Strengthening Team LARA

What does recruitment and retention really look like at LARA? In this episode, we spotlight the Regulatory Effectiveness Office (REO) and the work happening behind the scenes to build, support, and retain a strong workforce. Hear how REO is making an impact across Team LARA.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-ho-151ab4107/ 

Transcript

Host Anastasha Osborn 0:19

Hello, hello. Welcome back to the LARA Living Room. I'm your host, Anastasha Osborn, and today we're spotlighting a team that works behind the scenes to strengthen our workforce and support our department. And that team is the Regulatory Effectiveness Office, or as we like to call them, REO. And yes, that is a quick little nod to REO Town here in Lansing. So shout out to REO Town if you live in that area. If you ever wondered really how LARA, I guess, approaches recruitment or retention, our workforce strategy, or even internally our employee engagement, then this episode is going to be perfect for you. Because joining me today is Jack Ho, who serves as our Recruitment and Retention Specialist within the REO team. So before we jump in, I want everyone, you know the drill, fill up your coffee or your drink of choice and grab a seat and get comfortable because you are now in the LARA Living Room. Hey Jack, how's it going?

Jack Ho 1:09

Hi, I'm doing good. How are you?

Host Anastasha Osborn 1:11

I'm doing so good. The weather's beautiful. I can't complain. I feel like spring is on the horizon, maybe, hopefully.

Jack Ho 1:17

Hopefully.

Host Anastasha Osborn 1:18

Yeah. So before we jump into really what REO is, I want you to start by kind of telling our listeners just a little bit about who you are.

Jack Ho 1:25

Okay, perfect. Hi everyone. My name is Jack Ho. I am the recruitment and retention specialist for Lara within the regulatory effectiveness office, as Anastasia just stated. So for a little bit about myself, I spent nearly a decade within state government. I actually started my career within LARA, worked briefly here, and went on to MDHHS, and then worked the stint with MISTA, and then went on to work a little bit at the Gaming Control Board, and then this opportunity came up, and then I spent the last year and a half just kind of specializing on talent acquisitions and retention for LARA.

Host Anastasha Osborn 1:55

Yeah, perfect. And again, we love our acronym. So I'm gonna have you tell us kind of what those other two department names stand for.

Jack Ho 2:02

Yeah, so I always have to catch myself on this part. But yeah, definitely. MDHHS is the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and MSHDA is the Michigan State Housing Development Authority.

Host Anastasha Osborn 2:13

Perfect. Yeah. I'm gonna give a shout-out to Jack because when he first came on and joined LARA, or REO specifically, um one of his like first few couple of tasks, I feel like, was you creating our acronym resource list for our internal staff, um, just because there are so many acronyms, both internally within our department, but then also statewide. So little shout out to Jack there. So okay, so let's talk about REO. Let's talk about um for those of us our listeners who may not be familiar, what is the Regulatory Effectiveness Office and what is it that you guys do?

Jack Ho 2:45

Yeah, lovely. So yeah, REO is basically LARA's internal like engine support. So what we do is we collaborate with other bureaus. So we operate off of three pillars, starting with performance. And then we go on to education and outreach, and then falls into workforce where that's where I specialize in with the recruitment and retention side of things. So what we do is we know that the bureaus offices and agencies already do phenomenal work and our office acts as a support for them. So we go in and kind of help provide solutions, answers to some of the questions, such as, are we staff right? Or are people equipped? Are our processes efficient? And lastly, are we reaching the people who need us?

Host Anastasha Osborn 3:25

Yeah. So I kind of want to dive a little bit more into that. So when you're interacting with these bureaus specifically, um, or our type one agencies as well, um, what types of conversations are you having with them?

Jack Ho 3:38

Yeah, so similar to some of the questions I had asked, so we're just kind of having a open conversation to see what are all the pains and aches, what are some of the struggles, whether it is the changes in the workforce. So some of the issues that they are anticipating and kind of working amongst ourselves to develop solutions, work hand in hand with them to kind of see how we can kind of get to the finish line together, per se.

Host Anastasha Osborn 4:01

Okay. No, that makes sense. So when it comes to your role specifically with recruitment and retention, what does that look like here at LARA?

Jack Ho 4:10

So I chuckle because it's it's very interesting and hard to answer in a sense, because each morning I put together a very organized to-do list, but then the day happens. Yeah. And that's and that's recruitment.

Host Anastasha Osborn 4:22

That resonates so well. I mean, I understand that completely.

Jack Ho 4:25

Right. And that that's recruitment. You have to stay ready. Because we have this running joke in our bureau that within the episode of Friends, where Ross is helping with the couch and they kept yelling, pivot. So we laugh about that quite often because not every day is the same thing. I can be dealing with either candidate issues one day, and then the next is working directly with bureau leaderships to see what sort of issues there we need to tackle in the coming weeks. So it changes pretty frequently, and it's just my role, the overall goal is to bring the right people in and support them once they're here since day one.

Host Anastasha Osborn 4:57

Yeah. And I think speaking on supporting them from day one, um, you also assist with our new employee orientation, and that is something that you do, what is it, bi-weekly? Yes, I believe. Twice a month. So um Jack does a great job working with our HR team and some of our other um resources as well, that when we onboard new employees, um, he's a support there for them because we don't want to just hire, right? You do you're in and then it's like, okay, good luck. You're like, no, we're gonna we're gonna help support you. We wanna teach you about what our department does, um, the benefits that you can have as being a LARA employee, all that really fun stuff. So I think it's interesting too for you because I would imagine in your role um a lot of your day-to-day, because you know, obviously we don't have a typical day-to-day, as you mentioned, pivoting, and um you just throw your to-do list out the window as the day starts. Um, but I imagine you are working both, you know, in an office setting, but you're also working out in the field. Is that right?

Jack Ho 5:50

That is correct. And uh huge shout out to Angela Shelby, who works for the Civil Service Commission. She is the chair for the Statewide Recruitment Committee, and she is at the center point of a lot of these conferences and career fairs that other state recruiters beyond just myself are attending and kind of helping educate the future talent pipeline for us to know about these opportunities and some of these roles that you might not know just being out in the field.

Host Anastasha Osborn 6:13

Yeah. And you guys are targeting not, I mean, you kind of talked about some of the struggles workforce um with age and stuff. And so, I mean, we're seeing not just um a population of people who are in that closer to retirement, but you're also seeing these early on, you know, high schoolers, fresh out of college or going into college. So you're kind of seeing a little bit of of of both sides. So I'm curious if you've noticed like a common workforce challenge that you want to kind of address.

Jack Ho 6:41

Yes, and it's a a long-winded answer per se, because this has been an ongoing issue for us for many, many years. So for a while back, even before COVID, we were the premier employer. Everyone wanted to become a public servant. Whereas COVID happened, and afterwards a lot of our numbers started trending downward, and then we had to kind of evaluate things because it was nearly impossible to compete with the private sector with some of their remote options, some of their pays. The list just goes on. And then we identified that early on. We knew that this is an issue. We need to start pulling data to see how we can best kind of target some of these issues, start working on solutions.

Host Anastasha Osborn 7:18

Yeah. And for our listeners too, I did want to just highlight or mention, I guess, and maybe even clarify um that the way um REO is set up is very much a central service team here in our department. So what that means is they mostly work with our internal teams. However, um for our, you know, our stakeholders, our partners, the reason why that is important and matter or should matter, I guess, to you is because you will then work with our staff and you'll be able to see the effects of that recruitment side, um, what we're doing to retain these employees. Um, and I think that way you'll be able to notice they enjoy their jobs. They enjoy what they do, they enjoy being public servants, you know, and that will bleed into the quality of their work. And so for people who may um be licensees who are going to work with those staff, um, they're going to see, okay, they care about their job. And so I think I want to just make sure that we highlight that for REO that the work may mostly be internal, but we will see those effects externally as well. So I just wanted to give a shout-out to you guys for that. So, as we're thinking more recruitment and retention, um, we kind of talked about some of the challenges. What are some of the priorities that you guys have right now?

Jack Ho 8:35

So there's a lot of things happening in REO, and I'm super excited. I'm here for it day in and day out. So, one of the recent uh successes or wins per se is we wrote out LARA's first ever paid internship. Huge shout out to Courtney Pendleton. Then that I think that really works in our benefits to have leaders in these roles that understand and see some of these issues in front of us and actually open to making these changes and then kind of opening the door for the future talents. So there it there are so many different things. And shout out to Peter Clark and his team. I know Alyssa Stepter-McKay, they do a lot of our professional development, so employee engagement and a few other things. They recently wrote out our employee resource group and affinity group. So that gives LARA staff an opportunity to kind of connect with other people that kind of share common interests. So yeah, lots of great things happening.

Host Anastasha Osborn 9:23

Yeah, I love the name drops. We have a lot of um incredible staff here, and so Courtney Pendleton being our chief operating officer, and then you have um Alyssa and Peter who are both within the REO team as well. So just incredible people just doing incredible work, and I love that there's so many opportunities for those people to be heard, um, to say, hey, there is kind of an area where we can improve and let's improve on it, and then how can we work together to do that? And I think that's incredible. Um, I want to kind of share or want you to share, I guess, some examples of how REO has made a real impact. Um, and that could be from anything from like our employee engagement opportunities or initiatives, how you guys have improved onboarding um or any training or workforce development opportunities.

Jack Ho 10:12

Yeah, so one thing you had mentioned I'm really proud of is the onboarding work. So before coming back to LARA, I mean I've heard mixed reviews. Some say there weren't any standard processes in place, and then coming back and seeing that kind of balloon or blossom into something such as beautiful as what we have now. I mean, that's again, kudos to the leadership team we have in place right now. And then we always big on continuous improvement. So on top of that, we work with HR directly to kind of roll out other initiatives. We now have even light refreshments that are offered to new employees. So other stuff that I'm super proud of, again, I mentioned the paid internship, but another big thing is the partnership that we're building along the way. So again, I'm big on shouting out and giving kudos to people, but Cindy Whittam with EGLE. So they are the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. So I work hand in hand with Cindy to roll out what is called a Higher Education Outreach Subcommittee. And what we do is kind of build on some of our partnership, double down on that, create some of these events so that recruiters across the state can actually go up to these events or professional associations to talk about more about who we are, what we do, and just better educate them and kind of bring the future to us.

Host Anastasha Osborn 11:21

Yeah, I think it's incredible too because while we do have um recruitment side, we have our retention side, but I love that there's also this side where we are working, I mean we are com we are competing in some ways with other departments, right? For recruitment for recruitment, but I love that there's still this um collaboration with you, with our department, and then our sister departments and working with them to say, hey, we are all in the same um work of trying to fill these positions with good candidates. And um, I think that's just incredible that you have the opportunity and you get to work with all these other departments, um, especially because our work is so different sometimes. Like it's we don't do anything like what they're doing, but it's it's nice that you have kind of um a community that you can go to and you can work with. Right. Um, is there anything else you want to highlight, I guess, in terms of recruitment and retention from your perspective when it comes to LARA, um, anything you think would be beneficial for our listeners, either for our internal Lara staff or our our external listeners?

Jack Ho 12:24

Yeah, so for the internal staff, definitely keep your eyes and ears to things that are coming out of our office and things that are coming up for LARA specifically. So I'm super excited to kind of highlight some of the initiatives. Again, the paid internship was a huge one, and just having leadership support to be proactive on a lot of these stuff. Getting the buy-ins to provide the data so we can make more well-informed decisions to how to combat some of these shifts in some of the workforce issues, whether it's retirement, whether it's a change in the workforce based on generation, the new emerging age group, such as the I think the Gen Alphas is going to be entering the workforce. So just being better prepared, having that buy-in, having that support, I think that just speaks volume, especially for someone who left LARA and was welcomed back with open arms. Yeah. I mean, I can't thank the leadership team here enough.

Host Anastasha Osborn 13:14

Yeah, no, that's incredible. And I think I've said it before on maybe another episode, who even knows? I don't dare go back and listen. But I know I'm biased - I've only ever worked at LARA. Um, but it is a wonderful place to work. And I think again, you coming back speaks volumes to um the culture here, the leadership here. And so I think what better person to be our our recruiter and retention specialist to to speak to that because you can speak from experience. So wonderful. Well, anything else, last minute you would like to add?

Jack Ho 13:47

Not at this point. I'm just super excited. Again, it sounds again, I may be biased because I'm currently in this position, but I am truly and honestly, genuinely excited for everything that LARA is going to put out this year. So stay tuned. You'll hear a lot more from LARA and especially REO.

Host Anastasha Osborn 14:04

Yeah, definitely. Well, thank you again, Jack, for joining me today. I appreciate it.

Jack Ho 14:08

Thank you for having me.

Host Anastasha Osborn 14:09

And as we kind of heard today, really um recruitment, as we can tell, and retention isn't just about filling positions. It's not just putting a body in a seat. It's really about building a strong, supported, and engaged team here at LARA. So for our listeners, if you want to learn more about the regulatory effectiveness office or connect with Jack specifically, you can visit the episode notes. We will put Jack's LinkedIn in there, and he is always posting, you know, any jobs that we have or where he's at. So it's an incredible opportunity for you to network with him. Uh, we hope that you all enjoyed today's episode and learned a little bit more about who we are here at LARA. Thank you so much for listening from our living room to yours. We'll see you next time.