Human Solutions: Simplifying HR for People who Love HR: Recent Episodes
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Welcome to Human Solutions, a show that simplifies HR for people who love HR. Each week, we’ll showcase a bite-sized conversation dedicated to helping you get your arms around an HR challenge. Who are we? From talent management, training, and compliance to compensation analysis and onsite services, AIM HR Solutions is committed to meeting you and your organizations where you are. The people on this show have decades of experience developing solutions for the issues you’re facing right now. This show is their chance to share.
Attention Massachusetts employers! Get ready to uncover a world of grant opportunities that can revolutionize your business, and here’s the best part: it’s free money waiting for you! Grants don’t have to be complicated, and we’re here to simplify the process for you. Join our engaging and informative podcast episode where we delve deep into the realm of grants.
Here’s a taste of what you can expect on this live podcast:
🔍 Navigating the grant landscape with expert insights.
🌱 Hear inspiring success stories from businesses that utilized grants for growth.
🎓 Discover training opportunities to enhance your workforce.
You’ll hear from our grant guru Kathleen Worthington, our learning and development expert Jen Moff and host Pete Wright. Don’t miss out on this conversation crafted specifically for Massachusetts employers like you!
- AIM HR Solutions Learning and Development Catalog
- Commonwealth Corporation
We did some digging into some of the advertised benefits through the early 2000s into the early 2010s, and it’s a bizarre trip down memory lane. Here are a few of our favorite benefits: “free mechanical bull rides any time,” “onsite live workout classes and massage,” or “a personal assistant for every employee, free beer Fridays, housecleaning services every month, and the best homemade guacamole served in culver city and you can have as much as you want.”
This was an early expression of workplace flexibility when it was a lever we could pull for recruiting great talent. But the mood has changed over the last few years, and in this week’s rebroadcast, Terry Cook, Jillian Derby, and Kelly McInnis join Pete Wright to describe the current environment around employer flexibility and answer the question: what does it mean to be a flexible employer today?
It is one of the hardest parts of the HR job: terminations. Having a disruptive employee working can have a negative impact on the productivity and efficiency of others. The manner in which a termination is handled can impact the morale of the entire workplace and must be handled carefully while being respectful of the outgoing employee’s experience.
In this week’s rebroadcast, Terry Cook, our Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our very own attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright to share what you need to know about handling terminations well.
Gen Z is in the workplace! Who are they? How are they different from millennials? And why has everyone forgotten Gen X? Dudes, will no one gag me with a spoon?
In this week’s rebroadcast, we have our own Gen Z’er is in the spotlight, along with her Millennial counterparts. Jen Moff, our VP of training, Jillian Derby, our senior marketing director, and Kallee McGraw our events support specialist spill the tea on what makes this generation tick and what your company should be thinking about when it comes to attracting, retaining, and fostering relationships across generations at work.
It’s tedious, boring, and a lot of work, but it is one of the essential components of an HR person’s job. Record-keeping. Having organized documents can make it easier to do your job as an HR professional, such as evaluating claims and verifying information. But have we mentioned it’s a lot of work?
Legally, there are requirements that employers must keep accurate, up-to-date, and secure records. But who’s keeping these records? Who’s responsible? And can you find all the records and reports that you need when you need them? Our HR and legal experts are here to guide you through this daunting task. In this week’s rebroadcast, the dynamic duo of digital records, Tom Jones and Kyle Pardo, are back and they’re going to do what many have thought impossible: Make paperwork pop.
The number of caregivers in the workplace has increased significantly since the onset of the pandemic. Employees have increased responsibilities for children, elderly parents, and other loved ones. Many employers provide benefits and follow business practices recommended to support employee caregivers, but creating a culture responsive to employees' needs and well-being is as challenging as it is critical. This week, AIM EVP of Government Affairs, Brooke Thomson, joins Pete Wright to discuss employees balancing care-giving duties, and how employers are helping their employees navigate the challenge of care-giving.
Selected Recommendations from the AIM Pink Slip Initiative
- commit to providing pay increases and advancement steps to women/caregivers on schedule rather than penalizing those who have been on leave or working limited hours;
- Extend the time workers can be on leave to coincide with the duration of the pandemic;
- Give hiring preference to former workers, if their experience and skills allow, who were required to leave the workplace due to family demands;
- Extend the time that returning workers can bridge tenure for benefits and other considerations to coincide with the full duration of the pandemic;
- Listen to individual employees about their specific needs and expectations and not make assumptions about what each woman or caregiver can or cannot do;
- Institute practices that reduce conflict with remote schooling such as not holding meetings before 9 am or at lunch, when children need assistance
Other benefits that were shared during the roundtable in early November:
- Conducting employee surveys to check in
- Authentic communication from leadership on their own personal challenges
- Encouraging empathy in the workplace and providing benefits for overall well-being
- Free access to apps such as Ginger and Calm
- Employers highlighted high adoption rates for these apps
- Hosting meditation and other wellness programming
- Flexible schedules for employees, even when it impacts business operations
- Reviewing promotion data to ensure equity across workforce
- Monitoring impact of remote work on workers with caregiving responsibilities
- Access to other programming around financial planning, retirement, and other topics
- Most importantly, employers underscored the need to create a supportive culture that recognizes an employees’ overall well-being
Meta, Salesforce, Twitter, Zillow, and Peleton are just a few of the significant companies recently making headlines for massive layoffs. Layoffs are unpleasant for everyone but can sometimes be a necessity.
AIM HR attorneys Tom Jones and Sarah Piscatelli join Pete Wright to discuss what employers and HR need to consider regarding layoffs.
We’re used to employees taking time off for vacation or having a baby. But in addition to the many other things we’ve learned from our experience with the pandemic, we now know there are many, many new reasons for taking time away from work.
Caring for family members, childcare closures, or maybe members of your team needing a mental health break due to burnout are all calls for time away. Even more complicated, our Massachusetts employers are also still adjusting to Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML). If all of it is confusing to you, you’re not alone.
This week, Tom Jones and Mary McNally join Pete Wright to break down LOAs and answer some of the most common questions we get from employers.
If you’re a regular listener of the show, you might remember just a few weeks back that we talked about Quiet Quitting... losing employees not by watching them walk out the door but by showing up disengaged, disconnected from the work that they have been hired to do. It’s a tricky problem. This week, we’re taking on the other side of that particular coin.
Cultivating a motivated workforce is the organization’s ultimate goal, especially in the face of extraordinary turnover across the employment market. So, what does it take to motivate an employee? What does HR need to take into consideration with employee recognition programs? This week Kyle Pardo and Terry Cook join Pete Wright for a conversation dedicated to helping you engage your teams today.
Links & Notes
- Gallup's State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report
- ‘Jury awards $450,000 to employee who declined birthday party’ — WINK News
- Learn More about AIM HR Solutions Training Opportunities for Your Teams
What does it mean to be inclusive? A 2018 Pew Research Center report says that nearly half of post-Millennials or Gen-Zers are non-white. We know a diverse organization leads to diversity of thought and insight, but for HR pros? If you’re not thinking about diversity and inclusion in your recruiting and retention efforts, you’re missing critical talent across younger generations. Success starts with leaders at all levels and this week we’re starting at the top as we highlight what it takes to be an inclusive leader and HR’s role in the process.
Our guests this week are CEOs who have rolled up their sleeves to do the work of transformation as inclusive leaders.
Juliette Mayers is founder and CEO of Inspiration Zone, a strategic consulting firm specializing in diversity and inclusion strategy and has spent the last 30 years with Fortune 500 companies and large not-for-profits helping to create diverse and inclusive environments with built-in accountability.
John Regan is President and Chief Executive Officer of Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM). Among his accomplishments at AIM, John led a coalition of Massachusetts business groups in calling for significant change around racial equity in the workplace, and he spearheaded an effort to recommend businesses alter their policies to effectively address equity for female employees who suffered disproportionately during the COVID pandemic. John was named by Boston Magazine to the 2021 list of 100 Most Influential Bostonians.
Inclusive leadership is critical for today's leaders, allowing organizations to attract diverse talent, customers, and ideas. We’re lucky to have Juliette Mayers and John Regan with us today to explore what it takes to be an inclusive leader.
Links & Notes
- ‘Are You an Inclusive Leader?’ — by Juliette Mayers
- Become a Member of Associated Industries of Massachusetts
When you think of quiet quitting, do you think of the film Office Space? Where Ron Livingston's character Peter Gibbons abandons the concept of work entirely and does the bare minimum required of him? It’s one of the classics of the office comedy genre and if you haven’t seen it and work in an office, what are you waiting for?
The movie is a testament to our topic today: Quiet Quitting. While individual contributors might think in terms of otherwise engaged workers setting reasonable boundaries, employers might see them instead as slackers who are willfully underperforming.
To help us get to the bottom of quiet quitting and the impact of its cousin, quiet firing, on the organization, our own Jen Moff, Terry Cook, and Jillian Derby are here this week. Along the way, we share of a story of Google’s recent pronouncementson productivity for a potential example of the impact of quiet quitting at work.
Pay transparency is growing in popularity amongst employers and employees. For some states, it has become a legal requirement. But what exactly is pay transparency? What do you need to know?
Kyle Pardo of AIM HR Solutions and Sam Larson of Associated Industries of Massachusetts join Pete Wright to look into the crystal ball at the future of pay transparency to share what is happening — and what could happen at the state and federal levels. We’ll also share some ways companies are already practicing pay transparency, how your company can get started, and the HR benefits it could bring your organization.
The economy is unpredictable, which can trickle down to your workplace budgets. One of the first line items to face scrutiny is the learning and development program. The truth is that a robust L&D program could be a competitive advantage for your organization. It could be the key to helping you retain and attract talent. Jen Moff joins Pete Wright to explore the topic of L&D programs and the ROI and benefits they can provide your organization.
Learning and development can transform how your employees feel about their role and company. When we think of the benefits of training or education and development, it is often not just a dollar amount. Instead, it is seen in the organization's culture, recruitment and retention efforts, and many other hard-to-measure facets. What we do know is that more dynamic and strong-performing companies often have a positive learning culture. Jen Moff, our VP of Learning & Development, joins me to remind us what we’re missing if we don’t focus on our L&D.
Jen Moff, AIM HR VP of Learning & Development, joins Pete Wright to talk about the evolution of mental health in the workplace, the changing expectations of employers and employees about stress at work, and why strengthening the mind muscle might just be next on your exercise plan.
If you’re an HR manager, learning how burnout manifests across your organization is a key skill. But what happens if you spot it? What is your responsibility to help the organization heal, and to help team members see burnout in themselves? Learn the tools and techniques to spot burnout and help your teams manage stress for a healthy, thriving organization!
Social Media. You might not personally be an Insta-influencer or TikTok star, but there’s an increasingly good chance that your employees are. How does their activity in their private lives impact what they do at work, and how does your organization’s social media policy guide your most public participants?
This week, Terry Cook, our Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our very own attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright to share what you can do to support and guide your team’s best influencers.
Links & Notes
- “Apple is allegedly threatening to fire an employee over a viral TikTok video” — theverge.com
- “Ask HR: Can Employees Be Disciplined for Their Social Media Posts?” — SHRM.org
The Americans with Disabilities Act is one of the more complex and challenging laws employers are navigating. What is the scope of the ADA? What do qualified accommodations look like at work? What might make for an accommodation that is declined?
But most important, as an HR professional, what is your responsibility to guide the team in looking for ADA violations, all toward creating a safe place for all employees? Terry Cook, our Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our very own attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright this week to share what you need to know about ADA.
New topics and new voices are coming to season two of Human Solutions: your HR podcast for people who love HR. Warm up your ear buds starting September 13, 2022!
We've been busy recording our new season and we’re thrilled to announce we'll be coming back next week — September 13, 2022. And we have a lot for you to chew on this coming season.
How is your organization navigating the Americans with Disabilities Act? What's your position on pay transparency? Have you documented your policies on diversity, equity, and inclusion? And, who's on TikTok in your company... and should you care about what they're saying?
Our roster of experts is growing to weigh in on these questions and more as we wade into our fall season of the show. Thank you to everyone who has subscribed — we couldn't do this without you. And, while I'm at it, today would be a great day to share the show with an HR friend or colleague. It is the very best way you can support what we're doing on this show.
And with that, we'll be back next week right here on Human Solutions: Simplifying HR for People who Love HR.
We did some digging into some of the advertised benefits through the early 2000s into the early 2010s and it’s a bizarre trip down memory lane. Here are a few of our favorite benefits: “free mechanical bull rides any time,” and “onsite live workout classes and massage,” or, “a personal assistant for every employee, free beer Fridays, housecleaning services every month, and the best homemade guacamole served in culver city and you can have as much as you want.”
This was an early expression of workplace flexibility when it was a lever we could pull for recruiting great talent. But the mood has changed over the last few years and this week Terry Cook, Jillian Derby, and Kelly McInnis, join Pete Wright to describe the current environment around employer flexibility and answer the question: what does it mean to be a flexible employer today?
It’s tedious, boring, and a lot of work, but it is one of the essential components of an HR person’s job. Record-keeping. Having organized documents can make it easier to do your job as an HR professional, such as evaluating claims and verifying information. But have we mentioned it’s a lot of work?
Legally, there are requirements that employers must keep accurate, up-to-date, and secure records. But who’s keeping these records? Who’s responsible? And can you find all the records and reports that you need when you need them? Our HR and legal experts are here to guide you through this daunting task. The dynamic duo of digital records, Tom Jones and Kyle Pardo, are back and they’re going to do what many have thought impossible: Make paperwork pop.
Gen Z is in the workplace! Who are they? How are they different from millennials? And why has everyone forgotten Gen X? Dudes, will no one gag me with a spoon?
This week, we have our own Gen Z’er is in the spotlight, along with her Millennial counterparts. Jen Moff, our VP of training, Jillian Derby, our senior marketing director, and Kallee McGraw our events support specialist spill the tea on what makes this generation tick and what your company should be thinking about when it comes to attracting, retaining, and fostering relationships across generations at work.
It is one of the hardest parts of the HR job: terminations. Having a disruptive employee working can have a negative impact of the productivity and efficiency of others. The manner in which a termination is handled can impact the morale of the entire workplace and must be handled carefully, while being respectful of the out-going employee’s experience.
Today, Terry Cook, our Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our very own attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright to share what you need to know about handling terminations well.
Mindfulness has become a workplace buzzword, but what is it? Can you learn it? How do you practice it? Jen Moff and Kathleen Worthington join Pete Wright to delve into what HR and workplaces need to know about mindfulness, its benefits, and why you should care.
What is mindfulness? Jen and Kathleen each explore what it means to be in your body versus living in your head. Mindfulness is an experience of being, versus doing, living and working curiously. If you’re having trouble wrapping your head around the concept, listen on because the data is in: the benefits of mindfulness in the organization is compelling to be sure.
Whether you’re looking for a personal mindfulness practice or a way to further establish a culture of mindfulness across your organization, Jen and Kathleen have just the right guidance for you and your HR office!
We’re gearing up for the summer months and with the change in seasons comes a change in staffing for many of our organizations. Seasonal workers bring changing processes and may invite a younger demographic into your world. What do you need to know about hiring young people? Will you impacted by child labor or Massachusetts Blue Laws? How will you navigate conversations around productivity and dress codes? Finally, are you ready to meet OHSA’s new heat standards?
Today, Terry Cook, Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our very own attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright to talk about what workplaces face in the summer months and the compliance concerns you need to keep in mind before you hit the beach.
We’re used to employees taking time off for vacation or having a baby. But in addition to the many other things we’ve learned from our experience with the pandemic, we now know there are many, many new reasons for taking time away from work.
Caring for family members, childcare closures, or maybe members of your team needing a mental health break due to burnout are all calls for time away. Even more complicated, our Massachusetts employers are also still adjusting to Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML). If all of it is confusing to you, you’re not alone.
This week, Tom Jones and Mary McNally join Pete Wright to break down LOAs and answer some of the most common questions we get from employers.
Recruiting competition is peaking as we navigate the hiring environment now that the pandemic restrictions are lifting around us. The world is going back to work. But things are not the same as they were; job seekers are more selective than ever and getting them in the door is forcing hiring managers to rethink, regroup, and retool their processes.
Today, Terry Cook, our Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright to talk about what employers and managers are doing to recruit, retain, and appeal to job seekers in the era of the Great Resignation.
According to Nielsen, the 2022 Academy Awards celebration was seen by 16.6 million viewers around the world. That’s 16.6 million people watching as Will Smith slapped Chris Rock across the face on stage. It was emotional and horrifying and, to us, it was a dramatic example of violence in the workplace.
According to the National Safety Council, workplace assaults resulted in 20,050 injuries and illnesses involving days away from work and 392 fatalities in 2020 alone. That’s more than 20,000 incidents of fear, and rage, and trauma that impact not only the people directly involved, but those around them — friends, co-workers, table-mates. Whether your workplace is a small office or the massive Oscar stage, it’s critical that you know what to do if an incident occurs in your workplace.
Today, Tom Jones, AIM HR Solutions attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, and Jen Moff, our VP of training, join Pete Wright to talk about workplace violence and how you can help your teams prepare, respond, and recover from incidents at work.
This week we’re talking all about Matt Lauer. And Harvey Weinstein. And Clarence Thomas. And Andrew Cuomo. And the list goes on, and on, and on. Truth be told, while we’re not going to be talking about any of those individuals specifically, we’re talking about all of them.
Sexual harassment and discrimination have been long-standing issues in the workplace. But media attention and the bold voices of victims has changed the tide of the discussion.
Today, Terry Cook, our Senior Vice President of Employer Services, and Tom Jones, our attorney specializing in labor and employment matters, join Pete Wright to talk about what employers and managers need to know about sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace.
Welcome to Human Solutions, a show that simplifies HR for people who love HR. Each week, we’ll showcase a bite-sized conversation dedicated to helping you get your arms around an HR challenge. Who are we? From talent management, training, and compliance to compensation analysis and onsite services, AIM HR Solutions is committed to meeting you and your organizations where you are. The people on this show have decades of experience developing solutions for the issues you’re facing right now. This show is their chance to share.
Welcome to Human Solutions: Simplifying HR for People who Love HR from AIM HR Solutions on TruStory FM. We’ve got a great team gearing up to share their experience with your great team and we can’t wait to introduce them to you, beginning in April 2022.