HR Works: The Podcast for Human Resources

Welcome to the first weekly episode of HR Works: COVID-19 Update. We will be publishing these shorter episodes every week with the goal of covering employment law issues surrounding COVID-19. We are pleased to have employment attorney Jonathan Mook with us today to discuss the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, or the FFCRA for short. Jonathan is an attorney at DiMuroGinsburg PC, attorneys at law operating out of Virginia. He is a nationally recognized authority on the Americans with Disabilities Act and is the author of two treatises published by Matthew Bender Company, “Americans with Disabilities Act: Employee Rights and Employer Obligations” and “Americans with Disabilities Act: Public Accommodations and Commercial Facilities.” Learn more about Jonathan here: https://www.dimuro.com/meet-our-attorneys/jonathan-r-mook/ And you can view the FFCRA employee rights poster here: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/posters/FFCRA_Poster_WH1422_Non-Federal.pdf

When HR professionals and hiring managers need to fill a slot, what do they do? They go to LinkedIn and job boards. According to the guest of this episode, such an approach may not be going far enough. In fact, they might be a big waste of time. This episode features Michael “Batman” Cohen. He is the Founder of Wayne Technologies, a contract sourcing and recruitment training organization. His unique approach to sourcing is one based on deliverables, transparent data, and using multiple sources/platforms to find the greatest diversity and quality of candidates. Michael is also going to be speaking at our annual RecruitCon 2020 (https://live.blr.com/event/recruitcon-denver/) in Kissimmee, Florida on November 10th at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center. The session is called “Recruiting Hacks” and Michael’s talk during that session is called “Innovative Ways to Use Tech Tools to Reduce Time-to-Fill.” Additionally, RecruitCon will be co-located with two of our other events, HR Comply and Workforce L&D. A pass to HR World, which combines all three events is also available.

Rare is the HR professional that was formerly a firefighter paramedic and hazardous materials engineer. One such individual found that much of what he learned in his former careers gave him the tools he needed to meet the many challenges that he faced as an HR professional. Taylor Bradley is the Director, HRBP of Global Product Development at Datto (https://www.datto.com). As mentioned he was also formerly a firefighter paramedic and hazardous material technician. He started in HR as a Talent Acquisition Specialist for Princess Cruise Lines. He was also the first HRBP at Remote Medical International and the HRBP for Engineering at DocuSign. Graphic Content Warning: this episode contains some content that some might find disturbing.

In this episode of HR Works we tackle the so-called résumé black hole: the place where job applicants’ resumes vanish to without hiring managers ever seeing them. What is this mysterious place? Why does it exist? And most importantly: is it really doing anyone any good? We have two experts with us to speak about this. The first is Liz Wessel is the Co-Founder & CEO of WayUp (https://www.wayup.com), a venture-backed startup based in NYC that transforms how employers recruit students and recent grads—helping them hire diverse and qualified early-career talent. Liz has been featured in Forbes 30U30, the “18 Coolest Women in Silicon Valley” by Business Insider and NY Business Journal’s “Most Influential Women.” Liz has also been a speaker at TEDx, TechCrunch Disrupt, SXSW and more. Prior to WayUp, Liz worked in marketing at Google in Mountain View and India. We also have Steve Flook, CEO of iHire (https://www.ihire.com). A technologist focused on software systems and information architecture, Steve has been at the forefront of the HR and recruitment technology space for nearly a decade. Since 2011, Steve has served as a change agent with many operational roles at iHire, including president, VP of product development, and director of engineering. As president, Steve helped iHire reach record revenue in 2018 – a feat achieved by continuously improving iHire’s products and services while appealing to both the employer and job seeker market segments.

If you want to combat sexual harassment in a meaningful way, you have to get comfortable having uncomfortable conversations. In fact, a major reason sexual harassment in the workplace still takes place has to do with the culture of silence that surrounds it. Additionally, if your employees are not trained to handle situations as they are happening, an opportunity to stop harassment in its tracks or redirect it toward something less damaging slips away. My guest for this episode of HR Works is an expert when it comes to training workplaces to both prevent sexual harassment and handle incidents when they do happen. Sarah Beaulieu is an author and a speaker and trains workplaces on sexual harassment prevention and response. Beaulieu just published a book, Breaking the Silence Habit: A Practical Guide to Uncomfortable Conversations in the #MeToo Workplace (https://sarahbeaulieu.me/breaking-the-silence-habit), and offers employees and managers a path forward to learn—and teach—the skills required for safe and respectful workplaces for people of all genders. Beaulieu writes and speaks frequently about sexual harassment and violence. Her work and expertise have been featured in the Harvard Business Review, the Boston Business Journal, Fox News, the Providence Journal, AskMen.com, Cognoscenti (WBUR), the Nonprofit Quarterly, Commonhealth (WBUR), The Chronicle of Philanthropy, the Good Men Project, HuffPost, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. She’s been a featured speaker at TEDxBeacon Street and the Business Innovation Factory Summit. Beaulieu enjoys engaging and training audiences at a wide variety of organizations ranging from start-ups to larger companies and from national conferences for fraternity members to members of the Junior League.

What are your training roadblocks? Perhaps you don't have the time or resources to roll out the training you need. Maybe you can't get buy-in from leadership. It could be that your training never sticks, so why bother. In this episode of HR Works Podcast, our guest believes that such roadblocks are far from insurmountable. We are pleased to have Diane Sadwoski-Joseph, Director of Facilitator Development at LifeLabs Learning (https://lifelabslearning.com/) with us today. She uses her specialization in adult learning, strategic communication, and behavior change to help LifeLabs Facilitators become world-class educators. Before LifeLabs, Diane built People Ops, L&D, and train-the-trainer programs in organizations around the globe. She also studies the differences between average and great influencers in the People Ops space.

In this special episode we address the so-called coronavirus. With cases numbering in the tens of thousands across dozens of countries, and hundreds of deaths, this poorly understood disease has created no small amount of chaos and fear. Some of those fears are justified and some not. The U.S. currently has around one dozen confirmed cases. What does this mean for HR? HR is often the department that sets sick leave policies and might be responsible for the safety side of the organization as well. Additionally, with HIPAA and various discrimination laws, navigating the legal side of the employment issue can be tricky. We are lucky to have two experts with us to help understand the best practices for preventing the spread of the disease (and other diseases) at work and understand the legal complexities at play. First, we have Elaine Hanh Le, MD, Senior Director, Medical Affairs at Healthline. She brings her years of clinical and healthcare technology experience to help consistently create high-quality, empathetic, and engaging content and products that uphold the highest medical integrity. We are have Alka Ramchandani-Raj, an attorney at Littler’s Walnut Creek office. She focuses on Federal and State Occupational Safety and Health law and assists employers with a wide range of complex situations with the workforce. If you are interested in learning more about this, consider attending our webinar on Friday, March 6th at 1:30PM Eastern Time titled "Coronavirus and Other Contagions: HR and Safety’s Role in Preventing the Spread of Infection When a Potential Pandemic Strikes." https://store.blr.com/coronavirus-030620

Tackling training can be quite challenging. Other than getting training sticky and making sure it reaches the right people, another major concern concerns how training for one employee might not work so well. In this episode we to discuss an approach to training that takes those differences into account. And, we talk about birds. Merrick Rosenberg co-founded Team Builders Plus in 1991 and Take Flight Learning (https://takeflightlearning.com/)in 2012. He is the author of The Chameleon and Taking Flight!, two books about tapping into the power of our personality. Merrick reinvented how we learn about ourselves and the people in our lives…and you are going to get a taste of that in this episode. Merrick developed a range of personality-based training programs that are delivered by his staff and a growing network of certified trainers around the world. He has worked with more than half of the Fortune 100 companies and under his leadership as CEO, Take Flight Learning has been selected as the New Jersey Business of the Year and has repeatedly been named one of the Fastest Growing Companies and Best Places to Work in the Philadelphia area.

Workplace investigations are very serious, usually resulting from unfortunate or unpleasant events. Furthermore, the entire process can easily end up under the scrutiny of a number of legal professionals including employment lawyers and judges. It is very important that HR professionals get their investigations right. This episode's guest specializes in workplace investigations and is here to help us dispel some of the common myths of these stressful procedures. Allison West, Esquire, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, AWI-CH is the founder of Employment Practices Specialists (https://employmentpractices.net/) Allison started her company to fulfill her personal mission of helping companies build and maintain safe, respectful and productive workplaces. Allison focuses her practice on conducting workplace investigations, delivering one-on-one sensitivity training for executives, managers and employees concerning sexual harassment, discrimination, and diversity awareness issues, coaching managers and employees with disciplinary and/or behavioral problems, providing expert witness and litigation assistance, and offers clients a 24/7 employee complaint line.

Whatever your aims, be they improving retention and engagement, upskilling your employees, encouraging innovation, or improving inclusion; training your employees is a critical tool. Everyone wants to know: how do we make sure that training is effective, that it lasts, and that employees engage the training process? This episode’s guest has been part of a unique training effort at Liberty Mutual Insurance. They have developed a series of eLearning training videos with the goal of building a more inclusive environment within their company. They have had so much success that they have decided to provide their videos to other companies. All proceeds from those videos go to a non-profit. Here to discuss the creation and success of those videos is SVP and Chief Diversity & Inclusion officer at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Dawn Frazier-Bohnert. Prior to joining Liberty Mutual, Dawn’s previous positions include: Chief Administrative Officer and Partner at Global Novations, Vice President, Global Diversity and Inclusion at The Gillette Company and HR leadership positions at Lotus/IBM, Fidelity Investments and Millennium Pharmaceuticals. She attended Mount Holyoke College and graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor of Science degree. She has served on the Women’s Network Advisory Board for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Dawn has been recognized by the GK100 list of Boston’s 100 Most Influential People of Color, the 2016-2018 Profiles in Diversity Journal Diversity Leader Award, the 2016 Black Enterprise List of "Top Executives in Corporate Diversity“ and Insurance Business America's Hot 100 2018 list.