The Modern People Leader: Forward-Thinking HR

Erica Keswin, author of three WSJ best-sellers, workplace strategist, and podcast host, joined us on The Modern People Leader. This episode was recorded at O.C. Tanner's Influence Greatness. She shared why we should be elevating and celebrating managers, examples of companies that are nailing onboarding, how to connect new hires to purpose as quickly as possible, and why talent mobility is so...

Johanna Söderström, EVP & Chief People Officer at Tyson Foods, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about how she’s gotten a better understanding of the EX across Tyson’s 140k employees, how they've trained up the executive team on digitalization and building a learning organization, and how her non HR experience has shaped her approach as an HR leader. ---- This episode was...

Joris Luijke, CEO at Pyn, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about why “Employee Experience Design” has been getting more attention this last decade, how hard it is to be a Chief People Officer right now, and two ways information management is becoming easier to handle. ---- This episode was brought to you by Pyn. Get access to their FREE Employee Journey Designer here . ---- (2:11...

Pat Wadors, Chief People Officer at UKG, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   She shared the story of coining the term “DIBs”, what’s on her personal scorecard and “Goldilocks Spreadsheet”, and why it’s important to be an “Agile Leader”.  ---- This episode was brought to you by Pyn. Get early access to their Employee Journey Designer here . ---- (3:13) Good news stories (8:03) Pat’s story  (11...

Vanesa Cotlar, VP of People & Culture at PolicyMe, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   She shared how to get executive buy-in on people team hires you plan to make, what goes into building culture in a remote-first environment, and how to build trust remotely.  ---- This episode was brought to you by CandorIQ . Learn more here. ---- (2:25) Good news stories (7:52) Vanesa’s career journey...

Melanie Naranjo, VP of People at Ethena, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about how to handle no’s from your CEO, the questions to ask leadership when you’re interviewing for the top HR role, and why you need to remind fellow execs what you’re optimizing for on the people side. ---- This episode was brought to you by People Leader Accelerator . Learn more here. ---- (3:22) Good n...

Joanna Kmiec, Vice President of People & Culture at Elastic Path, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about using metrics to drive your people strategy, understanding the pain points of other execs, and creating an employee experience that allows for flexibility and scale.   ---- This episode was brought to you by CandorIQ. Learn more here . ---- (3:03) Good news stories (8:00)...

Helen Russell, Chief People Officer at Rivian, joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about scaling the culture as they’ve grown to 15k employees in the last few years, how Rivian is changing the face of what it looks like to be a manufacturing employee, and how they improved decision making throughout the company. ---- This episode was brought to you by People Leader Accelerator . Lea...

Jessica Zwaan (Author, Built for People) and Ryan Bonnici (CMO, Gympass), joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about why HR should be considered a revenue generating function, how to align yourself closer to revenue as an HR leader, and why you don’t need to get the metrics perfect for every single people program.  ---- (2:17) Good news stories (7:14) How Ryan and Jessica became Auss...

Dr. Vivienne Ming (Professional Mad Scientist), joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about letting AI replace the routine work, the qualities of the smartest teams, and how to foster collective intelligence.  ---- (2:00) Good news stories (6:00) Digging under the surface to get to the root of problems (20:45) Her career journey as an entrepreneur and scientist (33:00) History of AI o...

Alex Seiler (Former GHJ Chief People Officer, ex WeWork & NBC, and Advisor), joined us on The Modern People Leader.   We talked about navigating major life and career changes, the impact of indecisive leadership on Chief People Officers, and the 3 intangibles he’s looking for in his next CPO role. ---- (2:51) Good news stories (9:23) Alex’s career journey (12:58) Navigating major life and care...

Kerry-Ann Stimpson, host of The Internal Marketing Podcast, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about the key pillars of internal marketing, why her company started an internal podcast, and how to use employee surveys to do internal marketing research. ---- (1:23) Good news stories (4:27) Kerry-Ann’s career in marketing and how that led to her passion in the people space (7:05) Why s...

L. David Kingsley, Chief People Leader at Illumio, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about how boards are looking at HR, the evolution from HR 1.0 to 3.0 in the last few years, and having the numeracy required for the CHRO role. ---- (1:17) Good news stories (8:50) David’s career journey (19:47) How boards are looking at HR (24:30) CFOs on how much HR should cost your company (28:4...

Andrew Bartlow, Co-Founder of the People Leader Accelerator, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about why this is the year of productivity, the data you should be looking at when making decisions on remote vs. in-office, and getting brilliant at the basics of HR. ---- (1:56) Good news stories (6:15) Andrew went to school for HR (13:02) Being a Head of HR at age 23 (14:30) People Lea...

Roshan Kindred, Chief Diversity Officer at PagerDuty, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about why now is the time to double down on DEI, holding leaders accountable for diverse representation, and why PagerDuty leads with inclusion. ---- (2:40) Good news stories (6:48) Her career journey (13:40) What PagerDuty does (14:08) Why we should be jealous Roshan gets to work at PagerDuty (...

Roz Francuz Harris, VP of Talent Acquisition at Zillow, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about Zillow’s ‘CloudHQ’, the massive impact that CloudHQ has had on DEIB metrics, and why Talent leaders should embrace AI. ---- (2:45) Good news stories (7:50) Her career: Preparation meets opportunity  (11:33) What Zillow does (12:56) Why we should be jealous she gets to work at Zillow (14:...

Four-time people leader, Shelby Wolpa, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about making the jump from people leader to Solopreneur, her lessons learned as a consultant, and the state of remote work. ---- (1:16) Good news stories (5:24) Shelby’s 3-year journey as a Solopreneur (12:03) The Solopreneur experience (15:31) Solopreneurs that she looks to for inspiration (21:00) The state o...

Adam Ward, Founding Partner at Growth by Design Talent joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about the shortage of HR leaders out there, how to be a trusted advisor to your CEO as a CPO, and how to run a structured job search. ---- This episode was brought to you by Metaview – the AI assistant for interviewing. Try Metaview for free here . ---- (3:06) Good news stories (8:00) Adam’s jo...

Allison Mairena (Sproul), VP of People at NewGlobe, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about her search for her next people leader role and getting your resume in front of the right people without having to apply. (1:06) Good news stories (6:16) Her journey from sales to teaching to HR (16:07) What Allison is up to while looking for her next gig (20:34) The job search (25:03) Gettin...

Ashley Brounstein, Director of People at OpenComp, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about adaptive pay transparency, why pay transparency is here to stay, and what it looks like in twenty years. Timestamps: (2:22) Good news stories (7:14) Ashley’s career journey (15:41) What Open Comp does and why we should be jealous she gets to work there (20:45) Building culture at a high growt...

Siadhal Magos, Co-Founder & CEO at Metaview, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about where we’re at in this AI revolution, how recruiters can augment what they’re doing with AI, and why you’re at a relative advantage if you’re adopting AI across your business. Timestamps: (1:50) Good news stories (6:08) How Siadhal’s journey led him to co-founding Metaview (10:12) The most chal...

Jame Jackson, from Humorous Resources, joined us on The Modern People Leader.  She shared why she started a meme account for HR, why startups should invest in leadership development early, and how she sees managers weaponizing PIPs. Timestamps: (1:08) Good news stories (4:48) Why Jamie started a meme page for HR (7:54) The different meme accounts that Jamie runs (10:30) A day in the life of someon...

David Landman (Global Head of Talent Development, Goldman Sachs) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about the retentive power of internal mobility, how they shifted from a mindset of talent scarcity to talent abundance, and how they're enabling the right conversations between managers and employees. Timestamps: (1:20) Good news stories (7:00) David’s career at Goldman Sachs: fro...

Nadia Vatalidis (Head of People & Culture, TestGorilla) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  She shared tips for improving asynchronous work, how to operationalize your values, the types of CEOs that she likes to work for, and how to iterate your onboarding experience. Timestamps: (2:30) Good news stories (9:06) Nadia’s career journey: (14:20) Traits of the best CEOs she’s worked with (17:4...

M Valentine (Founder of Annem HR Academy) joined us on The Modern People Leader.  We talked about how HR teams can better focus on the human element, eliminating high friction experiences in the employee experience, and why leaders need to level up their consciousness. Timestamps: (1:01) Good news stories (7:34) Her story: Cashier at Gap, Assistant Manager at Gap, built “Healthy, Happy University”...