2023 HR Conference Highlights

Description:

There has never been a more crucial time to focus your efforts on elevating the work experience of your employees. MRA's 2023 HR Conference Highlights episode will provide you with tangible ways to help you raise the bar throughout the entire employee life cycle, from recruitment to retention, while building and solidifying employee loyalty along the way. And it’s not just about the employees, but it’s also time to elevate you—the HR professional!

These conference highlights will provide you with a space to grow your skills and address the mental health load that HR teams continue to shoulder. Join us for an experience that will elevate YOU and your employees.

Resources:

Register for Minnesota HR Conference! 

MRA Membership 

About MRA 

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Paula Davis (Stress & Resilience Institute) 

Guest Bio - Josh Miller (Project50) 

Guest Bio - Jamie Jackson (Humorous Resources) 

Guest Bio - Tricia Shields (Naviant) 

Guest Bio - Shawn Gulyas (humanworks8) 

Host Bio - Sophie Boler 

Host LinkedIn Profile - Sophie Boler 

Transcript:

Transcripts are computer generated -- not 100% accurate word-for-word.

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:21:03
Unknown
Hello everybody and welcome to 30 minute Thrive, your go to podcast for anything and everything HR, powered by MRA, the Management Association looking to stay on top of the ever changing world of HR? MRA has got you covered. We'll be the first to tell you what's hot and what's not. I'm your host, Sophie Boler, and we are so glad you're here.

00:00:21:04 - 00:00:40:21
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. Hey, everybody. Thanks for tuning in to 30 minute Thrive today. This week we kind of have a special edition episode as Courtney Lamers is going to be our host today, highlighting our 2023 HR conference. So thanks for being the host for today, Courtney. Thanks for trusting me. You always do such a good job.

00:00:40:21 - 00:00:57:22
Unknown
So this is a lot of pressure, but I'm really excited to talk with all of our speakers today. I know they have a lot of great information to share. Good morning, MRA friends and welcome to our annual HR conference. So excited to be here today and we're excited to kick off the day with my good friend Jamie.

00:00:58:00 - 00:01:19:02
Unknown
So I've had the privilege of getting to know her over the last month or so, and we actually found her through TikTok. So she is hilarious and has so many funny HR stories. So Jamie, I want to give a little bit of background about how you got into TikTok and your HR, Horrendous HR, Horrible HR, everything like that and one so I've actually been in HR

00:01:19:02 - 00:01:43:12
Unknown
For the long the 19 years. Oh. Okay. Go home at the end i in back in the early days of 2020, i was working for a nonprofit clinic and i was the sole h.r. Person over for clinics. And i just felt really alone. Things are constantly changing during the pandemic. And, you know, we were looking for guidance, and and so I thought, you know what?

00:01:43:14 - 00:02:08:03
Unknown
This is funny, and and I started posting memes that I started he works right on our side of the unit and then I dabbled in tiktoc a little bit and then it's really spiraled from there. I've now created horrendous HR which is funny actually, and then horrendous h.r. Stories. And then i also love to call out terrible job postings, which i like to call that absolutely not.

00:02:08:05 - 00:02:29:06
Unknown
And i was on another page called millennial misery kit. I'm an elder millennial and I just love the nostalgia and the so that's that's kind of how I create it. I accidentally built an empire is what I said. She went viral. Everyone forgot to check her out on TikTok. And. Oh, so you have a horrendous H.R. story, the know crazy H.R. story is give us one of your best ones.

00:02:29:06 - 00:02:51:20
Unknown
I think I have a lot over the last 18 years, which I'm sure everyone does here. I figure I fable one of why not? I'm really stuck with me because it happened early in my career. I honestly didn't know how to handle it is I had an employee she instead of and making it to the restroom they decided to pull their pants down as they walked to the restroom.

00:02:51:22 - 00:03:11:06
Unknown
And number two, all the way to the restroom. And of course it was on video and he to bless them, and they weren't having stomach issues. Just FYI, it was a it was a, you know, the middle finger part of my logo. All the was they were the middle finger to us because that person had just recently gotten written up.

00:03:11:06 - 00:03:30:02
Unknown
But that one sticks with me because I think I was like an assistant at the time and who'd been out there that would talk by near me. But now I'd be like, Oh, well, come on, give me some gloves I'll clean it up. And that couldn't be good. Well, I'm sure all of you have plenty of stories as well, but I'm excited for you to hear from Jamie throughout the day today and hear all the stories that you have.

00:03:30:02 - 00:03:54:16
Unknown
So what are you most excited about for the rest of the day today? And honestly, this interacting with fellow folks. And oddly enough, I'm so glad y'all let me jump up on stage. spoiler scared on, but I'm really excited to interact and hopefully make you laugh. All right. Well, thanks for being here today. We are excited for her, everyone to hear the humor from you and we're excited to have all of you join us virtually today.

00:03:54:16 - 00:04:13:06
Unknown
And so have a great day. Everybody will see you in a little bit. Hi, everyone. Welcome back. And thank you, Paula, for joining us for a few extra minutes. I want to say thank you for your time today and thank you for sharing your story. Obviously, as they HR professionals, we all know how real burnout is right now.

00:04:13:06 - 00:04:30:02
Unknown
And I think you give everyone some real practical tools that they can take back. And I know the last slide about the small wins was something that really resonated to me, and it was something that our team was just talking about because there are so many things going on. So it's easy to start looking ahead to the next one.

00:04:30:14 - 00:04:46:06
Unknown
I just wanted to talk about how do you even start the conversation about burnout at the workplace? That is such a great question. And, you know, one of the things that I didn't mention my story, but that is certainly true is like we don't wear a sign when we walk around that says, Hey, I'm burned out.

00:04:46:10 - 00:05:07:03
Unknown
And in fact, like, one of the things that I did a lot is I tried to hide it. Like I really actively didn't want people to know that I was struggling. And so I think the first step, because a conversation almost always has to be had if you're feeling a sense of significant stress and burnout. So it's finding someone who you feel comfortable saying something to you, whether that's an h.r.

00:05:07:03 - 00:05:24:21
Unknown
Professional, whether that is your direct report or a direct manager, I should say, or a leader, even if it's somebody outside the organization. But I'm going to frame this as a conversation. We can have at work. So find that person and you trust who you want to say something to and then think about a goal that you have for the conversation.

00:05:25:01 - 00:05:53:08
Unknown
So what is it that you need or want and to be a couple of days off? And do you need something like a sabbatical? Is that even something that your company offers? And do you need to switch switch to a different team perhaps, or think about another area of work within the organization and be very clear to extend that You can because when we're feeling stressed and burned out, we have maybe not have a clear perspective in that regard, but try and figure out what it is that you're looking for or what you want from the conversation.

00:05:53:10 - 00:06:13:04
Unknown
And then it's just a matter of along with putting down some notes and being very intentional about how you go about having the conversation and then trying to make sure you crystallize next steps. So now if you're in the leader who is hearing this from someone, it's important to know you don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to fix the problem in that conversation.

00:06:13:06 - 00:06:36:20
Unknown
But you do need to have a pretty keen awareness of what some of the resources are in your organization, particularly if there's a mental health issue going on. stay in your lane, you don't have to really actively address those pieces. You do have to know how to path people in the right way, and then it becomes and being very clear about next steps, what are we going to do to follow up?

00:06:36:20 - 00:06:51:21
Unknown
What is the next step going to be? I need to maybe have some conversation as a leader and figure out how I can help or what the next step might look like. But then we have to be very clear and come back together again, usually pretty quickly. And to figure out what that's going to or what that's really going to look like.

00:06:51:23 - 00:07:15:21
Unknown
But recognizing too, that there are also resources, people who are out there who do coach in this area. And so sometimes that can be outsold resource as well in addition to potentially a mental health expert or taking some sort of, you know, short term or longer term or, you know, rearranging an internal team or one out. And it was so that's the framework that I set with folks.

00:07:15:23 - 00:07:35:12
Unknown
But I always want to say it's really hard to suffer in silence with burnout. And so at some point your burnout will get to a point where you likely have to have a conversation with someone. So really paying attention to that and not being afraid to actively start those discussions. And it's one of the things I did wrong as I waited way too long.

00:07:35:12 - 00:07:57:09
Unknown
So you seek that assistance in. So that's that's how I would start to have that conversation. I love the structure behind it because I think people can see how they would start that conversation. And so, question for you, so a lot of times meetings start with how's it going and the common response is “good”. So how do you balance the positivity with the reality?

00:07:57:09 - 00:08:18:03
Unknown
And especially as a leader, it's not hard to walk around, be like, Oh, I'm very tired, or I'm on stress or I'm I work till midnight last night. I like, How do you balance the positivity with the reality? That's such a great question. And I think it's really incumbent on leaders to model both sides of that equation. So I think it's important for leaders to actually say, you know what, I'm really stressed out right now.

00:08:18:03 - 00:08:32:15
Unknown
And here are some things that I'm doing and I left a little bit early last night. I want you all as a team to feel like you can take Saturday off or however you know, it plays out in your organization. But then I think we also have to start modeling to what are some of the good things that are happening.

00:08:32:15 - 00:08:54:09
Unknown
And so you can even, you know, be intentional if you want to send this question out ahead of time to folks so that they're prepared. But we're going to start we're going to take 5 minutes and our next meeting and I want to go around the room. We're have people who are patching in until kick us off and then who has a win, a success, a small something positive that has happened to you this week or within the past couple of weeks.

00:08:54:14 - 00:09:12:18
Unknown
So that we're also hearing that side of the story as well, because it's really important. It's so easy for us to focus, especially in uncertain times and times of change about everything that's different through. But to really balance that was messages of we're doing some good stuff here. I'm like, there's really a lot of things that are going well.

00:09:12:20 - 00:09:31:15
Unknown
It's very motivational for us to hear that side of that side of the equation. And sure, going back to this all, answer it, but you're all about the tablet alone and the both. Thank you so much for sharing all of your insight with us, Carla, your passion, your energy. Just we are practical tools as amazing at this, a perfect way to start our day and tell them.

00:09:31:16 - 00:09:59:16
Unknown
Thank you so much, everyone. We'll see you back in a few minutes. And we're back with another interview. Josh, thanks for joining us here. You did a great job on your presentation and it's something I talked a lot with our members about. So one of the questions I get a lot and I'm curious on your take on this is and a lot of companies have gone to either a hybrid or a virtual workplace, but with the next generation coming in, a lot of you on that face are based communication, that in-person mentorship.

00:09:59:20 - 00:10:23:04
Unknown
What is your thought on that and how like from a company see a plan, like how did they work with that? The managers and mentors to get them back into the office for that in-person mentorship experience? The certainly, what if I were to be here with you? And that's a great frustration and it's something that we think a lot about how we know the return office and what for certain about workforce transition is a one of the most fruitful elements.

00:10:23:04 - 00:10:48:15
Unknown
So it's early and really defining. And in the, you know, the current workforce reality as it was, we think about the fact that for example working from home has on young people is that there are a lot of elements of a great workforce workplace experience that simply cannot be replicated online and turning socialization and having mentors there. They are really having a sense of in-person learning on the job.

00:10:48:15 - 00:11:07:01
Unknown
One of their osmosis really being able to pick up my subconscious things about how to really operate in the company's culture, how to get ahead without being said, though, you know, there is an element of flexibility and there is an element of, you know, having trust of the company, having trust. Another, to be able to get your work into the system and that happens remotely.

00:11:07:01 - 00:11:26:05
Unknown
And in a hybrid model cell with I think about the ideal right as we would love, you know, hybrid model where we need some sort of in-person interaction where, you know, if you and I are coworkers, we can do this right here, not over Zoom. I know you would. I really wouldn't be anything but you know in doubt conversation over oversell and so it's going to work in progress right.

00:11:26:05 - 00:12:01:01
Unknown
And a lot of it too is, you know, cost benefit analysis as to people thought, well, if I'm in traffic and, you know, I want more what that can do to somebody's time. But also we think about we have beautiful downtown Milwaukee, you know, where we're we're fairly speaking and the impact of people that coming into the office, you know, on vibrant cities is also a really important thing to think about, to solve so many complications and so many factors to consider when it comes from my rent to the to, you know, and work from home and calming quiet The people that kind of get for my having zero in-person experience are those in our

00:12:01:01 - 00:12:18:05
Unknown
generation because we just don't have the role models that in-person a real you think about you know how we want our careers to go. Absolutely. Well, you gave a lot of great things for employers to think about and a lot of takeaways, But if do you give with employers 1 to 1 thing that they can go do today or tomorrow?

00:12:18:05 - 00:12:37:21
Unknown
Like what's that one takeaway you want everyone to know? Do not look at my early career experiences as as a as an afterthought. And they matter. They matter. Today. We have to be proactive in building a bunch of leadership talent. We have to be proactive and making sure that young people are having a good experience and have a good view with outlook of the organization.

00:12:37:23 - 00:13:01:15
Unknown
Because word spreads fast nowadays faster than it's ever been, there is going to be a significant divides and winners and losers have organizations that get decimals of the dollar in it in that they do. It's the right thing to do. Well, half the I believe that you know if we at my business project that they are successful in how their organization is designed more effective early career programs that everybody around out our age is going to have a better start to their career.

00:13:01:17 - 00:13:20:22
Unknown
And that that just has such positive reverberation as economically and socially it can have psychologically for everybody. So as I say, that for me is the biggest thing is let's just be natural. But yeah, I was just going to say I love the word intentional and experience. So to ending up so a more and well, it is super difficult I should add that.

00:13:21:00 - 00:13:40:20
Unknown
So I am born right in between Millenial and Zillennials, socan I go by Zillenial?. Whatever you want. I feel that's the generation stuff. It's secondary to what we're talking about here right? Where did supposed things at all for And it's two people in the workforce experience are pretty common across generation.

00:13:40:20 - 00:14:12:00
Unknown
And I still hear high seas. Why everybody to think about what their life was like when they were 21 years old? Yeah. Then that is it has nothing to do with the generation of actually has to do with kind of lifecycle. Yeah. And it's really about thinking about what does somebody at this stage of our career need to get ahead and help it organizations you know provide that for us what I do what regardless of gen-z is a lot of your millennial everyone's everyone's got their got their he does tenure yeah as well thank you for joining us Jasmine thank you for those online we will see you in a little bit but we made

00:14:12:00 - 00:14:47:15
Unknown
it to lunch break. Welcome back, everyone. We are here with Patricia Shields from Naviant and her session was all about embracing technology and their digital transformation. So how did Naviant even get started in your digital transformation and technology journey? And yeah, good question and we talked about this as well. Does a lot of organizations or aware of here she did a survey with MRA members pretty adamantly not he did started to embrace their digital transformation journey so we always recommend by digitizing documents that's such an important kind of pivotal part about H.R. and being able to be innovative.

00:14:47:15 - 00:15:17:04
Unknown
What the technology is that you use. And so in going from there and then starting to look an opportunity to see utilize all their technology. So what's something cool that Naviant has done to some of their cool digital transformation Yeah pieces or what something cool that you guys have done well I always however for warriors and that is consistent is that they think that's such you've had a it's an informal experience for employees to feel like they're being offered they're having opportunities to interact with that company, which a lot of places is their manager.

00:15:17:04 - 00:15:43:12
Unknown
So historically, when I served maybe 15 years ago all over using paper documents here are walking them around that company or email in a model were following up with people had a we were the name of the organization but now the ways in technology we made a SharePoint available or do poorly check in. So using technology and it's this we they have an interactive conversation and give it high information and managers are being kind of real time.

00:15:43:12 - 00:16:02:00
Unknown
So that's the way that people that we're having most growth. That's awesome. So were you surprised summarize so backing up here, we did a survey before the event and as you know, why it was holding people back from embracing technology. Were you surprised that only 3% said that they were afraid of change or were you not surprised? I was surprised.

00:16:02:00 - 00:16:25:12
Unknown
I was also really proud and have been doing h.r. For 20 years now. And i love that h.r. Professionals. I don't know, maybe today, don and like, were a real team who don't want anything to be different than it's historically been. But 3% is not true. I think that really show that we are in a leader and we do want to find ways to use technology, but we need to overcome some of the other hesitations that we talked about.

00:16:25:12 - 00:16:42:23
Unknown
And so like so as h.r. Professionals and leaders, if we have some people on our team that might not be excited about and how can we lead by example and really demonstrate that change is a good thing? Yeah, I think one of the ways that we highlight verify since may around some use cases is really do it in planning.

00:16:42:23 - 00:17:01:15
Unknown
And so not just putting technology in just for the sake of holding it in while using planning to really sit down and let all the key users APIs and your faith and science and technology be at the table so they can understand the benefits of the technologies as well, I think. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for being here today, Tricia.

00:17:01:15 - 00:17:21:17
Unknown
We appreciate all the examples and insights that you've shared with us today. Thank you. We have one more surprise guests here, and actually we have two of them, Caitlin and Laura from Husch Blackwell. So why don't you two introduce yourself a little short video. So my name is Moira Mallory, and this is Caitlin with me and we are both lawyers at Husch Blackwelll.

00:17:21:17 - 00:17:43:12
Unknown
And we practice exclusively in the labor and employment space. And so we are working with HR professionals like you guys all day and we love it. And we are a part of our firm, Schwab Old Milwaukee Office, although we have a really a national practice and we're just thrilled to be a part of this firm today. And that's a few minutes ago.

00:17:43:17 - 00:18:05:11
Unknown
And so unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend their session, but they were giving me a little bit of an overview and the ESG component and retention as well as DEI. So give us a little bit more on that. Yeah, this whole ESG, it's kind of been a key trader in the recent years. I'm coming over from the Eagle, actually, but a feed in popularity here in the United States.

00:18:05:11 - 00:18:27:14
Unknown
And it stands for environmental, social and governance. So how do your company interacts in those green spheres such as hire and student financial environment persons? How are and now versus and how you treat people in the social realm as well? A Your hungry net regulates itself of the policies internally and externally. All paths and this here of ESG.

00:18:27:16 - 00:18:49:17
Unknown
And that's what we're really here to talk about today, how you can be a better balance sheet on opportunities which you then increase into retention. And 30th have actually show a very positive and correlating relationship between high gas scores and attractiveness to talent, as well as retention of talent, which especially for the gen generations we know is kind of challenging right now.

00:18:49:17 - 00:19:11:10
Unknown
So we're here to help connect use and tips and tricks on how to retain as individuals. Can you give me a one thing The companies can go back and implement tomorrow or maybe when they're back in the office, I'm doubt. Good idea. Do you want to tell you? I think I did. Right? Sure. Yeah. So he I talked a lot about during the session about DNI efforts and how that is one component of ESG.

00:19:11:10 - 00:19:32:13
Unknown
ESG is a really big beast. There's a lot to it. But D&I is one component. And it is a very, very important about it. And we talk specifically about the “I” inclusion quite a bit in the session and how important it is to not just focus on data and statistics, but really focus on making sure that your employees feel valued and appreciated.

00:19:32:15 - 00:19:49:15
Unknown
And that can be done in so many different ways. But just by engaging with them and talking to them about their family and their kids and their dogs and, you know, all of the things that, you know, we think of as leaving outside of the workforce. If it is part of who we are that we bring to the workplace.

00:19:49:15 - 00:20:08:08
Unknown
And it is really, really important for our employees to be a valued and appreciate it. And just given some time, I know we are all spread so thin and we all have so much on our plate, but it's one of those things that is worth investing in your people because that is such a key component to your business being a success. Perfect.

00:20:08:08 - 00:20:23:14
Unknown
Well, thank you all so much for being here today and thank you for sharing this. It was a perfect way to wrap up our interview is and we will more session live. So we will wrap it up here shortly. And thanks, everybody. We've almost made it to the end of the day. Hang with us. We've got Sean here.

00:20:23:18 - 00:20:44:04
Unknown
She's going to be closing out our day. And for those of you that were with us last year, you'll remember his awesome performance. So we're super excited to have him and the day to day core grateful for your kind words. And if he were here last time. Stay with that. Is there's a lot of fun moments that we're talking about in the next hour as to what is on your highlight of the day so far.

00:20:44:04 - 00:21:05:06
Unknown
Well, I'm talking about moments that matter. And then I've heard already from the other speakers so many moments that matter to our professionals. I've heard about moments of humor. I think what Jamie's been doing that an important h.r. In the culture and also for, you know, out moments around building a cultural and a system that really supports the employee better at in moments of caring.

00:21:05:06 - 00:21:18:09
Unknown
And i'll be talking about more about the self first some of my highlight. So to give us a little bit of a sneak peek of what you're going to talk about. I know you just say a little bit, but give me a little more and it'll me I'm not going to talk about any frameworks, give you all these diagrams, Nothing.

00:21:18:09 - 00:21:38:08
Unknown
And you can see I want to give this a real tangible things that have meaning. Really show that you care about the employees at your organization and things that you can actually take back and start using today, next week. Plus, you have to get your leaders doing this stuff to because H.R., hear all these this that small group, your leadership team should be part of your h.r.

00:21:38:08 - 00:21:56:11
Unknown
Team. So how can you get those people also thinking about these mountains of water? Awesome. Well, thank you, sean, for being here. I'm super excited for his presentation. And like we said, if you haven't seen him, he was so great. We brought him back this year and he is closing out our day. And so hang with us, everyone, and thanks for joining us. woo-hoo!

00:21:56:15 - 00:22:14:10
Unknown
And that's a wrap. Thanks for tuning in to this week's podcast and thank you card here for hosting our conference highlights for this week and we're excited to see you next week. Thanks for having me. And thanks to all of our speakers for sharing all their great insights with us. And that wraps up our content for this episode.

00:22:14:11 - 00:22:32:18
Unknown
Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign them to connect for more podcast updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform. And as always, make sure to follow MRA’s 30 minute Thrive so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the HR conversation.