The Workspan Podcast

Scott Torrey, CEO of PayScale, joins us to discuss the company’s AI-driven approach to finding the right pay for every position, what is factored into compensation decisions, how companies need to rethink perks in a hybrid work environment, and the importance of transparency and effective communications around the topic of compensation. 

Dr. Solange Charas, the Founder and CEO of HCMoneyball, discusses how CEOs and CFOs can use standardized metrics to understand and predict the impact of their investments in their people…and the need for HR to become better at understanding and communicating the impact of human capital trends on business and financial outcomes. 

Marco Rodriguez Tapia, who leads Pepsico Europe’s transformation and lean projects, joins us from his office in Amsterdam to discuss how they adapted a video game - Minecraft - to successfully extend their LSS training program around the world in a post-COVID 19 environment...an idea that came from his 10-year-old son who played a major role in developing the platform! We also discuss how their ap...

Dr. Amy Beacom is the founder and CEO of the Center for Parental Leave Leadership (CPLL), the first consulting and coaching company in the U.S. to focus exclusively on parental leave. She is also the author of the Parental Leave Playbook (Wiley, out September 15). Amy makes a convincing business case for better supporting parental leave - including offering paid leave (the US is the only developed...

The goal of executive compensation should be to motivate the right behaviors that lead to value creation for shareholders – unfortunately, this is all-too-often not the case. Gregory Milano, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Partner of the consulting firm Fortuna, provides a sneak preview of his presentation at WorldatWork’s TR show in October: Incentives Proven to Drive Shareholder Return. Inc...

Mark McGraw, Managing Editor of WorldatWork's Workspan, gives us a sneak preview of its tech-focused Q3 content. Then professor and management consultant Scott Behson discusses his new book, The Whole-Person Workplace, which is about supporting employees as “whole people,” offering actionable advice on how to do this, and why it’s the key to sustainable business success. We also ask whether workin...

Daniel Stewart, Axtria’s Director of Commercial Excellence, provides a sneak preview of his presentation at WorldatWork’s Spotlight on Sales Comp Conference in Chicago (August 23-25): designing balanced sales compensation programs that satisfy the needs of local markets while adhering to corporate expectations and compensation best practices. Bonus chat on the challenges of learning a new skill –...

Tad and Julianna Radzinski from Sustainable Solutions,  join us to discuss empowering businesses to assess, optimize and capitalize on their processes and products: what’s driving a growing number of companies to incorporate sustainability into their business models, how they are using it as a recruitment tool, technologies on the horizon that will enable us to combat the effects of climate change...

Dr. Jeff Levin-Scherz, MD, MBA and Managing Director/Co-leader of Willis Towers Watson’s North American health management practice, discusses behavioral economics and disruptive innovation as they relate to healthcare and mental health, and findings from the recently published 2021 Employee Experience Survey which provides insights into what companies need to do to successfully transition to new w...

 Jon Hyman, nationally recognized employment and labor attorney, author, speaker, blogger, and most importantly, friend of the pod, joins us to discuss – with his signature blend of clarity, reasonableness, and humor – everything from employer vaccination policy to drug testing and an assortment of controversial issues in between. Bonus chat on the latest RRHOF inductees. 

Courtney Schroeder and Jake Lewellen, Humana’s Wellbeing Practice Leads and hosts of Welltrend, a workplace well-being podcast, on reinforcing/evaluating workplace culture, the challenges of implementing wellness programs for hybrid workforces, a glimpse into the future of wellness…and tips on maintaining a wellness regimen for sedentary podcasters.

Renowned industry analyst, researcher, and educator Josh Bersin, founder of Bersin by Deloitte, joins us for a fascinating conversation on return to work strategies, top trends in employee wellbeing, the "real" story of diversity and inclusion, creating an irresistible employee experience, and preparing for black swan events. You won’t want to miss this!

Martin Hartshorne, the CEO of the software company When I Work, on shift-based work and keeping extended workforces in sync. We’re also joined by Mark McGraw, the Managing Editor of Workspan and #evolve, to discuss stories in the pipeline and the Rolling Stones.

Jim Davidson discusses his book, "The Next Everest, Surviving the Mountain's Deadliest Day and Finding the Resilience to Climb Again," in which he tells about two climbs: one in 2015 where a 7.8 magnitude earthquake left him and his team stranded for two days at 20,000 feet…and a successful climb he did just two years later. An amazing story of grit, teamwork and unimaginable determination.

Brooke Green, Partner and Future of Work Leader with Aon, discusses the impact of digital transformation on companies, people, jobs, and reward structures. She helps us navigate a maze of buzzwords and emerge with a clearer picture of our working future.

Lloyd Fassett, one of the staffing industry’s most innovative entrepreneurs and thinkers, ranges from Julius Caesar’s recruiting techniques, to a 1937 hiring study of railroads, to the Who. He discusses the unmet promise of the Internet and creative ways of finding patterns in data to match people to jobs and jobs to people.

Steve Pemberton, Chief Human Resources Officer of Workhuman, on his amazing personal journey, what makes work human, diversity and inclusion, and his takeaways from his brief but inspiring run for Senate against a multi-term incumbent and a Kennedy (!).

Boyd Davis joins us for a lively conversation in which he demystifies artificial intelligence (more a “way of thinking” than a technology), and discusses how it can be applied to compensation specifically, HR more broadly, and why AI is a skill for everyone, not just data scientists.

Once a partner at the infamous firm portrayed in “Wolf of Wall Street,” Richard Bronson joins us for a brutally frank conversation about his life before and after his two-year prison term for securities violations, and how he came to found two enterprises serving people with criminal records: 70 Million Jobs (an employment platform) and the Commissary club (a social networking platform). One of th...

Dr. Mary Marzec, Sr. Scientist with Virgin Pulse, on implementing, assessing, and measuring workplace culture and improving employee health. Also: can workplace culture lead to a culture of conformity?

Cheryl Brown Merriwether, VP, Executive Director, International Center for Addiction & Recovery Education (ICARE) joins us to discuss a number of “thorny” workplace issues – random drug testing, the impact of marijuana legalization, addiction as a D&I issue, and more. Plus, a bonus HR joke: a rabbi, a priest, and an HR administrator walk into a bar…

The serial entrepreneur's serial entrepreneur Peter Pezaris, CEO of CodeStream, a collaboration platform for coders, discusses what it takes to lead and build a vibrant company, and his good fortune in being joined at every stop along the way by his best coding buds from college.

Chris Moodhe, WorldatWork’s Director of Research and Insights, discusses two of his recent research projects that have gotten quite a lot of attention – on COVID and its impact on the workforce, and on People Analytics. Inspired by Chris, we also discuss creative job titles.

Our guest is Arthur Woods, co-founder of Mathison, a leader in technology for diversity recruiting and equitable hiring. We discuss everything from D&I as a recruiting tool to a “learning alternative” to cancel culture. A fascinating conversation you won’t want to miss!

Dr. Carol Vallone Mitchell is, without question, the most versatile guest we’ve had on this podcast. She’s a former molecular biologist, cofounder of the leadership development consulting firm Talent Strategy Partners, and author of the new business book, Collaboration Code: How Men Lead Culture Change and Nurture Tomorrow’s Leaders.