HRchat Podcast

Latest Episodes:

How Experiences Can Impact Employee Engagement with Jon Irvine, BlueBoard Jan 07, 2022

Show notes

In this HRchat episode, we talk about how employee recognition and incentives have evolved and ways experiential rewards can strengthen the employee experience and be a key factor in retaining and attracting employees.
Bill's guest this time is Jonathan Irvine, Head of Business Development at Blueboard, an employee recognition and incentives platform powered by hand-curated experiences. The company claims to make it easy for companies to give meaningful employee rewards, incentives, and gifts - from one-of-a-kind to once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
Questions for Jon Include:

You work with lots of HR folks at Blueboard. What do they seem to be focused on right now as we kick off a new calendar year?
What does employee fulfillment look like? Why should companies care?
How can People leaders and companies create this culture of employee fulfillment?
What does a recognition program look like that will actually make a difference?
Why are transactional rewards like cash and gift cards no longer enough to incentivize and motivate employees?
What can companies expect after taking steps towards building a culture of employee fulfillment through innovative recognition?
What are the potential benefits to the personal and professional development of employees who take part in hand-curated experiences on a regular basis? Can you share any stats around how experiential learning can make employees happier, more well-rounded, and high-performing?

More About Blueboard
Blueboard is the employee rewards and recognition platform for the modern workplace. Blueboard enables companies to reward top employees with memorable, personal and shareable experiences. Experiences as rewards not only provide a more meaningful avenue for employee recognition, but also create a lasting impact on your top engagement metrics (like increased employee motivation and retention rates, and providing a more positive company culture).
Companies including The Trade Desk, GoPro, and USI Insurance use Blueboard to reward their top performers with experiences - think local adventures like skydiving, couple's massage, learning to surf, or luxury incentive travel in lieu of cash or gift cards.
Experiences range from local adventures like learning to surf or DJ, taking guitar or an aerobatic flight lesson, to luxury incentive travel escapes.
Blueboard is currently working with innovative brands like Zendesk, Pinterest, Lyft, Otis Elevators, Edmunds, Chick-fil-A and hundreds more.
Learn more about Blueboard and browse our reward experiences at https://www.blueboard.com.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score.
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Measuring Employee Wellbeing with Dr. Don Brown, LifeOmic Jan 06, 2022

Show notes

Welcome to another episode of the HRchat show. In this episode, we consider tech to monitor and assess employee wellbeing.
Bill's guest this time is Dr. Don Brown, Founder, and CEO of LifeOmic, a software company that leverages the cloud, machine learning, and mobile devices to offer disruptive solutions to healthcare providers, researchers, employers, health coaches, health IT companies and individuals.
His first company was acquired by EDS in 1986. He founded Software Artistry in 1988 which became the first software company in Indiana ever to go public and was later acquired by IBM for $200 million. Don then founded and served as CEO of Interactive Intelligence which went public in 1999 and was acquired by Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories in 2016 for $1.4 billion.
Don received a bachelor’s in physics from Indiana University in 1978, a master’s in computer science from IU in 1982, an MD from the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1985, and a master’s in biotechnology from Johns Hopkins University in 2017.
Questions Include:

LifeOmic had its start in the oncology space around healthcare data aggregation and visualization. How has this background informed your approach to corporate wellness?
What value does a medical-grade approach to wellness have for both the employees and the employers?
The core of the LifeOmic Precision Wellness solution is the five pillars of health – plant-based nutrition, activity, mindfulness, sleep, and intermittent fasting. Based on hundreds of scientific studies, these pillars will, your team claims, improve your employees' health. Can you tell us more about the five pillars of health and ways HR can be more mindful of each to encourage better habits in the workplace?
Using your tools, employees can do self mini-checkups using fitness wearables, connected scales, blood pressure cuffs, spirometers and more to monitor their improvements. You support seamless connection to Fitbit, Oura and all Healthkit devices. Can you tell me more about how the tech can monitor employee health in real-time?
Using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence, LifeOmic Precision Wellness aims to create and deliver tailored recommendations to improve health as well as identify areas employees should proactively discuss with their doctor. Many HR pros remain skeptical about the pervasiveness of AI and machine learning as prescriptive tech. How does your AI work and what would you say to any doubters out there?
You recently launched LIFE Ascent, a 52 week guided program that empowers individuals to start building sustainable healthy habits. This content is something that employers can include in their Precision Wellness program. What kind of impact can a program like this have on employees?
You say that your wellness solutions can scale to any size organization or team. Can you share how a company can introduce a wellness solution that's able to scale at speed? What are the checks one can put in place in the initial testing phase and throughout the rollout to endure each and every employee has the (education to) access to the solution?

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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How Play Helps Employee Performance with Jeff Harry Jan 04, 2022

Show notes

Have you tried to create authentic connections between your employees and leadership teams but keep hitting roadblocks? In this HRchat episode, we consider the role of play in upping engagement levels in the workplace.

Bill's guest this time is Jeff Harry, Founder, and Positive Psychology Play Whisperer at Rediscover Your Play. Jeff shows individuals and companies how to tap into their ‘true selves’, to feel their happiest and most fulfilled — all by playing.

He has worked with Google, Microsoft, Southwest Airlines, Adobe, the NFL, Amazon and Facebook, helping their staff to infuse more play into the day-to-day.

Jeff is an international speaker who has presented at conferences such as INBOUND and Australia’s Pausefest, and was selected by Engagedly as one of the Top 100 HR Influencers of 2020 for his organizational development work around addressing toxicity in the workplace.

He has been featured in the New YorkTimes, San Francisco Chronicle, and CNN.

Jeff believes that we already have many of the answers we seek. By simply unleashing our ‘inner child’, he suggests, we can find our purpose and, in turn, help to create a better world. And we'll delve into that wonderful aspiration today!

Questions Include:

You believe that we already have many of the answers we seek, and by simply unleashing our intuition or "inner child", we can find our purpose and, in turn, help to create a better world. What is our inner child and why should we connect with it?
“While we spend most of our time pretending to be important, serious grownups, it's when we let go of that facade and just play, that the real magic happens. Fully embracing your own nerdy genius — whatever that is —gives you the power to make a difference and change lives.“ Please explain why you believe major issues in the workplace be resolved by using play?
Let’s discuss the process and methodology. Take some time now and explain your methodology for using forms of play at work to create strong more authentic connections between colleagues. Take me through the process without sharing the results just yet.
Remote working brought back by Omicron: What are the challenges when it comes to trying to teach play as a way to grow and achieve when some or all participants are remote?

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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Labor Market Review and Predictions For 2022 w/ Andrew Flowers, Appcast Dec 30, 2021

Show notes

2021 in Review and Looking Ahead to Recruiting in 2022
In this special episode of the HRchat show, we wrap up 2021 by reviewing another rollercoaster year in Recruitment and HR. We also make predictions for the labor market in 2022.
Bill's guest this time is Andrew Flowers, Labor Economist at Appcast, a global leader in programmatic recruitment advertising technology and services.
Prior to joining Appcast in 2021, Andrew spent nearly three years at Indeed.com as an economist at its global research institute, the Hiring Lab. Before that, he was the quantitative editor and an economics writer at FiveThirtyEight, a premier media destination for data-driven coverage of politics and sports. Flowers began his career as an economic analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta where he analyzed macroeconomic and financial data, produced reports and briefed its president, board of directors, and other stakeholders on economic and financial conditions in the U.S. and abroad.
Listen as he shares his take on the bounce back from the pandemic and Great Resignation. Andrew also attempts to predict what recruiters, HR pros, and business leaders can expect from the labor market and recruitment tech in the year ahead as a result of expected inflation rates and government stimulus measures.
By the way, if you've enjoyed this episode, check out the recent HRchat interview with Andrew's colleague and Appcast CEO, Chris Forman.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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Crossover Special w/ Chris Bjorling, People and Perfomance Podcast Dec 23, 2021

Show notes

In this special episode, Bill Banham and Chris Bjorling chat about the first year of the popular People and Performance Podcast, produced in partnership with the team at The HR Gazette.
They also offer predictions for what to expect for workforce planning and performance management in 2022 in light of the outbreak of the Omicron variant of Covid.
This is a special crossover episode that'll go live on both the People and Performance Podcast and the HRchat show just ahead of the holidays! Each episode contains exclusive content and unique insights so be sure to check out both versions!
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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Building Better Business Relationships w/ Ted Rubin Dec 21, 2021

Show notes

In this HRchat episode, we talk about building and maintaining relationships. Listen too as we talk about lessons from the world of social media marketing that can be transferred to leadership and HR.
Bill's guest is Ted Rubin, a leading Social Marketing Strategist, International Keynote Speaker, Business Advisor, Author, Connector, and Provocateur.
In March 2009 Ted started using and evangelizing the term ROR, Return on Relationship, hashtag #RonR. His book, Return on Relationship, was released January 2013, How To Look People in the Eye Digitally was released January 2015, and The Age of Influence… Selling to the Digitally Connected Customer was released in May 2017.
Ted is currently writing his latest book, along with business partner and Retail Thought Leader John Andrews titled Retail Relevancy.
Learn more about Ted at TedRubin.com.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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How to Make Online Hiring More Personal w/ Yves Boudreau, Alongside Dec 16, 2021

Show notes

In this HRchat episode, we talk about talent attraction, onboarding and a big announcement in the Canadian recruitment tech space.

Bill's guest this time is Yves Boudreau, CEO of Alongside, an HR tech company working to improve the ways candidates and companies discover each other. He’s also CEO at the spin-off onboarding tech company AllOnboard HR.
Yves has a long history of successful entrepreneurship. He started his first company at the age of 19, a digital creative agency. He then worked in Business Development, helping local businesses start or expand their operations.

In 2014, Yves co-founded Alongside, the first Atlantic Canadian company to be accepted into 500 Startups in San Francisco. In 2017, Yves led the negotiations on Alongside’s first multi-million-dollar enterprise deal.

Yves and his team recently made the exciting move to buy one of Canada’s leading job boards, CareerBeacon.com. And we’re going to talk about the acquisition of CareerBeacon in today’s show.

Questions Include:

The CEO of ZipRecruiters said your ATS is one of the best he’s seen! In 90 seconds or less, introduce Alongside.
How can online recruiting be impersonal and off-putting to candidates if not done in the right ways? Conversely, what are the chances of success when online talent attraction is managed in ways that better connect the candidate with the employer brand?
You are also CEO of AllOnBoard HR. I understand that AllOnBoardwas originally going to be a feature within Alongside but your team felt the challenges of onboarding are so huge that you and you decided to create a new product. Tell me about AllOnBoard.
It was announced this week that Alongside has bought CareerBeacon. Why did Alongside decide to acquire one of Canada’s leading job boards?
What are the plans for both companies? Can you share the roadmap for platform developments and growth in the Canadian market?

Enjoyed the conversation with Yves? Check out his recent appearance on the Recruitment Flex Podcast with our friends Serge and Shelly.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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Achieving Higher Performance w/ Craig Weber Dec 14, 2021

Show notes

In HRchat episode 374, we talk about making smarter decisions and achieving higher performance.

This episode has a kick because you'll hear how to start learning "a veritable conversational martial art".
Bill Banham is joined by Craig Weber, author of the best-selling book, Conversational Capacity: The Secret To Building Successful Teams That Perform When The Pressure Is On (McGraw-Hill, 2013) and the sequel, Influence in Action: How to Build Your Conversational Capacity, Do Meaningful Work, and Make a Powerful Difference (McGraw-Hill, 2019).

Craig says he's "on a mission to help people build more healthy, engaged, and adaptive organizations" and he shares practical skills for putting good ideas to work: from running better meetings and making smarter decisions, to facilitating more productive change and crafting more effective strategy.

Questions Include:

What does "inspiring constructive change" mean to you?
Conversational Capacity: Your methods "have been used to bolster the performance of executive groups and flight crews, as well as surgical units and CDC emergency response teams." Can you give our listeners an overview of how you help leaders and highly skilled professionals to perform at top levels?
What are some approaches you've seen that lead to more productive meetings? Can you share any case studies?
From running better meetings and making smarter decisions to facilitating more productive change and crafting more effective strategy, your approach is, in over a dozen U.S. states, even helping Democratic and Republican legislators work together more effectively as they craft public policy. Tell us about that. pork-barrel politics v polarized
Influence in Action: You go deeper, showing how to put the principles in your book Conversational Capacity into practice. You use a step-by-step program that includes case studies, sample dialogues, skill-building exercises, and powerful conversation techniques. Can you briefly run through some of the steps and share how that can lead to higher performance?

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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The Great Resignation and Gig Work w/ Tiffany Pham, Mogul Dec 10, 2021

Show notes

In this HRchat episode, we look at ways to empower unrepresented groups in the workplace and consider tech to help level the playing field.
Bill Banham's guest is Tiffany Pham, Founder & CEO of Mogul, a leading diversity recruitment company. She developed the first version of Mogul, which through its patent-pending inventions now enables recruitment access to over 430MM women and diverse professionals across 195 countries. Praised by Sheryl Sandberg as “the number one platform” and referred to as "the perfect business" by Melinda Gates, Mogul is backed by investors SoftBank, Hearst Corporation, the Founders of Comcast, LinkedIn Learning, and Match.com.

A TV personality, Tiffany has been a Judge on the TLC TV Show "Girl Starter" and is a cast member on The History Channel TV Shows “The Machines That Built America” and "The Toys That Built America." In 2021, she became the face of Lexus, appearing in their “More Than Intelligence” TV campaign. She has appeared across advertising campaigns for Asana, Amazon Audible, Naturalizer, Dell, Captain Morgan, Visa, LUNA, Bumble and bumble, and GoDaddy.

Questions For Tiffany Include:

You've had side hustles in your career. Share your story. Can you also suggest why it's important for young women who are starting out in their careers to get a wide variety of experiences in different fields, and how that approach ultimately benefited your career?
How much of The Great Resignation and the scramble for talent do you attribute to the rise of the gig economy since the start of Covid?
As a successful CEO and author of two books, what advice do you have for our listeners about how to achieve their goals?
What trends do you see happening in the year ahead for HR and Talent pros?

We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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HCM Tech Buying Essentials w/ Jacqueline Kuhn, HRchitect Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

Businesses need the right HCM technology systems in place to allow them to operate at full capacity and in the best interests of their employees.
Before you embark on your next HCM technology purchase, listen to this episode for inspiration around defining an HR service delivery model, creating an HCM technology strategy, defining the system evaluation and selection process, undewrtaking system implementation, and what to expect post-implementation.
In this HRchat, Bill Banham talks with Jacqueline Kuhn, Co-Owner and Executive Vice President, Strategic Services at HRchitect and author of the new book HRchitect's Guide to HCM Technology: What you should know before your next HCM technology purchase. Among other topics, Jacqueline will talk about what's needed to apply one's HCM technology know-how within your organization in practical ways that will make an immediate positive impact.
We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.

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