The HR Hub

Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to see solutions for problems you've been struggling with forever. That's what this episode on culture change felt like. My guest was Israel Peck - head of Cratic Ai. He used to be a consultant on massive cost-cutting projects and discovered that culture has a huge financial impact. So he started Cratic Ai to help companies successfully shape their cultures. As you mi...

Not for profit organizations have different HR considerations. In part, their employee tend to be incredibly passionate about the organization's purpose. They'll often sacrifice their own well-being in service of it. And in many cases, they're expected to do it. Dimple Dhabalia, a lawyer, humanitarian and this week's guest, has a powerful story about what she learned after years of humanitarian se...

Organizational development is what we strive for in HR. It brings all the strategic pieces of HR together in service of organizational strategy. Or that's how it struck me in this conversation with Michelle Chambers of Chambers and Associates. She teaches Organization Development at Schulich Executive Education (York University). She has won prestigious coaching awards and worked at or for a very...

All of us in HR have to build relationships with clients. So how? It is a skill and what happens when things go wrong? I interviewed Tiffany Castagno, an HR consultant and leader, and I sensed had a gift for building relationships with clients. Because she was building a relationship with me so quickly! I could see she has a unique and effective way of balancing professionalism with authenticity....

Does your EVP attract potential employees or push them away? Is it a bad thing if it DOES repell people? You want your EVP to help you attract the RIGHT people. EVP was the focus of a fantastic conversation with Bryan Adams of Happy Dance. Not Bryan Adams the singer of course. Our Bryan recently left the role of CEO of Ph. Creative which is an Employer Brand agency. He has written a few books - th...

Do you feel trepidation at the thought of looking for talent outside the country? It's an intimidating process for sure! I'm not American, but I feel the same way here. Surprisingly, it might not be that hard. This one is for all my American HR friends! I interviewed Sergio Athanasso for this. He's an American corporate immigration lawyer and knows the ins and outs of bringing workers to the US. A...

"Labelling, though it provides ease of conversing about something, it muddies up meaning." This is certainly the case for "toxicity". It's really easy to label someone or a workplace as toxic and not have to think constructively about them anymore. It's easy say a leader is creating a toxic work environment when someone objects (maybe strongly) to something they're doing. This muddiness has been o...

Do your employees experience trauma at work or are some of their 'off' behaviours a result of trauma somewhere else? I spoke with Dimple Dhabalia about what she learned about trauma. She started out as a lawyer and then worked with refugees around the world. I think we can all appreciate how hard it might be to hear those horrifying and heart-breaking stories over and over. Unsurprisingly, she bur...

This episode on incivility at work was soooo welcome. It doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right, it might make you uncomfortable! I love it when this happens! After well over 200 episodes, it's thrilling to be unexpectedly challenged! Sara Taylor has been a DEI expert for a long time. She started her company, deepSEE Consulting in 2002. She has authored two books including, recently, 'T...

"If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism." It's a saying in the neurodiverse space. Neurodiversity recognizes that all brains work differently, including those with conditions like ADHD, dyslexia and autism spectrum disorder. In this illuminating conversation, Curtis Braun addressed assumptions about neurodivergent individuals and shared how we can create truly incl...

So you want career growth. But how do you make it happen? You need to answer the question of 'what do you mean by career growth'. And the answer could be ANYTHING. Time with family. Travelling. Money. Praise. Promotions. Prestige. Specialization. Really it could be anything and an honest, personal answer will help you achieve it. This was the focus of my conversation with Adam Pekarsky. He's had c...

The future of DEI is murky. So the purpose of this panel discussion was to reflect on the recent developments in DEI and consider how we might evolve our effort to become more effective. We collectively dove into DEI around the murder of George Floyd - often with little to no experience. And it was a great discussion! The following were just a few of the ideas I took away: - We HAVE made progress....

Curious about how Indeed is using AI to help employers and candidates? And how they apply it as an Employer? I certainly was. I spoke with Hannah Calhoon about how Indeed is using AI. She is the VP, Product at Indeed and AI is her responsibility. They've recently launched some generative AI improvements like Smart Sourcing. Smart Sourcing enhances the our user experience and improves the quality o...

I think we know that "culture is not about ping pong tables and snacks." Too often, company culture gets reduced to these superficial perks. Or perks like this become the symbols of culture everyone points to. But true culture runs much deeper - it's about your core values and how those get lived out through behavior, communication, leadership and more. I spoke with HR consultant Tiffany Castagno...

Mindset is harder than rocket science according to NASA scientists. So all you HR people out there? Give yourselves a pat on the back! The people stuff is hard! In this episode, I spoke with Mitch Warner, managing partner at the Arbinger Institute, which is responsible for the book "Outward Mindset". Mitch helped with the latest edition and shares his insight into mindset generally. He focuses par...

"We (need to) talk to people not about people." Talking about people (unless you're venting with a trusted friend), greatly harms trust. Building trust within teams is critical for high performance, but it's often an overlooked aspect of team dynamics. It came up recently for me in relation to consulting so I sat down with trust expert Ila Edgar to dive deep into the key behaviours and mindsets ne...

"You have to think about [retirement], it doesn't just automatically happen." How are organizations supporting the retirement of their employees? Are they getting pushed out the door or supported in making informed decisions? Having recently embarked on her own retirement, Dr. Melanie Peacock offered her account of reimagining life's next steps and how to improve your employer brand by informing y...

'The difference between the skill of job seekers and those who are employed is often significant.' So, for executive search, you are almost exclusively looking for leaders who are in good jobs that they probably like. So how do you entice them away? If you think about it, this has many implications to the talent acquisition process. I had a great conversation with Adam Pekarsky of Humanis Advisory...

"Without conflict, you don't have innovation. So I want to make sure people use their voices." And use it effectively in a leadership team when there are a number of strong voices present. I spoke with Tish Squillaro of CANDOR Management Consulting about the art of building leadership teams. This is something you'll do more as you progress, but the principles apply to any team. Tish, is a candid c...

Our entitled employees are irritating. Or should we look in the mirror? Are YOU driving THEM crazy?? This was just one part of the conversation I had with Wendy Sellers, The HR Lady. Wendy has authored books, has a podcast, is on the radio and has even been on USA Today. She is wonderfully outspoken. For example one of her books is called "Suck it Up, Buttercup." It was awesome. Wendy shared the f...

Employer Brand: "Ultimately, it’s about reverse engineering. What does the business need? And getting to the point of ‘Now we understand that, how do we tell a story and talk about the strength, benefits, and opportunities balance with the harsh realities adversities to craft a proposition that’s both authentic and compelling.'" I had a fantastic conversation with Bryan Adams, founder and former C...

Attendance management is not discipline. We use it when valid issues affect an employee's ability to meet the commitments of their employment. In this episode, I tackled the fairly common yet tricky issue of attendance or absenteeism management. This is part of the series I am doing for small and medium businesses and NFPs on HR. However it has a lot of relevance for anyone involved in this aspect...

Hiring a foreign worker isn't guaranteed and it may take longer. But you may be better off in the long run. One of my first jobs ever was as an immigration officer so maybe it was just me, but I loved this demystification of rules for hiring foreign talent. This is American content though - I'll find someone Canadian soon. I spoke with an immigration attorney, Sergio Athanasso, of Sergio Law. He s...

Succession planning is more than just a game of thrones! It's about building a pipeline of ready and able leaders. But where do you start? This week I delved into the complexities of succession planning with Dr. Nanette Miner. She is an author, consultant, and succession strategist, and broke down the process of succession planning which is mostly preparation. As the video below says, you need a p...

"HR professionals have the hardest and the most critical role. It's to really understand the people dynamics and how it's going to help a company grow." This week we were talking about scaling organizations. It's always a hot topic in HR consulting. Tish Squillaro, a dynamic consultant with over 20 years of experience working with clients like Salesforce and IBM, was my guest. She understands comp...