From lack of budget to overbearing CEOs, there are a host of problems that HR professionals deal with every day. So, what are the red flags to look out for, and how can issues be resolved before they develop?

In this episode, we sit down with Julie Turney, Founder and Chief Impact Architect at HR@Heart Consulting, for a conversation about memorable HR experiences (both good and bad!), and how to create a great company culture.

We also cover how to set boundaries at work, how HR differs from place to place, and why companies and organizations should never be described as “a family.”

Key moments: 

• Whether an employee’s happiness depends on their personal life or professional life
• How to avoid “compassion fatigue”
• How a difficult CEO experience spurred Julie to start HR@Heart Consulting
• Why happiness at work is a journey, not a destination
• Why HR professionals need to be given access to the strategy of the organization
• The importance of picking battles and not “dying on every hill”

Key links:

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/
• Connect with Julie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamjulieturney/

No employee is the same. The evolving needs of employees demand a shift toward holistic support that spans all of life's challenges, from caregiving, to illness, to childcare. This is key to building a healthier, more resilient workforce.

In this episode, we sit down with Derek Lundsten, President and Chief Culture Officer at LifeGuides, for a conversation about the different ways organizations can support their workforce, and what’s missing in their efforts.

We cover the importance of work-life balance, and how important it is for employees to get genuine downtime. Derek also shares how LifeGuides helps people who are going through challenges in their lives, and explains how more and more organizations are proactively addressing the needs of their teams.

Finally, we discuss how to strike the balance between what is good for the business and what is good for the employee, and personal versus employer responsibility when it comes to ensuring wellbeing.

Key moments: 

• How LifeGuides matches people who are going through life challenges with someone who has faced a similar problem
• What methods employers can use to support their employees outside the workforce as well as inside
• Why jobs need to be matched with job descriptions
• Why employees need to be able to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’
• The importance of having a learning budget
• The issues with employers providing benefits that their consultants are selling rather than asking their employees what they want
• Strategies to improve peer-to-peer support, from better listening to enshrining values and mission

Key links:

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/
• Connect with Derek on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dereklundsten/

What’s your worst bad boss story? It seems like everyone’s got one. We expect leaders to provide guidance and make sound decisions, but that’s not always the case, and it can put employees and HR in a tricky position.

In this episode (our first live show!), we sit down with Amy Butler, VP of People Operations at Awardco, and Jared Olsen, VP of People Experience at JobNimbus for a candid discussion about the challenges of poor leadership.

We kick the conversation off by swapping our worst bad boss stories, including a shocking tale of fraud and an unexpected firing during maternity leave. But more importantly, Amy and Jared share the best lessons learned from bad past experiences and how they feed into their approach to people management today.

We cover the importance of good coaching, transparent communication, setting expectations, and much more in this episode. It’s a must-listen for anyone looking to improve leadership at their organization!

Key moments: 

• Our worst bad boss stories and lessons learned
• How a poor onboarding experience inspired Jared’s thorough approach to onboarding today
• Strategies to help employees dealing with poor management
• Why you should build a coaching culture
• Why Amy uses AMAs alongside engagement surveys
• How poor people leaders can repair relationships with employees
• Why transparency and difficult conversations are important
• How responsible is HR for dealing with poor management?

Key links:

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/
• Connect with Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-poll-butler-b13b5291/
• Connect with Jared on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaredolsen/

Do you feel safe to express ideas and opinions at work without the fear of judgment or even punishment?

In today's workplaces, we have a greater understanding of just how important mental wellbeing is to our teams, to us individually, and to our performance. And part of that is driven by our ability to feel safe and supported in the workplace.

In this episode, we explore the important topic of psychological safety with Dr. Vaneeta Sandhu, Head of Operations and Emotional Fitness at Coa. Vaneeta breaks down what psychological safety looks like on an individual, team, and company-wide level, and what organizations can do to improve it. We explore the business case for prioritizing psychological safety and how demonstrating the positive impact on retention, job satisfaction, innovation, and productivity can help you get leadership buy-in to make it a priority.

Key moments: 

• What is psychological safety?
• Tips for effective feedback delivery and the importance of the 5:1 positive to negative feedback ratio
• What organizations can do to boost psychological safety
• The business case for psychological safety and how to get buy-in from leadership
• What leaders get wrong about psychological safety

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/
• Connect with Vaneeta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaneetasandhu/

Imagine stepping into a new job and feeling instantly connected to your company's culture, values, and mission. That's the power of a well-designed onboarding program!

In this episode of HR Unplugged, we dive back into BambooHR's journey to revolutionize our onboarding experience, with insights from Megan Galloway of Everleader, who’s back on the show for a catch-up. As Megan has been helping us revamp the onboarding process at BambooHR, we look at the results in this episode and answer common questions about the challenges of remote onboarding, how to integrate company values, and how to help new hires feel welcome.

We talk about building on company values and how empowered leaders can help new hires hit the ground running and foster stronger connections in the company from day one. There’s plenty of great advice in this episode for improving your own process, so don’t miss it!

Key moments: 

• A recap from our previous conversation in episode 51
• Why BambooHR decided to upgrade its onboarding experience
• How to integrate company values into onboarding
• A framework for a comprehensive onboarding process
• The results from our onboarding changes
• What to do after the formal onboarding process
• Advice for upgrading your own process to make new hires feel welcome and get up to speed quickly

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/
• Tune in to part one of our onboarding discussion with Megan in episode 51: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Read the blog, The Definitive Guide to Onboarding: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/guides/the-definitive-guide-to-onboarding
• Download the ebook, The Definitive Guide to Onboarding: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/ebooks/guide-to-onboarding

What does effective leadership look like when it feels like there’s never enough time to do all the things that HR leaders need to do?

In this episode of HR Unplugged, host Anita Grantham sits down with Johnny C. Taylor Jr., President and CEO of SHRM, to explore the critical elements of leadership. We investigate some of the overlooked traits that make good leaders great, like empathy and courage, and how the expectations of modern leaders have changed.

We tackle key topics like how leaders can balance celebrating the diversity of opinion in the workplace with managing conflict. Johnny brings some great insights to the table on the importance of civility in the face of disagreements and how leaders can take an active approach to make sure people are culturally aligned on what matters most. We hear some of Johnny’s methods for dealing with conflicting opinions, how he screens candidates during talent acquisition, and what he believes are the top three Cs of successful HR leadership.

Key moments: 

• Why empathy is an overlooked but core skill for leaders
• How to create a culture of civility
• How to ensure cultural alignment during the hiring process
• The importance of establishing boundaries and company culture
• Johnny’s framework for dealing with conflicting opinions

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/

With job interviews, we’re always on the lookout for that gold star candidate. But how do you spot them in a sea of applications? Nailing your interviewing process and asking the right questions are key, but there’s an art (and some science) to getting it right.

In this episode, we sit down with Brandon Welch, Head of Recruiting at BambooHR, to get his take on what makes a great interview and how to plan discussions with candidates that help you get to know who you’re potentially hiring.

Brandon, Anita, and Vanessa share their favorite questions to ask at an interview and how to get candidates to paint a picture of their experience, skills, and on-the-spot thinking. We look at how interviewing processes differ for different types of roles, how long interviews should take, and why giving candid feedback is a must (especially for internal hires!). Brandon also shares his thoughts on personality tests and how to use scorecard data to assess candidate suitability.

Key moments: 

• How to balance consistency in interviews with leaving space for hiring managers to add their own style
• The top things people get wrong in the interview process
• Why job titles alone don’t tell us enough about a person’s experience
• The best interview questions to pinpoint top talent
• How to use personality tests the right way
• How hiring managers can prep candidates for interviews
• Why giving feedback and being intentional about the candidate's experience is so important
• How to determine the right amount of time for an interview

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/

How effective is a personal improvement plan (PIP) really?

PIPs have a bad rap, with some people seeing them as a formality before the inevitable firing. But they can be an invaluable tool in helping to raise and nurture performance across an organization if you get them right. 58% of people on average see an improvement after getting a PIP. But with such a huge percentage of people seeing poor results, how do you make sure your PIP approach is successful?

Anita Grantham and Vanessa Brulotte dive into the tricky world of PIPs and performance management in this episode. They explore how we can reframe the purpose and perception of PIPs in an organization, how to manage performance effectively, and the common pitfalls to avoid. We hear why context and communication are key and why PIPs should be a two-way street, with clear expectations of leaders and a more collaborative approach to working toward goals.

Key moments: 

• Why PIPs sometimes fail
• Different approaches to performance improvement
• How to set the right expectations for both teammates and leaders
• Ways to maintain momentum in personal development
• What leaders can do to make sure improvement plans are a success
• Alternatives and things you should do before using a PIP
• How to deal with leaders who don’t want to improve performance

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/

Did you know that 45% of employees say they’re more likely to stay in a role if they get training opportunities? And yet, training and development for employees isn’t always a priority for managers. Sometimes it’s seen as unnecessary, low-priority, or simply too costly. So what can HR leaders do to help managers prioritize a culture of learning?

In this episode of HR Unplugged, we explore the vital role of training in not only enhancing skills and job satisfaction, but also improving retention and hiring across the organization. Throughout the episode, Anita and Vanessa explore ways HR can collaborate with leaders to create impactful training programs and how to identify the most worthwhile opportunities for training.

We also cover how to foster a culture of continuous learning, training opportunities for HR leaders, and how to implement training with a low budget.

Key moments: 

• Why learning and development is so important for businesses and employees
• How HR can help managers identify training opportunities
• Balancing individual career goals with business goals
• How to encourage a culture of continuous learning
• Ideas for training with a low budget
• Training opportunities for HR leaders
• How to build a talent development program

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/

How can HR deal with workplace conflict without turning the office into a mini battleground? Conflict is a natural part of the human experience, naturally spilling into our working lives. In this episode of HR Unplugged, we hear why the solution isn’t to avoid conflict but to deal with it in a healthy, professional way.

Joining the episode is John Barrand, Chief HR Officer of the Utah Division of Human Resource Management, who introduces us to Utah’s innovative “Disagree Better” campaign from Governor Spencer Cox, which offers a great framework for handling conflict in the workplace.

This episode explores the delicate balance between too little and too much conflict, with John noting that a little tension can illuminate important issues within an organization. Throughout the conversation, John, Anita, and Vanessa discuss practical strategies for addressing different types of disagreements.

Whether you're managing a team of 22,000 like John or leading a smaller group, this episode offers actionable advice on creating a culture of healthy disagreement and open communication.

Key moments: 

• What the “Disagree Better” initiative involves
• How to tie company mission and values into conflict resolution
• Why organizations should give back to employees and help them grow
• Why cynicism leads to burnout and how to solve it
• Why service and gratitude are important to encourage

Key links: 

• Subscribe to HR Unplugged Series: https://www.bamboohr.com/resources/podcasts/hr-unplugged/
• Join HR Heroes Slack Community: https://join.slack.com/t/hrheroesworkspace/shared_invite/zt-21ad3f1r8-dkWC2EdmyhxUAHw9cGLdQw/
• Bamboo HR Homepage: https://www.bamboohr.com/
• Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnpeterbarrand/