The Workplace Podcast in association with Dynamic Partners

Professional Footballer and Captain of Liverpool F.C Women as well as an established senior international for the Republic of Ireland Women's National Team with close to 100 caps. Her career to date focused on earning a third level education while continuing to progress my football career. This has led me to attain an MSc in Pharmacology and also playing professional football in Ireland, England and France over a 14 year period.

Jennifer Meffert of Deloitte Global, is a global onboarding experience manager. Jennifer joins our host William Corless to discuss onboarding remotely. Onboarding remotely became the norm during the pandemic, this became a major challenge for organisations across the world. 

Jennifer is passionate about creating meaningful moments - specifically focused from the moment a candidate signs an offer letter. Adopting the latest terminology of “experience architect”, Jennifer spends her days enhancing the onboarding experience for Deloitte Global. She has informed and influenced every moment along the candidate to employee lifecycle as an HR partner or consultant. 

Jennifer believes the most important moment along the employee lifecycle is often dismissed, the job offer is accepted and equipment is setup, but the rest of the onboarding process is inconsistent at best. She hopes to show how everyone in a company plays a role in creating a welcoming and inclusive work environment  for New Hires.

In this episode we share insights and research on how organisations can improve their onboarding experience. Organisations can often be blind to the negative impact on the organisation and the new hire, by not placing a focus on remote onboarding. Jennifer highlights the opportunities for organisations with some practical tips. Some statistics might be thought provoking.

Gallup 12% of employees strongly agree that their company does a great job at onboarding. This presents a huge opportunity for improvement 😊. Yet also says the bar is low and it should be easy to stand out among the crowd if you do it well.

• GREAT EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING CAN IMPROVE EMPLOYEE RETENTION BY 82%

Global Onboarding Experience Leaders (LinkedIn Group)

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9052268/

Links for books mentioned in the podcast include:

https://heathbrothers.com/the-power-of-moments/

https://www.priyaparker.com/thebook

Neil Walshe, Associate Professor, Organisational Psychology, University of San Francisco joins his former school friend William Corless on the workplace podcast.

In this episode we discuss organisational culture pre and post pandemic. What does organisational culture mean? How does culture work in remote environment?

Neil brings his evidence based approach and his insights on the differing views of organsational culture. Realisations from the pandemic, which Neil describes as the great equaliser. We discuss how companies are changing they way they work forever.

We cover collaboration, assumptions made and how companies are now encouraged to be fluid on how they perceive culture. We also focus on the drivers of culture, internal values and external facing values. What are the measures of success of organisational culture and why need to invest in culture…. or not! (Spoiler alert: you do - invest in facilitation)

Resources mentioned in the podcast:

https://cebma.org

https://scienceforwork.com

https://www.neilwalshe.com

Brian Pennie, consultant, lecturer, radio host and author (Bonus Time) joins our host William Corless on the workplace podcast. Brian discusses his journey from being chronically addicted to heroin for fifteen years to embrace a second chance at life. This thoroughly engaging podcast provides insights on coping techniques and explores the relationship between trauma, addiction and bad habits. Brian shares his learnings and also snippets from his PhD research. Brian has developed his own programme for life, which others can practice self observations and make more value based decisions.

Gordon D'Arcy, COO of Kids Speech Labs and former Irish international rugby player,  joins our host William Corless on the Workplace podcast. Gordon discusses the informal leader, the oft undervalued member of a high performing team or organisation. Gordon provides his insights on his formative years that will help others achieve their potential. William and Gordon also discuss the role of the informal leader within a high performance environment with anecdotes from his former managers and team mates. Many lessons from the sporting and business environment are shared, especially how to create a culture of excellence and the role of candid conversations.

Spencer Williams (CEO of Westpaw) joins our host William Corless to discuss his approach and ethical manner to leadership. Spencer provides real life examples of radical transparency and candour with his employees of his organisation based in Montana, USA. During the podcast William explores Spencer's approach to radical transparency where a collegial and professional spirit he has naturally built while also developing a culture of improvement. Spencer openly discusses how he deals with pushback to this approach, embracing honest mistakes, demonstrating vulnerability and also holding people to account. Spencer believes his approach avoids disfunction where a useful reframe is used: Transparency protects. This work in practice approach to leadership highlights the importance of courageous conversations where staff are empowered to manage upwards. For those who are curious, we also discuss the boundaries to transparency. This open book management approach to leadership is a must listen podcast.

Westpaw.com

Founding partner of The Mediation Foundation of Ireland, Luke Monahan joins our host William Corless on the workplace podcast to provide insights into workplace mediation. Many senior managers and people in HR have a fear of conflict and fear the mediation process escalates conflict. In this episode, we dispel certain myths about mediation and give people a great understanding of mediation to overcome their reluctance.We cover key principles of mediation such autonomy, confidentiality, impartiality and a voluntary process. We share the keys stages of mediation and the concept of reframing to make mediation more accessible to people in the workplace.This episode promises to provide a different perspective on conflict through a reframe of resolution and away from grievance procedures that many managers are hesitant to address. For more information click on www.mfi.ie

Executive, team coach and leadership facilitator Dr. Dumi Magadlela joins our host William Corless from Johannesburg. Dumi and William discuss the Zulu philosophy of Ubuntu. We gain an insight into another aspect of leadership with Ubuntu intelligence, that was made prominent by Nelson Mandela. Creating ways of connecting and realising the full potential in your self and others through common humanity. We also discuss how accountability can be addressed within the team context, while enabling people to fulfil their potential through empowerment. Different insights are attained through a cultural lens which promises to leave our listeners with a new perspective on leadership.

World authority on corporate strategy, Andrew Campbell is Director of Ashridge Strategic Management Centre at Ashridge Business School. Andrew discusses with our host William Corless the key elements and consideration of organisational design especially with agility.

Andrew is also an authority on organisation design being the person who developed “the nine tests of good organisation design” and with Michael Goold the book “Designing Effective Organisations”. In this episode, he shares many insights to help organisations navigate the current challenges that they face in an agile manner.

Colm Murphy (Executive Coach) joins our host William Corless to discuss teams in organisations. The discussion highlights: The challenges teams face what is a team versus a group? Are decisions made outside of team meetings? What dynamics are at play and the importance of trust. There are many takeaways from this episode as both Colm and William share their experiences of what makes a great team and the importance of how teaming impacts the organisation.