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HR News brought to you by the Northeast Indiana Human Resource Association (NIHRA).
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Thank You for Your Service
NIHRA welcomes the following new members: Kristen Baker, Brooks Construction Company; Vicki Boroff, Schultz Huber & Associates; Rick Doering, Teijen Automotive Technologies; Hannah Beitler, BHI Senior Living.
Member Spotlight with AiJana’e Hardy, 3 Rivers Federal Credit Union and Anne Whitney, Board Member-At-Large.
Board Member Spotlight with Amanda Hoeppner, Director, SHRM Certification & Foundation.
Community Spotlight with Andrew Messmer, INVETS and Elizabeth Hoffman, Director of Workforce Readiness. https://www.invets.org/
Michael H Goldberg, The Walkalongside Leader, https://www.michaelgoldberg.co/
Holiday Safety
We'd like to welcome the following new members Kristen Baker Brooks Construction Company, vicky Boroff Schultz-Huber Associates, rick Dowring, tijon Automotive Technologies and Hannah Beatler, bhi, senior Living.
Speaker 2:Hi, this is Ann Whitney, board member at large with NIRU, and today I have a guest, Ajane Hardy, is joining me for the member spotlight. Welcome, Ajane. Thank you, Ann and Ajane, you are a. Is it correct? You're the payroll and benefits specialist for Three Rivers Federal Credit Union.
Speaker 3:Yes, I've been the payroll and benefits specialist with Three Rivers for three years now.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I think we can have that in common. We both have a financial services background yeah, looking at the credit union. So how long have you been a NIRU member?
Speaker 3:I've been a NIRU member since January of this year, when I was registering for the HR conference. This year is when I became a member.
Speaker 2:Awesome. I was excited to spotlight you because you are a new member and but have had enough months of hopefully attending some meetings. Have you? Have you been able to join some of the meetings this year then?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've been to two of the luncheons after it is so.
Speaker 2:Awesome. And also, what about your SHIRM membership? Are you a member and how long if you are one?
Speaker 3:Yes, I am a SHIRM member and I've been a SHIRM member for two years now.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's awesome as well. I'm sure that that has been beneficial for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, definitely. I love all the resources and staying up to know, up to speed, or rather on all things HR. So SHIRM is definitely especially within my first year of HR was a go-to resource for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely is a fabulous resource. Ajane, can you share with us why you chose your journey in the human resources profession?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I got my undergraduate degree at Indiana State in Business Management and I found with that that I really like business operations and working with people. So HR kind of fell under that, under that niche, and HR has such a broad umbrella of different scopes within it. So that's how I found myself within HR just the people aspects and then all things business operations and learning and the legal side as well. I enjoy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree. It really is a profession that you can correlate different areas, like you mentioned. It's kind of opens up opportunities if you want to change it up. What do you enjoy, then, the most about human resources?
Speaker 3:Within my current role right now, just helping people, continuously learning and also supporting the org as a whole. I love you know, within payroll and benefits, you know I'm walking team members through a qualifying life event, so maybe just the birth of their child or, you know, let's say, a husband lost insurance. I'm walking them through their enrollment options, what that looks like for them. So being that touch point for the team is what I enjoy the most and being a trusted resource.
Speaker 2:Great, great. So so far, what would you consider your most beneficial experience with being a NIR? Remember now I know you shared with us it's. You know it's just shy of a year that you are a better member, but what so far would you say is the most beneficial?
Speaker 3:I enjoy the most to share community of other HR professionals and just being able to connect on different topics within HR that you can talk to maybe someone that works in another department to maybe understand like, how do you guys handle this issue? You know, at your organization, what processes do you guys follow? Just the learning from one another, especially with me being somewhat newer to HR and newer to the HR team within within my current or just having that shared community of other people to lean off of, from other organizations as well, to better shape our organizations and also for me to grow as well.
Speaker 2:I agree and I love that. You stated you know the shared community and I agree with that. I think what I found amazingly like you know, even you and I you can be in a shared industry, which is great, and you still have that networking in that community of you know. Yes, we are in a sense competitors, but we share that. You know what are, what are our differences, what are we doing? Similarly, when it comes to the HR type of stuff. And then I think what you even said about you know different industries, it's it's it's great that you can share that and learn from each other. You know when you are in a different industry as well. So what's so far with our lineup we've had for this year, with our monthly meetings? Do you have a favorite or or a memorable speaker that you'd like to share with us? Who? That is why.
Speaker 3:I don't have a hard time choosing favors just because I'm in decisive, so I don't have a favorite, but I really enjoy the legal, these lunch and learn sessions. Like I just get so much out of that staying up to date, answering questions, just honestly learning from other people's questions as well, like, oh, I didn't think of it, that something to stay on the lookout for. I really enjoyed illegally session and I love law, so illegally session, lunch and learns are probably my favorite.
Speaker 2:I'm glad to hear, I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying those and you find them beneficial. I, I agree, and I think they are great for you know, when you do have that that busy, you know week or time where you can, you can more convenient and you can attend that session. Great, if you could choose one song. So so here we have. We're shifting a little bit, we're going to a little bit share with us on something fun and personal. So if you could choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what song would you choose and why?
Speaker 3:It's a hard one because I still I don't know, but I don't have a favorite song, but I would probably have something with like a upbeat, like an upbeat melody.
Speaker 2:So okay, kind of get you going right yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so not a favorite song, but if I hadn't like some background or so, probably similar like marching band type, I would probably choose a little bit upbeat yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's good.
Speaker 2:I mean, I can kind of get get that energy flowing. So, and what about a superpower? If you could choose any of the superpowers, what power would you choose, and why?
Speaker 3:Flying. I love to zip line and whenever I'm in the air and kind of to me it's like birds I view and it makes me feel like I'm literally flying and just like soaring to the air. So if I had a super power probably would be to fly and I don't have to worry about transportation with gas and you know, I just literally just get up and go and travels really on my own accord.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you and you get the best view right. Yeah, amazing. Do you mind sharing with us maybe some, a few things that you do in your free time or any hobbies that you have?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love to spend time with my nieces and nephews. I've got a newborn nephew and I've got three nieces and then one older nephew as well. If I love to spend time with them, and that, you know, loves to be involved with my family, so I spent a lot of time with my nieces and nephew and my grandparents. Outside of that, I like to relax, travel, and then I have a women's group that I'm a part of that I thoroughly enjoy.
Speaker 2:Wow, it sounds like you. Yes, stay quite busy, I'm sure, with work, with the family time and well, thank you for sharing that with us. And last thing, do you have any encouraging words for someone that is listening in or or is maybe you know, came as a guest and they're considering to join Naira?
Speaker 3:Just join. I I hate I didn't know about Naira sooner and all honesty, because, like I said, it's just a great shared connect, shared community of other HR professionals, professionals, whether you're new, just looking at you know maybe get help with like your networking or benchmarking across different industries with your org. Definitely just join, try it out and I will say that I love the topics that you guys are rolling out with the different events that we have. They vary across different scopes with NHR, from recruiting the legal side that I love people, talent means many things like that. So there's a right, a wide variety of different things that you can really get out of Naira. You know friendships and you know the educational piece.
Speaker 2:Join Great. Yeah, our, our board is sure trying their best efforts to do to do what you shared, you know, get that a change up and get the programs going. So so glad you shared that. I want to thank you again for joining me in the member spotlight and your willingness to share your journey with with our listeners. So thank you again for for attending.
Speaker 3:Thank you, and it's been a great experience.
Speaker 1:Today we'll be featuring Amanda Hopner, director of Sherm Certification and Foundation, to introduce herself. Amanda, welcome to the program. Tell us about yourself and what Naira means to you.
Speaker 5:Well. Thank you, mike, for inviting me. I am currently the HR Director for HWC Engineering, a civil engineering firm based in Indianapolis. I've been privileged to actually work hybrid between Indy and the NACO working space down here at Electric Works. At HWC, we really were strong and civil. We designed roads, bridges, streetscapes, water resources across the state of Indiana and I'm proud to support an amazing group of 175 employees and be part of Best Places to Work in Indiana for the past eight years.
Speaker 5:I have been a member with Naira since 2007. That's crazy to think 16 years and for me, naira has been a family of HR colleagues. In my career I've made friends and connections, learning from each other with information sharing, and Naira has been my local resource on all HR education, bringing out top notch professionals, legal experts and connecting me with the National SHRM network. Naira has been my constant companion as my career has evolved. I remember when I was an entry level HR assistant, coming in and then through working the specialty areas of HR, such as Benefit Safety, employee Relations, and here I am where I'm at, as an organizational influencer and people leader. Naira has always been by my side.
Speaker 1:Amanda, what is the benefit of certification, and can you tell our listeners anything about what we do at Naira to assist?
Speaker 5:Yes. So personally, my perspective between completing my MBA and HR in achieving the SHRM SCP certification, I really feel SHRM certification has been my most valuable. Shrm certification really provides a boost in confidence to HR professionals and recognition among peers and leaders. It really does show my commitment to the HR profession and certification has been a gem in my career evolution, really that sweet spot on a resume or profile. It shows credibility and practicing the competencies of SHRM and bringing expertise to HR operations. And certification also, too, has been known to enhance salary potential and provides an edge for HR professionals when being hired or promoted.
Speaker 5:I want to say, for those interested in certification, naira has been essential in providing assistance by promoting local programs such as our partnership with PFWs, continuing Education and their exam prep course, which provides an discount for $200 if you are a Naira member, and they do have a spring session coming up in February and then we'll run 12 weeks through April. Additionally, when you are certified, you have access to maintaining your certification with our CEU accredited programs. Really, naira makes it truly easy to keep your certification. You attend meetings, you attend conference. We have it all for you.
Speaker 1:So, Amanda, what is the SHRM Foundation and why should our listeners support it?
Speaker 5:SHRM Foundation really is our charitable arm of SHRM. It's a 501c3 nonprofit social force with SHRM, and the missions offer education opportunities, training and resources for the next generation of HR leaders. They do this by awarding scholarships and grants to students and organizations and they really again support by preparing for achieving certification and attending various SHRM programs and conferences. In total, shrm Foundation's offered more than $500,000 in awards that have supported over 350 recipients, helping them achieve career success. If you feel inspired to pay it forward and support others in HR learning, we welcome you to donate to the SHRM Foundation via a link on our Naira website. If you go to our homepage it is on the left side. Your donation is tax deductible and we really encourage HR to not hesitate to add it to your philanthropy support and really just add it to the other clauses that are near and dear to your heart.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks for your time today, Amanda.
Speaker 5:It's been a pleasure. Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 6:Hi everyone. This is Elizabeth Hoffman. I am the director of workforce readiness from Naira. I'm so excited to be here this morning with my good friend, andrew from InVets. First off, andrew, thank you for being here and thank you for your service. Andrew is a veteran and today we are going to talk about all things veterans and InVets. So, first off, what can you tell me about InVets? Who are you? What you do?
Speaker 7:Well, thank you for having me here. So, InVets, we are a nonprofit organization based out of Indianapolis and what we do is we help the entire state of Indiana meet their workforce demands. So in that we travel throughout the United States and we create new partnerships with service members that are transitioning from active duty military and we encourage them to come to Indiana and fill our workforce needs.
Speaker 6:Awesome, and what is your role in InVets?
Speaker 7:So my role is the Northeast Indiana veteran engagement manager, and what that really means is that I am the person that's here to work with all of our partner organizations in Northeast Indiana, as well as be the point person for all of the transitioning service members that are interested in our part of the state.
Speaker 6:Awesome. Can you tell me how employers get involved with InVets?
Speaker 7:Absolutely. So the first thing you can do is you can give me a call or an email and I can give you all the information. We can talk about it, answer all those questions. There's typically a lot of questions that people have, but I'd like to point out that everything that we do is free. We don't charge anybody, we don't charge the employer partners, we don't charge our veterans that work with us, so that is nice. We're also not a temp service and we're not trying to take advantage of anybody in this, so it's a free service. And other options we have is you can just go to invetsorg and if you go to our website, there's a button you can click and you can get some more information that way, and yeah, Great InVets.
Speaker 6:information is also available on the NIR website. Why should employers hire veterans?
Speaker 7:So veterans bring a lot to the table that your traditional civilian world employee isn't necessarily going to have. One of the biggest things is the teamwork, team player kind of mentality, the cliched expression. There's no I in team right and so all members of the military used to working as a member of a team. They come in to the civilian world with that same mindset of they own just one piece of the puzzle but they're planning on working hand in hand with their collaborators, and other parts of that are military members are used to being kind of part of a big picture and everybody has a war fighting function, so to speak. So, coming from that background, entering the civilian world, they want to come in and they're looking for not just I want to do my job and go home is they want to come in. They want to understand what is going on around me, what's happening on my left, what's happening on my right, and really be kind of holistically approach, to invest it in where they're at. Other things that veterans bring a huge ability to adapt, decision making, processing information, quick operating in stressful environments. Abilities to plan, execute, follow instructions, follow instructions not just generally but with a high level of detail, as well as working at adverse conditions. So you know we say that and everybody knows what you see in TVs and movies and you know the civilian world. We're not talking about war environments, it's more. Somebody can come in and if they have to be in an office setting, that's fine, and if they have to go outside and it might be cold and northeast Indiana, they're typically not going to be those ones to complain oh I got to put a jacket on, right, it's no big deal. They can go outside, they can do those things. They can come back inside, they can go into a freezer or somewhere that might be hot or things like that. They're quick to adapt to their environments. Other things you know all veterans are going to bring in a list of intrinsic qualities and… we kind of cliche them with that. It's hard work. They bring that hard work ethic in and it's so much more than that. You know.
Speaker 7:Showing up on time there's a lot to be said for just showing up in general, but you're gonna have a veteran that is gonna show up to work each day. They're gonna be on time, if not early. A lot of folks in the military will say if you're not 15 minutes early, you're late, and so that kind of mindset well, it does get a little a bit lax as you become a civilian. I know myself I've I target that five minutes early. It's on time, so yeah.
Speaker 7:But that type of intrinsic value that that comes with every veteran from having to be in a formation or at a specific point in time every day and that translates over very well into the civilian world. And one of the other things that I always like to say about that is dedication and commitment. So Anybody who joined the military, they volunteered, we're all volunteer force and those are folks that wanted to be there, they chose that. And that level of dedication and commitment to our country and Coming in now to the civilian world, that same kind of mentality Translates over where they want to have that meaningful relationship with their employer, where they're valued. And that same level of dedication comes with them where it's not a well, I'm gonna take this job, but in two months I'm gonna leave for 15 cents more an hour and then work that job for three months and then go get 10 cents more an hour. You know they have that commitment there where they want to have that long-lasting opportunity.
Speaker 6:Great. Are there any positions or job descriptions that veterans are specifically looking for or that in that specializes in?
Speaker 7:I Wouldn't say there's anything specific that veterans are looking for. So a lot of military skills are Directly transferable. Some of them are indirectly transferable. An example of that direct transferable skill is like someone working in maintenance. So if they work on an Abrams tank they're a mechanic for that. Obviously that's a multi-billion dollar piece of equipment. They can come into the civilian world and they can work on just about anything that would be in the like the advanced manufacturing realm or Other general maintenance as well.
Speaker 7:The indirect transferable skills kind of go back to those intrinsic qualities that I was saying. So you might have someone like myself who was an infantryman and you know there's a lot of jokes that that we will say in our internal circles about infantrymen and then we're not really good at anything. We're kind of the jack of all trades, master of none. But you know, looking at different opportunities, it doesn't have to just be operations or maintenance. You know we can move military positions from Military police, logistics, indirect fire, things like that and they transfer over into that. Decision-making ability is the acute attention to detail they can come in. Public relations is another one from the military that would directly translate Into the civilian world. Very similar fields, law enforcement. Of course, there's always Just that general mindset from the military, regardless of what you've done and going into law enforcement. I know our local law enforcement agencies love to recruit from the military and there's always that pipeline that we try to keep open.
Speaker 6:Okay, last question how can employers be more supportive of transitioning military personnel and their families?
Speaker 7:So to be supportive of transitioning military and their family. I think it starts with a level of education and that kind of works on both sides. So on the military side we I Say we as a retiree we try to learn as much as we can about what the civilian world is going to be like and With that there's there's the whole structure of programs, the tap program that service members are going through and the work that invests is doing, working hand-in-hand with our individuals. So On our side we're trying to learn the civilian in the civilian side, kind of reciprocating that same effort there's. There's a bit of a learning curve for someone like 20-year career. Now they're coming out, the only job they've had is the military. So they're trying to take the military jargon and that language and and drop those words and do that force translation in their mind so they're not having that army speak or Navy speak and they can come in and have that. So for the, the civilian world employers looking at this and saying you know I'm I'm interested in hiring Some army or some Navy veterans or the branch of service, kind of regardless, and Just learning a little bit more about what is their military life like, what are the, the typical struggles that they had. You know they maybe they've had to move all over the country, maybe they've had to move all over the world, transfer their family every time that they move. So kind of Just gaining some generalized knowledge really helps.
Speaker 7:Another thing is, I will always say, have a little bit of patience with them and Really it's quite literally just a little bit of patience. Service members are very quick to learn and in that, you know, coming into a position they're gonna pick up on those skills, they're gonna pick up on the routines and they're gonna quickly adapt. But just giving them a bit of a grace period where they can adapt to the new environments vocabulary, like I was saying before, and Also it's not such an intense environment. So a lot of service members are coming from kind of an intense environment and Maybe it's a bit extreme for them. They get to come to civilian world finally, take a deep breath, relax, enjoy life. And that's not that you can't enjoy life in military service, but we're looking for that, those things. There's kind of some jokes about it where it's like what do I want to do when I grow up? You know, when I get out of the military what I want to do when I grow up and so now it's those times where they get to have their weekends and their afternoons are always free, because they don't have that military commitment was 365 days.
Speaker 7:So other things that employers can do, supporting the culture and Integrating a bit of military into the workplace culture that's a real big one. So things like military support networks or military resource groups, you know, pulling together the current veterans you have in your organization and Creating an environment that fosters the, the welcoming and kind of that open arms, so to speak, for other veterans coming in. There's a lot to be said for veterans. Helping veterans. You know, like myself and all of invets, we're almost entirely veterans that work there and there's a passion and just another intrinsic value for veterans. When we see another brother or sister that needs help, we want to help them.
Speaker 7:So creating those groups where you've got a handful of veterans that have already been working here, whether it's been a year or 20 years, and having a new veteran come in and maybe they're not sure, they have some questions or whatever the circumstance may be, so a resource group really can be monumental to welcoming them and letting them know that they are valued there in that environment For companies that maybe aren't large enough to support that. There's other options where we can look at some community resource groups that are still veteran focused, especially here in northeast Indiana. We have a lot of options and we have a huge veteran support in northeast Indiana, so there's always something that we can do and if anybody has any questions, Could you talk a little bit about the timeline for transitioning military members?
Speaker 7:Yes. So it's a non-traditional timeline for service members that are leaving the military, especially when we're talking about getting jobs in the civilian world and how things work. So, generally speaking, about a year before a service member is going to separate and that's whether they're retiring or simply leaving prior to retirement and at about a year mark they're going to start to participate in the mandatory separation events and when they go through those they start to build their civilian resume and they start that process of, like their mental transition, in that that's when InVet starts to make contact with them at these events. That's our targeted recruitment efforts that we have. And from there, 270 days, 180 days there's a couple other key marks that happen. The 180 days is an opportunity where, if the service members approve through their chain of command, they could participate in an internship. There's two different programs for that. I'll just refer to them as a skill bridge, and that skill bridge is the opportunity where they can come do an internship. They continue to be paid by the Department of Defense, there's no cost to the employers and these service members can come in and work hand in hand, side by side. They can start an apprenticeship program and they can start to build those skills that will they'll directly need in that workplace. And under that 180 day mark there's a few things that the individual will go through on the military side. But basically under that 180 days there that continuous opportunity for the internship program.
Speaker 7:Then when they get to about 45 to 30 days, typically service members are going to have a stockpile of leave days available. So once they go on what we call terminal leave, then that's when they're able to start working. So if a just create a hypothetical situation, if a service member were to do a skill bridge at 180 days and say they had 30 days of leave, so they would get about 150 days of an internship where they could come through with an employer here in Northeast Indiana, right, and while they're doing that they'd have just a handful of tasks they might have to complete. They could do those through their computer, through their phones, and then at that 30 day mark they'd have to return to the installation that they came from and go through what we call out processing. It takes just a handful of days, maybe a week, and then when they return then they're able to be employed at that point.
Speaker 7:So from that 180 day, about that 180 day mark, that's really where in vets we get really involved with the individuals, because that's looking for the employment opportunities. Unfortunately it doesn't really translate as get a job today and you could start tomorrow. So there's a bit of understanding in that that we're looking farther out. So it takes kind of a bit of forecasting on the employer side. You know, trying to hire someone that you need to start the first of December. Today we might have a candidate but we might not. So there's a level of understanding that kind of goes back into that education of just kind of learning how the military and the transitioning process works.
Speaker 6:Great. Thank you so much for being here and again, thank you for your service and thank you to all of our veterans for their service. And, yeah, thanks for meeting.
Speaker 7:Well, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Today we'd like to welcome Michael Goldberg, who recently spoke at Disrupt HR Fort Wayne. Michael is the owner of Walk Alongside Leader, a company focused on transforming leaders to be more responsive to today's market demands. Michael Goldberg is the former Executive Director of Northwell Health's LIJ Medical Center, where he was responsible for day-to-day operations of the hospital's $1 billion annual operating budget 583 beds, 5,500 employees and 4,000 physicians. Working with the leadership team at LIJ, mr Goldberg focused on driving clinical and operational initiatives to ensure appropriate, safe, efficient and innovative care to its patients. Welcome to the program, michael.
Speaker 8:Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to have this conversation.
Speaker 1:So, michael, you recently spoke at Disrupt HR Fort Wayne. For those who couldn't attend, can you give our listeners a taste of what was discussed?
Speaker 8:Absolutely. It was an incredible evening in Fort Wayne where I had the pleasure of sharing a little bit of the insight into the power of social media when embraced by leaders. You see, there's a trend that's taking place in the marketplace where our teams, just like we, have access to in our personal lives, infinite amounts of information at our fingertips whenever we want it, on demand. And the same isn't always true in companies, and when it is, it's usually deferred to a PR or an internal communications team. But what people really want when working for somebody is to be able to align with them, align with their values, understand the person that they're working for, know that the person that they're working for cares about them, and one of the ways that I've had success doing that is complementing the traditional ways of communication and organization the emails that come out on a regular basis that tell everybody at the team what is happening in their organization. But not everybody reads emails, and so there's other ways that people communicate also. They could be town hall meetings, they could be digital boards. Some companies text message their team members, trying not to be too intrusive, but what I found was connecting with people where they are is critically important. So what I spoke about was the success that I had utilizing social media in order to connect with our team members, and I'll just give you a little bit of statistics.
Speaker 8:So when we would send emails out to our team in the hospital, only about 17% of people would open them, which, if you take a step back for a second, kind of makes sense, because not everybody who works in the hospital sits in front of a computer all day.
Speaker 8:You have maintenance workers, engineers, food service workers, people at the laboratory that are processing the work they need to do, and so they're not just sitting there in a cubicle waiting for the next email to pop up, but where they are on their own time is on social media On average.
Speaker 8:One of the statistics I didn't get to share in Fort Wayne was that we, as adults, spend almost eight hours a day in front of some kind of a screen, and of those eight hours, two and a half of those hours are spent on social media. So we had the innovative approach maybe you call it a disruptive approach to talk to our team members where they were, which was on social media, and it couldn't have been more powerful. Our access to our team by sharing transparent and consistently with them made magic happen. We were democratizing information, which is a major challenge as organizations size scales and, as you said before, we had a large team, but we allowed everybody to be on the same page at the same time, which is crucial, especially in the healthcare organization that sometimes manages crises, like we were during the pandemic. So that's a little bit of what we talked about in Fort Wayne.
Speaker 1:So, michael, you run a company called Walk Alongside Leader. Tell us about it.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I transitioned from the role at the hospital after the pandemic because what I saw especially in healthcare, but it's also true in other industries was a tremendous transition of people leaving their jobs because they felt like something was missing and, as all HR and business studies usually show, people leave their jobs because of leadership.
Speaker 8:And not to blame leadership in any way, what I think we've gone through over the last several years is a realigning expectation of what people want from us as leaders, and I saw the power of being an innovative leader, being out there with the team, the types of conversations that I was able to have on social media, but beyond that, the cultural transformation that we were able to achieve together by building trust, having bidirectional, ongoing interactions both online and physically throughout the business, where we saw incredible gains in our financial performance.
Speaker 8:Our employee engagement more than doubled, the transition from about 40% to over only four out of 10 employees were happy coming to work to growing up to about 87% to 90%.
Speaker 8:There are almost nine out of 10 people who are happy coming to work and I always like to say you never want 100% right, because you always need a couple of people who are just a little bit unhappy at work to remind everybody else how good they have, and that was very true, and what we saw in the result of that was less turnover, a reduction in our need to utilize overtime and premium dollars, an easier time recruiting, where many people were seeking us out for the place that they wanted to work, as opposed to us struggling to find people and in an industry that was seeing one out of five people resigning.
Speaker 8:We were the place that people wanted to go to, and so what Walk Alongside Leader does is take some of those lessons and implement them and help teams at individual organizations they could be large organizations, smaller organizations really transform the leadership role to get people out of that quote unquote corner office and be open and available in a safe way that protects the things that most leaders are concerned about, but in a way that resonates with their team, so that when people are leaving and transitioning their jobs all around the country which is still happening they become the places that people want to go but, more importantly, the person people want to work for.
Speaker 1:Excellent, Michael. If our listeners wanted to find out more information or get a hold of you, how would they get in touch?
Speaker 8:There's multiple ways. I look forward to anybody reaching out. One of the things that I've always held true on social media, even with thousands of tens of thousands of followers, is to respond to everybody. So you know, don't be overwhelmed if you want to reach out on social media. My handles on Instagram and TikTok or LinkedIn are basically all the same it's Michael H Goldberg. It's M-I-C-H-A-E-L H Goldberg, g-o-l-d-b-e-r-g. The other way that people can reach out to me is through my website, walkalongsideleadercom.
Speaker 1:Thank you for your time today, Michael.
Speaker 8:Thank you for having me Enjoy the conversation.
Speaker 1:That's the most musical part of a turkey A drumstick.
Speaker 4:Enjoy a safe holiday season. From late November to mid-January, when families gather, parties are scheduled and travel spikes, Safety should be top of mind. The following are tips from the National Safety Council to ensure your family remains safe throughout the season. Traveling for the holidays, Be prepared, Preparing your car for winter and keep an emergency kit with you. Get a good night's sleep before departing and avoid drowsy driving. Leave early planning ahead for heavy traffic. Make sure every person in the vehicle is properly buckled up, no matter how long or short the distance traveled. Put that cell phone away. Many distractions occur while driving, but cell phones are the main culprit. Practice defensive driving and designate a sober driver to ensure guests make it home safely. It's better to give safely. Gifts and toys should inspire joy, not cause injuries. Thousands of children are seriously injured in toy-related incidents every year. Avoid safety hazards while gifting with these tips from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. Toys are age-ranged for safety, not for children's intellect and physical ability. To be sure to choose toys in the correct age range. Choose toys for children under three that do not have small parts which could be choking hazards For children under 10, avoid toys that must be plugged into electrical outlet. Be cautious about toys that have button batteries or magnets, which can be harmful or fatal if swallowed. When giving scooters and other riding toys, give the gift of appropriate safety gear too. Helmets should be worn at all times and they should be sized to fit. To find out about holiday toy safety recalls, check the US Consumer Product Safety Commission website. Food poisoning is no joke. Keep your holiday happy by handling food safely. The foodsafetygov website from the US Department of Health and Human Services provides some valuable holidays food safety tips. Wash your hands frequently when handling food. Keep raw meat away from fresh produce. Use separate cutting boards, plates, utensils or Food poisoning is no joke. Keep your holidays happy by handling food safely. The foodsafetygov website from the US Department of Health and Human Services provides some valuable holiday food safety tips. Wash your hands frequently when handling food. Keep raw meat away from fresh produce. Use separate cutting boards, plates and utensils for uncooked and cooked meats to avoid cross-contamination. Use a food thermometer to make sure meat is cooked to safe temperature. Refrigerate hot or cold leftover food within two hours of being served. When storing turkey, cut the leftovers in small pieces so they will chill quickly. Thanksgiving leftovers are safe for three to four days when properly refrigerated.
Speaker 4:Watch out for fire starters, Candles and Fireplaces. Use of candles and fireplaces combined with an increase in the amount of combustible seasonal decorations in many homes during the holidays means more risk for fire. The National Fire Protection Association reports that one-third of home decoration fires are started by candles and that two of every five decorated fires happen because I'm redoing. Watch out for fire starters, Candles and Fireplaces. Use of candles and fireplaces combined with an increase in the amount of combustible seasonal decorations in many homes during the holidays means more risk of fire. The National Fire Protection Association reports that one-third of home decoration fires are started by candles, that two of every five decorated fires happen because of decorations are placed too close to a heat source. Place candles where they cannot be knocked down or blown over, and out of reach of children. Keep matches in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the fireplaces. Keep candles in the operating hall and out of reach of children. Keep matches in lighters up high, out of reach of children in locked cabinet. Use the flameless rather than lighted candles near flammable objects. Don't burn trees, wreaths or wrapping paper in the fireplace. Use a screen on the fireplace at all times when a fire is burning.
Speaker 4:Alert to the dangers if you are thinking of celebrating the holidays by frying a turkey. The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports there have been 100 turkey fryer-related fires, burns or other injuries in millions of dollars in property damage losses from these incidences. Nsc discourages the use of turkey fryers at home and urges those who prefer fried turkey to seek out professional establishments or consider using an oil-less turkey fryer. It's important to keep these tips safely when decorating. Following these tips from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, Keep potentially poisonous plants mistletoe, holly berries, Jerusalem cherry and amaryllis away from children.
Speaker 4:If using an artificial tree, check that it has labeled fire-resistant. If using a live tree, cut off about 2 inches of the trunk to expose fresh wood for better water absorption. Remember to water it and remove it from your home when it is dry. Place your tree at least 3 feet away from fireplaces, radiators and other heat sources, making certain not to block doorways. Avoid placing breakable ornaments or ones with small detachable parts on lower tree branches where small children and pets can reach them. Only use indoor lights indoors and outdoor lights outdoors and choose the right ladder for the task when hanging lights. Replace the light sets that have broken or cracked sockets, freight or bear wires or loose connections. Follow the package directions on the number of light sets that can be plugged into one socket. Never nail, tack or stress wiring when hanging lights and keep plugs off the ground, away from the puddles and snow. Turn off all lights and decorations when you go to bed or leave the house.
Speaker 1:I'd like to thank all of our guests that we had today. That's all the time we have. See you next time on Mic'd.
Speaker 3:Bye.