HR Happy Hour Network

Host: Trish Steed

Guest: Michele Bodda, Group President, Experian Housing, Verification Solutions and Employer Services at Experian Employer Services

Summary

On this episode of the HR Happy Hour, Trish Steed is joined by Michele Bodda of Experian Employer Services to explore how Experian is approaching some of the most consequential moments connecting employers, employees, consumers, and financial institutions. Michele shares how her nearly three decades at Experian have shaped her perspective on leadership, innovation, and the importance of staying curious throughout a career. She also explains why Experian entered the employer services market and how the company’s experience managing sensitive information and high-trust interactions translates into HR compliance, employment and income verification, tax credit management, and other employer services.

The conversation also explores Experian’s expanded relationship with Workday, which adds more than 15 million payroll records from Workday’s network to Experian Verify and supports Experian’s continued expansion of its income and employment verification network. But the discussion goes well beyond technology and data.

Michele and Trish examine what happens as AI and automation become embedded in processes once driven primarily by human expertise. As technology produces more insight and handles more routine work, organizations will have to think differently about how people—particularly those early in their careers—develop the knowledge, judgment, and experience needed to act on those insights.

Throughout the conversation, one theme remains constant: trust. Whether someone is applying for a job, renting a home, securing a mortgage, or navigating an employment relationship, accurate, secure, and reliable information can have an enormous impact on the outcome.

Topics include:

• The connection between employment verification, compliance, tax credits, and the broader employee experience
• How Experian’s expanded Workday relationship strengthens its verification network
• Why every employment or income verification represents a meaningful moment in someone’s life
• How reliable data becomes even more important as organizations increase their use of AI
• The challenge organizations face in deciding what comes next in their AI and technology journeys
• Why developing human judgment and experience may become one of the most important workforce issues of the next several years
• How trusted partners can help HR teams manage complex compliance requirements while keeping their focus on employees

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Employees recognized for milestones are three times more likely to believe their company actually cares about them. Three times. So why are companies so bad at it? The stale bagels. The branded swag. The audacity.

Workhuman believes milestones deserve their moment. A space for the people who know you best — your actual work circle — to reflect on your journey, your wins, your impact. The inside jokes. The big moments. All of it.

It's called Service Milestones. AI finds the right people. Automation handles the rest. And employees choose their own reward — from millions of options, curated just for them.

Milestone like you mean it with Workhuman, a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Podcast. Find out more at workhuman.com.

Host: Sabrina Baker

Summary

Cultural breakdowns in small businesses rarely start with a dramatic, headline-making crisis. They start as quiet friction points in the dark—ghosted feedback, zombie policies, and department silos—that everyone senses but nobody talks about out loud. Because of the close proximity in small businesses (1–500 employees), these "cultural ghosts" ripple through the workforce fast, eroding trust and setting up a wave of January resignations.

In this episode of HR Connection, Sabrina Baker breaks down why small business leaders often default to silence and confrontation avoidance, sharing a jaw-dropping real client story of how conflict avoidance can backfire. Learn how to use neutral third-party focus groups, run quick 3-question pulse surveys, audit outdated handbook policies, and equip managers with feedback frameworks like COIN and Start/Stop/Continue to fix culture issues before year-end.

Topics include:

• Introduction: The "Spooky" Cultural Monsters
• Why Halloween is the perfect metaphor for small business culture. Unpacking the three big monsters lurking in small companies: Ghosted Feedback Loops, Zombie Policies, and Silo Vampires.
• SECTION 1: Communication & Confrontation AvoidanceWhy small business leaders default to silence when news is uncertain or bad, and how information vacuums breed worst-case assumptions. Plus, a real-life cautionary client story about a demotion announced live during an all-hands meeting.
• SECTION 2: The Top 3 Focus Group ComplaintsUnpacking the three most common complaints heard during employee focus groups: constant changing of direction without context, uneven manager information cascading, and highly unrealistic expectations around scope and timeframe.
• SECTION 3: Survey Methodology & Third-Party TrustWhy small businesses are never too small for surveys, why employees open up to third-party facilitators faster than internal HR, and the 3 go-to pulse survey questions every small business should ask.
• SECTION 4: Zombie Policies & Departmental SilosHow to spot outdated handbook rules (from fax machine policies to punitive sick leave notes) and why Sales and Finance are the most severely siloed departments in small operations.
• SECTION 5: Tactical Manager Frameworks & Stay InterviewsStep-by-step coaching tools for managers: Using the COIN method (Context, Observation, Impact, Next Steps) and Start/Stop/Continue for feedback, plus 3 critical Stay Interview questions to ask in November.
• SECTION 6: Actionable Homework & Wrap-UpA 3-step action plan to conduct a cultural ghost hunt in your organization before the holiday slowdown.

 Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want. 

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

AI for Frontline Workers: Creating a Better Employee Experience 

Hosts: Steve Boese

Guest: Gretchen Alarcon, GVP/GM of HCM and Payroll at UKG

Summary

On this episode of the HR Happy Hour, Steve Boese is joined by Gretchen Alarcon to explore how AI can help organizations create a better experience for frontline workers while also helping managers make smarter workforce decisions.

Gretchen shares how UKG is approaching AI from both sides of the employee experience. For workers, that can mean making everyday tasks—like requesting time off, understanding a paycheck, accessing support, or navigating a leave of absence—faster and easier. For managers, AI can bring together information about skills, availability, overtime, scheduling, and workforce needs to help them make more informed decisions.

The conversation also looks at the connection between schedule stability, skills, pay, and retention. For frontline employees, knowing when they will work and what they will earn matters. AI can help organizations create schedules that meet operational needs while considering the people behind those schedules. It can also connect employees with training and certifications that may lead to additional hours, greater earning potential, and new opportunities.

Steve and Gretchen also discuss the role employers can play in supporting financial wellness, including greater pay transparency, earned wage access, and helping employees better understand the resources available to them.

As organizations prepare for 2027, Gretchen offers a simple framework for thinking about the frontline workforce: find them, enable them, and keep them. That means finding people with the right skills, continuously developing the workforce with accessible learning, and creating an experience that gives employees the clarity and support they need to stay.

Topics include:

• How AI can simplify everyday HR interactions for frontline employees
• Why schedule stability can have a direct impact on employee retention
• Connecting skills and certifications to hours, pay, and career opportunities
• Financial wellness and support for employees living paycheck to paycheck
• Preparing frontline employees for an AI-enabled workplace
• How leaders should think about finding, enabling, and retaining frontline talent in 2027

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want. 

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Hosts: Mervyn Dinnen

Guest: Amanda Arrowsmith, Executive Director of People and Culture at the Royal British Legion

Summary

In this episode of HR Means Business, Mervyn is joined by Amanda Arrowsmith to explore what it takes to lead meaningful organizational change.

Amanda shares why successful transformation starts by connecting every initiative back to organizational purpose and strategy. She also explains why organizations sometimes need to do less, slow down, and create stronger foundations before moving forward. Rather than measuring success simply by whether a project launches on schedule, leaders need to consider whether people can actually adopt the change and whether it improves how work gets done. A major part of that process is the role of managers. Amanda describes managers as the “secret sauce” of successful change because they are the people translating organizational decisions into everyday conversations with employees. Giving managers early information, practical tools, space to ask difficult questions, and a clear understanding of the “why” helps them communicate change in ways that make sense for their individual teams.

The conversation also explores employee voice, change fatigue, resistance, and the importance of allowing employees to make sense of change for themselves rather than telling them how they should feel about it. Amanda explains that leaders need to recognize the potential loss of agency and identity that can accompany even positive changes and create space for people to work through those reactions.

Key Takeaways

• Turning long-term organizational strategy into manageable stages of change
• Why successful transformation requires prioritization and organizational capacity
• Building alignment between strategy, leaders, teams, and everyday work
• Creating meaningful employee voice without requiring consensus on every decision
• Recognizing and responding to change fatigue and resistance
• Measuring change through both business outcomes and employee behavior

Thank you for your continued support of the show and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want. 

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Host: Chris Havrilla, Podcast Host & Founder of AI Alchemists™

Guests: Joanna Clark and Matthew Brown

Summary

What are you looking for when you walk into an HR technology conference? A new solution? The latest AI announcement? A vendor shortlist? A glimpse at where the market is headed?

In the debut episode of Take a Different Seat, host Chris Havrilla starts with that seemingly simple question and invites two experienced HR technology leaders to examine it from very different seats.

From the buyer perspective to the vendor and customer experience side, the conversation explores what really happens when organizations, technology providers, and practitioners come together at industry events. The answer turns out to have far less to do with collecting product information and much more to do with understanding the problems organizations are actually trying to solve.

The discussion digs into the growing disconnect between buyers and sellers, the pressure to adopt AI, and the danger of applying new technology to processes built for yesterday’s work. Instead of starting with a product or feature list, the group makes the case for starting with the business problem, asking better questions, and staying curious long enough to understand what a solution will actually mean inside a specific organization. As the conversation progresses, another important gap emerges: the difference between what technology looks like in a demo and what it takes to make that technology successful on day one. Buyers may not always know what questions to ask, while providers can easily allow their own talking points to drive the conversation. The challenge for both sides is to move beyond the pitch and get closer to the realities of the work, the organization, and the people who will ultimately use the technology.

And by the end of the episode, the original question has changed. Instead of asking people at the next industry event, “What are you here to see?”, perhaps the better question is: “What do you need to learn more about?”

Topics Include

• Why the same HR technology event looks very different depending on the seat you're sitting in
• How buyers can move from shopping for solutions to understanding the business problem
• Why AI is exposing old processes rather than automatically fixing them
• The disconnect between technology demos and the reality of implementation
• Why learning, curiosity, and better questions matter more as technology changes faster

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

 Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want. 

 Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Hosts: Steve Boese & Trish Steed

Guest: Chris Havrilla, Podcast Host & Founder of AI Alchemists™

Summary

The HR Happy Hour Media Network is welcoming a new show to the network: Take a Different Seat, hosted by longtime technology strategist, analyst, advisor, and product leader Chris Havrilla.

In this introductory conversation, Steve and Trish sit down with Chris to talk about the idea behind the new series, the experiences she brings to it, and why perspective matters more than ever as organizations navigate AI, technology, work, and increasingly consequential decisions. The premise behind Take a Different Seat is simple: better decisions begin with better questions, and better questions emerge when we are willing to see a problem from perspectives beyond our own. Rather than beginning each episode with a predetermined answer, Chris will start with a consequential question, bring together different perspectives, challenge assumptions, and see whether the conversation leads to an even better question.

Chris also shares how her career across research, advisory, product strategy, and technology has shaped the new show. Her experience spans organizations including Deloitte and Oracle, where she worked through the rapid evolution of generative and agentic AI and saw firsthand how technological change creates new legal, ethical, operational, financial, and human questions for organizations. Together, they explore why context matters when making technology and workforce decisions, why organizations cannot simply hand responsibility for consequential decisions over to AI, and why leaders need to become more comfortable examining issues from more than one seat.

As Chris puts it, sometimes the most valuable outcome isn't finding the answer. It's discovering the question you should have been asking in the first place.

Topics include:

• The idea behind Take a Different Seat and what listeners can expect
• Why perspective and intellectual humility are becoming essential leadership skills
• How better questions can lead to better organizational decisions
• Chris's experience across AI, product strategy, research, and advisory work
• Why AI is creating new questions around accountability, transparency, and decision-making

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want.  

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Host: Steve Boese

Guest: Connor Diamond-Yauman, Co-CEO of Merit America

Summary

In this episode of At Work in America, Steve is joined by Connor Diemand-Yauman, for a conversation about economic mobility, workforce development, and creating stronger pathways from low-wage work into sustainable careers.

Connor shares the story behind Merit America and the realization that helped inspire its work: access to education alone does not necessarily create opportunity. The conversation explores their work with adults in low-wage jobs and why human coaching has become such an important part of its model. While learners may initially come for credentials in areas such as IT support, project management, cybersecurity, or semiconductor technology, Connor explains that many ultimately identify coaching as one of the most transformational parts of their experience.

Steve and Connor also discuss the rapidly changing labor market and the challenge of preparing people for jobs and skills that continue to evolve. Rather than trying to perfectly predict the future of work, Connor argues that agility is becoming one of the most important capabilities for workforce development organizations, employers, and workers alike.

For HR and business leaders, the message is clear: expanding economic opportunity requires opening the aperture on how we define qualified talent, taking thoughtful risks on people who may not fit traditional hiring profiles, and creating real pathways for people to turn their skills and potential into meaningful careers.

Topics include:

• Why access to education does not automatically translate into career opportunity
• How workforce programs can keep pace with a rapidly changing labor market
• Why some perceived talent shortages may actually be workplace or business model problems
• The disconnect between removing degree requirements and actually changing hiring practices
• How employers can broaden their definition of qualified talent

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want. 

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Hosts: Mervyn Dinnen

Guest: David D'Souza, Writer, keynote speaker, and advisor

Summary

In this episode of HR Means Business, Mervyn is joined by David D’Souza, former Director of Profession at the CIPD, for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of HR and the capabilities professionals will need to navigate what comes next.

David reflects on how the profession has evolved and why HR’s value cannot be defined by HR alone. Rather than beginning with programs, best practices, or what the function believes organizations should do, he argues that HR must begin with the problems the business is trying to solve and understand how people, skills, structure, and culture can help address them.

The conversation also explores the growing role of AI in HR and why automation creates both opportunity and responsibility. As technology takes on more transactional work, skills such as situational judgment, evidence-based decision-making, curiosity, adaptability, relationship building, and critical thinking become even more important.

Key Takeaways

• HR must start with the business problem
• Human judgment becomes more important as AI grows
• Curiosity and adaptability will be essential HR skills
• Workforce planning must become more agile
• HR needs to enable change, not become the point of resistance

Thank you for your continued support of the show and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.  

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want. 

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: Kimball Dean Parker, CEO at SixFifty

Summary

In this episode of At Work in America, Steve and Trish welcome Kimball Dean Parker, CEO of SixFifty, for a conversation about how technology and AI are changing the way organizations manage employment law and compliance.

Kimball shares the story behind SixFifty and why employment law became such an important problem to solve. With regulations varying across states, cities, and counties — and changing constantly — staying current can quickly become overwhelming, particularly for organizations hiring across multiple locations. The conversation explores how AI and automation can help organizations manage everything from employee handbooks and hiring documents to required posters, training, and other compliance workflows. Kimball also explains why combining AI with established legal workflows can create more predictable and reliable outcomes rather than simply asking generative AI to produce an answer from scratch.

The conversation also looks beyond risk reduction. When organizations have greater confidence in their compliance infrastructure, they can hire talent in more locations, respond more quickly to regulatory changes, and give HR leaders back time that would otherwise be spent managing administrative complexity. The group offers a practical example of where AI can create immediate value for HR: taking repeatable, time-intensive compliance work off people's plates while allowing HR professionals to focus more of their time on people, strategy, and the business.

Topics include:

• Why employment law compliance becomes increasingly complex as organizations expand across locations
• How technology can help organizations stay ahead of changing employment regulations
• The importance of combining AI with structured, established processes
• How stronger compliance infrastructure can support multistate hiring and business growth
• How automation can give HR leaders more time for strategic work
• Why compliance may be one of the most practical places for organizations to begin using AI

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight. 

This episode of At Work in America is sponsored by Paychex, an industry-leading human capital management company that combines scale, trusted expertise, and innovation to help businesses succeed. SixFifty, by Paychex helps your business stay ahead of constantly changing laws and regulations with HR compliance software. Curated by experienced attorneys and powered by AI, SixFifty helps turn the impossible job of staying compliant with employment laws across every state into something simple, automatic, and stress-free. SixFifty is available both as a standalone solution and as an integrated offering within Paychex’s HCM platforms. To learn more about how you can make faster, more confident compliance decisions, head to sixfifty.com

Host: Sabrina Baker

Summary

September is the Sunday evening of the business calendar—summer vacations end, executive energy surges, and suddenly every department wants everything finished before December 31st. For small business HR leaders (1–500 employees) operating without a bench of specialists, handling Open Enrollment, 2027 budgeting, and performance reviews all at once can lead straight to severe Q4 burnout.

In this episode of HR Connection, Sabrina breaks down how to move away from telling leadership "we're too busy"—a phrase executives often misread as a lack of time management—and start defining "busy" with concrete calendar data. Learn how to build Quarterly and Annual Roadmaps, translate HR initiatives into "time in weeks," navigate budget requests whether you have a formal HR budget or not, and execute Q4 scrappily without dropping the ball.

Topics include:

• Use a quarterly roadmap to visualize workload and tradeoffs
• Build an annual roadmap to anticipate heavy periods and resource needs
• Create more structure and stronger boundaries around open enrollment
• Connect HR investments directly to time and capacity gained
• Streamline and automate performance review processes
• Avoid changing major HR processes right before launch
• Treat capacity management as a leadership responsibility

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network. 

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.