The mission of the HR Works Podcast is to provide clear, relevant, actionable information on topics that matter to HR professionals through engaging and insightful interviews with experts and thought leaders. We are proud to help keep the water-cooler conversations going in such challenging and uncertain times.
Over the past year, we’ve spoken with dozens of leaders and experts in the HR industry in an effort to provide best practices, new strategies, as well as new information to ponder.
If you missed a few episodes along the way, don’t fret! Here are some of our favorite HR Works Podcast episodes from 2021:
Building an Effective Organizational Culture
Guest: Dr. Phillip Meade, Co-Owner and COO of Gallaher Edge
We all know that getting culture right is an absolute must at any organization. But sometimes the stakes are higher than just a potential loss of motivation or high turnover. For example, when poor work cultures intersect with poor safety cultures, lives can be at risk.
Strong Candidates Among the Disabled
Guest: Carolyn Cannistraro, Account Relationship Manager, Wells Fargo
Since March 2020, 1 in 5 workers with disabilities have been dismissed from employment compared with 1 in 7 other employees. These figures represent a tragedy for employees and employers alike as employees with disabilities are demonstrably excellent and dedicated workers.
5-Minute Friday: The 8 Hour Workday Is Dead
Guest: Greg Portell, Lead Partner in the Global Consumer Practice, Kearny
Is the 8-hour workday dead? What will take its place? Will organizations move into new territories with grace?
You Need More than Passion to Tackle Diversity
Guest: Minal Bopaiah, Principal & Founder of Brevity & Wit
It takes more than passion to create and/or maintain a successful diversity program. That is the topic we tackle in this episode with Minal Bopaiah, an expert dedicated to helping organizations improve their diversity and inclusion efforts.
Star Wars is an HR Nightmare
What do poor diversity, hostile work environments, corporate espionage, and poor safety cultures have in common? They can all be found long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. In celebration of May The 4th, members of the Simplify Media editorial teams joined forces to unpack the litany of HR complications that existed throughout the Star Wars universe.
AWS on How to Train 29 Million
Guest: Maureen Lonergan, Director of Worldwide Training and Certifications at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
A 2021 McKinsey report found that 100 million workers across the globe will need to find new jobs by 2030. That comes to about 17 million Americans that will be transitioning to a new career. However, an Amazon-commissioned Accenture report found that 33 million low-income Americans could be upskilled for emerging jobs with the right training. For this reason, Amazon recently announced that they are committed to training 29 million people across the world for free for in-demand skills.
LGBTQ+ Discrimination Still a Major Struggle
Guests: Ella Slade, Global LGBTQ+ Leader at IBM, and CV Viverito, Deputy Director of Global Programs & Stakeholder Engagement with Out & Equal Workplace Advocates.
Discrimination against individuals of the LGBTQ+ community was codified as illegal just about a year ago, in June of 2020 by the US supreme court when they added sexual orientation and gender identity to classifications protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. As part of Pride Month, we spoke with two experts to tackle LGBTQ+ discrimination in the workplace and learn how HR and employers can drive real and lasting progress in the workplace for LGBTQ+ employees.
Not All Background Checks Are Created Equal
Guests: Ofer Reiss, CEO & Owner of ProfCheck LTD, and David Garcia, the CEO of ScoutLogic
In this episode, we discuss background checks. So many organizations require background checks on potential employees, but not all background checks are equal, and there are some tricky compliance issues to navigate as well. Also, we learn how the pandemic has changed the nature of background checks in the workplace.
Transcending Performance Reviews
Guest: Gaylyn Sher-Jan, Chief People Officer, Bright.md
If you’ve ever suspected that performance reviews were not achieving the results you were hoping for at your organization, this episode may help. With employees and organizations being as complicated as they are, this system of assessment has a hundred ways to go wrong. In this episode, we dig deeper into the impetus behind performance reviews, and how we can all aim higher.
If you have enjoyed these episodes of the HR Works Podcast and would like to hear more, be sure to explore our archive of past episodes here and listen to our new episodes every Tuesday. Remember you can always follow the HR Works Podcast on Twitter at @HRWorksPodcast, and we are also now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Amazon Audible.