Good Morning, HR

By Mike Coffey, SPHR, SHRM-SCP

HR entrepreneur Mike Coffey, SPHR, SHRM-SCP engages business thought leaders about the strategic, psychological, legal, and practical implications of bringing people together to create value for share... more

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The podcast currently has 274 episodes available.

Best of Good Morning, HR

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Number 1: What 11,000 Undercover Interviews Reveal About Retention with Clint Pulver
In episode 269, Coffey talks with Clint Pulver about what 11,000 undercover employee interviews revealed about why people stay, why they leave, and what separates managers who are merely tolerated from the ones employees call mentors. – HRSOUTHWEST October 11-13, 2026 – Good Morning, HR listeners can use the promo code 2026-CoffeyGMHR-100 to save $100 on an HRSouthwest full conference registration at https://hrsouthwest.com! ____________________________________ They discuss the gap between how leaders perceive their own organizations and the reality employees experience — and why employees rarely tell their boss the truth; the four manager archetypes — the removed manager, the buddy manager, the controller, and the mentor — mapped against the twin variables of standards and connection; mentorship over management as the consistent differentiator in organizations where people thrive and stay; the five Cs of mentorship — confidence, credibility, competency, candor, and care — and how each can be developed, not just inherited; why there is no universal retention formula and why getting to "the part about the individual" outperforms any generational strategy or workplace perk; the currency of recognition and why personalized, moment-based acknowledgment drives engagement far more than standardized rewards; the status check as a practical alternative to performance reviews — three questions that open a real conversation about what an employee needs, what's blocking their success, and what would keep them; why leaders who say they don't have time to connect are simply choosing other priorities, and what it costs them; and the difference between collaboration and control in difficult conversations, including how candor and trust work together when a manager can't give an employee what they're asking for. About our Guest: Clint Pulver is an Emmy Award winner, Hall of Fame Speaker, Pro Drummer and one of the world’s leading voices on employee retention and organizational culture. He’s the bestselling author of the book titled I Love It Here: How Great Leaders Create Organizations Their People Never Want to Leave and was named one of Business Q Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 for his groundbreaking research as the Undercover Millennial. As founder and president of The Center for Employee Retention, he has helped organizations like the NBA, Microsoft, Red Bull, and NASA create engaged, loyal, and thriving workplaces. He’s also appeared on America’s Got Talent, acted in feature films alongside stars like Jack Black and Jon Heder, is an avid helicopter pilot, and—fun fact—is a proud member of the R2D2 Builders Club. He is also the president and founder of Dream Machines, a foundation that gives children with disabilities the gift and magic of flight. Clint strongly believes that a single moment in time can change a person’s life. He has traveled the world speaking to a wide spectrum of diverse audiences, challenging them to dream, excel, connect, and believe--both in themselves and in the power of others. His mantra? “It’s not about being the best in the world…it's about being the best FOR the world.” Clint Pulvert can be reached at: Your Website: | https://clintpulver.com/ LinkedIn: | https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintpulver/ Instagram: | https://www.instagram.com/clintpulver YouTube: | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpWB8oLO5HOjstE9gmL9Qxg About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for all stakeholders. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 30 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth. Learning Objectives: Identify the four manager archetypes defined by the intersection of standards and connection, and explain the employee outcomes each one produces. Apply the five Cs of mentorship — confidence, credibility, competency, candor, and care — to assess and develop leadership capability in their own organization. Conduct a status check conversation using the three core questions that surface what employees need, what's blocking them, and what would keep them — and distinguish this approach from a traditional performance review or one-on-one.
September 10, 202635min
Number 2: Building a Conflict-Capable Organization with Jeff Lay
In episode 268, Coffey talks with Jeff Lay about what it means to build a conflict-capable organization, why artificial harmony is more dangerous than open disagreement, and how leaders can develop the skills and culture needed to handle difficult conversations before they become expensive problems. – HRSOUTHWEST October 11-13, 2026 – Good Morning, HR listeners can use the promo code 2026-CoffeyGMHR-100 to save $100 on an HRSouthwest full conference registration at https://hrsouthwest.com! ________________ They discuss the concept of a conflict-capable organization as an alternative to the unrealistic goal of conflict elimination; the conflict incubator — how childhood environments and previous workplaces shape an individual's default conflict behaviors; artificial harmony versus genuine trust, and why silence in a meeting rarely signals agreement; the financial cost of unresolved conflict, including disengagement losses that don't show up on a P&L but function like money thrown in a fire; becoming fluent in the language of small things — addressing friction early before emotions escalate into "you always" and "you never" conversations; how a leader's response to the first person who raises conflict determines whether anyone ever raises it again; the challenge of coaching up when the conflict source is the leader themselves, and how HR can build the relational runway to do it; social media, generational change, remote work, and AI as compounding forces making productive conflict harder to navigate; emotional intelligence, humility, and curiosity as foundational leadership skills for conflict resolution; and the CURVE framework — cared for, understood, respected, valued, and empowered — as a diagnostic for organizational health. For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP268 Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest: Jeff Lay is the Founder of The People Curve, a leadership and conflict resolution consulting practice focused on helping leaders and organizations navigate difficult conversations, strengthen workplace relationships, and build healthier cultures. With more than 25 years of leadership experience spanning nonprofit, ministry, and organizational leadership, Jeff has coached leaders through employee relations challenges, team conflict, organizational change, and workplace investigations. Jeff believes conflict is not something to avoid but a skill to develop. His work centers on helping organizations become conflict-capable—creating cultures where difficult conversations can be addressed with clarity, respect, and accountability. Jeff is a SHRM-SCP and frequent speaker for leadership teams, HR professionals, churches, and nonprofit organizations. He lives in East Texas with his wife and family and enjoys camping, reading, and cheering on the Dallas Cowboys Texas A&M football. Jeff Lay can be reached at: Website: | www.thepeoplecurve.com LinkedIn: | https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-lay-shrm-scp-09987a10 About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth. Learning Objectives: Distinguish between artificial harmony and genuine organizational trust, and identify the leadership behaviors that create each. Apply the "language of small things" approach to surface and address interpersonal friction before it escalates into formal conflict requiring HR or legal intervention. Assess the financial and cultural cost of unresolved workplace conflict and use that framing to make the business case for investing in manager training and conflict-capable culture.
September 03, 202638min
Number 3: Employee Wellbeing in the AI Workplace with Timothy State
In episode 264, Coffey talks with Timothy State about the science of workforce wellbeing, why middle managers are the most at-risk population right now, and how AI-powered life quality companions are transforming the way organizations understand and support thriving at scale. They discuss the five core dimensions of human wellbeing — physical and mental health, relationships, security, and meaning and purpose — and why employer influence on all of them is both a business and social responsibility; EAP underutilization and the limits of traditional point-solution approaches to employee wellness investment; the predictive power of the question "does my leader care about my wellbeing?" on retention and workforce outcomes; team-level wellbeing contagion and how one individual's improvement reliably lifts the whole team over time; middle managers as the most burned-out and at-risk population in today's workforce; the perverse hiring incentives created when leaders are held accountable for individual wellbeing outcomes rather than demonstrated care behaviors; the difference between using AI to extract efficiency from existing work versus using AI to elevate the human system itself and generate human-centered value; cognitive overload as an unintended consequence of AI-driven task elimination, including the loss of low-complexity recovery work; Altius's AI life quality companion "Alti" — its nine wellbeing dimensions, 750-plus KPIs, perpetual memory, and 96% user satisfaction rate across 26 countries; and the radical privacy architecture required for employer-sponsored AI wellbeing tools to earn employee trust and avoid discriminatory misuse of health data. For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP264 Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest: Timothy State is a people strategist, business leader, and human wellbeing innovator with 25 years’ experience leading large-scale workforce transformation. He led Humana to global recognition for improving workforce well-being. Tim is an active advisor to Harvard Human Flourishing / SHINE, a founding member of Center for Positive Organization, chaired the Wellbeing and Workforce Strategy Institute and several other leading bodies. In 2025, Tim founded Altius, an AI-native human optimization company helping businesses and healthcare systems thrive via regenerative AI technologies and advanced human advising. He institutionalizes human well-being through data, social infrastructure, and leadership transformation. Tim can be reached at: Your website: https://www.altiusco.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/altiuswellbeing/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/altiuswellbeing/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/AltiusWellbeing About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth. Learning Objectives: Identify the five dimensions of employee wellbeing and explain how each one is influenced by organizational culture, leadership behavior, and employer-provided resources. Distinguish between holding leaders accountable for demonstrating care versus for employees' actual wellbeing outcomes, and describe why that distinction protects against perverse hiring incentives. Evaluate the design principles — human-centered AI, radical data privacy, proactive personalization, and clinical grounding — that determine whether an AI wellbeing tool will drive adoption or be ignored like traditional EAPs.
August 06, 202651min
Number 4: HR News: As the Labor Market Heats Up, So Does RTO and AI Slop with July HR News: Jimmy Taylor
In episode 263, Coffey talks with Jimmy Taylor about the state of return-to-office, AI's real impact on workforce participation and HR practice, and why proactive networking and skills-based hiring matter more than ever. They discuss CBRE data showing peak office utilization reaching 80% and the factors driving successful return-to-office adoption; the hidden financial costs employees bear when returning to the office and how employers should account for that in compensation and goodwill; why early-career professionals stand to benefit most from in-person work through mentorship, visibility, and relationship-building; June jobs report softness, a 50-year-low labor participation rate, and competing explanations from immigration enforcement changes and AI displacement; AI as a net job creator over time, drawing parallels to fears about the internet eliminating insurance agents, real estate agents, and recruiters in the 1990s; the organizational opportunity and challenge of assessing AI skill gaps and reskilling loyal existing employees rather than replacing them with outside talent; Gen Z's surprising gaps in desktop computing and interpersonal skills despite their reputation for tech fluency; the case for replacing traditional resumes with tailored application processes and front-end skills assessments to filter out AI-generated candidate slop; professional association involvement as a proactive career resilience and network-building strategy before a job loss forces it; and Dallas HR's hands-on AI skills day designed to move HR professionals from AI curiosity to practical daily application. For listeners of Good Morning HR podcast, use 2026-CoffeyGMHR-100 promo code and take $100 off a HRSouthwest full conference registration at https://hrsouthwest.com. For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP263 Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest: Jimmy Taylor brings more than 20 years of business and HR leadership to DallasHR and the HR Southwest Conference. As Executive Director, Jimmy is responsible for leading strategic initiatives and overseeing the operations of the organization in the mission to advance and connect the regional HR community. Jimmy Taylor can be reached at Website: https://www.dallashr.org/ Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-taylor-sphr-25b230/ About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for all stakeholders. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 30 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth. Learning Objectives: Evaluate the real costs — financial, cultural, and competitive — that employees and employers each absorb when transitioning back to in-person or hybrid work arrangements. Assess an organization's current AI skill gaps and identify practical reskilling strategies that retain institutional knowledge while closing the gap with external market demands. Redesign the candidate screening process to replace resume-based review with structured application workflows and skills assessments that resist AI-generated submissions and reduce bias.
July 30, 202648min
Number 5: Human Performance in an AI-Driven Workplace with Randy Anderson
In episode 262, Coffey talks with Randy Anderson about the critical differentiators for human performers in an AI-driven workplace. They discuss AI's inevitability and its impact on task elimination versus full job replacement; the enduring human advantage in relational and interpersonal transactions that AI cannot replicate; emotional intelligence as a two-sided competency — reading others and maintaining self-awareness; nonverbal communication, microexpressions, and the limits of virtual interaction for building culture; the case for renaming "soft skills" as core skills or power skills given their foundational value; generational deficits in interpersonal development worsened by COVID, remote learning, and screen-based communication; how employers can purposefully structure learning tracks, mentoring, and stretch assignments to develop core skills alongside technical ones; top employer-identified skill gaps from a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce talent survey — emotional intelligence, leadership, global mindset, and adaptability; AI-generated cover letters undermining candidate credibility, including a case where AI reproduced a hiring manager's own quotes; and time-windowed team skill development as a practical organizational strategy for building interpersonal competency at scale. For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP262 Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com. If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com. About our Guest: Randy Anderson is a self-declared mercenary in the war on employee disengagement and lost productivity. He spent 20 years in sales and management before founding E3 Professional Trainers in 2005. Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work with virtually every type and size of business in almost every industry.Now, through keynote presentations, customized training, and personal coaching, he delivers strategies to help individuals, teams, and entire organizations become more engaged in their work, better equipped to do it, and to feel empowered to experience greater fulfillment in life, both personallyand professionally. Randy Anderson can be reached at Your Website: e3professionaltrainers.com LinkedIn: Randy Anderson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyandersontrainer) Facebook: E3 Professional Trainers (https://www.facebook.com/E3ProfessionalTrainers/) Twitter/X: E3ProfTrainers (https://twitter.com/e3proftrainers) YouTube: E3 Professional Trainers (https://www.youtube.com/user/e3protrainers) About Mike Coffey: Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association. Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year. Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth. Learning Objectives:Distinguish between the tasks AI will replace and the human relational capabilities that will remain differentiators for high performers. Define emotional intelligence as a dual competency — accurately reading others and maintaining self-awareness — and explain why both sides matter in workplace interactions. Design intentional learning tracks, mentoring programs, and structured assignments to develop core interpersonal skills in employees who lack natural exposure or prior coaching.
July 23, 202649min