PSHRA's Public Eye Podcast

Anni Evans, director of human resources with the Town of Bluffton in South Carolina, recently wrote an article on the Town’s recently implemented parental leave policy for the September/October edition of PSHRA’s Public Eye, the Association’s bi-monthly digital publication available only to PSHRA members. 

On the heels of that article, Anni joined our Public Eye podcast to discuss that policy a bit further.  

In July of this year, the Town of Bluffton received approval from the town council to offer paid parental leave to its 140-plus full-time employees. And Anni told us a little bit about why Bluffton wanted to offer paid parental leave to all of its new parents, the role that she and her HR team played in designing that leave policy, and the advice she would offer other agencies looking to do the same. 

Joining us to kick off the second season of the PSHRA® Public Eye podcast is current PSHRA Executive Council President Mark Van Bruggen. Mark is also the HR consultant to the chief of staff at the New Jersey Civil Service Commission, and a great representative of PSHRA. 

Mark has spent his entire professional career of more than 35 years working for the NJ CSC. In 1996, he became a member of PSHRA® when he and several colleagues re-chartered the New Jersey chapter. 

He has served the association in numerous leadership positions at the chapter, regional and national level over the years, and was recently recognized with the 2024 PSHRA® President's Award for his commitment and dedication in leading the association and its mission. Mark recently sat down with Mark McGraw, editor of publications at PSHRA, during a quick break at the PSHRA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., where the Marks discussed some highlights from the conference, Mark’s tenure as PSHRA President, and the exciting places PSHRA is headed in the future. 

Our guest Chris Starling is the Executive Director of NPower SkillBridge, which helps active duty service members in their last six months in uniform transition into cyber-warriors, giving them the skills to go from defending the nation to defending the network. Chris joins us to discuss how their program works, trends in skills-based hiring, the job market for cyber skills, and the challenges of transitioning from the military to the civilian sector.

This marks the last episode of our first season of the Public Eye podcast. The pod is taking a hiatus for now, but we'd love to get your feedback on what we can do to bring it back better than ever!

Share your feedback at https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7689771/Public-Eye-podcast-survey-2024

Will Markow is Vice President of Applied Research at Lightcast, a company that connects people with jobs by providing businesses, communities, and education institutions with the best labor market data possible. He joins us to discuss the gap between the demand and supply of cyber workers, the broad implications if this gap is to continue, and how skills-based hiring can narrow the gap and help fill the cyber pipeline. 

Viva Asmelash and Michael Gregor, co-founders of Liberation Labs join us to discuss “feedback”:  the importance of culturally aware feedback, how different segments of the population receive feedback, productive ways of giving and getting feedback, and best practices in ensuring a healthy "feedback culture." We look forward to your, er, feedback. 

Our guest Shola Richards is a sought-after workplace civility expert who speaks, coaches, consults, and is the best-selling author of two books on workplace bullying. He and his work have been featured on the Today Show, CBS, Forbes, Black Enterprise, and numerous other venues. Shola's most recent book is titled, Go Together: How the Concept of Ubuntu will Change How We Work, Live and Lead, which is what our conversation primarily focused on – with several detours into our shared passion for NBA basketball (and basketball podcasts). 

Warning: Parts of this episode touch on suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with your mental health, call or text 988.

Dr. Rivka Liss-Levinson, Senior Research Manager at MissionSquare Research Institute, discusses their recently published report on the experiences of younger public service employees – a critical issue as attracting and retaining talent,  particularly among those 35 and younger, is one of the top challenges public sector agencies face today. Rivka shares findings on job satisfaction, stress levels, factors that attracted younger employees to public sector work, and what leaders should prioritize in order to attract and retain more talent. 

Dr. Jeremy Pollack, founder and CEO of Pollack Peacebuilding System, a conflict management consulting firm,  joins us to discuss conflict psychology in the workplace. He defines the term peacebuilding, various points of conflict in today's typical public sector organization, best practices in conflict management, and the “5 Core Competencies of the Peaceful Leadership” style.

Pardon the pun, but this marks the third appearance on our pod of Mr. Mark McGraw, the editor of Public Eye, PSHRA's bi-monthly digital magazine, and editor of PSHRA's weekly digital newsletter, Of Public Interest. Mark gives us a tour d'horizon of the latest issue of the Public Eye (October/November), which focuses on talent: what agencies are doing to attract talent to public sector careers and to hang on to the talent they already have. He also gives us a preview of what he and his crack staff are working on for the year-end issue. A great convo with Mark, as always - check it out!