HR Superstars

There's no universal blueprint for personal and professional development. However, breaking your values into principles and guideposts can provide the focus and freedom your people need to grow. David Hassell, CEO, and Shane Metcalf, Chief People and Culture Officer at 15Five, walk us through 15five's values and explain how they're broken into clear principles. T hey also explain why the Great Res...

Core values can drive more cynicism than connection. But done right, they can provide a bedrock for fast-growing hybrid teams. Rad Power Bikes is a great example. Pam Keenan Fritz shares how they have pulled values off the proverbial wall and into every stage of the employee life cycle. The result? A highly engaged culture. Pam further digs into her experience building a thriving hybrid work envir...

Some people say empathy is one of the most essential traits of a people leader. Others beg to differ. Courage and conviction are the competencies that make HR leaders truly stand out and defend their people. In this episode, we interview Colleen McCreary, Chief People, Places, & Publicity Officer at Credit Karma, about the courage and confidence that are needed for today's people leadership. Join...

Race, gender, politics, religion, ageism, class — these don't necessarily sound like fun conversations. But they can be, and you need to embrace them because your employees already are. In this special edition episode from 15Five's Empower Conference, we interview Carin Taylor, Chief Diversity Officer at Workday, about overcoming our fears to unpack the challenging conversations that our employees...

The question of equitable outcomes is an uncomfortable one. A proactive change leader will recognize that equitable outcomes require different approaches for different team members in different populations. In this episode, we interview Jevan Soo Lenox , Chief People Officer formerly at Stitch Fix, about creating equitable outcomes across wildly different teams. Join us as we discuss: The emotiona...

Your culture has to connect to the solution(s) you offer, your compensation strategy has to connect to your culture, your planning process has to connect to your goals for your workforce… All this stuff has to connect. Why? People practices aren't programmatic. They're systematic. In this episode, we interview Denise Thomas , VP, Operations (COO) at Cisco Meraki , about why people practitioners ne...

We can revolutionize our world, if we rid our workplaces of industrial age paradigms. Embracing the creativity within us all will enable us to develop a more humanistic approach to work and to find answers to the societal and environmental problems that afflict our world. In part two of our interview with Nancy Hauge, Chief Human Resources Officer at Automation Anywhere, Nancy paints a promising p...

Many HR practices trace their roots back to the industrial age — an era where management practices were inspired by the practice of slavery and created on a foundation of distrust towards workers. If you've been doing something for over 75 years that's sourced in suffering and clearly no longer working, it's time for a revolution. In part one of our interview with Nancy Hauge, Chief Human Resource...

If we choose to revert to a system of work that looks like 2019, we're missing an opportunity of a lifetime. The role of HR is to enable the talent and culture in an organization, to equate business success with human success. One of the best ways to do that is to carry forward the lessons we learned about flexible work and communication into the future of work. In this episode, we interview Tracy...

In this episode of HR Superstars, we talked with Elisa Garn, VP Digital Brand at GBS Benefits, Inc., who shared several personal stories explaining how she became more empathic and learned firsthand the sting of pity and sympathy in a vulnerable and painful situation. With great humor and candor, she offered unique perspectives around the difference between tactical and strategic HR. She also prov...

There's an exciting movement happening right now in HR where HR and people ops professionals are seeing an elevation of the strategic importance they play in an organization. Part of what's driving that trend is empowering HR leaders with data around performance and engagement. One of the best opportunities for HR executives and people ops professionals to continue elevating their voice and strate...

How do leaders create a sense of belonging and camaraderie with their still shell-shocked remote team? They start with clear communication, vulnerability and inclusivity, and a safe space to share ideas. This episode was taken from a segment of the HR Superstars Summit. In it, Santi Jaramillo, CEO and Co-Founder of Emplify, and Milena Berry, CEO and Co-Founder of PowerToFly, discuss ways to lead w...

It's not enough to run through a regulatory checklist when you're establishing or expanding your company's diversity, equity, inclusivity and sense of belonging initiatives. Diversity and inclusion is not about checking boxes on a list; it's about creating a space of belonging through shared intent, individual empowerment, and proactive listening. Our leadership teams should continually be strivin...

After the honeymoon breaks down and the insane roller coaster of building a company ramps up, you're left with the hard task of crafting a transformational culture. If you fail at this task, you'll have a fractured leadership team and a toxic workplace. Since we started our company, we've had plenty of breakdowns, and we've learned how to turn those breakdowns into breakthroughs for our team. What...

Just as we want to create a transformational outcome for our customers with our products and services, we want to create a transformational employee experience. In fact, the two are inextricably linked. As we've crafted our culture, one of the foundational aspects that we know is critical to creating transformation and improving people's lives is our relationships. How do we build a transformation...

A truly grehttps://www.15five.com/resources/podcast/at company culture doesn't typically develop on its own. It is often necessary to undergo change that will allow you to grow as an organization and build the culture you desire. In this episode of HR Superstars, we talked with Sarah Chavarria, Chief People Officer at Delta Dental, about organizational transformation. What we talked about: -How cu...

The old models of leadership no longer serve organizations well. Those models expected leaders to be superhuman. But that kind of strength entirely misses the mark; it doesn't serve the needs of those we lead. Today, we need a leadership model that embraces vulnerability, along with service, humility, kindness, and love. We talked with Laila Tarraf, Chief People Officer at Allbirds, about her new...

Historically, organizations have operated with an overly simplistic view of what motivates people. They had little understanding of how important belonging is, how to build esteem, or how important it is to be sensitive to individual needs. But if 2020 taught us anything, it's that we must be human first. We talked with Gianna Driver, Chief People Officer at BlueVine, about leading with compassion...

The traditional approach to sales was all about hitting the number at all costs. Not only is that unsustainable; it's inefficient. The key to high performance at any company is for managers to compassionately and empathetically engage and enable their people. To find out how to do that, we talked with Sandi Kochhar, Chief People Officer at Gong.io, about living company values and manager enablemen...

What is the first step on the path to high results? Answer: when leaders care about their employees as whole beings. Employees do their best work when their deepest needs are met. How can we work toward an environment that is compassionate, fulfilling, and safe? We talked with repeat guest David Hanrahan, Chief Human Resources Officer at Eventbrite, about the state of mental health post-2020 and t...

It's easy to come up with the idea of a corporate value. But coming up with convergence where people align their bodies, hearts, minds, and spirits with that value and actually living it…that's tough. How do we get people to buy in to corporate values and live out a collective mission? To find out, we talked with David Hanrahan, Chief Human Resources Officer at Eventbrite, about working towards co...

Nearly 1,300 employees at an all-remote and always remote org pose a considerable culture challenge. Tune in to learn about remote culture done well. In this episode, we interview Lori McLeese, Global Head of HR at Automattic, about strategies for celebrating culture at your remote org. What we talked about: -Total freedom to live and work in the way that suits your lifestyle -Data and what to tra...

Before COVID, hardly anyone opted to work full-time remotely. After COVID, hardly anyone wants to go back to the office full time. COVID changed HR forever, period. How do we support our people now? In this episode, we interview Jennifer Christie, Chief HR Officer at Twitter, about how the pandemic accelerated their decentralization plans and helped grow an even stronger culture. What we talked ab...

How can we recognize and nurture dragons in our organizations? How can we become dragons ourselves? Wait, what is all this talk about dragons? Don't worry, we're not trying to become flying, fire-breathing mythical creatures. But we are on a quest to push ourselves to improve, to commit to our purpose, and to serve our full potential. As leaders, we want to help our people do the same. To find out...

After last year's massive economic crisis, a lot of companies scrambled to cut costs. One program that was often cut: D&E. But when that was followed by a massive social crisis, companies had the choice to either save face through the things they said or to create positive change by actually taking action. Will the dual nature of 2020 propel our evolution forward to where we start paying attention...