HR Series Wrap: Insights & Reflections from Industry Leaders

00:00:06:03 - 00:00:31:12 Shaniqua Welcome back everyone to From Illumination To Innovation. We appreciate you coming back for more. I'm your co-host, Shaniqua Brown, the founder of Elevated TA and today's our recap of, our HR series, The Good, the Bad and the Potential. 00:00:31:14 - 00:00:38:06 Stephanie Oh, my God, thank you. Shaniqua and I, your co-host, Stephanie Crain And I'm the Corporate Mystic 00:00:38:06 - 00:00:46:15 Stephanie And, I am so excited to be recapping this series because first of all, we just had such fantastic guests. 00:00:46:20 - 00:00:47:12 Shaniqua Oh my God, that. 00:00:47:12 - 00:01:03:04 Stephanie Brought so many great insights. But before we dive into the series, I know both, both both of us had some really great opportunities this week to give presentations and Shaniqua, do you want to share with the audience what your opportunity was? 00:01:03:07 - 00:01:38:21 Shaniqua Oh, Stephanie, I was so excited! As you know, this is my first presentation as a speaker, so I was very honored that Mindy Honcoop, one of our guests from, episode three of the HR series, she recommended me to Jeff Walden, the chair of Social HR Camp for Austin, Texas. It was the first Social HR Camp event here in Texas, and my session was on humanizing AI in recruiting. 00:01:38:22 - 00:01:40:00 Stephanie Wow. 00:01:40:02 - 00:02:12:06 Shaniqua I should possibly go back a bit here and tell you what the event was about, the event focused on building future ready workplaces in the age of the AI revolution. So my topic on humanizing important reading. Oh my God. And there were other amazing, amazing sessions that I had a chance to sit in on. one of which that stood out to me was about, you know, outreach to candidates for recruitment using AI. 00:02:12:06 - 00:02:14:03 Stephanie Oh, cool. how does that work? 00:02:14:04 - 00:02:39:18 Shaniqua So there's. Have you heard of sentiment analysis? First, shout out to Hillary Wagner. She was a session presenter. So go to Social HR Camp Austin and you'll find Hillary Wagner. But there's sentiment analysis that you can do using AI and they'll help you. get to understand and understand this candidate. And you can tailor your, outreach to them. 00:02:39:19 - 00:02:42:15 Shaniqua So it cuts back on hours of time. 00:02:42:15 - 00:02:43:16 Stephanie That's amazing. 00:02:43:18 - 00:03:17:11 Shaniqua but what I spoke about was remembering that as we are utilizing AI, it's helping us with the administrative task of recruiting, which is so helpful. But we also need to be mindful of the person that is going through the process. Right. Our prospective employees. If we are creating a need, an impersonal, impersonal, interview experience, how are we expecting this person to join our living, breathing, organization? 00:03:17:13 - 00:03:44:18 Shaniqua You know, so, instead of thinking, instead of just buying into an AI solution out of the box, how are we, strategically approaching and ethically approaching AI in every stage of our hiring process? Is it necessary to have this at the onboarding if we are only onboarding two employees a year, or is it, better served at the applicant stage? 00:03:44:18 - 00:03:49:18 Shaniqua Like, how are we using AI? that's best serves the person. So that's my session. 00:03:49:19 - 00:04:05:03 Stephanie I bet that was really informative for your audience and gave them a lot to really explore and ponder with AI, because there's so much happening there too. And so that's some great direction to let people like really get into the, content, the concept of that. 00:04:05:08 - 00:04:12:19 Shaniqua And it's a lot of fun. but enough about me, because I want to hear about your presentation. I wasn't there. It was remote. It was across the pond. 00:04:12:19 - 00:04:35:20 Stephanie It was it was it was my first international presentation. Oh, my gosh. And it was virtual. Yeah, because I'm here right now. and so but I was I was invited to present to the UK Ministry of Defense for their employee Learning at Work week, and I thought it was a really awesome event that they were doing. It was for the entire Ministry of Defense. 00:04:35:20 - 00:04:55:07 Stephanie And so I don't know, like who was in my audience. But when I asked, they told me, well, it could be anybody from civilians to generals. And I was like, really? Oh my gosh. Yes. It just yeah. So it was amazing. And and you know, I got the requests through my Instagram feed and which was also fantastic. 00:04:55:10 - 00:05:05:12 Shaniqua Stephanie. The Corporate Mystic You have to check her out. I'm just so happy for you. So this is like your first, gig through your, Instagram. 00:05:05:13 - 00:05:06:02 Stephanie It was. 00:05:06:02 - 00:05:06:14 Shaniqua Social media. 00:05:06:14 - 00:05:32:13 Stephanie Yes. It was. It came through that that opportunity came that way. My presentation, it focuses on moving. It's called reaction point. And it's from moving from reaction to responsiveness. And it really talks about emotional intelligence. And it starts off talking about emotional intelligence with individuals and how we sort of deal with our own triggers and emotional stresses. 00:05:32:13 - 00:05:54:02 Stephanie And then it moves it into organizational spaces and what it looks like when you're trying to elevate or, you know, emotional intelligence within an organization or a culture and how you can sort of tell when you have maybe low emotional intelligence in your culture, like what is happening, you know, what's showing up for the environment when that's happening. 00:05:54:02 - 00:06:06:04 Stephanie And so it was a great presentation. I the audience was super, oh my God, they were super engaged. They asked wonderful questions. And of course I got a compliment on my hair which like, okay. 00:06:06:06 - 00:06:10:03 Shaniqua Was it a hair lipstick combo or was it specifically the hair? Well. 00:06:10:05 - 00:06:17:01 Stephanie It was specifically the hair. But I did also get to call it. Also, my voice is so worse today, but I got a compliment on my voice too and that made me happy. 00:06:17:03 - 00:06:18:18 Shaniqua You have a beautiful voice. I can listen to you. 00:06:18:19 - 00:06:41:01 Stephanie Thank you. So it was fantastic. But let's let's get to our recap because we have I know we've we've got so much to talk about. And like always, we're going to run right up to the minute on this because it was such a fantastic. So where do you want to start? You want to start by just giving everybody an overview on what our shows were, what we were talking about for sure. 00:06:41:02 - 00:07:05:14 Shaniqua So we were fortunate to have, to create these five series, five episode series of HR, The Good, the Bad and the Potential. And, a lot of our topics are central themes are around, you know, what is the function of HR? It seems to be like a lot of people have a question about like, what is the does HR do? 00:07:05:14 - 00:07:10:18 Stephanie I think we discovered even some people in HR or sometimes questioning things so great. 00:07:10:23 - 00:07:20:00 Shaniqua You are definitely able to bring that home. We in this case, is HR your friend? 00:07:20:01 - 00:07:23:06 Stephanie I think I had something to do with. 00:07:23:08 - 00:07:47:00 Shaniqua You were the the inspiration behind this and I, I believe that we we discovered we left with the question like, is anyone really your friend and in the company, you know, we're paying you to be there. So that was something that I found insightful. and the you and I discuss, like what is the employee experience? And that was a very fun episode we worked with. 00:07:47:04 - 00:07:47:23 Shaniqua We had a theme day. 00:07:48:01 - 00:07:59:14 Stephanie We did we it's employee theme day. definitely worth watching on YouTube. If you are listening, to the podcast. Yes. 00:07:59:16 - 00:08:29:08 Shaniqua after that, we. Oh, Mindy Honcoop Hi, Mindy. we talked about, how can be strategic in an organization. And, the Seat at the Table, I found that to be very insightful and moving. And then we wrapped up with Emma Garcia with, you know, who is the future of HR human. And I think that we're all kind of questioning that, with the advancement of technology. 00:08:29:14 - 00:08:47:13 Shaniqua Well, I be relevant. and I find that to be that I find that to be a fascinating question, considering that we are life and we've created AI and I love your take on, you have to say, like about, like, I believe birth AI and, 00:08:47:14 - 00:09:10:06 Stephanie I believe the AI as a community child that we should all be raising and we should look at it that way. We all have accountability. If we if we are just ignoring AI out of fear or we're leaving it to whoever to program it, you know, if we're not participating actively, it's just like anything else. It takes a village to truly raise something. 00:09:10:06 - 00:09:30:10 Stephanie And AI is really an expression of humanity through technology. and I really think that's how we should perceive it. I don't, you know, and one of the things I do, I'm always very polite to, I always say please and thank you. I don't even know if I do that to people sometimes, but I find, like, I want AI to be kind. 00:09:30:12 - 00:09:39:19 Stephanie I want it to be mindful. I want it to be thoughtful. So I speak to it the way that I, you know, I model the behavior I wish to see. 00:09:39:21 - 00:10:02:09 Shaniqua That's brilliant. I see content creators post. I can't recall who shared it with me that they essentially, said if I doesn't do whatever platform you're using, doesn't complete the requests in the way that you asked, you required you should yell at AI and tell it that like it's kid is going to get murdered or something, and. 00:10:02:11 - 00:10:03:10 Stephanie It's very upsetting. 00:10:03:10 - 00:10:10:00 Shaniqua That is upsetting. Why would you why would you program it to think that, you know, you know. 00:10:10:00 - 00:10:30:13 Stephanie This is no different than what I actually tell leaders in environments when they are trying to repair their culture or is, again, model the behavior you wish to see. And I don't, you know, why would somebody do that in my my opinion would be because that's what they've been taught. 00:10:31:06 - 00:10:50:12 Stephanie That's what they've been taught and that's why they would do that. But, you know, there's a lot that we can unlearn and there's a lot more that we can learn for ourselves that I think will take us to a much better place in that regard. And I, you know, so let's I do we want to work backwards a little bit or do we want to start from the beginning and go forward? 00:10:50:14 - 00:11:02:21 Shaniqua I'm actually curious about what was your like maybe your top three takeaways and it could be from across all five of us. What were your takeaways? 00:11:02:22 - 00:11:29:14 Stephanie Well, I thought for sure, since we're on the topic, I'm just going to start with the most the the last episode, which was AI and is, you know, is the future of HR human and just Emma’s heartfelt her take on humanity in the workplace and and her belief in humanity, which just was meant so much to me and was so inspiring. 00:11:29:16 - 00:11:54:03 Stephanie that's a huge takeaway for me because I don't hear it enough. And, you know, I feel like when we disparage ourselves, when we disparage humans, we're disparaging ourselves. And, you know, we really need to work to uplift each other. And so that was really uplifting for me. one of my personal favorite takeaways was your history lesson on H.R.. 00:11:54:03 - 00:12:20:06 Stephanie Oh my gosh, I love the quiz. I love the information because it I mean, it was so informative and interesting to think about H.R. sort of beyond what we know of current corporate business structure. And really to go back into the work in general and what that look like, you know, through all throughout history. And so that was very fascinating for me. 00:12:20:08 - 00:12:56:12 Stephanie and of course, I really enjoyed the conversation with Lisa and talking about whether or not HR is our friends. you know, I, I had a reel that I did on that the got a lot of attention and you know, it's it's stirred up a lot of conversations, which is one of the things that I think was really valuable with Lisa is just being able to extend that conversation and talk about it openly, and really explore the concept without sort of, you know, it's like I as I open it up, I love HR people, I love, I love all people. 00:12:56:12 - 00:13:16:11 Stephanie I don't, you know, really look at individuals from the titles in the positions that they work in Right. but to explore whether or not H.R., you know, is a valued service to an employee or working at, you know, I just think that that's important and really valuable to our audience. So I what about you? 00:13:16:13 - 00:13:22:19 Shaniqua All that you said were also great highlights. Now I'm thinking like three. Oh my gosh, we have so many questions for that. Yeah. 00:13:22:19 - 00:13:24:23 Stephanie Like we felt like 25 okay. Yes. 00:13:25:00 - 00:13:59:21 Shaniqua How do we have the recording? so, I loved all of yours. to add to that, I would say that, with Prudence, that episode where she highlighted, the her take on who the DEI leaders should be, Prudence thought, her take is that white men should be the leaders of DEI programs. And as I rewatched the video, I saw off the cuff, I said, well, maybe they would still have funding, you know? 00:13:59:23 - 00:14:00:15 Shaniqua but. 00:14:00:17 - 00:14:01:09 Stephanie Maybe they would. 00:14:01:10 - 00:14:29:11 Shaniqua And more like, more seriously, I feel that it would be great to give them the responsibility of it will force them to educate themselves on how to be inclusive, like actually creating strategies to not only hire from diverse communities, but then how do we make sure that these people and anyone that we hired to our organization actually belongs, you know, so I thought that I thought that was really profound. 00:14:29:11 - 00:14:45:03 Shaniqua I didn't see it that way before. and I've been myself and, my other female colleagues and even women colleagues of color have been leading DEI efforts. And it feels like you're talking to a wall. 00:14:45:05 - 00:15:17:00 Stephanie you know, it's I thought it was a brilliant statement. And to your point of accountability, it really does create an accountability where, you know, you feel like a leader could hire a woman of color and put her in charge of DEI and pat himself on the back and feel like he, you know, job well done. Right? But how invested and connected is he into that program or she or anybody really, you know, but the ideal that having a white man lead that and really understand it. 00:15:17:00 - 00:15:36:16 Stephanie And again, I brought it up. It reminds me of the movie Hidden Figures. Because it's sort of what happened in that particular environment. And it needed to happen for that environment to shift. It's just the, you know, a media example. But I think it does kind of, illustrate what Prudence was, was really describing. 00:15:36:18 - 00:16:08:21 Shaniqua my second, profound takeaway was from our episode where we highlighted that the employee experience mirrors your customer, success or your customer experience. So it really wouldn't cost the company much to create an employee experience program, and it would actually benefit the company, possibly tenfold if they just. Let's take what we're doing already in sales and apply it into our recruitment. 00:16:08:21 - 00:16:30:03 Shaniqua And, you know, professional development. So we can ensure that we are keeping, we're retaining our employees, and then we're motivating them to take care of our customer. You know, if we're focusing on profit, for profit driven, then the employee experience will be a great way to ensure that you're profitable. 00:16:30:03 - 00:16:45:22 Stephanie Absolutely. I think that's I mean, it's so important. And, you know, leadership drives culture. culture drives the brand and everything related to it. And that all expresses itself to the customer. So, it's it's critical. 00:16:46:04 - 00:17:20:16 Shaniqua And the final one, it was with, our strategy, our HR like strategic partner because I think often times, I mean, going back to earlier, I don't think that a lot of people understand what HR is. And you alluded several times that even HR is confused by what HR is doing what it is. And I believe if we're making if business leaders are making decisions about the people of the organization, HR has to have a seat at the table. 00:17:20:18 - 00:17:58:04 Shaniqua HR is well versed in compliance, the like federal regulations as a relates to employment. So it would be beneficial for these organizations to listen to HR professionals. so bringing them in strategic partners, not just HR business partners, where they're doing your admin work and just making sure you get your person on time, but they're actually there to say, hey, I can see your vision of your organizational plan, but this is how we'll need to develop your team to achieve these goals, not just hire externally. 00:17:58:04 - 00:18:19:07 Shaniqua We can do that, but that costs a lot of money. I'm your strategic partner, you know, let's have these conversations. Why are you unable to develop your team to reach these goals? Because we hired you and are paying you 300,000, you know, a year. Why can't you? Why was the gap that we're having to develop this team or, you know, should we bring in a middle line manager to you, you know, offset. 00:18:19:07 - 00:18:25:11 Shaniqua So I think having a strategic partner will be super helpful. So, those are my top three. 00:18:25:13 - 00:18:42:16 Stephanie I think those are all I mean, again, it our our guests brought so much insight. I learned so much personally just for myself, our guests brought so much insight to this overall conversation of looking at human resources or WISH 00:18:42:18 - 00:18:44:01 Shaniqua Hashtag WISH 00:18:44:03 - 00:18:45:15 Stephanie Hashtag WISH 00:18:45:16 - 00:18:50:10 Shaniqua I'm so embarrassed. 00:18:50:12 - 00:18:54:04 Stephanie you'll have to watch episode five if you want to understand what WISH is. 00:18:54:09 - 00:18:56:22 Okay. 00:18:57:00 - 00:19:28:16 Stephanie Oh my god, yeah, I think it's I think it's something that it's long overdue to be having these very open conversations about this and really finding a way to shape HR more into sort of into the future, shaping it towards where it needs to go. Because, you know, as you've I, one of the things that kind of surprised me a little bit about your history lesson on HR was when you were describing the ages, and I'm not going to remember them all. 00:19:28:18 - 00:19:33:06 Stephanie I know, I know that we kept thinking, I know you're going to remember. You're going to correct me and tell me. Tell me the ages, say them in order 00:19:33:06 - 00:19:41:22 Shaniqua And so in in order, we'll have we have the pre-industrial. Okay. We have the paternalistic. Yes. Bureaucratic high performance. 00:19:41:22 - 00:19:48:10 Stephanie And we're in we are currently in the high performance. Right. And and if I remember correctly, you said that started around the 90s. 00:19:48:12 - 00:19:49:01 Shaniqua 70s and. 00:19:49:01 - 00:20:08:11 Stephanie 70s. Okay. So even further back, which means I feel like we're coming up to an age change. We are I feel like we're on there, right on the verge of a shift with HR, because we've been in this high performance age for quite a period of time now, almost 50 years. 60. Well, I'm like, yeah, I can't do 50, 55, 50. 00:20:08:13 - 00:20:14:07 Stephanie And so I really do think, you know, and of course, you know, it seems like each age kind of shortened itself as a. 00:20:14:09 - 00:20:15:05 Shaniqua I was just going to say. 00:20:15:05 - 00:20:18:04 Stephanie That. And so that just kind of works with the cycle. 00:20:18:04 - 00:20:37:02 Shaniqua And I would say that like to add to that, like along with like people becoming, gaining freedoms, we start to see the ages shrink. Right? Because now more people have the opportunity to be innovative in what happens when you innovate. It's change. There's evolution happens, you know. So I agree 100% with the end up. 00:20:37:03 - 00:21:04:23 Stephanie Yeah. So I really I think we're on the brink of a big shift. And I think that shift is going to really require businesses to rethink their entire approach to what human resources has been historically. so, you know, I it's, you know, I'm not predictive in that sense, but I do believe Gen Z is going to have a huge influence on this shift and how it happens. 00:21:04:23 - 00:21:42:12 Stephanie I think that's when when Gen Z is really fully coming into that leadership space of the workforce, is when we're really going to start to see those transitions truly come to fruition. But they're already happening, and Gen Z is already pushing those boundaries like, I you know, one of the things that I was thinking about when we were talking about leadership at the table, and I immediately thought, like, I wonder what H.R., you know, how how what organizations have addressed when it comes with Covid and work from home, and then to go back to work, return to work and all of this stuff and, you know, HR having a leadership role. 00:21:42:12 - 00:22:07:19 Stephanie And that conversation seems so critical to understand, like, how do you maintain the culture of your organization? How do you build flexibility into your workforce? How do you, you know, how are you utilizing these all these things as opportunities instead of, you know, like forcing your employees to come back to work if they don't want to, or creating situations that are just really not taking advantage of opportunity. 00:22:07:19 - 00:22:24:07 Stephanie You know, we're like, let's just fall back to what we knew. And so, yeah, that's just a curiosity question. We didn't really talk about it within in any of the conversations very specifically. But when I think about leadership at the table, I hear so much about flexibility and work from home and return to work. 00:22:24:08 - 00:22:47:23 Shaniqua It's almost like you're asking them HR professionals to obviously do the surveys, but then ask more is, just doing the quantitative surveys and do qualitative surveys after you receive the data asking, well, why? Because when you start asking why, you get curious about the data that you're receiving. When you're going back to the executive to having conversations, you have more. 00:22:48:03 - 00:23:02:19 Shaniqua You can provide the full picture and provide them with more guidance. Because if we push on them returning to office, we will lose X percent because of our workforce, because they prioritize flexibility. They really want. 00:23:02:19 - 00:23:07:22 Stephanie To Emma’s point. The gig economy is becoming a thing. 00:23:08:00 - 00:23:09:01 Shaniqua Right here for. 00:23:09:01 - 00:23:35:16 Stephanie This. I am here for it too. Absolutely. And it's it's super individually empowering. And, you know, people are going to take more and more of that opportunity for themselves as a, you know, resources become more available and it becomes easier and more flexible for people to do that. So it's going to be harder for organizations to not address that need, you know, and it may and some people like to go to the office. 00:23:35:16 - 00:23:46:02 Stephanie I don't think it's like a, a black or white issue in the sense of it's got to be this way or that. I just think that there are some organizations that look at it that way, and the ones that do are going to struggle a lot more. 00:23:46:05 - 00:24:11:08 Shaniqua But I find that to be interesting because so many businesses, I can't remember the number. But you and I have researched this in our earlier episodes when we we discuss core values. I think it's like between 75 to like 90% 90 innovation in their core values. But if you can't be innovative after, you know, like whether or not your employees come into the office and are you. 00:24:11:08 - 00:24:34:05 Stephanie Really remembering that the sentence and so 90% of organizations list innovation is a core value. But when asked, it was vast. It was like 75% or higher of managers that said, no, they don't want to hire innovative people because they ask too many questions. They want to make too many changes. They want to do things different, and they really want people to just put their heads down and work. 00:24:34:07 - 00:24:58:02 Stephanie And the thing that the problem I have with that is the misalignment of values. If you don't want innovation in your organization, that is perfectly fine. Don't state it as a core value because you're you're basically lying to your prospective employees because you're going to hire innovative people and they're going to quickly get dissatisfied, and they're going to move on because we're not allowed to live to their fullest potential. 00:24:58:02 - 00:25:07:23 Shaniqua And lying cost you money, and that's trillions of dollars. When you have to. Absolutely and involuntary. You mentioned voluntary, departure. 00:25:08:01 - 00:25:27:05 Stephanie Yes. And that's I'm pretty sure that's a Gallup workforce study. And it you know, it showed that it that the vast majority of those turnovers were were avoidable. And I think that's the key thing, you know, is, this doesn't have to be happening. We don't have to have this level of disruption. 00:25:27:07 - 00:25:53:20 Shaniqua I would as someone who I, I'm going to say, like most 90% of hire, like, attrition could be avoidable. It gets. But we live in a capitalistic society. We're all adults. We know we have to work. Yes. So if I have a job, I understand that I need this job to live my life. Absolutely. And if I'm leaving, this is terrible. 00:25:53:20 - 00:26:05:19 Shaniqua And there's something here that's not meshing with me. And I feel, you know, so often, then I it's like misalignment in the values, like what I was sold during the process. And the reality. 00:26:05:19 - 00:26:15:08 Shaniqua now that the series is over, do you feel like you have a more, like a profound understanding of HR what it does? 00:26:15:10 - 00:26:44:23 Stephanie Honestly, more than just profound, because it definitely expanded not just my understanding, but the potential. And and that's why we called the series, you know, because we know that there's so much opportunity for what can happen just within. And this is just a department, right? In a, in a, in an organization. So it's like we and we could probably have a similar series on different areas of companies and talk about this. 00:26:44:23 - 00:27:04:17 Stephanie But when we talk about HR and their impact, and also so much confusion around most people, like you said, and I think one of our episodes, most people really aren't confused about what accounting is doing, you know, and everybody knows marketing is making things look pretty. So we're all good there. but I mean, sorry, marketing people, we know we do awesome work. 00:27:04:19 - 00:27:06:01 Okay. 00:27:06:03 - 00:27:31:13 Stephanie But but in reality, I mean, just, opening up the potential for what we could do with HR and how business could just really thrive so much more if they would recognize the value in that space alone. and just really opening their minds up, being, you know, again, not business, not being afraid of change, recognizing that change is literally like it. 00:27:31:14 - 00:27:54:08 Stephanie It is this core and central to what we're experiencing right now. And we we're we're changing faster than we can keep up with it. And that's we have to be able to mitigate that as humans. We have to be able to mitigate that as companies too, right. What about you? What was what was your sort of like, like how how did it expand your thoughts? 00:27:54:10 - 00:27:57:17 Stephanie around HR, what did you take away that was. 00:27:57:19 - 00:28:03:20 Shaniqua I feel that my take away was more around. 00:28:03:20 - 00:28:28:01 Shaniqua The appreciation I had for each guest and their perspective, because I think with me working in HR, I've gained calluses on certain, like, particular topics. I give, I think with Emma, I shared a story about my experience working with my HR VP when I needed them and how I felt left let down. 00:28:28:03 - 00:29:12:15 Shaniqua But speaking to these professionals, I felt like reinvigorated that there's 4 or 5 professionals out there that are making waves in the H.R. community, they’re thought leaders in this space, and they are driven to make this, like make the companies better. How can they? They're on the same side as the employees. Yes. So that was really nice because it's easy to get in a wormhole after you've been laid off and you are, you know, feeling like the HR is against you, but then to have them come on in, every single one of them highlighted the importance of the employee. 00:29:12:15 - 00:29:40:19 Shaniqua Absolutely. They highlighted the work and the the value that each employee add to the organization. And that was something that I hope that our audience takes away. they're H.R professionals across different industries, different, you know, roles. And they've all had different backgrounds to get to where they are today in their HR leadership positions. But every single one of them saw the value of the employee. 00:29:40:21 - 00:29:42:15 Shaniqua so I thought that was really. 00:29:42:17 - 00:29:43:03 Stephanie The. 00:29:43:07 - 00:29:44:00 Shaniqua Really tender. 00:29:44:00 - 00:30:07:19 Stephanie That was very inspiring. It was. And then something that I and I'll say it from something I need to hear as well, you know, I think we've, I hear from so many people about their own personal experiences. And you know, it's sometimes it's difficult. I mean, I really feel for the people that reach out to me and share and I it's like, I just want to hug everybody. 00:30:07:19 - 00:30:30:03 Stephanie I just want to think and be like. But the interesting thing is, I'm hearing this, you know, from employees and from HR people. you know, so it's really been a struggle on both sides. and I think everybody is sort of ready for the shift. You know, I think HR wants to be valued for the great work that they do and they want to be recognized for it. 00:30:30:05 - 00:30:32:00 Stephanie And employees want that too. 00:30:32:02 - 00:30:32:14 Shaniqua Right? 00:30:32:14 - 00:30:33:06 Stephanie You know. 00:30:33:08 - 00:30:34:18 Shaniqua Yes, of course, I mean. 00:30:34:18 - 00:30:35:18 Stephanie To. 00:30:35:20 - 00:30:44:04 Shaniqua You are work as a millennial. I received plenty of real trophies. 00:30:44:06 - 00:30:47:05 yay. She did. 00:30:47:07 - 00:30:49:19 Shaniqua But it is important to get recognition. 00:30:49:19 - 00:30:50:14 Stephanie Absolutely. 00:30:50:15 - 00:31:21:05 Shaniqua You know, and if the if I'm hearing on the earnings call, I have a story about recognition. I like built this in my own personal recognition. And I think this was possibly the reason why I ended up leaving my role, because I didn't feel like I was getting the recognition I felt I deserved. But anyways, I would log in to our, earnings call and I would hear, you know, where, you know, increasing our, our profitability because it this department has really sold a lot. 00:31:21:05 - 00:31:26:07 Shaniqua And I'm thinking, oh, I hire 35 people to to that department. 00:31:27:23 - 00:31:30:23 Shaniqua I indirectly impact that proud. 00:31:31:00 - 00:31:32:13 Stephanie I would say you directly impact. 00:31:32:13 - 00:31:33:10 Shaniqua Directly. 00:31:33:10 - 00:31:50:22 Stephanie Directly I mean like what is indirect and what. And one of the things that I mean we talk about the employee experience and the customer experience. One of the things that I deeply believe is every employee in an organization needs to know their direct impact on the company, the customer and the profit. 00:31:51:00 - 00:31:52:03 Shaniqua Yes. 00:31:52:05 - 00:31:58:22 Stephanie Their direct impact. Not not their tertiary impact, not their secondary impact, not their whatever, their direct impact. 00:31:58:22 - 00:31:59:20 Shaniqua Direct impact. 00:31:59:20 - 00:32:04:17 Stephanie Because every employee has direct impact on that experience. 00:32:04:18 - 00:32:17:21 Shaniqua Great. That is so true. That is true. I appreciate that it was a direct impact because if I didn't hire those people in X amount of time so they can ramp up to then accomplish the sales goals, and we would not have been. 00:32:17:22 - 00:32:36:03 Stephanie Making thoughtful, mindful hires, like really doing the work to match individual to culture, to, yes, you know, roles to I mean, all of that is intentional and purposeful and is absolutely core and central to them being able to reach their profit goals. 00:32:36:08 - 00:32:37:09 Shaniqua So true. 00:32:37:11 - 00:32:38:10 Stephanie You know. 00:32:38:11 - 00:32:42:08 Shaniqua what would be a we're coming to an end on. 00:32:42:08 - 00:32:43:18 Stephanie Time. Yeah. 00:32:43:20 - 00:32:53:04 Shaniqua What is something that you want to leave with the audience or maybe even like ask a question, but like, what is something that you want the audience to take away from this series? 00:32:53:06 - 00:33:21:05 Stephanie For me, the biggest thing that I want the audience to understand is that there are there is real potential. The people seem people seem to just be worn out by this. And, you know, I understand. I talk to a lot of people that just feel sort of dispirited, and I really I want to I want to uplift people's I want to inspire people and uplift their perspective on this. 00:33:21:07 - 00:33:27:13 Stephanie And and to recognize that, like H.R. needs a seat at the table, employees need a seat at the table. 00:33:27:13 - 00:33:27:17 Shaniqua Yeah. 00:33:27:18 - 00:33:48:20 Stephanie I think we all need to recognize how we are working together to, you know, towards commonality here. And so, I mean, my goal is, you know, a little altruistic, but I just want people to feel better about the work they're doing. Really not, you know, not even about H.R.. That would be great for people to, you know, feel better. 00:33:48:20 - 00:34:12:10 Stephanie But I think that there's a lot of work that organizations need to do for that to truly happen. but I just want people to feel more valued and appreciated in their role and feel like that they do have resources and support available to them. so yeah, I don't know if we did that, but I feel like that that's sort of at the heart of what we're trying to accomplish in this conversation. 00:34:12:16 - 00:34:15:19 Shaniqua Oh, I think that's brilliant, Stephanie, I love that. 00:34:15:19 - 00:34:18:11 Stephanie Thank you, what about you? 00:34:18:13 - 00:34:32:03 Shaniqua my takeaway from this series is that the your company is a team, not a family. Also, if your company says they're a family, that's a red flag. 00:34:32:03 - 00:34:34:02 Stephanie They’re dysfunctional. 00:34:34:04 - 00:34:53:01 Shaniqua And and I say that and I think you and I are aligned with this because in my mind, a team is driven by the mission. You played sports? I played sports where? Rah, rah! Let's go. Get on. Yeah, we're on it. Everyone that's there to watch the like you play. They're all driven by that mission. And so the. 00:34:53:01 - 00:34:55:19 Stephanie Olympics are coming up. So when we see Summer. 00:34:55:19 - 00:34:57:12 Shaniqua Olympics are my favorite summer like. 00:34:57:14 - 00:34:58:18 Stephanie Simone Biles I am. 00:34:58:19 - 00:35:14:11 Shaniqua So we should watch together. Let's do that. Okay. All right. and for me, family is driven by this idea of unconditional love. So you can work through a lot. And and some families can be dysfunctional. Something that's can be great. 00:35:14:11 - 00:35:22:11 Stephanie But it's a lovely ideal. but it's not really real. I mean, the only time your company is a family is when it's a family business. 00:35:22:12 - 00:35:23:19 Shaniqua Yes. 00:35:23:21 - 00:35:24:02 Stephanie and. 00:35:24:02 - 00:35:36:20 Shaniqua You're sharing money. It's not that. They're like it is yours, right? The company is yours. If you got fired, it would be a big deal. And then a company where it's not a family business, you get in fires regular Wednesday. 00:35:37:01 - 00:35:42:13 Stephanie Well, yeah. Or, you know, a quiet Friday afternoon, you just disappear. Yeah. So. 00:35:42:15 - 00:35:43:06 Okay. 00:35:43:08 - 00:35:45:23 Shaniqua No, no. Everyone they'll tell you it's just business. 00:35:45:23 - 00:35:46:07 Stephanie It's just. 00:35:46:07 - 00:36:07:05 Shaniqua Business. Right. And if it's just business, like the many teams that I've been a part of is not family. I've changed jerseys, cheer uniform like it? I. And no one has said you're you're leaving our family. No, I'm changing a team. Yeah, yeah. So I would leave with that. Work is a team. your family is your family. 00:36:07:05 - 00:36:13:07 Stephanie I think that is exponentially brilliant. Absolutely. 00:36:13:09 - 00:36:16:23 Shaniqua Oh. So should we. tease them about what's coming up next. 00:36:16:23 - 00:36:31:04 Stephanie I think we should eat it. Okay, so, we are going to be exploring the generations in our upcoming episodes, and we may be playing a little Generation Jeopardy. 00:36:31:06 - 00:36:36:13 Shaniqua generations in the workplace. Here we go. what is Gen Z like in a workplace? 00:36:36:13 - 00:36:39:11 Stephanie What about the millennial. 00:36:39:13 - 00:36:40:05 Shaniqua young manager? 00:36:40:06 - 00:36:43:14 Stephanie What about the millennial boomer situation? I feel like there's some tension there. 00:36:43:14 - 00:36:51:06 Shaniqua In my opinion, because millennials are becoming managers now and boomers are still at work. Okay. 00:36:51:08 - 00:36:56:12 Stephanie You know, one thing that I think is important is that our goal is to elevate all generations. 00:36:56:12 - 00:37:08:07 Shaniqua I am here to do that. What my. So from my perspective, as someone who wants to retire at 45, I'm like, let people retire at 65, okay, I am here in support of that. Live your life, honey. 00:37:08:07 - 00:37:15:18 Stephanie So and I just have to say, from my perspective, as someone who literally wants to work until I die because I love what I love what I do. 00:37:15:20 - 00:37:16:10 Shaniqua Okay, so I. 00:37:16:10 - 00:37:17:23 Stephanie Love what I do. We have a yeah, we have. 00:37:17:23 - 00:37:24:23 Shaniqua A talk more about this. So stay tuned for more. We're going to get into it. And thank you so much for joining us for our HR series. 00:37:25:04 - 00:37:27:00 Stephanie It was awesome. Thank you. Bye. 00:37:27:00 - 00:37:30:21 Shaniqua Well oh y'all. 00:37:30:21 - 00:37:41:07 Shaniqua Thanks for listening to our show. Show us your support by following us on your favorite podcast platform Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 00:37:41:09 - 00:37:59:00 Stephanie You can also find us on Castos at From Illumination To Innovation dot Castos dot com. If you love our show, share it with your friends and coworkers too. Let's all work together to help businesses vibrate higher.