WEBVTT 00:00:00.119 --> 00:00:04.532 You know, the greatest advice I always give HR people is learn the business of the business. 00:00:04.532 --> 00:00:06.403 You have to speak their language. 00:00:06.403 --> 00:00:08.089 You have to understand that. 00:00:08.089 --> 00:00:11.211 You have to worry about the people but you have to worry about the business right. 00:00:11.211 --> 00:00:18.442 Instead of flooding an organizational layoff, perhaps you should be triggering discussions on a layoff because you understand the business right. 00:00:18.442 --> 00:00:24.527 So you know, really understand the business and learn to say yes, not get your influence by saying no. 00:00:31.320 --> 00:00:33.750 This is the Rebel HR Podcast, the podcast where we talk to HR innovators about all things people, leadership. 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:38.143 If you're looking for places to find about new ways to think about the world of work, this is the podcast for you. 00:00:38.143 --> 00:00:43.624 Please subscribe to your favorite podcast listening platform today and leave us a review. 00:00:43.624 --> 00:00:48.923 Rebel on HR Rebels Welcome back. 00:00:48.923 --> 00:00:49.905 Rebel HR listeners. 00:00:49.905 --> 00:00:52.332 Extremely excited for the conversation today. 00:00:52.332 --> 00:01:03.604 I had to hit record because we were just having a wonderful conversation about everything from working back at the deli shop to weddings and wearing ties, and so with us today is Bob Kelleher. 00:01:03.604 --> 00:01:07.805 Bob is an author, speaker and founder of the Employee Engagement Group. 00:01:07.805 --> 00:01:11.751 He also has founded the AEC HR Summit. 00:01:11.751 --> 00:01:14.992 He is a thought leader on employee engagement and leadership. 00:01:14.992 --> 00:01:21.790 He presents to audiences, including my company, about all things related to employee engagement and great leadership. 00:01:21.790 --> 00:01:25.427 A really great friend and a great colleague. 00:01:25.427 --> 00:01:26.762 Bob, welcome to the show. 00:01:27.683 --> 00:01:29.188 Thank you so much, Kyle. 00:01:29.188 --> 00:01:32.480 I am absolutely delighted to be here with you and your audience. 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:32.802 Thanks. 00:01:33.724 --> 00:01:41.605 Thank you and I appreciate you taking the time today, and I really think that our listeners are going to get some great content. 00:01:41.605 --> 00:01:56.903 I think that my personal experience with some of the work that you've done and the things that you've shared with my team have been really impactful, and I've heard nothing but wonderful, wonderful responses from some of the work we've done, and I just think it's going to be really valuable for our listeners. 00:01:56.903 --> 00:02:01.944 So I'd like to start out by just understanding a little bit more about your background. 00:02:01.944 --> 00:02:06.353 What brought you into the rich world of employee engagement? 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:11.230 Well, I think this will certainly resonate with your listeners. 00:02:11.230 --> 00:02:18.132 I'm a human resources professional, so I spent many years in the trenches. 00:02:18.132 --> 00:02:21.782 I think I'll be giving my age away, but here goes. 00:02:21.782 --> 00:02:33.889 I was a personnel rep in 1985 and to a series of jobs in the human resources area. 00:02:33.889 --> 00:02:49.366 I became corporate employment manager, became director of training and development, became chief HR officer, became executive VP of human resources and organizational development and actually became chief operations officer. 00:02:49.366 --> 00:02:52.272 So I've spoken at a lot of HR conferences. 00:02:52.272 --> 00:02:55.645 Just on that note alone. 00:02:55.645 --> 00:03:16.127 As you know, Kyle, hr doesn't usually get a seat at the table in which you are running the company, and I did, and I think it speaks to your audience that if you operate as the HR traditional caretaker of policies, you're not going to become chief operations officer. 00:03:16.127 --> 00:03:22.012 So I did that for over 30 years. 00:03:22.012 --> 00:03:29.110 In 2009, I was chief HR officer for a global 50,000 employee company. 00:03:29.372 --> 00:03:31.294 I had an epiphany I wanted to. 00:03:31.294 --> 00:03:34.824 I heard from so many people that I needed to write a book. 00:03:34.824 --> 00:03:48.371 You know I had spent many years inside focusing on engagement as a business driver, not as a nice to do thing and just so many people said, hey, you have to capture this. 00:03:48.371 --> 00:03:49.745 You know this is a case study. 00:03:49.745 --> 00:03:51.185 So I wrote my first book. 00:03:51.185 --> 00:03:54.628 People started asking me to talk on the book. 00:03:54.628 --> 00:03:57.671 That led to really a speaking business. 00:03:57.671 --> 00:04:00.990 People started asking me can you come and help us? 00:04:00.990 --> 00:04:03.468 And that led to you know, a consulting business. 00:04:03.468 --> 00:04:06.143 Then they started asking, hey, do you do surveys? 00:04:06.143 --> 00:04:08.890 And too much of a capitalist to always say no. 00:04:08.890 --> 00:04:16.007 So I finally said yes and that led to you know selling products, and, and, and here I am. 00:04:16.007 --> 00:04:18.391 So for the past 13 years I've, I've. 00:04:18.391 --> 00:04:25.353 People could find me at the employee engagement group on employeeengagementcom. 00:04:27.300 --> 00:04:42.728 Absolutely, and you know, I, I think, I think it's really important to uh, uh, you know, maybe take a step back and and and dig into one of the comments you made, cause it's something that I, you know, I I've seen, um, again and again. 00:04:42.728 --> 00:04:58.560 When employee engagement works whether it's a department that's engaged or a company that's engaged, or a leader that's engaged, the business just runs better, it just works. 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:06.307 You see better results, and you mentioned that engagement in your role was really a business driver. 00:05:06.307 --> 00:05:08.488 So unpack that a little bit. 00:05:08.488 --> 00:05:13.913 You know, as we look at employee engagement, we think about all the things we do. 00:05:13.913 --> 00:05:19.016 How do we really tap into that engagement as a driver of the business? 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:31.163 Yeah, selfishly, when I started focusing on engagement, I didn't really know, kyle, it was going to be a business driver. 00:05:31.163 --> 00:05:43.557 I just didn't want to spend my career showing up to various locations and having people hate to see me because they would view that I was there to manage a layoff or a termination. 00:05:43.557 --> 00:05:51.180 I was there to let them know that their benefit premiums were going up, so it was all bad news stuff. 00:05:51.180 --> 00:05:57.574 So I really started proactively showing up to help facilitate. 00:05:57.574 --> 00:06:10.567 I had facilitation skills, like a lot of HR people do, and I started facilitating group discussions about their business If you're underperforming in sales, why? 00:06:10.567 --> 00:06:16.983 So I was able to leverage facilitations, my facilitation skills, to really help the business. 00:06:16.983 --> 00:06:28.646 And this became an internal program and businesses started asking me to appear to do an all-day workshop on this. 00:06:28.646 --> 00:06:35.906 We called it Leadership Excellence Through Advanced Practices, but it really was an HR-led internal initiative. 00:06:35.906 --> 00:06:46.932 That was a business improvement program and the outcome of that, managers and employees would say we were engaged in the business. 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:55.132 And I was so early in this whole concept, kyle, that you know employeeengagementcom was a domain that I acquired. 00:06:55.132 --> 00:06:56.535 It was sitting out there. 00:06:56.535 --> 00:07:00.850 I acquired it because so many people said, you know, started calling me the engagement guy. 00:07:00.850 --> 00:07:12.411 So it was really in some ways, selfishly motivated to get myself doing things that were more positively received by the business instead of negatively received. 00:07:12.411 --> 00:07:16.908 And, as it turned out, we started tracking the business. 00:07:17.009 --> 00:07:40.973 If I would appear and do a workshop, we would see business results going up and at the time, you know, we got acquired by a private equity firm and the private equity people loved this process that we were using and they started asking me to use the process with sister companies and we started measuring the business results. 00:07:40.973 --> 00:07:53.101 So I was living a case study and you, and when we got acquired by a global company, they started asking me to do the same work with their Hong Kong operations, in Brazil, in Dubai. 00:07:53.101 --> 00:07:55.264 So I lived it. 00:07:55.264 --> 00:07:56.547 I lived it. 00:07:56.547 --> 00:08:02.341 Now, if you Google employee engagement business results, you'll see Gallup. 00:08:02.341 --> 00:08:05.108 I mean, there's a whole boutique industry right now that measures this. 00:08:05.108 --> 00:08:09.463 If you have higher engagement, you're going to have higher results on your business. 00:08:09.564 --> 00:08:15.264 And if you have lower engagement at some point in time, it will negatively impact the business. 00:08:17.088 --> 00:08:29.050 Absolutely, and I think what's really interesting is and I'm sure many HR professionals feel this way you know that there's this constant question out there the seat at the table, as you described it right. 00:08:29.050 --> 00:08:33.938 You know how do you gain the, you know the credibility, how do you get that seat? 00:08:33.938 --> 00:08:44.046 And in my opinion, it really comes down to solve business problems and drive results, and then you don't have to fight for a seat, people will just ask you to be there. 00:08:44.046 --> 00:08:45.860 Was that your experience? 00:08:46.581 --> 00:09:17.549 Yeah, I hated the perception of HR as the evil HR director in Dilbert and in some cases and I hate to insult your audience so I will apologize in advance for what I'm going to say but in some cases that reputation was deserved, with the HR professional who truly viewed their power, their influence, was the gatekeeper of policies, right? 00:09:17.549 --> 00:09:25.133 No, you can't do this because we'll get sued, and I always wanted to introduce a concept of you know, learn to say yes. 00:09:25.133 --> 00:09:35.554 So, if the benefit form is arriving two days late, instead of saying we can't give our employee and their family benefits, why can't we Like, why can't we? 00:09:35.554 --> 00:09:39.169 So let's learn to say yes, let's try to help. 00:09:39.299 --> 00:09:45.953 Or if somebody wants to lay someone off, I don't want to tell the president of the European operations they can't. 00:09:45.953 --> 00:09:55.525 I want to be in the position of counseling them, give them the pluses and minuses and letting them know this is your decision, not my decision. 00:09:55.525 --> 00:10:00.381 I'm here to help you, not here to tell you what you can and cannot do. 00:10:00.381 --> 00:10:06.441 So you know, the greatest advice I always give HR people is learn the business of the business. 00:10:06.441 --> 00:10:08.706 You have to speak their language. 00:10:08.706 --> 00:10:11.171 You have to understand that. 00:10:11.171 --> 00:10:15.168 You know you have to worry about the people, but you have to worry about the business, right. 00:10:15.168 --> 00:10:24.807 You know, instead of flooding an organizational layoff, perhaps you should be triggering discussions on a layoff because you understand the business right. 00:10:24.807 --> 00:10:32.149 So so you know, really understand the business and learn to say yes, not not get your influence by saying no. 00:10:35.280 --> 00:10:36.746 We'll be back after a quick break. 00:10:36.746 --> 00:10:41.811 If you're a private practice owner, here's why you want to hire virtual assistants. 00:10:41.811 --> 00:10:53.828 Virtual assistants not only can perform all of the non-clinical responsibilities by supporting or replacing your current team, but they can do it at a fraction of the cost, all while improving the patient care experience. 00:10:53.828 --> 00:11:01.609 Virtual Rockstar was created for private practice owners by a private practice owner who wants to help you gain greater profitability and freedom. 00:11:01.609 --> 00:11:06.404 We'll teach you how to work with virtual assistants, all while helping bring a family out of poverty. 00:11:06.404 --> 00:11:14.871 Visit wwwvirtualrockstarcom today to learn more and book your free discovery call at wwwvirtualrockstarcom. 00:11:22.120 --> 00:11:23.861 Absolutely Couldn't agree more. 00:11:23.861 --> 00:11:41.876 One of the interesting things about my early career that I reflect on is, you know, one of the best things that I got to do is I was in an operations role before human resources and I wanted to be in human resources after I was in that operations role, when I figured out what HR did and that was interesting to me. 00:11:41.876 --> 00:11:48.230 Hr did and that was interesting to me, but I had to figure out the business before they. 00:11:48.230 --> 00:12:11.768 Let me do HR and that for me that was a really big blessing because I had a team of you know, at certain times, well over a hundred employees that I was supervising and I was struggling as a new leader and as just as a leader in general, that when I went into HR, I understood the day-to-day struggles in the life of somebody in an operations role so I could be a better partner for them, and I also knew what their job was right. 00:12:11.768 --> 00:12:14.326 That helps you have to understand those things. 00:12:15.139 --> 00:12:37.692 There's a reason why some of these long-standing, most admired companies you know, pepsi, procter Gamble, ge before they had their recent hiccup, they would historically rotate people from operations into corporate roles. 00:12:37.692 --> 00:12:40.024 Right, because they wanted them to understand. 00:12:40.024 --> 00:12:40.846 You know. 00:12:40.846 --> 00:12:54.269 If you're an HR person and you have no idea what the business is like, oh, you don't know what being in the field is like versus being in corporate headquarters, and I think that is such an important evolution. 00:12:54.269 --> 00:13:18.567 I always tell HR functions if you can spend time in operations, if you can't do it through a transfer, get out there, be proactive, do something that you do well for them and get you know, get to know their business, have them see you as part of their team, not part of the HR function. 00:13:18.567 --> 00:13:18.928 You know. 00:13:18.928 --> 00:13:20.807 So you know. 00:13:20.807 --> 00:13:29.831 I think your experience in operations, my experience as COO, taught me as much about my function in human resources as my prior. 00:13:29.831 --> 00:13:32.475 You know, 25 years at the time in human resources. 00:13:34.019 --> 00:13:34.520 Absolutely. 00:13:34.520 --> 00:13:40.188 Yeah, it was a powerful learning moment for me thing. 00:13:40.188 --> 00:14:03.447 That, um, that, uh, your, your, your comments kind of jogged my memory about was uh, uh, you know a scenario where and I've told this story on the podcast before, so if I'm boring any listeners I apologize, but I had, uh, uh, an HR mentor early on who literally told me you know, hr's job is to be equal opportunity. 00:14:03.447 --> 00:14:08.363 You know, hate everybody the same, and it was. 00:14:08.363 --> 00:14:13.907 It was said as a joke, but there, you know, under every little bit of sarcasm there's a little bit of truth there. 00:14:13.907 --> 00:14:30.351 But that really, you know, that kind of that compliance mindset that, hey, let's just make sure we don't get sued, like just thinking in that context that will ripple out into all of your actions and that, just like I don't know about you, bob, that just sounds like that would just suck. 00:14:30.500 --> 00:14:34.129 I don't want to do that job in a selfish way, I know. 00:14:34.311 --> 00:14:34.490 I know. 00:14:34.840 --> 00:14:52.539 And you know I have a lot of clients really all over the globe and you know once again I might be insulting the function, but if I'm hired by the CEO or COO, it's a different relationship. 00:14:52.539 --> 00:15:03.532 If I'm hired by some of the human resource folks who are still in that compliant telling me, you know well, you can't say this, you can't do this, you can't, you know. 00:15:03.532 --> 00:15:09.607 So it runs deep inside the function and I do think it has changed. 00:15:09.607 --> 00:15:11.647 I mean, it's changed so much for the better. 00:15:11.647 --> 00:15:15.225 Kyle, you know the vast majority of human resource professionals. 00:15:16.628 --> 00:15:22.500 When I first entered HR in the personnel department, you know we weren't trained personnel people. 00:15:22.500 --> 00:15:24.062 I was a former school teacher, right? 00:15:24.062 --> 00:15:25.182 You know we weren't trained personnel people. 00:15:25.182 --> 00:15:25.943 I was a former school teacher, right? 00:15:25.943 --> 00:15:31.028 You know it was always funny that the CFO was, you know, a CPA and they had an MBA. 00:15:31.028 --> 00:15:32.910 And you know the HR person. 00:15:32.910 --> 00:15:37.416 You know, six months prior they were in charge of the receptionist. 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.514 So the evolution of the function has evolved for the better so much in the past 30 years. 00:15:47.514 --> 00:15:48.519 So it's a function that I love daily. 00:15:48.519 --> 00:16:03.707 Even when I was COO, I was a successor to the CEO and I want to get back into my comfort area of focusing on the people, which I always found to be the best part of the job, but the function has certainly evolved. 00:16:03.707 --> 00:16:10.706 The best part of the job, but the function has certainly evolved and these associations and podcasts and Disrupt HR. 00:16:10.706 --> 00:16:33.207 There is a breed of HR people that I think have been doing some great things pushing the function, and I'm on the second nine, not the front nine, but I do see a lot of people really pushing the function in a more innovative, edgy way. 00:16:33.207 --> 00:16:34.250 That I think is great. 00:16:36.072 --> 00:16:36.474 Absolutely. 00:16:36.474 --> 00:17:00.105 I think that's certainly been my experience, at least over the last decade or so that I've been working, you know working, you know more more directly in the function, and, and I think you know what's what's really been interesting is the just the change over the last few years, kind of the acceleration of change, with, you know, trying to figure out work from home. 00:17:00.105 --> 00:17:05.103 You know social unrest, dealing with something that that we never thought we would deal with. 00:17:05.103 --> 00:17:18.920 You know a global pandemic and, and you know, I, I remember talking to, uh, to my CEO, um, who you know really well, bob, and you know, and, and his comment at one point was this is all HR. 00:17:18.920 --> 00:17:20.221 You know all of this. 00:17:20.361 --> 00:17:32.683 This, this is the most important thing right now is taking care of the people and putting the people first, and having a leader like that, having a focus like that, especially in these times, I think is so critical. 00:17:32.683 --> 00:17:39.575 But I guarantee you that there's so many professionals listening to this right now that are nodding their heads up and down. 00:17:39.575 --> 00:17:41.185 Yes, yes, I agree. 00:17:41.185 --> 00:17:45.414 But then the next question is but how do I do that in my organization? 00:17:45.414 --> 00:17:55.276 So, from your standpoint, bob, as you think about the changes that you've seen and the changes that maybe still need to occur in many of our organizations. 00:17:55.276 --> 00:18:05.419 What would be some steps that you would recommend an HR professional do if they see that there needs to be some level of change or elevation or focus on the people? 00:18:24.825 --> 00:18:29.555 the culture that the function is not being allowed to, you know, be influential, or is it the individual sitting in the seat who's incapable of being influential? 00:18:29.555 --> 00:18:38.071 So it's a tough one to paint with a broad base brush, right? 00:18:38.071 --> 00:19:02.183 But I would say, say, if you view yourself as an innovative, disruptive type of HR person or function or team and you have some resistance because the CEO, him or her, is resistant to the HR function Maybe they had a bad experience, right. 00:19:02.183 --> 00:19:13.430 So maybe they view the HR department as the police department Then I would encourage you to find the most senior person organizationally who does support the function. 00:19:13.430 --> 00:19:37.250 Bond with that function, get them as your partner and increasing that visibility of both you personally as well as the function, because there's always someone who reports up to the CEO, who gets it in case the CEO or COO doesn't Find that person. 00:19:37.250 --> 00:19:38.432 Partner with that person. 00:19:38.432 --> 00:19:49.726 Create value If, by some chance, that it's the culture and it's an old-fashioned organizational culture that the function is never going to get the respect. 00:19:50.788 --> 00:19:57.988 Life is too short to not have influence and I would encourage people to weigh their career options elsewhere. 00:19:57.988 --> 00:20:00.294 Try to fix where you are. 00:20:00.294 --> 00:20:23.375 It's always easier, I think, than to look to change the jobs every time there's a hiccup, but occasionally you might find yourself in an organization that, if the frustration level is so high and you can't influence, there are so many organizations that are looking for HR to lead that I would encourage you to weigh some alternatives. 00:20:25.337 --> 00:20:25.960 Yeah, absolutely. 00:20:25.960 --> 00:20:28.534 I think it's a really important point. 00:20:28.534 --> 00:20:39.367 I think having an ally is really important, the right ally, and I think, being honest about that, you know that cultural question. 00:20:39.367 --> 00:20:47.634 But I also think I think the other point I think that is really important was the comment about you know, is it the individual? 00:20:47.634 --> 00:20:57.162 You know, before you jump, have you really done everything you know that you can do to expand your influence? 00:20:57.162 --> 00:21:00.364 You know, are you saying yes as much as you can? 00:21:00.364 --> 00:21:08.191 Are you really thinking outside the box or are you just frustrated because somebody asked a question that you didn't like the tone of? 00:21:08.191 --> 00:21:12.346 You know what I mean, and and but, there's, there's, you know, you have. 00:21:12.627 --> 00:21:12.688 I. 00:21:12.688 --> 00:21:46.266 I truly believe you kind of have to ask those questions internally and, yes, once you've checked the box, that, yeah, I really have checked asked those questions. 00:21:46.326 --> 00:21:48.170 Yeah, it's time to think about doing something else of the CEO. 00:21:48.170 --> 00:21:52.538 But she's bonded with the COO in such a way that it has given her hope and encouragement that it's a good company. 00:21:52.538 --> 00:22:06.696 She also views CEO tenures aren't that long and she's concluded that the organizational culture, the COO, other people it's worth sticking it out, even if the head person maybe has a legacy opinion of HR that isn't favorable. 00:22:06.696 --> 00:22:10.625 So you know there's such personal decisions. 00:22:10.625 --> 00:22:15.234 You know I do believe the HR folks can help themselves. 00:22:15.234 --> 00:22:35.201 Stay current, Read the latest, Go to the conferences, you know, hear what other people are saying, Build your network and look at your function in the mirror Are you a business partner or are you a business police department? 00:22:35.201 --> 00:22:38.904 And ask what can we ourselves do differently? 00:22:39.828 --> 00:22:42.760 And ask what can we, what can we ourselves do differently? 00:22:42.760 --> 00:22:54.336 Yeah Well, I mean, I, you know, self admittedly, I certainly fall into that trap of like, almost like being like the traffic cop, right, and and it's, and it's because it's how many of us were trained or brought up? 00:22:54.336 --> 00:23:02.880 You know, it's, it's, you know, you're, you're, you're supposed to be the policy police, you're supposed to be the black and white decider in a lot of cases. 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:11.059 But so often you lose the human element, you know, and you get stuck in this. 00:23:11.059 --> 00:23:18.419 It's almost like getting stuck in a rut where you just kind of become, you know, an autonomous decision maker. 00:23:20.366 --> 00:23:21.029 It's just terrible. 00:23:21.029 --> 00:23:34.878 The greatest advice I give people and I used to practice this myself If you are in human resources, everything you do that's reactive doesn't get noticed unless you do something wrong. 00:23:34.878 --> 00:23:37.348 So think about that for a moment. 00:23:37.348 --> 00:24:05.807 All of the administrative things that people do, all of the reactive things filling requisitions, you know, managing open enrollment in your paid program and trying to deal with the escalation of salaries and inflationary period all of the administrative things that come across our desk which can exhaust all of us I put in a reactive camp, which can exhaust all of us. 00:24:05.807 --> 00:24:06.648 I put in a reactive camp. 00:24:06.669 --> 00:24:08.232 True, personal engagement occurs when we are proactive. 00:24:08.232 --> 00:24:08.914 So how do you establish a day? 00:24:08.914 --> 00:24:21.317 And I used to tell my team I had 450 HR people reporting to me and I used to say try to schedule your week so that 50% of your week is proactive and 50% of your week is reactive. 00:24:21.317 --> 00:24:51.160 Proactive would be you're inviting yourself to a department meeting, you're creating a virtual training program for employees, you're introducing a new employee referral program, and personal engagement comes when you're introducing and doing something proactively but the function is so administrative heavy that you find yourself in a rut. 00:24:51.160 --> 00:24:59.684 You can just like sit there Like I used to joke with my wife I could sit in my office and never do anything that would be proactive. 00:25:00.126 --> 00:25:07.337 Like everything comes to me emails, telephone calls, time for open enrollment boss wants to see me like everything comes. 00:25:07.337 --> 00:25:23.660 And when I would separate myself and introduce stuff I'm designing a new program, I'm showing up to a department, I'm creating an event those were the things that would just make me be electrified and the things that would get me noticed. 00:25:23.660 --> 00:25:31.778 So I finally concluded hey, any proactive thing I do gets me positive press or the department positive press. 00:25:31.778 --> 00:25:35.112 Anything that's administrative that comes to me. 00:25:35.112 --> 00:25:37.897 The press can only be bad when you do something wrong. 00:25:39.906 --> 00:25:41.192 Yeah, recruiting comes to mind. 00:25:41.192 --> 00:25:48.496 It's only bad when it's you know it's expected that you fill all these open positions, but it's bad when you have too many. 00:25:49.157 --> 00:25:53.872 Absolutely the ghost positions right. 00:25:53.872 --> 00:25:58.053 So people get the approval for a rec and they really don't want to fill it. 00:25:58.053 --> 00:26:02.188 But it kills your process, your recruiting team. 00:26:02.188 --> 00:26:04.776 Days to fill a rack, yeah yeah, yeah. 00:26:04.776 --> 00:26:06.309 Those things can be tough. 00:26:07.005 --> 00:26:07.749 Yeah, I've had that. 00:26:07.749 --> 00:26:09.127 Yeah, Especially lately. 00:26:09.127 --> 00:26:14.265 I seem to have a lot of those dialogues, but it's been interesting. 00:26:14.265 --> 00:26:28.596 But here's one thing that I will say on that is you know, in one of my, one of my locations, I have an, a leader who truly believes in employee engagement. 00:26:28.596 --> 00:26:32.990 You know, he, he, he lives it, he breathes it, he's involved, he listens. 00:26:32.990 --> 00:26:34.753 And guess who? 00:26:34.753 --> 00:26:38.268 Has zero open positions right now in a manufacturing setting? 00:26:38.268 --> 00:26:49.432 He has people asking to work here because they, they have referrals in front and you know, and that's just another great example of like the, the business is running smoothly. 00:26:49.432 --> 00:26:54.930 You know, retention is great because we have a leader who believes in employee engagement and truly supports. 00:26:55.653 --> 00:26:55.933 It's not. 00:26:55.933 --> 00:26:59.015 It's not coincidental, kyle, it's it. 00:26:59.015 --> 00:27:03.717 There's a reason why he has no open requisitions. 00:27:07.366 --> 00:27:07.448 Yeah. 00:27:07.448 --> 00:27:15.233 So even if you're just looking at this from a purely selfish standpoint, it's like it really isn't fun to have to hire people and have vacant positions. 00:27:15.233 --> 00:27:18.548 So if you don't want to do that, then employee engagement can really help. 00:27:19.568 --> 00:27:22.753 Well, think of filling your swimming pool. 00:27:22.753 --> 00:27:28.771 If you have a big giant hole in your liner, right, it's really difficult. 00:27:28.771 --> 00:27:48.030 And it's the same concept If you have low engagement, which usually results in higher than industry average voluntary turnover right, and you're trying to grow your business, the hardest thing in the world to do is add headcount while you're also replacing headcount, you know, and it becomes toxic. 00:27:48.030 --> 00:27:53.751 You know, as people leave, even people who weren't thinking of leaving start thinking of leaving. 00:27:53.751 --> 00:27:55.211 Right, it's the Pied Piper effect. 00:27:55.211 --> 00:28:01.453 And I think you know focusing on engagement has just so many tangible benefits. 00:28:01.453 --> 00:28:09.309 Something as simple as your employee referral percents go way up when people are engaged enough to refer their colleagues. 00:28:10.875 --> 00:28:12.846 Absolutely so. 00:28:12.846 --> 00:28:15.207 I do want to talk about that a little bit Obviously. 00:28:15.207 --> 00:28:17.213 You know you're a subject matter expert. 00:28:17.213 --> 00:28:20.431 You've lived it, You've written the books. 00:28:20.431 --> 00:28:26.532 Subject matter expert You've lived it, You've written the books For organizations that are looking at engagement or maybe are wanting to look at engagement. 00:28:26.532 --> 00:28:30.209 Where would you say the best place to start is? 00:28:30.209 --> 00:28:32.694 Do you start with measuring how you're doing? 00:28:32.694 --> 00:28:34.306 Do you start with learning and development? 00:28:34.306 --> 00:28:37.173 Where would you advise that we start to think about this? 00:28:37.173 --> 00:28:39.267 If this is new for us, yeah. 00:28:39.809 --> 00:29:00.347 So this is going to sound self-serving because we do engagement surveys, but I don't really care who you use to do an engagement survey, but you need to have a baseline right, and the baseline can't be this is what HR thinks or this is what the leaders think, because the leaders in HR always think more positively than what is really happening, right. 00:29:00.347 --> 00:29:16.724 So the metaphor I like to use, kyle you would never go to your doctor's office the annual physical without getting blood work right, and I think an engagement survey is your blood work for your organization. 00:29:16.724 --> 00:29:19.974 You need to know where are the pain points. 00:29:19.974 --> 00:29:22.807 So, before you, you know, focus on training and development. 00:29:22.807 --> 00:29:24.192 Is that a pain point? 00:29:24.192 --> 00:29:24.573 You know? 00:29:24.573 --> 00:29:26.317 Is that where the focus should be? 00:29:26.317 --> 00:29:27.165 Is it? 00:29:27.165 --> 00:29:28.008 You know? 00:29:28.028 --> 00:29:31.395 Do you have a leadership issue? 00:29:31.395 --> 00:29:40.998 You know, I always look at an engagement survey and I can tell from the first review that you don't have an engagement issue. 00:29:40.998 --> 00:29:46.836 You have a leadership trust issue and because you have a leadership trust issue, it's trickling throughout the organization. 00:29:46.836 --> 00:29:51.256 So if you focus on training and development, that's not going to fix your leadership trust issue. 00:29:51.256 --> 00:29:58.596 So, you know, give yourself some data and view engagement like the CFO views. 00:29:58.596 --> 00:30:12.519 You know, views the P&L statement Capture your data that gives you some idea of where to focus your energy, as well as what locations or departments or divisions you should be focusing your energy on. 00:30:15.426 --> 00:30:16.873 We'll be back after a quick break. 00:30:18.707 --> 00:30:26.030 At my current company, I've generated seven figures in revenue in just six months doing all the sales by myself. 00:30:26.030 --> 00:30:29.176 Just me and Rumi, my secret weapon. 00:30:29.176 --> 00:30:31.467 Rumi isn't just another meeting app. 00:30:31.467 --> 00:30:35.738 It's like Zoom or Google Meet, but with AI tools that supercharge my results. 00:30:35.738 --> 00:30:45.695 Rumi records every meeting, gives me real-time insights during sales calls and if I've met with a prospect in the past, rumi's meeting memory answers any questions I have. 00:30:45.695 --> 00:30:46.576 Before the call. 00:30:46.576 --> 00:30:50.101 I don't waste time digging through notes Rumi preps me instantly. 00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:04.542 Go to tryrumiai that's tryrumiai for a 14-day free trial? 00:31:04.542 --> 00:31:07.769 Absolutely, and I can attest you know we started doing this a few years ago. 00:31:07.769 --> 00:31:09.811 It really highlighted some areas of focus. 00:31:09.811 --> 00:31:33.240 The other thing that really helped us do was figure out what to actually prioritize, because, like you said, you could sit here and even in the 50% proactive stuff that you're trying to do, if you're throwing all your energy at a program that your employees don't feel like is a need, you're not going to move the needle as much as if you actually try to solve a problem that they have in their day-to-day work. 00:31:34.186 --> 00:31:37.647 Great case study on that Near 2000,. 00:31:37.647 --> 00:31:40.717 We were owned by a German firm, the firm I was with. 00:31:40.717 --> 00:31:47.888 We were about at the time about 1,200 employees, and we were acquired the German parent. 00:31:47.888 --> 00:31:54.477 They wanted to exit their North American business, so they brought in a private equity firm and we partnered with them. 00:31:54.477 --> 00:32:01.767 So I became a management owner, because we all had to write checks too and the private equity folks wanted to come in with a bang. 00:32:01.886 --> 00:32:05.376 So they said Bob, what do you think of us doubling the 401k match? 00:32:05.376 --> 00:32:11.176 And you know the typical HR response might be oh, that's great news, let's do it. 00:32:11.176 --> 00:32:14.530 So I said well, you know that's going to cost us. 00:32:14.530 --> 00:32:20.527 You know I forget the amount, but let's just say you know that was going to be like a million dollars. 00:32:20.527 --> 00:32:22.627 I said, well, I don't really. 00:32:22.627 --> 00:32:28.152 I'm not hearing a lot of people tell us that our 401k match is not competitive. 00:32:28.152 --> 00:32:30.753 In fact, it's probably right at the baseline of competitiveness. 00:32:30.753 --> 00:32:33.496 Why don't we ask our employees what they think? 00:32:34.155 --> 00:32:39.640 So we actually did a pulse survey and overwhelming the response was training and development. 00:32:39.640 --> 00:32:41.401 Like it wasn't even close. 00:32:41.401 --> 00:32:43.442 We had over 1,000 comments. 00:32:43.442 --> 00:32:50.012 Now one person said can we have more 401k match dollars? 00:32:50.012 --> 00:32:50.934 So what I use? 00:32:50.934 --> 00:32:58.923 I took that and I said we could build a corporate university for a smaller amount than what you want to spend. 00:32:58.923 --> 00:33:01.172 Let's create a best-in-class corporate university. 00:33:01.172 --> 00:33:03.851 And that's what we did and it was a game changer. 00:33:03.851 --> 00:33:15.220 So we were all set to spend money to fix a need that we didn't have and we reallocated the funds to a need that we did have. 00:33:15.220 --> 00:33:18.551 That, you know, truly became an engagement game changer. 00:33:20.207 --> 00:33:30.964 That's a great example and, I think, a great reminder that we need to have a baseline and have a consistent measurement style as well. 00:33:30.964 --> 00:33:48.026 I think I will put a plug in here, not necessarily to be serving you, Bob, specifically, but I do strongly believe you need to go to a professional survey company as opposed to trying to do all these surveys yourself, because there are. 00:33:48.026 --> 00:33:51.778 You know, survey design is one of those sciences that there's. 00:33:51.778 --> 00:34:00.148 You really need an expert to understand and then to, and then probably more importantly, to actually interpret that data in a way that's actionable, right? 00:34:00.148 --> 00:34:01.852 That's the other big issue, right? 00:34:02.634 --> 00:34:10.936 And you know any survey provider and you know, I know all of them and they all provide great benchmarks, right? 00:34:10.936 --> 00:34:20.932 Because if you do a survey without external benchmarks, I'm going to tell you right now compensation is going to come in low and you're going to think you have a compensation issue. 00:34:20.932 --> 00:34:26.625 Now, as it stands in these inflationary times, you probably do have a compensation issue. 00:34:27.246 --> 00:34:28.211 Yeah, they're probably legit. 00:34:28.724 --> 00:34:41.885 Yeah, but typically you don't have a compensation issue and as soon as you benchmark it, you'll see that your compensation scores, based on engagement, could be in the top 90 percentile right. 00:34:41.885 --> 00:34:47.989 So you end up focusing on things that you shouldn't be focusing on, based on an artificial benchmark against yourself. 00:34:47.989 --> 00:34:57.007 So having the external benchmarks I think you know provides a very accurate prism on where you should be focusing your time and energy, Absolutely. 00:34:58.213 --> 00:34:59.641 Well, this has been a great conversation. 00:34:59.641 --> 00:35:11.496 Unfortunately, we're coming to the end of our time together and I'm sure you're running off to another all-day workshop or something like that, so I want to shift gears and get into the Rebel HR flash-around questions. 00:35:11.496 --> 00:35:15.202 Question number one where does HR need to rebel? 00:35:17.465 --> 00:35:39.822 I would rebel on the administrative perception side of things and, you know, be viewed organizationally as a driver of innovative thoughts inside your organization. 00:35:39.822 --> 00:35:49.793 You know, when you think of innovation you generally don't think of the HR department, right, but if you think of it, the HR department is the people department. 00:35:49.793 --> 00:35:53.735 Innovation is born from people. 00:35:53.735 --> 00:36:09.481 So how can you shift the perception organizationally that we are here providing administrative support and we are here providing cutting edge consultative insights to the organization? 00:36:09.481 --> 00:36:12.313 That's what I would suggest. 00:36:12.875 --> 00:36:13.335 Absolutely. 00:36:13.335 --> 00:36:16.432 Question number two who should we be listening to? 00:36:18.846 --> 00:36:21.090 Yeah, you know I. 00:36:21.090 --> 00:36:22.755 So here's a plug for you. 00:36:22.755 --> 00:36:36.010 You know I love these disruptive folks that are doing the podcast and the conferences and and you know I think there's a whole new breed of disruption taking place. 00:36:36.010 --> 00:36:45.985 And you know, inside the function, you know people that I tend to kind of read and listen to. 00:36:45.985 --> 00:36:50.211 You know I love Malcolm Gladwell. 00:36:50.211 --> 00:37:09.858 You know I think he bridges personal and business in such a great way and I've spoken alongside Dan Pink and his work is always exceptional and it leads always with the people part of the business. 00:37:11.085 --> 00:37:16.338 Thomas Friedman is a brilliant mind. 00:37:16.338 --> 00:37:33.679 I think if you're not a global company today, you will be tomorrow, and his work, his legacy book the World is Flat, is probably the greatest business book you'll ever read. 00:37:33.679 --> 00:37:49.213 Innovation side the Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School is a must-read for every HR professional. 00:37:49.213 --> 00:37:57.853 Even if you read the Steve Jobs story, he'll reference it that it changed his life. 00:37:57.853 --> 00:38:12.596 And if you're trying to be disruptive, one of the ways of getting there is to be more innovative yourself, and Clayton Christensen's work is a cutting edge work in the work of innovation. 00:38:14.900 --> 00:38:15.360 Absolutely. 00:38:15.360 --> 00:38:17.672 I'll put a couple of plugs out there. 00:38:17.672 --> 00:38:20.693 Bob's got a couple of great books as well. 00:38:28.865 --> 00:38:30.327 I'll put a couple of plugs out there. 00:38:30.327 --> 00:38:33.688 Bob's got a couple of great books as well. 00:38:33.688 --> 00:38:35.510 I Engage your Personal Engagement Roadmap Is that. 00:38:35.510 --> 00:38:49.476 The most recent book Talks quite a bit about what happens at home influences you at work, and it was written for COVID times in some ways because of as we all found ourselves, you know, in hybrid workforces, right. 00:38:49.476 --> 00:38:51.757 So it's a terrific book. 00:38:51.757 --> 00:39:12.523 It's personal, it has 22 career rest stops, so it's not so much a book for leaders although leaders love it to do with their team but it's a wonderful book for an individual to figure out their own personal engagement and why it might be waning Absolutely, and then we'll also include in the show notes. 00:39:12.563 --> 00:39:14.889 There's actually on Bob's website. 00:39:14.889 --> 00:39:18.577 There's actually a page dedicated to employee engagement books. 00:39:18.577 --> 00:39:20.329 There's some other recommendations out there. 00:39:20.329 --> 00:39:28.112 Of course, his books are available, so open up your podcast player and click in there and you'll be able to find that. 00:39:28.112 --> 00:39:29.838 So last question how can our listeners connect with you? 00:39:31.865 --> 00:39:38.338 If you go on YouTube, you know some of the most watched videos in the world. 00:39:38.338 --> 00:39:41.371 You know who's seeking your boat. 00:39:41.371 --> 00:39:43.092 It's a video I did a few years back. 00:39:43.092 --> 00:39:44.711 It's at 1.3 million views. 00:39:44.711 --> 00:39:50.070 So there are some cool ways of connecting with me just on YouTube, and those are free ways, right. 00:39:50.070 --> 00:39:52.371 You know things that you can do and share the videos. 00:39:52.371 --> 00:39:53.313 They're four minutes long. 00:39:53.313 --> 00:39:59.317 Share them with your team A great way of leveraging engagement in a very inexpensive way. 00:39:59.317 --> 00:40:07.650 You can find me on employeeengagementcom pretty easy website, and you know there's a resource section. 00:40:07.650 --> 00:40:09.632 We post articles, best practices. 00:40:09.632 --> 00:40:19.146 You know a lot of free stuff and then there's ways of seeing how you bring me in either to give a talk. 00:40:19.146 --> 00:40:25.409 We do workshops was I was joking, uh, with kyle before we uh went live that you know these. 00:40:25.409 --> 00:40:34.273 These zoom talks have been very powerful because it allows me to wear shorts as I give a talk, so that's a benefit. 00:40:35.956 --> 00:40:39.726 yeah, and as far as you look professional to me, bob, so you know shorts or whatever. 00:40:39.726 --> 00:40:52.862 You know, we talked about that on our first podcast ever and I think we described it as it's like a reverse mullet, right, it's like there's business on top and a party on the bottom, party on Bob. 00:40:53.704 --> 00:40:54.706 I love that. 00:40:54.706 --> 00:40:59.034 I'm going to steal that, but I will give you, I will give you credit that but I will give you credit. 00:40:59.394 --> 00:41:08.451 I think I stole it from some video I saw somewhere, so I can't take credit, but I love the description. 00:41:08.451 --> 00:41:09.795 Bob, this has just been absolutely wonderful. 00:41:09.795 --> 00:41:11.039 Again, I know your time is very valuable. 00:41:11.039 --> 00:41:13.005 I appreciate you giving us a couple minutes here. 00:41:13.005 --> 00:41:16.275 I know that our listeners are going to take a lot away from this. 00:41:16.275 --> 00:41:18.512 We'll have all that information in the show notes. 00:41:18.512 --> 00:41:19.597 Check it out. 00:41:19.597 --> 00:41:21.485 Really appreciate the time, Bob. 00:41:22.248 --> 00:41:27.259 Hey, you're both a great professional colleague as well as a friend. 00:41:27.259 --> 00:41:28.206 Thank you, Kyle. 00:41:28.206 --> 00:41:29.750 Thanks Bob, Take care. 00:41:31.452 --> 00:41:34.659 All right, that does it for the Rebel HR Podcast. 00:41:34.659 --> 00:41:36.668 Big thank you to our guests. 00:41:36.668 --> 00:41:45.809 Follow us on Facebook at RebelHR Podcast, twitter at RebelHRGuy, or see our website at RebelHumanResourcescom. 00:41:45.809 --> 00:41:55.688 The views and opinions expressed by RebelHR Podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any of the organizations that we represent. 00:41:55.688 --> 00:41:59.152 No animals were harmed during the filming of this podcast.