On episode 47 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee come together to discuss Peloton, the top qualities people are looking for in a candidate, and PTO bank build-ups during the Covid era.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

1:30 – JLee is doing fantastic on this episode because Sex in the City is getting a reboot!

2:45 – JLee’s husband ordered balloons to celebrate her 100th Peloton ride, and she told him the wrong day! It was only her 100th workout (not ride).

3:30 – Tim has discovered that people are gaming their ride numbers on Peloton by doing more short rides instead of the longer rides.

4:20 – First topic: Tim got an email from a PR firm advertising the “Top 10 most important qualities in a candidate.” This is a recent study from 2021. What do you think the top quality is?

5:30 – KD’s top quality he looks for is “kicking a**.” What’s the top quality you look for?

7:30 – JLee looks for good listeners as one of her top candidates in a new hire. She thinks one BS thing from the list is “sincerity.” She doesn’t really understand what it means.

9:00 – #gsd. Look it up.

9:45 – Gary V messaged JLee for mentioning him on the show. We’re ready for you to come on the pod, Gary!

12:00 – Tim was on a CHRO digital forum recently and heard discussion from a panelist that a company found their PTO banks were rising astronomically. This not only became a people-management issue but a financial issue for the company. Tim thinks that this is BS because people are just taking time off because of increased flexibility instead of taking PTO.

15:00 – JLee says that she’s saving her PTO for when she can take a real vacation and travel again.

16:00 – KD thinks that the concern is BS and agrees with Tim. He thinks a major reason for this is the huge increase in downtime in 2020.

18:00 – There is a concern that once the world has returned to some normalcy, that everyone will take their PTO and there will be no one working. JLee discusses some strategies that could be used to combat this issue, like cashing out PTO days.

21:30 – Also on the CHRO digital forum, Tim learned that companies are saying they need to take and send data to hiring managers each month rather than quarterly or yearly.

23:20 – Another finding from the forum is a PTO charity bank, where people can donate their PTO to help hourly workers who do not qualify.

29:00 – Last topic: favorite TV/movie the crew has watched recently. JLee loved Bridgerton, and KD hasn’t really been watching too much.

In episode 46 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Jessica Lee come together to discuss the art and concept of marrying up, use John Krasinksi and Emily Blunt as their case study, then pivot to something more serious and talk about the use of professional conduct policies by HR Leaders in crazy times.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

2:30 – Two topics on the pod today (but KD is more excited about one than the other!).

3:00 – First topic of the week: marrying up! KD was wondering in the text channel with JLee and Tim if actor John Krasinksi of The Office fame married up when he married actress Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, Mary Poppins Returns, The Girl on the Train). It rose the level of a pod topic, so they discuss the art of marrying up across partners.

4:30 – JLee thinks Krasinksi definitely married up. She also thinks that her own husband married up, but she also thinks she married up because of her low credit score!

5:45 – KD asks JLee to numerically rate Blunt and Krasinski. She thinks Blunt is around an 8.5 and Krasinski is in the 6.5-7 range. He’s not hot enough for JLee!

8:00 – Tim’s initial reaction is that every man marries up, but he realizes there may be some gold-diggers out there who will marry down for money.

9:30 – KD asks JLee and Tim to now rate Krasinski and Jenna Fischer’s characters from The Office. They both think it’s a pretty even match.

10:00 – First rule of a happy (heterosexual) marriage: the man has to say he married up.

11:30 – KD asks JLee if a woman could ever say she married down. She says no, but you can say that your spouse married up.

14:00 – Check out the Best Hire Ever episode featuring JLee to hear about her familial experience!

16:00 – Next topic of the day: KD and Tim were both quoted in HR Executive about how to handle employees that partake in outside events that polarize them to some teammates at their company.

18:00 – Tim thinks in order to create a workforce that has diversity of thought, you have to allow your employees to partake in events that express that thought. However, if it crosses the line into illegal activity, that’s when action must be taken.

21:00 – JLee ponders if it matters what role a person holds in a company when it comes to events like the insurrection on the Capitol.

22:00 – JLee brings up the term “doxing,” which refers to outing someone for something they did on social media. She thinks this new practice brings some complexity to this issue.

24:00 – KD thinks that companies and HR leaders must have a strong professional conduct policy to give them the flexibility they need in all scenarios.

26:15 – Business Insider released an article of their premium service about a Github Jewish employee that warned their co-workers in the company messaging channels about Nazis being out in the D.C. metro area. A few days later, the employee was terminated. While that may seem extreme to some, the team discusses the fact that we don’t know the whole situation, and by the way, that’s where a great HR leader comes in — to display judgment.

In Episode 44 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee come together in the new year to discuss that Gary V requested Jessica on LinkedIn, the CHRO move of the week, and Google calling their employees back into the office (eventually).

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

1:30 – Happy New Year! Tim is thinking (and hoping) that 2021 is going to be a great year. JLee is looking forward to drive-through vaccinations.

2:45 – JLee got a LinkedIn request from Gary Vaynerchuk. Tim is extremely jealous (he’s a super fan), and JLee is very confused on how she got this.

6:00 – The gang wonders aloud how many people send invites out on Gary V’s behalf. Tim thinks that JLee needs to leverage her brand and her title to get Gary V on the phone in 2021.

9:00 – Time for the CHRO move of the week! UPS announced a new CHRO Darrell Ford after their old CHRO (Charlene Thomas moved to a new role at the company).

10:30 – KD thinks Thomas got a demotion.

12:30 – Tim thinks that Thomas was potentially underperforming so they brought in a new one to try out in the head HR position.

15:30 – Tim also wonders that they are potentially setting up Charlene Thomas to take over a COO or a CEO role eventually at UPS.

17:20 – In KD’s youth, the UPS driver was a person of note in his life. KD thinks it’s a transactional job now because there are so many drivers and people aren’t making a lifetime career out of being a driver.

21:00 – JLee thinks that KD would be a shorts-only UPS type of driver. No brown pants in sight!

22:30 – Next topic of the day: Google’s CEO announced that they will continue being remote, but they will be returning back to the offices eventually and will not be remote forever. The announcement said that employees should eventually return to a place that is in a commutable distance from their office.

25:00 – KD thinks this is the revert back from the earlier pandemic announcements of full time, forever remote transitions.

30:45 – KD also thinks that Google is trying to prevent a mass exodus from California to places like Texas, as companies like Tesla are moving there.

32:00 – JLee is coming up on her 100th Peloton ride and she found out that her husband ordered 100 balloons on their shared Amazon account to celebrate.

In Episode 43 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee come together to discuss Christmas shopping, the term “Dr.” in corporate America, and HR Christmas horror stories.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

2:00 – Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? The Lee and Sackett families are done with their completely online Christmas shopping, and KD had to ask his kids to get gifts for Mrs. Dunn.

4:30 – For those of you lucky enough to get the Sackett family Christmas card/letter, Mrs. Sackett is a big fan of throw pillows (as is Mrs. Dunn).

5:45 – First topic of the day: use of the term “doctor.” On Dec. 11, the Wall Street Journal dropped an opinion article being critical of soon-to-be First Lady Dr. Jill Biden’s usage of the term.

7:30 – KD has always been skeptical of the use of “Dr.” in corporate America, away from education. Tim has understood the opinion of the article from a recruiter/corporate standpoint ,as well. However, he understands it applies differently in other industries/academia where it may be more relevant or acceptable.

10:00 – Tim reached out to seven different people he knows who have a doctorate, including MDs, EDDs, and PhDs. Six out of the seven of these people said that they harp on each other about the merit of their degree behind closed doors, but in a professional setting, they’d be expected to be called Dr.

13:00 – JLee is married to a PharmD and in writing, her husband includes his doctorate title. JLee thinks that in writing, being called “Dr.” is justified and totally acceptable, but it may be weird to refer to someone in person as “Dr.”  KD clarifies that JLee’s husband is including letters behind his name, not the Dr. title in front, which JLee confirms.

16:00 – Tim thinks that if Dr. Biden and Joe Biden had switched roles, Joe wouldn’t have had an article like this written about him.

21:00 – KD asks Tim if the term “Dr.” on a resume would throw him off ,and he said that it only bothers him if someone in an interview were to ask to be referred in that way.

27:00 –  KD likes it when people combine “Dr.” with a funny first name like his friend Dr. Chuck.

28:40 – KD asks the crew if they have any dysfunctional workplace Christmas stories. KD tells the favorite from his career about a dysfunctional boss that made him make a “this offer expires at the end of the day” to a VP-level candidate on Christmas Ev. JLee tells a story about how her first HR job required her to be the event planner and she wasn’t 21 yet, so she had to plan events with alcohol without being able to drink.

30:00 – Tim had an employee’s wife complain over email to him about the company gift.

In Episode 42 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends)  Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee come together to discuss TikTokers getting fired from their jobs at Sherwin Williams, the new Microsoft productivity score, and how much they spend on gifts for their siblings during the holidays.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player below) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

1:30 – Tim opens the pod by asking the crew what their favorite side dishes are for the holiday season. JLee is a stuffing fan, KD likes the good mashed potatoes, and Tim likes them all!

3:45 – First topic of the day: TikTok videos taking over work! Popular TikToker Tony Piloseno, who got famous for his videos of mixing paint, got fired from his job at Sherwin Williams and social media went ablaze.

6:00 – Tim says that he knows exactly where a regional HR manager knows where this is coming from his experience as a lower level HR leader during his career.

7:00 – JLee doesn’t understand why there wasn’t an investigation into what was happening and what the repercussions could be for firing Piloseno.

10:00 – KD goes through all of the calls that an HR manager might get from a Sherwin Williams manager.

11:10 – JLee mentions how he was very passionate about his job and how she feels like there was an oversight in his firing.

13:00 – Second topic of the day: Microsoft released the Microsoft Productivity Score which allows IT and other product development managers to monitor how their products are being used. Tim raises the question “was this type of software inevitable?”

15:00 – JLee isn’t very concerned about her personal privacy because she doesn’t have anything to hide. However, she does see that there might be some value to this product.

16:30 – KD is more interested in the productivity score of their managers – a collective score for how teams are doing and the effectiveness of a manager –  instead of using it as a “gotcha” tool for individuals.

20:00 – Any mouse movers to make it seem like you’re online?

21:00 – Tim met with the team at Microsoft that put this together and he thinks their intentions are good but the product in bad people’s hands can be an issue.

23:00 – Final question: what do you spend on your siblings for the holidays? JLee’s family doesn’t do presents for adults anymore. Tim’s does the same because they were over exchanging gift cards. KD just buys his siblings a book (so only $20).

24:00 – Tim hates getting gifts but loves getting gifts especially for his younger brother.

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

In Episode 40 of The HR Famous Podcast, Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee appear at TalentNet Live and do a panel on behavioral trends among recruiters in 2020, using the 2020 Recruiter Nation Survey from Jobvite as their source for conversation.

The gang discusses how recruiters have changed in the depths of COVID, Tim gives his rant about the use of social media by recruiters, JLee notices that female recruiters might be more balanced than males and KD wonders how soul-crushing it is to be a resume writer in 2020.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

RESOURCES AND SHOW NOTES:

————TalentNet Live and Jobvite

TalentNet Live

Craig Fisher

Jobvite

The 2020 Recruiter Nation Survey

—————Jessica Lee, Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

In episode 39 of The HR Famous Podcast, longtime HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Jessica Lee are joined by Cameron Sackett to discuss remote work burnout, proposed remote work privilege tax, and onboarding in a work from home environment.

Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

1:30 – KD is out this week, but Tim and JLee welcome Cameron Sackett, Tim’s son, and our resident Gen-Z expert, onto the pod!

3:20 – First topic of the podcast: The Wall Street Journal published an article recently about burnout due to working remotely.

4:30 – Cam started working at BuzzFeed about two months ago, and he mentions that while he hasn’t hit the full-on burnout that many others have, his company is offering some special offerings to combat burnout, like mental health days, yoga and meditation sessions, and more.

6:30 – JLee is glad that people are trying things to combat burnout, but she worries that the things people are trying aren’t the right answers. She also worries that this emphasis on mental health will dissipate once the pandemic is over.

8:00 – Tim’s Gen-X mentality makes him think that these special perks are a setup to weed out the weak, but he does see his own employees struggling with the types of burnout mentioned in this article.

10:00 – Next topic: Deutsche Bank recently released a study calling for a “privilege tax” which takes a 5% tax from those working from home to support lower-income essential workers who can’t work at home.

11:45 – JLee wants the people at Deutsche Bank to look at their own company first and ask themselves if they would do this within their own corporations before putting out some plan like this.

14:00 – Most people aren’t choosing to work from home and so JLee and Tim think that the responsibility should fall on the corporations to take care of this issue instead of the workforce.

16:40 – Time for the CHRO Move of the Week: The Washington Football Team recently hired Andre Chambers to be their new head of Human Resources. He comes from many different industries such as tech, gaming, and even grocery!

18:00 – Any Wegman’s fans out there? JLee is a big fan.

21:00 – If any pro sports teams want to hire KD or Tim to be their head of HR, they’re ready to go!

24:40 – Last topic of the podcast: onboarding in a pandemic world! Cam onboarded to his current role completely remotely, and he gives us some insight on what the experience was like. He mentions that while the actual onboarding process wasn’t that much different, he has had trouble getting to know his co-workers.

27:00 – JLee asks Cam about the logistics of his onboarding experience. He had good communication from his recruiter and manager in order to have a smooth onboarding process.

29:00 – Cam talks about the struggle he’s had about meeting and getting to know the people on his team since he’s not in person with his co-workers. Tim says that he’s heard of organizations that will force employees to make introduction videos for new hires.

33:00 – JLee asks Cam if he heard anything about the required dress code, and he says that he was given no direction on what the dress code for WFH was.

36:00 – JLee doesn’t know of a company that does onboarding really well and thinks we often do a disservice to new hires because of this.

39:15 – Cam says that the work culture that BuzzFeed is known for doesn’t really come through in a virtual environment, and he doesn’t think he’ll know what it’s like until he starts working in the office.