Cohesion

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

This episode features an interview with Betsy Leatherman, Global President of Consulting Services at Leadership Circle. Betsy has 10 years of experience transforming executives and middle managers into exceptional leaders. In her current role, Betsy helps clients become more effective leaders so they can make decisions that engage and motivate members of their organizations and customers they serve. 

In this episode, Amanda and Betsy discuss leadership development, common mistakes leaders make during layoffs, and the two leadership orientations.

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“The rubber meets the road at the middle manager. Because, even if you've got a great leadership team that's highly developed, if they do not translate that through the way in which a middle manager shows up to a frontline employee, it doesn't matter. If you've got a great set of senior leaders, let's say, and then a set of middle managers that haven't been developed, it can actually be really, really challenging for the frontline employee. Because, they see one thing and they experience something so different, and immediately they'll lose trust. My perspective is if you start at a customer and then you move backwards in terms of importance, frontline employees are very important to be extraordinarily well-resourced. Their managers also have to be even better resourced, personally, to help them handle their complexities. When that occurs, all of a sudden it's at scale. You, as a leader, a senior leader in the organization, you're at scale because you're helping them to be better and you're getting their perspective and vantage point that you might otherwise not be offered.” – Betsy Leatherman

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:59): Betsy dives into leadership development 

*(08:35): Segment: Story Time

*(10:23): Why Betsy created a career in leadership development 

*(17:17): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(25:16): Betsy explains the two leadership orientations 

*(34:24): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(34:54): Common mistakes leaders make during layoffs 

*(40:46): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Learn more about Leadership Circle

Email Betsy

Connect with Betsy on LinkedIn

Follow Betsy on X (formerly Twitter)

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Brian Brockman, VP of Communications, US & Canada at Nissan Motor Corporation. At Nissan, Brian is responsible for telling the brand’s transformation story, protecting company reputation, and promoting strong product messages to both internal and external audiences. Previously, he served as the Director of Communications where he led efforts around new vehicle launches, product lifecycle, and regional operations. 

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Brian to discuss transforming work culture, crafting an equitable employee experience, and how internal and external communications can flow together.

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“Once you get people moving with you, they will work, they will get things done side by side. When you see things that work, keep leaning into it, keep using that, keep trying to use that to motivate people. The other thing is it's very easy to get caught up in the challenges that are there, the little setbacks. Things that happen that don't go as well as you plan. Recognize that. Celebrate failures for what they are. And when you do acknowledge it, learn from it, and then move forward, and then celebrate your wins. Celebrate what you learn and use that to rally people. Use that for recognition. While you're doing this transformation, don't lose track of having a culture of recognition and understanding that it's people that are going to drive the success. It's people who are going to drive the transformation.” – Brian Brockman

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:12): Brian explains Nissan Next 

*(10:19): Segment: Story Time

*(12:21): How Brian makes internal and external communications work together 

*(16:06): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(16:26): How to successfully transform culture 

*(25:25): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(28:20): How to get skeptics to buy-in on culture transformation

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Links:

Connect with Brian on LinkedIn

Check out Nissan's Media Site

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Preston Lewis, Founder and CEO of Intactic, a modern communications company focused on creating human-centric experiences for people at work. Over the last 20 years, Preston has partnered with respected companies to develop and implement communication and behavior change campaigns. He is a sought after employee engagement, internal communications, and enterprise transformation expert and can often be found speaking about the future of work.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Preston to discuss the modern employee experience, investing in technology and upskilling teams, and how to create a human-centric work experience.

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“We think of [employee experience technology] as a three-legged stool. And of those legs, there's one typically owned by IT, there's another typically owned by People or the HR function. And then a third, we can frame it as Communication, sometimes we frame it as Change. What we do know to be true is that if any of those legs are a little bit shorter than any of the others, that seat isn't flat. And that seat is where employees sit. We as employees are customers, if you will, for using that technology. When we think about employee experience, that's a nice visual we like to have. Not only in terms of one leg being shorter, but if one doesn't exist, then we can't do the right work the right way. What we've seen is organizations that subscribe to a modern employee experience philosophy, it just makes sense. There is a role for different functions to have and we're constantly tuning into which of those legs is as effective as it needs to be to balance out that experience for people.” – Preston Lewis

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:33): Preston explains the modern employee experience

*(11:35): Segment: Story Time

*(12:19): How Intactic is creating a human-centric experience at work 

*(19:54): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(24:57): Key partnerships of employee experience technology 

*(31:15): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(36:18): AI use cases in employee experience

*(42:21): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(42:36): What internal comms technology will look like in the future

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Links:

Connect with Preston on LinkedIn

Learn more about Intactic

Listen to TechVerified podcast

Listen to New State of Work podcast

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Julia Christenson, U.S. Employee Experience Chair at Edelman. Julia has over 15 years of experience helping clients design employee engagement programs to drive stability and connection. She has developed employee sentiment dashboards, manager trainings, go-to-market message plans, and culture roadmaps. Prior to joining Edelman, Julia led the People Advisory Services at EY and organizational change management at IBM.

In this episode, Amanda and Julia discuss the sticky factor of employee experience, the power of employee recognition, and how to establish trust in difficult times.

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“I think one of the other things is when there's just a lack of communications until all decisions are final. Bring us to the seat at the table, even if you don't know the decision yet. Even if you don't know if we're going to switch our benefits or IT platforms, or if we don't know how the branding's going to change, bring us in and have it be a part of the discussion. I do think where it's challenging is where there is just a vacuum until all decisions are final. Without communications, that's where rumors start, misinformation, distrust is because we don't understand what's being decided or even what the process looks like.” – Julia Christenson

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:21): How Julia defines employee experience 

*(09:30): Segment: Story Time

*(14:19): Julia dives into the Edelman Trust Barometer 

*(20:08): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(20:55): Why employee recognition is important

*(28:20): How leaders can establish transparency during difficult times

*(35:44): How to rebuild trust after a layoff

*(44:49): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Julia on LinkedIn

Check out the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Rajamma Krishnamurthy, Senior Director and Leader of Enterprise AI Strategy at Microsoft. Rajamma has over two decades of experience empowering human resources through technology at Fortune 100 companies. She has led large scale digital transformations and has managed teams across the globe.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Rajamma to discuss enabling HR through AI, tackling biases, and improving the employee lifecycle with AI.

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“Think of AI as your caddie that's going to walk in with all of your golf clubs. They will even tell you which iron to take out and hit the golf ball with. But, you are the one that needs to decide which iron and where, how fast and how big you hit, and you need to make that hole in one. AI is going to be of tremendous help in all the burdensome aspects of your work. But, you have to take whatever AI gives, you have to judge it and you have to make a good judgment call based on that. And you have to then implement it in your area. I feel like there will always be humans in the middle of everything that we do.” – Rajamma Krishnamurthy

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:09): Rajamma explains her new role at Microsoft

*(04:04): Segment: Story Time

*(06:43): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(07:03): How AI enables the HR space

*(13:09): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(13:35): Rajamma’s stance on AI taking away jobs

*(17:07): How to deal with biases in AI

*(24:39): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(27:03): How employees feel about AI in HR

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Links:

Data & Society

AI Now Institute

Partnership on AI

Data & Trust Alliance

Download the Algorithmic Bias Safeguards for Workforce

Connect with Rajamma on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast