WorkTrends

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered intense economic and social disruption and it's far from over. And our work landscape has changed and will continue to evolve. For businesses, steering through COVID-19 and navigating this new work landscape requires savvy and careful strategizing. More than ever, HR is playing a critical role. And you need the best information you can right now — from managing a newly remote workforce, facilitating furloughs and layoffs, and helping the business leverage provisions of the CARES Act, understanding and tapping into the Paycheck Protection Program.

This is a new normal that can seem like anything but normal, and among many HR practitioners, there's a very real need for guidance and support. One very effective strategy is HR outsourcing. But it's not about giving up control. It's about the value it can bring to the business.

Today I'm bringing Tom Hammond, VP, Corporate Strategy and Product Management at Paychex, to #WorkTrends for this sponsored podcast on the why and the how of outsourcing HR. We're going to talk about the best strategies for surviving these tough times, and supporting our businesses and our employees through it. In light of COVID-19, we'll be looking at a range of outsourcing models — such as professional employer organizations (PEOs) and administrative services organizations (ASOs). We want to help our listeners understand how these solutions can support them right now — when we really need them.

Right now organizations are seeing their mettle tested and one thing that's helping them keep their workforces aligned, engaged and supported is a great company culture. We're going to talk with organizational culture expert Josh Levine about what makes a company culture matter now — such as how leaders play a key role, and why being there for your people may also mean shifting priorities for the duration. Messaging and zingy purpose statements aside, companies that operate from a foundation of truly essential values and demonstrate caring and perspective are the companies who are going to do better in the long run. Can we say that a culture of caring is good for business? Right now, I think we can. And Josh Levine has a lot to say about what we can all do to strengthen our culture — and strengthen our connections to each other as we work remotely, work differently, and work together.

The world of work is in the midst of a reckoning. From finance to retail to hospitals to energy to technology, there's not one sector that has not felt an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic of its toll on the economy . But we're evolving, and quickly. Weeks in, many organizations are past that sudden pivot to remote teams and are now stepping back from doing triage to think about what's truly important for supporting our people. That includes technology, security, and knowledge — as in learning the skills, approached, and technologies we need to know to function. Laying the framework for a successful shift to what happens now, and in the future, depends on expanding on the lessons we're learning right now.

Today I'm talking to Michelle Boockoff-Bajdek, Chief Marketing Officer at Skillsoft, to #WorkTrends for this sponsored podcast on the key to remote workplaces that allow your people to excel, thrive and grow. We're going to talk about the challenges for leaders and managers to engage and support their remote teams, why knowledge is so important right now to all of us.

On today's #WorkTrends podcast we're talking about the skills our workforce will need for the future — and why we need them now. The skills we're going to need to achieve in the workplace of the future have everything to do with attributes, behaviors, habits and mindset that support collaboration, creativity and innovation, and empathy. And the new workforce is trending to high-performing, sometimes cross-functional teams, with less hierarchy and more independence. To thrive in this context, we need to harness our incredible potential as humans — and be able to use our skills to excel. This is going to matter increasingly, as we face the hybrid workplace of the near future. Today's guest, Angela Maiers, is here to get us mapping to the skills of the future. Angela is an edupreneur, a futurist, an author, an innovator, and the founder of Choose2Matter, a global nonprofit.

As younger-gen (I'm not saying young gen intentionally) and Next Gen hires come into organizations and show their incredible aptitude and promise, we're certainly justified in wanting to reward them and promote them. Continuity is on our minds right now as we search for the light at the end of the tunnel of this current crisis — and look for how we're going to sustain our organizations for the future. And it's the bright stars in our own workforce that may wind up leading the way. So how do we best develop them? How can smaller organizations keep pace and provide access to coaching and support? The answer may lie in AI.

An AI-driven digital coach named Amanda is actually proving to be a phenomenal solution for companies looking to train, develop, and educate front-line managers, supervisors, and upcoming leaders. It was launched by Kevin Kruse of LEADX using technology powered by IBM Watson. We're going to talk about what it is, how it works, and why it's leveling the playing field for organizations no matter their size. Both 80% of those polled on whether or not they wanted robot coaching, and the same percentage of those polled on whether or not they want human coaching said yes, they do. The bottom line isn't machine or person. It's having a coach, period. And the results with Coach Amanda are really compelling.

Even right now, even with everything, we need to amp up our workplaces like never before. Culture keeps us together — but you can't create a great culture if you're not leading like a rockstar, and treating your employees like MVPs. So many organizations are morphing right now into remote and fragmented workforces — by necessity. But we're really looking for the glue that will keep us together. Tell you what we all need to keep the beat: Culture. A culture that celebrates empathy, emotional intelligence, innovation, alignment and growth Culture is a dynamic reality that can make our people feel awesome and want to keep on rocking. Or, it can make them want to go join another band.

Culture also sets us on a course for the future. And all the organizations I know are obsessed with what the future holds. Culture helps us attract the next superstars to our organization, helps the leaders connect with the rest of the workforce, and supports the employees who have the promise to really go the distance and be the next leaders. And that's what Jim Knight is all about. He's a standout expert on workplace cultures and rockstar leaders. So we're going to talk as well about how you can become that leader — who creates an amazing workplace culture, embodies it, and keeps it evolving, current, and sustaining for the long-term. And hey, we love those bands that have stood the test of time and stayed relevant through the decades, am I right?

Business readiness has taken on a whole new meaning right now as we grapple with an absolutely massive upheaval facing our lives as well as our work. Even a month ago we were discussing the importance of digital workspaces and remote capabilities as a key item on the wish list. Today it's a necessity. We need to provide a structure for our employees to do their best work no matter where they are. This is a tremendous challenge for leaders and managers: how can we maintain continuity, support and sustain productivity, and adapt, really, on a dime? What it takes is incredible innovation and ingenuity. But the good news is we don't have to reinvent the wheel. There are powerful and effective ways to provide central, interconnected workspaces, maintain communications and stay secure, by shifting to digitally empowered solutions that keep us ready for nearly anything. Being business ready is on everyone's minds, and I'm thrilled that today I'm talking to someone who knows how to help. We're talking to Tim Minahan, the Executive Vice President, Business Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) CITRIX, about the importance of business readiness — and the best approaches to achieving it. Flexibility, adaptability — it's like gymnastics for business. But it's also a matter of survival. This podcast is sponsored by Citrix.

Today internal communication is transforming right before our eyes and ears. It's getting a powerful boost from new technologies such as AI, augmented and virtual realities, and changing not only what we say but how we say it. The future of communication — even how we reach out to each other — and everyone in our organizations — is going to see rapid growth and radical improvements. In fact we're already experiencing them today.. We're talking to organizational communication expert Shel Holtz, a pioneer in the field who's now the Director of Internal Communications for WEBCOR Builders in California. He's been pushing us forward ever since we started using the intranet (you'll find out why) and is here today to talk about how new technologies are transforming communication — and why we're never turning back.

Today's #WorkTrends podcast is about partnering Marketing and HR for phenomenal talent strategies. It's a powerful alchemy that happens when Marketing and HR teams align to attract, engage and retain talent. We've all seen an expansion in scope and role of both the Chief Culture and Talent Officer: both roles are increasingly held accountable for strategic business growth — but we haven't always had a great roadmap for joining them together. Well, Now's the time. Unemployment at an all-time low, and candidate as well as employee expectations mean you've got to be really smart about how to attract and retain people. It's never been more important for marketing and HR teams to combine forces.

Today's guests, Diane Adams, Sprinklr Chief Culture and Talent Officer and Grad Conn, Sprinklr Chief Experience & Marketing Officer, are here to lay it all out for us — and talk about the approaches they've used at Sprinklr to bring in, inspire, and to be honest, keep top talent. They're passionate about the crossover of marketing and HR to create an amazing workplace culture — and about how marketing techniques that keep engaging customers can be utilized so effectively when it comes to talent.

Today's #WorkTrends podcast is about employer brands: getting behind the hype and actually committing to a walking the talk. Employer brands are understood as being a key driver for attracting great talent and engaging employees, let alone inspiring them to stay with your company and feel proud of it. But we need to be a lot better about shaping a brand and maintaining it through policies, deeds and actions, not just messaging. Messaging without actionable follow-through won't cut it. Further, the quick reaction time of millennials and Generation Z when it comes to hype versus reality will cost employers more and more. As digitally savvy talent builds their careers and enters the workforce, they seek employers who mean what they say. Today's guest, Debra Ruh (ROO) is here to talk about how employers can better stand behind their values. As she says, you don't get to call yourself the Employer of Choice — your employees do. Debra is the CEO and Founder of Ruh Global IMPACT, which focuses on Global Disability Inclusion Strategies, Digital Marketing, and Branding among many other services; and Cofounder of the award-winning #AXSChat.