By HR for HR

HR professionals are often expected to be the steady hand during an organization’s most difficult moments but who is taking care of HR?

In this episode of By HR for HR, Jocelyn King sits down with Sira Laurel, founder of North of Normal, to explore the intersection of HR, neuroscience, self-care, and organizational change. Sira shares how HR professionals can recognize the early warning signs of stress and burnout, build greater self-awareness, and protect their capacity to make sound decisions under pressure.

The conversation also dives into HR’s critical role in mergers and acquisitions, from defining responsibilities and conducting people-focused due diligence to identifying key-person and cultural risks. Sira explains why communication, clarity, and inclusion are essential during times of uncertainty, and why HR’s value extends far beyond executing a people checklist.

Most importantly, Sira leaves HR professionals with a powerful reminder: you are part of the system you are trying to support. Taking care of your own nervous system isn’t just self-care, it directly impacts your judgment, ability to spot risk, and capacity to help others navigate change.

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In this episode of By HR, For HR, Jocelyn King sits down with Tiffany English, CEO of Access Offshoring, to explore the dynamic world of global talent acquisition. Tiffany, with her extensive background in business improvement and change management, shares invaluable insights into how companies can leverage offshore talent to enhance their workforce and operational efficiency.

Tiffany discusses her journey from executive management to founding Access Offshoring, a company that specializes in recruiting skilled professionals from the Philippines for a variety of technical roles. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of the benefits of offshoring, especially for industries like construction, where Tiffany's company has successfully placed roles such as estimators, draftsmen, and engineers.

The conversation also delves into practical advice for HR professionals and talent acquisition specialists facing challenges in hiring locally. Tiffany emphasizes the importance of clearly defining roles and understanding the scope of work when considering offshore talent. She also differentiates between outsourced models and full-time offshore employment, providing guidance on how to integrate offshore staff effectively into existing teams.

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In this episode, Jocelyn King interviews Melissa Michael, Vice President of HR Systems, about the intersection of HR operations, enterprise technology transformations, and practical artificial intelligence. With more than two years of experience spanning generalist roles, compliance, and systems administration, Melissa shares insights from leading the HR track of an ongoing enterprise-wide Workday optimization project. She discusses the operational hurdles of balancing routine feature releases with user pain points, and highlights the paramount importance of change management—explaining why her team chose to push a major project to 2027 to ensure adequate training and adoption.  

Melissa demystifies the day-to-day application of AI tools like Claude and Microsoft Copilot within HR functions. She provides a detailed walkthrough of how her team automated their internal affirmative action analysis, turning weeks of manual spreadsheet calculations into a process completed in minutes. Additionally, she highlights how conversational AI prompting allowed her to design a custom SharePoint tracking system for employee relations cases without incurring extra software licensing costs. Throughout these examples, Melissa stresses the importance of precise prompting, understanding data cutoff dates, and maintaining a strict "human in the loop" approach to verify output accuracy.  

To wrap up the conversation, Melissa offers pragmatic advice for HR professionals looking to introduce AI into their daily routines. She encourages practitioners to start by asking AI conversational questions about workflow automation and simple task efficiency, rather than being intimidated by complex technical implementations. Reminding listeners that AI must serve as a measurable, value-add tool that frees up HR time for high-touch human interactions, Melissa delivers a clear blueprint for modernizing HR operations safely and effectively.

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Host Jocelyn King welcomes John Horne, Vice President of People, Culture, and Development at the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, for a thought-provoking discussion on people leadership and organizational culture within mission-driven nonprofits. Bringing over 30 years of leadership experience—including 20 years in direct service program operations—John discusses the unique dynamics of supporting a workforce spread across 30 distinct community centers throughout LA County. He addresses the specific challenge of managing an organization where 80% of employees are part-time workers, explaining why traditional turnover metrics are insufficient and how focusing on engagement scores helps measure whether staff feel connected to the core mission.

John reflects on his previous tenure at LA Family Housing, where the workforce nearly tripled in size, sharing the critical warning signs that signaled a need for intentional cultural alignment. He details a comprehensive three-year journey to build an equitable pay system and inclusive framework, illustrating why organizations must move beyond informal "family-style" dynamics as they scale. John highlights the hard conversations, personal reflection, and willingness to sit with discomfort that genuine diversity, equity, and inclusion work requires from leadership at every level.

The episode concludes with a deep dive into servant leadership, active listening strategies, and employee performance management. John explains how his background leading frontline homeless services informs his executive HR decisions, helping him balance genuine empathy with firm organizational accountability. He shares why he empowers employees to set the agenda for their own one-on-one meetings, emphasizing that leaders must listen to understand rather than respond, receive tough feedback without defensiveness, and foster an environment where staff feel truly valued and heard.

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On this episode of By HR for HR, host Jocelyn King hosts Victoria Ashton, Chief People Officer at Lob, to discuss building the HR function in high-growth technology environments and aligning people analytics directly with business objectives. Victoria shares her experience scaling early-stage startups from single-digit headcount through rapid growth, emphasizing that HR leaders must operate with "proximity and curiosity" toward executive peers. She explains how spending time with CFOs and CROs to understand P&L statements and growth models allows HR leaders to connect traditional talent metrics directly to revenue and gross profit.  

Victoria provides an inside look at how Lob leverages custom AI analytics dashboards to synthesize data across fragmented HR systems. By overlaying employee engagement and attrition trends onto customer retention and point-in-time financial performance, her team builds a trusted advisor relationship with executive leadership. The conversation also covers compliance strategy, where Victoria advocates for moving beyond minimum transactional standards to craft proactive, employee-centered policies that reflect genuine cultural values.  

Additionally, Victoria shares insights from her role as an advisor within a venture capital fund, detailing how people operations impact investment attractiveness and due diligence. She closes the episode by addressing the operational challenges of AI in talent acquisition. Describing the "avalanche" of AI-generated candidate spam flooding inbound job applications, Victoria offers practical advice on deploying detection tools while remaining curious, agile, and experimental in modern talent leadership.

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In this episode of By HR for HR, host Jocelyn King sits down with Matthew Owenby, Chief Human Resources Officer at Aflac, to explore how progressive benefits strategies and deep business alignment redefine modern HR leadership. Matthew outlines Aflac’s value-driven philosophy of caring for employees so they can care for the business, detailing their innovative on-site healthcare program that brings doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and mental health professionals directly to corporate campuses. He shares how offering preventative care and early medical detection yields $3 million to $6 million in avoided healthcare costs annually, providing a compelling template for HR leaders seeking to build high-impact, cost-effective wellness initiatives in their own organizations.

The conversation dives into what separates administrative HR managers from strategic CHROs who hold a true seat at the executive table. Matthew emphasizes the necessity of becoming a "ferocious student of the business" by mastering corporate financial filings, listening to investor calls, and understanding key metrics like earnings per share and total shareholder return. By framing HR solutions directly around executive goals and corporate values, HR professionals can effortlessly secure CEO buy-in for bold initiatives, rather than viewing wellness and benefits solely through a traditional cost-center lens.

Finally, Matthew offers a grounded, pragmatic perspective on artificial intelligence and workplace transformation. Drawing parallels to past industry hype cycles, he encourages HR practitioners to maintain a healthy skepticism toward grand vendor promises while focusing on practical AI tools that solve specific operational problems. He wraps up the episode by sharing how Aflac preserves its employee-first culture across a global footprint through long-form conversational recruiting, reminding listeners that sustainable organizational culture relies on clear human values and intentional hiring choices.

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Jocelyn King sits down with Theresa Hummel-Krallinger, President and Chief People Officer of High Five Performance, speaker, stand-up comedian, and author of Make Waves. Theresa discusses the core thesis of her new book, emphasizing the necessity of lifelong career ownership and employability in an evolving, AI-impacted job market. She shares how proactive career agility and continuous learning help working professionals navigate market uncertainty, while offering insights into how parents and leaders can mentor the next generation through career planning discussions.  

The dialogue explores Theresa's unique dual career in organizational development and stand-up comedy, illustrating how humor serves as a serious business tool for driving workplace culture and employee resilience. She explains the physiological and psychological benefits of shared laughter in training environments, noting how humor enhances information retention and strengthens interpersonal relationships. Theresa also cautions against forced workplace fun, sharing memorable missteps where leadership failed to align culture initiatives with their specific audience, and explains how humor acts as an essential coping mechanism during times of organizational dysfunction.  

Drawing on her specialized work in leadership training for highly technical staff—such as biostatisticians and pharmacologists—Theresa outlines why technically brilliant individuals often struggle when transitioning into people management. She highlights the necessity of equipping introverted, data-driven managers with concrete tools for self-awareness, active communication, and navigating difficult conversations. Closing with the story behind the Emmy Award displayed in her office, Theresa delivers an inspiring message on stepping outside comfort zones to achieve both personal and professional growth.

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In this episode of By HR for HR, host Jocelyn King connects with JJ Owen, Executive Director of Skills Jam, to explore how organizations can adapt their talent acquisition strategies to engage the next generation of skilled trades talent. JJ breaks down the fundamental shift in how Gen Z consumes information as an "algorithmic generation" that leans into platform suggestions rather than traditional search behavior. He outlines why traditional recruitment funnels—such as lengthy email campaigns and resume upload requirements—often fail with younger workers, and explains why text-based recruitment and early career exploration are far more effective for downstream hiring success.

The conversation dives deep into practical content creation and campaign execution for employer branding on platforms like TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Drawing from real-world examples, including a narrative campaign with Carrier featuring a father-son HVAC team and a viral TikTok post leveraging trending Sabrina Carpenter music to highlight concert production trades, JJ demonstrates how showing real day-in-the-life work demystifies trade careers. He emphasizes that effective social content does not need to be overly polished, as authentic and unproduced footage consistently resonates better with Gen Z audiences.

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In this episode of By HR for HR, host Jocelyn King is joined by Leah Stiegler, Principal at Woods Rogers, to unpack the complex, high-stakes intersection of employment law and everyday workplace management. Together, they explore pressing compliance challenges facing modern HR teams, including the surprising rise of union organizing in non-traditional sectors like tech and healthcare driven by social media transparency and targeted digital advertising. Leah also shares critical advice on balancing corporate brand protection with employee rights, emphasizing why consistent policy enforcement is essential when managing sensitive or political online conduct.

The conversation then delves into critical performance management pitfalls, breaking down why relying solely on "at-will" status fails in legal disputes and how unsupportive performance improvement plans can trigger "sham PIP" presumptions in court. Finally, Leah and Jocelyn examine the double-edged sword of AI in human resources, warning against over-reliance on generative tools for delicate employee communications while highlighting the hidden risks of unconscious bias in automated recruitment screening.

Leah Stiegler is a Principal at Woods Rogers where she specializes in management-side labor and employment law, partnering with employers to navigate complex compliance, workplace investigations, and administrative agency claims before the EEOC, DOL, and NLRB. A former federal judicial clerk in Norfolk, Virginia, Leah earned her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law after completing her undergraduate studies at Virginia Tech. Recognized as one of Virginia Lawyers Weekly's "Influential Women of Law," Leah blends deep legal knowledge with practical corporate guidance, helping organizations manage employee relations, mitigate risk, and build resilient workplace cultures.

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In this episode of By HR for HR, host Jocelyn King sits down with Peter Phelan, a former Chief People Officer turned culture strategist, executive headhunter, and HR’s resident humorist. Peter shares his journey from studying HR in Ireland during the 1990s to climbing the corporate ranks in the tech sector, before taking a leap a decade ago to found his company, Values Culture.

The conversation centers on the surprising intersection of comedy and human resources. Peter discusses his unique niche performing at New York City comedy clubs and major industry events like the Transform conference in Las Vegas. He explains his strict philosophy of "HR positivity"—never self-deprecating the function, but rather using clean, empathetic humor to address the absolute chaos that HR professionals face daily. Listeners will also get an inside look at Funny HR People, an open mic night Peter co-emcees in New York that serves as a therapeutic, community-building space for local HR teams.

Beyond the stage, Peter delivers practical advice on how injecting humor can serve as a catalyst for accelerating trust with corporate stakeholders, easing executive tension, and humanizing rigid workplace dynamics. He highlights the boundaries of workplace comedy, the importance of reading the room, and how to safely poke fun at overblown HR buzzwords. Finally, Peter shares a classic personal story from his time at Bloomberg, proving that even within highly intense, conservative corporate structures, a single practitioner can use wit to turn dry benefit rollouts into memorable cultural moments.

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