The Human Side of Leadership

In this episode of Torch Talk, Lindsey Chupp sits down with Misty Fraelich-Clark, Human Resources leader at Hummel Group, for a candid and practical conversation about modern HR strategy, talent acquisition, and building workplaces that truly support people.

Misty shares insight from years in the HR field, walking through the biggest challenges organizations are facing today, including attracting top talent, improving retention, and aligning workplace culture with what companies say externally. The discussion dives into interview strategy, brand alignment, leadership development, and the importance of clarity and transparency during hiring.

Throughout the episode, Misty emphasizes bringing the “human” back into human resources. She explains why organizations must treat employees as whole people, spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially, and offers practical examples of wellness initiatives, development programs, and small gestures that build trust and loyalty over time.In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• Why talent acquisition remains one of today’s biggest HR challenges
• How to improve retention through leadership development and recognition
• The importance of brand alignment in hiring
• Practical interview process tips for attracting the right fit
• Treating employees as whole people, not just roles

This episode offers a grounded, real-world look at HR that goes beyond policies and paperwork, focusing instead on culture, care, and intentional leadership inside growing organizations.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'd say the decisions that you make, you make it with how will this affect the people that are we're we're implementing this into. Um maybe that's a system. You're implementing a new system. How is this going to affect our team members? Like what what do we need to prepare them for? Welcome back to Torch Talk, the show where we spotlight bold leaders growing businesses and communities with grit and purpose.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Today's guest is Misty Frella Clark, a human resources leader and workplace culture advocate. In this Torch Talk episode, we'll explore the Blaze Business Expo presentation and talk about how effective HR strategy, employee engagement, and people first leadership help organizations build strong, compliant, and thriving workplaces.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Welcome to Torch Talk, Misty. Thank you, once he. How are you? I'm great. And it's been like a floor support. It's the end of the day. What what's a better way to wrap it up than come spend a little bit of time together chatting? HR. I love it. You do like I can geek out. Do you feel like people might cringe a little bit when the word HR just said? I do. Why is there such a bad connotation that comes with HR? Well, I think it's years of um too much structure and not putting people into that and not letting um people express themselves and be human. Um, and then I always try to bring the human mass back into human resources, right? And why do why is there human you do a great job with that too? We love to just anytime we run into you, you're so warm, welcoming, and I think you probably, especially based off of experience, you do a great job at your job. Sam. I try my best. Try to get it right, but always there's always road for air, but we alert from those mistakes and we try to get better every dice.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

So let's talk a little bit about um what are some common HR challenges that you see like in your business or just inside your field right now?

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Like what's what's happening right now the business owners should be aware of? I I find we are blessed that we have um some great talent coming into our organization, but yet it is a challenge. Talent acquisition is a huge thing right now. Um, I know many businesses struggle with um trying to find individuals that will, you know, be willing to come into their organization. There is a lot of more um, I don't want to say demand, but people want uh more structure in their life. They want that nine to five Monday through Friday. Um, if there's not that it's harder to hire people and some manufacturing um organizations are finding struggle with that. Um, one thing is also finding people that are willing to learn and continuing to develop in areas. So I think um talent acquisition is one of those things that we as a human resource field um have struggled with um bringing on on top talent. So, what what are some of the ways to handle that challenge? Like what are some of the best practices that people can put into place? Yeah, I would say look at your organization. What can you sort of sacrifice and offer to people coming in? Um look at your benefits package. Are you are you competitive with your benefits? Are you appealing to individuals that are wanting to come into the workforce? Um they're quitting a job. What are you going to offer them to make their life better as a whole? I say we we look at humans as a whole being. Are you offering them a great culture, a great work environment where they're supported? I'm a big firm believer as a Christian that we need Christ first and love people well and bring that joy into the atmosphere and support them as much as we can. Life's rough. And if they know that if they fall on a hard time, that we can support them as as best as we can. So um just taking a look at what you have to offer as an organization and start building out um those simple, small little things, recognition. What are you doing from a recognition perspective? What are you doing from a people development perspective? Um, leadership development. That's a huge thing right now. Like we want to make sure that we're equipping our leaders and um having them have the tools to best support people moving forward. So um I think those things would help with the talent acquisition piece where um people are struggling. Um, what what are you marketing from a marketing perspective? Um, what is what do people say about your organization? So making sure that um you're doing internally what you're saying that you're doing externally. So um that's something that we always want to be is aligned with, you know, from a character perspective in our organizations too.

SPEAKER_00 4:52

And I mean, from a marketing perspective, I know having a good brand presence does help you because people are like, oh yeah, I know they are, I want to work there. At least open the door. And uh it can be hard. Like I mean, I've had to hire a lot of people. So I understand it's it's hard out there to catch attention with all the prospective employees, and you spend a lot of time and energy trying to get them in. Uh, and then we keep them. So that's the longer part of HR. So one going back to benefits really quickly though. Um, when you say benefits, I think insurance for a 1k, are there any like non-traditional um benefits that you see um that employers can offer?

SPEAKER_01 5:33

Maybe you can't offer a retirement package, but you might be able to offer these other types of things. Yeah, I I I would say um we do unique things like a CARES program, making sure that if a team member um falls on hard times or something going on, we have a CARES committee and we offer a benefit of supporting them through a difficult time. Um, I would say flexibility. Uh remote work policies are now in place. There's um, you know, some flexibility with that if if that's an option for your organization, um, looking at those, but also having guidelines, um, making sure that the performance is there and all of those things. But that's just small little changes that can be made and looked at, um, maybe flexing some hours. Um, does your business need to be open Monday through Friday from eight to five? Are there some different things that you could do? So those are some of the things that I think are benefits that are outside of the traditional insurance or OIK. Those are huge, um, but those small little benefits matter when you're you know looking at raising a family and and bringing on team members. Okay, so you've discussed employee acquisition as a core challenge right now for business owners. What other challenges do you see on the HR landscape? You you mentioned it earlier, retention, um, keeping team members engaged. You want to continue to pour into them and let them know that they're, you know, there's a future here for you. Um, we value as team members, trying to find different ways again to recognize team members for their good work, um, giving them opportunity to grow and develop if that's what they wish to do, um, looking at ways that they can do that, sending them to one of the things we like as Leadership Holmes County. That's a great um organization. We also have a lead program internally that we pick out future leaders that we feel like they have some characteristics that we're looking for leaders, and we have a monthly meeting with them and we grow and develop them, and we bring on um consultants to do some of the training as well with them. So um it's ways that we can just uh try to say we want you here, we appreciate you, we value you, we want to continue to pour it into you. Um that's some of the ways that do you have to apply to be a part of the lead program? Is that like a manager nomination? How do you get into that? It's a nomination. Okay. Um managers, uh I go to our managers, our manager team and say, Hey, um, who on your team do you feel has some characteristics that would be um a great alignment for our next stage of leadership? As we grow, leaders um develop as well. And we gotta be prepared and have them equipped to take on those leadership roles. Um okay, so we didn't really cover this at the beginning, but you were for Hamlin Insurance. So how many employees do you guys have? We have 200. Okay. Wow. Yes, goodness. And how long have you been there? Um, it'll be seven years this year. It goes quickly. Wow. Yes. But you've been in HR for a very long time. Yes. And you've helped do different types of sizes of organizations. Yeah, I have been uh started out just assisting in HR, filing, um, putting things uh away for the HR manager, um, just taking phone calls and different things. And then I transpired into an HR manager role. And yeah, it's been great learning all the different aspects of HR from payroll to workmen's comp to performance management, talent acquisition, um, all the things in between. It just is is a lot to learn, but also it's so rewarding. I love um the every uh aspect of HR and what it brings. And you like to say you put the human back in HR. You had mentioned that earlier.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

Um, other than some of the things you've mentioned as far as acquisition, what are the ways that you can bring that back and make sure that, like, you know, I I know we don't have an HR department. A lot of our clients are small enough that they just don't. So maybe they're outsourcing payroll to somebody else or they have support there, but they don't necessarily have rules. So um talk to somebody listening to this who might say, Well, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 9:49

How do I bring people back in from an HR perspective? Yeah, I say the decisions that you make, you make it with how will this affect the people that are work we're implementing this into. Um, maybe that's a system, you're implementing a new system. How is this going to affect our team members? Like what do we need to prepare them for? Um, I say with every um stage and every decision that's made in an organization, you have to understand how it's going to affect the team members when you're implementing it or rolling out a policy. How are they going to perceive it? Anything that we need to be prepared for as we roll these things out. Um, and that's bringing the human element back into it, not just because somebody wants to make a change internally and that's what we're going to do, but also thinking about okay, what does this change bring? What does this change bring to the the team members that are working in these areas? Um, and that's sort of caring and compassionate. And uh when you show you care, there's trust built there. And when there's trust built there, systems go very well, I feel.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Okay, so I like Ian mentioned, I have hired a lot of people here. I mean, not a lot. We got plenty of people on the team, but I've done a lot of interviews. I know um hiring and tele acquisition is something that a lot of organizations struggle with. Any tips, any pro tips? Like, where is the best place to go? How do you attract people? Like, how do I get people to know and then get them so we can, you know, filter them through? A lot of people struggle with indeed. Yeah, I'm like scared to say that we're too, but like, I mean, people just it's like it feels kind of like Walmart, like you you don't want to use it, but you feel like you have no other choice. So, what are what are our options out here or or how you use that as the best tool?

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Yes, we're trying to get it right too. Like it is, um, it's difficult, but I feel like building relationships with your local high schools, your guidance counselors, trying to get involved um in in just local events, um, knowing so people know your brand. They understand who you are and what you do internally, and then the interest spike from that. Um, also colleges. We are trying to get involved um in the college fairs, going out and meeting with um a lot of colleges now. They are looking for internships. Um, there's a lot of colleges really close to us. Yeah, it wasn't a one-hour drag up here. Um, do you have any specific ones that yeah you'd have partnerships with? I have um recently worked with Malone over the last couple years. Um, Ashland University. Uh, we've also looked at um Akron University as well, um, just to partner with them. They have a you know risk management program, that's what we do. Um and so we're we're just trying to build those those relationships and as um career fairs come up, being present, um, and then also being a resource to them as well, because I know Malone has put some career for them in place that they um want internships as part of a graduation credit. So we want to support that, and we also want great team members blowing into us as well. So I would say, yeah, high schools, colleges, um, LinkedIn. So we have we've done ads and and different things on LinkedIn. We do have um an ATS system, which is an applicant tracking system, um, inside of our um HRAS, which is our human resource uh information system, and um that goes out to Indeed. That's just the standard with the program. Um so those flow out to to Indeed, but we also market on our website. Make sure your website's up to date. Your website is a display of who you are and what you do. I I want that alignment. I want people to know what they are getting. I one of my sayings in interviews is I want to get to know you and I want you to get to know us. I don't like surprises, and I'm sure you don't like surprises. So, and during our interview process, it's a lengthy one. Um, we take time with interviewing, we find that very important because we want to be clear and we want to be clear on who they are and what they are expecting. Tell us what that looks like. I'm curious. What is your interview process? Yeah, so we start out, we we get applicants in, we get a lot of internal referrals, which we appreciate as well. Um we have a referral bonus for our team members to refer team members into the organization, refer candidates, I should say, into the organization. And we start off with just uh a simple either phone interview or a video interview. Um, we share who we are, what we're looking for, and we also capture that information from the applicant. Um, we feel like if there is uh a common ground there, we will move on and go do an in-person interview with our manager and a member of our HR team. And then from there, um, we do have a third interview that's in person as well, usually um with a member of our sec operations team, um, some the manager once again, and then um a member of the HR team if that's possible, and then the applicant. So we go we go through those um one by one, and we find that it's important because you learn something more every time you meet an individual. So I think that that's clarity for them that we are serious about bringing them on, and that's also clarity for us that there has been sort of a consistency in what we're seeing and what we're hearing um and what they're they're expecting from us as well. So, how long does that usually take on average from start to finish? Well, it it varies, but it could take, you know, I would say two, maybe three weeks, depending on um the individual and the timing and and who's available. But we try to be all available to make sure we're working through the process rather quickly so we're not holding them up as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

Do you ever wish you could just get a hold of everybody submitting an application and say, listen, I know you have a resume class. You need to make sure it looks nice. Yes. Please don't use the indeed resume.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

No, that I have to say, I will be honest, when you see those, it is not appealing from an HR perspective. Like, I've like, if they can't take the time to put together a Word document. Oh, hello, Canva is very easy. Yeah, it's everybody can use Canva.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, there's templates. Yeah, I'm actually surprised sometimes by people who apply for a marketing job. We were own a marketing company, like this is what we do, everybody knows it. Yeah, um, sometimes we'll have marketing professional professionals use the indeed resonate. I'm like, what are you doing? And then I'll have somebody apply who has absolutely zero experience in the field, but because they have used Canva to make something that stands out visually. Yeah, um, I think what um applicants don't understand is we might get 150 applications for a job, and you really do have to make yourself stand out. Like those visual tools that you have available to you are super invaluable. So I cannot, I'm always like, why? Yeah, what do you not understand? And colleges please teach people this if you're not. They're supposed to be.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yes. Oh, I mean, Lindsay, you know, in in in the early 2000s, they taught us that. I know. I'm like, I know they're teaching people this. I have to, but yes, I mean, I I think it's very respectful of a person's time when you're applying, um, to have even have a nice cover letter, um, sharing a little bit about yourself and what you're looking for, um, and then and a nice resume. And then two, I mean, from a compliance perspective, we have them complete the application. And, you know, we're looking for consistencies with that as well. Um, and just we we want transparency and we want to know, you know, who we're getting, and we want to provide the best workplace for them as well. Okay, well, we had our moment of just saying, hey, people, yeah, buck up here.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

Okay, so we've talked about a lot. We've talked about um employee acquisition, we've talked about employee retention, a little bit about benefits and what employers should be offering. Um, are there any other key things that you feel like um, you know, people are just missing the mark right now when it comes to HR and and workplace policies and things like that?

SPEAKER_01 18:28

And I have this theory that we need to treat people as whole beings. So that's you know, spiritually, emotionally, um, physically, financially. We our job as leaders is to provide the best um advice and education to our team members as possible. And I try to look at that as what can we be doing more from each of these perspectives? And one of the things is um we implemented a wellness program. And I know some people roll their eyes at that, but there's nothing that says that we care for you is that you care for yourself. Taking time for yourself, getting your annual physical, getting your blood work, because we all don't do it unless we are like like, please, there's an incentive to it. So we we put in an incentive program to do that. Um, make sure you're taking care of yourself, making sure you're looking into your well-being, um, taking time out. We we have um a community service day, um, spending time with your community, loving on where we're having our offices out in the community. Um, so those are a couple of different pieces that I think of. Um offering financial wellness, um, educating your team members on the best ways to save, the best ways to look at retirement. Um, because all of those things have compounding and interest into the future that they can even look back if they're not with you in 10 years from now, um, but they can look back and say, I am so glad that that leader took time to share with me some of these good pillars that have got me to um be more aware of my health, be more aware of my financial being. So just those pieces that we can do just as an educator. Um, I feel like as a leader, we have the opportunity to educate. And now that we've been through life a little bit, um saying, hey, I wish I would have known this when I was starting out, even even if you don't um, you know, have all these, I guess, options, you can also bring in people to educate your team members. Uh, I know our our our team at Home Group um appreciates going out, and we have a four-in-one case places, um, giving some financial um wellness um education to employers and their teams and to our benefits team, um, rolling out like life insurance and different things, why it's valuable, why you you need it. Um those pieces are are perfect so that they're aware of things that are out there um that they can um uh get involved in, but also um being educators, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Well, no, there's some great resources out there available for you, like partners. So if you know, if you have an insurance agent, then right do you willing to come in and help help you educate your team on those things.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

It's not necessarily something you don't have to be an expert in, but that is an area where you can help bring that whole being into perspective, like what you're saying. So, how can I help my employer take or my employee take care of their physical well being, mental well being, emotional, all of those types of things. So I love that. I love that viewpoint from your perspective. So yeah, and you tough file, we have an employee assistance program, you know, offering, you know, counseling sessions to our team members, um, you know, putting that clear. And helping, just anything that we can do to help and set some some great uh pillars for them to grow. Bloom Clark could grow. That's what we want to see. People is is is being at their best.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

Any ways for smaller companies to like begin those types of programs and where do you choose to invest first? And how do I how do I even do that?

SPEAKER_01 22:23

You know, you have 200 people, I have 20 people. There's a really big difference. I say start small. Be simple. Um, just showing you care. Um, you know, writing notes to your team members and showing appreciation, sending a text and just say, hey, just want to let you know you you did well today. Those small little things compound and add up. And people, when they they know you care, it's just priceless. Um so, and that helps with retention too, knowing that you're appreciated. Who doesn't like words of affirmation, knowing that they're doing well? Just knowing that uh you're pouring into people and uh recognizing at team meetings and and having maybe small awards that you do, um, having team outings, uh saying we're gonna just cut out at the end of the day and we're gonna go enjoy one another and connect outside of the work environment. Uh though start small, uh and it it does build from there because you know, we did have a lot of these things in place, and fortunately some of them were um before I came. But uh just looking at it, what can we do and just add to it? Um, and those small things become small gestures, yeah. Less good place to start, less expensive, yes, and then you can build towards the bigger pictures. Yes, because as you grow, then there's opportunity to expand. Thank you so much for joining me today, Misty. If somebody wanted to learn more about Hammel or maybe see if you have any job openings, where would they go find all the information? Yeah, all of our job openings, we are preparing for growth. So we do have um job openings out on our website. Um, go out to Hammel Group Careers um page and they're all on there with our job descriptions. And if you want to learn more about what we do at home, our website's a great place to start. But I'm always a resource as well. I can tell you all that we do. And um we have a great team, and I'm blessed to be there. Thank you so much again. I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 24:26

Thanks for tuning in to Torch Talk. If today's story inspired something in you, please share it with a colleague, future change maker, or just a friend. Until next time, stay inspired, stay intentional, and keep your fire burning.