
HRchat Podcast
Listen to the HRchat Podcast by HR Gazette to get insights and tips from HR leaders, influencers and tech experts. Topics covered include HR Tech, HR, AI, Leadership, Talent, Recruitment, Employee Engagement, Recognition, Wellness, DEI, and Company Culture.Hosted by Bill Banham, Pauline James, and other HR enthusiasts, the HRchat show publishes interviews with influencers, leaders, analysts, and those in the HR trenches 2-4 times each week. The show is approaching 1000 episodes and past guests are from organizations including ADP, SAP, Ceridian, IBM, UPS, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Simon Sinek Inc, NASA, Gartner, SHRM, Government of Canada, Hacking HR, McLean & Company, UPS, Microsoft, Shopify, DisruptHR, McKinsey and Co, Virgin Pulse, Salesforce, Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Coca-Cola Beverages Company.Want to be featured on the show? Learn more here. Podcast Music Credit"Funky One"Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Latest episodes

Feb 24, 2022 • 16min
Leadership and Reviving Company Culture with Melanie Pump
In this HRchat episode, we will attempt to offer you a glimpse into what it takes to review and revive your company culture. Bill's guest is Melanie Pump, a CFO with a passion for driving cultural change within organizations. She's also the author of the best-selling book, Detox. Melanie says she wrote Detox to help leaders and employees everywhere learn how to truly thrive.Instead of fostering a workplace that magnifies human frailties, Melanie says she can help you discover the strategies and practices to address your team’s emotional needs and unlock their true potential.Listen and learn how to create a healthier, more secure environment for employees.Questions Include:How can HR leaders identify potentially toxic practices/attitudes in the workplace?What tools and tactics can they use to assess the real culture on the 'shop floor'?Can you briefly run through the real, tangible impacts of toxic work environments that can diminish innovation, collaboration, succession planning, and productivity?How did you see some of these show up in work environments in your earlier career?What are some “natural insecurities and fears” within a team, and if they’re so natural, why do leaders tend to be so blind to them?How does insecurity affect team member performance?What are the subtle signs of a company culture that keeps team members from expressing their diverse ideas? What are some perceived dangers of “pushing back”?What are some of your strategies to reduce workplace uncertainty”?How can leaders bring their team members together in an authentic way? Can you now talk to me about a few of the ways to shape a non-toxic, collaborative corporate environment?More About MelanieMelanie is part of the team at Brane Capital, an independent partner for digital asset custody. Particularly attuned to the critical effects of a toxic environment, Melanie spent more than twenty years of progressive corporate experience studying the impact leaders and workplace cultures have on employee security and performance.Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 22, 2022 • 23min
Episode 400: Compassion and Kindness in Uncertain Times
Welcome to this special 400th episode of the HRchat podcast. Launched all the way back in the summer of 2016, it's amazing to think we've hit such a milestone!Bill and the team had planned to take today's 400th episode in a very different direction but, although many countries around the world are optimistically coming out the other side of the Omicron wave, we are currently faced with new and scary challenges.The geopolitical situation in Europe right now is weighing on us all and threatens scenarios not seen in over 75 years. For this reason, we decided to use the 400th edition of the HRchat podcast to remind us all of the kindness we all can choose to convey and the good we should always try to see in others. Listen as we share a montage of insights from past guests on what it means to be a compassionate, loving, understanding, and thoughtful colleague or leader. Listen and get inspiration from such experts asDave Ulrich, PhD: What are some ways that leaders can deliver hope and purpose when the future is so uncertain for so many?Alysha Campbell: Building trust in the midst of uncertainty - anchoring Employee engagement strategies on the 8 pillars of trust. Bill Treasurer: Ways to build backbones, boost performance, and get results.Mumtaz Chaudhary: The biggest challenges leaders face when it comes to managing change and how to inspire others.David Sturt: Why traditional ways of managing have finally been put to rest as a result of the Covid crisis, and how forward-thinking leaders can co-create thriving workplace cultures through powerful, meaningful micro-experiences. Mary Marzec, PhD: How organizations can start building a supportive culture of wellbeing and how that can help to increase engagement.Leeno Karumanchery, PhD: Ways managers and HR teams can lead in ways that are more inclusive and take a systematic approach to address the need for ongoing anti-oppression. Tia Graham: Ways to encourage leaders to be happier and the knock-on effects for employee engagement, company culture and the bottom line. We hope you enjoyed this special HRchat episode. Stay tuned over the coming weeks to hear new episodes featuring such industry figures as Dan Hunter, Charlene Thomas, Joe Britto, Dr. Tyrone Smith Jr., Ilya Brotsky, Norm Smallwood, Whitney Johnson, Michael G Cox, Terry Baker, and the amazingSupport the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 18, 2022 • 20min
Healthcare Affordability and Employee Benefits with Darius Chehrzad, Paytient
In this HRchat we hone in on employee financial wellbeing. Bill Banham is joined by Darius Chehrzad, the Chief Commercial Officer at Paytient, a company focused on helping people better access affordable care. Paytient works with employers, partners, brokers, and health systems to provide a healthier way to pay for out-of-pocket care expenses.Questions Include:How does something like Paytient fit into an employer's benefits offering?What does it mean to say affordability in healthcare has moved one step forward and two steps back? What is the effect of OOP increasing on our physical and financial well-being? What is the effect of members not being able to pay medical bills?What is the effect of this on providers? How does this come back in higher fees and premiums?What are the non-obvious implications that HR is missing? When employees are not getting care, what are the long-term effects?With this cycle of price increases and people not getting care, there seems to be a big focus on HDHP to try to keep costs down. How does Paytient help with this transition?We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc. Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 17, 2022 • 25min
Culture As a Service with Juan Betancourt, Humantelligence
In this HRchat, we focus on company culture and the concept of 'Culture As a Service'. Bill's guest is Juan Luis Betancourt, CEO at Humantelligence. Juan has previously been named as a Top 100 HR Tech Influencer in HR Executive Magazine. His experience in human capital advising was developed while a partner at Korn/Ferry International and Heidrick & Struggles. Previously, he had a global career as a general manager. Questions Include: Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about HumantelligenceCulture As a Service - How to define culture? And what advice would you give on culture? What is CaaS – culture as a service?Should the aim be to find candidates that match up with the values of the company or should organizations be looking to hire people who help to evolve the corporate culture and mission?What are the potential consequences of not hiring in a way that tries to ensure new employees are a culture fit?How can HR support efforts to make the kind of hires that increase the diversity of thought in a company?Your module, HireGuru is designed to give recruiting firms expert insights on how candidates will fit into their clients' team culture and available roles. How can that be a USP for recruiters during The Great Resignation?How can we learn more?More About Juan Luis BetancourtJuan previously worked at Siebel Systems (now Oracle) and at Procter & Gamble, in both the US and Latin America. While at Puma, as Chief Marketing Officer & Strategy Officer based in Germany, he was responsible for re-launching the Puma sports brand globally.More About HumantelligenceHumantelligence is a cloud-based Culture Analytics and recruiting platform that aims to solve today’s top workforce challenges with advanced patented technology leveraging behavioral science and Artificial Intelligence to improve key talent management areas like recruiting, hiring, culture alignment, employee engagement, and employee turnover. We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc. Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 15, 2022 • 25min
How HR and Leaders Can Build a Speak-Up Culture with Stephen Shedletzky
In this episode of the HRchat show, we hear from Stephen Shedletzky, Founder, Speaker, Coach with Shed Inspires. Stephen is also one of the inspiring Igniters at Simon Sinek’s ‘Start with Why’ team. Stephen engages with people in meaningful ways so that we can connect with depth and live in a more fulfilled world. With a knack for sharing the right words at the right moment, he delivers evidence-based content in a provocative, captivating and light-hearted way.Stephen and Bill Discuss:What is a speak-up culture?Can you point to any organizations that are getting it right? Shed Inspires. Understanding the definition and importance of psychological safety, in the workplace and beyond, and why speak-up cultures are good for people and good for business. Discovering the two components of a speak-up culture – Encourage & Reward. Learning and practicing tactical and proven methods to listen to your people and cultivate a feedback-rich speak-up culture. Exploring the destructive impact of toxic positivity and gaslighting on people, teams and cultures. Can you offer any stats to demonstrate what toxicity can do to employee happiness/engagement/retention? toxicity great resignation Unpacking leaders' responsibility and advantage in building a speak-up culture. Enjoyed the conversation? Check out Stephens's last appearance on the HRchat podcast here. We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc. Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 11, 2022 • 29min
How to Incentivize Employees and Contingent Staff with Manoj Agarwal, Xoxoday
In this HRchat episode, we talk about the employee experience, what's changing in rewards and recognition, and ways to incentivize not just your full-time staff but your contingent workers too!Bill's guest this time is Manoj Agarwal, co-founder of Xoxoday, a company that provides technology infrastructure to enable businesses to automate rewards, incentives & payout processes across the value chain.Manoj is a Computer Science Engineer and brings over 14 years of experience in technology, product, marketing, and business excellence to the Xoxoday team. He has previously worked with companies like Yahoo, Manipal Education, and Flipkart.Questions Include: How can HR offer a voice to every employee in the organization? What are the tech options available?Your team offers ways to create adaptable commission structures to keep one's best customer-facing employees happy and motivated. How is managing the remuneration of sales and customer-facing employees different from the recognition of those on the back lines? (E.g. need for agile commission structures v annual reviews). Dave Johnston shout outDoes gamification still work? Isn't culture and work-from-home options more important?Can you share your thoughts on how organizations can go about addressing the challenges posed by The Great Resignation and how do you think tech can enable possible solutions? In such a scenario how do you think rewards and recognition can work? Are you observing any trends on the types of rewards and incentives that are keeping employees from leaving their jobs during The Great Resignation?Gig workers today consider more than money when deciding on a project - like social, financial, and health benefits. What are some easy and effective ways to recognize one's contingent staff beyond pay?The Xoxoday team has a unique interpretation of the term "R&R" can you share what you mean by the term and how it has been expanded to include consideration around: rewards and recognition, respect and relationships, and remote and retain?More About Manoj AgarwalManoj's strategic direction has helped Xoxoday acquire the right talent, including more than thirty ex-founders who built and ran innovative startups, responsible for the company's growth and success.Manoj's efforts are focused on productizing consumer problems to giveSupport the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 10, 2022 • 23min
The Great Resignation's Impact on the Recruitment Process with Keirsten Greggs, TRAP Recruiter LLC
If you're looking to understand the recruitment landscape during the 2022 installment of The Great Resignation or if you want to up the level of diversity in your organization, this podcast episode is for you. Listen and learn practical techniques and strategies you can use to attract, source, and hire diverse candidates during this unprecedented time of talent mobility.Bill's guest this time is Keirsten Greggs, founder and CEO of TRAP Recruiter LLC, a recruiting consulting and career coaching firm. With over 20 years of experience in talent acquisition, she's passionate about helping organizations attract, select and retain the best people, including underrepresented candidates, as well as helping job seekers find their voice in the hiring process.With over 20 years of experience in Talent Acquisition, she’s known around the industry. Add that to being featured as an expert by ERE, InHerSight, Diversity Jobs, Hiretual, Talview, TechTarget, BBC World Service Radio, MadameNoire, Fast Company, and SiriusXM Urban View.Questions Include:* Can you explain your passion for recruiting?* How has The Great Resignation made the job of recruiters and TA pros more difficult?* How are recruitment and talent acquisition different? * How important is the role of sourcing to finding top candidates? * What are your top diversity recruiting strategies to achieve true DEI in the workplace? We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast, and Iceni Media Inc. Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 8, 2022 • 24min
Biggest Challenges Faced By Human Resources with Dave Ulrich, RBL Group
Our guest today has been ranked as the number one management guru by Business Week, profiled by Fast Company as one of the world’s top 10 creative people in business, a top-five coach in Forbes, and recognized on Thinkers50 Hall of Fame as one of the world’s leading business thinkers.Dave Ulrich has a passion for ideas with impact. Dave and his colleagues at the RBL Group have 30+ years of experience in helping organizations and individuals succeed through HR practices in talent, leadership, and organization. Dave previously appeared on the HRchat pod back in May 2020. In that show, he talked about ways leaders and employees can come through the Covid-19 crisis with greater resilience and new skills.Questions Posed to Dave Include:Throughout the Covid crisis, you have remained an optimist; emphasizing the opportunities available to HR leaders willing to use this time as a chance to learn and grow. When it comes to the role of the HR function in contributing to the overall success of the org, what are you most hopeful for in 2022?What are the biggest challenges facing HR leaders now and through the rest of 2022? what are the roadblocks facing hr and leaders to getting to success in the marketplace? How has 'The David Ulrich HR model' evolved over the past 25 years? In a 2021 interview, you explain "now is the time to reinvent HR by pivoting from benchmarking and best practice to guidance. Instead of improving by comparing oneself to others and by adapting what others do well, we must move beyond these descriptions of HR work to prescriptions ... We want to move to guidance to be prescriptive on what should be done." Please can you expand on the why and explain how HR departments can become more prescriptive? In Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 4, 2022 • 25min
Encouraging Equity and Communication From the Top Down with Terri Hartwell Easter and Susan Brooks, T.H. Easter Consulting
In this episode, we focus on lifelong professional development and DEI best practices.Bill Banham's guests are Terri Hartwell Easter and Susan Brooks from T.H. Easter Consulting LLC, a firm on a mission to offer informed solutions to the toughest human resource management challenges.Questions Include:During our research for this interview, we learned that T.H. Easter Consulting was awarded the 2021 American Business Awards, “Stevie” for its “DE&I Sustainability Framework”, can you tell us what it is and what is special about it.All kinds of organizations took a step back in the wake of George Floyd's murder - trying to understand whether and how racism and other “isms” exist in their workplaces. What has been your experience of working with organizations to better understand whether and how “isms” exist and what to do about it? What advice would you offer to organizations that have not started a formal process or maybe contemplating one? The pandemic changed the way we work: teleworking, large numbers of women leaving the workplaces, and much more. As a result, the workforce seems to be demanding more from employees when it comes to pay, work hours, and benefits. What are you seeing? Speaking of telework and the ”hybrid workplace” – what are you seeing as the impact on organizations? We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc. Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events

Feb 3, 2022 • 22min
HR Help For SMBs with Dr. Sue Haywood, Business Sherpa Group
In this HRchat episode, we hear from Dr. Sue Haywood, Director, HR Practice and Head People Officer at Business Sherpa Group, a management consulting company serving small and medium-sized businesses across Canada in the areas of HR, Managed Recruitment, Bookkeeping and complimentary Executive Solutions such as executive search and governance.Sue is also an Assistant Professor at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. Sue’s career includes service with the Canadian Armed Forces and HR roles within healthcare, government, and Fortune 500 companies. She serves on the HRPA board of directors, volunteers with Great Dane rescue, and is the proud mom of a preschooler.Questions Include:Can you share a little about Business Sherpa Group’s hybrid technology-driven approach to Human Resources; blending automation platforms with expert advice from your strategic team?Your team’s goal is to help SMEs have access to the same level of expertise and support that normally only large organizations can afford. Please tell me about how your tap-on, tap-off model enables this.As we record this, we’re living through the peak of the Canadian Omicron wave. With lockdowns and other restrictions can come big numbers of people feeling isolated and unsupported. Why is it so important for employers to invest in mental health and wellness resources for their employees?What have been some of the biggest challenges your clients have faced since the start of the pandemic in terms of retaining talent or cutting staff numbers to keep afloat during the toughest months? Compensation & Benefits: Traditional incentives and rewards are not enough for many employees today. What’s working to attract and retain top talent during The Great Resignation and why?More About SueSue is responsible for the strategic direction and success of the HR Consulting division within a growing enterprise. Sue helps to grow and mentor a team of talented experts who provide HR services to their clients.Her experience and knowledge of HR considerations enable her to provide strategic advice to private and public sectors, unionized and non-unionized workplaces, and large and small organizations.Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events