Cohesion

This episode features an interview with Ann Melinger, CEO and Owner of Brilliant Ink, an agency dedicated to designing meaningful employee experiences. Ann has spent the last two decades counseling organizations on improving business results and employee engagement. 

In this episode, Amanda and Ann discuss refreshing company values, engaging with hands-on employees, and how language factors into inclusivity.

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“Typically, we see companies refresh their values every five to 10 years. But, what we really encourage is that companies should revisit their values, intentionally, at least once a year. Sit back, take a look at them, ask yourselves, ‘Does this value represent where we are today? Does this value highlight what makes us different? Is it something that we do better than most other companies out there? Is it something that we expect people to demonstrate the moment that they walk in the door?’ And if the answer to any of those questions is, ‘No’, then it's probably time to think about a refresh.” – Ann Melinger

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:33): Why keeping company values fresh is important  

*(14:12): Segment: Story Time

*(20:10): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(24:55): Why hands-on employees are at higher risk for burnout

*(31:15): How language factors into inclusivity

*(38:40): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Visit Brilliant Ink

Connect with Ann on LinkedIn

Follow Brilliant Ink on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Nell Derick Debevoise, Founder of 3D Performance. She has spent her career helping purpose-driven leaders expand their impact, grow their businesses, and build powerful legacies. Nell is also a Partner at PurposeFused, author of Going First, and a Senior Contributor for Forbes.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Nell to discuss purposeful leadership, implementing a growth mindset, and the Me, We, and World dimensions of employee experience.

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“There has to be a willingness and investment in self-awareness and reflection as a starting block. But without the leader and a leadership team and eventually all of your managers, all of your people managers, having the support and the expectation to do that self-reflection and self-awareness, to really get clear and honest about what they care about and what they're good at, it's just not going to stick. Without doing that individual change from the top and all the way down and through, there is no organizational change.” – Nell Derick Debevoise

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:41): Nell explains the Me, We, and World dimensions of employee experience

*(13:44): How leaders can speak up without alienating employees

*(21:59): Segment: Story Time

*(22:16): Nell explains PurposeFused, Purposeful Growth Institute, and Inspiring Cowgirl (now known as 3D Performance)

*(31:08): Nell gives a preview of her book Going First

*(37:55): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(39:36): Nell explains what a growth mindset is 

*(44:41): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(45:20): Responsibilities of leaders when handling layoffs

*(54:36): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(54:51): Mistakes HR makes in personal and career development

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Links:

Visit Nell’s Website

Connect with Nell on LinkedIn

Learn more about Going First

How Your Organization Can Navigate Layoffs With Humanity

Investing in middle managers pays off—literally

Topgrading Interview Guide: How to Evaluate Talent

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Marla J. Albertie, Owner and Founder of Truth Speaks Group, a multimedia coaching company that helps women create strategies for work-life integration. She is also the Founder and President of I/O for Teens, a program that teaches adolescents transferable life and career skills. Marla is a certified life, career, and executive coach and has authored several books on work-life harmony.

In this episode, Amanda and Marla discuss why cultural fit is a myth, how to brag about yourself, and what we’re getting wrong about DE&I.

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“The reason I call myself the work-life harmonizer is because there's no such thing as balance. You're never going to be perfect. You’ve got to learn to harmonize. I say you have to integrate work and life because guess what? It is your life. Work is a part of your life. It is not separate. It is a part of what you do. You're a human being. Let's start there. Then we can talk about being a spouse, parent, mother, all those roles come later. You’ve got to first realize you're a human being.” – Marla J. Albertie

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:14): Marla dives into her book The Ultimate Brag Book About Yourself

*(12:38): Segment: Story Time

*(19:21): Marla explains Truth Speaks Group and I/O for Teens

*(29:42): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(34:06): Why DE&I progress has slowed down and how to solve it

*(48:20): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(48:37): Marla’s opinion on returning to work for the sake of culture 

*(54:47): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Marla on LinkedIn

Visit Truth Speaks Group

Follow Truth Speaks Group on Instagram

Visit I/O for Teens

Follow I/O for Teens on Instagram

Subscribe to I/O for Teens on YouTube

Read Marla’s books

Email Marla

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Tan Le, Founder and CEO of EMOTIV. Tan is an innovator, entrepreneur, speaker, and award-winning industry leader. Founded in 2011, EMOTIV is a bioinformatics company that uses electroencephalography (EEG) to better understand the human brain and accelerate brain research globally. EMOTIV’s braintech is cited by more than 19,000 research papers, representing breakthroughs in research for a range of diseases, brain impairments, and educational modalities.

In this episode, Amanda and Tan discuss using science to improve employee experience, personalizing wellbeing, and the cost of task switching.

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“The nice thing about technology like this is that you don't have that single moment bias that's skewed towards the moment in which you were surveyed. You actually get to see the ebb and flow of a person's emotion, their cognitive state throughout an entirety of a week or whenever you are actually using the technology. This takes away that bias that intrinsically happens with surveys and you really start to understand different types of work, different types of environments, different types of tasks, and its effect on your brain.” – Tan Le

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:44): Tan explains EMOTIV 

*(11:52): Segment: Story Time

*(15:11): Tan’s background 

*(17:51): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(18:18): What data and science can tell us that employee surveys can’t

*(31:06): The cost of task switching

*(34:42): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(37:48): Tan’s advice for implementing EEGs

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Links:

Connect with Tan on LinkedIn

Learn more about EMOTIV

Alzheimer’s and Dementia Study

BCI4Kids Program

Watch @brainpaintbyjohn paint while wearing EMOTIV’s EPOC headset

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Carolyn Clark and Shaun Randol. Carolyn is the VP of Employee Experience Strategy and Transformation at Simpplr, where she elevates the employee experience by driving innovation and revitalizing how employee communication is delivered. Prior to Simpplr, she led internal and HR communication at companies like Yahoo, Pandora, and GoDaddy. Shaun is the Editor-in-Chief of Digital Publications at Lam Research and the Founder of Mister Editorial, a mixternal communications newsletter. Previously, he spent 13 years leading communications at Bloomberg, BlackRock, and Splunk.

In this episode, Amanda, Carolyn, and Shaun take on the vast world of AI. They discuss how they use tools like ChatGPT in their everyday lives, the role AI plays in internal communications, and security and ethics concerns in this new landscape.

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“I don't think AI will replace you, but somebody using AI will. I also think that the number of jobs in our industry, there will be fewer because one person can do more using these technologies. Or maybe it's the same amount of jobs and people's time is spent more on thoughtful strategic work. Rather than rote, repetitive, junior-level material.” – Shaun Randol

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Episode Timestamps:

*(06:47): The role AI will play in internal communications

*(19:09): Segment: Story Time

*(26:40): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(27:13): How AI has already improved internal comms and HR

*(39:49): The dangers and fears of AI

*(01:02:23): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(01:02:41): AI security and ethics resources

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Links:

Connect with Carolyn on LinkedIn

Visit Carolyn’s website

Visit Simpplr’s blog

Connect with Shaun on LinkedIn

Visit Mister Editorial

Follow Sam Altman, Founder of OpenAI

Read IBM’s AI Ethics Guide

Visit Anthropic for more on AI ethics

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Lexi Clarke, Chief People Officer at Payscale, a leading provider of compensation data, software and services. Lexi leads the company’s internal HR strategies for over 600 employees around the world. With over 14 years of experience at companies like Convoy, Redfin, and Boeing, she is an expert in people-first HR leadership, workforce growth strategy, and compensation best practices.  

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Lexi to discuss pay transparency, measuring your worth as an employee, and discussing salary in the interview process.

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“I think overall, we're starting to see that pay transparency and just transparency in general has been shown to have a positive impact on job satisfaction, on engagement, on overall productivity. And I think that's tied to an inherent trust. When you’re a little bit more transparent, there's more trust built with your employees and within the organization. It’s so powerful. I just think it is such a powerful concept.” – Lexi Clarke

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:18): The trend of talking openly about salaries

*(07:47): How Payscale is helping the shift towards pay transparency 

*(15:08): Segment: Story Time

*(15:37): How to talk about salary in an interview

*(20:51): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(27:20): How to measure your worth as an employee

*(33:23): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(35:49): What Lexi thinks of “quiet quitting”

*(40:17): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Lexi on LinkedIn

Visit Payscale

Follow Payscale on Twitter

Connect with Payscale on LinkedIn

Payscale Retention Report

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Ephraim “Phrai” Freed, Customer Growth Manager of Reality Labs at Meta. Phrai helps growing companies create impactful experiences through community, productivity, and performance while enriching the lives of employees. His digital strategist and communications expertise has been shaped at companies like Magic Leap and Riot Games.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Phrai to discuss AI’s impact on internal communications, the value of cross-functional relationships, and why an equitable employee experience is critical.

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“You should be spending time in your stores, in the back room, watching people work, observing what they do, how they do it, seeing the problems they face, seeing how they get the information they get. You should understand in great detail how those people work. Step one is for communicators, IT people, executives to actually be there in the field, in the situations and context of these hands-on workers and observing them so that they can build empathy, build insights, and destroy any assumptions that they have about what those people's lives are actually like.” – Ephraim Freed

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:13): Why Ephraim thinks the employee experience is broken

*(05:25): Ephraim’s career journey 

*(06:50): Segment: Story Time

*(13:07): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(18:03): Creating an equitable employee experience for hands-on and on-screen workers

*(32:02): Segment: Seat at the Table

*(32:36): How cross-functional relationships improve employee experience 

*(37:09): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(37:23): The rollercoaster of AI

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Links:

Connect with Ephraim on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Pratiksha Patel, Chief People Officer at Branch. Pratiksha has more than two decades of experience driving employee engagement in hybrid, office-based, and remote cultures. Prior to Branch, she served as the Senior Vice President of People at CB Insights and as a Talent Expert at McKinsey & Company.

In this episode, Amanda and Pratiksha discuss meeting workers’ expectations, inclusivity, and upskilling employees.

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“To create conditions where a highly diverse company and team works well together, can bring all of their ideas, bring the varied perspective that we so desperately want everyone to bring, takes a special environment. Takes an intentionality around saying, ‘We want to create an environment where you bring your perspectives and you bring your differences in, you don't just suppress them and leave them at home.’ Some of the ways we do that is we provide a guide and a micro training on the notion of day-to-day conversations and how to enable Branchers and help them know that we want them to have inclusive conversations with their colleagues about differences. As well as giving them tools on how to share stories on more sensitive topics like social or political challenges in our environment that are around us.” – Pratiksha Patel

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Episode Timestamps:

*(01:53): Pratiksha’s background

*(03:44): Segment: Story Time

*(06:20): How Branch is intentional about employee experience

*(09:24): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(18:04): How inclusivity helps with career development 

*(21:41): How Branch ensures employees have a good work-life blend 

*(26:00): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Pratiksha on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Barbara Massa, board member of Simpplr. Barbara has over 25 years of experience as a business operations leader driving workforce strategy and organizational effectiveness. Previously, she served Mandiant as the Executive Vice President and Chief of Business Operations, where she implemented the company’s first global HR system. Before joining Mandiant, Barbara led Talent & Diversity at McAfee, Inc. and was recognized for establishing a global talent management organization.

In this episode, Amanda sits down with Barbara to discuss leading through turbulent times, advising companies to be more human, and thoughtfully aligning internal partnerships.

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“When you do get into having to make these difficult decisions, whether it be a reduction in a layoff or something else, that's a hard place to be. But the only way you can establish a reservoir of trust is with that authentic communication, humane engagement. Go into conversations with empathy, go into conversations seeking to learn and understand. That's where the goodness can happen even in times of duress and turbulence.” – Barbara Massa

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:02): Barbara’s background

*(13:32): Segment: Story Time

*(21:00): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(22:01): How Barbara meets desires in turbulent times

*(25:40): How leaders should incorporate transparency into strategies

*(31:39): Segment: Seat at the Table

*(36:56): Segment: Asking For a Friend

*(41:20): Barbara discusses recipe versus balance

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Links:

Connect with Barbara on LinkedIn

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast

This episode features an interview with Katherine King, Director of Employee Communications at Etsy. She has been with the global ecommerce company since 2018, serving the internal communications function through Etsy’s massive growth. Previously, Katherine was a dialogue strategist where she developed brands’ customer-facing tone of voice for clients like American Express, Gerber, and Southwest Airlines.

In this episode, Amanda and Katherine discuss the spectrum of tone and voice, key business relationships that improve employee communications, and helping leaders develop empathetic messages.

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“A reliable tone breeds familiarity, and familiarity is the precursor to trust. The more that we can breed familiarity with leadership and their authentic voice, the greater trust the team will have and the better the business will be. And I know that that seems like a big jump, but there is actual data backing up how trust impacts your business' bottom line, and its employees’ trust in their employer. And that's everything from NPS to retention and engagement – these are all things that do affect your bottom line.” – Katherine King

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Episode Timestamps:

*(02:17): Katherine’s background

*(06:31): Segment: Story Time

*(11:29): Segment: Getting Tactical

*(12:02): Key relationships that help employee comms

*(21:18): Segment: Ripped From The Headlines

*(21:46): How Katherine helps leaders build empathy and compassion

*(25:23): Why tone of voice matters

*(28:01): Katherine explains the spectrum of tone and voice

*(38:17): Segment: Asking For a Friend

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Links:

Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn

Edelman Trust Barometer

Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn

www.simpplr.com/podcast