HR Mixtape

Revenue growth is the metric every business celebrates. Record quarters become press releases, and the top line becomes a proxy for health. But when the revenue line on a P&L keeps climbing while the profit line doesn't, growth stops being a sign of success and starts functioning as a cover story.

Ben Hansen, CEO of Profit Doctor and founder of an 8-figure staffing firm, built a team of over 100 employees in eight years while maintaining profitable growth. He now works with companies earning between $2 and $50 million in annual revenue, and most see meaningful profit improvements within 12 weeks.

In this episode, he covers:

Timestamps

[00:00:37] Defining profititis: when top-line revenue is strong but net profitability is weak, declining, or sick

[00:01:25] Why growth often hides profit problems rather than solving them, and what owners typically deprioritize in the process

[00:03:14] The most common root cause of profititis: serving customers and offering products outside your core sweet spot

[00:04:37] A cyclical approach to balancing innovation with staying in your profitable lane

[00:05:42] Why people spend hurts profitability at two levels: payroll growth rate and the quality and fit of talent

[00:08:28] Why HR should do the cost-benefit analysis on every program before walking into the cost-cutting meeting

[00:09:35] Ben's approach with his own 100-person team: asking employees whether they'd rather have higher salary or richer benefits

[00:12:19] Why incentivizing managers on revenue while hoping they'll protect profit guarantees misaligned behavior

[00:14:05] Translating a financial target into a metric the whole team can act on: the revenue-per-labor-hour example

[00:19:27] The construction company that went from break-even for 20 years to 20%+ net profit in nine months by communicating labor budgets

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: Ben Hansen, Profit Doctor, profititis, profit margins, revenue growth, cost-benefit analysis, HR cost-cutting, employee compensation, talent quality, incentive alignment, middle management, nonprofit finance, mission-driven organizations, payroll efficiency, P&L management, contribution margin, labor productivity, cost reduction, business profitability, workforce metrics

Most CHROs have a fraud problem they didn't sign up for. Deepfakes in video interviews. Synthetic IDs at the application stage. AI-generated credentials that pass every automated screen. Only 31% of CHROs say they're confident in their ability to prevent hiring fraud, and the technology making it easier gets more sophisticated every quarter.

Nik Daruwala, Vice President of Sales at Checkr, has spent 21 years in B2B technology sales, including thousands of direct conversations with HR leaders trying to protect their hiring funnels without losing speed. Checkr powers background verification for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart, and was the first API in the background check industry.

In this episode, he covers:

https://thehrmixtape.com/episodes/trust-at-speed-hiring-fraud-deepfakes-and-the-identity-risks-chros-cant-ignore-with-nik-daruwala

Timestamps

[00:00:39] Context: this conversation was recorded live at the Checkr booth at SHRM 2026

[00:01:01] How enterprise hiring changed over 24 years: global sourcing, the normalization of remote hiring, and why the explosion of application volume made quality screening harder

[00:02:50] The CHRO anxiety most people aren't talking about: making sure candidates throughout the funnel are actually who they claim to be

[00:04:13] Only 31% of CHROs have confidence in their ability to prevent hiring fraud, and why the AI tools now available to candidates are changing that threat surface fast

[00:04:39] The three identity threats CHROs weren't trained for: deepfakes in interviews, synthetic IDs at the application stage, and AI-generated credentials that pass automated screens

[00:06:44] Why most organizations are reactive on hiring fraud, and the parallel to the early days of cybersecurity: you don't prioritize it until you have your first incident

[00:08:42] Where fraud actually shows up across the hiring funnel: application, interview, background check, and continuously post-hire

[00:09:41] The speed-versus-compliance trade-off is a false choice, and why the best hiring programs don't ask their teams to make it

[00:13:27] Nik on what it actually means for trust to be a competitive advantage, and why that should be the north star for every hiring program

[00:16:00] The two-to-three year horizon: AI automating talent sourcing and administrative tasks, continuous monitoring as table stakes, and why the hiring decision stays human

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: hiring fraud, background checks, identity verification, deepfakes, synthetic IDs, AI-generated credentials, CHRO priorities, talent pipeline security, hiring at scale, continuous monitoring, background screening, hiring compliance, HR technology, Checkr, credential fraud, HR risk management, fraud prevention, remote hiring risk, AI in hiring, talent operations

When performance problems show up at work, most organizations respond by adding something: a new policy, more training, another initiative. But those problems usually aren't what they look like. What gets logged as a performance issue is often a nervous system response to culture, and no policy fixes a nervous system.

Shenandoah Chefalo, Trauma Informed Systems Change Consultant at Chefalo Consulting and author of Garbage Bag Suitcase, has spent 20+ years helping organizations apply what we know about trauma to how they lead, drawing on both rigorous research in adverse childhood experiences and her own experience aging out of foster care at 18.

In this episode, she covers:

Timestamps

[00:01:40] Shenandoah's personal story: 50 moves, 35 schools, and self-reporting into foster care at 13 with the hope of an Annie ending

[00:04:00] Aging out at 18 mid-senior year, hiding her foster care background, and taking eight years to finish her undergrad degree

[00:05:22] How 20+ years of organizational culture change work grew out of lived experience and timing with the adverse childhood experience research

[00:07:37] A corrections officer's observation that reframed everything: "It's hard to know who the bars are holding in"

[00:08:05] Every organization says it wants emotionally intelligent employees, but almost no organization wants to talk about feelings at work

[00:10:20] What looks like a performance problem is usually a nervous system problem caused by the culture, not the individual

[00:11:31] Why modeling repair work is the most powerful thing a leader can do to maintain trust and keep small things from becoming big ones

[00:13:19] The transparency framework for building felt safety: share what you know, what you don't, what's decided today, and what needs to come back

[00:15:11] The critical difference between feeling unsafe ("if I say this I might get fired") and feeling uncomfortable ("I have something hard to say")

[00:19:01] The community meeting practice from Dr. Sandra Bloom: three questions that normalize emotional check-ins so hard conversations stop being exceptional

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: trauma-informed leadership, felt safety, psychological safety, repair work, culture change, nervous system regulation, community meeting practice, adverse childhood experiences, burnout prevention, employee retention, middle manager development, mental health at work, transparency in leadership, workplace wellbeing, accountability, HR leadership, Shenandoah Chefalo, Chefalo Consulting, Garbage Bag

Most change initiatives fail not because the strategy was wrong but because the communication didn't move anyone. HR leaders deliver their message, check the box, and wonder why nothing shifted. The problem almost never lives in the data. It lives in the absence of story.

Mary Czarnecki, Brand Messaging Consultant at Mary Czarnecki LLC, spent more than two decades in marketing and strategy at Johnson & Johnson, WebMD, and Accenture before building a practice that trains leaders at Fortune 500 companies to use story as a practical tool for influence and organizational change.

In this episode, she covers:

Timestamps

[00:00:16] What it means to help leaders turn ideas into influence, and why storytelling is the vehicle

[00:01:49] Why change initiatives fail because of communication, not strategy, and how story closes that gap

[00:02:31] The first step in storytelling most leaders skip: identifying what someone isn't getting before finding a story

[00:04:11] What the HR Story Advantage actually means, and why knowing the facts about a habit doesn't create the habit

[00:07:47] How to find the right story when you're the messenger, not the creator of the message

[00:09:43] Balancing transparency and oversharing: the audience-centric gut check that keeps stories from backfiring

[00:12:47] The bad perm story: a client example of how a personal, humble story got an entire sales team to bring their own stories

[00:16:42] Where AI helps with storytelling and the one trap to avoid when using it

[00:18:10] The most common communication mistake leaders make today: building a message without putting yourself in the audience's shoes first

[00:19:29] The treasure trove habit: why the best communicators don't find stories on demand, they collect them over time

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: storytelling, leadership communication, change management, HR strategy, influence without authority, organizational change, internal communication, narrative, employee engagement, communication skills, HR leadership, people strategy, trust building, audience-centric communication, Mary Czarnecki, behavior change, change communication, HR story advantage, story structure, workplace storytelling

Most organizations assume they have resilient teams. What they actually have, in a lot of cases, are teams that have gotten good at tolerating hard things. The two aren't the same, and the gap becomes visible the moment something real changes.

Aaron Golub, founder of Aaron Golub Consulting, made history as the first legally blind Division I athlete to play in a Division I game, serving as team captain at Tulane University before signing with the NFL as a free agent. He's been translating that lived experience into leadership development work since the age of 17.

In this episode, he covers:

• Why acceptance is the prerequisite to any real change, and how skipping it is the reason most leadership development doesn't stick

• How to read what each person on your team actually needs, and why applying the same leadership approach to everyone is the core mistake

• Why the next generation of leaders is too comfortable, and what that costs organizations when pressure finally arrives

Timestamps

[00:00:16] Aaron Golub's origin story: how becoming the first legally blind Division I athlete became a leadership framework, not just a personal victory

[00:01:10] Why the football story is the vehicle, not the point, and how Aaron translates a personal resilience model into organizational change

[00:02:16] The acceptance principle: why you can't form new perspectives around a challenge you haven't first acknowledged as real

[00:03:57] What leading a Division I football team taught Aaron about the danger of applying one leadership style to every person

[00:06:48] Why every engagement starts with a needs assessment, and why skipping it makes the work ineffective regardless of how good the content is

[00:08:18] Gratitude-based leadership: why positivity and negativity both spread through an organization, and the four-step framework that gets you there

[00:11:00] Why inclusion starts with asking, not assuming, and the airport wheelchair story that shows what happens when you don't

[00:13:10] Aaron's case against automatic visual descriptions in meetings, and why well-intentioned practices can create the tension they're meant to prevent

[00:17:14] Why the next generation of leaders is too comfortable, and what organizations lose because of it

[00:20:42] Aaron's final takeaway: reframing "I can't" to "I haven't been able to yet," and why the language shift is the strategy

Guest Bio

Aaron Golub is a professional speaker, entrepreneur, and consultant who specializes in helping to shatter perceived limitations. He made history as the first legally blind Division I athlete to play in a game, serving as a team captain at Tulane University before moving on to the NFL as a free agent. After his story captured the national spotlight on Good Morning America, Aaron realized his journey wasn't just about football, it was a blueprint for resilience. Since the age of 17, he has traveled the globe delivering high-impact strategies that challenge teams to rethink their "impossible" and take immediate action. Aaron doesn't just deliver a keynote and leave; he is a dedicated partner who works alongside leadership to implement lasting change and ensure insights turn into results.

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

paylocity.com

Keywords

resilience, limiting beliefs, leadership development, gratitude-based leadership, inclusion, disability in the workplace, people management, team building, change management, performance management, employee engagement, psychological safety, workplace culture, HR strategy, personal development, adversity, blind athlete, resilient teams, organizational change, discomfort

Most organizations solve the wrong problem when they go global. They get the infrastructure right, find the talent, and figure out the cost model. Then the offshore team quietly drifts from the core org, and nobody quite knows why.

Ingo Piroth, Chief Revenue Officer at Emapta, has spent 30 years in global delivery and workforce transformation working with enterprise clients across multiple continents. His framework for what actually makes offshore teams succeed goes well beyond the basics.

In this episode, he covers:

Timestamps

[00:00:54] Why culture is now the key differentiator in outsourcing, after infrastructure, talent, and cost barriers have largely been solved

[00:02:05] How to design cultural integration from scratch using shared rituals, communication channels, and recognition of local cultural moments

[00:03:04] Real examples of shared identity: embracing Philippine Christmas in September and Colombian Semana Santa alongside US holidays

[00:04:05] The biggest planning mistake leaders make when setting up offshore teams, and why treating it as cost arbitrage guarantees trouble

[00:06:02] Why "treat offshore like it's your core business" is the philosophy that makes the mechanics of distributed work actually function

[00:08:26] Time zones as a design challenge, not a barrier: intentional overlap by function, async communication, and protecting personal time

[00:09:28] Why recognition has to be personal, not procedural, and why global employee-of-the-month programs fall flat

[00:13:08] The first-30-day playbook for global teams: why speed of clarity determines speed of performance

[00:15:05] Why global talent wants careers, not just roles, and what succession planning actually looks like in an offshore environment

[00:19:58] The biggest myth about offshore talent, and why companies that treat offshore as strategic consistently outperform those that don't

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: global workforce, outsourcing, offshoring, distributed teams, workforce transformation, cultural integration, global talent, HR leadership, people strategy, recognition, succession planning, offshore teams, cross-cultural management, employee engagement, retention, global delivery, talent management, culture design, time zone management, Emapta

In most industries, culture lives in your annual engagement survey. In hospitality, it walks out to the dining room every single night. It shows up in how your server handles a difficult table, in the energy at the host stand, and in whether your team feels taken care of or just managed.

Donna Giarratana, Director of Human Resources at Baldi Management Group and founder of MoxeeHR, LLC, has built people-first HR systems across some of the country's most demanding hospitality environments, including the three-Michelin-star Inn at Little Washington and the José Andrés Group.

In this episode, she shares what actually moves the needle:

Timestamps

[00:01:03] Donna's origin story: from hostess to HR leader in hospitality

[00:01:24] Why culture shows up differently in hospitality than in knowledge work environments

[00:01:53] The parallel between what guests and employees both want: to feel seen, acknowledged, and cared for

[00:03:41] Debunking myths about leading restaurant teams across multiple generations

[00:06:05] What "pouring into your people" actually looks like in daily restaurant operations

[00:08:10] Building attendance policies that balance compliance requirements with human compassion

[00:12:41] How to develop managers on the spot when desk-based training isn't realistic

[00:15:57] Early burnout signals to watch before turnover becomes a problem, including the "clopen" pattern

[00:19:11] How engagement needs differ significantly between lifers and newer team members

[00:22:11] Donna's single takeaway for every hospitality leader today

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: hospitality HR, high-turnover workforce, people-first culture, restaurant management, attendance policy, progressive discipline, manager development, employee engagement, generational workforce, lifers, onboarding, retention, burnout prevention, clopens, EAP resources, compliance, workforce planning, cultural transformation

Most organizations treat meetings as the default answer to everything, but that's costing you more than you think. Rebecca Hinds, Head of the Work AI Institute at Glean, researcher, and author of YOUR BEST MEETING EVER, brings a product design mindset to the most expensive form of collaboration in your org. She shares how to spot meeting dysfunction, use AI to audit your calendar, and make intentional changes that actually stick.

In this episode:

• Why meetings have become the 'junk drawer' of organizational communication, and how visibility bias keeps the habit alive.

• How to use return on time investment (ROTI) scoring, meeting minimalism, and shared language to redesign your meeting culture.

• The role AI and data play in building the business case for calendar reform, especially with a skeptical C-suite.

Timestamps

[00:01:10] Why Rebecca went all-in on meeting research and the psychology of visibility bias.

[00:02:19] The meeting junk drawer: why meetings become the default for everything.

[00:04:39] Treating meetings like a product, including the concept of meeting debt.

[00:06:26] Return on time investment (ROTI): a data-driven way to rate your meetings.

[00:08:16] How leadership buy-in determines how boldly you can reform your calendar.

[00:08:56] Using AI to build meeting calculators and get C-suite buy-in.

[00:10:52] Making the business case by anchoring on what the most powerful person cares about.

[00:13:54] Building psychological safety so people feel empowered to flag bad meetings.

[00:16:36] Shared language for meeting dysfunction, including Meeting Doomsday and meeting minimalism.

[00:21:05] The one thing every leader can do this week: intentional design across four meeting dimensions.

Guest Bio

Rebecca Hinds is the author of YOUR BEST MEETING EVER, a leading expert on organizational behavior and the future of work, founder of the Work Innovation Lab at Asana and the Work AI Institute at Glean. She holds a BS, MS, and PhD from Stanford University. Her research is consistently featured in top-tier publications like Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Wired, and more. She is a trusted advisor to companies navigating the challenges of modern work, from meeting overload and hybrid dysfunction to the messy realities of AI adoption and organizational change.

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: meetings, meeting culture, organizational behavior, future of work, meeting debt, return on time investment, psychological safety, AI, calendar reform, Meeting Doomsday, meeting minimalism, collaboration, HR leadership, Rebecca Hinds, HR Mixtape

Most high performers don't get passed over because of what they know. They get passed over because of how they lead. In this episode, Dr. Bushra Khan makes the case that emotional intelligence isn't a soft skill, it's the strategic operating system every leader needs right now, especially as AI reshapes what work looks like.

In this conversation, she breaks down:

Timestamps

[00:00:42] Emotional intelligence as the operating system for the future of work

[00:02:30] Why 'soft skills' is out — and 'strategic skills' is in

[00:03:10] How technical experts plateau: the real meaning of 'not strategic enough'

[00:05:47] What 'be more strategic' is actually code for

[00:07:26] Micromanagement as a symptom of not knowing how to teach others

[00:09:09] The Peter Principle in action: when great individual contributors struggle to lead

[00:12:19] Why title doesn't equal influence — and what builds rapport instead

[00:16:55] Integrity in leadership: what it looks like when leaders actually walk the walk

[00:17:15] How to give feedback that makes people better, not defensive

[00:19:57] Measuring emotional intelligence: the KPI framework most orgs are missing

Guest Bio: Dr. Bushra Khan is a founder, educator, and leadership expert with over 15 years of experience in organizational development and adult learning. With a doctorate in Educational Leadership, deep research in emotional intelligence alongside global experts, and the creation of a top-rated executive leadership program (clients include Google, Government of Canada, and ERCOT), her impact is both measurable and deeply human.

Dr. Khan helps high-performing professionals strengthen their strategic capabilities, lead with integrity, turn their expertise into meaningful influence, and shape their leadership philosophy. She describes her work as a calm, compelling signal in the noise — a space where leaders come for clarity, rising professionals see possibility, and organizations recognize that emotional intelligence isn't a nice-to-have: it's the operating system for the future of work.

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: emotional intelligence, EQ, leadership, strategic skills, soft skills, HR leadership, performance management, people management, coaching, micromanagement, influence, integrity, feedback, AI and leadership, KPIs, organizational culture, future of work, Dr. Bushra Khan, HR Mixtape, Paylocity

What does it really take to hire and retain people across a workforce that's part office, part shop floor? Jason Lerner, HR Director at Groundwater Treatment and Technology, has spent his career doing exactly that. He's grown his current company from fewer than 300 employees to more than 500 across six states, and he's cracked the code on attracting, developing, and keeping talent in grey industries, where blue-collar and white-collar work exist side by side.

In this episode, Jason and Dr. Shari Simpson dig into the skills gap hiding in plain sight, why Gen Z is more suited for grey-collar work than most people think, and how accountability is actually a retention tool, not a threat.

Key takeaways:

• Why candidates with non-traditional backgrounds may be your best hire, and how to screen for it in the interview.

• How to build clear career paths that satisfy Gen Z's need for growth without overpromising.

• Why holding people accountable is one of the best things you can do for your top performers.

Timestamps

[00:00:00] Intro from The HR Mixtape announcer

[00:00:41] Jason's non-traditional path: from sales to childcare to HR

[00:03:10] Defining grey industries and why they matter right now

[00:04:39] Skills transfer: helping candidates see their own potential

[00:05:09] Real example of a shop employee who moved into engineering

[00:08:35] Reformatting the interview process for non-traditional candidates

[00:09:41] Taking candidates on a PPE tour before making an offer

[00:11:23] Succession planning and why Gen Z fits into grey industries

[00:13:32] Setting expectations and using accountability as a retention tool

[00:17:00] Why credibility in the shop matters as much as HR expertise

Guest Bio

Motivating teams, building consensus, and creating a culture of honest and open communication are the tenets that have defined Jason Lerner's professional life. With a nuanced understanding of human behavior and a high degree of emotional intelligence, Jason leads by example and champions the performance and success of his team.

Adept at transforming ideas into actionable programs and breaking down complex concepts into understandable parts, Jason is known as an agent of change and an executive who gets things done. He currently leads the HR function for a privately held transportation and logistics company, overseeing its expansion from fewer than 300 to more than 500 employees across six states.

Committed to positioning HR as a strategic business partner, Jason collaborates with finance and executive leaders to advance the mission of the organization.

Brought to You by Paylocity

Paylocity is the fastest growing unified platform for HR, Finance, and IT. Paylocity brings your people, processes, and data together in one place so HR leaders can spend less time managing systems and more time doing the work that actually moves their organizations forward. Learn more at paylocity.com

Keywords: grey industries, blue-collar hiring, white-collar hiring, workforce development, Gen Z retention, skills transfer, non-traditional candidates, succession planning, accountability, HR strategy, career pathing, grey-collar work, employee retention, interview process