Bringing the Human back to Human Resources

The EEOC quietly scrapped its background check guidance, Illinois wrote disparate impact liability into state law, the smallest employers in Connecticut, Washington, and Maryland pick up new obligations in January 2027, and the midterm results could reshape worker protections at the state level. This Policy Pulse covers all of it.

Traci and employment law expert Bryan Driscoll skip the usual intro and jump straight into a candid conversation about civil discourse, echo chambers, and why talking across the aisle still matters. From there, they get practical about the background check rules changing under your feet and the compliance traps waiting for businesses that don’t have an HR team at all.

In this episode:

• The EEOC pulled its 2012 guidance on arrest and conviction records overnight, with no public comment period.
• Illinois just made “job-related and consistent with business necessity” the bar for background check screening, and even clearing it might not be enough.
• A one-person business in Connecticut is about to be covered by paid sick leave.
• Washington employers with fewer than 15 people will soon have to hold a job open for two business days before acting on a background check.
• Don’t hold your breath for a federal workers’ rights push, but a few newly flipped states could surprise you.

Connect with Bryan Driscoll: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanjohndriscoll/

Connect with Traci: ⁠https://linktr.ee/HRTraci⁠

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

HR has come a long way from payroll and personnel, and in this six-year anniversary episode, Meg Crosby and Howard Cleveland, JD of PeopleCap Advisors join Traci to talk about what it really takes to move HR from tactical to transformational.

Between Meg’s decades leading people-centered HR on both coasts and Howard’s path from employment law courtrooms to leadership coaching, this conversation gets practical about culture, trust, remote work, and why elevating talent is simple but never easy.

In this episode:

• The real reason behind Google’s famous perks, and why none of them had anything to do with looking cool.
• Why grabbing a policy from a 50,000-person company can be a missile aimed at a mosquito.
• How Google and the Army can both have winning cultures that would fall apart if you swapped them.
• The 10 minutes of “nothing” that could change the way your remote team builds trust.
• Nick Saban’s blinking Christmas light and the three ways every leader can elevate talent.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your culture is actually working for your people, or caught yourself writing a new policy because of one or two bad actors, this is the episode to queue up next.

Listen in, then share it with the leader on your team who’s ready to stop policing behavior and start building something people want to be part of.

Connect with Meg and Howard:

Website: www.peoplecap.com

Book: Running the Gauntlet: Proven Strategies for High Growth Leaders

LinkedIn: Meg Crosby | Howard Cleveland, JD

Connect with Traci: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

Two nominations to the NLRB could rewrite the rules on severance agreements, union organizing, and captive audience meetings, and that’s just the start of this month’s Policy Pulse, which also covers the Department of Labor’s sweeping deregulation push and the independent contractor rule that has already changed.

Traci and employment law expert Bryan Driscoll sort out what’s official, what’s still on the horizon, and how HR leaders can get ready without rewriting the handbook every time a headline breaks.

In this episode:

• If the Senate confirms two new NLRB nominees, the non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement could carry real weight again.
• The Cemex ruling and the ban on mandatory anti-union meetings are both on the chopping block
• Unions raise wages even for workers who never join one.
• Ten regulations out for every new one in
• Proposed OSHA and ERISA rollbacks could change what gets reported when workers get hurt
• Managing a global workforce? Misclassification risk doesn’t stop at the U.S. border.
• The one audit Bryan says HR should be running right now has nothing to do with this month’s headlines.

Connect with Bryan Driscoll: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanjohndriscoll/

Connect with Traci: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

This week, Traci talks with Laverne McKinnon, MCC, about professional grief. That's the loss we feel when a job, promotion, project, or career identity we cared about is suddenly gone, and it may be what's behind the burnout, low morale, and missing motivation so many HR leaders are seeing right now.

Laverne is a career strategist and grief recovery specialist who works with ambitious professionals through career pivots, new leadership roles, and career disruptions. She's a former senior executive at CBS and Epix, executive produced Netflix's Girlboss, teaches at Northwestern University, and mentors in the CAPE Leadership Fellowship Program. Her upcoming book, Showstopper, reframes professional setbacks as plot twists instead of endings.

What they talked about:

• Why the passion you can't get back might be grief you haven't named
• The two banker's boxes LaVerne kept in her closet for ten years
• The losses a new job, title, and salary can't replace
• A buried script, a eulogy, and the case for a good goodbye
• The C-suite leader who was grieving his old company in his new one
• Four steps to take when your career breaks your heart
• The HR executive who ran 18 months of layoffs and didn't see the grief coming

Connect with Laverne McKinnon, MCC: LinkedIn | Website | Substack

Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

This week's episode is about why most strategies fail at execution, and what leaders can do differently to actually get results.

Traci sits down with Kevin Ertell, a veteran executive and advisor with more than 30 years of experience leading transformations at brands like Nike, Tower Records, and Sur La Table.

As founder and CEO of Mistere Advisory, Kevin helps companies turn strategy into action, and he just published his first book, The Strategy Trap: Why Companies Fail at Execution and How to Get It Right, pulling together insights from over 60 operators across industries.

In this episode:

• Why up to 90% of strategies fail, and it's not the strategy itself
• The "slow down to speed up" mindset that feels wrong to every Type A leader
• Kevin's six C system for turning ideas into results
• The isolation trap that quietly kills good strategies before they launch
• Why jargon is sabotaging your rollout more than you think
• The difference between empathy and curiosity, and why one moves teams further
• What Kevin's book reveals after interviewing 60+ operators about what actually works
• Where to find The Strategy Trap and Kevin's audiobook

Connect with Kevin Ertell: LinkedIn | Book: The Strategy Trap: Why Companies Fail at Execution and How to Get It Right | Mistere Advisory

Connect with Traci: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

This Policy Pulse episode breaks down three major employment law developments HR leaders need on their radar right now: a Supreme Court ruling that changes how federal agencies operate, an update on the Workday AI discrimination lawsuit, and a new Maryland law restricting mandatory workplace meetings.

Traci and Bryan dig into what each of these means for how you operate day to day, and why "wait and see" isn't always the wrong move.

In this episode:

• The Supreme Court just overturned a hundred year old precedent, and it changes who controls the NLRB and EEOC
• Why HR leaders should brace for more whiplash every time a new president takes office
• An update on the Workday AI hiring lawsuit, and why the EEOC backing off doesn't mean you're in the clear
• The specific employer mistake that can trigger a bias claim even without ever asking about disability
• Why state level enforcement might matter more than federal enforcement going forward
• Maryland's new law banning mandatory political and anti-union meetings, and why there's no small employer exception
• The real reason this law is being called a Trojan horse for union busting
• Why having someone dedicated to regional compliance is becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity

Got thoughts or questions on this episode? Email Traci at [email protected] and share your feedback in the comments wherever you're listening.

Connect with Bryan Driscoll: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanjohndriscoll/

Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

Agentic AI is already changing how HR teams buy technology, lead their people, and think about who belongs in the room when decisions about the future of work get made — and most HR leaders don't have a strategy for any of it.

This week Traci sits down with Joey Price, CEO of Jumpstart HR, a TEDx speaker on AI in the workplace, and author of The Power of HR: How to Make an Organizational Impact as a People Professional. A SHRM Top 30 Under 30 alum and one of the top 100 HR tech influencers of 2025, Joey also hosts his own podcast, While We Were Working, and brings years of hands-on experience helping HR teams navigate technology decisions with humanity at the center.

What We Cover

- Why "if you're not at the table for digital transformation, you're on the menu"

- The framework Joey built to help HR leaders actually buy technology the right way

- The surprising number of HR leaders who don't have an AI strategy at all

- The five workforce archetypes and where your organization actually falls

- Whether AI is coming for your job, and what to do about it either way

Connect with Joey Price: LinkedIn | JumpStartHR.com | The Power of HR Book | Podcast

Connect with Traci: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

This week's Policy Pulse segment tackles three major legal developments HR leaders need to know about: the EEOC's lawsuit against The New York Times over its DEI program, Colorado's rollback of its AI hiring law, and a Supreme Court case that could give the president the power to fire agency heads at the EEOC and NLRB without cause.

Bryan Driscoll returns for another Policy Pulse segment, bringing his employment law expertise to break down the cases and policy shifts shaping workplace compliance right now. As our resident legal expert, Bryan helps translate the legal jargon into what it actually means for your business.

In this episode:

- The EEOC just sued The New York Times over its own DEI program, and the case could reshape how discrimination claims get proven going forward.

- Colorado gutted its AI hiring law, but that doesn't mean the compliance risk disappeared.

- Your AI chat history could end up as evidence in a lawsuit.

- A Supreme Court case could hand the president the power to fire the heads of the EEOC and NLRB at will.

- Good intentions won't protect you from a discrimination claim if your documentation doesn't back them up.

Connect with Bryan Driscoll, JD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanjohndriscoll/

Connect with Traci: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

AI is reshaping how companies hire and how job seekers land interviews, and this week's guest is building the tools making it happen.

Traci sits down with Reimund Nienaber, a seasoned HR leader and global talent development expert with more than 20 years of experience spanning telecommunications, expat HR leadership across five continents, and now consulting work at Edligo.

As Director of Consulting and Customer Success, Reimund helps organizations figure out what their people actually know, where the gaps are, and how to close them as AI reshapes roles across every department.

What We Talked About:

• Will AI Really Give Us a Two Day Work Week?
• Meet the AI Recruiter Agent Changing the Game
• The CV Feedback Job Seekers Never Get
• From Germany to Latin America: A Career Built on Skills,
• The Competency Gap Killing AI Transformation Projects
• The Simple Question That Starts Every Successful Learning Culture

Connect with Reimund Nienaber: LinkedIn | Edligo Learning and Talent Analytics LinkedIn | Edligo.net

Contact Traci: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.

Michael Timms joins the podcast to break down why most "succession planning" in organizations is actually just replacement planning in disguise, and why that distinction matters more than most HR leaders realize.

Michael Timms is an internationally sought after speaker, consultant, and bestselling author who teaches leaders how to inspire accountability. He's the author of How Leaders Can Inspire Accountability, the basis for his TEDx talk "How to Claim Your Leadership Power," and Succession Planning That Works. Through his company, Avail Leadership, he partners with organizations to build high performance cultures of teamwork and accountability.

What We Cover:

– The real difference between succession planning and replacement planning, and why most organizations are only doing one of them

– Why the nine box might be doing more harm than good in your organization

– The uncomfortable truth about who actually gets to decide someone's "potential"

– What the research says about how much your manager actually shapes your performance

– Why most leadership competency lists accidentally describe an impossible person

– The handful of behaviors that actually predict great leadership, and how to find them

– A better, less political way to identify who's ready to grow

– The employee headcount where succession planning actually starts to matter

– Why developing people, even the ones who might leave, is never a loss

Michael challenges a lot of what HR has been taught to accept as best practice, and this conversation is a great reminder of why it's worth questioning the tools we default to. Be sure to check out his TEDx talk, linked in the show notes, for more on claiming your leadership power.

Connect with Michael Timms: LinkedIn | YouTube | Website | TED Talk

Connect with Traci here: https://linktr.ee/HRTraci

Disclaimer: Thoughts, opinions, and statements made on this podcast are not a reflection of the thoughts, opinions, and statements of the Company by whom Traci Chernoff is actively employed.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products or services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.