The HR Hub

If you do any meeting or workshop facilitation, this video will make it easier! It provides an overview of facilitation and many tactical insights which I plan to apply at my next facilitation. You never need fear that guy who slouches in his seat with his arms crossed ever again. My guest for this was Robin Parsons. Robin owns a facilitation company called Parsons Dialogue. She has been doing thi...

What if your employees had the willingness and ability to respond quickly and flexibly to changing business needs? Sounds a little like a fairytale. Maybe not. There are things you can do to build resilience in the workplace. This whole conversation with Beverly Beuermann-King about building resilience in the workplace was a revelation. Beverly talks about resilience a lot at conferences as well a...

This is a special episode and is part of podcasthon. Podcasthon is a global movement bringing podcasts and channels together in service of all the AMAZING not-for-profits out there. This discussion revolves around doing HR in this kind of organization. There are so many great NFPs out there, but I am on the board of Trinity Place Foundation of Alberta. They provide housing for people who are hard...

HR is often shouldering the burden and leadership around the impact of societal shifts. We have to ensure the organization is prepared to respond, culture is aligned and any risks around the shift are mitigated. So we need to think about the future of work. I was delighted to have this conversation with Anthony Ariganello, CEO of CPHR Canada and President of the World Federation of People Manageme...

You can build psychological safety pretty fast - note I didn't say 'easily'. And, actually, it's not that hard either, but it does require a little adventurous spirit and bravery to keep doing it long enough to see improvement. BUT THE BENEFITS! Psychological safety has been proven to have so many business benefits. Think about it. How well do YOU perform when you feel like you have to bite your t...

A compensation philosophy is our north star for our compensation plans. It's a statement that outlines a company's approach to employee compensation. It helps align our comp practices with business goals so a business makes the most of it's biggest cost: labour. I love a good guiding philosophy so was happy to have this discussion with Carolyn Kildare. Carolyn is the owner of Cadence Compensation...

Are you trying to do HR in a toxic work environment? That's haard. You might see that things are not right and see that people aren't being held accountable for awful behaviour. Perhaps you feel a bit trapped in your job and can't switch and yet you don't have the power to really do anything about the problem. At this point, it's probably a long game and my guest has so much great advice. So much....

Microaggressions in the workplace continue to be hard to understand. I was involved in an investigation a while back alleging microaggressions and I was uncertain. So when I had the opportunity to clarify I did. I spoke with Sara Taylor who has been a DEI expert for a long time. She started her company, deepSEE Consulting in 2002. She has authored two books including, recently, 'Thinking at the Sp...

Has a wellness program ever had a positive effect on your well-being? To what degree? I participated in wellness programs - pilates and a free gym. But I was already so active, that the impact was meagre at best. It would be hard to say I was more well after that. What about you? That was the subject this week in my discussion with Tim Borys - fitness enthusiast, coach, wellness expert, author, an...

This episode was supposed to be about upskilling and reskilling exclusively... but we quickly talked about the skills-based organization because that is where upskilling and reskilling start. You have to know what skills you are trying to build! I had THE best person for this discussion IMO. My guest was Lori Niles-Hofman. Lori hosts an upskilling course on LinkedIn Learning. She describes herself...

HR is often asked to help increase accountability in the workplace. Because people just aren't doing their jobs they way they are supposed to! We often think it's because they don't care. Sometimes that's the case, but other times they just don't care about the impact they're having on others. I spoke to Mitch Warner, Managing Partner of the Arbinger Institute. Things got a little uncomfortable fo...

I figure we are mostly looking for the truth. And while 'truth' is hard to find, some things bring us closer. Like research. Also it's 2025. What HR debates are we still working through in our hunt for truth? This was the focus of my discussion with Dr. Catherine Connelly. Catherine is a leading HR researcher with a passion for research. When I asked Chat GPT for a 'future of HR' expert, her name...

Happy end of 2024! I learn so much from the guests on my show. And so does Angela Nguyen of the Leadership Within Podcast. So we joined forces to discuss what we learned this year! We reflected on the challenges and things we learned including: - How hard it is to create content week after week - Qualities we both appreciate more: curiosity and perseverance - Thoughts on DEI as I continue to refle...

The #1 reason hiring fails? Not treating recruitment like the project it really is. So project mistake are you guilty of maybe: Not revisiting the job description? Forgetting to ask the client if they'll be on vacation (I've done this one)? Not pushing back when client says the want the talent but don't want to pay? Mostly we just need to treat recruitment like a project. Meet with the client, set...

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...