The Workspan Podcast

We're joined by Kris McGuigan, Founder & CEO of Professional Courage,  a career services firm that empowers professionals to achieve career excellence through on-site interactive workshops, on-demand, and remote learning opportunities, and executive coaching. Kris discusses what she means by professional courage, the definition of “career wellness,” and how to stem the tide of the “great resignation.” Bonus chat on her time working for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (and why if you take issue with the voting, you should direct your hate mail to the unaffiliated NY office).

We’re joined by Donald Delves, Managing Director, North American practice leader, Executive Compensation at Willis Towers Watson, a leading expert on corporate governance and executive pay and performance. We discuss linking #ESG to executive incentive plans, focusing on environmental-based compensation: why boards and companies ought to take ESG measures seriously and how they need to “earn” their way into the incentive plan. We also coin a new word – fandextrous – to describe Don’s highly unusual dual loyalty to both the Cubs and White Sox (he’s a native Chicagoan). For more on ESG and Executive Compensation, visit https://zurl.co/sMnj

We’re joined by Dr. Deryk Van Brunt, CEO of CredibleMind, and professor at U.C. Berkeley’s School of Public Health, to discuss the state of healthcare informatics, the mental health/wellbeing app space, and his company, which he calls the Yelp of Healthcare. Add a star if you’re a Keith Jarrett fan.

David Foote, chief analyst and co-founder of the eponymous Foote Partners, an IT analyst firm, discusses how COVID proved to be a boon for forward-thinking, agile leaders, important technologies that will evolve in the coming years, in-demand tech skills, and what policies and technologies conservative companies can implement to move the needle on productivity, talent retention, innovation.

Brian Levine, Mercer’s Global Pay Equity Leader and a Partner in Mercer’s Workforce Strategy & Analytics Practice on their pay equity process, the major changes driving the evolution in pay equity assessments...and insights into the impact their work has on just about every major business process, function and goal, from retaining talent to promoting a high-performance culture to managing today’s increasingly distributed workforce.

Scott Torrey, CEO of PayScale and expert in AI-driven compensation solutions, discusses modern pay strategies. He tackles the complexities of compensation in a hybrid work environment, emphasizing transparency and effective communication. Scott highlights the need for flexible benefits and mental health support to attract and retain top talent. The conversation also dives into how social movements are shaping pay structures, pushing companies toward fairer compensation practices.

Dr. Solange Charas, the Founder and CEO of HCMoneyball, discusses how CEOs and CFOs can use standardized metrics to understand and predict the impact of their investments in their people…and the need for HR to become better at understanding and communicating the impact of human capital trends on business and financial outcomes.

Marco Rodriguez Tapia, who leads Pepsico Europe’s transformation and lean projects, joins us from his office in Amsterdam to discuss how they adapted a video game - Minecraft - to successfully extend their LSS training program around the world in a post-COVID 19 environment...an idea that came from his 10-year-old son who played a major role in developing the platform! We also discuss how their approach overcame the inherent limitations of gamifying training and various other business processes.

Dr. Amy Beacom is the founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership (CPLL), the first consulting and coaching company in the U.S. to focus exclusively on parental leave. She is also the author of the Parental Leave Playbook (Wiley, out September 15). Amy makes a convincing business case for better supporting parental leave - including offering paid leave (the US is the only developed country without a nationwide paid leave policy). She also discusses why providing parental leave training and support products is an increasingly important benefit to a growing number of people entering the workplace, well before they even start families.

The goal of executive compensation should be to motivate the right behaviors that lead to value creation for shareholders – unfortunately, this is all-too-often not the case. Gregory Milano, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of the consulting firm Fortuna, provides a sneak preview of his presentation at WorldatWork’s TR show in October: Incentives Proven to Drive Shareholder Return. Includes a very interesting exchange on “ownership culture.”