MRA’s July Talent Report

Description: In this episode, we’ll explore the July edition of MRA's monthly Talent Report: Trends From MRA's 1,000 Roundtable Members.

We’ll hear from Jim Morgan, Vice President of Workforce Strategies, on best practices regarding employee engagement, uncover C-Suite priorities and top creative HR strategies, learn roundtable trending topics, and more! 

Resources:

Talent Report+ Webinar Series 

MRA Membership 

About MRA 

Let's Connect:

Guest Bio - Jim Morgan 

Guest LinkedIn Profile - Jim Morgan 

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.

00:00:21:05 - 00:00:40:19
Unknown
Now it's time to thrive. All right. Well, welcome to this episode of 30 Minute Thrive. I'm excited to go over this month's Taylor Report with Jim Morgan, our vice president of Workforce Strategies, as we kind of go into what he's been seeing in the world of business in July. So thanks again, Jim, for joining us. Per usual. My pleasure.

00:00:40:20 - 00:00:58:24
Unknown
It's good to be here. So this month, it looks like you're kind of focusing on roundtables, the importance of networking. Why did you choose this topic for July? Well, you know, it's interesting, as everybody is trying to figure out how to get more done in less time and figure out how to make the best use of their time.

00:00:59:01 - 00:01:19:08
Unknown
You know, one of the things and not just making a sales pitch for our roundtables, but I think one of the things that people find the most valuable is when you find that peer group of people that share the same issues that you share and face the same problems each day that you face, that becomes a pretty strong group of people to really, you know, be able to call on and do things with.

00:01:19:08 - 00:01:37:02
Unknown
And with all this time spent on staff development and learning and development and things, there's nothing like a group of ten or 12 people who are living the same life you are to just be able to sit down and say, What would you do in this situation? And have half of them say, I've been in that situation. Here's what I would do.

00:01:37:04 - 00:02:08:17
Unknown
And so we just without one, that would be good. Just, you know, so people remember, take advantage of those opportunities. In fact, we surveyed everyone on how many networking groups they were in, and like over 50% of the group were in at least two. So that was that was pretty good. And I think later on we can talk a little bit about what we shared, too, because our roundtables, our peer groups, you know, our C-suite people, their senior age, our people, their age, our managers, and we shared a lot of data with people on here's what everybody's talking about.

00:02:08:17 - 00:02:25:03
Unknown
So that was a real advantage for that talent report. And I'll share some of that with you later, too. So that was the that was the reason for the focus is, you know, really just to get people to take some time and find that really good group of people they can sit down and talk to on a regular basis to, you know, sort of help them with the day to day stuff.

00:02:25:05 - 00:02:44:11
Unknown
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It was cool to see what topics are top of mind right now in roundtables and what our roundtables are kind of discussing. And we'll get into that. But let's kind of talk about what's happening in recruiting and retention world right now. So, Jim, what's new here? The idea is what's new is older. What's old is new.

00:02:44:13 - 00:03:04:04
Unknown
I think the internships continue to be really the best recruiting strategy that people are finding now for the simple fact that you're you're getting people that are close to working age within a year, you know, two at the most of being ready to come work for you. You get a chance to kick the tires and, you know, do they fit with your culture?

00:03:04:04 - 00:03:23:23
Unknown
Do you fit with what they're looking for? So it's just been a really I think people are just more and more realizing if we can give these young adults a really good experience at our place, we have a leg up in being the ones that they want to go work for. And even though a lot of the talent has eased a little bit, there's still some really tough people to find.

00:03:24:00 - 00:04:03:23
Unknown
And the internships have really been an opportunity to to to go find them. Yeah, absolutely. So kind of moving into talent thinking section, you talked about low cost employee perks activities that employers are kind of implementing nowadays. So can you expand on some of the ideas and points you have listed in this category? Yeah, and I'll I'll I'll go with the interns for a second and move into those because I think it applies to, you know, that what we're seeing with the the interns is in terms of the retention part of it, it really gives if you've got some emerging leaders and you're looking for some opportunities to help them grow, they can be a

00:04:03:23 - 00:04:28:04
Unknown
mentor, you know, to these interns. And so that's another advantage of what they're they're getting out of all of this. You're seeing companies now put people through a rotation where they might get to see two or three or four different jobs while they're there to really help them figure out what is it they want to do. And again, I think for both the company and the individual, that's just a jumpstart done.

00:04:28:05 - 00:04:45:14
Unknown
I thought this is what I wanted, wanted to do. But now that I see what it is, I'm not quite sure that's what I want to do. You know, I think that that really benefits everybody. And I think they're, you know, they're putting them to work a little bit with putting together programs at the end and really demonstrating.

00:04:45:15 - 00:05:05:19
Unknown
Here's what we learned. You know, and these are the things I went through and this is my end of the summer, end of nine months presentation that said, this is what I worked on, this is what I did prove a little bit of the ROI. Why did we have these folks here and what were they up to? So that all of that, I think, you know, feeds into the talent part of it too.

00:05:05:19 - 00:05:31:13
Unknown
And, you know, the talent thinking this time was really kind of a focus on keeping people happy. So, you know, that's one group where it's like, okay, we're trying to keep this group happy because we might want to hire them soon. But the keeping people happy, it was interesting to see, okay, retention is now the big deal. And most of that has to do with what the level of engagement and how happy our employees working for us.

00:05:31:15 - 00:05:53:15
Unknown
And so we just started collecting. All right. You know, what are people doing? What are they up to? And they kind of came fell into a couple of categories. I would say, you know, the personal well-being that when you're doing something for the individual, whether that's, you know, we're offering them a gym membership or we're doing the massage chairs, are, you know, something about, okay, I feel better now.

00:05:53:17 - 00:06:08:08
Unknown
You know, most of us are, you know, self-Thriven by those types of things, like, okay, this this would actually be good for me. This would be great. You know, so I'm going to go do it. So I think you're seeing companies try to figure out what is it that some of our people may want and how do we offer that to them?

00:06:08:10 - 00:06:27:21
Unknown
I think the second big one was, you know, what are the services that people need that they may not know where to go and get? And some of that might be financial planning assistance. That might be I want to do a well, where do I get, you know, legal services? I might need some counseling, where do I go to that for that?

00:06:27:23 - 00:06:47:11
Unknown
And a lot of companies have that in their employee assistance programs. But, you know, people may not know it. And these are all, you know, difficult things in life that if people are having trouble with their finances, are having, you know, trouble trying to figure out some of these things, they bring that to work, too. And so this is, I guess, also a personal wellbeing thing.

00:06:47:11 - 00:07:07:08
Unknown
But it's like, you know, one of the services that people are looking for may not know where to go to get them or they might be incredibly expensive or scary. And if the company can help them find that lawyer or that legal assistance or that financial assistance that just makes their life a little bit easier and makes them a little bit happier.

00:07:07:10 - 00:07:31:06
Unknown
And then rewards was another and, you know, rewards we think about signing bonuses and referral bonuses and that's all great, but just the sum of it is just the Thank you. Is it? You know, here's the cup of coffee. Let's go do this. Like they'll take you to lawn chairs, a gift card or, you know, some gas money, whatever it might be, to just, you know, constantly be trying to think about what are the things that are going to mean something to people.

00:07:31:06 - 00:07:56:02
Unknown
And it doesn't necessarily have to be, you know, tens of thousands of dollars. It might be just recognizing the fact that, you know, you went above and beyond on this and whether it you just you take the time to say thank you or you acknowledge that to their supervisor or, you know, bring them something and put it on their desk and say thank you, that seems to be another one where, again, companies are trying to be more purposeful in trying to do that.

00:07:56:04 - 00:08:12:16
Unknown
And they'd say the last one was just food. And no matter who you're talking to, you know, they'll always say, well, you know, if we bring a food truck around or if we have ice cream sandwiches or if we have a pizza day or, you know, any of those things, it's just an opportunity. And we'll talk about this later, too.

00:08:12:16 - 00:08:31:00
Unknown
But it's a chance for everybody just to get together, to talk with each other, maybe across departments, across plants. And they just get to know each other and it just makes people feel good. So I think, you know, those are all the things that we sort of saw in the you know, if our people are happy, we're happy about doing that.

00:08:31:02 - 00:08:57:07
Unknown
So I can say some of my best conversations at work happen when we're eating the leftover pizza that's sitting out in the cafe. So, yeah, I would definitely agree on that food desk, right? Yeah. Well, you know, and it's amazing because we're all in this routine that, you know, I meet with my department here and then I meet with this department there, and then I go back and I do my work and there may maybe a couple of departments that I have no reason to interact with for any reason whatsoever.

00:08:57:09 - 00:09:19:09
Unknown
But then just bump into them and, you know, you sort of force the conversation and then you've got a couple more people around the office that I share this in common with them. So I'm just trying to make it a more enjoyable place to be. Oh, yeah, I love that. Well, from your from the field section, you've got a 2010 to 2020 overall population change chart.

00:09:19:09 - 00:09:37:20
Unknown
So what can you really see in this chart? Why is this included? Yeah, you know, these are the hard ones on the podcast to say, okay, look, I'm going to throw a thousand numbers at you and just try to keep track of it. But I think there were two things that we were trying to share. You know, one, the first one was, as you mentioned, the overall population change.

00:09:37:20 - 00:09:58:12
Unknown
And I was using our five states Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. And over the last ten years, Minnesota actually grew by about seven and a half percent, which was close to the national average. And so they were sort of holding their own. But Iowa was under 5%. Wisconsin was three and a half. Ohio was a little over two.

00:09:58:14 - 00:10:28:03
Unknown
In Illinois was just barely negative. And the point of that one was just to say, we're not growing in the upper Midwest at a rate that's going to keep up with who we need. And then went on to dig a little bit deeper to say, okay, if I take that same ten year period and I'm looking at 2010 to 2020, let's look at the younger folks, because that's going to give us a pretty good idea of what's going to be coming.

00:10:28:05 - 00:10:56:10
Unknown
So if I look at the under five population, so, you know, this is 15 years from now before to back the workplace, but you've got numbers like -15% in Illinois, minus ten in Wisconsin, minus seven in Ohio, minus six in Iowa, minus four in Minnesota. All of them are negative, meaning they're shrinking in that category. And so as people are starting to plan for the future, they got to start thinking about these things.

00:10:56:12 - 00:11:15:14
Unknown
And even in the 5 to 17 category, Illinois, Ohio and Wisconsin are negative and Iowa and Minnesota are positive, but not at a number that's going to keep up with what's going on. So there is there's this real. Yeah, it's long term and you know, how much time do I want to be spending thinking about this type of thing?

00:11:15:16 - 00:11:38:00
Unknown
But, you know, it's going to be a big deal and we're going to have to, you know, track it and and see what's going to happen. So the aging thing was part of it. And then on the other end of the aging part is the percentage of growth in the people over the age of 65. In all, five of our states are in the 30 and 40% in Minnesota, in Wisconsin.

00:11:38:00 - 00:12:03:08
Unknown
So 40% growth in the people over the age of 65. While you're saying we have negative some number in the under five. So that's not good and people are going to have to start thinking about that. So that was the first point that we were trying to make from the Census Bureau data. And then the second one is just the incredible change in ethnicity that's going to be happening in our five states.

00:12:03:08 - 00:12:39:01
Unknown
And again, if you look at the population over the age of 65, other than Illinois, in Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin, that the index for that in the index is really just if I randomly grabbed two people in Wisconsin, what are the chances that they will be of two different ethnic backgrounds for that over 65 group. All of our states are in like the 15 to 18% range, meaning there's an 80% chance that you're probably going to grab two people that are Caucasian, that, you know, came from somewhere in Europe.

00:12:39:03 - 00:13:04:21
Unknown
So that's what's moving out 65, 84. But then when you start looking at the under five, everybody is at at least 50%. So we're moving from 16% to 50%, meaning now there's a 5050 chance that if you grab two people, one will probably still be white, but one's going to be something else. So that's a pretty big change to go from 15% to 60%.

00:13:04:23 - 00:13:27:01
Unknown
And I think, you know, this is now going to be the next couple of generations that are going to flip this whole thing. But you're going to see very different upper Midwest states over the course of the next 15 to 20 years, because the and this is the ethnicity of everyone is going to change dramatically. So as we're just trying to help companies what their long term thinking, you know, one is we got a whole group of people that are getting older.

00:13:27:01 - 00:13:41:23
Unknown
What are you going to do about that? And then you're going to have a whole group of people that are not going to be quite as homogeneous as they have been in the past. And so how are you going to assimilate them? How are you going to help them with whatever their cultural issues are? How are you going to prepare your communities and your company for that?

00:13:42:00 - 00:13:59:24
Unknown
So nothing is going to get easier, I think as we go forward, it's just going to get a little bit more complicated. Well, I know we can't see the chart that you explained, but you did a heck of a job by giving us the main points. I feel like I can see the chart right here. What we're getting, we're getting old and we're getting more diverse.

00:13:59:24 - 00:14:25:01
Unknown
So there there's the chart for you in a nutshell. So how about in terms of C-suite level? What what are some top of mind topics going on here? Well, we heard a lot about in the last month through the roundtables and just from meetings with members is there's a real focus right now on what's the financial acumen of the people that are running our lines of business, those running our facilities.

00:14:25:01 - 00:14:45:10
Unknown
And I think, you know, historically it's always been, well, the accountants and the CFO will take care of the financial stuff, and I'm just going to be out here doing my job and now as as things have gotten more technical, as they've gotten more modernized, there are a lot of tools that are available to every single line of business leader and plant manager.

00:14:45:10 - 00:15:08:12
Unknown
And from a CEO's point of view, I think there's now this question of are we getting as much as we can out of that? And so are they taking responsibility for their own line of business and the decisions that they're making and what that financial impact might be. So rather than just having the CFO come back and say, Hey, you're up or you're down, and what happened, they should know the answer before the CFO does.

00:15:08:12 - 00:15:32:02
Unknown
They should know where they're at. And so they're spending time providing learning and development opportunities for sort of the accounting for the non accountants, helping them understand, you know, what does it mean when I, you know, amortize things over a certain period of time or how is a capital expense different than a regular expense so that they better understand the decisions they're making and what the impact of that is going to be.

00:15:32:04 - 00:15:52:01
Unknown
And then all of us have more tools available to us. You know, we have Salesforce at at Mirror. It can do all kinds of things in terms of, you know, what's the incoming business look like, What's the last month look like? Can we compare year to year, month to month, last three months, all that kind of stuff. But not a lot of people are always using it.

00:15:52:01 - 00:16:15:08
Unknown
And so how do we get them to better understand it and then take advantage of these tools that we've invested in so that they know when I make this decision, it's going to have this sort of impact on the bottom line of my line of business. So the whole financial thing I think is really becoming an added responsibility for those who have some income and expense related responsibilities.

00:16:15:10 - 00:16:38:16
Unknown
In Emory's internal leadership program. Actually, we do a finance for the non financial leader topic there, and the feedback on that one was it was actually some of the interns favorite topic, which is very interesting and some were even like I'm a marketing major, but now I kind of want to move over to finance. So they know just they know just enough to be dangerous now.

00:16:38:17 - 00:17:01:22
Unknown
Oh yeah, You know, but you think of all of those people that are going into their first job and, you know, if they were in marketing or if they were in human resources or they were in communications, the odds of them having had an accounting class, you know, of any kind other than maybe in general, you know, checkbook writing and not any more debit card using, you know, class in high school.

00:17:01:22 - 00:17:24:09
Unknown
That's probably about it. And so to be able to go in and even understand financial statements probably puts them in a well ahead of of an awful lot of people. Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's also been a lot of talk in takeover of A.I. and that's only going to continue to grow. So any creative strategies here or how are companies using A.I.?

00:17:24:11 - 00:17:50:09
Unknown
Yeah, you know, I think A.I. and the Chatbot and all that sort of snuck up on everybody and all of a sudden, you know, really hit the news in about November. And then all of a sudden everyone had, you know, access to it. And, you know, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. So I think what what companies are trying to do now is have training opportunities for their people to bring in folks who know something about it, to say, you know, here are the goods and here's of that.

00:17:50:10 - 00:18:08:22
Unknown
But here are the bads and here's how you can use this. And here what you might want to be careful of. And so we're starting to see that type of training so people understand, you know, yes, you can go into Chad GPT and you can ask a question and it'll give you information back in. The information that comes back is as good as the information that it's searching in.

00:18:08:24 - 00:18:32:17
Unknown
So you can't just put the question and get the answer and send it out to a thousand of your clients saying, Hey, look at this. You still got to add that human element that says, you know, let's look into this. And companies that are a little nervous that if people are putting a lot of information in there when they're asking their question, are they putting in some company information so that their question is a little more detailed, But now that information is being fed in?

00:18:32:23 - 00:18:49:20
Unknown
And so that's sort of out there now. And so that causes them to have some caution. So I think people are trying to figure out and that how do we use it to maybe Yeah, it's a great starting point to say I'm trying to put together this presentation on X and I ask some questions and it gives me some resources.

00:18:49:20 - 00:19:06:09
Unknown
Fan tastic. It saved me all kinds of time and now I can start digging into things on earth if I think I can just say, Hey, write me a speech and give it back to me and I'm going to go out and give it. You know, that might be asking a little bit too much. So I think right now people are really sort of finding their way.

00:19:06:09 - 00:19:23:20
Unknown
Most companies have a couple of people that are out there like trying it and sharing their knowledge with other people. But I think the companies themselves, the employers are really just trying to, you know, where, you know, do we put a stop to this? Do we figure out how to use it in our best interest? Should we be going crazy with it?

00:19:23:20 - 00:19:43:12
Unknown
They're trying to find where they fit in all of that and everybody's scrambling pretty quickly because I think it came up, you know, we all knew it was coming, but all sudden it just came in. So how about any other creativity? Anything else you're seeing in this category? The two other ones that came up this month, one was just on team building.

00:19:43:12 - 00:20:16:02
Unknown
And this kind of goes back to that the food comment that we had a little bit ago. And that is, you know, how do we create opportunities for people to interact? And food does that, you know, I mean, people come in and whoever your next to in line as you're walking through, you have a conversation with. So things like that trying to come up with maybe, you know cross-functional team activities where they come up with a problem to be solved and you grab two groups of people that maybe don't have to work together and let's put them together and they get a chance to to, you know, to meet some other people, especially with a

00:20:16:02 - 00:20:48:15
Unknown
lot of the remote workers. How do we do some fun things online? You know, how do you do a treasure hunt online or how do you have prices online? Or does it start with let's all share a recipe, just things to get people to interact a little bit and make it a little bit more personal. And so you're seeing all kinds of you know, companies are there's always walking groups at lunch and there's, you know, book clubs and now there's some that go out and get e-bikes at lunchtime and take a ride, you know, But they're all they're trying to encourage people to, you know, go find different opportunities to meet with maybe some different

00:20:48:15 - 00:21:12:20
Unknown
people and, you know, build some teamwork that way. And then the other one is still the mental health thing and, you know, how do you help employees get through everything they're are going through? And one of the interesting ideas we got from one of our members was they have what they've called mental health champions. And these are folks that, you know, have been trained by the HR department in the offerings that they have.

00:21:12:20 - 00:21:35:11
Unknown
They're not mental health experts are not counseling people, but they know what is our EAP offer, What do we have to offer within the company? Who are people that you can call to get further assistance? And they share information and, you know, the start of a staff meeting or a department meeting and say, hey, just a reminder, I'm one of our mental health champions and we have these available to you if anybody's needing any help.

00:21:35:12 - 00:21:59:11
Unknown
Don't be afraid to, you know, to reach out. So they're just trying to keep on, I think, top of mind for people so that they don't forget we have these resources if you need them. Oh, yeah, that's a great idea. So like we mentioned, Kimberly Emery's round table manager also made an appearance on this month's report webinar, and she gave a lot of great information on top topics and concerns for HR

00:21:59:11 - 00:22:21:16
Unknown
Professionals, c-suite executives, and more. So could you give us a little bit of an overview on some of this information starting out with the senior HR Top ten topics for 2010. This is sort of and this is almost like the the data like. All right, keep track of these. Here come the test. Yeah. Run them down. You know, in my best.

00:22:21:18 - 00:22:40:17
Unknown
David letterman top ten. I'll try to lay them out there for people. Yeah. So this was interesting because we did a couple of things, you know, one is we started with, okay, what's of interest? And we have, you know, 80, 90 roundtables, 1200 people in them. And, you know, so we're always trying to figure out what's on people's minds.

00:22:40:17 - 00:22:57:23
Unknown
And so from the senior HR People, the top ten were first of all, was trends in HR and that makes sense. They're just trying to make sure they're staying up on what's going on. Culture was number two. And how do you build it and how do you, you know, make sure that you're creating a place that people want to be a part of.

00:22:58:00 - 00:23:19:11
Unknown
Leadership was three. I think some of this is the emerging leaders. This is the lot of people retiring and people moving up behind them. And how do we make sure that they're prepared, The business climate and the impact on staffing after everybody came through 2022, you know, and it was just higher, higher, higher, higher. And we still there.

00:23:19:11 - 00:23:39:15
Unknown
What do we need to do? HR Leadership and what's their role? You know, how do they be at the table when the strategic planning is taking place and things like that related to the leadership. Number six was emerging leaders and high potentials. How do we take those best people that we've got and keep them engaged and make sure that they want to continue to work with us?

00:23:39:17 - 00:24:01:03
Unknown
Communicating wages and benefits again after 2022 and everybody, you know, money was going here, there and everywhere else. And now it's like, okay, we can't do that forever. And now, you know, we don't if we've got this expectation of, hey, I'm going to get 10%, this is going to be great, you know, that's not sustainable. And so how do we communicate that information related to that?

00:24:01:03 - 00:24:22:17
Unknown
Number eight was benefit trends. What are companies doing? What are they changing? What might they be offering that they think is going to get people more engaged with what they're doing? Number nine, with strategic planning and business planning and number ten with workforce planning and talent management shortage. So for the HR People, there's probably nothing there that's surprising.

00:24:22:17 - 00:24:52:01
Unknown
They're all huge. And that's sort of why you have an HR Feel that people that are kind of stressed out right now, i think. How about some topics that are on top of mind of just executives in general right now? Yeah. And the executives side of things. The top five were strategic planning, engagement and retention. HR Compliance, performance management and recruiting and hiring.

00:24:52:03 - 00:25:14:05
Unknown
So that was interesting in that if we compare the top five, this is just from this year now benefits recruiting and hiring, strategic planning, engagement and retention, organizational development for the minds of the professionals. There's not a whole lot of difference between the two. A little bit different use of words, maybe a little bit different level on some things.

00:25:14:07 - 00:25:37:22
Unknown
But the strategic planning shows up on both the recruiting and hiring signs shows up on both the engagement and retention shows up on both. So they're on the same page, I think, as they try to to go forward. Yeah. And then you also explained or Kimberly explained and compared 2018 to 2023 with these topics. So can you compare some of the executive and senior HR

00:25:37:22 - 00:26:05:24
Unknown
Discussions from yeah, this this was almost comical when you think about it. You know, the we were just looking at 2018, which would have been just before the pandemic and then what people were looking for this year and i think the c-suite ones were the most interesting. And I think back because I have a couple of ceo and CFO roundtables of, you know, what we were talking about in 2018, and the top three were finding talent and looking at the nontraditional workforce.

00:26:06:05 - 00:26:25:11
Unknown
And that one that's kind of the same. It's changed a little bit and it's had a little bit of panic put into it with the pandemic. But that was the same. But then the next two from 2018 one was the experience economy appealing to consumers. And you probably were you were still in college at that point, I think.

00:26:25:13 - 00:26:46:17
Unknown
But there was this big push in 2018 that everything was going to be about an experience that your product had to be about, an experience it had to like just engulf people, like they weren't going to forget it. Companies are starting to look at giving away experiences as bonus. That is like, Here's $1,000, go on a vacation, you know, some exotic island.

00:26:46:17 - 00:27:10:04
Unknown
But everything was about experience. And I just as I look at that now, that was 2018, and within a year or so we were locked down for two years, you know, So all that talk of an experience economy and then we all go into our homes and don't come out for two years. I don't think I've heard the words experience economy ever since, you know, so that one just sort of left.

00:27:10:06 - 00:27:29:24
Unknown
And we've been having all of these discussions because prior to the pandemic, things had sort of been chugging along. And, you know, we had the Great Recession in 2000, seven, 2008, but we had ten years of, hey, things are going pretty well here. And we were having discussions at the sea level around what's going to be the next biggest disruptor.

00:27:30:01 - 00:27:53:12
Unknown
And if anybody had pandemic on their bingo card, I would give them, you know, they win the prize for predicting that one. But, you know, we're talking about all kinds of things, but none of them had absolutely anything to do with the pandemic. So we go from that five years ago to now planning for growth with economic uncertainty, you know, which is the exact opposite of where we were five years ago.

00:27:53:14 - 00:28:13:23
Unknown
And learning from the unexpected and the impact on future planning, that five year period changed the way everybody thinks about everything. You know, no one's doing strategic plans now five years out, some even three years out, they're doing it one or two years, and they're reviewing every quarter because the world is just changing so much and there's so much at play.

00:28:13:23 - 00:28:36:23
Unknown
So it was just an interesting exercise for everyone to look at. What were you talking about just five years ago and where are those things now? They've they've sort of all disappeared. Yeah, I was going to say interesting to see the difference between the two. Definitely. Yeah. So that was that was actually kind of funny. We had some people, you know, on the chat checking, engineering.

00:28:37:00 - 00:28:57:04
Unknown
Wow. That something. Yeah. And then from the h r point of view, five years ago it was active shooters, you know, and everyone was being trained in that and it was also the MeToo movement. And you know, again, those two years that followed that, you know, not that you mean the shootings have certainly continued and that continues to be a big issue.

00:28:57:06 - 00:29:33:11
Unknown
The MeToo movement is still there. But when you think those things were like all encompassing until the pandemic hit, and then it was, you know, wow, we're in a different world now and everything was focused on that. It does feel like a different world now. Well, well, as we kind of wrap up here, I've always got to ask you, can you give us a sneak peek on August report And the topic again, we're going to be looking at diversity, equity and inclusion next month, and we're going to be finding some best practices from companies, you know, finding companies that maybe, you know, how did you start it?

00:29:33:11 - 00:29:52:16
Unknown
How did you get to where you are right now? And even some of those that are very advanced, how are they measuring it? How do they know that it's something that they really want to be doing? And that'll probably lead into a little bit of discussion on all of the ESG things where companies are having to look at their environmental, social and governance governance responsibilities.

00:29:52:16 - 00:30:10:05
Unknown
So I think it would be sort of interesting because that's driving a lot of things in HR right now that that ESG, where it's what is our corporate social responsibility policy? What are we doing about that? How are we proving it? So I think we should have some some pretty interesting information for you next month, too. So awesome.

00:30:10:05 - 00:30:33:02
Unknown
Thanks. I'm looking forward to that. Thanks for being on the podcast. Today. We shared a lot of fascinating information, so I would encourage our listeners to comment. The most interesting or valuable piece of information you learned today or any current trends or topics that you've been seeing in our world currently. Don't forget to share this episode. Consider joining MRA if you aren't a member already.

00:30:33:04 - 00:30:55:09
Unknown
We have all the resources you need in the show notes below, including the resources to report plus or otherwise. Thank you for tuning in today and we will see you next week. And that wraps up our content for this episode. Be sure to reference the show notes where you can sign up to connect for more podcast updates, check out other MRA episodes on your favorite podcast platform.

00:30:55:10 - 00:31:05:02
Unknown
And as always, make sure to follow MRA's 30 minutes Thrive so you don't miss out. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next Wednesday to carry on the conversation.