We were delighted to chat with the wonderful Melanie Naranjo for our Scaling Stories podcast. NYC-based Melanie is the VP of People at compliance training platform Ethena. Our conversation covered some fascinating HR terrain – from bias to burnout – at a time when companies are having to work harder to win the hearts and minds of workers.

Ethena’s mission, according to Melanie, is to “create more inclusive and ethical workplaces”, which inspires its innovative approach to harassment prevention training. Ethena embrace a human-centred approach, using everything from jokes to comic strips – not videos that “look like it was recorded in the 80s” – to ultimately deliver “compliance trainings that actually work”.

“I literally joined my company because of our harassment prevention training, which just so happens to be the product we put out,” Melanie explains.

Melanie is a smart and progressive people leader, and one theme we touched on was the scourge of credentialism in making hiring decisions.

“Bias leads to bias,” Melanie says, and described how too many company leaders undervalue the diverse experiences of non-graduates, including workers with experience in sectors like retail. Melanie says she has “all the empathy in the world” for candidates who feel embarrassed about putting their retail experience on LinkedIn, and thinks some recruiters may be missing a trick.

“The reality is, if you’re applying for a sales role, if you’re applying for a customer service role, even if you’re applying for an HR role, there are absolutely transferable skills that come from years in the retail world, right?”

Perhaps it underlines the importance of writing clear and inclusive job descriptions that don’t turn off promising candidates from non-corporate working backgrounds. Afterall, why should a promising candidate be dissuaded from applying because they’ve got four years’ experience rather than five? “We’re very clear about what's a requirement and what is not,” Melanie says regarding job descriptions.

Meanwhile, on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Melanie says it should “never be looked at in a silo”. Instead, DEI should be “woven into every piece of everything you do from recruiting to performance reviews, to core philosophy and growth structure”.

Finally, Melanie has some refreshing takes on resisting the “pressure to force your employees to have fun”. So, if you’re planning on booking the next team-building away day on an inflatable golf course – think again.

There were lots of great insights from Melanie, so head over to Scaling Stories and have a listen!