, right? And the next day you're going to do that, and the following day you're going to do that. We kept hearing this very nagging, like, ‘oh yeah, but what about our culture?’ I don't understand, what about the culture. Right? Nothing's going to change. And for them, the change had already happened, right? They, they were so invested in employee ownership, that's what they associated with culture. And we failed miserably to acknowledge and accept that for them. And so we just kept saying, it's fine, it's all fine. The culture's the same. Meanwhile, they're like, ‘no, no, no. We've already experienced the loss.’ It can't possibly be the same, cause it's not here anymore.”
• 11:59 – “Culture as a leadership topic kind of made a comeback at the end of 2020. And frankly, we didn't do a great job. We talked a lot. People had tons of ideas. We talked about those ideas. We moved along our merry way. We grew, we grew, we grew. And all along the growth process, even with our parent company, right, who has an incredible culture, we did a lot of talking, and we didn't do anything very differently except for say we wanted to do some things differently. And so 2021 sort of came and went.”
• 14:55 – “Consistently people leaving told us, ‘I had no idea what to expect here. I didn't know.’ And, and I think part of that was because we didn't know how to recruit and interview and bring people on. If you've been here 20 years and over that 20 years you've trained 10 people, because that was about the rate we were hiring at, no problem. But if tomorrow we ask you to train five people and then the following week two more new ones come in, and then you start to go, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, this is… my job's not training, my job's running this machine.’ Right? Yeah. So that was a lot of it. It was just a lot of those observations from the travel and the hiring pieces and our, our honestly miserable failure in 2021 to, to keep up with staffing and our, our turnover increased.”
• 37:56 – “Culture forms no matter what, right? The culture just naturally happens. If you want it to be a specific way, you have to be intentional about it, and kudos to you and to your organization really to take the time to do that.”
• 39:36 – “It's hard to do when you don't feel safe, comfortable, you're unsure of the answer. I might look like an idiot, what if someone calls me out? But at the end of the day, we're people, right? Human beings, if I can't extend the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how I feel internally, then what? Right? Then you're creating more of things that don't work for humans. And so I think that's probably the biggest thing is just you'd be willing to put yourself in a situation to call it out more and recognize that sometimes that's not going to make you the most popular person in the room, and that's okay.”

This episode, Rectangle Health’s Chief Human Resources Officer, Jamie Heinze, talks about her journey to building a people-first culture, the importance of work-life balance, and what different generations want out of their jobs.

Jamie Heinze is an experienced HR professional and is currently the Chief Human Resources Officer at Rectangle Health. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• The process of acquisitions and how they affect culture.
• The perks of working in digital marketing.
• How to create formal processes and procedures for HR.
• The importance of a flexible, remote work environment for employee satisfaction.
• The different values the younger generation looks for in a job role.
• The benefits of having a performance management system and a management training program.
• The importance of having a well-rounded background in all aspects of HR.

Resources:

• Rectangle Health
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jamie Heinze:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:54 – “Looking at the different generations that are at in the workforce right now, the generation that's coming up in the workforce right now, that's what they want. They want that flexibility. They want to be able to make their own hours, they want the ability to work wherever they want. They want that work-life balance. They want to be able to travel, you know, that that's important to them. The experiences are more important to them than the dollars up there getting paid.”
• 16:02 – “So throughout my career, my husband was active duty military for 20 years. So I literally moved every three to four years for almost 20 years straight. And so it's kind of that starting over again every place you go and, and it was always for me trying to start over at a role that was at a higher level than the role I was at previously. And so I would never settle for, I wasn't going to settle for just an entry level role when I knew that I had experience. And so that was probably just a challenge for me of literally was being able to start over every time I moved because as we moved, it wasn't during the time where there was any virtual work, so you couldn't just take it with you and, and you know, continue to work in other states.”
• 21:16 – “Not just how do you interview for your team, but how do you delegate to your team? How do you have constructive conversations with your team? How do you manage your team? How do you manage your virtual team? You know, how do you have the, like I said, those difficult conversations, how do you build your team up? How do you do through succession planning? How you do talent management with your team? So that's a real need right now, they don't have that. So I'm working very closely with our L&D team on building out a full-blown manager training class that we're going to put all managers through, and then we'll put new managers as people get promoted or new managers come on through.”
• 22:14 – “We have people that are a hundred percent remote. So we have some teams that are fully, fully remote. My team is kind of half and half, so myself and one of the member of my team are remote. And then I do have one person onsite in New York and one person onsite in Las Vegas. You know, our sales team is kind of half and half, some are in the office, some are remote. Our marketing team is a hundred percent remote. So we're kind of all over the board where it comes to whether people are in the office or, or fully remote.”
• 23:32 – “We have people in our shipping department that are shipping on equipment, like those roles, they have to be in the office right five days a week. There are, there are essential roles, you know, and with the new CEO coming on board, he and I have talked about that of do we change that, how many people are actually abiding by the four days a week in the office? Are there departments, like I said, that can do less than that? They can do three days at home or, or you know, three days in the office or two days in the office, you know, hr, finance, development, you know, kind of work through that. So it's something that I'm sure that we're gonna we'll revisit here in the next couple of months.”