Better People Podcast

Becky O'Loughlin is a global business executive with a diversity of experiences as a Human Resource leader and Management Consultant positioned to lead transformation, drive strategic growth, advance talent and organization strategies, and impact business results.

Becky is the Chief People Officer and EVP at Amplity Health where she leads the Global People Strategy and HR operation globally and scales the function and company to support business growth. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• How to provide a humanistic HR approach.
• Different communication methods that can connect people.
• Effective engagement plans and strategies.
• How to evaluate if your culture is effective.
• How new leaders can build trust with their employees.
• How HR responded to George Floyd’s murder.
• Diversity equity and inclusion processes.
• Mental health resources HR can provide.

Resources:

• Amplity Health
• HR Person of the Year Awards
• Gartner for Human Resource (HR) Leaders
• MEA - MidAtlantic Employers' Association

Connect with Becky O'Loughlin:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 11:00 - “I was really befuddled, I’m like I don’t really understand what we’ve done because in my mind especially coming from such a large organization it was always about these big programs and big communication and big deliverables that went out and you boil it down and people just want you to engage them for who they are and where they are.”
• 19:51 - “Following George Floyd's murder we put together a people strategy through that, of course, there was a diversity, equity, and inclusion component for the year 2020 what we had planned was to have an unconscious bias training session I think it was in third quarter or fourth quarter but we didn’t have a stated plan or strategy so when that transpired we needed to pull that forward immediately and also with urgency and have a voice around that as an organization that felt authentic and wasn't just a reaction because we felt like we had to and those were probably some of the most compelling conversations I’ve had in my life much less my career at that time.”
• 22:53 - “One of the best things that came out of those was these ask me anything sessions again for our black and African ancestry resource group they started it, had an ask me anything session had people submit questions ahead of time had a panel of representative team members join so questions were put forward ahead and some of them were really raw but it was a really fantastic and open forum nothing was scripted.”
• 29:58 - “Our people strategy the way that it’s stated I verbalize it all of the time I don't let people forget why we have the focus that we do our intent is that we want to be a high-performing team so our colleagues and our clients choose us time and time again, the colleges we serve, the clients we serve and very intentional that we talk about our colleagues first and we have a strategy that supports that.”
• 31:28 - “Not to rest on our laurels and think we’ve already got that because you never do you can lose it in an instant you can lose an organizations or an individuals trust in one moment so you have to stay on your toes with it and keep it at the forefront and don't let people forget don't let the leaders expect what their expectations are and don't let the organization the colleges the team members think for a second that it’s still not top of mind.”

Joel Greengrass is an experienced Chief People Officer and Operations Executive with 30 years of experience building and scaling companies.

With a passion for the full employee life cycle with an emphasis on talent and culture development, DEI, organizational design, and talent acquisition Joel transformed his career from management consultant to becoming the Chief People Officer at Yieldstreet. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• The characteristics you need to be a good People Officer.
• How to create a good onboarding experience.
• How to improve your skills as an HR leader.
• The most effective and efficient hiring process.
• What to do when your employees make mistakes.
• The difficulties of working with a fully remote team.
• How to maximize the potential of hybrid workspaces.

Resources:

• Yieldstreet

Connect with Joel Greengrass:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 8:14 - “You realize that when somebody starts a new job it doesn't matter if they've been working for 20 years or if they've been working for 2 it’s still a lot like your first day of school. You’re so nervous leading up to the first day and are the other kids going to like me and what should I wear and how do you make people as comfortable and as excited as possible as quickly as possible because my goal is I want people leaving their first day more excited than the day that they said yes.”
• 12:38 - “Part of the thread throughout is your instincts, I think our spidey senses we ignore those a lot and we do things the way that we think they're supposed to be done and the reality is yes there’s a lot of law within the world of HR, and employment law and it’s getting more fun there every day but I still think there’s so much latitude to do things differently and think out of the box and have fun and for me, it was how do I combine those two and find that happy sweet spot.”
• 17:04 - “I truly believe in my soul that you should be treating people the way that you want to be treated and I’ve never met a single person who’s come to work trying to do a bad job or trying to screw something up and therefore when somebody makes a mistake or doesn’t do something at the level that you want them to my first thought is that’s an opportunity, that’s an opportunity to invest in that person, help them learn how to do it the right way and it’s not just the what to do but it’s the way, give them the context, help them understand how that connects to the wellbeing of the company because that’s your purpose and at the end of the day when somebody makes a mistake again to me it’s an investment opportunity.”
• 24:50 - “There’s no way that if you’ve never met somebody in person that you can have the same relationship as if you’ve been sitting down with them in a room or an in-person brainstorm session where you've got whiteboards and flipcharts going around the entire room, what we can do on video now is incredible and I shudder to think what we would have done if Covid had hit us 20 years ago, would we have been faxing and sending pages back and forth to people so we’re so fortunate to that standpoint but it’s still not at the point where it replicates real human behavior.”
• 33:54 - “Dip your fingers into everything in the company, learn what is going on beyond your four walls or your virtual four walls, I think it’s really important from an HR perspective to have as much context around what the business does, why they do it, what decisions are made, whether they using goals or KPIs or OKRs what do those look like at the top and how does what you’re doing supports those, I really feel that the more operational you can be as an HR person, and I don't mean that with regard to HR operations I mean in relation to company operations the more effective you’re going to be.”

Janet Potts is the Senior HR Business Partner at Suvoda and a Human Resources Advisor for Weavers Way Co-op.

Janet is a passionate Human Resources Professional with experience leading projects, operations, and staff in varying industries.

She was a 2022 Finalist for HR Person of the Year, a 2018 HR Rising Star Nominee for the Delaware Valley, and a speaker on HR Today Radio. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• The disproportionate amount of white women working in HR.
• How to build a diverse HR department.
• Bringing new initiatives into your HR department.
• Ways to change employee’s mindset.
• How HR can help their managers be proactive.
• How long it takes to change a company’s culture.
• The importance of managers connecting with their staff.
• The emergence of the multi-manager leadership style.
• Metrics you can use to measure the success of managers.
• How to help employees find their strengths and passions.

Resources:

• DisruptHR Princeton
• Suvoda
• Weavers Way Co-op
• Gartner HR report

Connect with Janet Potts:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 7:13 - “What I found is that it is really just a different way to help people and that’s what I really enjoy is when you do HR right you’re really just building strong cultures and great places for people to live the majority of their life, we spend so much time at work and the one thing that I hate is seeing someone whos not happy at a place that they have to spend that much time in so I love being that person that can really make sure that the people that are there are enjoying the fact that they’re there.”
• 13:07 - “Programs are important don’t get me wrong but when you can feel that something is just the base part of a culture, that it’s just a practice within the organization where it doesn't have to be a special program that's focused on something that’s when people truly feel the impact of it.”
• 16:35 - “It’s really building relationships on both sides, employees need to feel comfortable coming to talk to you, as you spoke about in the beginning of our discussion, about things that are very personal and serious, and managers and leaders need to feel comfortable expressing their concerns and seeking your guidance so the process of building those relationships requires a lot of empathy.”
• 18:13 - “People thrive when you allow them to, when you really give them the support and to be that person to stand there and say I know you can do this, and here I’ll give you the way to do it, I’ll guide you through it, you have me in your corner, let’s go see it through, people have that desire to succeed and they want to see positive things happen.”
• 22:37 - “The working world that we had 20 years ago where people came in and they clocked and did their job and had their cordial relationships and then went home that's not really what we have any more people expect something different of their workplace and they want to feel engaged and they want to feel like it’s a community and it’s our responsibility to make sure that there is that feeling of community in a workplace.“