How People Work

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan talks with Jerryl Ewing from G2 Insurance Services. Jerryl is responsible for human resource initiatives including onboarding, communication, training and assisting with career mapping and pathing for all associates. While pursuing his doctorate in psychology, he also enjoys helping employees develop their careers and bring their best selves to the workplace.

Jerryl talks about how his field of study is applied in the HR world and how his people are dealing with the pandemic and the new work environment. He discusses what resources are utilized with virtual work and common emotions employees feel during this novel time from a psychological standpoint. He mentions company decisions that were made due to the pandemic and why taking time off is so important for employees. He speaks on what the organization plans to do as people are re-entering the office, along with what types of candidates they look for when hiring. He touches on how companies are now competing on flexibility and remote scheduling when it comes to hiring and shares his opinion on if organizations will open more offices to support the non-hub remote workers. 

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture podcast, Jordan talks with Jennifer Bailey, the Chief Administration Officer at Cognosante. Jennifer oversees the strategic HR functions, such as talent acquisition, talent management and total rewards. She also leads company culture and belonging initiatives. She has more than 20 years of experience to share on people leadership, culture building and more. 

Jennifer talks about how her background intersected with people and culture, along with her current involvement with Cognosante and her role there. She speaks about the process of building company culture, the importance of surveys and how they navigated through COVID from various perspectives. She discusses what their pitch is to prospective employees, along with what characteristics they look for when hiring new people to join their team. She mentions how the process works for deciding what is best for employees and how to consider that before making decisions. She offers advice for others on how to lead with compassion and what she thinks are the most important qualities to embrace as a leader. 

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture podcast, Jordan talks with Andrew Bartlow, founder and managing partner of Series B Consulting. He helps businesses articulate the people strategy and accelerate their growth while navigating rapid change. 

Andrew starts by talking about his experience of writing a book and how he narrowed down the information despite having so much to share. He discusses companies that succeed in spite of themselves and what it’s like working with hyper scaling organizations, like Masterclass. He mentions details on developmental programs and Scaling for Success. He shares insights on HR development, the importance of people leaders, how to implement them in the space and what to look for when hiring a people leader. He touches on what the 2021 strategy for HR looks like, and what is the biggest factor people leaders are facing in 2021. He discusses how people leaders need to address the performance management side while balancing the wellness side as well, and what the core needs are for employees. 

References:

• Scaling for Success

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan speaks with Heidi Lynne Kurter. Heidi is a workplace culture consultant and leadership coach at Heidi Lynne Consulting LLC, which serves startups and small businesses. Heidi is also a senior contributor for Forbes, where she writes about workplace culture and leadership strategy. 

Heidi talks about how she got involved with Forbes and how her journey with workplace culture started. She mentions how she comes across her clients, why people want her help and the importance of communication within a business. She offers insights on how she remains an objective third party when telling people how to improve, along with what personally and professionally motivates people to create a positive work environment. She states what blocks companies from creating an inclusive culture and how leaders should go about getting honest feedback from employees. Heidi also discusses the blind spots leaders have when creating a culture, and how they should educate themselves. She opens up on how culture will be built as we enter a hybrid work environment and states what her favorite culture-building activity is. 

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan talks with Daniel Fuller from FullStack. Daniel’s background with FullStack includes coaching global entrepreneurial leaders and Indianapolis mission-driven organizations. He is also a podcast host on his show Savage to Sage, where he explores entrepreneurial leadership and how those leaders create cultures for team members to be challenged, grow and thrive. 

Daniel talks about what PEOs (professional employer organizations) are all about, the growth of the PEO market and employee experience, and how the two go hand-in-hand. Daniel touches on how he found himself in the world of entrepreneurship and why he is dedicated to investing in people. He discusses what brought him to Full Stack, along with how he can tell when clients really care about their employees and when they are just checking boxes off a list. Jordan asks why Daniel works with the people he does, and what themes Daniel has seen from clients in terms of how they approach benefits. Daniel shares insights on what the space is doing with returning to the office and notable differences he is seeing as we are coming out of COVID.

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan speaks with Jen Paxton, VP of People at Smile.io. Jen was the previous VP of People and Talent at Privy, an e-commerce marketing platform that helps small and growing brands get from $0 to $1 million in online sales. Jen works on building a company that employees and candidates love.

Jen talks about her Master’s degree in opera, what that experience translates to today and how she shifted from opera to her current field. She discusses what Privy is all about, why she loves working there and what their mission, vision and values look like. She shares how Privy’s employees are doing amidst COVID and how they get feedback on employee satisfaction. Jen also talks about how to guide people towards taking time off and the benefits of mental health programming. She and Jordan discuss the potential link between the predicted upcoming turnover and cultural experience, along with how Privy plans to provide equity for people working in and out of the office. Lastly, Jen offers advice for people new at hiring employees to ensure that those planted seeds will fully blossom over time. 

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan speaks with Chloe Lipp Wellman, the Associate Director of Culture Transformation at Sprinklr. Sprinklr is the world’s leading unified customer experience management (Unified-CXM) platform. They help companies deliver a more unified and human experience to every customer, every time, at once-impossible scale. Headquartered in New York City with 2,500+ employees globally, Sprinklr works with more than 1,100 of the world’s most valuable enterprises — global brands like Microsoft, P&G, Wells Fargo, and Samsung and more than 50% of the Fortune 100. 

Chloe talks about her journey with well-being, where people tend to fall short with well-being and how leadership has been leading the drive for it in the company. She touches on how to prevent burnout in COVID times, how people at Sprinklr are doing and what resources Sprinklr used during the pandemic. Chloe discusses the challenges for women in the workforce today, as well as tips on providing specific messaging and strategies to support women in the workplace. She mentions Sprinklr’s plans for going back to the office, how they will provide an equitable experience for all employees, both remote and not, and what leaders should do to create a positive company culture.

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan speaks with Madison Murdock, HR Specialist with gigRonin. GigRonin is a company that provides a white-label app to staffing agencies to increase sales, promote recruiter efficiency and support client retention by deploying contingent workers' jobs to opportunities with an intuitive, user-friendly mobile experience.

Madison talks about what gigRonin is all about, how COVID has impacted the industry and what COVID has produced creatively for gigRonin. She discusses her main roles, where her true passion lies and how she and her team have cared for one another during the past year. She speaks on what tools have been helpful for efficiency, how to transition new people into the team and thoughts on getting back in the office. Madison mentions goals for company values, why people should check out gigRonin and where the company is going next in terms of hiring. 

On this episode of the BragWorthy Culture Podcast, Jordan speaks with Tammy Bjelland, Founder and CEO of Workplaceless. Workplaceless is a training company that improves remote and hybrid team effectiveness by developing the capabilities that workers, managers and executives need to succeed in distributive environments. With a background in higher education, publishing, EdTech, e-learning and corporate training, Tammy is committed to driving and supporting the future of work by developing people. 

Tammy discusses how Workplaceless launched and what remote work involves. She talks about the differences in normal remote work versus remote work during a pandemic and what her opinions are regarding post-covid work decisions. She touches on building equity for employees that work both in and out of the office, along with good ideas she’s seen come from the pandemic. She mentions the importance of asynchronous communication, what else is happening in the industry and how empathy plays a large role in a positive working environment. Tammy speaks on company culture, and she advises on how to develop people.

On this episode of The BragWorthy Podcast, Jordan speaks with Andy Racic, current Senior Director of Enterprise at Seismic and former Head of Sales at Tango Health. Tango Health is a leader in the employee benefits decision support and engagement space. Andy has 10 years of progressive sales experience within the HR realm, ranging from talent acquisition, headhunting, payroll and HCM, and decision support. 

Andy talks about what Tango does to help clients, how they drive recommendations and how working from home has changed the workspace for Tango. He also discusses the importance of engagement and inclusivity, along with what he’s done to prevent burnout. He touches on what Tango expects regarding going back to the office and recruitment strategies after COVID, and what Tango has done to create togetherness during the shutdown. Andy speaks on what engaging with other leadership looks like, where he has seen great leadership outside of Tango and what he is passionate about in the employee benefits workspace.