Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• First non-family CEO in 104 years.
• Opened books for transparent trust-building.
• Created actionable core values.
• Performance reviews aligned with core values.
• Emphasis on hiring for cultural fit.

Resources:

• S. Clyde Weaver
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with William Roche:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

•  Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 11:14 -  Take ownership. It's not just ownership generally, it's take ownership. You need to act like an owner. You need to honor your commitments. You need to own up to y your failures. You need to act with integrity. So those are just some examples of how we, we took this idea of values, core values and found a way to apply it or to make it actionable. 
• 18:02 - That might be the most important thing is avoid hiring the wrong people because it's so much more work and energy if you hire the wrong person. But if you do happen to do, so having a set of core values as a framework to course correct makes it so much easier than saying like, I don't know if we hired the right person. On the other hand, if ahead of time you, you go into, in an interview with somebody and you can, you can identify that they're kind of matching, and meeting all of these kind of core values or most of them you can feel good about making the hire to fit even if they don't have the best skillset you can hire for fit and train to skill. 
• 26:06 - We did, we had some turnover over the years with change. And you're going to have that with any organization. There's gonna be those that just don't wanna participate. You've chosen to go different directions. The thing is, once you define the direction you're going, you define who you are, you define those values. If you've got somebody that says, well, I don't agree with it, then the entire team can be, can be accepting of that and say, okay, that's fine. It doesn't mean you're a bad person, but it means that we have to part ways here and we can all be okay with it. 
• 27:15 - To really figure out what are your values and two, what it is so important to do. And it's so important that you really put thought into it. And I love that you took the approach of who are we now and who do we wanna be, right? What represents who we are and what's really important that is, is maybe always a part of who we are, but also let's think about who it is we need to become or where we wanna go and create values that address that as well and the impact that those values can really have. 
• 31:12 - And I would just go back to kind of what I said at the beginning about communication. It is so important to communicate, build trust, to frequently be seen, and be connected with those that you're working with. Yeah, I mean, without trust, nobody's gonna wanna do anything for you. And the way you do that is being open, being there, connecting, and communicating well. 

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Secrets to a 98% Client Retention.
• Key to Thriving in Your Career.
• Philly CEO's Lifelong Company Tenure.
• Mentorship & Growth in Corporate.
• Cultivating an Essential Service.

Resources:

• The Haverford Trust Company
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Joseph McLaughlin :

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 10:10 -  Whenever I'm thinking about assessing our status, I'll always ask myself, are our company's values clear? And are they being, are they achievable? Are they being communicated effectively across all levels of the company? And are team members enjoying a consistent experience across departments? And I think, you know, the average person spends about a third of their lifetime in work. And so to make those days matter, you have to have a cultural positive relationship and a sense of community in your company in order for people to achieve and thrive. 
• 16:36 -  If you alienate your peers, you won't need any other corporate enemies. And it's so important that people understand how well you get along with others and, you know, work on your leadership skills first with your peers, and then it'll be recognized by people in the top mentorship, you know, within the company. You can make a phone call and have somebody outside your company to be a mentor, but it's more important, important to identify people within the company, to be your mentor and to push you along. 
• 15:52 - So I think it's really important that young people have that in mind. You know, the other lessons are never, you know, integrity is at the forefront of everything that you should do, and you should never deviate away from that. Every day you're building your reputation and integrity and telling the truth and being honest is most important. You know, personally, I think that lessons where, and word don't wait for things to happen, you have to make them happen. 
• 21:44 - But as I mentioned before, you gotta grow where you're planted and give the job an opportunity and give it your best. But sometimes you're at a roadblock and, or you know, you want a different opportunity and you have to look elsewhere. You know, don't wait for somebody to call, you know, make it happen yourself, reach out to, that's why I think it's really important for people to stay connected to their college or to their, or to their high school, because opportunities will arise through those, through those organizations as well. 
• 20:09 - And so for people out there that are starting their careers and are just, you know, just learning, just trying to figure things out, I think seeking a mentor is the best thing they can do. And I also think of them are nervous to do so. So my question really was to say people are gonna be really open to that, and I do think you have to take responsibility for seeking that out yourself unless your organization has a formal mentorship program. But if they don't, seek it out on your own, you know, find a mentor, find somebody that you can go talk to. I do think it's critical for your success. 

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Transition from tech to sales.
• The birth of sales BPO model.
• Hiring ethos in diverse sales.
• Culture impact on retention.
• Future of office work post-Covid.

Resources:

• Sales Focus
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Tony Horwath:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

•  Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 08:56 - For us it's really about, you know, painting that picture of value to a customer and being able to empathize with someone and really, you know, really provide them with something that's valuable to them. Whether it's, you know, reducing cost or increasing productivity or whatever the case may be. And you don't need to be an extrovert to do that. You just need to be, you know, you need to care about people, you need to be able to communicate well, and you need to be able to think. And if you can do those some really basic things, I think you'll, you can find success in sales. So I think it's a big misnomer that you have to be this big talker and extrovert. You don't need to be
• 05:41 - Once I started really opening up and going into different industries and bringing in other more intelligent people than me, it allowed us to really expand. And that's when we really started developing our culture stronger, developing our relationships, our skill sets, our tool sets. And it allowed us to grow year after year and still to this day, the last I think seven years in a row, even through Covid, we continue to grow and we continue to grow now and expand. So it's been a great ride.
• 13:32 - I think a lot of companies have is, is recruit, right? It's finding good people. It's a challenge across the board. So when it's hard to find people, turnover, attrition becomes even more of a focus, right? Once you get somebody you want to keep them, because there are a lot of companies out there trying to grab them and trying to pull them in when you find someone that's, you know, of quality. So it's a challenge.
• 06:60 - So you're solving business problems. And that was always the part that I enjoyed the most. I'm not the most outgoing person. I'm not an extrovert. I'm not, you know, that typical salesperson who talks to everybody or talks too much, I'm that, you know, thoughtful listening type salesperson who's gonna analyze and then give a response.
• 04:00 - I believe, eighth or sixth-largest company in the world. And they engaged with this tiny little company called Sales Focus. And it was Enron. So most people know the story of Enron, but it was a great six month run until they went bankrupt. But it was a great experience. 'cause what it did, it opened my eyes and said, Hey, we don't have to be an expert in the product. Right? That was the energy sector, but we are the expert in, is we're an expert in sales and marketing. So that kind of developed me to say, all right, let's go outside the, you know, outside our boundaries and outside our comfort zone and start looking at other types of businesses. 

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Steel Sports: More than games.
• The Lasorda Way in coaching.
• Transforming youth, one child at a time.
• Building character and leadership.
• Steel Sports expanding globally.

Resources:

• Steel Sports 
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Martin Brown:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn
• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn

Quotables

• 13:00 -  I think they're some of the hardest skills to actually teach and utilize and be successful with that kind of, we like to use the term core competencies, you know, human-centered skills. So I think that that's kind of what the piece because you know, the teaching the technical element and even in a sport that's, you know, it's, yes, it's difficult, you need experts to do it, but it is actually easier to teach a kid how to hit a baseball or hit a soccer ball and then actually teach them about empathy and leadership skills and how to do that. But I think it's also critical, and I get into the leadership space that we talk about to also recognize that it's important as well that they become intentional and they're genuine and authentic when you're doing teaching those skills.  
• 16:02 - I'm listening to you and the thought that keeps running through my head is the power that one person has to make a difference in somebody else's life. I mean, Tommy did it with that kid when he is, you know, [...] and whatever he said, he made a difference. And we all know that one teacher can really make such a huge difference, difference in a child's life or one coach. I think that's the case for a leader as well.
• 18:06 - And I think, you know, you're saying if you can just lead yourself, I don't think that's such a small statement that you're making. I think first and foremost, we all need to be leaders of ourselves and I think we have to own that role that I do have to take care of who I am and how I show up in this world. And if we could all do that, you know, really what a better place I think things could be. But I do think it does start with us as individuals and realizing that we can make a difference for ourselves, which then can have just this, you know, snowball effect, which is huge. 
• 20:26 - I think, well, the biggest lessons I've learned is I think really is twofold. One, you are only as good as the content that you can give, teach to other people, right? You have to have something there, and it has to be based in some sort of evidence, research, science, you know, anybody can just go out and say, Hey, you should do this, you should do this. You know, we meticulously take our content and build it with experts. And if we're not, if we are not the expert in that field, we'll go find whoever that expert is, or one of those experts and help say, this is what we wanna achieve. How can we help us develop that content? 
• 21:52 - And we, well, we've also had, you know, coaches as part of our organization that haven't bought into what we've done, and it's just not what gonna be, that's fine. There's no right or wrong, this is how we do it, and this is, you know, if, but you've gotta look on what's a fit for you. So if this isn't a fit for you, then, you know, go ahead and do it somewhere else. That's fine. So we are really kind of big on making sure that our coaches are internalizing what we want to do because that's how they then have the biggest impact. 

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Building culture: CEO’s key role
• Creating resident-driven culture
• Empowering staff with accountability
• Intergenerational connections uplift
• Purpose in employee orientation

Resources:

• Garden Spot Village
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)
• The Brave New Work

Connect with Steve Lindsey:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 10:29 - We'd been doing some reading and learning around Maslow's hierarchy of needs and, you know, Viktor Frankl's Man Search for Meaning, and that sense of, you know, that we can weather a lot of storms in our life if we have a sense of purpose. And oftentimes that purpose comes from serving others, from reaching out and sharing what we have with others. 
• 13:30 - It's really a fascinating journey because, you know, if you listen to all the voices in our culture, one of the things they tell you is that, you work hard all your life and then you retire to live the good life, right? And so if you look at the images in advertisements and things, the good life looks like five days of golf a week, right? On a great golf course. Or it looks like, you know, sitting hand in hand and watching the sun go down at the beach, you know, every day. You know, those kind of things. It tends to be a more passive approach to life. And I think what we're learning is that that's really not the good life at all. The life that brings the most joy, the life that brings the most happiness, the bright life that brings the most sense of fulfillment is a life of engagement and involvement. 
• 27:16 - Creating a strong culture is something that we have to do for ourselves. You know, if we're passive, then we're going to be at the whim of others. And so by stepping into that space and being a part of the solution, it helps us to build something that we can all be proud of, that we can all belong in, and that we can all come to work every day feeling good about this place that we spend so many hours in the course of a week. 
• 26:45 - I think the accountability as you describe it, you know, is tied to, at least as I think about it. So I'd love to hear your thoughts is really tied to the conversation you had earlier about we've become this consumer society, right? We buy our solutions, right? Instead of taking personal accountability for them, ourselves, whatever it might be, you know, and some things we can't, right? Some things we do need to buy, but there are other things that we can do ourselves if we were to take that personal accountability to do so. 
• 36:32 - To me, autonomy is that sense that I have a voice,  that my being here matters and I can help to shape the environment in which I work every day. And the way that we serve people here, and then relationships, we all want to be respected. We all want to be connected with other people. We all want a place where we can belong, where we can love others and be loved by others. And, and so, you know, that kind of all rolls together in with that sense of purpose to really try to create an environment that people are pleased to come to work. That they feel that sense of ownership and a sense of pride in what they do every day. 

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Daniel's Journey from Groove to One Beat
• Merging Dance Brands & Corporate Ethics
• Prioritizing Employee Growth & Culture
• Strategic Decisions in Entrepreneurship
• Retaining Talent in the Arts Industry

Resources:

• One Beat Dance Brands
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Daniel DeFranco:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

•  Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 02:35 -  I love when people walk in and they're excited about the atmosphere, the environment, the energy that is the thing. I think one of the things I'm most passionate about, and I love the art of dance and I love work working with kids, especially as time's gone on, I've grown to love that even more. And creating a positive environment for young people to dance is really fulfilling. And to do a good job at it, I think is even more exciting.
• 16:14 - When you really are thoughtful about this kind of change and you are committed to doing the right thing, you mentioned ethics in the beginning about your partnership. While change is not easy for everyone when it's the right decision and the right thing to do, you can tend to sort of have less of a hiccup through it and have better sort of overall business results because of the way you go about that change.
• 10:47 - Holly: How did you go through the process of taking two different businesses and and molding them together down below? Obviously there was some duplication, you didn't need it all. Tell me about that. 
  Daniel: So that's a great question. There's been some duplication. However, we kind of took on the mindset that as we merge, we want this to be better for everybody. It needs to be better for the customer, it needs to be better for the partners, it needs to be better for the employees. So we tend to err on the more generous side of things. 
• 16:32 - Holly: While change is not easy for everyone when it's the right decision and the right thing to do, you can tend to sort of have less of a hiccup through it and have better sort of overall business results because of, because of the way you go about that change.
  Daniel: Yes, totally. And I think it would be foolish to say that of, you know, out of 50 people that nobody would have an issue with the change. So some people will have issues with change in the short term and then they adapt to long term. 
• 30:35 - And traditional military thinking was about hierarchy, hierarchy, right? This general. And then your soldiers kind of executed and that was not how Al-Qaeda was operating. So what they needed to figure out was really how were they, how do they fight this new type of, of enemy? And the idea was rather than having one large team, was to create a team of much smaller teams, hence the title of the book. 

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• “Recovering engineer" to CEO Journey
• Bridging two distinct corporate cultures
• Focus on people & transparent leadership
• Strategic downsizing to 13 service offerings
• Blending mentorship with executive duties

Resources:

• Deep Water Point & Associates
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Brooke Smith:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:31 - So thing one for me was people, let's dig in, let's understand where are the folks who can see around the corner and see the future and embrace it. You know, not everybody, you know, change is, change is difficult for everybody. Some people it's harder than others. And you really need to surround yourself with a leadership team that's embracing the nature of the challenge. So that was thing one. Thing two was then get to the rest of the people.
• 25:53 -  You have to be good with the difficulties between the known and the unknown and the what, what is run of the mill, and what is gotta be done to create something uniquely in impactful for a client. And then there's this pesky thing called the finances and running a profitable business and making good cost trade-offs there, had my door is darkened multiple times a day with requests for money. Hey, I would like to, can we make this? And so kind of keeping that all in balance so that you kind of keep the momentum of all of those kind of working constructively and productively forward. I think that's the magic of the job. That's the art of the job. That's, the yin and the yang of it all. It's just being able to kind of keep those in balance and, and, you know not make it look hard and crazy. 
• 30:47 - It's a little easier 'cause I can be really candid and direct, but you know, I'm a little bit sensitive and a little, you know, nudge the ball. Not, not, nail the ball with some of these young folks and with everybody. But I also in my one-on-ones, even with my executive leaders make this point, come back to this point all the time that we are known by the book of our business and we are the face of that and we represent that brand and those brand qualities. So are we doing that? Are we ensuring that, are you inspecting for it? Are you with your teams ensuring that we're not just letting things that we wouldn't be proud of creep into our business and look forward actively.
• 19:05 - I was kind of trumpeting some of the power of these experts that we have. And I called it a superpower. And that superpower comment has it's a pariah to me now because there's a whole group of 'em who feel like I've overemphasized people who are part-time employees over full-time employees. It was just this, trying to build a bridge, trying to build a connection, trying to create some balance between the two different business models. And, you know, with good intentions, you kind of create its own soundtrack of something that actually I wish I could take back. So it's strike that balance in kind of neutral ways. 
• 29:19 - You're known by your brand, your honesty, your impact, your reputation. It really does matter that you treat that seriously. I counsel that with my children that, you know, as young, young in their careers how important it is to be seen, be there, be visible, get engaged, re-raise your hand and take a challenge on take, do something that you're uncomfortable with.

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Greg's early days at J&J.
• Importance of supply chain traceability.
• The flexibility mantra at NNIT Inc.
• Blending cultures post-merger
• Personal leadership anecdotes

Resources:

• Excellis Health Solutions
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Greg Cathcart:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

•  Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 04:51 - The biggest issue though, around all the legislation is really around patient safety. So, and that's counterfeit drugs and or divergent drugs. Something like a cold issue, right? So if something is supposed to kept cold and it shows up in Oncology clinic for your cancer treatment and it's been warm for two days, it can't be used. Right. And if that's the same day that you're supposed to have your infusion right or whatever. So it's so important to the health of patients.
• 08:21 -  I think early on there was no job markets. So we met and did recruitment at the universities. We kind of knew what we wanted. Supply chain education's very big at Drexel, very big at Penn State, very big at Stevens Institute over here in New Jersey. So we focused on those schools. We went to education days, right? We talked to the youngsters and told them our backgrounds and told them where we were today. And we said, you wanna go to that route? Or to your point, do you wanna go work for big pharma? But we're big consulting, right? Do you wanna go small consulting where you're gonna be closer to a customer or you're gonna go work for Deloitte or an Accenture? I'm not saying they're bad pass at all, but you really have to, you know, work your way up the chain of ever get in face with a customer, right? 'cause it's such a large firm.
• 24:36 - I think the transparency's the biggest. Yes, you could do lots of little things, but if you're not willing to open up and let folks know what you're either thinking or trying to accomplish,you won't get them to get on board. And the last thing you do, they might still do their job, but if they're not focused at the same goals, to your point. How can we as an organization make our goals, even though some individuals might make their goals, that doesn't help the overall organization either. 
• 27:55 - Pharma is a very regulated industry. So we preach to our customers every day how to make sure they button up all the details. Similar to what you just said. So I think a lot of that's intuitive in the way we work as a company. So we've had one leader, I could tell you right now, that we had to let go a couple of years ago because that leader was not leading. That leader was, I don't wanna say abusive, but nasty son of a, you know what? And the people that worked for him were doing great work, but still getting, you know, told they weren't and this and that. And I said, I can't afford to lose the 15 people that work for them. I gotta get rid of the one that's causing the problems. But that was just a bad hire. So you have to address it. Correct. It, that's probably the biggest challenge as executives of companies.
• 32:16 - Hey, you lie about anything. People know you're lying. Guess what? They call you a liar. That's the biggest thing. Right. People are challenged by that. I see it every day. People are challenged with telling the truth. They think the truth's gonna be bad sometimes. I said, you gotta tell 'em the truth. If it's bad information, they gotta hear it too. 'cause if not, they're gonna come back and say, why'd you tell me that when it was really this. Right. So, and for the youngsters, same thing. Don't be afraid to ask. Don't sit back in the corner and hide, raise your hand. Good questions. Any questions a good question, ask it. If you don't know the answer, ask it. We'll help you understand. It doesn't mean you're not smart enough to answer the question yourself. Right. So I think that's the secret. 

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• CEO's naval to legal to healthcare journey
• Rise Together: Patients, therapists & agencies' goal
• In-home therapy tackles patient immobility
• Engagement is key to transformative care
• Ride-alongs shed light on therapists' challenges

Resources:

• InHome Therapy
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Matt Murphy:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 23:01 - We wanna have things that we can actually measure, like, you know, it might be response times or might be attendance at certain things that we have where it might be, you know, responses to surveys or NPS or all those kinds of things. But there's then, you know, then there's kind just the gut check. Okay, so our numbers whatever, 44 this month, is it really, I mean,  are we really where we wanna be in terms of engagement? 
• 27:54 -  It's preserving that mindset that we're gonna do it and measure it and make sure that it's productive and get feedback. And, but it's, again, it can't be said it, forget it. It's, it's gonna be a dynamic. It's gonna be a dynamic growth and we're gonna get some things wrong. And, but hopefully our community of therapists will also appreciate that and do us the favor of telling us, Hey, you screw that one up. That was a waste of my time, so please don't do that again. But let's go back to this. So it's back to, again, us being a good listener,  but creating an environment where they have the opportunity to tell us as well. 
• 18:10 - Margaret: If you don't ride along, if you don't put yourself in those shoes. It's really having empathy. It's giving yourself the opportunity to have the right amount of empathy for what they go through. So that you can meet their needs, which means you can ultimately engage them.
  Matt: And from both sides, really it's both from what our therapists are going through and then what our patients are going through. I mean, you know, to receive care in the home is another not typical dynamic that most people are accustomed to. So that there's learnings on both sides of that. So we could have better appreciation for what the patient's going through as well. 
  Margaret: I would imagine it's a very personal thing. You have a therapist come into the house.
  Matt: Oh, yeah. I mean, just so back to what we're trying, what we're endeavoring to do with, with having just great therapists to do this work, part of that is clinical.
• 23:01 -  Are we really where we wanna be in terms of engagement? So, and I think that's also one of those that is gonna be perpetually just out of arm's reach. I mean,  I think if you feel like you've done it all and you've achieved it, then you're probably fooling yourself. So it's to just keep challenging yourself about whatever, whatever level you might have achieved and success you've had is well then how like any relationship then how could we be slightly better? How could we,  you know, how could we really deliver an experience from the engagement stand that that would be, you know, that would be jaw-dropping? 
• 22:11 - I think lots of trial and error along the way. Again, I think what we really tried to keep as it relates to engagement as the North Star is to just not lose our focus on how important it is. You know, I would say that in terms of how we measure it, I think I have more lessons to learn about what is the exact way to, you know, to take all that, all those vagaries and get it down to a number to say, we're passing or failing when it comes to engagement, it's an art and a science. And I think that there's so much of understanding how we're doing on engagement is subjective. 

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Mastering change in a digital world.
• Importance of teamwork & trust.
• Building relationships in business.
• Cultivating adaptability & innovation.
• Long-term engagement & company culture.

Resources:

• Bailey Brand Consulting
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Chris Bailey:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich - LinkedIn

Quotables

• 10:59 - I think that that's something that we have to do as leaders in an organization. We have to keep our door open. You know, we have to keep, we have to make it comfortable for people to come and ask you a question. And I think that that becomes challenging for individuals that when they first arrive, they're kind of like, he's the boss or he's the owner or whatever, you know.
• 12:30 - I want them to tell me what they think because I think they can probably point out something that I missed. I'm not perfect. I'm not the authority on it. but I have ideas, but I think through collaboration that when we come together, you know, one plus one equals a whole lot more than two. And we can, and the best stuff happens when it gets spun up.
• 15:05 -  On the other hand, I love it when we get new people in, and they bring new ideas, and they bring new ways. So it's a blend for sure, you know, but I think it's the people that we try to bring in, we try to bring in with the same type of mindset that we are, where we're trying to solve problems and that they want to be part of something. I mean, for me, when I think about what makes a great organization is, you know, the people that are there really want to be there
• 18:52 -  From a relationship standpoint, we get referrals from clients. We get clients that take us somewhere else. Same idea. We got people that, you know, either worked here, they had to move or they left for personal reasons, but they refer people over to us, you know, so that's a positive thing.
• 19:58 - It's a big part of my role is to be the flag bearer for the relationship building. I think one of the things that we've said, you know, chemistry is important for people, and chemistry with our clients is important. An I think, you know, if I think about what I've done to kind of help foster that, I look at it as I can't do what most of our team does. And so I need them just as much as they need me. And so that is kind of you know, the mix and the balance that you create in an organization.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Doubled United Way’s impact.
• Infusing best practices to enhance impact.
• Prioritizing culture over strategy.
• Nurturing equity and fostering growth.
• Garnering top awards through success.

Resources:

• United Way of Central Maryland
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Franklyn Baker:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Holly DePalma -  LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 01:44 - So, when I walked in the door November of 2016, I really thought this organization has lots of potential, really incredible people, a nice set of disciplines in place, very much passionate about the work in the community. But the thing that I readily noticed, because I came from a background of shepherding and managing various programs, interventions, initiatives, and other organizations, I thought we could probably use a shot in the arm of increasing our level of impact and touching more lives.
• 08:14 - So one out of four, one out of five individuals that walk into a nonprofit around the country will walk out the front door in a year or so of being there. So what's so powerful, because our culture, and as you've many of your listeners have heard, Peter Drucker says, has said many, many times over, and as many, many people like me who repeat it often culture, it always will eat strategy for breakfast. And so for us, there's a reason why for the last three to four years, we've hovered between eight and 12% on our staff. Oh, that's incredible. On staff turnover as compared to the industry of 20, 25%.
• 10:38 -  Prior to my onboarding and I got this information from others who had been there prior to me coming online, prior CEOs were not necessarily doing skip-level meetings. What I mean by skip level meetings for your listeners is in addition to my direct reports, I have, you know, eight direct reports or actually nine direct reports. In addition to meeting with them every two weeks. one-on-one, I also meet with their direct reports. So all of the vice presidents and some select associate vice presidents, I'm meeting with them once per quarter. And when you have the slogan trust and verify, the verification point is very important as it relates to me as a president, CEO meeting with my direct reports. Direct reports. Because I'm having a conversation with someone in development and my senior vice president, chief development officer tells me X, Y, and Z, and I'm talking to that person's vice president. Right? And we're, I'm asking the exact same question to both two answers. Sometimes never. The twain shall meet. Right. And other times there's an exact match. So when the, you have those moments where never the twain shall meet, you have an, an opportunity for inquiry and a very, very humble, curious perspective, not in a sort of blaming or accusatory, it's none of that. It's more of just trying to seek first to understand then to be understood, you know, Steven Covey’s principle. So I think that's extremely important. 
• 24:05 - I tell them all the time that every single one of them in their own right could leave United Way of Central Maryland and become a executive director, presidency of another nonprofit. Right? So they are so valuable in our decision-making. So I'm one of those leaders where I'm not totalitarian, totalitarian in my process. I'm very much a consensus leader. I'll make the final call, executive call when need be, when there's a stalemate or we can't move forward. But they understand that their voice matters. And I consider very sincerely what they're saying. 
• 32:22 - We were a good organization when I started. We had gone from good to great. Right now it's gone from great to excellent. How do we go to that very next tier, right? Top, top, top tier. And I knew then we needed to have someone in the role of chief of staff that can help not only the executive management team with our strategic work and some of the day-to-day blocking and tackling, but most importantly get more mileage out of that middle-level sort of that we call it an organizational management team.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Career progression requires personal drive.
• Effective leaders tailor communication styles.
• Building business & team growth go hand-in-hand.
• Honing your craft is essential for leaders.
• The power of self-awareness in leadership.

Resources:

• Sandler Training 
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with David Mattson:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Holly DePalma

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 06:35 - And so to me it was how do you build a business that's scalable and bring good people around you that you don't have to quote unquote babysit and, and let it run? And that's what I did. And so we've, since 2012, I think we've gone, we've grown almost 30 times, and that's how much we've grown in that amount of time by letting people do what they should be doing and staying out of the way, to be honest.
• 07:26 - I believe you should create a plan. Then you should create the positions that are necessary to fulfill that plan. The third thing that you should do is go find the right people. I think the big mistakes that leaders make is they look at their current people and say, where would they fit? I think that's a huge mistake. And that actually helped me because, you know, once you develop the plan and figure out, okay, well these are the positions that I need to actually fulfill it, then it became very apparent that I had some people already that would be great. And I had huge, huge holes. And so my current structure would be, you know, we have a whole group that supports our channel. 
• 15:57 -  Holly: what do you do in your interviewing process to make sure that you know, that right steps to vet your search process  is followed through? Because one of the things I love about Sandler, and I have taken Sandler is process. I'm bad at process. So putting one in place can be really helpful.
  David: So for us, I use the search model, right? I do use the skills and I'm going through those, those questions I do assess. So I assess early, you know, I don't, I'm a big believer in looking below the iceberg in that I am a big believer in having multiple people interview. Yep. However, multiple interviews without a good pre-brief and debrief is worthless. So if you're not gonna share information, like, okay, Holly, here are the two or three areas that I think maybe an issue, but I didn't uncover enough, you should pick up on that topic. If I don't tell you that, you're gonna ask the same questions that I asked. Right? And we're all gonna fall in love for the same reasons. And if it's, it's an important job, I like to fly in and take, if they're, they have a partner or spouse, I'll take them all to dinner because I learn more there. Then I learned anywhere.
• 28:34 -  When you're doing these guardrails, like, well, what did you do well? Like, what went well? Right? What could we do more of? Right? And then we have the other one is, what would you do differently? What would you do differently? So it's more better. What could you have done better? What could you do more of? And what would you have done differently? If you ask those questions on all the scenarios, people learn very, very quickly. And they self-discover. I think when you tell them all the time, this is what you need to do different, better, whatever. They don't, they don't, it doesn't absorb, it doesn't kick in. And then you always get frustrated as a leader because that person's doing the exact same thing you just told 'em not to do last month, but that's because they were listening to you, your voice versus, well, what would you have done differently? Well, I would've done this differently. I guess what they would've, they're not gonna do that again because their ears heard what their mouth said. And it's their idea. People never argue with their own data and guardrails. Allow them to have their own data and not for you to micromanage them.
• 31:51 - That's something that takes years to learn, right? And normally we've making all the mistakes. I think the first thing that we have to do is not lead by ego. You really have to leave your ego, you know, in the other room or in the car, or wherever you're gonna leave it. But I think most people are leading by that ego, but also telling them indirectly without knowing actually doing it, that telling them how great they were as a leader, you know, this is what I used to do, this is what I would do. To me, I've always learned that I would always take time. Like if there was an issue, like for whatever thing, it just didn't go well. I, I always look things at buckets. So my behavioral style is I'm a bucket guy, so I look at it in categories. And so I do do the well that are different, more. I do do that. I do ask you for what you, you've gotten, but I also ask, you know, like, how did you come to that conclusion? Like how did, how did that happen? Like what was your thought process? And try to figure out, because how you think about things to me is more important than the action that you did. 'cause that can always change, right? But I wait, because like everyone else, I'm on an emotional rollercoaster as well. I'm not, I can't, you know, I'm not, I'm human. But then I realized that that's not gonna get me anywhere. And, and so I'm a big talk track guy too.
• 35:40 - One of the things I took from my training at Sandler, which is obviously sort of part of this whole discussion, is yeah, prepare, right? You can, you just cannot ever be sort of winging it, especially when it comes to leading. And you might find yourself in situations that you didn't expect to be in, but there's a way to not wing that and get yourself, you know, either press pause, right? You know, like I used to say, no one's gonna live or die by this conversation. 

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• CEO’s perspective on workplace culture.
• Culture as a business growth driver.
• Workplace flexibility and trust in employees.
• Culture fit is crucial in the recruiting process.

Resources:

• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Kevin Robins:

• LinkedIn

Connect with the host, Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 21:21- And that's what I say all the time when people ask about why are you successful, I say because I have a great team. My job's easy I just, I'm here to support. And I think that's how real leaders and real culture people think about it because you know whatever that saying is culture eats strategy. You know it's true If you get the culture right you know things happen.
• 18:31 - I don't like babysitting people, but I also, when I trust people, I want them to live the lives they wanna live and do the job. And you know, a lot of talks out there about hybrid and virtual, I think it's about flexibility and doing your job. You know, I used to, in high school, I was a painter, I painted, that was the way I made money in high school. Go paint, you know, schools, buildings, whatever. And my approach was work as hard as I can for five hours and do what someone else does an eight hours so I can just take the rest of the day off. And like for someone it doesn't appreciate that but says, no, I want you to be here eight hours, so go slower. I thought that was the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. So I kind of, I think is a vibe I always have like, work hard, play hard, like do your job, do what's expected, meet your goals, and then do what you wanna do. And I think that makes for healthy employees, healthy members, members get that vibe too.
• 16:47 - Holly:  So you know, kind of share what are things that you wish you could do but you can't do or what would you like to do? But the smaller organization is inhibiting the opportunity. You mentioned earlier we couldn't go too fast with change. But is there something you wish you could do that you feel you used to feel empowered to do and you don't feel that you can do here?
  Kevin: Well I think the biggest thing would be budgets and how much we spend on sales and marketing versus another organization, you know, a larger organization. I think we have the same commitment to providing excellent service and relationships as any organization does. I think that's also part of being a nonprofit association. You know, it's about the membership. You know, I wish,  the thing my wish, like we did better, that I did better was bringing new members on. Because I think what we do is amazing and we bring 60 to 80 new members a year. I wish it was 150.
• 09:30 -  So I think, you know, I was just talking to a CEO before this and I think our past always informs our future. And so I think to understand my feelings on change, I kind of have to go back 30 years when I left the law firm and joined this company called SCI came from a very large law firm. We did things that lawyers do, very structured, went to this company that I was a client, but I didn't really know too much about them. And when I got there, they were in the midst of a reinvention, which I didn't know what that word meant, but it meant that they were changing their whole organization. But it was around the business is why they were doing it. And I came, you know, spent 15 years there and realized every year we did a reinvention because that's what we do. But, you know, to be, to come from the outside into an experience where everything's up for grabs, where the organization, the people are moving, it's changing, was very hard for the first year.
• 20:00 - We're doing so many cool things in this region with companies that are using culture to kind of get every, get through the generational transfer that's happening out there. And I think it's awesome, but you have to work it. It's not just gonna happen. You just can't. I just talking to somebody, you can't tell people you have to talk to people, which means you gotta just, you have to listen and kind of figure out what's important to people and but also make sure they know what's important to you. And then I think you create a two-way relationship.

Here are a few topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Home-based workers from start.
• Emphasis on employee-centric culture.
• Structured growth through internal promotion.
• Evolving with technology and remote demands.
• Creating a non-competitive work environment.

Resources:

• Bookminders
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Jessica Minkus:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:38 - We couldn't expand the way we wanted to because we didn't have the number of employees needed, right? And so, we needed to be able to support the growth. We only promote from within at Bookminders. And because our employees want to work part-time, they typically don't wanna transition into a full-time management role, you know, a role on the leadership team if that means full-time. So I was thinking about all, where we were as an organization, the stressors that we were going to have, and realized we need more support for our accountants out there.
• 16:47 - You know, being in a remote environment, you're by yourself in your office at home, right? And having a group that you're meeting with where you're getting to know each other, you're feeling comfortable, you know, we foster an environment where we want feedback and it's very important to our culture that we get that. But this just gives them another different type of outlet where they're with their peers, they're having like their water cooler moments in a virtual environment.
• 17:43 - We have gotten great feedback. It's really heartwarming. One of our employees that have been here over 10 years is on a team with someone less than 10 years. And she was skeptical and she came out and she's like, this was the best thing that we've done for the organization and supporting the employees. They feel connected.
• 18:53 - I guess the thing that  I wasn't sure of was how quick the buy-in was going to be. And it was very quick and the positive feelings and words have, like, it was so much quicker than I thought it was going to be. And I was not expecting every person that we went to ask if they wanted to be a team advisor to say yes, but like their faces lit up, like, absolutely. And so it's, it's gone really well and much faster than I thought it would.
• 07:04 - It's a lifestyle. I mean, everyone I think should know by now. Like, people like working from home, they like having the flexibility, they like the supported autonomy and everyone's trying to navigate that. But if you're giving that, you know, if you have that structure and you're providing the support, you know, our employees, they love doing their job. They could not imagine going back to a 9 to 5 desk job.

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Impact of voice on employee morale.
• The strategic plan led to an engagement initiative.
• Surveys shed light on cultural shifts.
• Leadership training drives improvement.
• Financial success is tied to engagement.

Resources:

• F&M Trust
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Dr. Karen Carmack:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Holly DePalma

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 3:33 - Well, prior to that time, we weren't doing any kind of assessments. We were experiencing turnover, and we were experiencing turnover of more of our key personnel, which was concerning. We were also getting feedback, and you can just feel it in an organization. It becomes palpable that, you know, employees are dissatisfied. And it wasn't a very good feeling. So we were trying to figure out what we can do to improve that. And that's why this focus on employee engagement got on the board. I think initially, you know, we were thinking about, okay, let's find out what satisfies our employees. But I think as we work through it, we took it in a whole different direction, which really had a broader impact on the organization.
• 6:26 - And once I got the charge, I thought, okay, all right. Who needs to be involved with this? Obviously, I was thinking we needed some broad perspectives and also broad representation from within the organization. So what I did is I looked at our employee base and I said, okay, we need the different geographies of our organization represented. We need different levels of hierarchy within the organization and different departmental representation. So I ended up through that process identifying an initial group of 14 employees that I tapped and asked if they would be willing to jump into this with me.
• 14:13 - There were initially, and maybe there's pockets of it today, but initially I think people were wondering, are they really serious? Do they really want our true opinions around what's going on? I think there was a little bit of skepticism initially, but thankfully they took the plunge with us and gave us some feedback.
• 23:43 - We were just a couple of points away from where we would wanna be there. I can't say that was the way it was for the first survey. Our scores weren't all that great that first year, but that in itself was a gift because it gave us all the feedback that we needed to do all the things that we've done over these years. But the true bright spot within all of it has been our leader engagement survey and the scores that we've had within it, because that first year that we did it, we saw a need for improvement.
• 34:48 - And so, you know, the beauty with all of this in parallel that I haven't talked about yet is that our financial results have also improved significantly. We've had record earnings during this period of time. You know whether you can completely correlate it to this effort entirely, you know, there probably are other factors, but I firmly believe that everything that we've been doing to get employees aligned with the culture, aligned with the mission engaged, and getting that discretionary effort has helped us reach some of the goals that we have and blown some others out of the water.

Sol Alberione, a seasoned HR professional, is a C-Suite executive with over 12 years of experience in Employee Relations, Talent Acquisition, Compliance, and Talent Development. Currently serving as the Chief People Officer at Giant Machines, she is a passionate advocate for fostering a culture of diversity, equity, and empathy in the workplace. Sol's career exemplifies her commitment to putting people first and driving the success of organizations through human capital strategies. 

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• As a human capital strategist, Soll focuses on creating an environment where employees can succeed, feel seen, represented, and do their best work.
• The leadership team at Giant Machines fully supports the people-first approach, leading to high employee retention and recognition as the best place to work in New York City.
• The company values potential over formal qualifications when hiring and focuses on developing and mentoring employees to help them grow within the organization.
• Giant Machines emphasizes the importance of mentorship and provides coaching and support throughout an employee's entire journey within the company.
• The turning point in Sol's interview at Giant Machines where he decided to be authentic
• Overcoming hesitations and limitations to be true to himself
• How authenticity and confidence led to career success

Resources:

• Giant Machines
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Sol Alberione:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 02:46 - “For me, the success of any company is the people and the humanity that the company brings. So in my role there is constant decision-making about what we can do to just really create an environment that people can succeed in, can do the best work, can feel that they're represented, they're seen, they belong and can do the best work. So a lot of the decisions happening behind the scenes on how we promote, how we hire, how we connect with our team internally and that connection translate to how they show up in the world.”
• 03:15 - “Being a strategist is always kind of questioning yourself, what can I do better? So from the moment that I talk to my managers and to the moment that I talk come with my CEO is like a how we use the people-centered approach that we have as a company to get, make sure that everyone has a path to succeed in Giant Machines. And also after Giant Machines we have a huge network of people who were part of Giant Machines, and we are still in contact with them. So we want to create like this school of Giant Machines that really open opportunities above and beyond our organization.”
• 05:00 - “All of those are people centered because I always tell them I love you when you're at work, but I love you when you're outside of work. I want you to feel that space, that level of separation that you can have both spaces for you to honor your life. It is important. I don't want to have the discrepancy on who you are outside and who you are when you come to work. And that creates a lot of the decisions on what are the opportunities for growth, the conversations for promotion in order to honor that perspective. Our team, without them we don't have anything. Our CEO is very, very good at the executive team about what can we do better for them in order to just have this humanity that show up to the world that is not just running a business.”
• 12:52 - “But for us, we are still having the soul that is creating that path and we're going out with our teams and we're eating the food and sharing the language and the music and the happiness and the loudness. I have tons of Latinos in Giant Machines and I love when I jump into a meeting and they're all speaking in Spanish and they're normalizing that within a work environment that sometimes you have to just be normative and continue to be like what is expected. Having the sense of safety that you can speak in Spanish without worrying how you're going to be perceived. Those to me are celebrations that even though it's not a party, it's a celebration of like, we appreciate who you are and what you bring and how you show up to work.”
• 21:35 - “So the idea that I can be working in an organization as a board member, but it's the organization that is growing in Argentina, growing in South America. I think I'm mixing the best of both worlds. I can get to speak Spanish sometimes, I feel closer to home. That is part of my roots that pull me there. But also doing what I love the most, which is being a people manager, working with people, supporting people, and making people feel fine and happy and whole when they come to work.”

Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The challenges of managing people in a startup, include being a player-coach and dealing with resource restrictions.
• The impact of constant change and turnover in startups and the importance of embracing change management.
• Helping team members achieve more than they anticipated.
• Coaching new leaders and managers in a rapidly changing environment.
• Emphasizing that leadership and management skills can be learned.
• Balancing a customized approach to coaching with the limitations of larger organizations.
• Military leadership style offers valuable lessons for the corporate world, including the importance of loving your team.

Resources:

• Simulmedia
• Jocko Podcast
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Juliette Dupré:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 13:32 - I think what I learned with him and what I try and teach my team is that you are capable of a lot higher quality bar than maybe you realize even with the restrictions. But yes, perfection to your point is not necessarily the actual expectation or goal, it's not really possible for any of us. But how close can you reasonably get, you know, and in service of the teams that we're supporting and recognizing all the effort that they're putting in and making sure that we're really representing what they're doing and being an example to others and so forth.  
• 29:00 - Wanting them to succeed makes all the difference in the world. So again, huge fan of actual radical candor versus obnoxious aggression or some of these other categories that people love to use. I also think there's a lot more to feedback than just that, you know, that concept. There's, there's a lot of other pieces of the puzzle that are worth, you know, helping managers to understand as a bigger part of all of it, such as the psychological and biological things that happen when someone feels threatened or someone's in a feedback situation. And you know, the timing of that, what's happening in the brain, what's happening in the body, the hormones that are released, the time that that takes, what that can mean to people. How you, that might change your approach. There's so much there that is worth learning
• 16:49 - But I'm a big believer in management as something you can learn and leadership is something you can learn. And I think, you know, there's a lot of research out there to show that sure, anyone can have talents for anything naturally, but ultimately these are skills that can be taught and leaders are not born. That is one of the most, I think, harmful ideas and erroneous aphorisms of business. So with that in mind, it's really a little bit of a custom approach once I get to know folks. 
• 15:52 - "When someone like me is brought into a startup, it generally means they've reached another phase of their growth and development as a business. They're looking to sort of professionalize a bit more. So there's an element of change intervention going on anytime I enter a space. And usually the first thing that happens is, as will happen with, with many folks in such a position, you spend a lot of time talking to people and listening, a lot of listening and understanding where people are and what they're going through and how things are going and trying to diagnose the barriers and the root cause of those barriers. So when I usually enter a space, as you know, a business is when I kind of start taking stock of where the various managers are and their journey of, of learning to, to better themselves and to get the most outta their people and to be good people as managers."
• 11:28 - Holly: You go with the 85% is good enough, right? And so balance for me, tell me how you balance that pursuit of perfection, which has sort of been your mantra, I'm gonna call it your mantra with the kind of sort of environment that you're in that doesn't allow for, it doesn't really allow for perfection in many ways because it moves so quickly.
  Juliette - And that's, you know, I'm just gonna stop and say that's one of the things I love about this podcast after having listened to so many is that you, you have such a, a great innate or maybe learned, I'm not sure, ability to catch these things and like put two and two together and get to deeper layers of these things. It's totally true.

• Clear communication and empathy are vital in times of uncertainty and change.
• Functional leadership allows the most qualified person, regardless of their position on the org chart, to step up and lead.
• The book "Love as a Business Strategy" was written based on the founders' experience of transforming their failing company by embracing a culture of love.
• The founders realized their selfishness and fear-based environment were destroying their business, leading them to bring a culture of love into their organization.
• The founders' commitment and sacrifices, such as selling their personal assets, demonstrated their dedication to saving the company and creating a better work environment.
• Celebrating failures and creating psychological safety promotes growth and excellence within teams.
• Adopting functional leadership may require a transformational shift within an organization, but the results are worth it.

Resources:

• Culture+
• The Haverford Trust Company
• ICONA Resorts
• Merion Cricket Club
• United States Naval Academy
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with the guests:

• Mohammad Anwar on LinkedIn
• Frank Danna on LinkedIn
• Erin Hughes on LinkedIn
• Lisa Sickel on LinkedIn
• Michelle Gloviak on LinkedIn
• Jack Becker on LinkedIn

Connect with our hosts:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn
• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn

Erwin de Leon, Ph.D, serves as the Chief Diversity Officer and faculty member at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. With over 25 years of leadership experience, he's a distinguished figure in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices and holds notable recognitions as one of Crain's NY 2022 Notable LGBTQ Leaders, City & State NY's 2022 Responsible 100, and PoliticsNY 2023 Power Players in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Dr. De Leon is an authority on DEI, nonprofit management, and public policy, making him an invaluable guest for conversations on leadership, teaching, research, and social change. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Transparency is crucial for understanding and fulfilling organizational goals.
• Middle managers face a natural tension between their team and their boss.
• Asking key questions before taking on a leadership role can clarify expectations.
• Garnering support from senior leaders is crucial for a successful rollout.
• Being realistic about potential challenges and the level of support from senior leaders can help prevent frustration and burnout.
• Service for others has been a lifelong passion, instilled by the Jesuits.
• Service can be offered in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors.

Resources:

• Columbia University School of Professional Studies
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Erwin de Leon:

• LinkedIn

Connect with Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 03:20 - “Most of you know this, most people know this, you need not be a manager or have the title to be a leader. In any organization. So that's number one. Why? Because if you're a leader, you're able to motivate others and give others a vision or a purpose of why are we doing what we're doing? And I've seen where I've been in teams, and maybe I'm that leader where we're meaning where, you know, the manager or whoever's heading the team knows where we're headed. Like, okay, we need to increase sales, we need to do this, but doesn't really inspire or provide a certain vision or purpose to the rest of us, right? Who are following this. Now that, for me is a manager.”
• 21:20 - “If you're not being realistic, and it'll burn you out and worse, it'll burn your team members. So here you are very passionate, you get other folks with you, but then you hit the roadblock and you realize, oh, you would've known that if you did your homework. And this is hard to hear, but maybe you'll realize that if you really, really care about something, then maybe this isn't the place to do it.”
• 18:48 - “As a leader, it's nice to see folks who take the initiative. It's a good thing. And I think, and in a way keeps your work interesting. And if you really care and passionate about something, whether it's the technology or getting new markets, absolutely have at it. But make sure you do, I always say, I just say this, just pause. Take a scan, take a scan of the organization, know who the players are, know what the bigger picture in the organization and what is the mission. How will this fit in? How will you make your argument? So just being realistic.”
• 23:20 - “But one thing I would just want to pick up on what you said about control.  I think 'cause one of the ancient wisdoms that you know, you've probably heard about and I think is very important is that be very aware of what you can control and cannot control. And sometimes even with the best, you know, you have your spreadsheets, you have your data analysis, you've done every year homework. And this is just on your own. And you realize, okay, I'm going to go for this. But things still happen, right? Things still happen. The person, your champion in the C-suite might move on, or a pandemic happens or economic downturn happens. So I think part of it is like, you know, enjoying the process.”
• 25:20 - Margaret - “What is something that you're really passionate about now, like today that you're working on or hoping to work on, hoping to make happen?”
  Erwin: “Oh, that's hard to pin down, but I think on a personal level it's more just living a good life, right? I know it sounds very philosophical, but just doing my best. And I think it's part of getting older too and realizing accepting things about what I can do and cannot do.”

Jenny Malseed currently serves as the VP of Strategy and talent at GlobalGiving, a prominent organization in the field of social impact. With a background encompassing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Strategy from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Economics and French from Colgate University, she is well-equipped for her role. Her remarkable achievement includes being named a 2023 Social Impact Women to Watch Finalist by Nonprofit HR, a testament to her outstanding contributions to the world of nonprofit management and social impact. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Organizations need to ensure physical and emotional safety for their staff during turbulent times.
• Encouraging employee voices and involving them in decision-making can enhance engagement and empower individuals.
• Facilitated conversations allow for constructive feedback and collaboration among team members.
• Balancing the need for input from employees with the efficient functioning of the organization is a challenge.
• Working with community-based organizations helps make a real impact.
• HR professionals play a pivotal role in linking strategy and talent.
• Owning a seat at the table and promoting the best interests of employees is vital.

Resources:

• GlobalGiving
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jenny Malseed:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with our host, Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 05:15 - “So employee engagement and culture, of course, are so essential. And again, for me, thinking as a strategist and in a social change organization, obviously we want to be constantly improving and growing. Our impact and our ability to do that is directly linked to our employee engagement, our employee experience, and our culture. In addition, something that's really important to our employees, but really to all employees, is authenticity. So if we are doing something out in the world, are we doing that internally, right? So it's that, being real and being transparent.”
• 06:03 - “I saw some research recently that said that employees today, particularly millennials and Gen Z, are not only do they care about their organization or their company's values and what they're, are they doing good in the world, but even more specifically, a lot of individuals, the majority now see their work as the way to live out their values, which in some ways is healthy. Because it's like, you spend so much time at work, you know, so you, you really, you, you see that as the way to live those things out. And then in addition, they wanna, individuals want to see not only that my organization is doing good work, but what am I doing, and what am I doing within the organization? And, and being able to feel connected to that, to that mission directly. It really drives employee engagement.”
• 17:41 - “You ask [the staff] and it's like ‘We want to be heard, we want to be involved, but also we don't want you coming to us for everything. You're leaders. We want a way to give you input where we know that you will ask for it. We will give you feedback and you will act on it. But we don't want you calling us every minute because we also have jobs to do”
• 08:52 - “And I will say that for nonprofits, it was always the case that to some degree you're living out your values through your work. Because you're not doing it for the money, certainly. But this idea of bringing your whole self to work, or, I think as the nonprofit sector has shifted, there's really been a push and an evolution around are we driving impact? Are we addressing the root causes of whatever challenge, social challenges we're facing, what are we really doing that's making an impact? It can't just be charity. But it's really about social change. And so the bar has gotten much higher for employees to say, what are we doing? And externally. And then also, are we being honest and authentic internally?”
• 18:55 - “We created a ready team, which is a number of staff members that are doing different, helping us advance different priorities that we've identified. One of the things that we did through that team is we trained the team members and a number of other staff members in leading difficult conversations. So they have training as facilitators, which they used, we did a whole program about race, equity, diversity, and inclusion to build a baseline understanding for staff. We thought it was important to have a shared language before we thought about even what are we going to do? But those facilitators serve us in different ways, right? And so those facilitators are available.”

Debbie Kemp is the Chief People Officer at Biz2Credit, a leading player in small business financing technology, with extensive experience in leadership and human resources roles at organizations like BRANDED and MediaCom. Debbie has excelled in shaping corporate culture, optimizing talent acquisition, and fostering diversity and inclusion. She brings a wealth of expertise to her current role, where she focuses on streamlining business financing processes and enhancing productivity. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• Debbie discusses her career journey from Goldman to different industries and her current role at Biz2Credit
• She discusses the cultural differences between a 50-person organization and a company with hundreds of employees
• Foster a culture of learning and mentorship to empower employees.
• Regular communication and engagement surveys keep employees involved and informed.
• Addressing digital transformation challenges while enhancing customer experience.
• Understanding the business and driving revenue growth through HR.
• Building a strong culture and investing in talent.

Resources:

• Biz2Credit
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Debbie Kemp:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host, Holly DePalma

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 07:01 - “I really love meeting people, and so it's nice to be able to understand the organization and the leader, our founders, and what may work with them and what may not work with them. And so that is finding those profiles and making a few introductions to just get an idea fit.”
• 11:45 - “We want to make sure that they're getting developed. So we also have these micro-learning sessions. We're actually going out with a kind of training right now for our sales. Anyone who's stuck in a customer touching a customer. So a few different roles, and it's really focused on customer experience. So we're linking that with LinkedIn learning some microlearning, like through teams or WhatsApp. So they're little micro sessions. And then also some coaching sessions on calls.”
• 13:25 - “Often the discussion with particularly Gen Z and the millennials, is that they need to constantly be what's next? What's next? What's next? And that can be challenging for smaller organizations when there isn't always a clear “what's next”. So, having their input on how you get there to the what's next is a must be a really positive experience for people.”
• 21:35 - Holly: “This has been a particularly challenging couple of years for folks in the HR profession. And, most people sort of talk about all they've done that they didn't think they were ever going to have to do, including being a safety officer, etcetera. What are some of the things that you see that are most different or that you have experienced in the last few years?”
  Debbie: “I think one of the things that are different is just a lot more listening. So I'll just say I spend a lot more time actively listening, just being that ear.”
• 19:20 - “A large challenge outside of everything else that's going in the economy, is just communicating in a way that our employees feel a part of what we're doing. And not being spoken to, but actually understand where we are.”

Holly Marrone, the Executive Director/Chief People Officer at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, brings over a decade of experience in HR and organizational development. She has successfully led teams and implemented strategies to drive employee engagement and foster a culture of inclusion. With her expertise in talent management and her dedication to creating positive work environments, Holly has made significant contributions to the field of higher education. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Graduate school exposed Holly to the world of organizational consulting and executive coaching, fueling her passion for HR and OD work.
• Building relationships, earning trust, and producing results have been crucial in navigating the complexities of a large organization like Penn.
• Holly's ability to see the future and lead others without fear has been her greatest accomplishment in driving organizational change.
• Understanding the cultural aspect of physical presence and the need for human interaction is key in designing the hybrid remote workplace.
• Finding the right balance between productivity and distractions is crucial in creating a successful hybrid remote workplace.
• As an HR practitioner, create connections and support individuals where they are in order to have a tremendous impact on their lives.
• Holly envisions herself as an architect of the future of work, seeking opportunities to transform organizations and contribute to societal changes.

Resources:

• University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Holly Marrone:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with our host, Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 09:01 - How you work with people is core and, and I'm a humanist, I believe so deeply in the beauty of, of people and that people want to ultimately do well and want to thrive. And if you can find out what their goals are and how you help advance those and partner with them while also advancing yours, it's, it's the magic, you know, elixir to everybody being successful.
• 25:01 - And so when an employee brings you a problem, we have to kind of spider that out and understand the complexity and, and do some root cause analysis to understand what is really happening. Is it people conflict, or is it task conflict? Is it a mix of both? Does it look like it's people conflict, but it's really about the process? And so I think understanding, you know, people conflict versus task conflict is really important.
• 19:22 - I mean we are certainly as leaders in organizations juggling many, many different things post Covid-19 and challenges, and really we tend to call them, I think people call them the softer side of things. They're really more the human side of things.
• 14:57 - Holly DePalma: So in talking about sort of this new world of work and it, it sounds like you have some people who are home, some people you're kind of a hybrid model. How is that, how do you, how was that working?
  Holly Marrone: So for me, you know, the forward-thinking nature of this was right before Covid-19 happened. I had already kind of spoke to my boss about this concept of reimagining the workplace. And I said to her, what if everybody's not in the building all the time?
• 22:54 - Holly Marrone: I'm not educating students, or I'm not, you know, doing research, or I'm not doing those, but if I support those people who are, if I can remove the obstacles if I can recognize what gets in the way of them being successful, and I can help them get around those, then I can contribute to that ultimate success of the organization.
  Holly DePalma: The way that you very succinctly laid out how you contribute to the results of what's happening in your organization is a powerful way to look at things and your impact that you have as an HR leader, as somebody who is there to support, maybe not, you know, do the experiments or do the teaching, but you're there to support.

Jillian Moulton is an accomplished HR leader with extensive experience in various organizations, including her current role as Chief Human Resources Officer at JW Player. With a strong background in people and talent management, Jillian has played instrumental roles in shaping company culture, optimizing operations, and driving organizational excellence. Join us as Jillian shares her insights on HR strategies, leadership, and creating a thriving work environment. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• JW Player's Leadership Lab program provides training, coaching, and cross-functional collaboration opportunities, fostering autonomy and responsibility among managers.
• The ability for managers to admit “I don't know” and foster open dialogue with their teams is seen as a crucial skill for effective leadership.
• Offering alternative paths for career growth allows employees to find the right fit.
• JW Player promotes a people-first culture that values transparency and mutual understanding.
• The remote first environment brings challenges in terms of connection and cultural understanding.
• Measures like team meetups, improved communication tools, and active employee resource groups help overcome these challenges.
• Making employees feel heard and supported prevents burnout and improves job satisfaction.

Resources:

• JW Player
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jillian Moulton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with our host, Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 24:15 - I feel like the way that our culture is, is that we have a lot of really hard, hard workers. And so instead of having to be like, where are you? It's more like, go take a mental health day. And so I want to make sure people feel heard. I also, I hope they feel like they have the ability to reach out to, to someone to help them, right?
• 14:57 - We also believe very much in transparency where we can, even if it's painful, like that's one thing I think that has helped us through the, the very tumultuous times we have is we've always tried to be really open, not talk about it the fastest, but talk about events and issues when we feel like we understand how we're going to approach them, but that, that creates a culture of really like if we share with you, we're giving you that responsibility to come to us with, you know, your whole self.
• 25:33 - So in coaching we call that like the thing behind the thing, like really getting at what's going on and not staying surface. Because if you stay at the surface level, you're going to miss a lot. So that's awesome. I love that that's been a lesson that you've learned from.
• 11:04 - But it's the coaching habit and that, that's the whole premise, and it's really to help leaders become more coach-like in their approach. And it's all about asking more questions. So it's asking more, telling less, that's exactly what you were getting at. It frees you up as a leader. It helps, you know, it saves you time, and it really builds up the people that that work for you.
• 24:15 - Margaret: with everything that you've done, all the experience that you've had, what is one thing that you've changed your mind about?
  Jillian: Oh, that's a great question. One thing I've changed my mind about, Hm, I think maybe there was a period in my career where I got really data-focused, like we were talking about engagements.

Jeffrey Robinson is currently the Chief Human Resources Officer at One Inc, where he develops and executes HR strategies aligned with the organization's goals. With extensive experience in talent management, performance management, and organizational development, he provides strategic leadership in articulating HR needs and plans to stakeholders. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Robinson's diverse career in different industries has helped him understand the importance of the people and talent that drive every business from an HR perspective.
• Robinson's passion for recruiting stems from his early career experience in recruiting tellers in New York and Chicago and extended to exploring different ways to retain talents through training, onboarding, compensation, and benefits.
• One Inc has a distributed workforce with about 400 employees in the US and Mexico, 200 employees in India, and 60% of employees working remotely.
• Performance management is an opportunity for improving engagement and feedback.
• Empathy and vulnerability are key components of successful remote leadership.
• Empowering employees to understand their roles and purpose is crucial to keep them engaged

Resources:

• OneInc
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Jeffrey Robinson:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 16:49 - I think the challenge is in building cohesiveness, stickiness from an organizational perspective, and not just on the broader level, right? We have a mission, we have values, we have an organizational strategy that people can go to one inc.com and, and, and see who we are, what we do.
• 18:03 - When we were all in the same building, we could all get around the water cooler, right? Get a cup of coffee and I could say, Hey Margaret, how are you doing? What's going on in finance? Right? What's going on in marketing? What's going on in sales? Right? And, and that's not the way it's done anymore. Now you have to be more mindful of opportunities to bring employees together to share information, have a level of transparency that's a two-way street between employees and, and managers and their direct reports and the organization to our employees as well.
• 19:55 - And communication obviously runs through so many things. It's the communication of just updating your employees, so they know what's going on. It's the social communication that, so people just feel connected, and they get to know each other. It's the transferring down of really important information. It's the sharing successes.
• 25:19 - So you're getting all this feedback from your employees, and you have to care enough about them to look at what you're getting and to say, is there a message here that I have to be picking up on? Is there an opportunity to train them because they might be missing something? Is there an opportunity for me to say, Hey, you don't seem like you're having a great day today, is something going on? Or is there an opportunity to praise them and recognize them for something that they've done?
• 31:59 - Jeffrey: You're just looking for how do you contribute, how can I contribute to this organization? How do I, how do I fit? And so it's you and your manager creating that level of connection and that level of focus. Clear priorities, clear goals. What are we trying to do here? Why does it matter? All of those things absolutely, positively have to happen in order for someone to feel good about their, their work and want to jump on these Zoom calls and, and, and want to be engaged in these, in these meetings and want to contribute to those meetings.. Margaret: Yeah, understanding what your role is, what your purpose is, great to understand what the company's purpose is, but you as an employee to be fully engaged. You're right.

Dr. Lisa DeRoché is the Chief People & Equity Officer at Roosevelt Institute, where she shapes the culture of a team driving progressive research to strengthen democracy. With a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, she provides strategic direction for human resources and advances innovative HR systems and processes. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Mentoring is a powerful HR development tool that assists career advancement and promotes positive outcomes such as job satisfaction for employees.
• Taking a risk and being vulnerable can lead to wonderful experiences in professional growth and building trust.
• Entrepreneurial activities include creating new programs and products, innovative hiring, expanding business functions, opening new businesses, and using data.
• Leadership support, engagement, and communication are essential to the success of mentoring programs.
• Patience, compassion, role modeling, offering safe spaces, and creating a sense of community are critical behaviors that foster entrepreneurial attitudes.
• Start informally and promote it internally
• Engage in working through a plan that suits your organization's culture

Resources:

• Roosevelt Institute
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Dr. Lisa DeRoché:

• LinkedIn

Connect with our host Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 11:02 - “You have to be willing to use your voice even when immediate trust is not there. Y you know, and that's one of the, you know, points of my HR experience that has always been a challenge, both as an employee, you know, individual as well as a manager and a leader. The opportunity to build trust with, you know, another is, is potentially the block that can stop or start a career and or your engagement and being happy in your day-to-day work.”
• 31:04 - “As I've grown and matured in my career, I've always felt as if you have to please everyone, right? And I recognize in the various environments that I've worked in that, you know, it's important to please everyone, but you'll never get to that point. It's impossible to please everyone. You have to remove the mindset of, you know, the fact that you are attempting to please everyone, but go in with the mindset that you are a trusted individual, especially as an HR leader”
• 25:20 - “But so many people are like, are in that place where, how do I get started? What do I do? What should it look like? What would you tell somebody? What would be the, you know, one or two pieces of advice that you could give somebody who is thinking about creating the first mentorship program in their organization?”
• 29:06 - “And you know, what I tell the members that I talk with and, and that I support in rolling out mentorship programs here at our organization is, yeah, it doesn't have to cost anything really other than some time initially. And you can start small and those people, you know, if you even pair up have one pair to start, they will benefit from it. You will do something good, right? And, and so it's worth it to start. It's, it's just worth it to just start at, at whatever level and then have it grow organically and, and all along the way people are just really benefiting from it.”
• 10:07 - Lisa: You don't, you know, you haven't met these people before and that's really the hard part, you know, it's like going to a cocktail party and like, oh, I have got to get out here and talk to people, right? So it was really a wonderful opportunity.. Margaret: Interrupt. So, so yes, take the risk, right? Enter the relationship, start, you know, do it. But I think, and maybe this is part of the risk that you're talking about, I mean, you allowed yourself to be very vulnerable.

Jillian Bernstein is the Vice President of Human Resources at IQ Solutions, a federal contractor focused on communications and web design for federal health agencies.

Prior to this, Jillian progressed from an HR Generalist to Vice President within the HR team at Walker & Dunlop, and then spent ten years of practicing HR in the real estate finance world. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• How to use data for DEI and benefit analysis
• The importance of pulse checks and stay interviews in addition to surveys.
• The amount of time employees spend at work compared to their home.
• How to use work groups to build employee connections.
• Ways to create employee loyalty.
• How companies should treat their employees.

Resources:

• IQ Solutions
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jillian Bernstein:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 18:23 – “So what do you feel your pull is? Like what's, what's exciting to you? Do you want to be helping with different innovation work? Do you want to help with different business development opportunities? Do you want to help come up with diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging activities and get involved in the company that way? So really this is a great way for us to outreach to our employees and because sometimes people get so focused on the project that they're working on, this also allows them to have kind of more breadth in terms of who they're interacting with on a day-to-day basis.”
• 29:16 – “I do feel like we've had such a transformation and I don't know if it's more Gen Xers kind of coming into the ranks, but even my boss who I reported to, our chief financial officer, and he's a baby boomer, but he has been ever since day one at, at IQ. I remember the first week I was there, my son had started kindergarten and got sick in the classroom, and it was, I was so embarrassed because it was my first week, I was like, I am so sorry, but I need to go pick up my son. And he's like, go family, go, go, go. And I was like, I don't know that I could work anywhere else that doesn't have that. And I think if companies don't provide a family first mindset, that we really are doing our employees a disservice.”
• 32:40 – “I truly believe as an HR professional, again, if you're not coaching, and you're not seeing the employee as a whole person, then we're not doing our jobs as an HR person in terms of how we're structuring policies. And I think you'll get more loyalty out of employees if you have the flexibility that if you have a one-year-old at home and the one-year-old isn't feeling good that day, you're going to need to stay home. And that's okay.”
• 42:44 – “Just bring kindness to work with you every day and in your interviews and in your career. You just want to be gracious and kind. And I think that honestly will take you so far. And I think the other aspect of kindness is showing a kind of, not overly eager, because that could be off-putting for some people, but like a tempered solid eagerness to learn and to also be a little bit humble if you ever make a mistake and be like, I want to learn how to do that and do that better. And I think that that goes a long way too.”
• 34:19 – “You have to be intentional about it and that's why we saw it getting really carried away and we, we needed to kind of make sure that people rolled back, and our typical workday is 8:30 to 5:30, assuming an hour, people take an hour for lunch. But we have early birds, we have night owls, and that's okay. We want people to work when they're able to work and, and juggle family priorities too. So the thought really is like, just get the email ready, send it during that window though. And that way you can kind of feel like you did what you need to do. And then in the morning before you run off to take your kids to school, send all those emails that you worked on last night at 10 o'clock if you want, but don't do it then.”

Alisia Gill is the Chief People Officer at EmpiRx Health, a dynamic company driven by a groundbreaking pay-for-performance financial model that ensures guaranteed savings. With a customized approach to population health management and an exceptional, personalized customer experience, EmpiRx Health boasts impressive client retention rates that exceed the benchmarks set by the industry. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• The importance of establishing a clear North Star to guide the organization towards its goals
• The importance of transparency in creating a sustainable company culture
• How to invest in managers for a better workforce
• Why managers should receive coaching based on 360 feedback surveys
• The value of senior leaders undergoing extreme ownership training
• How to recognize managers as culture carriers and people leaders
• How to foster ongoing conversations with clear expectations for success

Resources:

• EmpiRx Health
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Alisia Gill:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 03:41. “Let's figure out how we can think about human capital management in a more integrated fashion, because the organization isn't going to do what we needed to do if we haven't figured that piece out. We need to have our people ops part. We need to have our learning and development, because we're developing people who don't have to give us the best that they have to offer. They don't have to, they can just show up to work and go home.”
• 04:53 “There needs to be an individual's North Star so that everybody knows where they're headed and going in the same direction. And no one feels misled. Nobody feels confused. You don't have all these ridiculous inefficiencies. You find more opportunities to collaborate. Innovation becomes possible. All these things, if you get the people part.”
• 13:27 “If you are like me, you're a culture fit. And really, this phrase is really culture add and really understanding. We want you to understand what we do here and how we do it, and, like you said, does this make you say, ‘I'm gonna self-select out?’ Or does this ignite your, your sort of excitement and your feelings here?”
• 26:12 “Many companies that would never hire a learning specialist, company less than 10 years old, they’re not caring about that. But we care about that because we know that our employees care about that. They, they, everyone wants to believe that when they get off the, you know, on their career trajectory with, they want every role that they have to be advancing themselves professionally. They don't want to feel as if they've gone backwards or stagnant.”
• 36:46 “We also have a partnership with a company called Valor Performance. We have an executive coach for every single people manager in the company. They meet with them twice a month to work on things that are based on 360 feedback survey that's part of that work, where every employee has an opportunity to provide feedback anonymously, and all the stuff that happens in those coaching sessions with our people managers are the things that get worked on.”

David Glenn, the Vice president of HR at United Methodist Communities, joins us for this podcast episode. With over 100 years of providing care to seniors, United Methodist Communities embodies values of compassion, respect, stewardship, and service, which are evident in every aspect of their work. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Incentivizing employee referrals for recruitment via text, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Twitter.
• Utilizing employee referrals has led to a great retention rate compared to job board hires.
• The goal of expanding this program to other industries in the future.
• Using data to refine hiring questions and processes for better retention.
• The importance of pride, work mission, and safety for employee satisfaction.
• Embracing change and new ideas to improve efficiency and employee satisfaction.

Resources:

• United Methodist Communities
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Dave Glenn:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Margaret Uhrich:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 03:37 – “But basically our applicant tracking system shoots out all of our job openings to the folks who have enrolled in this app, and then they can refer their friends and family, their social media followers to our jobs. And what it does is if when that goes out, it goes out through s m s text, email, Facebook, which I know a lot of employees are not on Facebook anymore. Their grandparents are, but not them. That's LinkedIn. WhatsApp, I believe, and Twitter. And so, so they could send it to any or all of those media, and if that person responds to that link, they get credit for it. So the system recognizes who, who referred them and then gives 'em credit. So, so it kind of gamifies it a little, it, it tracks, you know, how many people have sent jobs out and how many have come back, been interviewed or been hired so that we can reward folks for their diligence.”
• 5:57 – “So when you post a job on Indeed, it doesn't discriminate. You know who, who's getting that advertised, right? It goes out to everybody. But with this app, our individual employees, we would hope they would refer people like themselves, you know, their family members, their friends, perhaps they're like-minded. And if our employees are committed, hopefully we’ll get somebody similar who would be a great hire. So those people tend to respond, greater percentage of them respond, and they're quicker to hire. And as I'll, I'll point out in a few minutes, our retention rates are much greater for those individuals.”
• 8:08 – “Yeah, so I'll give you some examples. For instance, 12 month retention. The first year, typically from our Indeed hires, we retain about 63%, but through employee referrals, 78%, once you get out though to two years, typically we retain 35%. So it drops almost in half. But employee referrals 63%, so 35% versus 63%. And then when you go out three years, 26% for job boards, 57% for referrals. So we hang on to these people much longer when they come referred.”
• 10:47 – “So not only is it really helping you with your recruitment, I have to imagine it's helping to engage those really committed employees that you have. Definitely. And I think it helps their retention if their friends are working there or a family member. I mean, there's some families, we have two and three members of the family working in the same building.”
• 19:30 – “You can have the best senior leadership, but if you don't have good middle management, you're going to fail. So we've established something we've called UMC University, where quarterly we bring managers and potential managers in and train them on various aspects of management, the nuts, and bolts things, the HR law, you know, which I usually do, but there's, there's finance, there's IT. But then getting into things like emotional intelligence and, and other leadership qualities, bringing in other speakers. So we're just getting into it actually in a couple weeks, our second round of training. So we're very intentional about that, and we're going to keep that going forever, hopefully, and, and really help to develop these folks.”

Cora Walker is the Chief Human Resource Officer at OmniCable and is a strategic business partner with generalist and talent acquisition experience in highly demanding, client-centric environments.

Cora has been recognized for her ability to cultivate relationships and collaborate in complex, matrixed organizations to achieve business objectives. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Why company culture is so important.
• How a company's culture is created.
• The importance of your employee's mental and emotional well-being during changes.
• Creating a one-pager blueprint for a company’s culture.
• The value of investing in leadership development.
• Why looking after your employees and leaders is fundamental to a company’s success.
• What evidence of cultural buy-in from employees signals.

Resources:

• OmniCable
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Cora Walker:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 09:35 – “Tomorrow you're going to come, and we'll be owned by someone else, but ultimately you will come here and do the same job, you'll have the same opportunities, right? And the next day you're going to do that, and the following day you're going to do that. We kept hearing this very nagging, like, ‘oh yeah, but what about our culture?’ I don't understand, what about the culture. Right? Nothing's going to change. And for them, the change had already happened, right? They, they were so invested in employee ownership, that's what they associated with culture. And we failed miserably to acknowledge and accept that for them. And so we just kept saying, it's fine, it's all fine. The culture's the same. Meanwhile, they're like, ‘no, no, no. We've already experienced the loss.’ It can't possibly be the same, cause it's not here anymore.”
• 11:59 – “Culture as a leadership topic kind of made a comeback at the end of 2020. And frankly, we didn't do a great job. We talked a lot. People had tons of ideas. We talked about those ideas. We moved along our merry way. We grew, we grew, we grew. And all along the growth process, even with our parent company, right, who has an incredible culture, we did a lot of talking, and we didn't do anything very differently except for say we wanted to do some things differently. And so 2021 sort of came and went.”
• 14:55 – “Consistently people leaving told us, ‘I had no idea what to expect here. I didn't know.’ And, and I think part of that was because we didn't know how to recruit and interview and bring people on. If you've been here 20 years and over that 20 years you've trained 10 people, because that was about the rate we were hiring at, no problem. But if tomorrow we ask you to train five people and then the following week two more new ones come in, and then you start to go, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, this is… my job's not training, my job's running this machine.’ Right? Yeah. So that was a lot of it. It was just a lot of those observations from the travel and the hiring pieces and our, our honestly miserable failure in 2021 to, to keep up with staffing and our, our turnover increased.”
• 37:56 – “Culture forms no matter what, right? The culture just naturally happens. If you want it to be a specific way, you have to be intentional about it, and kudos to you and to your organization really to take the time to do that.”
• 39:36 – “It's hard to do when you don't feel safe, comfortable, you're unsure of the answer. I might look like an idiot, what if someone calls me out? But at the end of the day, we're people, right? Human beings, if I can't extend the benefit of the doubt, regardless of how I feel internally, then what? Right? Then you're creating more of things that don't work for humans. And so I think that's probably the biggest thing is just you'd be willing to put yourself in a situation to call it out more and recognize that sometimes that's not going to make you the most popular person in the room, and that's okay.”

Jamie Heinze is an experienced HR professional and is currently the Chief Human Resources Officer at Rectangle Health. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• The process of acquisitions and how they affect culture.
• The perks of working in digital marketing.
• How to create formal processes and procedures for HR.
• The importance of a flexible, remote work environment for employee satisfaction.
• The different values the younger generation looks for in a job role.
• The benefits of having a performance management system and a management training program.
• The importance of having a well-rounded background in all aspects of HR.

Resources:

• Rectangle Health
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jamie Heinze:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:54 – “Looking at the different generations that are at in the workforce right now, the generation that's coming up in the workforce right now, that's what they want. They want that flexibility. They want to be able to make their own hours, they want the ability to work wherever they want. They want that work-life balance. They want to be able to travel, you know, that that's important to them. The experiences are more important to them than the dollars up there getting paid.”
• 16:02 – “So throughout my career, my husband was active duty military for 20 years. So I literally moved every three to four years for almost 20 years straight. And so it's kind of that starting over again every place you go and, and it was always for me trying to start over at a role that was at a higher level than the role I was at previously. And so I would never settle for, I wasn't going to settle for just an entry level role when I knew that I had experience. And so that was probably just a challenge for me of literally was being able to start over every time I moved because as we moved, it wasn't during the time where there was any virtual work, so you couldn't just take it with you and, and you know, continue to work in other states.”
• 21:16 – “Not just how do you interview for your team, but how do you delegate to your team? How do you have constructive conversations with your team? How do you manage your team? How do you manage your virtual team? You know, how do you have the, like I said, those difficult conversations, how do you build your team up? How do you do through succession planning? How you do talent management with your team? So that's a real need right now, they don't have that. So I'm working very closely with our L&D team on building out a full-blown manager training class that we're going to put all managers through, and then we'll put new managers as people get promoted or new managers come on through.”
• 22:14 – “We have people that are a hundred percent remote. So we have some teams that are fully, fully remote. My team is kind of half and half, so myself and one of the member of my team are remote. And then I do have one person onsite in New York and one person onsite in Las Vegas. You know, our sales team is kind of half and half, some are in the office, some are remote. Our marketing team is a hundred percent remote. So we're kind of all over the board where it comes to whether people are in the office or, or fully remote.”
• 23:32 – “We have people in our shipping department that are shipping on equipment, like those roles, they have to be in the office right five days a week. There are, there are essential roles, you know, and with the new CEO coming on board, he and I have talked about that of do we change that, how many people are actually abiding by the four days a week in the office? Are there departments, like I said, that can do less than that? They can do three days at home or, or you know, three days in the office or two days in the office, you know, hr, finance, development, you know, kind of work through that. So it's something that I'm sure that we're gonna we'll revisit here in the next couple of months.”

Mary Ellen Harris is the Chief Human Resources Officer at Kreischer Miller, where she leads the HR function for the organization.

Mary is an accomplished leader with experience in all areas of Human Resources gained through working in a wide variety of industries, including software development, accounting/ financial services, clinical laboratory, retail, and legal services. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The characteristics of servant leadership.
• The biggest challenges for servant leadership leaders.
• The necessary aspects of emotional intelligence.
• The benefits of using model behaviors to create a safe space for growth.
• How to build strong relationships.
• How servant leaders should treat their employees.
• What it really means to ‘value people’.

Resources:

• Kreischer Miller
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Mary Ellen Harris:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 05:26 – “Servant leadership. Just almost a very sort of definition of it, if you will. I think that when you hear the term, some people's minds go in different directions. They're now not quite certain. What does that actually mean, servant? That's an unusual word. And people have different emotional reactions to that word, right? So I wanna just clarify that, and the credit to Peter North House, who is an amazing author and a leadership expert, he really focuses on the defining servant leadership as really putting, it's like looking through the leadership lens of putting the needs of your constituents or your followers first. In fact, his argument is you even put those needs before profit, and his contention is that by doing so, you're going to encourage your people to perform at their best. You're going to encourage things like diversity of thought.”
• 9:08 – “I think people in leadership positions are fearful of particularly letting down, if it's a publicly traded company, you've got looming over you the stockholders. They want a profit, they want a profit, they want a profit. So I think profit, focus on profit, the need to focus on profit, right? Businesses that are for profit need to be profitable. And that's not a bad thing. But I do think it influences people's behavior because of the importance of making a profit in those scenarios. I think that also people are afraid to admit that they don't have all the answers. And I think they're afraid to admit that perhaps relying on their people is a good thing. Because I think it makes them feel like they have imposter syndrome, right? Like that they're, you know, not good enough. So I think that those are pretty impactful.”
• 13:34 – “Give people the benefit of the doubt first, instead of assumptions and jumping to conclusions. And that, I see, is very damaging to relationships when people do that. And I witness that all the time. And some will come into my office and say, Mary Ellen, this person's really, really weak. Well, why do you think that? Right? And it's often because of not facts, it's often because of perceptions and jumping to conclusions. So I think that those are important elements of emotional intelligence from a very pragmatic perspective.”
• 14:04 –  “Biases play a role in that as well. And there's, so, I mean, I've been doing some research into this now, really focusing on it in my coaching practice. And there's, I think, over a hundred biases out there. I mean, that they’ve documented now. So there's so many things that could come into play, and I think you're right, having the emotional intelligence to ask yourself, to question yourself, right? Yes. Am I making an assumption that's not correct here? Yes. And as you said, right, give the person the benefit of the doubt. And when you can do that, you know, the next step is then to start asking those questions”
• 24:35 – “Here's how we do things here. And this is our culture, and these are our values, and these are our guidelines. Absolutely, right? They're our guidelines and this is our pay time off policy, and this is how this works, right. Which is important. You have to have, you know, the handbook so that people know how to navigate the organization, but really looking at it through a very different lens of what I'm going to call servant leadership and emotional intelligence. And so that's a big project that's literally in the process right now.”

Valerie Utsey has worked in HR for over two decades and is currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for the Independent Community Bankers of America.

Valerie has extensive experience in developing People and Culture programs for emerging small to midsize organizations and has a proven ability to transform Human Resources departments to align with the business strategy and goals. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The different aspects of HR.
• The process of implementing new HR processes.
• How Covid has changed company cultures.
• How to use technology in performance review systems.
• The role that compensation has in employee engagement.
• Different aspects that impact employee engagement.
• Ways to build trust in an organization.
• How to build relationships with your colleagues.
• How to onboard staff in a virtual environment.

Resources:

• The Independent Community Bankers of America
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Valerie Utsey:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 32:12 - “We send out a care package to their home with a note from our CEO welcoming them to ICBA, we use our manager portal that has a template for managers to use to also send an email to that person welcoming them to their department.”
• 36:34 - “In HR we’re hit with so many different employee relations issues, I think we tend to get numb kind of like doctors they see so many bad things so often they tend to get numb by it, and when we get numb we tend to lose some of that humanity and being able to help manage the process and it’s super important not to lose that grace, you never know what someone is going through outside of work that caused the actions or reactions of an individual.”
• 2:04 - “To be a great human resources practitioner learn all the aspects of HR you can at a later time focus on one area but learn all the aspects.”
• 5:31 - “We don’t have required days that you need to be in the office or required number of days we are doing presence for a purpose and that creates a whole new level of what employee engagement means and that presence for a purpose is both at the organizational level as we celebrate and recognize certain things that we want staff to come in for or at the department level so training managers on how to create those purposeful conversations or meetings with their staff to create that in-person environment and ensure that our culture remains.”
• 10:04 - “The opportunity to coach and grow and develop and keep on track and help achieve the business goals it’s not once a year.”

Abby Hamilton has worked in HR for over a decade and is now the Chief People Officer at LiveIntent. Over the course of her experience in recruiting and HR, Abby has worked with talented leaders in adtech / martech and pharmaceuticals / medical devices.

Abby’s key areas of specialty include hiring, employee engagement, DEI, mental health in the workplace, cultural transformation, performance management, leadership alignment, learning and development, HRIS, succession planning, and data-driven decision-making. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• How Abby built her negotiation skills.
• The primary responsibilities of a Chief People Officer.
• How to build a connection with your employees.
• What employee resource groups are useful for.
• Different types of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
• The challenges working parents face.
• How HR can take care of working parents
• How to build a brand’s story.
• Ways to improve staff retention.

Resources:

• LiveIntent
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Abby Hamilton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Margaret Uhrich:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 9:10 - “Going into the pandemic I realized how much I was hiding of myself and how much I was creating shame about being a working mom that I was hiding some of that part of myself because I didn’t want people to judge me, I didn't want people to put that stereotype of well she’s not going to work hard or she’s not going to be as dedicated or she has to leave because she has to go take care of her kids. It’s true I am going to put my family first however that doesn’t make me less than, I’m still great at what I do, and I can still be dedicated, if anything else I have to be even more dedicated in the hours because I job before work and I have a job after work and that is my family and that is my children and my young children and with the onset of the pandemic I couldn’t hide that anymore.”
• 10:24 - “I was speaking in front of the entire company and my son was four at the time, my older son and he didn’t care that I was talking about something, he needed something from me in that exact moment and all that matters was I need your attention. He interrupted in the middle of it and everybody saw, the entire company saw and I was mortified absolutely mortified this was a part I felt I needed to hide I didn’t want to talk about openly and I was afraid people really judged that moment and then I got such an outpouring of love and support of how cute that was and how great it was, it was the best part of the meeting and it was funny and it was just a pivotal moment for me.”
• 15:22 - “Looking at compensation and making talking about money less taboo, you need to be able to talk about what you get paid and how you get paid more in the future, how do you get to that next level, what does career progression look like.”

Kristen Masters is the Human Resources Director at Celebree School where she has worked for over a decade. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• The rewarding aspects of working in HR for a school.
• The importance of career growth opportunities.
• How to assess talent to see if they’re in the right position.
• The turnover in early childhood education.
• How providing a career path can reduce turnover rates.
• Different ways to improve employee retention.
• Cost effective ways to promote wellness in your team.
• What to include in a monthly wellness email.
• The benefits of having a culture mentor.
• Diversity initiatives and strategies.

Resources:

• Celebree School
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Kristen Masters:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 13:56 - “For a retention standpoint especially in today’s world, we are really focusing on wellness, wellness, diversity, all of those things. Last year I believe it was our first year we got an EAP which has been a game changer for us, especially with setting up that mental well-being has been huge, fitness challenges things like that so really making sure that our team feels like they’re being nurtured not only from a growth standpoint but also just from a human standpoint, we all have things going on.”
• 20:04 - “Resiliency is a really big buzzword for me right now because of the times that we’re in with turnover and hiring and things being hard. Things are just hard right now and that was one of the things we talked to them about what is resiliency?”
• 20:52 - “Choose your hard. And when I dug a little deeper to figure out what that means, choose your hard. Things are always going to be hard so maybe for example in the workplace scenario you have an interview with someone when you’re really short-staffed and they don’t meet what you’re looking for, choose your hard. Do you hire the body and have to maybe deal with having them be coached out later and cause a negative effect for your children or do you choose your other hard and have your team to continue to work overtime be stressed out you choose your hard. Personally, maybe you're in a bad marriage do you choose your hard to stay with that person whether it makes you happy or do you choose this hard where maybe you’re a single mom but you’re leaving that person to do what’s better for you so everything has a hard it’s just which route you’re going to go in.”

Keisha Sitney is the Chief People Officer at The Y in Central Maryland, where she has been working for over 15 years.

Keisha is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of working in the non-profit organization management industry. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• How to become a Chief People Officer.
• The ways Covid has changed the HR world.
• How HR can help managers understand employee trauma.
• How to reduce employee churn rate.
• The difficulties of working in HR for a charitable organization.
• How to properly identify and share your accomplishments.
• Operational strategies that you can bring into HR.

Resources:

• The Y in Central Maryland
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Keisha Sitney:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 5:11 - “On my 100th day I actually had to furlough 2100 people that was not why I took this role, I don’t think any of us went into HR to do that so my thoughts and dreams of well we’re going to develop people and we’re going to have a great culture and we’re going to do this shifted quickly to furloughs and terminations and let’s try and stay open and temperature checking and Covid testing and regulations keeping people safe so I’m so happy to be beyond that part of the role but as you know Covid has had some lingering impacts.”
• 7:45 - “We really try to work with our managers and our supervisors but you find thought that they are the ones that are dealing with the brunt of it so they’re also holding onto the trauma that their team members are holding onto and then also with the staffing shortages and crisis that we’re in the workforce crisis we’re in many managers are doing the front line roles that they were hired to manage others to do so if you were overseeing a couple of the pools as the swim director now you’re lifeguarding for 8 hours a day you don’t really have the time to do the things that managers typically do.”
• 14:03 - “Write down, track your accomplishments and not just track them go ahead and monetize them what’s the value of that accomplishment, that new system that you put in or that new provider that you brought in that has saved the company this much money or has made your onboarding process more efficient so keeping track of those monetizing them and then communicating them.”

Andrea Walton is the Chief People and Culture Officer at Bluebird Bio and has over two decades of experience in HR.

Andrea is also the Founder of the Concrete Rose Foundation and has a proven ability for helping provide and support the vision in steering organizations through periods of organizational change and high growth. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Different cultural perspectives between large and small companies.
• How to keep your employees mission-focused.
• Strategies to build and maintain a company’s culture.
• The DEI strategy in the biotech field.
• Best practices for achieving a strong DEI strategy.
• Implementing development opportunities and succession plans for new employees.
• Managing your career while being in an abusive relationship.

Resources:

• bluebird bio
• The Concrete Rose Foundation
• All The Smoke
• National Coalition Against Domestic Violence
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Andrea Walton:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 8:25 - “What I love about smaller organizations that I’ve worked for is that you get to know everyone you get to know who sits where you get to know their names, their families, what motivates them so as much as large companies were really my foundation I’ve come to really appreciate the proximity that smaller companies give you when it comes to culture and culture building and team building with our employees.”
• 13:40 - “We know where we are in BioTech that people of color, that’s an obvious gap, and then when we drill down more African American and LatinX and so what we’ve done is created KPI’s and targets to help us close gaps specifically around those groups so when it comes to talent acquisition we’ve just partnered with a great organization to help us launch our first formal internship program that focuses on people of color because I want us to build an organic pipeline of entry-level folks that can grow into the organization.”
• 17:04 - “There can only be so many people on succession but you can develop everybody and so it’s about creating depth and breadth of experiences, it’s not just succession that's a part of it but what type of developmental programming are you establishing within your organization?”
• 21:53 - “I don’t believe in work-life balance anymore I believe in work-life integration because it’s impossible I think to be able to do both 100 percent of the time there’s just no way.”
• 24:30 - “During the pandemic domestic violence actually increased and we also know when a woman decides to leave and there are men in those situations too but when a woman decides to leave that’s the most dangerous time for her to leave and so to your point the pandemic really bought a lot of that ugliness up to the surface.”

Eloise Lepesqueur’s career spans over 20 years of building programs and strategies to support and grow diverse organizations.

Eloise is an accomplished Chief Operating Officer and Chief People Officer who has worked across mission-driven public and private sectors, focusing on people to build diverse and inclusive teams that repeatedly achieve operational success whether it’s in public affairs, marketing, change management, or digital advertising technology. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People Podcast:

• What a Chief People Officer does.
• How to handle different generations in the workforce.
• The importance of self-care in the workplace.
• The emotional labor involved in HR.
• The risk of HR professionals experiencing burnout.
• How to encourage your team to practice self-care.
• The role HR plays in mergers and acquisitions.
• How to show your employees you care about their opinion.

Resources:

• Optimal
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Eloise Lepesqueur:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the host:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 4:46 - “How are we working together so that we have safe places to work to be our authentic selves frankly during the work day, we spend so much time at work I don’t want it to be where we take off our hat and become a different person for the 8ish hours that we work that we can actually be our true selves at work as well.” 
• 9:05 - “My experience with the Gen Y and Gen Zs work hard absolutely but I’d say from my experience little better at boundaries little better at setting boundaries and expectations and wanting more clarity and these were all things that were uncomfortable for me.”
• 14:10 - “We as the human resources people we put the human in human resources so we’re the people who really do care about the work we do we gravitate towards this field because of our interest in helping people the best they can be in their work days.”
• 15:31 - “It can be kind of lonely to be an HR professional but at the same time it can be incredibly valuable to know that you’ve been helpful to help someone along in their career or be that person to help them navigate a difficult situation but with that comes all that effort.”
• 17:25 - “When things are going really well people stand by you but when things go bad you stand alone and that’s where it can be a little bit hard.”

Lauren Lynch is the Chief Marketing & Culture Officer at Mandelbaum Barrett where she focuses on employee engagement efforts and establishing a positive culture for employee morale.

Lauren has over 2 decades of experience in the legal service industry, and has taken marketing roles to mean much more than just traditional marketing, with a strive for it to become a force of cultural change impacting both attorneys and staff.Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Why a company’s culture is so important.
• Ways to help employees avoid ‘burnout’.
• How to increase the amount of empathy in an organization.
• How to teach leaders to lead with empathy.
• The ways marketing can help HR.
• How HR professionals can build a relationship with their marketing team.
• The value of focus groups.
• How to reinforce a company's core values.

Resources:

• DisruptHR
• Mandelbaum Barrett PC
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Lauren Lynch:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 4:19 - “It’s no secret that the legal industry is known for burnout and you’ve got high-ranking employees and lawyers who their job is to get results for clients and they’re often working long hours and it’s just really not know as a space, mental health and drug abuse is very rampant in the legal community and it’s something that the law journal has done numbers of studies on over the years and I think finally law firms are starting to wake up and realize wow these are people too and they’re not only your lawyers but your staff and we can’t burnout these people the way we are and while yes results matter so do the people making those results and getting those results to clients.”
• 9:09 - “We survey our employees, not just what can we do better, what can we do differently, how are you feeling, what’s going on in your life right now that relates to how you’re doing the work and I think surveys are so underrated these days but they’re so important and if anything it lets your employees know that you do care, you’re caring you’re valuing their opinion and I think that’s so important.”
• 27:15 - “Companies are starting to look at the recession that may be coming and they’re starting to pull back on things and so I’m looking more at how do I do the cheap little things without having to spend a tonne of money how do I let my employees know that they’re valued and we care about them.”

With an aim to be the ultimate connectors of people, Juno Search Partners have been very successful and won numerous HR awards. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• Building a culture that puts employee satisfaction at the forefront.
• Signs that someone isn’t a good fit for your organization.
• How to respond to an employee that doesn’t fit in your culture.
• Ways to embed your culture into your interviewing process.
• The balance between culture and performance.
• How work is changing and the future of the workplace.
• Why remote working is hurting younger employees disproportionately.

Resources:

• Juno Search Partners
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connect with Mikal Harden:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 14:03 - “Trust your gut, it doesn’t get better that’s often what we say because people still surprise you we’re in this game of identifying talent and then sometimes we hire somebody really **** how did we not see?”
• 16:19 - “I remember early on I used to love, I got to hire college athletes, college athletes know how to take direction, be part of a team, they understand what it means to win, they understand what it means to lose.”
• 18:12 - “He said I don’t want anybody from a law firm, and I was like well what do you want? And he said I don’t want to have to reteach somebody who learned it all wrong, and he was a solo practitioner and for sure we can learn some bad habits in certain places and it’s hard to unlearn.”
• 25:51 - “I don’t know that offices are gone forever and I really think, certainly in Juno that the folks that have suffered are often the early career who are not getting the benefit of working shoulder to shoulder with us.”

• The proactive nature you need towards diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• What an organizational culture assessment involves.
• The importance of focusing on underrepresentation rather than diversity.
• Why you need to identify the behaviors behind values.
• How to create a more representative workforce.
• Ways to increase employee satisfaction.
• How to improve your networking skills.

Resources:

• American Conservation Experience
• The Executive Appeal Podcast

Connect with Alex Tremble:

• LinkedIn
• Email

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 3:24 - “There is a desire to focus on teaching people that different isn’t bad, there is a focus on teaching people to understand and value each other's perspectives, that’s absolutely critical. But the reality is that you and I live in a world where we know the data says that people who are taller generally get put into more leadership positions, people who are more attractive are believed more often, people who are of a certain skin color get this, people who are women or male, the reality is that we don’t live in a fair world so the only way to address these issues is to go into it eyes wide open and say ok it’s wonderful that we have all this great information on why people being different isn’t bad but what are we literally doing to increase diversity in our ranks.”
• 08:24 - “If you live in this fancy world where everything is hunky-dory, then you don’t actually address anything and no one can hold you accountable so having this data and coming out and saying yea this is wonderful that we have done really great in these other areas but over here we need to focus our effort and this is why I personally have moved away from the idea of increasing diversity within an organization to focusing on underrepresentation because representation is much more adaptable.”
• 17:31 - “I don’t care if you like me because I’m black. I’m a black guy by the way, if someone doesn’t like me simply because I’m black I couldn’t care less. If an employee or staff member doesn't like me because I’m black I couldn't care less and this goes for any demographic and the reason not being because I think it’s stupid, I think it’s because I have no control over what you think, I have absolutely no control over what you think but what I can hold you accountable for is your behaviors.”
• 21:06 - “All relationships are based on value, all relationships, even our marriages, our best friends, there’s absolutely no relationship that’s healthy where those individuals from that relationship aren’t providing value to each other.”
• 24:35 - “Many people from underrepresented communities tend to believe in this falsehood, this lie, this propaganda that we’ve all been fed that hard work takes you to the top, it doesn’t I can promise you all right now you all know someone who works really hard and they’re not where they want to be. So hard work is important I don’t want to get  myself in trouble here, you don’t get to the table unless you work hard but it’s not hard work that differentiates you, it’s what you were talking about Holly it’s your network, it’s the relationships you have.”

Becky is the Chief People Officer and EVP at Amplity Health where she leads the Global People Strategy and HR operation globally and scales the function and company to support business growth. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• How to provide a humanistic HR approach.
• Different communication methods that can connect people.
• Effective engagement plans and strategies.
• How to evaluate if your culture is effective.
• How new leaders can build trust with their employees.
• How HR responded to George Floyd’s murder.
• Diversity equity and inclusion processes.
• Mental health resources HR can provide.

Resources:

• Amplity Health
• HR Person of the Year Awards
• Gartner for Human Resource (HR) Leaders
• MEA - MidAtlantic Employers' Association

Connect with Becky O'Loughlin:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 11:00 - “I was really befuddled, I’m like I don’t really understand what we’ve done because in my mind especially coming from such a large organization it was always about these big programs and big communication and big deliverables that went out and you boil it down and people just want you to engage them for who they are and where they are.”
• 19:51 - “Following George Floyd's murder we put together a people strategy through that, of course, there was a diversity, equity, and inclusion component for the year 2020 what we had planned was to have an unconscious bias training session I think it was in third quarter or fourth quarter but we didn’t have a stated plan or strategy so when that transpired we needed to pull that forward immediately and also with urgency and have a voice around that as an organization that felt authentic and wasn't just a reaction because we felt like we had to and those were probably some of the most compelling conversations I’ve had in my life much less my career at that time.”
• 22:53 - “One of the best things that came out of those was these ask me anything sessions again for our black and African ancestry resource group they started it, had an ask me anything session had people submit questions ahead of time had a panel of representative team members join so questions were put forward ahead and some of them were really raw but it was a really fantastic and open forum nothing was scripted.”
• 29:58 - “Our people strategy the way that it’s stated I verbalize it all of the time I don't let people forget why we have the focus that we do our intent is that we want to be a high-performing team so our colleagues and our clients choose us time and time again, the colleges we serve, the clients we serve and very intentional that we talk about our colleagues first and we have a strategy that supports that.”
• 31:28 - “Not to rest on our laurels and think we’ve already got that because you never do you can lose it in an instant you can lose an organizations or an individuals trust in one moment so you have to stay on your toes with it and keep it at the forefront and don't let people forget don't let the leaders expect what their expectations are and don't let the organization the colleges the team members think for a second that it’s still not top of mind.”

With a passion for the full employee life cycle with an emphasis on talent and culture development, DEI, organizational design, and talent acquisition Joel transformed his career from management consultant to becoming the Chief People Officer at Yieldstreet. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• The characteristics you need to be a good People Officer.
• How to create a good onboarding experience.
• How to improve your skills as an HR leader.
• The most effective and efficient hiring process.
• What to do when your employees make mistakes.
• The difficulties of working with a fully remote team.
• How to maximize the potential of hybrid workspaces.

Resources:

• Yieldstreet

Connect with Joel Greengrass:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 8:14 - “You realize that when somebody starts a new job it doesn't matter if they've been working for 20 years or if they've been working for 2 it’s still a lot like your first day of school. You’re so nervous leading up to the first day and are the other kids going to like me and what should I wear and how do you make people as comfortable and as excited as possible as quickly as possible because my goal is I want people leaving their first day more excited than the day that they said yes.”
• 12:38 - “Part of the thread throughout is your instincts, I think our spidey senses we ignore those a lot and we do things the way that we think they're supposed to be done and the reality is yes there’s a lot of law within the world of HR, and employment law and it’s getting more fun there every day but I still think there’s so much latitude to do things differently and think out of the box and have fun and for me, it was how do I combine those two and find that happy sweet spot.”
• 17:04 - “I truly believe in my soul that you should be treating people the way that you want to be treated and I’ve never met a single person who’s come to work trying to do a bad job or trying to screw something up and therefore when somebody makes a mistake or doesn’t do something at the level that you want them to my first thought is that’s an opportunity, that’s an opportunity to invest in that person, help them learn how to do it the right way and it’s not just the what to do but it’s the way, give them the context, help them understand how that connects to the wellbeing of the company because that’s your purpose and at the end of the day when somebody makes a mistake again to me it’s an investment opportunity.”
• 24:50 - “There’s no way that if you’ve never met somebody in person that you can have the same relationship as if you’ve been sitting down with them in a room or an in-person brainstorm session where you've got whiteboards and flipcharts going around the entire room, what we can do on video now is incredible and I shudder to think what we would have done if Covid had hit us 20 years ago, would we have been faxing and sending pages back and forth to people so we’re so fortunate to that standpoint but it’s still not at the point where it replicates real human behavior.”
• 33:54 - “Dip your fingers into everything in the company, learn what is going on beyond your four walls or your virtual four walls, I think it’s really important from an HR perspective to have as much context around what the business does, why they do it, what decisions are made, whether they using goals or KPIs or OKRs what do those look like at the top and how does what you’re doing supports those, I really feel that the more operational you can be as an HR person, and I don't mean that with regard to HR operations I mean in relation to company operations the more effective you’re going to be.”

Janet is a passionate Human Resources Professional with experience leading projects, operations, and staff in varying industries.

She was a 2022 Finalist for HR Person of the Year, a 2018 HR Rising Star Nominee for the Delaware Valley, and a speaker on HR Today Radio. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• The disproportionate amount of white women working in HR.
• How to build a diverse HR department.
• Bringing new initiatives into your HR department.
• Ways to change employee’s mindset.
• How HR can help their managers be proactive.
• How long it takes to change a company’s culture.
• The importance of managers connecting with their staff.
• The emergence of the multi-manager leadership style.
• Metrics you can use to measure the success of managers.
• How to help employees find their strengths and passions.

Resources:

• DisruptHR Princeton
• Suvoda
• Weavers Way Co-op
• Gartner HR report

Connect with Janet Potts:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 7:13 - “What I found is that it is really just a different way to help people and that’s what I really enjoy is when you do HR right you’re really just building strong cultures and great places for people to live the majority of their life, we spend so much time at work and the one thing that I hate is seeing someone whos not happy at a place that they have to spend that much time in so I love being that person that can really make sure that the people that are there are enjoying the fact that they’re there.”
• 13:07 - “Programs are important don’t get me wrong but when you can feel that something is just the base part of a culture, that it’s just a practice within the organization where it doesn't have to be a special program that's focused on something that’s when people truly feel the impact of it.”
• 16:35 - “It’s really building relationships on both sides, employees need to feel comfortable coming to talk to you, as you spoke about in the beginning of our discussion, about things that are very personal and serious, and managers and leaders need to feel comfortable expressing their concerns and seeking your guidance so the process of building those relationships requires a lot of empathy.”
• 18:13 - “People thrive when you allow them to, when you really give them the support and to be that person to stand there and say I know you can do this, and here I’ll give you the way to do it, I’ll guide you through it, you have me in your corner, let’s go see it through, people have that desire to succeed and they want to see positive things happen.”
• 22:37 - “The working world that we had 20 years ago where people came in and they clocked and did their job and had their cordial relationships and then went home that's not really what we have any more people expect something different of their workplace and they want to feel engaged and they want to feel like it’s a community and it’s our responsibility to make sure that there is that feeling of community in a workplace.“