The Workspan Podcast

Greg Slamowitz is an entrepreneur, investor, professor, speaker and  author of Flip the Pyramid: How Any Organization Can Create a Workforce That Is Engaged, Aligned, Empowered and On Fire (https://zurl.co/uGh8). We talk about his journey as an entrepreneur, how business leaders can avoid micromanaging their staff and create a culture of collaboration. He also discusses what he looks for in companies he invests in, and how an East Coast guy came to embrace life in Montana.

We close out a banner year of podcasts with Justin Hampton, the founder, and president of Compensation Tool (www.compensationtool.com) and a self-proclaimed “compensation nerd” who recently wrote a very interesting WorldatWork article on “Determining Compensation for a Distributed Workforce.” A timely and fascinating conversation,  with a look forward to what’s ahead on WIP in 2022. Here’s wishing all of our listeners a happy, healthful, podcast-filled new year!

Dr. Jasleen Chhatwal a board-certified psychiatrist and chief medical officer for the mental health treatment center Sierra Tucson, discusses the results of a survey they did titled “Self-Medication Nation: The Numbing of America.” You’d expect an increase in drug and alcohol use during the pandemic as people are isolated, stressed, etc - but some of their findings are eye-opening. A must-listen as we head into a new year and navigate the uncertainties ahead.

Darcy Gruttadaro, Director, Center for Workplace Mental Health at the American Psychiatric Association Foundation, has been singularly focused on mental health from just about every angle: litigation, policy, and advocacy. She joins us to discuss promoting the business case for workplace mental health and turnkey programs for employees and their families, dealing with burnout, how the association has expanded its virtual footprint…and more. A very timely conversation.

We are joined by Amelia Dunlop, the author of Elevating the Human Experience: Three Paths to Love and Worth at Work – the second best-selling author who has visited with us. Her book is in large part about her personal journey in deriving love and worth from her work, the challenges of bringing our “authentic selves” to the workplace, and much more. A stimulating, insightful conversation about an equally stimulating and challenging book.

A provocative conversation with Ernst & Young’s Tamra Chandler and Laura Grealish on performance management, feedback, and rewards: why flawed models, methodologies, and mindsets persist (hint: organizational inertia and the CYA reflex), and what can be done to revolutionize performance management. Also, why feedback has such a bad rep and what needs to be done to “redeem” it.

A timely conversation during the season of gift-giving and receiving with Todd Horton, founder/CEO of KangoGift, whose mission is to help organizations improve their corporate cultures, and increase employee engagement, retention, and manager effectiveness. We discuss what inspired him to found the company, the business value of recognition, the difference between AI and machine learning, and KangoGif;s role in enabling companies with hybrid and large remote workforces to maintain a cohesive company culture. (We try valiantly to avoid making the inevitable Dr. Seuss references, but succumb to the impulse and thank Mr. Horton for his indulgence.)  For stats and takeaways from Kangogift clients who have used their platform, visit https://www.kangogift.com/2021-insights

A conversation with Steven Brink, President and Chief Revenue Officer of uFlexReward, an HR Tech start-up whose platform aggregates data from an organization’s disparate systems to enhance the organization’s global understanding of their total reward spend – while improving their ability to communicate the value of rewards to the workforce. By facilitating the delivery of personalized rewards that match an employee’s “lifestyle and lifecycle,” it’s also a powerful retention tool, a critical asset at a time when managers are struggling to retain their top performers.

Grant Thornton’s Eric Gonzaga (National practice leader for their Human Capital Services Practice) and Tim Glowa (Principal, Employee Listening) on how HR should think like marketers and leverage data to retain flight-risk talent. They discuss a four-stage approach to improving employee retention, maximizing the perceived value of benefits, and using AI to predict/pre-empt turnover.

Mark McGraw, managing editor of both Workspan and #evolve, and WorldatWork’s resident Stones fan (short for fanatic), gives us a sneak preview of Workspan’s Global Advisory issue (out this November) and the challenges facing comp and rewards leaders around the world:  companies across Latin America developing female talent, the effect of employee recognition on employee engagement in Asia, initiatives companies in India have put in place since the pandemic that enable women to rejoin the workforce, etc. Plus a bonus chat on the modern scourge of self-proclaimed “influencers.”