Tag Archives: We’re Only Human

We're Only Human Podcast

Recapping the We’re Only Human Podcast: One Year, Many Lessons

We're Only Human Podcast

Whew.

I’m in recovery mode from last week’s jaunt to Vegas for the HR Technology Conference. For people in my line of work, that’s our version of the Olympics (or whatever other metaphor you need to demonstrate how much it puts you through the wringer). With that in mind, I’m feeling like a walk down memory lane might be a good route for today.

For starters, though, did you notice our new logo for the show? I was looking for something that was somewhat playful but still kept the “human” element at the forefront. Hope you like it!

So why the walk down memory lane? Back in August I celebrated a year of hosting the We’re Only Human podcast. I had some initial ideas and thoughts before starting the show in 2016, and some of them turned out to be true (while I obviously also had a few lessons to learn!) For instance, I had a suspicion that the format would make people feel more comfortable with me because it’s a very personal medium to hear someone’s voice. That very quickly showed itself to be true.  Continue reading →

Can I Focus on Compliance and Still Be a Good Employer? [Podcast]

We're Only Human Podcast

HR compliance is a necessary evil in the workplace. Rarely do employers make it to the top of the “best employers” lists by handling FMLA or DOL regulations well. Yet time and time again we see HR professional flocking to sessions like “Top 10 Ways to Get Sued in 2018,” taking notes like this is golden content.

Why do sessions like those attract so much attention when they don’t help employers create a more employee-centric, engaging workplace?

In today’s podcast discussion, I get the answers to these questions and others by interviewing Mike Haberman, one of the HR industry’s best resources for staying on top of compliance and labor requirements. Mike takes a very balanced approach by covering not only the compliance topics, but also by exploring future trends and how employers can improve their HR practices.

It’s a fun discussion and listeners will be treated to the story of when I was audited by the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division, providing a great example of how NOT to make decisions about what’s best for your employees. #truestory

To connect with Mike or learn more about his work, you can find his blog at:
http://omegahrsolutions.com/

To listen to the archives of We’re Only Human and learn more about the show, check out:
https://upstarthr.com/podcast

Reinventing Recruiting: An Interview with Terry Terhark of randrr [Podcast]


Tried to find a new job lately? It’s easy to feel like a rat in a wheel, running faster and faster yet getting nowhere. Despite this being a candidate’s market, it’s easy to feel like you are never going to get ahead of the game.

In today’s conversation (click here to listen), Ben Eubanks interviews Terry Terhark, founder and CEO of randrr. randrr is a recruiting technology firm that is focused on meeting the needs of candidates and individuals by providing highly targeted job opportunities and career insights.

During the conversation, Ben and Terry discuss what’s wrong with recruiting today and how to meet the needs of today’s job seekers. In addition, Terry talks about the issues he sees that bleed across generational and demographic lines, hampering each company from being both efficient and effective with their recruiting efforts. Ben also points to some recent data from Lighthouse Research that focuses on talent acquisition priorities for 2017 and why they matter within the context of the conversation.

Here’s a brief snippet of the conversation:

Ben: So, would you say then that we're in a candidate’s market?

Terry: I definitely think recruiters understand that today. And it's not just in high pressure fields like we've seen traditionally such as nursing, software, etc. Now it’s crept into skilled trades, sales, and other areas.

There's tremendous pressure. Recruiters understand that it’s a candidate’s market, but from a company perspective they don’t necessarily realize that opinions have changed. Even today some of the statistics that we have gathered show that the process for job search or recruiting is disappointing and frustrating. Nearly three in four polled individuals said their online job search is frustrating. Company behavior and recruiter behavior has to change to fit that.

Ben: This definitely reminds us of the recent case study with Virgin Media. The company was losing tons of revenue because it treated its “silver medalists,” or candidates it didn't select, so poorly. Those individuals wouldn't even shop at the company after that treatment, but the company turned it around and really points to that as a huge revenue opportunity today.

Terry: That's the issue. We see that companies are getting an average of 150 resumes per posting. That's virtually impossible to qualitatively sift through, yet many technologies people use encourage more applications/submittals both for candidates and for employers, which compounds the problem…

Click here to listen to the episode and find out what the answer is to this and other problems facing companies today.

To find out more about randrr, be sure to check out http://randrr.com

Thanks everyone, as always, for checking out We’re Only Human. If you’d like to hear previous episodes just check out our archive at https://upstarthr.com/podcast

3 Examples for Measuring HR’s Business Impact [Podcast]


ROI. Measurement. Data. Analytics.

Each of these words has the power to strike fear in the hearts of many HR pros, because let’s face it–most of us didn’t get into this profession because we’re awesome at math, right? :-) Seriously though, we can’t deny the power of data and evidence to prove the value HR can provide.

I’ve often said that HR provides plenty of value to the organization in most cases, but HR pros are just really terrible about calculating and proving that value. If that concept resonates with you, then this episode is going to help change all of that.

In this new episode of We’re Only Human with Mary Ila Ward, owner of Horizon Point Consulting, Ben discusses some of the underlying fears that HR has about being measured (hint: measurement isn’t always an indicator of your own personal performance). In addition, we explore three case study examples of how to figure out the ROI of human resources in an easy, step-by-step manner so anyone can grasp the concept.

By the way, if you’re interested in grabbing the slides we mention in the show, feel free to reach out to Mary Ila at miw@horizonpointconsulting.com and she’d be happy to share them with you.

As always, if you’re new or want to revisit some of our previous episodes, be sure to check out the We’re Only Human show archives.

Does HR Certification Even Matter? [Podcast]

If you’ve read this blog for more than a few days, you know I’m no stranger to the discussion around HR certification. But today I’m going to share some thoughts from a recent conversation with a friend and colleague on why HR certification matters and how to leverage it for career success. It was a fun discussion with Kristina Minyard, who recently completed her own SHRM-SCP exam, about the value of both the HRCI and SHRM certification options. Click here to check out the episode and listen in.

Notes from the podcast

  • Link to the episode
  • Ben celebrates his 10th wedding anniversary and his one year anniversary running Lighthouse Research.
  • Kristina also participated in episode two, Recruiting as a Service.
  • Ben and Kristina talk about why certification matters to them as volunteer leaders, speakers, professionals, and more.
  • Kristina points out why certification is different from education and why it is arguably more important.
  • Ben and Kristina discuss the HRCI vs SHRM options for certification exams.
  • Kristina talks about group vs solo prep and which works best
  • Ben reminds everyone about some of the certification tools available on upstartHR
  • Kristina talks about her recent experience taking and passing the SHRM-SCP exam and her lessons learned

If you enjoyed this show, be sure to check out all the show archives!

How Talent Technology Enables Employee Engagement [Podcast]

Talent management technology has come a long way in recent years. I can still remember seeing a demo for a technology solution back in 2014 and the salesperson was so proud of the fact that I could copy and paste data into the system. By the way:

  • It wasn’t searchable.
  • You couldn’t run reports.
  • You couldn’t export anything.

There was no way to actually USE the data in there, but I could put it in if I wanted. Sigh.

Anyway, today I am sharing a really fun podcast interview with you, featuring a recent conversation with Carsten Busch, CEO of the Talent Management Business Unit, and Laura Fuller, Country Sales Manager US for Lumesse. In the conversation we not only talked about how technology has become incredibly user friendly and more employee-focused, but about some of the age-old talent questions that companies face every day, such as why managers are willing to hire an external candidate even when there are perfectly qualified internal candidates available to take the job. Carsten’s answer to the question was phenomenal and I was taking notes because it will be my new default answer to that common issue.

Additionally, Carsten and Laura talk about the shift in technology from the static, administrative-focused versions mentioned above to the talent-focused systems that Lumesse and other companies are developing today.

Also, at the tail end I mention how you can get one of my upcoming pieces of research entirely for free by signing up here for a webinar I’m doing with the team at Lumesse. Here’s the gist of what the webinar will be about:

The June edition of HR Magazine has a feature that focused on how some companies like Gap and Siemens are trying to create development opportunities that connect candidates and employees to the firms for a long period of time. The double benefit of this kind of development is that if businesses can drive retention, then they get the value of a more productive workforce for a longer period of time. This is the incredible value of talent mobility, and that’s the focus of the webinar and this upcoming piece of research.

I hope you’ll join us for that session, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the podcast as well. It was a really fun conversation.

University of Phoenix Research: Your Employees Aren’t Innovative Enough [Podcast]

Note: If you’re looking for a good app to access We’re Only Human and other podcasts, I personally use Stitcher on my Android device. 

Did you know that your employees aren’t innovative or creative enough?

That’s the latest from a research study performed by University of Phoenix on workplace innovation. In an interesting mix of data, the organization asked employees to identify whether their employers were innovative or not, and hiring managers were asked to identify the level of innovation exhibited by employees. The results were intriguing, and I covered some of the key topics of the research in a recent podcast interview with Ruth Veloria, Executive Dean of the School of Business at University of Phoenix.  Continue reading →