078: The Future of Employee Experience Is Human

[00:01:01] Hey, what's going on everybody? David Noe with SpeakEasy HR presented by Payroll Partners. We are back for a brand new episode, episode 78. It is almost July, the 4th of July. We have a busy hot summer going and I am thrilled to be back with a brand new guest and topic that I think everybody can learn from whether you're in HR or not. Because if you're working, you are a part of this topic.

[00:01:29] So, I am thrilled to have on the show today, Andrea Adams from Tier 1 Performance. Welcome. How are you today? Hi, David. Thank you for having me. I am amazing. It is a thousand degrees outside but I'm sitting in the air conditioning so feeling okay right now. Same here. Same here. I am at home in my studio slash guest bedroom and so it is nice and cool inside and we're getting the heat at this time of year.

[00:01:59] It is going to be a hot, hot week right before the holiday. But I appreciate you having time to connect. We were talking before we came live and we're trying to remember back when we first connected and it was a month ago. And you're like, what am I doing June 29th? I don't know. Let's see. That's about six months out but here we are. It's crazy how fast this year is going.

[00:02:21] So, we are live on LinkedIn and YouTube. If you are watching live, chime into the chat, ask a question along the way. We are here to help you learn and really learn together. So, if you want to share a little bit about your background and what you have been up to and anything else, what you wanted to be when you grew up, when you were younger, any of that.

[00:02:45] Sure. I didn't really know what I wanted to be when I was younger. So, I majored in history and music because of course those are really direct career paths and meandered my way into consulting eventually. So, my most recent background is instructional design, learning strategy, a little project management. I was working for a small consulting firm that needed someone to step into the HR space.

[00:03:09] So, I became an HR department of one and quickly got a PHR certification so I knew what I was doing. And then when that company got acquired by Tier 1 Performance where I work now, I became a member of our people experience team and I now lead the people experience team and we're really responsible for employee life cycle.

[00:03:29] So, everything from recruiting and onboarding to ongoing growth and development and transition and then all the little pieces and parts along the way. That's really how I got where I am right now. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And so, being local to Cincinnati area, I have definitely come across Tier 1 a little bit.

[00:03:52] But from the outside, how would you kind of explain what Tier 1 is and what you guys are focused on? Sure. I would call Tier 1 a non-traditional management consulting firm. So, most consultancies start with strategy and structure. We like to start with people. So, we bring deep expertise in behavioral science, brain science, social psychology to understand how people really behave at work.

[00:04:19] And then we're able to become a trusted end-to-end partner for organizational performance and transformation. So, if you think about a lot of management firms start with strategies, frameworks, or charts. We really want to deliver that transformation that actually sticks. So, we'll partner with you to talk about how do we design for the humans who have to live through those experiences. And that's what we're excited to get up and do every day.

[00:04:44] Yeah. Very good. So, SpeakEasy HR is part of a brand new HR channel on Roku and Amazon Fire TV. So, if you have a smart TV and want to go in and find the app, HR channel is out there for you. Brand new. Started with them a few months ago. And also part of the Work Defined podcast community amongst 80-something other podcasts out there about the world of work.

[00:05:11] Very, very cool people over there doing a lot of great things. So, beyond Speakeasy HR, a lot of access to podcasts out there if this is something that you want to look into more. So, biggest piece of advice you've ever received along the way in your career would be what? Ooh. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want. The worst thing anyone can say is no.

[00:05:40] Did you learn that early in your career or where did you learn that? No. It was, I spent a lot of time doing what I thought I should be doing and what everybody said I should be doing. And it took me a while to figure out that if you take a step back and look at the organization that you're in, you can probably see a gap or something that would make sense and fits the kinds of things that you're really passionate about.

[00:06:05] And I had a really great manager a few jobs ago who said his goal was for people to work themselves out of his part of the organization. Like he wanted to see people grow. And so, that's what he was just like, if you want to do something, just ask or maybe try it and see how it goes.

[00:06:25] Yeah. No, that's great. I always enjoy hearing how people answer that question. So, alright. I had mentioned to you before we came on about this segment. And I'm going to transition to the world famous envelope icebreaker game.

[00:06:50] All right. So, we've got 15 envelopes. You get to pick the number and we'll see what is inside. Well, let's see. I'm going to go with number two. Number two. All right. Number two, we got, I don't remember what's in this one. So, alright. What would your personal tagline be? Think something you'd put on a t-shirt or in a bio that sums you up?

[00:07:20] Wow. That's a tough one. Well, okay. It's going to be our family tagline and it came from my son playing tennis and learning perseverance. And so, it would be hashtag one more forever. Whatever you're trying to do, you don't have to think about how many it's going to be until the end.

[00:07:45] You just have to do the next one. So, it's not necessarily just for work, but in general, it's our theme song. So, I'm going to stick with one more forever. Love that. Got to give you the mini air horn, the one and only Speakeasy HR. So, if you have good answers to my questions, you might hear that a few times. If you don't, I don't know. I don't want to know what sound effect goes with that.

[00:08:11] I'm not that techy. I don't have all the things. I just have little toys like this. Yeah. That's a good one. I should get one of those. So, well, thanks for playing the world famous envelope icebreaker game. Just a few messages from our sponsor payroll partners. So, grab a drink or whatever you need and we'll be back in a minute. Finding a new employee takes time and money. For one position on a single job board, you could easily spend a minimum of $5 to $10 a day advertising a job post.

[00:08:41] It's worth noting that the average time it takes to hire a new employee is 36 days. However, it can take longer than that. You could find yourself paying hundreds of dollars a month for a single job board. And if you're using multiple job boards for multiple positions, this could add up to thousands of dollars a month. There is a much simpler and more affordable way of finding the right candidate. At payroll partners, we offer an applicant tracking system to help manage your hiring process.

[00:09:08] Our ATS is customizable, allowing you to decide which days you want to run the job and when to close it so you don't break the bank. And this feature lets you e-blast your network, hosting jobs on multiple boards at once, all managed in one location. Payroll partners, elevating your payroll and HR experience.

[00:09:30] So if you are using systems that just are not working for you in the business, they're clunky, they're outdated, or you just need better partners, people to call, actual phone numbers and humans to talk to. Look us up at payroll partners dot net. Connect with me on LinkedIn. We'd love to hear about your situation for systems and maybe we can help along the way. So, all right.

[00:09:53] Well, we are to the point of diving into this topic that I think when we first got you scheduled, we had some time to think and talk and collaborate on this. And we came up with what I think, as I said before, people that aren't even in HR are experiencing and that's the employee experience and really the future of the employee experience with AI and technology and everything going on.

[00:10:20] So, I, when you had mentioned this as a topic, I was really, really intrigued bringing this into, you know, halfway through the year of 2026 and what everyone is constantly talking about every day, it feels like. So, to start out just some rapid fire questions. These are the quick five to 10 seconds answers. So, in one word, what's the best thing employees want from work today? I think they want purpose.

[00:10:50] People want to know that their work actually matters to someone. Yep. What's one workplace trend you hope disappears in the next five years? I think it's mostly dying off or getting less, but the whole foosball tables and snowing. Snacks as a way to trap you at the office for the longest amount of time possible. Like, let's make being in the office, again, purposeful and meaningful. Yeah.

[00:11:15] Remote, hybrid or in office, what's your ideal work environment? Flexibly hybrid. So, being together in person is important and also there's a lot of work that we're just doing in a remote and or, you know, digitally connected way. And we, I think we need to figure out how to balance that. Right.

[00:11:37] What's one thing leaders think every, or I'm sorry, what's one thing leaders think employees care about that they actually don't? I'm going to say the actual employee engagement score. What employees care about is did you do something with that information? Yeah. Yep. All right. Last one. If you could instantly improve one thing about employee experience in every organization, what would it be?

[00:12:05] That we all agree to tell people the why. So, when leaders explain the reasoning behind the decision, the decision itself is unpopular. The trust goes up dramatically and therefore the employee experience is better. There you go. You got through the rapid fire questions. Great job. That's awesome. All right. So, we are live on LinkedIn and YouTube.

[00:12:32] For those of you watching, have a question along the way, chime in, just throw them in the comment section and would love to hear from you. So, I see we do have some watching potentially on LinkedIn or YouTube. So, now we're going to get into this topic and really just hear more into your insights as you are, I feel like, feeling and seeing this more than others and trying to help organizations with it.

[00:12:59] So, when you hear the phrase, the future of employee experience is human, what does that really mean to you? Yeah. So, as I was thinking about this question, I thought it would probably be helpful if we defined employee experience first because it means a lot of things to a lot of people. Yeah. To me at least, it's the full collection of those day-to-day interactions and emotions that people have at work with each other, with their leaders, by themselves, with the organization, with the technology and processes, even with the actual physical and digital environment.

[00:13:29] It's all of those things together. So, when we say the future is human, we're saying like stop treating employee experience like this checklist of programs and start treating it like a collection of those human moments. So, at Tier 1, we've actually mapped what we call the 35 moments that matter. So, things like your first day, first time you make a boo-boo, like the moment you start wondering, is this the right place for me?

[00:13:55] They might all seem small on their own, but added together, there's something powerful there. Like what are our shared convictions and meaningful connections and the habits that we build together? Yeah. That's, so you said 35 moments that matter? Is that what you said? Okay. Yes. I love that. So, with AI and technology dominating workplace conversations, why do you believe the human element is becoming even more important rather than less important?

[00:14:25] Because if, unless you're replacing your entire workforce with robots, you are still going to have people in your organization. So, AI is going to be incredible at making us work faster, more efficiently, but it can't do this. Like it can't sit across from someone who's burned out and say thank you for trusting me with that information. It can't create safety where somebody feels okay admitting they're struggling.

[00:14:52] That said, like I don't think this is a people versus the robots thing. Like it's, AI can be in service of the humans in our business. So, the digital experience is part of the employee experience now. And for a lot of workers, the digital space is where they're spending most of their time. Like they're on the computer working every day. So, our job as leaders is to make sure those digital experiences, whether it's with burdened teams or if it's with an AI agent, we need to make sure that those are human centered.

[00:15:22] So, one way we can do that is to encourage our employees to interact responsibly with AI within the context of their work. At Tier 1, our fabulous AI team has built an AI coach. It's a tool that actually helps people learn how to collaborate with AI tools like ChatGPT and CoPilot through project-based coaching. And the interesting thing is that even though it's an AI tool itself, it's grounded in behavior science.

[00:15:46] So, the whole point is let's build some healthy habits around our digital experience and show people that like we can have a nice meeting of the minds between AI and what is the human-worthy work. So, like thinking of it in another way, AI kind of raises the floor on efficiency. Humans raise the ceiling on the meaning within our work. Yeah, definitely.

[00:16:09] That's why when I talk to people about, you know, the future of work and the importance of people in human resources and how important those people will still be as AI and technology changes. I mean, so if you are going into the workforce now or if you're considering a career in HR, I would support it and be very on board with that as a decision amongst others within the workforce.

[00:16:37] But, you know, that human connection, showing empathy, connecting with people on a more emotional level, you know, that's really what's changing the employee experience for a lot of people. And just because you have a bunch of people, they're not going to all have the same employee experience in the company either. It depends on their background, their age, their, all those other factors, right? So, anyway, we have one of my former colleagues in the house.

[00:17:06] So, sorry I'm late to the party. No problem. You're still in the party. You're good. You are here. Thanks for joining. So, many organizations are investing heavily in the technology and benefits and perks and trying to be, you know, at the competitive edge. What are leaders often missing when it comes to creating a great employee experience? Yeah, I'm going to lean on the moments again because it's the in-between moments in this, in this case.

[00:17:35] So, you can have the best benefits package ever, but if someone's first day is here, sit in the corner and figure out, you know, you're, you're onboarding by yourself and they feel isolated or their leader never checks in with them, that's not going to matter, right? So, culture and employee experience are kind of symbiotic. Culture is huge and slow to change. Employee experience, you can actually do something about that today.

[00:18:01] Any kind of small strategic shift in the experience will compound over time and quietly reshape your culture. So, it might be a really, I think an overlooked asset that leaders have. You know, smart employee experience design doesn't mean you have to overhaul everything you're doing. Just take a step back and look at like what's working well and what, where do we have a disconnect between what we think we're doing and how employees are experiencing it and what tweaks can we make?

[00:18:29] Yep. So, what are some of the biggest mistakes organizations make when trying to improve the engagement and culture? Yeah. So, a couple of things I see is like going straight to culture. So, like I just huge abstract thing. Employee experience can be concrete. So, I can redesign onboarding and roll that up next quarter. I can't completely revamp the culture of an organization in a quarter.

[00:18:57] So, the leaders who get traction with those small moments and let the culture kind of follow, I think are kind of one up on the game. Another thing I think is a mistake is surveying without acting. We kind of have this listening commitment that says not everything is going to result in a change, but we are going to hear it and consider it. And like we say that out loud. And we follow up and say, this is what we heard. These are the insights.

[00:19:25] Here, here are the things we are going to address. So, if like you're throwing surveys out there all the time and they just kind of go into the void, people are either going to quit answering them, start answering them in ways that are not productive or, you know, it just, it feels disingenuous. Yep. And then I think people thinking they have to choose between performance and people. One of our values is literally, I embrace the tension of the and, and in all capital letters.

[00:19:52] So you can have high standards and deep care for individuals. And the organizations that struggle, I think are the ones that see those as competing priorities. I can't both care about the human and the overall performance of the company and figure out how to reconcile those things. We are live on LinkedIn and YouTube with Alicia Ostermeyer with tier one performance. Next question is about the future of the employee experience.

[00:20:21] So, and the past five years. So how has the employee experience evolved over the last five or so years? And what changes do you expect to see in the next five? So five years ago, we were in the middle of a massive experiment we didn't want, right? The pandemic forced all of us to rethink where and how work happens.

[00:20:45] And what came out of that was an employee realization that they have more agency and organized organizations had to realize maybe we have a little less control than we thought. So the shift I've seen is from employee engagement, which was always kind of one directional. Like how do we get more out of people to a genuine employee experience, which is what is it actually like to be here? Which I think is, you know, the more honest question of where we really want to be.

[00:21:14] So kind of projecting ahead. I think we'll see organizations start to architect that employee journey in the way they already think about it with their customer journeys. So, you know, a good example from the customer side, a few years ago, we partnered with a client to reimagine their associate experience. So we started again by mapping those moments where associates could be delighted, uplifted, engaged, and onboarding rose to the top of the list for them.

[00:21:40] So we built that onboarding experience to span prewarding orientation and development. And their data is showing real lifts and belonging, readiness to success, connection to leadership, like designing for the moments and then impact.

[00:22:05] So if like if anyone's out here, one approaches that idea of healthy, high performing cultures. And David's got some examples of where we've done that with clients. The last thing that they say about that is like as more tasks get automated, the distinctly human parts. So coaching, belonging, navigating hard conversations will become the differentiator. Like that's where we have to get it right. Absolutely. Yeah.

[00:22:34] So if you scan the QR code, we'll have it in the summary of the podcast as well. But this is the tier one's performance matters magazine. So check that out and follow along if you have any interest in that. But we'll put in the podcast notes for anybody who is listening after today. So. All right. Next one is about trust.

[00:23:00] And I think for a lot of people, trust is very, very critical in where they decide to work, who they decide to work with. So it seems to be the center of every great employee workplace. So what are some practical ways that leaders can build trust with their teams today? Yeah, I love this one, too, because another one of our values in action is I trust generously. So a few things I've seen work really well.

[00:23:28] Well, the first one is to be transparent, especially when the news isn't great. An example like we share our company financials in an all company meeting every month when they're good, when they're not good. Good. We talk about it. This is what it is. This is what led to this. This is how it connects to our vision. It is not unusual for me to hear from new hires that that's refreshing and surprising and a little bit like it takes them aback that we do that.

[00:23:58] But it's a way of saying, like, we trust you with this information and whether it's good or it's bad, we're going to be in it together. Another thing we talk about is extending trust first. So don't make people. When you can give trust before it's been proven, you create those conditions for people to rise to it.

[00:24:21] And that was something like it was a little interesting for me when I started here to just have people trust that I like knew what I was doing and that they believed in me. And, you know, you don't have to spend six months kind of like waiting for somebody to figure out that you can you can do what you can do. It makes a big difference. And then follow through. Just do what you say. And if you can't do it, say why. And then make it safe to someone's experiencing a challenge, maybe when they're thinking about leaving.

[00:24:50] Let's let's engage in those conversations with gratitude instead of panic. You know, thank you for bringing me this information. What can we do together? What if being a leader worth following means being human, imperfect and open to learning? This is Kate Johnson, owner of 123 Limited. And I want to invite you to discover how to care for, support and even love the people you lead. Join me every Tuesday for the Well Led podcast. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:25:20] Now, that's that's great advice. Definitely. What role does belonging play in employee experience and how can organizations create a culture where employees genuinely feel connected? Belonging is everything and a real tricky thing because you can't mandate it. You can't just dictate. Thou shalt feel like you belong here.

[00:25:47] You just have to create the conditions for it to happen. Right. And this is where leaders really have a huge role to play because, you know, modern leaders really are responsible for our employee experience stewardship. So the care and protect moments. You're not going to build belonging in an all hands meeting.

[00:26:09] It's going to be that one on one when your manager remembers something you said last week and gives you credit to the client for coming up with that idea. When they notice that something is off and ask you about it when they when you say like, hey, I'm overwhelmed and they they help you figure it out. It's really. It's about those in between spaces to have belonging in our organization.

[00:26:37] We have to equip leaders with the way to do it. How do I communicate? How do I provide immersive experiences? What tools do we have to help people in that space? You can't just write it down. You know, we can put everyone on our website. It's about our culture. We can put posters on the wall. But it really is like the people interacting with each other that will build the sense of belonging in the organization. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:27:05] So how should leaders balance efficiency and productivity goals with empathy and human connection? So like what's kind of underlying that that question is that sometimes there's the business goal and perhaps a performance disconnect and we have to figure out how to how to bring those things together.

[00:27:27] So the CEO of Tier one impact Greg Harmeyer, that's our parent company, wrote a book called Impact with Love. It's about is the idea of unconditional compassion, conditional employment. So your employment is about your performance, right? But dignified treatment of people is a non-negotiable.

[00:27:47] So practically, that means that I can hold someone to a high standard and ask how they're doing and provide them feedback about their performance and do it with genuine care. So one of the most loving things we can do for people is give them honest feedback. You can't fix what you don't know about. And I think the leaders who get this wrong treat empathy and accountability as these like opposing forces when the best leaders I've seen kind of treat them as reinforcing.

[00:28:15] When when someone knows that you actually care about them, they're more apt to be able to hear the hard stuff and either make the corrections or recognize that sometimes, you know, there are things that perhaps we can't fix, but we can work together on a caring resolution for it. Yeah. Yeah. So what what would be your advice for an organization that is is more fully remote?

[00:28:40] I know there are still a lot of companies that work in fully remote or hybrid. They don't potentially have access to meet with someone on a consistent basis in person. Right. If they live all over the country, can really do their work wherever. So for those organizations and for those individuals that have to, you know, really have those conversations with people.

[00:29:07] Is there some advice you would give to those people when it would be potentially more virtual meetings and virtual connection? Yeah, I think in organizations that are more remote, not falling into the trap of thinking remote means not connected because there are still ways to be a connected organization when you are remote.

[00:29:30] For example, at tier one, we have 70 plus virtual employees who aren't located near one of our core locations. They you know the opportunities to connect live with people are much less, but the virtual connections are very strong with their project teams, with folks who do similar types of work that they do. One thing that our our lead, the leaders of our virtual team has done is set up twice a week.

[00:29:59] There is an hour on the calendar where anyone in the virtual team can just hop on the team's call and we spend five minutes talking about like this is what I'm going to try to accomplish in the next hour. We leave the you know, leave the meeting open. We go work on what we're going to work on. So together, but separately, and then come back at the end to say this is what we accomplished. So even just having that feeling of like I'm working with someone, you build that.

[00:30:28] And then when you come to a point of I have to have these, you know, I might have to have a hard conversation virtually. It feels a little easier to do it because it's not like this is the first time I've talked to my manager in six months. I think that like the cadences and the rhythms are, are really important.

[00:30:47] And if you build those, if you build that underlying infrastructure, then then you can still do the loving and caring and direct thing in a way that feels like we're closer, even if you know you're on the West Coast and I'm on the East Coast for this conversation. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. And I think the direct manager for people play such an important role in that person's employee experience.

[00:31:14] And so, you know, someone in a managerial role has such a big responsibility for the staff that they manage for a lot of reasons. Obviously, they have to make sure they're doing their job. Productivity is there. You know, the employee experience for all of those people on that team. It will vary. And I know people that are very, very good managers and they have a difficult team to manage.

[00:31:41] And I know people that have been a manager and they they manage, but like the team is self-sufficient. They're very good performers. So you put someone in an environment where you're having to really coach develop individuals that are not so great at their job. It's that's when you know that that manager is strong is when they can change the motivation or engagement of that employee.

[00:32:06] And I don't know the latest stat. I think it goes up and down a little bit, but the employee engagement currently probably is still. What, 20 to 25 percent of the workforce is engaged, you know, so the people that are disengaged.

[00:32:24] That that statistic to me, while you may not know the exact statistic within your organization of disengagement unless you ask on a survey, which like you said, you will have to do something with the survey result and not just ask for it and not do anything. But but but again, I think anybody that's listening to this that's in a managerial role.

[00:32:47] Just think about your current staff you manage and where would you rank yourself as a manager in some of these categories of engagement and retention and and the overall morale? So what about some of the newer managers? Let's say they've been promoted. They were not a manager and they've been promoted.

[00:33:12] Maybe they're managing some of their peers or, you know, they're in their first manager job. Right. What what what advice would you give people that are in that situation where they've never managed, but they've been put into a managerial role? Yeah, it's really challenging and it depends on the organization that you're in, where there was a new manager training program that they put you through.

[00:33:40] A lot of times you just get thrown into the deep end. I would recommend spending some time thinking about what kind of manager do I want to be? Like, think about previous managers that you've had. What really worked well for me for the managers that I thought were really good managers? There's why were they good managers for the ones that I did? And why did I not think that was?

[00:34:05] Or and then think about, you know, once you've kind of crafted your ideal, this is what kind of manager I want to be. Which of those play to your strengths already? You know, whether you've done Clifton strengths or disc or like whatever you know about yourself. What are those things fall in your wheelhouse that you think would be pretty easy to do? And what things do you think that you'll need to work on? And then get intentional about figuring out how to do it. Invite a more experienced manager in your organization to be your mentor.

[00:34:34] Or perhaps reach out to your network or a lot of people I know have family members that they lean on a lot for advice. And then don't forget to ask the people who work for you what they want. How do you want me to communicate with you? What works well for you and what doesn't? What would make this a great working relationship? It's, you know, we always, I think a lot.

[00:35:03] Think about like top down management to be about this hockey, like it. Think about it, a partnership and the odds of success, I think, go way up. Yeah, got it. Got to give you that on on that answer. I love that. I love that because, yeah, you you nailed it. I mean, just I think back of the people that I've been managed by and a lot of people leave a job. They don't leave the company. They leave the manager.

[00:35:33] Right. 100%. Happens a lot. You know, people really like the company, the brand. But at the end of the day, they don't want to work with the person managing them and they don't trust them. They don't respect them. So so talking to the organizations that may be struggling with that right now, that they're they're struggling with retention, morale, engagements.

[00:36:01] You know, where should they start if they want to improve the employee experience? Yeah, I would start with listening. So not just a survey. Right. Come up with a system for hearing your people. Those really effective and, you know, employee engagement strategies start with hearing from our organization. You want your people to be heard and you want your leaders to actually be equipped to act on it.

[00:36:30] So listening helps you figure out which moments that truly matter to your people in every organization. Like the moments that matter for tier one might be completely different than the moments that matter for your organization. So like listen and then map those moments and prioritize them. Like walk through the employee journey and ask, like, where are people falling through the cracks? Is our onboarding warm and intentional or just a checklist? Onboarding, honestly, like it winds up on the top of a lot of lists.

[00:37:00] Like it's it's your first early opportunity to make the lasting impression and set the tone for everything that follows. And then like be honest and real about your culture, not the one again on the website, but the one that people experience every single day. And if there is a gap between what you say you're doing and what people feel like what it's like to be on the other side, that's where the retention problem probably lives. Yeah, definitely.

[00:37:32] I had a comment in the in the chat. Pew, pew, pew from Terry. Thank you, Terry. Love that. So, yes, you're getting a lot of air horn and and love on the answers there. So. All right. Final question for you, unless anyone in the crowd has a question, but I'll leave you with this question.

[00:37:57] So if you could leave HR leaders, business owners and people managers with one challenge or piece of advice about the future of employee experience, what would it be? Yeah. So wrapping it back around to the human part of employee experience. The challenge is to be more intentional about the human moments. And then trust that those small. Spawn. Pound into something large.

[00:38:27] So a lot of employee engagement where shows tiny spaces like just the way you respond to an email or an instant message or how you show up in a one on one. Or did you check in on someone who's had a tough week or not think about it for a month like those small moments all make up the employee experience. And over time, that becomes your culture. So design for the moments, protect the moments, steward the moments.

[00:38:53] And like, don't let the urgency of the business because there is urgency in the business, right? We all have a product to make or a service to deliver, but we don't want that to crowd out the humanity of the people inside it. At the end of the day, how we treat the people we work with isn't a nice to have. It is our strategy, whether for good or for ill. So like make it a good strategy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It is.

[00:39:22] It is something that I feel like it has to be so unique to the organization and you can't just say one size fits all with this kind of stuff. Um, because you're, you're dealing with people's personalities and, and generation.

[00:39:39] And, you know, so when you had, um, mentioned the mentorship aspect of, of a new manager, I mean, I, I've got, um, so many past guests in their conversation with me somewhere, they bring up mentorship. And there's a book back here by one of my previous guests, Pete Schramm shout out to Pete. He wrote a book called pathfinders.

[00:40:03] It's all about having a board of advisors for yourself and really how you should have that for yourself. A company has a board of advisors, but he was, um, it was episode 50. If you go back to episode 50, it was in October of last year. And he wrote a book all about how you should have a board of advisors and who those people are. And so I think anybody that's newer to a managerial role or leadership role, you, you don't have everything figured out.

[00:40:31] You're going to have to lean on people to help you and you're going to have to experience it, right? You're not going to be able to just learn it overnight. So I think you're just gonna have to figure out what kind of manager you want to be, what kind of leadership role you want to have. And like you said, just figure out, you know, how you were managed before and what worked well, what didn't work well and, and really get to know your people and connect with them.

[00:40:53] You know, people may not love their job every single day, but if they wake up on a Monday morning and they feel excited to go to work or at least be able to go and give it their all, um, you know, get, get some, uh, get some productivity out of them. People have stuff, people have life, people have kids and family and outside distractions.

[00:41:15] Right. So, you know, I think managers and organizations have such a critical role in really how to impact the employee experience. And so it's, it's gonna be different for everybody. Um, I was going to bring up this upcoming, um, you know, this upcoming event in September, it's the scurry of mental health. So tell everybody about this.

[00:41:42] Yeah. So one thing people don't always know about tier one is that mental health has been an important part of our story for more than a decade. Um, what started as organizations like the Lender Center of Hope and NAMI, where we learned just how many people are impacted by mental health challenges and how often those, particularly in the workplace. Um, so over the years, we're in a.

[00:42:12] This and create space for those conversations that help people feel supported. And we've done that through employee programs, community partnerships, um, leadership. Which is a. Fundraising effort. So one of the ways we bring that commitment annual fundraiser. Scurry is an amazing style team event where groups of two to four make their way through. Covington, Kentucky completing challenges, trivia. Average run activities and other fun.

[00:42:39] And then the day after party at Covington yard teams can relax and celebrating that. So over the past 15 years, the scurry has raised more than $500,000 to support local mental health initiatives. And this year's event is happening for 25th in Covington. And we'd love for you to put together a team and join us. It's, it's an amazing time. It's a great opportunity to give back, um, to mental health organizations in our local community.

[00:43:06] And also a great opportunity for team building amongst your own teams. If you're interested. That is awesome. That is awesome. I have not been a part of that, but I definitely want to look into it. So I appreciate you bringing that up. And yes, um, LinkedIn user. I don't see the name, but. Scurry is such a powerful and fun event. So thank you for that. So yeah, the.

[00:43:31] Link to that event for September will be in the summary notes of the podcast episode. So if you are listening on demand or the audio version, you will see that in the comments or the summary of the, uh, the podcast. So, um, this has been great. I feel like I definitely learned along the way. I really appreciate your insights. It has been great. Um, hopefully you enjoyed it as well. Yeah, I, it was a great conversation.

[00:43:59] I appreciate the thoughtful questions and it's just a topic I'm passionate about and a place. I think we all have an opportunity to make an impact, particularly as we're looking. Um, I think at an increasingly challenging space for our employees as we try to balance the, the AI and the human. And there, there are really big opportunities, I think for all of us to really dig in on employee experience and make a big difference. Yeah.

[00:44:28] Well, thank you so much for coming on. I really enjoyed it. Let's stay in touch. And if there's anything I can do to help you, let me know, but, uh, have a great rest of your day. We'll be back next week, brand new guests, brand new episode and topic. So thanks everybody for listening and, uh, have a good rest of your day. Thank you. Take care.