010: Why an HR Partner?

[00:00:58] Hey, what's going on, everybody? David Noe with SpeakEasy HR presented by Payroll Partners.

[00:01:04] It is October 7th, which is hard to believe. I'm at episode 10 with this podcast and I have a great guest today, Jamie Bierman from HR Elements.

[00:01:17] Welcome, Jamie. How are you today?

[00:01:19] I'm great. Thanks for having me.

[00:01:21] Yeah, absolutely. So I am the host, producer, editor of this whole thing.

[00:01:27] And you are with HR Partners or HR Elements. I'm sorry.

[00:01:33] So if you are local to Cincinnati, you might have heard of HR Elements.

[00:01:38] But if you want to just quickly kind of give your background and kind of introduce yourself a little bit, we'll go from there.

[00:01:47] Absolutely. Like David said, locally, HR Elements is one of the premier providers of outsourced or fractional HR management.

[00:01:57] We have a huge amount of engagement, attraction and engagement services, as well as employee development.

[00:02:03] So we really specialize in everything soup to nuts throughout the employee life cycle.

[00:02:10] And we work primarily as an HR business partner to private or family businesses around greater Cincinnati.

[00:02:19] But we also can provide support remotely or in person in some cities around the United States.

[00:02:26] And let's see, I was our fifth employee at HR Elements.

[00:02:31] Wow.

[00:02:31] Yeah. I am getting ready to celebrate my seventh anniversary with the organization and it has just flown by.

[00:02:40] It's been an awesome ride.

[00:02:41] Yeah.

[00:02:42] Yeah. So you've gone through COVID with them and all of the different changes.

[00:02:46] Yeah.

[00:02:47] Among the world of HR.

[00:02:49] So, and you've been doing HR for a while, what, 15 plus years, 17 years?

[00:02:52] Yeah, actually about 20.

[00:02:54] Oh.

[00:02:58] Yeah.

[00:02:58] 20 years.

[00:02:59] I studied HR management and finance at Miami University and was able to get a position in

[00:03:09] HR.

[00:03:10] And then HR right out of school, which it was, our grad class was kind of small for HR management.

[00:03:16] They actually discontinued the major temporarily after that.

[00:03:19] Okay.

[00:03:19] And then they did bring it back a few short years later, but was able to get a position in

[00:03:26] a national printer supply organization.

[00:03:31] They were called State Register in Dayton.

[00:03:33] Yeah.

[00:03:35] And I started, gosh, I graduated on a Saturday and I think I started my job on Wednesday.

[00:03:40] Jeez.

[00:03:41] Yeah.

[00:03:41] It was, it was awesome though.

[00:03:44] Very cool.

[00:03:45] Well, good.

[00:03:46] Um, we are live on LinkedIn and YouTube.

[00:03:48] So for those joining, uh, definitely let us know where you are watching from.

[00:03:54] It looks like I've got, uh, somebody will Roberts from, uh, Saka who is, he is telling you go

[00:04:03] Red Hawks.

[00:04:04] So there you go.

[00:04:07] So yeah, if anybody's watching, obviously we want to have some engagement.

[00:04:12] So if you have questions along the way, I'll be checking the chat just to see if anybody

[00:04:16] is, is bringing up questions or comments about our topic, which we'll get to in a little bit.

[00:04:22] But, um, the world famous envelope icebreaker game is going to be coming up soon.

[00:04:28] So you have the questions that I did send you Jamie.

[00:04:31] So you will have those come up in a minute.

[00:04:34] If, uh, I'm just going to get to one thing before we get there.

[00:04:37] And I've got a couple of questions for you.

[00:04:40] So speakeasy HR is presented by payroll partners.

[00:04:45] If this will load, that would be great.

[00:04:48] There we go.

[00:04:49] Started way late.

[00:04:50] Let me try it again.

[00:04:52] Here we go.

[00:04:54] Um, do you have a porky payroll process or do you know somebody that does is your current

[00:04:58] provider hogging your time or money?

[00:05:01] It might be time to contact our awesome team at payroll partners.

[00:05:05] You can learn more at payroll partners.net.

[00:05:09] And for those of you who were at Sherman Ohio, we had these awesome pigs that were HR

[00:05:15] SHRM conference only.

[00:05:17] So these are limited edition.

[00:05:18] This is falling behind the cow.

[00:05:21] And before I was at a payroll partners, we had, I think horses.

[00:05:25] And so every year we have a different animal.

[00:05:27] So we do have some of these awesome pigs, but not many left.

[00:05:31] I got one the last few for my, for my show.

[00:05:35] So, um, all right.

[00:05:37] So envelope icebreaker game.

[00:05:40] Here we go.

[00:05:46] So I've got the 15 questions here.

[00:05:49] So one through 15, um, you get to pick the number.

[00:05:54] We might be doing a couple if you, uh, would like to do more.

[00:05:59] So one through 15, you got a number you want to throw out there.

[00:06:03] My favorite number is five.

[00:06:05] So five.

[00:06:06] Okay.

[00:06:07] Yeah.

[00:06:07] That's a different number than most in the last few episodes.

[00:06:10] So number five, I don't remember what's in here.

[00:06:12] I know the questions.

[00:06:14] I just don't know what I put in this one.

[00:06:16] Okay.

[00:06:17] What's your favorite tradition or holiday tradition or holiday?

[00:06:23] Okay.

[00:06:24] So my favorite kind of too, my, one of my favorite holidays is Thanksgiving.

[00:06:32] I love food and we, we shuffle back and forth every other year between hosting at my house.

[00:06:41] Okay.

[00:06:41] Or hosting at my mom and dad's.

[00:06:43] So, um, but usually I, I cook with my mother, um, regardless of where we are, but it's just

[00:06:50] an easy, easy, our, our tables always super fancy.

[00:06:55] It's the one time a year I use my China and it actually like setting the table, making sure

[00:07:00] it looks pretty.

[00:07:01] My son and I do it together every year.

[00:07:03] Love that.

[00:07:04] Um, but really we, we play games.

[00:07:08] I wake up parade food prep.

[00:07:10] Yeah.

[00:07:11] And then we just absolutely play games all day and it's intense.

[00:07:17] Like shuffleboard.

[00:07:18] It could be Mexican train.

[00:07:21] Uh, kids are obsessed with scatterbories.

[00:07:24] Okay.

[00:07:24] Always play that.

[00:07:25] And then we finish the evening usually after dessert with a game of take advantage of the

[00:07:33] person sitting next to you.

[00:07:35] Um, and that is the game that we named for our children, but it is really screw your neighbor.

[00:07:40] But we take advantage of the person sitting next to us.

[00:07:45] Wow.

[00:07:45] So that's very good.

[00:07:47] That is my holiday.

[00:07:48] That is very good.

[00:07:50] We've got, uh, another one that's joining us from Cincinnati.

[00:07:55] Yeah.

[00:07:56] Warren Grove.

[00:07:57] Warren is the newest member of team HRE.

[00:08:01] All right.

[00:08:01] Well, welcome.

[00:08:02] Warren.

[00:08:03] Yeah.

[00:08:03] Warren.

[00:08:05] Warren.

[00:08:05] Warren.

[00:08:07] That was a mouthful.

[00:08:09] All right.

[00:08:09] Well, one more number.

[00:08:10] One more number.

[00:08:11] I'll go number 15.

[00:08:13] Okay.

[00:08:13] 15.

[00:08:16] 15 hasn't been, uh, hold lately either.

[00:08:20] Okay.

[00:08:20] What was your favorite band growing up?

[00:08:23] Okay.

[00:08:24] Ooh.

[00:08:25] Growing up.

[00:08:27] So really, I, this would have been elementary ish massive Dave Matthews fan fan.

[00:08:35] Okay.

[00:08:35] I went to all the concerts when Polaris amphitheater existed in, in Columbus.

[00:08:41] Yeah.

[00:08:41] Um, which is where I grew up.

[00:08:43] We, I would always go both nights.

[00:08:45] Obviously that was in high school, but you know, I was one of those CD club members when

[00:08:50] I was young.

[00:08:51] And so I have like all the CDs, listened to all of them was a massive fan.

[00:08:58] Uh, I have fallen a little bit off the DMV bandwagon, but the one band that I still

[00:09:07] love, love, love is Fleetwood Mac.

[00:09:10] Oh yeah.

[00:09:11] Stevie neck lover.

[00:09:12] Yep.

[00:09:13] I'm a, uh, yacht rock radio fan.

[00:09:15] If you are on Sirius XM, I listened to that.

[00:09:18] My kids will like know the songs on there and I'll catch them singing them in the shower.

[00:09:23] Like it's hilarious.

[00:09:24] So Fleetwood Mac's on there.

[00:09:27] Stevie.

[00:09:27] Oh yeah.

[00:09:29] Um, yeah.

[00:09:30] So now this is kind of a bonus question.

[00:09:33] It's not in here, but going back to the first few jobs you had, what was the first job

[00:09:39] you had taxes taken out.

[00:09:41] So this is a typical then what most people would ever get taxed for, but it was babysitting

[00:09:48] a family in my neighborhood.

[00:09:50] Okay.

[00:09:50] Um, I babysat their kids.

[00:09:53] Gosh, let's see.

[00:09:54] I was, I mean, it was probably the summer after eighth grade was the first time I started

[00:10:01] babysitting every single day and they needed my social security number.

[00:10:05] And my parents were like, that doesn't seem legitimate.

[00:10:07] Why is that?

[00:10:09] And so we had the conversation.

[00:10:10] It was because she, you know, it was for taxes.

[00:10:13] So I had to pay taxes on my babysitting.

[00:10:15] Okay.

[00:10:16] Yeah.

[00:10:17] You don't hear that much.

[00:10:19] No.

[00:10:19] Uh, uh, interesting.

[00:10:21] Okay.

[00:10:22] Yeah.

[00:10:22] But the kids are all like married now.

[00:10:25] They're having their own children now.

[00:10:27] Yeah.

[00:10:27] Crazy to see that.

[00:10:29] Yeah.

[00:10:29] You don't hear that much, but yeah.

[00:10:32] Very cool.

[00:10:33] All right.

[00:10:34] Well, um, I want to jump into this topic because as you and I are in HR and we've been in a

[00:10:39] while, this is, this is one that, you know, definitely looking at, uh, why an HR partner

[00:10:48] and that's the topic.

[00:10:49] So the top shelf topic.

[00:10:50] And I, I came to you just like all the other guests that I talked to, uh, really finding

[00:10:55] out something that they're passionate about in, in the moment right now.

[00:10:59] In their world of business and HR.

[00:11:01] So you brought why an HR partner and doing what you have been doing for quite some time

[00:11:06] now in different roles.

[00:11:08] You've been with furniture companies, consultants now, you know, going into that.

[00:11:12] Why did you choose this topic for, for today?

[00:11:15] Yeah.

[00:11:16] And that's a great question.

[00:11:17] So I think there is a really big difference between being in HR and being an HR partner.

[00:11:26] Um, you know, yeah.

[00:11:28] Is it words?

[00:11:29] Absolutely.

[00:11:30] But I think that those of us who really are serious about our practice and making sure

[00:11:38] that we're aligning our goals with our, our clients, whether that be a manager within the

[00:11:44] same business that you work at or a client, you know, like HR elements serves our clients

[00:11:50] at different, different organizations, understanding the end game and being there to support as

[00:11:56] a partner, I think really changes the approach.

[00:11:59] Um, I've had the opportunity, you know, in, in my different years of experience working

[00:12:05] at businesses where HR was that, you know, police department, you know, you didn't want,

[00:12:14] you didn't want to talk to HR.

[00:12:16] You want to be near those HR women in the lunchroom, right?

[00:12:19] Cause they are going to tell on you and they're out to get you versus roles where I was able

[00:12:26] to be a strategic member of a leadership team.

[00:12:31] You know, I was in the it department cause there was their HR partner.

[00:12:36] I was able to work with all of our sales leaders across the country because I was their HR partner,

[00:12:43] same thing with our customer service.

[00:12:47] And when I first heard the topic of, you know, an HR partner, it was in 2008.

[00:12:54] And there was an article, I think in SHRM about what is this and really having

[00:13:00] HR professionals with a seat at the table.

[00:13:02] Yep.

[00:13:02] And it, it really was that, um, being able to understand what are the goals talking about

[00:13:09] top line revenue, understanding the barriers to market entry barriers to sales from a business,

[00:13:17] uh, unit leaders perspective really enabled me to survey the market from an HR perspective.

[00:13:25] So much better.

[00:13:26] Yeah.

[00:13:27] Do you remember the swine flu and when people were kind of going nuts, trying to get,

[00:13:32] uh, that was back in like 29 or 2009, maybe like that.

[00:13:37] Yeah.

[00:13:38] I remember leaving work, going and getting, uh, the vaccine or whatever that was out there for the swine flu.

[00:13:46] I just had a, you know, my first, first child couple months before that, whatever.

[00:13:50] And then we had to go through COVID.

[00:13:53] So like, I feel, and you might feel the same way, but going through COVID and how HR professionals and how people in HR were viewed pre-COVID and post-COVID.

[00:14:05] I feel like for a lot of people might've changed the perception of them between the industries and, and amongst what had to be done.

[00:14:13] You might ask.

[00:14:13] I want to go through COVID because there was a lot that had to be done and it was, it was things that we had to keep up with and figure out the best way to roll out the

[00:14:20] communication, the workflow, the processes for people to continue to work.

[00:14:24] to lay them off, help them with unemployment, bring them back to work like a reduction in force.

[00:14:29] Like all of these things within HR had to be done. Yes. We had teachers working from home. We had

[00:14:35] people trying to figure out how they're going to support their family because they got laid off.

[00:14:39] And then at the beginning, at the middle of all of this was like HR, I felt like for a lot of

[00:14:45] businesses. And we still have to deal with some of those things, right? Like remote work,

[00:14:49] hybrid work environments, like how to retain top talent and all of the things that come amongst

[00:14:54] the world of HR. And still it's not looked at as like a revenue generator to some people, right?

[00:15:00] Yeah. It's more, it's more like, oh, you create the policies and then you enforce the policies and

[00:15:05] you, you know, you hire people, but you also fire people. And, and so it's like, when I look back

[00:15:10] at the last 15 years of working in HR and all the different roles that I had, it was also different

[00:15:17] in, in each, each industry, each company size. So like, it is still very specific to the industry

[00:15:25] and how HR is viewed within that organization, you know, and I think for the work that you do,

[00:15:33] you probably can see quickly within an organization, like where they view HR.

[00:15:40] Absolutely. And it's actually, it's a question that we typically ask our clients as we're starting

[00:15:46] that relationship because we want to, we want to understand a few different things. Is it,

[00:15:51] have you ever had an HR professional and HR manager? What do your employees think about that? How are

[00:15:59] your employees currently engaging with their, you know, HR person internally so that we can really

[00:16:08] cultivate that specific approach for our client to make sure we don't, you know, step on a landmine

[00:16:15] by accident, but also to create that healthy understanding of really, why does HR exist

[00:16:21] within an organization? And, um, you know, what are we here to do? And it was, it was, it was a while ago,

[00:16:30] um, more than 10 years ago where I was starting a position and I was, you know, taking over HR from

[00:16:38] somebody who maybe didn't do the best of jobs. And I was asked, you know, Hey, do you want to

[00:16:45] rebrand it? Do you want to call it something different? You know, we see all these different

[00:16:48] names for HR. Is it organizational effectiveness? Is it human capital? Is it talent management?

[00:16:56] Yep.

[00:16:56] And, you know, I don't know if this was the right decision, but I chose to, I just said, you know what

[00:17:01] people know what in this, in your company, you know, the business that we're in, people know what HR

[00:17:05] means and it is human resources. I'm going to just keep it that way, but I'm going to work my tail off

[00:17:12] to rebrand it by the things that we do and actually trying to provide resources to managers,

[00:17:18] two employees with the goal. And, and one of my early jobs, when I was still working in the, in this

[00:17:26] business services, printing promotional products, um, one of my leaders said, you know, our, our purpose

[00:17:33] here is connecting people to performance process and technology, you know, through technology. And,

[00:17:41] and that was really my first position as an HR business partner. And that, that really was,

[00:17:47] was so true. And that really was our goal at the end. Yes, we are, we're not revenue generating.

[00:17:56] However, if we don't have people processes, technology that drive effective performance,

[00:18:03] probably don't have great revenue. So by default, we're important.

[00:18:07] Yeah. And I think technology and AI will make our lives easier to some extent, depending on what you

[00:18:15] have to do, whether it's create presentations or, you know, reports or something that's going to

[00:18:22] generate data and whatever, but like, you still will have the people relying on HR professionals,

[00:18:30] like yourself, myself to figure out the best way to lead a company, to lead a organization,

[00:18:39] departments to continue to improve, to find the right people to hire. So there's just so many things

[00:18:45] within that still, like you said, there's the human element that, you know, we are still doing

[00:18:50] the human element service side from what we do as a business in the technology of payroll and HR. It's,

[00:18:57] you know, super important to have that kind of mindset. So it's still like having that as a,

[00:19:03] you know, as a service strategy, but there's still challenges. There's still people that are

[00:19:08] trying to manage that have never been a manager. There are, you know, people that are in a peer to

[00:19:14] peer situation, then they get promoted because companies like to hire from within. So again,

[00:19:20] it's like, if you look at a client and it's, it's also like, when do you hire internal HR? When do you

[00:19:27] still keep it as a consultant based? Because you've got different organizations, PEOs,

[00:19:32] you've got consultant groups, you've got, you know, one-off HR projects. I see a lot of it with,

[00:19:39] with the training development, right? Most companies don't have an internal trainer. Some do,

[00:19:47] but you know, if you have a manager group of 15 individuals that manage people,

[00:19:52] how are you training them? How are you helping them develop their skills as a leader?

[00:19:57] You're probably not going to have the HR person train them.

[00:20:00] Yeah. You know?

[00:20:02] I'm glad that you said that because there's, I think some misconceptions in the world,

[00:20:08] the business world, the marketplace about what, what really is HR. And, you know, so HR is not,

[00:20:15] or at least HR elements, HR, we are not your party planners. We are not the police.

[00:20:23] Um, you know, we are a business advisor and we tailor our approach specifically for every single client

[00:20:31] based on what they've got going on and what their roles are. Everybody is, is different. And we

[00:20:36] recognize and celebrate that because it's really, it's fun for us to go in and, and partner with all

[00:20:42] these different businesses, um, employees, but also within, within the organization.

[00:20:50] HR has a lot of different places. Um, sometimes payroll is in HR. I don't, I've done payroll once,

[00:21:00] you know, that, cause I grew up where it always was part of accounting. Um, and, but I had to understand

[00:21:07] checks and balances were really important, you know, so if an employee had a question about their payroll check,

[00:21:13] they were probably going to call me to ask. Right. So I had to really understand and, and know my, my

[00:21:19] partners there in payroll really well because the data that they used to run payroll was really based

[00:21:25] off of an HR system. Um, same thing with like recruitment. A lot of times people think that HR managers,

[00:21:34] HR business partners are recruiters, right? In some businesses we might have to be because we

[00:21:41] run a nimble department of one, but that's a lot of sales. That's a huge piece of finding, you know,

[00:21:49] talent and selling why your organization is the best. So there's different portions of a talent

[00:21:57] acquisition process where it's probably not HR. It's somebody who is great about, you know,

[00:22:05] that acquisition, finding the people selling them on the opportunity, getting them interested in your

[00:22:11] culture. And then, yeah, HR is absolutely going to be involved in creating a fair, equitable, legal,

[00:22:19] behavioral interview, facilitating and onboarding an orientation program that protects the organization,

[00:22:25] connects people to culture, gets them engaged and ready for their, you know, first 90 days of work.

[00:22:32] Um, and then training, you brought that up. It's not something that every HR person can do.

[00:22:41] Understanding that there might be a gap and you need to train. Absolutely. But at HR elements,

[00:22:47] we, we recognize that our advisors are not trainers. We have an amazing instructional designer

[00:22:54] and training facilitator to, to do that because that is an art and a science and she is phenomenal

[00:23:02] for that. And it's, it's not always a one fits all solution. Right. Yeah. And, and that's,

[00:23:09] I mean, a lot of industries and a lot of professions are like that. It's very specific to the industry, uh,

[00:23:16] company organization. But when it comes to HR, they interact with every department, you know,

[00:23:23] for the most part, right? Like you're dealing with all the departments, you're helping them

[00:23:28] really come with a consistent mindset of how we're going to manage our people on our team,

[00:23:34] how we're going to develop them, how we're going to retain them and obviously have to hire people. And

[00:23:40] as last week's guests that I had on, it was a topic of talent magnetism. Roberta talked about

[00:23:46] how good there is a good thing that you have turnover. Like you want turnover, not like an,

[00:23:53] you know, a crazy amount of it, but you do want some turnover. You know, you don't want the same

[00:23:57] people there. No, it provides healthy culture. If you don't ever have new, um, new perspectives on

[00:24:04] things, you're going to be pretty stagnant, but also sometimes being able to hire certain people

[00:24:11] and train them and develop them to a certain point that they are moving on. Maybe there wasn't a career

[00:24:20] opportunity for them internally, but gosh, you prepared and your brand as an employer is going

[00:24:27] to be so much better based off of everybody else who meets that individual. And it's like, oh my gosh,

[00:24:33] you learned this where, um, it's, it's, you need some steady eddies that are lifers. You need some

[00:24:40] people that want to continue to grow and develop that might be in, that might be out. Absolutely.

[00:24:47] And you brought up orientation or onboarding 90 days, right? Yeah. I don't remember the last

[00:24:53] statistic I saw, but it was, it was pretty high. Like the amount of people that quit a job over the

[00:24:58] first 90 days. Absolutely. It's, I don't know what statistic, but yeah, it's, it seemed like it was

[00:25:05] a pretty high amount. Um, I thought it was like 65% of people quit jobs within the first 90 days. Um,

[00:25:14] but looking at that, it's kind of like, you know, when, when you're looking at the first 90 days and if

[00:25:21] you have an internal, you know, HR position and how, how involved they get within those first 90 days,

[00:25:28] because a lot of companies just do orientation day and they welcome that person. They take them to

[00:25:33] lunch. They go through the benefits that are offered. They go through the different, you know,

[00:25:40] technologies that they all, you know, use and whatever. And then it's like, okay, there you go.

[00:25:45] Now you're going to go shadow and train with people for the next 90 days. So when, when you look at the

[00:25:51] first three months at a, at a company and you're working with clients, you know, what, what are some

[00:25:58] of the kind of tips and advice that you give clients to really make sure that their onboarding

[00:26:04] strategy is, is going to help them keep those new hires. I mean, they, they are hiring people or

[00:26:10] you're helping them hire people that they feel like is going to fit that position. That's open.

[00:26:15] But you don't know exactly. You don't have a crystal ball that they're going to stay for

[00:26:19] five years. And so it's like, okay, those first 90 days, like how, how do you really focus on those

[00:26:26] first 90 days or what kind of advice would you give companies?

[00:26:31] So it starts before the first day of work. It starts with the recruitment process. So when we are

[00:26:40] preparing to recruit for a client, we're learning a ton of information because we want to understand

[00:26:47] what to expect and what is that onboarding? What is that orientation to, to potentially prevent any

[00:26:54] pitfalls that we can see, you know, prior to that engagement. But really if you're having high

[00:27:01] turnover at the beginning, it tells me that you're not recruiting effectively. You know, people are

[00:27:08] listening to what you say. And if they don't see that that is happening, if you're not accurately

[00:27:14] describing the job, the, the culture, what it feels like, then, you know, people are going to,

[00:27:21] you know, leave pretty quickly. Um, because especially, especially in this market, you know,

[00:27:25] we are always being contacted. We're always seeing different things out there and you need to be

[00:27:34] re-recruiting your employees at all times. So if you really think about orientation, yes, it's

[00:27:38] absolutely, you know, that fun compliance of making sure, you know, people are filling out all their,

[00:27:44] their documentation that we are verifying their eligibility to work in the United States,

[00:27:50] that we are getting them paid in the payroll system properly, talking to them about rules,

[00:27:57] expectations, welcoming them, but we're re-recruiting them constantly. So that is really

[00:28:05] your, your check-ins. Um, I love to have the recruiting team follow back up with that new hire,

[00:28:13] even at the end of the first week, Hey, how'd it go? Let me know. Um, and it, and it's additional

[00:28:18] touch points. I'm a huge believer in, um, excuse me, coordinated mentorship programs. So just

[00:28:25] saying that, Oh, you're a mentor. Here's who you're learning from. It needs to be a cultivated,

[00:28:32] curated program where there are understandings of what the roles are to be a mentor, as well as even

[00:28:40] that mentee, that recipient of the training. Um, but what are some things that that mentor should be

[00:28:47] doing to, to understand if there are any issues? Um, really from a HR business partner perspective,

[00:28:55] that's one additional layer where you're coming in to say, Hey, how are things going in, you know,

[00:29:01] in the department, then being able to circle back, maybe you're looking at data from trends that you're,

[00:29:06] you're capturing in surveys to provide advice and counsel to that business leader. It could be

[00:29:14] pointing to maybe a need for manager training. It could be some potential issues with, you know,

[00:29:22] just the culture. Are they welcoming? Um, you know, sometimes business leaders might think like,

[00:29:29] particularly, let's say a sales organization, um, a commission-based sales organization, right? You,

[00:29:36] the more competition you have, right, that's going to erode your potential for commission earnings.

[00:29:41] So if you're working on a sales floor and all of a sudden two new people start, well, are you

[00:29:47] going to want to help them? No, probably not. You know, as that leader really communicating those

[00:29:54] expectations and also communicating to the sales team, why things are happening. If new hires aren't

[00:30:01] being appropriately welcomed, that may be a communication gap, um, at the organization to

[00:30:08] really communicate, Hey, here's what our culture is. Here's how we behave. And that's required.

[00:30:14] That's important. But people also just might not understanding why certain things are happening.

[00:30:19] So when you think about an HR business partner, they understand that, you know, financial requirements

[00:30:26] of the business, they understand that the P and L, they know what their business partners across the

[00:30:33] organization, what their goals are, how HR can help facilitate that. And in really, I think the biggest

[00:30:42] difference is, you know, when you think of HR as a police officer, um, you know, it's, oh, this is the rule.

[00:30:48] Here's how we follow it. And yeah, rules compliance. That's always going to be part of this risk management

[00:30:56] is something that HR professionals are there to, to do, to protect the organization. But an HR business

[00:31:04] partner is there again, advise to counsel, and then to support the decisions that their business

[00:31:10] partners make. Yeah. Um, sometimes my client, you know, my clients don't always want to do exactly what

[00:31:17] I recommend, but I'm still going to support them because I'm their partner. Right.

[00:31:21] So it's, it's that nice unification. Yeah. Yeah. I think the, when you talk about the recruiting

[00:31:28] process for, for me, it really comes down to the questions that you ask in interviews to figure out

[00:31:35] why they're looking for a position, what kind of culture have they worked in that they liked,

[00:31:40] what kind of managers they have worked with, you know, what, what kind of manager did they feel

[00:31:46] most empowered by and just, you know, engaged with so that you could figure out like,

[00:31:51] do you offer that where you are working and can you align your job that you're potentially offering

[00:31:58] that person to what they're looking for? And so it just kind of takes out some of that guessing game,

[00:32:03] like, okay, they're looking for X, Y, Z. We have X, Y, Z. We have the kind of people,

[00:32:08] we have the kind of culture, we have the compensation benefits. So it really comes down to like,

[00:32:13] why is someone looking for a position? And if you can align that, it might really help

[00:32:17] keep that person and, and hopefully help them continue their career with you for a while. So

[00:32:25] when you look at 2025 and some of the challenges that you're going to face or what people in HR are

[00:32:32] going to face, you know, what are some of those trends or hot topics that you feel like are going

[00:32:37] to be discussed? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, obviously there's, you know, potential changes,

[00:32:45] you know, to exempt, you know, status, you know, what are those qualifiers? So always, you know,

[00:32:52] just staying attuned to legal changes and, you know, obviously using SHRM for that is really important.

[00:32:59] Um, the other thing that I think is really interesting right now in the market is just

[00:33:07] recruiting. There's still is a significant gap in how many positions are open, employers trying to find

[00:33:17] that right talent, but also, you know, what's that time to find the perfect person versus the need to

[00:33:25] fill the job right away. Um, so it's like fighting that, that, uh, potential to fill a job out of a

[00:33:33] hire out of desperation and just pray that you can, you know, I can train them, you know, they might have

[00:33:38] the potential. Uh, so, you know, sometimes it's good to take a risk. Sometimes it might be too risky.

[00:33:44] Yeah. Um, so that, you know, continuing to see how that hiring market

[00:33:49] moves and what those trends are. Um, compensation is something that, and really compensation

[00:33:57] and total rewards is, is big right now that I think is absolutely a result of the really competitive

[00:34:05] market. But what I always encourage employers to really be thinking about once they have ensured that

[00:34:13] they are offering a competitive and compelling total rewards package, um, is how are they

[00:34:21] advertising that? How are they talking about it? And, um, again, that re-recruitment process internally,

[00:34:28] it's not something that necessarily can just live in one place and you can't not talk about it and

[00:34:35] expect people to know. So that communication is huge, but then the next few months obviously are

[00:34:44] going to be extremely interesting with the political climate that we're in. And then just seeing,

[00:34:50] depending on how this election goes, you know, what are those laws and rules and things that are going

[00:34:56] to triple into our world as employers next year? Um, we might not even know some of the things that

[00:35:03] could happen and how we have to be super nimble because again, that you referenced COVID earlier,

[00:35:10] you know, we didn't know that that was going to happen. And then as an HR professional,

[00:35:14] we were juggling safety. We were juggling compliance. We were juggling a lot of emotions,

[00:35:21] and trying again to make sure that our businesses kept their lights on and that we were able to pay

[00:35:28] employees. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, after COVID and after people

[00:35:38] maybe went back to a similar work schedule, whether it might be a little bit different now,

[00:35:44] I think the mental health space within organizations and how, how HR is viewed when it comes to providing

[00:35:52] that right support, right resources, things that five years ago, you didn't really hear people

[00:35:57] talking about. I mean, you've heard the EAP programs out there, but those are very low utilized.

[00:36:04] People don't really understand them. They feel like HR is going to find out their manager is going to find

[00:36:08] out if they call EAP programs, whatever. So, you know, I think just that, that human side of an individual

[00:36:16] when it comes to mental health and things that they are struggling with, whether it's themselves,

[00:36:22] their family members, the work-life balance, trying to get the most out of the staff when people are,

[00:36:29] you know, dealing with things that you may not know about. And really how, how can your organization

[00:36:36] support your team? So I look at that as people do want to rely and work with their HR

[00:36:43] team and, and the people in human resources, because they, they, they want to get that right

[00:36:48] support, however it looks. And if we can help them with that and navigate that with them,

[00:36:53] you know, alongside with them, whether we may not know everything going on,

[00:36:57] it's still a way for, for an employee and a staff member to feel like, Hey, my, my company's got my

[00:37:04] back. Like we, we are in this together. And, and so, you know, I think that's going to be

[00:37:10] still an ongoing thing that people are going to be trying to navigate through as an organization.

[00:37:16] And then the generations working together, that is, you know, like you, you, we were talking

[00:37:21] before we came on live and I was telling you about my oldest is in high school now. And, you know,

[00:37:26] looking five, eight years into the future, when people in high school and college right now that

[00:37:32] have dealt with COVID that have gone through that, whether they're in middle school, high school,

[00:37:36] college, and they're going into the workforce. And when we came into the workforce, you never heard

[00:37:43] about people working from home. You know, it was like, you go to the office or you go to a job or

[00:37:47] whatever. Like now it's like companies offer so many different ways to work, whether it's remote,

[00:37:53] whether it's a flexible schedule and you know, you have how many generations working together?

[00:38:00] It's like five or six, five. Yeah. And, and the people retiring, they may not be retiring as early

[00:38:07] now. So it's, it's like, you know, trying to help a manager who might have people in their twenties,

[00:38:16] forties, fifties, sixties, working together as a team. Like that is, that is a dynamic situation

[00:38:23] and it's easy to manage people that don't need to be managed. But when you're managing people that

[00:38:30] might be two, three times the age gap, it's like, how do you do that? It's so I'm sure that's something

[00:38:38] that you get asked about. How do you, how do you train somebody to manage those kinds of people? So

[00:38:45] I think that's going to be a hot topic. Yeah. It's it's in it and it really,

[00:38:52] what we like to talk about often and is, is that, you know, there's not one management technique,

[00:39:00] right. That's going to help you be prepared to manage all the generations, but something so

[00:39:06] important that everybody wants is to feel heard, to feel seen by their manager, to feel, you know,

[00:39:16] somewhat understood and supported. And that's really where that psychological safety piece that's,

[00:39:21] that's really been talked about often more recently.

[00:39:25] Yeah. Do I feel safe to be my authentic self, to ask questions, to say that I need help to,

[00:39:33] you know, talk to my manager, my peers? It's really important. And I think that regardless

[00:39:40] of what your, you know, what your age, if you're a Gen Y, a Gen Z, a millennial boomer,

[00:39:48] you want to be seen and you want to be heard. And so to me, that boils down to managers having skills

[00:39:57] to be able to understand different management techniques to take to communicate with every

[00:40:05] person. So we're huge proponents of different assessments to, you know, needs assessments to

[00:40:11] understand communication styles and how to assign a project to an employee who maybe is super, super

[00:40:20] tenured, but they've already always done the same thing. What's the right way of coaching and engaging

[00:40:26] with them versus a brand new employee, but they're so eager, you know, how do you coach them the right

[00:40:33] way? So it's situational leadership, it's communication style. And maybe even, you know,

[00:40:40] with different generations, how can people be partnered or share experiences with one another

[00:40:48] that, that help that, you know, so that you can learn. So apparently I'm a millennial and

[00:40:55] a geriatric millennial. So I read on the internet and my husband is a Gen X and then my kids are all

[00:41:05] different things, but one is what would that be? A Gen Z, I think. Yeah. There are some words that

[00:41:12] they say and I'm like, what did they say? Something was vibing. And I was like, what? Yeah.

[00:41:18] Yeah. I don't know how to use some technology. Like my kids have to show me, but I also learn things

[00:41:27] from my husband who, you know, his first cell phone came in a bag and he had to plug it into things. So,

[00:41:35] you know, we all can offer things and knowledge and experiences that everybody can maybe some I relate

[00:41:42] to, but also, you know, there's different perspectives because gosh, um, you know, when,

[00:41:48] when the power goes out or something, those of us who've been through that experience where

[00:41:53] life didn't revolve on a cell phone, we can work through it a little bit.

[00:41:58] Yeah. My kids get really mad at me because in the car I say, oh guys, we're going to play 1995.

[00:42:04] You know, what does that mean? And I said, it means you look out the window.

[00:42:09] Yeah, exactly. You stay off the screen and you talk to each other. Yeah. And I've heard people

[00:42:16] talk about it. And one of the previous guests on the show, he was talking about ageism. He was talking

[00:42:21] about the reverse mentoring. Yeah. How people that are 20 years younger than him or more,

[00:42:29] cause he's way older than I thought he was. And it was like, huh, I didn't really think about that

[00:42:34] much, but it really, there is a benefit to that. Like, you know, if you're in your sixties or fifties

[00:42:39] and you have somebody working with you, that's 30 and it's in the same department, same organization,

[00:42:44] like creating a reverse mentoring program, some kind of mentor program. Like there's so many ways that

[00:42:50] within a, uh, within a company, they can, they can use that as, as, as good and, and help people

[00:43:00] collaborate better, you know, versus seeing it as a negative when you have people in all different

[00:43:05] age groups. But, um, so what advice would you give if someone came to you and said, you know,

[00:43:13] we're, we're trying to evaluate the company and how we view HR, you know, what, what would be maybe

[00:43:20] some of your advice if let's say they are, they are a smaller business, they don't have internal HR

[00:43:27] and there's a lot out there. And we work with a lot of, you know, companies that are smaller,

[00:43:31] they need good payroll technology, HR technology, but they don't have the needs for an internal HR.

[00:43:39] Right. And it's, and it's going to be different in each situation, but my first step is going to be,

[00:43:47] you know, to, to ask quite a few questions to get an understanding of, you know, okay, well,

[00:43:52] you know, first what, what caused you to ask me this question? Maybe it's, you know, cause

[00:43:56] I emailed them or I bumped into them at a networking event. Um, but there was something

[00:44:02] that caused them to ask more. So what is that understanding why, um, I would want to learn a

[00:44:08] little bit about just kind of their employees in general, what's their tenure, what's their longevity,

[00:44:14] what are some of the things when that managers, right? Or maybe it's their office manager, maybe

[00:44:20] it's their controller. Um, you know, the person who does the payroll, what are those types of questions

[00:44:26] and why are employees seeking you out? Getting a little bit of an understanding of the need. Um,

[00:44:32] so we, we offer something called an HR assessment and it's, it's scalable of course, based on what your

[00:44:39] organization size is, but it really helps us to understand what could you possibly need? What are

[00:44:48] the most critical, you know, typically if there's a compliance issue, we want to of course take care

[00:44:53] of that first, but what are those things that we can help partner with our clients to get them,

[00:45:00] you know, aligned and moving, you know, forward from an HR strategy perspective. And, you know,

[00:45:06] the really nice thing about an HR assessment is that one, it can be just a health check. Sometimes we

[00:45:11] provide those for organizations that have fully staffed HR departments and they just want to say,

[00:45:17] you know what, Hey, we are confident, we're comfortable. And we like going to the doctor

[00:45:23] every year. Did we do our health check to make sure we're running a good, a good shift? Are we also

[00:45:30] looking out outwardly enough to say, where could we get some resources that will benefit our employees,

[00:45:37] our culture? Sometimes having like a survey done, an engagement survey from a neutral third party

[00:45:44] can be a lot more valuable than one that's done internally because of what you said earlier,

[00:45:49] David, like that, just that trust, like I call this EAP. Is there some report, you know,

[00:45:55] truly going to an outside third party can provide that confidence that employees need. Even if they're

[00:46:03] telling you good things, it's just that nice insurance. But, you know, the, so the HR assessment,

[00:46:12] it's a good strategy. It's a good health check. For clients that haven't ever had HR, it can be a nice

[00:46:19] picture of what a jumping off point can look like. So sometimes clients are like, yeah, let's move

[00:46:27] forward. Let's do it. Others, maybe baby step with certain things. Maybe we're just going to start by

[00:46:32] updating our employee handbook and having the HR elements team support us in the rollout. And

[00:46:38] maybe we'll introduce HR elements to employees that have some questions and let's see how you have,

[00:46:46] you know, how many you guys get, are they going to answer them? Maybe that it's some help with our

[00:46:50] open enrollment, employee relations. You know, so sometimes it's just that as needed. So it can be

[00:46:57] kind of that project plan, almost even a statement of work. I've had them before be used even to help

[00:47:06] with an onboarding for a new HR professional where they know we have a need. We need somebody fully

[00:47:13] here as a team member, but we need somebody to mentor them. And we also have no idea what they

[00:47:19] should do because this is our first HR person. So our HR strategy from that assessment has served

[00:47:25] that way. So it's pretty diverse in its use. Yeah. And it leads me to the secret code for

[00:47:37] working with Jamie, if you want to contact her, which this is something that you did bring up.

[00:47:43] So there's a mini HR assessment and a 30 minute consultation available to people that are listening.

[00:47:49] So if you are potentially interested in this, all you have to do as part of the Speakeasy HR special

[00:47:56] is to email Jamie at jbeerman at hrelements.com. Use the Speakeasy HR secret code or word partner,

[00:48:04] and you will get that free assessment and 30 minute consultation. So like you said, there's

[00:48:11] people's health that changes, companies health changes as well. And so that's something that we

[00:48:18] also on the technology side, ask people like, Hey, when did you last evaluate your technology?

[00:48:24] How many different technology platforms are you using? Are you adding one every year and you aren't

[00:48:29] using them because no one wants to roll it out and manage it? So how many are you wasting money on

[00:48:34] and not using properly? So yeah, definitely check the assessment out if you are interested in contacting

[00:48:42] Jamie with that so that you can really see if some of the services that her team offer could benefit

[00:48:49] you as a, as a company, whether you have internally HR or not, but definitely something to consider. So

[00:48:56] Jamie, I really appreciate your time. Anything else you want to add or any, anything else you want to

[00:49:00] mention? No, thank you. This has been awesome. I appreciate it.

[00:49:03] Absolutely. Well, thanks for being available to jump on and the, you know, ones that were watching well,

[00:49:09] Warren appreciate you tuning in. Hopefully it was helpful for you and broke up your day a little bit.

[00:49:15] So if anyone has any other questions, certainly Adam, and I can respond after, but this will be

[00:49:22] on demand on all the different platforms for podcasts. So Jamie, thanks for your time.

[00:49:29] Have a good rest of your day and we'll we'll talk to you soon.

[00:49:32] Thanks. Alrighty. Take care.

[00:49:34] Bye.