Transform Your Workplace

Wendy Gilbert and Brandon Laws of Xenium HR discuss people with criminal records re-entering into the job market and what it means for employers and society, in general. They also discuss the new Ban-the-Box law in Oregon effective 1/1/16 and what employers should do in response.  New development specific to Portland, Oregon  as of 11/25/15: Stricter rules effective 7/1/16 won't allow employers to...

Jon Spencer, CFO, COO & Principal at Solutions YES and Brandon Laws discuss the growth of Solutions YES, meeting the demands of the market, their hiring and recruiting strategy, and why they continue to grow the business with purpose in mind. Click to learn about Solutions YES

Lacey Halpern of Xenium HR discusses the back-to-school challenges that working parents face. Inevitably, kids get sick, they have after-school programs they need to get to, and parent-teacher conferences come up. Lacey touches on each of these scenarios and shares what she believes employees and employers can do about it.  

Brandon Laws and Tyler Meuwissen discuss the book Joy, Inc: How We Built a Workplace People Love  by Richard Sheridan. In the episode, Brandon and Tyler discuss some of the most unique human resource practices Menlo Innovations is putting into practice in their business, such as hiring, recruiting, office set up, how people work together, purpose, and much more.

Fallon Niedrist, an Associate Attorney with JJH Law in Portland, Oregon, joins the Human Resources for Small Business podcast to discuss the new Oregon Paid Sick Leave Law, effective in 2016.  During the conversation, Fallon shares all the details around the new Oregon Sick Leave Law, what employers may consider changing in their policies, how to track time, common traps employers will likely fall...

Are you an HR professional who is curious about what it is like to be an in-house HR professional or an HR consultant?  In the 45th episode of the Human Resources for Small Business podcast, Brandon Laws interviews Jenny Scull  and Annie Oxenfeld  of Xenium HR about their past experience as in-house HR professionals and how different their current roles are as HR consultants. Annie and Jenny share...

Dan Grinfas, a labor and employment attorney at Buchanan Angeli Altschul & Sullivan LLP, joins the Human Resources for Small Business podcast to discuss the new proposed changes by the Department of Labor (DOL) to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that would raise the minimum salary for exempt workers.  In the episode, Dan reviews when the proposed changes take effect, what is actually changing,...

Lacey Halpern joins Brandon Laws as co-host in this episode as they discuss an article on LinkedIn Pulse titled  "Millennials Don't Want Work Life Balance."  During the conversation, Lacey and Brandon draw upon their own workplace needs as millennials and discuss the points in the article about flexibility, outcomes and collaboration.

Returning guest, Jan Foster, of Performance Resources, Inc, joins the Human Resources for Small Business podcast to discuss recruiting and hiring the perfect sales person for an organization. During the episode, Jan and Brandon discuss common challenges with hiring sales reps, behaviors to look for in the perfect hire, interview questions to ask, whether you should hire for culture or skill, and m...

Lacey Halpern joins the HR for Small Business podcast to talk about strategic interviewing. In this episode, Lacey gives tips, techniques and best practices for how to become a great interviewer. You will hear such things as what questions to ask, how many interviewers should be in the room, how to conduct remote interviews, how many rounds of interviews should take place, and whether or not anyth...

Megan Leatherman, a human resources consultant in Portland, Oregon, joins the HR for Small Business podcast to discuss conflict management in the workplace. In the episode, Megan gives examples for how conflicts start and how to identify it, and she also shares tips on how best to manage conflict.  Tell us what you think:  Take the Survey Resources mentioned during the podcast: Megan Leatherman's...

Lacey Halpern joins Brandon Laws on the HR for Small Business podcast to discuss workforce planning. During the episode, Lacey discusses the process of workforce planning such as doing a gap analysis and implementing a talent acquisition strategy in an organization .    Are you a regular listener? Take our survey and tell us what you want to hear:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XeniumPodcast   

Wendy Maynard, Strategic Director & Founding Partner of Kinesis, joins the HR for Small Business podcast to discuss how the collaboration of marketing and HR can produce a successful employer brand that impacts talent attraction. She also shares about attracting, retaining, and understanding the Millennial generation . Tell us what you would like to hear:  Take the Survey

Anne Donovan, President of Xenium HR, joins the HR for Small Business podcast to discuss her career in human resources and the role it played in business leading up to present day. The discussion later turns to the role HR currently has in business and people practices and where the focus of HR is going in the future. Take our quick survey about the HR for Small Business podcast:   https://www.sur...

Need answers to your employee’s questions around Oregon’s legalization of marijuana effective July 1, 2015? This informative podcast featuring Suzi Alligood will provide you with information on the law and its implications for employers and their employees.  During the episode, you will take away the following: understand what Measure 91 really means for employers, review guidelines for developing...

The onboarding process can have a significant impact on whether or not new employees “make it” in their new role. So what is onboarding, and why are employers talking about it more and more in their HR practices? Brandon Laws sits down with Molly Kelley of Xenium HR to discuss the traditional onboarding process and how employers are shifting to new, innovative onboarding practices to make sure emp...

Have you heard the term "employer brand" before? Do you know what it means and why there is a lot of buzz around this concept? In this episode, Lacey Halpern and Brandon Laws of Xenium HR discuss what it employer branding means and why plays an important role in attracting specific types of people to organizations. During the discussion, you will find out what employer branding is all about, what...

Sheri Kuretich, a Human Resources Manager at Sunstone Circuits, shares how she and the leadership team at Sunstone built a successful wellness program for the organization that drove positive change in the culture and an improvement in overall health. During the episode, Sheri shares the reasons they started a wellness program, how they implemented it, the successes and failures they had along the...

Ever wonder what it is like to create a set of guiding principles for an organization—the type that all employees believe in and live every single day they are at work? Brandon Laws sits down Joy McCormick and Lacey Halpern of Xenium HR to discuss the process of creating a set of principlesfrom first-hand experience. Brandon, Joy, and Lacey discuss Xenium’s set of guiding principles called “The Xe...

Alfred Dual and Lacey Halpern of Xenium HR join Brandon Laws for a discussion on ways to engage employees at work. The discussion is centered around a handout that shared ideas on engaging employees at work from a keynote presentation at the Portland Human Resources Management Association Strategic Management Conference titled "What's Brewing in HR." During the discussion, Brandon, Alfred and Lace...

In this episode, Brandon Laws and Tim Winner, Vice President of People at Metal Toad Media discuss the title “VP of People” and its role in an organization as it relates to HR and leadership.   Brandon and Tim discuss how focusing on "people" has fueled growth in Metal Toad Media’s business. Tim talks about how culture development, recruiting great people, and having philosophies instead of workpl...

Lacey Halpern of Xenium HR, joins the  Human Resources for Small Business  podcast to discuss giving feedback to employees, being authentic and managing performance. During this episode, Lacey and Brandon discuss how giving negative feedback is better than no feedback at all, methods to give positive and negative feedback, types of feedback worth sharing, what is more appropriate—public or private...

Tyler Meuwissen, HR Representative at Xenium HR, joins the Human Resources for Small Business podcast to discuss the book The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. During the episode, Tyler and Brandon discuss the main takeaways within the book, including: what it means to focus on "One Thing," why we should do fewer things instead of...

Listen in as this podcast episode features a recording of the HR leader panel from the Attracting and Retaining Talent workshop Xenium hosted on April 16, 2014. The moderator for the panel discussion is Suzi Alligood, Director of Training & Development at Xenium HR. The three panelists are Susy Dunn, VP of People at Jama Software, Paige Jackson, VP of HR at Stimson Lumber Company and Tana Thomson,...

Molly Kelley, HR Business Partner at Xenium HR, joins the Human Resources for Small Business podcast to discuss developing for skills, training and a new program created at Xenium called XenTalks—which is an internal program intended to develop speaking skills. During this episode, Molly and Brandon discuss why employee development is critical to culture, the impact development has on an employee...