People Analytics

In this episode, Kimberly Marolda, Director of HR at Hamilton Thorne Inc., stresses the need for community building in the workplace to ensure a safe and reliable work environment. She speaks on the importance of face-to-face interactions, creating a welcoming space, and knowing colleagues' personalities. By fostering connections with team members, managers can support personal and professional growth.

Kimberly Marolda is an accomplished HR professional with experience in diverse industries, including healthcare, retail, logistics, and fine jewelry. She has a proven track record of driving organizational success through strategic HR initiatives, employee engagement, talent management, and operational efficiency. Currently serving as the Director of Human Resources at Hamilton Thorne Inc, Kimberly is dedicated to delivering innovative solutions and fostering collaboration in the assisted reproduction community. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• Soft skills build connections within the organization.
• Blurred boundaries in work and life have led to an increase in emotional intelligence and wellness programs.
• Building a sense of community is essential in achieving work goals.
• Facetoface interactions are crucial in developing relationships and trust.
• Allowing moments of silence in meetings fosters thoughtfulness and consideration.
• Vulnerability and nonjudgmental behavior are key to creating a safe and supportive workplace.
• Good communication and team building are critical to achieving goals and overcoming obstacles.

Resources:

• Hamilton Thorne Inc.
• StaffGeek 

Connecting with Kimberly Marolda:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Lindsay Patton:

• LinkedIn 
• Email

Quotables:

• 02:07 - One focuses on those softer skills, building the connections with team members and members of the group as a whole, outside of your own team if you manage one. But you have to make connections with everybody within the organization. And having those softer skills and those abilities to make, build relationships and ask questions that encourage people to open up. That was really important to, to have as an HR profession, a skill set.
• 25:14 - So learning about who people are and what they do and allowing moments of silence to happen in meetings allows for thoughtfulness and consideration. And I think it's really important to really understand who everybody is as a human. Both not, you know, inside the workplace, most importantly, and to some degree outside of the workplace. So you can understand a little bit more about who they are.
• 05:09 -  You know, in my career I've come across, you know, people that, you know, want to get to know me, want to understand how to help. And then I've come across people who are like, you need to leave your issues and your emotions at home. Do not bring them here. Do not tell me about it. Do your job. So, you know, do you see a, a transition from more of the hard structure?
• 12:44 - Lindsay: And it's really, really amazing to see what happens when people come together. You know? Absolutely. A common cause whether that's a child's well-being or, you know, in the workplace.. Kimberly: Because it feels more, it feels selfless and less like work if you've, if you're engaging in a way where you want to contribute, and you want to support, and you want to help and provide a foundation that, that people can rely on, I think that that is so self-fulfilling as well.
• 11:07 - Lindsay: And there's also in families, I feel like there's that rule of, like, you don't disrespect adults or elders. You treat or you always treat them with respect. But you know if someone's disrespecting you, you have the right to stand up to that because you're… Kimberly: Not a family. Exactly. So I like to use the term community instead because I feel like that helps set more boundaries, but it also focuses on building an engaging a pool of people that are all gathered together for a common purpose, a common goal, and they have a shared set amount of time. This is the project we're working on, this is the amount of time it's going to take to push through this.

In this episode, Leeza Klimetz, Director of Human Resources at TAPPI, discusses breaking the stigma in HR by embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace. She emphasizes understanding employees' needs, creating a total rewards package that is inclusive and attractive, and supporting DEI from the top down. Clements encourages HR professionals to listen to their staff and advocate for and support them. The pandemic has helped organizations recognize the needs of workers and the importance of empathetic leadership in humanizing the workplace and recognizing employees.

Leeza Klimetz is the Director of Human Resources at TAPPI, a global association serving the pulp, paper, packaging, and converting industries. She has spearheaded the development of a comprehensive wellness program, prioritizing the health and well-being of staff members. With a focus on strategic goals, safety protocols, and diversity initiatives, Leeza has made a significant impact in her role, creating a positive and thriving work environment. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• Solo HR professionals need to learn how to prioritize and lean on third party resources.
• Diversity and inclusion go beyond race and culture, and companies need to walk the walk.
• Understanding employees' needs and communicating in a way that works for them is key.
• Breaking the stigma in HR by advocating for employees' happiness and growth.
• Creating a total rewards package that is inclusive and tailored to employees' needs and wants.
• Supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion from the top down by having a diverse leadership team and diverse speakers at conferences.
• Listening to employees and adapting to their changing needs and wants.

Resources:

• TAPPI
• StaffGeek 

Connecting with Leeza Klimetz:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Lindsay Patton:

• LinkedIn 
• Email

Quotables:

• 03:19 - “That's one part of HR that I love, is that it is always changing. I'm a lifelong learner, so I am constantly growing my professional development, personal development and hopefully sharing that with my leadership and my staff as well. But yeah, you have to figure out what fits with your team, and that may change tomorrow. And you just have to keep on top of that and understand how you can keep the company flowing.”
• 06:13 - “And I think that if anyone is starting their DNI education, whether it's personally or in the corporate world, you need to really understand that and dig deep into each category. You know, it's not just about race and culture, it's about gender, sexual orientation, military status, disability age. And really from a corporate standpoint, figuring out how you can make your workplace inclusive for all of those people from the top down.”
• 09:13 - “And I know one thing that you really are passionate about is humanizing the workplace and leading with empathy. Empathy. And you can't do that without getting to know the people that you are working with.”
• 10:42 - “That is so important because, you know, I remember when, when I was a leader, like I would offer, you know, the people that I was working with, opportunities that I may have wanted, but they're not me. So those opportunities, that gave them a little bit of anxiety.”
• 08:40 Lindsay: “But someone who's doing more of that work that you need focus in your eyes on, they're not able to access their phone or email right away. So how do you kind of find a balance for communication?” 

Leeza: “Yeah. You have to, to really figure out your staff and what, and that's with everything, you know, even outside of communication, but what, what fits with them? Do you, you know, maybe phone communication for this employee is great and email communication, but then there are employees that you need to be face-to-face with and have more of a hands-on role with them.”

In this episode, Vytelle's Director of Human Resources, Lynn Lobe, discusses her unique journey to HR leadership and the significance of empathy and opportunity in the workplace, the strategies and challenges involved in building an HR department from scratch, and managing global mobility, and the opportunities that combining her passion for animal science and HR provides beyond traditional roles.

Lynn Lobe is the Director of Human Resources at Vytelle, a precision livestock company reshaping how cattle producers worldwide optimize their herds. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• The importance of surrounding oneself with people who know more and not being afraid to tackle new opportunities.
• Why building an HR department requires prioritization and support from others.
• Why change management skills are required to overhaul an established HR program.
• How preventing fires in the workplace involves listening to employees and being flexible in processes.
• How increasing global mobility requires automation, fair and equitable approaches, and project management skills.

Resources:

• Vytelle
• StaffGeek 

Connecting with Lynn Lobe:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Lindsay Patton:

• LinkedIn 
• Email

Quotables:

• 04:33 – “So we recently had a guest who is a champion for veterans in the workplace, and she shared information that is so important for other people leaders to understand is that veterans have a very unique skill set.”
• 11:26 – “Something I really love about your journey is the importance of opportunity and giving people opportunity because I know that you were asked to put some foundational bricks into place, and that's a huge opportunity and also can be very overwhelming.”
• 20:27 – “I think it's just also having the exposure to some really good project managers. I'm not a project manager expert. I've been able and fortunate enough to work alongside some, and I think that's where that sense of order comes into play. It's like, okay, how can you strategically map this out so that this entropy that you've got going on can now be put into a scope that has a workflow to it.”
• 22:05 – “So how do the voices collectively come together in a way that then you've got a platform to say, this isn't working, so what can we fix? And then now there's going to be entropy. How do we project manage this? And that's the kind of the issue, right? I mean, there can be a lot of cooks in this kitchen and in this endeavor. How do you do it so it's fair and equitable, and doable? 
• 25:36 – “And I think that the universe puts people in our pathway for a reason. And sometimes we see those, and there's clarity around that, and sometimes not. But ultimately, you get somebody in my role, you get the ability to touch somebody, an impact for the positive in every situation that you can work in.” 

In this episode, Blue Acorn iCi’s Chief People Officer, Erica Rooney, talks about how companies can create a positive workplace culture, why inclusivity is important for business success, and how to build trust with your employees.

Erica Rooney is the Chief People Officer at Blue Acorn iCi, a trailblazing digital customer experience company that is revolutionizing the landscape of analytics, digital commerce, customer experience, and experience-driven commerce offerings. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• Who inclusivity is for in the workplace.
• The importance of building trust with new employees.
• How to create a culture of openness and accountability.
• How Covid-19 affected women in the workforce.
• The ways Covid-19 impacted the gender pay gap.
• Why women negotiate their salaries less than men do.
• Why companies need equal pay policies and women in leadership positions.

Resources:

• Blue Acorn iCi
• StaffGeek 

Connect with Erica Rooney:

• LinkedIn

Connect with the Host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/lindsaypatton/
• Lindsay Patton by Email – [email protected]

Quotables:

• 01:45 – “I am what I like to call a gender equality crusader, and I am very passionate about bringing more women into positions of power but also keeping them there. And I'm very passionate about that because I'm a woman in a position of power. So I'm very familiar with the hardships and the things that we're up against that men are not, you know, we walk through the world very differently than men do. We have to lead differently than men do. We cannot act the same way they do in corporate America. It will not get us to the same places. And we also have not caught, society has not caught up to the fact that women are in these positions of power. So there are so many people out there, especially in my generation and in generations before and slightly after me, that we still have these societal expectations that we are running the household full-time, but now we're also working full-time and that hasn't caught up yet.”
• 03:47 – “And the truth is, we are burning out. We are expected to take care of the homes, do all of the caregiving. We are now entering into that realm where we have aging parents and young kids. This is known as the sales generation. So even if you don't have kids, you are still taking care of your ailing parents, perhaps. So there is care taking somewhere, and all of that falls to the women. It doesn't fall to the men. And so we are having to manage our high power jobs and manage everything else in the home, and the workplace policies and cultures are not caught up with that yet.”
• 25:18 – “When women start new jobs, new careers, we give ourselves this unrealistic expectation of being perfect. Yeah. Case in point, we don't apply for the jobs unless we meet a hundred percent of the criteria. Okay. Men apply for the jobs like at 64% or something wild like that. You know, they're just like, yeah, I'm going to throw my name in the hat. So we go into these positions with this unrealistic expectation that we put on ourselves to be perfect, and then we beat ourselves up over it, and then we don't like to own the mistakes. Right. Whereas men just come charging in with this like, I'm a badass mentality, I'm going to rock it out. We need to harness more of that.”
• 27:47 – “Covid-19 hit, we all thought it was going to be two weeks. It was not two weeks. Yeah. People had to quickly assess their situations and pivot their lives. Do I need to stay home and work with kids? Am I now care-taking for my elderly family that I can't leave in a care facility? Right. People lost jobs. Most of the people that had to exit the workforce were women. So when that happened, it then effectively switched up the pay gap to then increase to 132 years. So if we now continue with the rate that we are going today, it will be 132 years before we are paid the same as a man. That's not my lifetime, that's not my kids' lifetime. That is, to me, bananas.”
• 29:05 – “We're busting through the glass ceiling. So for example, women don't negotiate, okay? Only 26% of women actually negotiate their job offers, if they negotiate at all. And when they negotiate, they ask for less than men. So you're talking about when a man and a woman, if they both have equal education, equal skills, and they both get offered a job for a hundred thousand dollars and the man negotiates just 5,000 more dollars, that's it. Over time, we're talking hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars lost.”

This episode, DaCodes’ co-founder and CEO, Mauricio Moreno, talks about how he grew a company to over 50 employees, how staff responded to moving to remote working, and the benefits of hiring junior positions remotely.

Mauricio Moreno is one of the Co-Founders at DaCodes, a software boutique specialized in App & Web Development, UX/UI Design, and Digital Transformation for Enterprises and Start-Ups. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• Building a mobile app development company for third-party clients in Mexico.
• Growing a company to 50 employees working in a physical office.
• The challenges of working remotely and how to overcome them.
• The benefits of remote hiring.
• How artificial intelligence will revolutionize HR practices.
• How generative AI tools can be used to create titles, summaries, and timestamps for podcast episodes.

Resources:

• DaCodes
• StaffGeek

Connect with Mauricio Moreno:

• LinkedIn

Connect with the host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn
• Lindsay Patton by Email

Quotables:

• 13:00 – “We started experimenting, bringing experts from outside the company to give meet ups, to give talks, to give presentations. We started doing a fitness challenge for the company remotely. So we started exploring a lot of activities, virtual activities to engage the people and the, the, the coders that were working with us before Covid, before, like when we were working in an office already had the codes culture on their, on their mind, on their heart. The challenge was to put that same culture on the new people that we were onboarding virtually, that people that never met or knew the office space that never worked in person with everyone. So that was a challenge.”
• 14:30 - "A lot of people is more productive working from home. So we just need to make a system, to have a fast evaluations of the productivity, of the attitude of the people of their ways of working from home and, to keep the ones that are great and the ones that aren't. They can work in a physical office in other company. Right. But, it's a challenge you lose some things, but you win some new things if you are open to do the switch.”
• 15:49 - "I have not one interview, but have five interviews with different people. Maybe the first one is with the HR department or, or with the recruiter then with the manager, then with another manager and maybe with the CEO and the traditional ways to do that in person, right? Of, in a physical office in a physical space. And we were doing in person interviews. So we were spending maybe two hours from the time that the candidate came to the office or got to the office and then make the coffee and make the desk beautiful. And make everything perfect for the interview. And then make, have some chatting, have some gossip before the formal interview, then do the interview then I think in average, you have between one and two hours for candidate. And when you do virtual interviews or remote hiring, you can do interviews. You can do the first screening of maybe 25 minutes. Right. And also you can see that if the during the first 10 minutes, the candidate is not what you were looking for, you can go a little bit faster. You can tell the candidate that he's lacking some of the skills that you need or some of the experience that you need. And you can end the interview quickly if, when you're in person, you cannot do that. “
• 21:17 -  "But then when you open up to different cultures, to different countries, even to different cities, inside Mexico people is very different. So when we open up to different talent from different countries, you start getting a bowl of fruits with not only with apples, but with bananas and with maybe a watermelon over there, maybe oranges, so you start getting this diversity, this mix that it's great for the company people, software engineers mainly, they like to meet new people from other countries to see what they talk about. 
• 33:18 - "Having generative AI on your Google Drive, you can just tell the Google AI bot, Hey, give me the report of, I don't know, something with all these documents I have in here. Or give me the, I've been exploring a tool this, you will like this one for the podcast, which is you can, you just upload the MP3 file or the MP4 file to the program, and it gives you instantly. It gives you the transcript. Okay it selects it, it knows which speaker is who, who is who. And so it segments the transcript by speaker. And then you can, you just push a button that says AI generate AI, and it generates like 20 blocks of content from the options for the podcast name or podcast title for this episode to the description or the summary of the episode to the bio of the speaker, to the time, the timestamps of the podcast with all the topics that were talked during the timestamp questions and answers that were talked during the episode. So it is crazy what is happening. And I think in the next three months, we will have a lot of good tools.”

In this episode, Pinnacle Advertising’s Head of People Mary Williams talks about how leaders can show their team gratitude, how to keep staff engaged in a hybrid work model, and ways you can show your staff they’re valued without spending a lot of money.

Mary Wiliams is the Head of People at Pinnacle Advertising and has been working in HR for over a decade.

Mary has a proven track record in working with startups and setting others up for success; and developing and motivating cohesive, goal-oriented, and high-performing teams. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• The benefits of showing gratitude in the workplace.
• How leaders can show their team gratitude.
• The value of active listening.
• How to find a job you find fulfilling.
• How to be creative with a limited budget.
• Low-budget ideas to lift up your staff.
• How to keep staff engaged in a hybrid work model.

Resources:

• Pinnacle Advertising
• The Philosophy of Ikigai
• StaffGeek

Connect with Mary Williams:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Connect with the host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn
• Lindsay Patton by Email

Quotables

• 3:33 - “Another really important component of active listening is that you want to acknowledge what the other person’s saying, pay good close attention but don’t interrupt.”
• 8:45 - “So hearing great job is less effective than great job in leading that meeting this morning  I could tell everyone was more involved and engaged because you took time to hear them out and were more active in that contribution so using that specificity in the verbal compliments went a really long way.”
• 13:00 - “One day I came to work and there was the big stuffed animal Bunny on my desk and it said ‘some-bunny appreciates you’ and it was a note from our CEO and I was tickled by that and I thought well that’s super cute thank you so much let’s take it a step further and so we recreated that appreciation bunny to be a traveling trophy.”
• 14:14 - “Tangible items in this increasingly digital world we’re living in they’re becoming valuable I see it with teenagers leaning toward polaroid cameras and those awful point-and-shoot cameras that we used to hate, there’s something valuable about tangibility in a digital landscape.”

In this episode, HireReach’s Project Manager Marlene Brostrom talks about the benefits of the skills-based hiring model, the ways employers make hiring decisions, and how to reduce bias in the hiring process.

Marlene Brostrom is a Project Manager at West Michigan Works! where she oversees, plans and directs various aspects of the HireReach program including program design.

Marlene is a Certified Business Solutions Professional with over 10 years of experience managing and delivering programs in workforce and community development.. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• How to make the hiring process more efficient and effective.
• What a skills-based hiring model looks like.
• What’s been causing changes in the labor market.
• The ways employers make hiring decisions.
• The importance of qualifications when getting hired.
• How skills-based hiring helps reduce bias.
• Interviewing techniques to avoid bad hires.
• The partnership between HR and talent acquisition.
• How to leverage your organizational culture.

Resources:

• HireReach
• West Michigan Works!
• Opportunity@Work
• StaffGeek

Connect with Marlene Brostrom:

• LinkedIn

Connect with the host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn
• Lindsay Patton by Email

Quotables:

• 1:08 - “Skills-based hiring is a good quick high-level term to explain what it is but it’s essentially helping employees with the decision of selecting talent using skills as a way to assess and measure people and really help the organization understand what makes a good fit for their workforce, for their jobs.”
• 07:50 - “Harvard Business Review shared that 60 percent of the US workforce does not have a 4-year degree, 76 percent of black workers do not have a degree, 83 percent of Latin Ex workers do not have a 4-year degree, and 81 percent of rural workers do not have a degree and that’s really important to say there’s all these people that have different backgrounds, different learning experience that may still have the skills needed to do the job but by employers not fully looking at their job description and keeping that college degree on there because that’s what they’ve done, you’re eliminating a huge pool of people.”
• 13:05 - “People can get overwhelmed, I always use the analogy for weight loss I don’t know why it fascinates me but we all know there are certain things you need to do to lose weight, you’ve got to work out, you should track your food, drink water, sleep but sometimes that can feel overwhelming so even any baby steps you can take so we always say with the hiring process a couple of things is to go it doesn’t have to happen overnight continuous improvement is a journey maybe make some baby steps.”

This episode, SVP of People at Mach49 Kim Chaumillon talks about why she is skeptical of HR, the negative impacts of annual performance reviews, and how to utilize surveys to support data and analytics.

Kim Chaumillon has worked in HR for over 2 decades and is now the SVP of People at Mach49. Kim is recognized as a successful HR leader that is pragmatic and execution-oriented, with an ability to build and lead a motivated and high-performing global HR organization. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• Where HR skepticism comes from.
• What the deconstruction of HR looks like.
• Why there’s a pushback to changing the way people work.
• The extra challenges women have in the workplace.
• How to bring more women into work.
• What the ‘school hours workforce’ includes.
• How analytics supports the deconstruction of work norms.
• The benefits and drawbacks of working at a startup.
• The negatives of annual performance reviews.
• How to utilize surveys to support data and analytics.

Resources:

• Mach49
• Dr. Ellen Joan Nelson
• Predictions for 2023: Redefining Work, The Workforce, And HR
• Collabworks
• HumanCentric Labs
• Lead the Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment
• ChatGPT
• Trimble
• StaffGeek

Connect with Kim Chaumillon:

• LinkedIn
• Email

Connect with the host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn
• Lindsay Patton by Email

Quotables

• 8:32 - “They don’t realize why the current industrial revolution model was put in place which was at a time when inputs largely equaled outputs so if you wanted to increase output you just increased more hours into a factory or whatever it wasn’t necessarily knowledge work and it was a mechanism to deliver predictable returns, so if we could standardize jobs if we could clearly clarify the work that was meant to be done, the workers could do the work and management would have a predictable outcome.”
• 9:35 - “In order for me as a leader to feel comfortable that the work’s getting done I need to see the workers doing the work and I do believe some of this rush back to the office in the name of culture and collaboration is really just leaders don’t have the tools to understand what's going on in their organization, there’s a lack of trust and quite frankly they might not like that their Zoom square is the same size as everybody else's.”
• 13:10 - “The idea of school hours is basically a 9-3 type of job so a work schedule that allows people to drop kids off and pick them back up and have that be the nature of the job so it’s basically a 9-3, call it 5 or 6 hours a day if we could have somebody productively employed for 25 to 30 hours a week there’s work that needs to be done we just have to think differently about how we structure the work.”

JaNaye Norman-Halligan is a TroopHR Member and a Senior People Operations Consultant for Empowered People.

JaNaye has over 10 years of success championing a people-first approach to blending strategy with emotional intelligence to craft authentic employee experiences.

JaNaye has repeated accomplishments enabling companies to build influential People and Talent strategies, reimagine organizational structures, and prototype innovative employee engagement initiatives. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• How to be mindful and intentional with HR decisions.
• Using data to inform how you manage people.
• How to implement healthy boundaries in the workplace.
• What code-switching is.
• Ways to learn about HR outside of formal education.
• How to identify optics within organizations.
• Ways to build a positive work culture.

Resources:

• TroopHR
• StaffGeek

Connect with JaNaye Norman-Halligan:

• LinkedIn

Connect with the host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn
• Lindsay Patton by Email

Quotables

• 7:55 - “Taking time for my mental health, so having a licensed psychologist that I see when I’m going through these really emotional heavy employee focused ER cases or I’m going through things where the empath in me is like what else can I be doing that may be outside of where I’m supporting my company, and it’s also about technological boundaries, I am a firm believer of setting my do not disturb for 7 pm on my phone, on my computer, it does not matter what it is if it’s after 7 and I have not responded to you it’s because I’m going to see it the next day.”
• 9:18 - “Making those boundaries known, I have my gym workout every morning on my calendar, I have snack breaks, I have lunch breaks, I am taking walking meetings, you will know this is a walking meeting and being upfront about those boundaries so when they are crossed it doesn't come across that my passion is mistaken for anger which is very easy to do for a diverse leader but this is something that we acknowledged and agreed upon.“
• 19:52 - “It’s more around making sure we don’t become obsessed with the idea of tokenism in the workplace, I have turned down job opportunities I’ve left interview processes because I’ve asked the question how do I make sure that I’m not the first and only diverse leader in your organization it’s well you won’t be but we’re really working on it, oh we’ve got people over here, no that wasn’t the question I was asking you are you making sure that you’re advocating for me not only as a diverse leader externally but internally as well.”
• 24:31 - “Making sure that we don't have cultures that are strictly focused around vices, I think the biggest thing is alcohol, happy hours, or hey what are you drinking or we’re going to the bar after work, how can we create new things that don’t tie people to a vice and we’re cooking, we’re meditating, we’re doing yoga, new healthy ways for people to be involved and have fun at work.”
• 28:03 - “It’s very easy to focus on the negative pieces of your career because its hey what could I have done better or improved on but I think you have to gather with a purpose and the more people that are aware that this is happening the more that we are creating a place where people can feel psychologically safe at work.”
• 31:51 - “What I really like about how work is becoming more flexible and I like how especially with remote work there is that opportunity to take an hour and take a nap, or go for a walk or workout or do something that will help that slump that you usually get in the middle of the day and I think as humans we’re very fluid and so we have those moments where its like oh yea we’re productive and then we have those moments where it’s like ah I just feel like I dont have any energy so to be expected to have the same kind of productivity 9 to 5 every single day I think that’s asking a little too much.”

Lisa Whealon is the VP of People and Culture at Deli Star and has over 15 years of experience working in HR, People, and Culture. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of People Analytics:

• How to see the opportunity in setbacks.
• What it’s like creating person-centered programs.
• Why having creative benefits are more effective than traditional ones.
• Different innovative benefits that increase employee engagement and well-being.
• Challenges for parents in the workplace.
• The issues with flexible time off policies.
• How to offer low-cost benefits that have big impacts on employees.
• The benefits of offering employees sabbaticals.

Resources:

• Deli Star
• StaffGeek

Connect with Lisa Whealon:

• LinkedIn
• Email

Connect with the host:

• Lindsay Patton on LinkedIn
• Lindsay Patton by Email

Quotables

• 3:34 - “Their attitudes really was the key ingredient for our success because I think many would have wallowed in that grief and seen that as an opportunity to slow down and perhaps stop and the team here did quite the opposite they said gosh that is really sad but what can we do to continue on what can we do to make better.”
• 7:18 - “The standard boilerplate benefits especially in the market today, you kind of just make an assumption that an employer’s going to have those things, they’re going to have 41K, they’re going to have health benefits, that’s a given at this point so I like to think about benefits from this wow perspective.”
• 11:46 - “Parents were so motivated and inspired by a company giving back in that way that we saw that from a productivity lense we didn't lose any productivity, people would be sure to make up the work in other ways in other times because they valued having the baby there in such a strong way.”
• 15:49 - “When we think about these wow benefits, not every single employee can participate in every single benefit so it’s really more of an al a carte menu, that our goal is to create a wow benefit that you can find a wow benefit that you can participate in that is meaningful to you and that is really impactful to your particular personal situation in your life.”
• 29:30 - “Start where you can start, not everything has to happen all at the same time so think of those little intentional ways that you can show employees that you care outside of your standard benefit offerings and just build upon them from there.”