This episode features an interview with Monique Zytnik. Monique is an award-winning, global internal communication leader who presents on best-practice communication at world conferences and guest lectures at universities. Her campaigns have been recognized by Gartner and the Digital Communication Awards. 

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Monique to discuss the misconception of authenticity, the challenge of creating culture, and why AI will never replace human creativity and connection.

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“I don't have a car anymore, but when I did, that little blind spot that you have when you're trying to go around the corner and you've always got to make sure you check it. It's the same in an organization. There's always these little spots that you can't really see very well what's going on. You need to take care that your employees in that area are also reflecting your values and that there isn't little fiefdoms happening with particular leaders who don't wish to communicate, and putting employees off or people are leaving because of unsavorable working conditions.” – Monique Zytnik

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:07): Rapid fire questions

*(06:37): Monique dives into her book 

*(10:51): AI’s influence on communication

*(35:09): The role of leaders during difficult times

*(46:34): How AI, leadership, and active listening come together

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Links:

Connect with Monique on LinkedIn

Read Internal Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Christina Kucek, Executive Director of Intelligent Automation at CAI. She has over 15 years of consulting experience in delivering cutting-edge implementations in Conversational AI, natural language processing, and robotics process automation. At CAI, Christina guides clients through their automation journeys while delivering innovative solutions.

In this episode, Shawn and Christina discuss the impact of AI on employee experience: from onboarding to accelerating workflows to building in ethics.

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“Employee retention a lot of times can be impacted by their first week or two of employment. They get their machine, their access to all the systems that they need. They get their email, it's already set up. They show up on day one and they're ready to go. That impression that you make as a company on their new employee will help us retain our best talent. That reduces our cost overall for trying to recruit people and train people. That retention piece is really valuable.” – Christina Kucek

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:44): Rapid fire questions

*(07:13): Christina breaks down CAI and her role

*(15:57): How AI impacts employee experience

*(28:22): How AI will affect the amount of work for employees

*(36:43): The future of augmented intelligence

*(45:23): What’s next for Christina and CAI

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Links:

Connect with Christina on LinkedIn

Learn more about CAI

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Hamza Khan, Future of Work and Leadership Expert. He is the best-selling author of Leadership Reinvented and The Burnout Gamble and is a two-time TEDx Speaker. Hamza challenges organizations to rehumanize their workplaces to achieve inclusive and sustainable growth. His clients include Microsoft, Deloitte, and TikTok.

In this episode, Shawn sits down with Hamza to discuss why work is not working, how to make employees owners, and the no day work week.

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“If you invest in employee engagement and well-being, then it turns all the other priorities into guaranteed outcomes. That's where the work needs to be done. We actually need to do this work, at the individual level with every single leader in the world. We have to just overhaul our education system to produce more human-centric, values-driven, change-friendly, self-disrupting leaders. But, we also have to make connecting with other human beings an organizational imperative. That should be the only priority that leaders pursue at every level. The welfare, the well-being, the engagement, and actually, just summarize all that into the thriving of their employees.” – Hamza Khan

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Episode Timestamps:

*(05:09): Rapid fire questions

*(11:48): Hamza discusses his 2016 TEDx Talk and if it holds up today 

*(21:43): The history and influence of The Haymarket Affair on work today

*(26:57): Giving employees more say over their work

*(38:48): Will AI increase the amount of work for employees 

*(45:14): What Hamza is hopeful about

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Links:

Connect with Hamza on LinkedIn

Visit Hamza’s website

Read Hamza’s books

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Jordan Katz, Chief Insights Officer at Simpplr. Jordan advises organizations on the influential use of data and analytics to develop strategies that predict outcomes and increase performance. Prior to Simpplr, he was one of the Heads of Employee Experience Strategy at Qualtrics and has consulted hundreds of SaaS companies and global organizations.

In this episode, Shawn and Jordan dive into Simpplr’s Future of Employee Experience Report. They discuss the importance of personalized and efficient communication platforms, analyzing diverse data sources to create a seamless employee experience, and taking a human-centered approach to AI.

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“87% of professionals are passionate about their current jobs, but 64% of them frequently feel stressed or frustrated at work. We have a primed and ready to go race car with rocket fuel in the tank. We load up a bunch of sandbags in the trunk that represent crappy tools and inefficient processes. There’s no reason for that. The more we study employee experience, the more we learn how critical it is to think holistically about the work people do, the task distribution they have, and how we can operationalize great efficiency. Using systems and AI to free up people to do the strategic work that will catapult our organizations into the next level from a performance perspective.” – Jordan Katz

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Episode Timestamps:

*(03:11): Jordan defines employee experience 

*(05:00): Rapid fire questions

*(14:36): What the report says about frontline workers 

*(22:54): Creating a personalized employee experience

*(34:11): What prevents companies from implementing an HR stack 

*(41:05): How AI impacts employee experience

*(51:49): Jordan’s golden rule for work

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Links:

Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn

Read Simpplr’s Future of Employee Experience Report

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Jordan Katz, Chief Insights Officer at Simpplr. Jordan advises organizations on the influential use of data and analytics to develop strategies that predict outcomes and increase performance. Prior to Simpplr, he was one of the Heads of Employee Experience Strategy at Qualtrics and has consulted hundreds of SaaS companies and global organizations.

In this episode, Shawn and Jordan dig into Simpplr’s 2024 State of Internal Communications Report. They discuss the most surprising results, creating highly effective teams, and using AI to tailor messages.

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“We're creating not a time machine, like go back in time machine, but a save you time, reduce friction. Where everything is served up at your fingertips in a way that not only helps you get your job done, helps you be more productive, reduces cycle time on search and access to information. And by the way, can help you eliminate some of the administrative tasks or recognize your peers or any of the things that you want to do on a day-to-day basis that are not the high value stuff that drives crazy impact at your job. But instead, helps lift you up so you can do the best work that you can possibly do in the most efficient manner possible.” – Jordan Katz

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Episode Timestamps:

*(03:45): Rapid fire questions

*(10:43): Surprising results from the State of IC Report 

*(18:59): How AI can improve IC messaging

*(30:12): Jordan’s advice for implementing an intranet

*(35:17): What makes highly effective IC teams

*(46:56): What’s next for IC in 2025

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Links:

Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn

Read Simpplr’s State of Internal Communications Report

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

This episode features an interview with Josh Bersin, Founder and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company. Josh is an analyst, author, educator, and thought leader focusing on the global talent market and the challenges and trends impacting business workforces. He studies the world of work, HR and leadership practices, and is often cited as one of the leading HR and workplace industry analysts in the world. 

In this episode, Shawn and Josh discuss the post-industrial workforce, building dynamic organizations, and creating superpowered HR through AI.

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“AI is not magic. It's not going to do everything perfectly out of the box. Just like every other technology we've ever implemented, we're going to have to take care of it. We're going to have to make sure it has good data, we're going to have to train it, we're going to have to optimize it. I think the big thing is this is a high-powered, highly capable technology that needs your help. You need to tune it. You need to have IT involved. You need to look at data management, data security.” – Josh Bersin

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:26): Josh answers rapid fire questions 

*(05:31): Josh explains The Josh Bersin Company

*(08:56): Josh explains the Post-Industrial workforce

*(15:24): The importance of employee activation

*(23:43): Creating dynamic organizations

*(32:27): The role of AI in revolutionizing HR

*(38:23): Pitfalls of AI

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Links:

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn

Learn more about The Josh Bersin Company

Learn more about The Josh Bersin Academy

Learn more about Irresistible Conference

Read Josh’s book

Learn more about Dynamic Organizations

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

The Cohesion podcast is back with more exciting episodes! Shawn Pfunder, Communications and Employee Engagement Director extraordinaire is taking over the role of host.

Previously this season, we had some amazing guests including CEOs, Founders, and Chief People Officers. They shared valuable tips on creating a world-class employee experience, transforming culture, rebuilding trust after layoffs, and empowering every employee to be a leader.

In the second half of the season, we're bringing new voices into the mix! We'll be talking to consultants, motivational speakers, and future of work experts. We'll dive deep into the intersection of AI and HR, discuss how to organize people effectively for sustainable growth, and explore the relationship between technology, employee experience, and communications.

Stay tuned for more episodes of Cohesion! Check out previous episodes wherever you get your podcasts.

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Links:

Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn

Cohesion Podcast

In this short episode, Amanda Berry has a special message for the Cohesion Podcast audience. After two years and speaking with over 50 employee experience experts, Amanda is moving on from the host position. For now, Cohesion is taking a short break to prep for Season 3 of the show. 

Thank you for listening to and watching the Cohesion Podcast! Take care and we’ll see you soon!

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Links:

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with William Tincup, President and Editor-at-Large of RecruitingDaily.com. William is a writer, speaker, consultant, and investor at the intersection of HR and technology. He has spent the last 20 years studying all aspects of HR and talent acquisition, including practitioners and the tech that serves them.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with William to discuss the excessive amount of tech in HR, user satisfaction versus adoption, and why the ROI of tech is flawed.

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“What I learned when I was studying user adoption years ago, is the game isn’t adoption. We think it is, it's a false signal though. The game is user satisfaction. How do we get users to actually fall into love with software? So on the way, we have to get people to use it, check. We’ve got to communicate, we've got to do all the things we've talked about. We’ve got to get them to use it. Once they use it and they consume it, and they're utilizing it, they're going to have questions. But, there's this moment in which they come over and they love the software.  And it doesn't have to be perfect software. People think when I talk like that, they're like, ‘Oh, well there's no software that's perfect.’ I’m like, ‘It isn't about being perfect.’ It's about them understanding how to use the software in such a way that they know that this software helps them be successful and they can't imagine life or their job without it. And it's user satisfaction. You're beyond adoption at that point. You've crossed over into real, true user satisfaction, user love.” – William Tincup

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:07): William explains why there’s too much tech in HR

*(13:22): How to drive tech adoption through training

*(20:02): How long it takes to successfully roll out new tech

*(30:45): William explains RecruitingDaily.com and his role there

*(44:11): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(44:49): William explains why ROI of tech is flawed 

*(55:59): Amanda and William dive into mergers and acquisitions

*(01:10:03): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(01:10:21): What the future of HR tech will look like

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Links:

Connect with William on LinkedIn

Listen to The RecruitingDaily Podcast

Listen to The Use Case Podcast

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Shawnee Irmen-De Anda, Chief People Officer at Thriveworks. Shawnee has two decades of experience serving as a human resources strategic business partner for growing and well-established healthcare organizations. At Thriveworks, Shawnee leads a first-class people strategy, focusing on expanding team potential and empowering sustainable growth.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Shawnee to discuss creating brand awareness while recruiting, incorporating tech into the employee experience, and fighting burnout during times of crisis.

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“I think in healthcare, technology should always enhance but not replace that human-to-human connection. It's really easy to leverage technology to save money at times, but that human-to-human connection is critically important. It's the same principle that we adhere to when we're looking at providing therapeutic care. Technology should also make the day-to-day functions of our teams easier, not harder or longer. At times if technology isn't working, we know the frustrations and added gray hair that that can have also. Having an intranet or centralized resource repositories, things like that for employees, is really important. Healthcare is one where you're either extremely advanced, and I think more hospital systems, things like that tend to have more up-to-date technology, or you're extremely outdated with the technology that you have. We're really lucky to have a tech and product team here that their sole purpose and what they really and truly want to do every day is make sure that our clinicians can do what they're here to do. And that's see clients, not have to battle technology challenges.” – Shawnee Irmen-De Anda

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Episode Timestamps:

*(04:27): Shawnee’s role at Thriveworks

*(09:22): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(09:39): How Shawnee creates brand awareness while recruiting

*(11:28): The relationship between employee experience and retention 

*(17:50): How to incorporate tech into the employee experience

*(20:25): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(24:10): How Thriveworks uses tech to fight employee burnout

*(27:34): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Learn more about Thriveworks

Connect with Shawnee on LinkedIn

Email Shawnee

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast