HR Works: The Podcast for Human Resources

With limited resources and time, it can be challenging for employers to initiate annual Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) training programs for their managers and supervisors. However, the Department of Labor routinely reports that supervisor training is a top area of non-compliance for employers. If organizations don’t properly train their front-line employees, costly litigation could result. As several recent court cases demonstrate, there is a compelling business case for prioritizing annual training to ensure supervisors and managers are equipped to navigate a potential FMLA or ADA request from an employee. Today we’ll explore best practices and resources that support employers in integrating supervisor training into their compliance and training programs. Founded in 1992, the Disability Management Employer Coalition (DMEC) is the only association dedicated to providing focused education for HR professionals who manage absence and disability in their organizations. Through in-person and online events, certification and training programs, and tools and resources, DMEC delivers effective strategies and best practices to maintain regulatory compliance, improve workforce productivity, and enhance employee engagement and health. DMEC supports over 14,000 members across the United States and Canada, and offers the knowledge and networking they need to effectively manage their integrated benefit programs and expanding workforce challenges. To address these challenges DMEC provides a training program called FMLA/ADA Training for Supervisors and Managers that includes a 25-minute video, a 10-question quiz to test knowledge, a certificate of completion and ADA and FMLA roadmaps, and the ability to track who has successfully completed the training. Find out more information about DMEC at www.dmec.org. We are pleased to have the CEO of DMEC, Terry Rhoades with us today. Terri has extensive knowledge and expertise in all aspects of absence and disability program management and prior to DMEC dedicated her career to designing, developing, and managing various organization’s absence programs. Terri has been leading DMEC strategically since 2012 and became the Chief Executive Officer in 2015. Terri holds an MBA (Business Management) from Columbus University, a Certified Professional in Disability Management (CPDM), and a Certified Case Management Professional (CCMP) from the Insurance Educational Association, Certified Leave Management Specialist.

As an HR professional you know how important diversity and inclusion are. This episode's guest is a leader of the conversation surrounding these efforts. We are pleased to have Claudia Chan, CEO of S.H.E. GLOBL, a coalition+content+convening platform that helps companies unlock a diverse and inclusive workforce to transform both its culture and its communities. She is the founder of their award-winning leadership conference S.H.E. Summit that has made advancing women and workplace inclusion both accessible and actionable. That event is attended by some of the largest organizations in the world including Deloitte, Samsung, Bacardi, Home Depot, and Adidas to name a few. Claudia is also the author of the leadership book THIS IS HOW WE RISE: Reach Your Highest Potential, Empower Women, Lead Change in the World which was named by CNBC as a “top career book of 2018” and also featured in The New York Times. Claudia was also recently named 1 of 8 UN Women Champions for Innovation. She has been referred to as “the change-agent maker” and Fast Company has called her the “Richard Branson of women’s empowerment.”

In episode 101 of HR Works Podcast, we tackle the performance review: an issue that is sometimes hotly debated. Some organizations still believe in yearly reviews, others on informal discussions, and still others believe that there should be no reviews at all. Today’s guest is an expert on performance reviews, especially the 1 on 1 meeting. We are pleased to have Shane Metcalf, Co-founder & Chief Culture Officer, at 15Five. Shane is a seasoned executive coach and speaker who is obsessed with building healthy organizations, and creating the opportunity for people to have meaningful work and meaningful relationships. Driven by his deep belief in the potential of our species, Shane co-founded 15Five, industry-leading performance management software that is unlocking the potential of the global workforce. As Chief Culture Officer, Shane understands what fundamentally motivates people, how to architect high performance, and which principles and rituals create “self-organizing cultures.” This episode is sponsored by 15Five (https://www.15five.com/podcast).

HR plays a central role in keeping abreast of the constant change that organizations must undergo to survive. Having a strategy for change is critical, but with so many voices out there on how to do that, one can be easily lead astray. With that in mind, we are pleased to celebrate our 100th episode of HR Works Podcast with legendary expert Dave Ulrich. In this episode, we discuss the latest approaches towards transforming HR in a constantly changing world. For those of you unfamiliar with Dave, he is the Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value. He studies how organizations build capabilities of leadership, speed, learning, accountability, and talent through leveraging human resources. He has helped generate award winning data bases that assess alignment between strategies, organization capabilities, HR practices, HR competencies, and customer and investor results. Dave has published over 200 articles and book chapters and over 25 books. He edited Human Resource Management 1990-1999, served on editorial board of 4 Journals, on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller, and Board of Trustees at Southern Virginia University, and is a Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources.

How do you qualify employee engagement? This episode's guest, Chris Meroff, is an employee engagement specialist who believes that not all engagement is created equally. While everyone agrees that engagement is important, the execution of engagement is where employers tend to make mistakes, says Meroff. A successful program addresses the employee's need for fulfillment. That means investing in who they are and how that complements or doesn't complement their job. In this podcast, we'll explore how HR can dive into what makes employees unique, what is their world view, and how HR can partner with them to achieve their fulfillment. This episode is sponsored by 15Five (https://www.15five.com/podcast).

What happens when an HR professional finds themselves in the middle of a high growth phase at their organization? Do you scale up your HRIS? Do you hire more staff to handle the new employees? How do you maintain culture during such a disruptive time? We aim to answer these questions in episode 98 of HR Works Podcast. Today’s guest has a lot of experience surrounding high growth. Greg Brown is the CEO of Reflektive, a people management platform. Before that, Brown served as Senior Vice President of International Business at Blackhawk Network, which helps companies create rewarding experiences and relationships. Prior to Blackhawk Network, Brown held the position of Chief Revenue Officer at Achievers, an employee recognition and engagement solutions company. He has held many other roles as well, but the current shared among them is that he helped each undergo periods of high growth.

We all know that performance and safety issues surrounding substance abuse in the workplace are big concerns. My guests for episode 98 of HR Works Podcast discuss a much wider range of legal and other challenges surrounding substance abuse. For example, working with your insurance company before obtaining Narcan (the anti-drug for opioid overdoses) to make sure you have coverage should administration of Narcan goes poorly. Another example involves ensuring that a well thought out plan for handling an overdose on premises is in place, including what to do when there are actual drugs present after an overdose or which authorities to contact and when. Today’s guests are attorneys Dale L. Deitchler and Jeffrey E. Dilger. Deitchler is a shareholder at Littler and represents management in all phases of labor law, labor relations, and standards. Dale also counsels clients on a wide variety of employment law issues, offering advice and practical solutions about the Family and Medical Leave Act, discipline and discharge, employment discrimination, employment and non-competition agreements, and unemployment compensation. Dilger represents and counsels clients in a broad range of labor matters, including: Unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board, labor arbitration, labor negotiations, and National Labor Relations Board elections. In addition to a robust labor law practice, Jeff routinely counsels clients in the ever-evolving field of federal and state drug and alcohol testing laws. Jeff’s practice includes assisting clients with all aspects of drug and alcohol testing programs, including creation, implementation and enforcement.

Even if you onboard the best employees, if you don’t train them well (or at all), everything suffers from the employees right down to the bottom line. In this episode of HR Works, we are lucky to be joined by learning expert Tanya Staples, VP of Product, Learning Content at LinkedIn. Over 10 years ago, Tanya was an author and online video creator at lynda.com, a LinkedIn property. Driven by her passion for education, she joined the company full-time, and has worked closely with co-founder Lynda Weinman to ensure her teaching style and philosophy are represented in all lynda.com instructional content. She now oversees both the Content Management team who defines the content strategy and the Production team who executes against that vision.

When a workplace lacks civility, it creates fear, anxiety, a lack of transparency, and the whole place descends into a dark place. Our guest in this episode of HR Works specializes in workplace civility training. Colleen Passard is a writer, mediator and coach. She has a Masters in Humanistic Counseling Psychology and is certified in many areas of conflict resolution, circle processes and restorative justice. Colleen has facilitated empowerment workshops and conflict resolution trainings to a wide variety of audiences and organizations, from CEO’s to prison inmates. She currently serves on a mediation panel for the Department of Homeland Security. Colleen’s work focuses on helping her clients actuate new ways of relating and behaving that bring their inner and outer conflicts into harmony and balance. If you want to learn more about this topic from Colleen, join us on November 14th in Nashville, Tennessee at our event, Workforce L&D. She will be co-hosting a session titled: Management Training to Foster Civility and Respect—and Banish Cultural Negativity. You can learn more here: https://live.blr.com/event/workforce-learning-development/ Additionally, you can learn more about Colleen at her website: https://colleenpassard.com/

We all have unconscious biases. Without awareness and tools for confronting these biases, organizations will develop or extend major problems. The effects of such bias impact everything in an organization including recruiting and promotion decisions as well as heavily influencing company culture. This episode's guest is an expert when it comes to confronting and eliminating unconscious biases. Brad Federman is the Chief Executive Officer of Performance Point, as well as an author, speaker, and a consultant with more than 25 years of corporate experience in various aspects of human resources. Brad will also be co-hosting a session titled “Eradicating Unconscious Bias: How to Build a Diverse Workplace and Equalize Hiring, Pay, and Performance-Based Decisions” on November 14 in Nashville, Tennessee, at our event HR Comply 2019. Please consider joining us for that event. Learn more here: https://store.blr.com/hr-comply