HR Famous

On episode 116 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss their favorite Super Bowl commercials, Chat GPT, and how you can utilize AI to be a better leader. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! :30 - JLee had Chat GPT write an intro for this episode! It didn’t do a good job the first time, so she had it do a second pass to make it funnier.  2:00 - The crew didn’t think the Super Bowl commercials of 2023 were too exciting. Madeline and JLee’s favorite was the Clueless one, and Tim shouted out the Workday and Dunkin commercials 7:30 - Another podcast, another convo about Chat GPT and AI. Microsoft Bing is trying to become the top browser again, and JLee is on a waitlist to use the program.  10:00 - Tim’s 2023 keynote is all about the future of recruiting with AI. He thinks that the only limit of what AI can do in TA is the limit of our imaginations.  14:15 - Tim speaks to the importance of narration with AI. With AI, you have to be the expert on your topic, but you don’t have to produce anymore.  17:00 - Madeline thinks another area that AI will completely change is travel. Imagine traveling and having the whole trip planned by AI.  20:00 - Madeline is surprised that we haven’t seen more people talking about AI and Chat GPT in the TA space. She thinks some people may feel threatened by the topic.  23:45 - JLee runs through examples of how to use AI to help handle a tough situation with an emotional employee.  27:00 - JLee talks about how being open and not intimidated by AI can allow you to use it as leverage and become better.  She uses a Teams tool that critiques how she speaks on calls and helps her improve the words she chooses.  31:00 - Tim thinks that Microsoft is the winner of the future of HR tech.  

On episode 115 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee and Tim Sackett come together to discuss Ted Lasso, the everchanging recruiter experience, and Tim’s experience with the Michigan State shooting. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:45 - Ted Lasso season 3 is on the horizon! The crew gives their prediction for the new season coming in March.  4:00 - Madeline and Tim did a roundtable recently about recruiter experience. Tim doesn’t think it matters anymore, and JLee asks Tim to define it.  8:00 - Madeline mentions that a lot of people don’t know what recruiters do. Tim says that recruiting is the job that everyone thinks they can do.  9:15 - Tim says that when he was running TA at larger companies, senior leadership felt very comfortable giving advice to him about how to recruit, even though their advice was unfounded.  12:00 - JLee and Tim talk about how being a recruiter isn’t one of the hardest jobs that one could have. There are a lot of other jobs that require a lot out of the people who hold those positions.  15:30 - Madeline brings up a study they did at Disney where they found that the most important position at all of the Disney parks was the street sweepers.  18:30 - Tim’s opinion is that Chat GPT is going to change the landscape of everything in TA & recruiting. He says that the only thing that can’t be replaced by AI is the real conversation a recruiter has with a candidate.  21:30 - Madeline mentions a company who measures their recruiter productivity by getting them to “inbox zero”. She says she could never be a recruiter if this is a standard she was held to.  24:00 - Tim and JLee say they’d never judge one of the people they manage by the number of emails in their inbox. JLee judges people by the battery level of their devices.  27:30 - Tim’s son goes to Michigan State, and he runs a business in Lansing. He talks about his experience with and the aftermath of the shooting that happened on campus recently.  36:15 - Madeline asks Tim what he did about closing his business in the aftermath. Tim said that his Teams work groups were very active around the time of the shooting  

On episode 114 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee and Tim Sackett come together to discuss their favorite (and least favorite) Oscar-nominated movies, the difficulty of finding childcare, and how to handle annoying entry-level job tasks. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - Madeline isn’t here because of last-minute child needs. Tim’s an empty nester and he says his kids’ still interrupt his life!  2:45 - It’s awards season and JLee and Tim are on the opposite ends of the spectrum on a big frontrunner, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Tim thought it was terrible, and JLee adores it. (Producer Cam, Tim’s son, is here to say Tim is horribly wrong, sorry Dad!!!). 7:30 - JLee diagnoses Tim with a savior complex which prevents him from watching/liking a lot of media. He’s a papa bear! 9:00 - JLee shouts out the Banshees of Inisherin. She says it’s one of the strangest movies she’s seen in a long time but also one of the best.  11:30 - This Wall Street Journal article has documented how childcare numbers haven’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Tim asks JLee if there are any things that JLee’s company is doing to help combat the loss of childcare.  16:00 - Tim has an idea to replicate Uber surge pricing with childcare to help out the childcare companies and also help those who have flexibility with their working situations.  19:00 - JLee notes that her colleagues know that when she’s working from home, there will most likely be children walking in her background. She gets good feedback from her team about the involvement of her kids in her work life.  23:30 - KD sent in an article about a congressperson’s staffer who has filed complaints against their boss. They felt like they were being taken advantage of. Tim reminisces on the things that he was asked to do when he was in entry-level jobs.  26:45 - Tim notes that a lot of the complaints over being asked to complete these kinds of tasks depend on who the person asking is. A specific person can make these tasks feel meaningful.  29:30 - Tim’s advice to entry-level/young people in careers is to be one of the last few people to leave the office. He warns against being “the early person” in the office and urges them to become the late person.  32:30 - Tim wants a “scoreboard” of badge swipes into the office. He thinks everyone will be in the office as soon as that’s implemented.   

On episode 113 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee and Tim Sackett come together to discuss Chat GPT and Tim’s utopian view if remote employees are more or less engaged and how we should be doing holiday parties.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:00 - Tim said he needs to add stretching to his New Year’s resolution list.  3:15 - Tim is extremely fascinated by Chat GPT (which may or may not take over this podcast). JLee tested it with her husband when she asked Chat GPT to write a Thank You letter after a job interview.  7:00 - JLee thinks it’s really fascinating when Chat GPT is looked at as a tool as a Kickstarter for writing in a business format. Madeline mentioned in a previous episode how editing and revision might become more important in the future instead of writing. 11:00 - On a basic level, JLee thinks there will be a behavior change from talking to an AI/chatbot as a “machine” to talking to them as you would a normal person.  15:00 - Tim has a utopian hope of the world with AI. He thinks it will be able to free us from our work and give us back time to dedicate to our families, ourselves, and our world.  17:30 - Harvard Business Review released an article (with a very bad title, according to Tim) titled “No, Remote Employees Aren’t Becoming Less Engaged.” They pulled data from Teams and Outlook and found that remote employees have more meetings, and thus, they’re more engaged.  19:30 - JLee loves HBR and still gets HBR in the mail. She thinks that engagement being defined by meetings is a silly proposition.  21:30 - Tim says that everyone will fall differently on the productivity spectrum in regard to remote work. He thinks you can’t make a sweeping generalization about whether it’s more or less productive to work remotely.  24:00 - JLee notes that she’s been focusing on “meeting fatigue” and how to get creative on who needs to be in meetings and how many meetings actually need to be happening.  26:15 - The holiday season is right behind us, and many companies have recently gotten through layoffs. Tim notes that office parties and bonuses have been things on the chopping block. Tim asks the question, “can we have good employee experience events without spending a lot of money?”.  28:00 - JLee says that it comes down to what employees really care about. Do we really want holiday parties?  31:20 - Tim asked Chat GPT if employees like holiday parties. It gave a pretty good response!

On episode 112 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Madeline Laurano, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss what they’re hoping to learn in 2023, the extra burden placed on women in Executive level roles, and unrealistic hopes for pay increases.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - JLee asks the crew what is one thing that they want to learn in 2023.  JLee has only ridden a bike a few times, and she wants to master riding a bike this year. Madeline’s goal is to get better at golfing.  4:15 - Tim is taking his Jewish family to Israel this year. His youngest son, Cooper, is learning Hebrew at school, and Tim wants to learn some of that language.  6:15 - JLee brings up an article from Fortune about women in C-Suite or Executive level positions and how they may have to pay a lot of money on childcare and household help. JLee asks Madeline if we are talking about this topic enough.  8:50 - Madeline tells a story about her son, who had a female friend over. She told the kids she just needed to take some time to clean up and her son’s friend said to her, “don’t you have a cleaner?”.  11:30 - Tim mentions how when his mom was starting her business, she hired Tim’s Grandma to come to clean the house while she worked.  14:00 - Madeline thinks that there is more stigma around people hiring for childcare help than household help. 16:45 - Tim wonders how much of this is American culture vs. culture from all around the world. He mentions how shocked he was when he visited South Africa, and he saw how much help middle-class white families had for their everyday life.  20:30 - Lesson of the day: parenting is not easy and it’s near impossible to do it all by yourself!  21:30 - Bloomberg reported on the unrealistic high hopes that employees have for pay hikes in the new year. JLee asks the crew if they are seeing this in the workplace.  24:45 - Madeline notes how it still is an employee/candidate first market due to the number of jobs available. She does think that due to the layoffs happening across the workforce, the behavior of asking for raises may change.  29:00 - JLee notes that any publicly traded company has to listen to its shareholders and what they think is best for the business. A big question for these companies is, “who are we in service to?”.  31:30 - When can you stop saying Happy New Year? Madeline thinks she could go to 1/30, but Tim only gives it two weeks. 

On episode 111 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Madeline Laurano, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss 2022 and give their thoughts about this year in HR and talent.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - Tim asks the crew what their favorite TV show, movie, or book from 2022 was. Madeline is a big Euphoria fan, JLee loved Ted Lasso, and Tim couldn’t choose one (House of Dragon, Peaky Blinders. 2022 was a great year for TV! 8:00 - The crew name some of their favorites (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is Madeline’s). Tim loves Talent by Tyler Cowen.  10:00 - JLee tried to get Cowen to come speak at a Marriott event and she found that he isn’t too fond of HR folks. She wants to dig in with him and see his real feelings about people who work in HR.  12:00 - It’s time for the HR and talent year in review! JLee mentions the transition from The Great Resignation into Quiet Quitting. She found that we can get worked up over things that end up not being as noteworthy in the long run.  14:00 - Tim tried to make “The Big Regret” happened but it never took off… 16:50 - Tim thinks that the HR and talent community needs someone that we can trust for facts and information. He shouts out Roy from SHRM for his journalism work.  19:00 - Madeline brings up how the biggest topic that isn’t being discussed in HR is the rise of freelancing within the job market. She notes that by 2030, 50% of an organization’s workforce will be freelancers.  24:00 - Tim says that he thinks there has been a de-emphasis on DEI in 2022. Madeline thinks that within the HR technology space, DEI wasn’t the hot topic of the year. JLee notes that in 2020 there were so many topics culturally that forced the conversations around DEI to be at the forefront.  26:00 - As we look ahead to 2023, Tim asks the team what points of emphasis he sees coming to the head. Madeline thinks the skills conversation has surprised her in its prominence. She thinks it’s the topic that everyone is obsessed with.  28:00 - Tim asks JLee where they are at Marriott with skills. She thinks that organizations can be intimidated by the topic and that people are over contemplating where to get started.  31:30 - JLee’s focus for 2023 is AI and how it will affect content creation.

On episode 109 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn come together to discuss the rise of tech layoffs, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, and how to be a recession-proof recruiter.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:30 - Tim shares that it feels like the world is on fire with tech layoffs everywhere around us. KD says Marriott is still hiring strong. KD is finding that the “recession” is impacting particular industries more than others unlike any other recession before.  4:30 - Tim shares some stats around hiring and unemployment. The projected unemployment rate isn’t expected to increase that much in the next 10 years. Tim notes that we’re not making enough people to fill jobs.  6:40 - KD has a rising senior in college and he is nervous about an impending recession so he made a move to secure a job at a past employer for post-grad.  11:40 - As we all know, Elon Musk bought Twitter and gutted the Twitter staff. There have been a lot of rumors swirling around that Twitter is on the edge of shutting down any day.  16:00 - Elon made an email to the Twitter employee saying that it’s going to be a hard place to work at. KD references Tony Hsieh from Zappos when he would give his employees money to leave if their company wasn’t for them.  20:00 - Tim notes that these are mature companies, not start-ups and they have to be cognizant of their burn rates.  21:45 - Tim asks KD what recruiters aren’t going to lose their jobs. KD notes that it will be highly dependent on the type of positions being recruited for and the culture of the company they work for but ultimately, it depends on how many positions they close.  24:20 - Another trait that KD notes in a recession-proof recruiter is the handling of a hiring manager relationship. This depends on how they handle updates and how they help and influence the efficiency of the process. Tim also thinks it’s important to have the skill set of an HR generalist.  29:30 - Tim thinks it’s vital to be visible as an employee. Although that doesn’t mean you have to be in the office, you have to put yourself out there in whatever space you’re in. 

On episode 108 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Madeline Laurano, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss problematic executives, all the functions HR serves, and Tim’s campus recruiting experience! Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - JLee asks the crew what famous movies they haven’t seen that they should see. JLee has never seen The Shining or Princess Bride.  4:20 - JLee mentions the news of a senior Apple executive due to him making a vile joke in a TikTok video. This viral TikTok format asks people how much money they make and what they do for work.  7:15 - Madeline brings up a similar situation in the Boston Celtics coach getting fired for having an affair with one of his co-workers.  11:00 - JLee and Madeline are the cool moms in town! 13:00 - JLee brings up the extra functions that HR often gets assigned to, like party and events planning. She thinks that this could be a failure upon managers and leaders for not taking accountability in something like career growth for their employees.  16:00 - Tim talks about the 3 responsibilities he sees for a people manager: fiscal responsibility, building a well-rounded team, and maintaining and developing that well-rounded team. Then, HR can help support these functions in whatever way they can.   22:30 - Tim asks the question “why would you outsource the most important thing to your company” while talking about RPOs and outsourcing recruiting.  27:00 - Madeline brings up the trauma of the 2021 hiring craze and how this may impact the job security of recruiters. Tim talked about a company that he talked to that re-positioned their recruiters when there was a downturn in their company, so they didn’t have to lay anyone off.  30:30 - JLee mentions that the people who stayed on at Marriott during the pandemic were the “swiss army knives”, the people who were versatile and could fit in anywhere.  31:30 - Madeline asks if people will seek out being a recruiter or if it will be seen as a stepping stone to different jobs. Tim thinks that more colleges and universities will develop programs for recruiters and the importance of recruiters at companies will grow.  34:00 - Anyone want to see a sitcom about Tim’s campus recruiting experience??

On episode 107 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Madeline Laurano, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss all things 2022 HR Tech! 1:30 - Tim has recently been on the conference circuit, and he loves the in-person energy! 2:00 - JLee was recently speaking at an event, and she was asked for pictures after her talk. She asks the crew what to do in that situation.  7:30 - Tim and Madeline went back to HR Tech and felt the big energy at the conference. Madeline says the expo was bigger than she’s ever seen 11:45 - Madeline says that the Women In Tech sessions were so packed that they couldn’t let anyone else in!  14:45 - Tim asks JLee what would get her to come to HR Tech on a regular basis. She says that she doesn’t know if she would since she’s so inundated with content and pitches from vendors and it would feel duplicative for her to go to a vendor event.  17:40 - Tim thinks it’s a mistake by vendors to try and influence big VPs and CHROs rather than talking to director and manager levels about their products who are actually in the trenches.  21:45 - Tim and Madeline are really excited by some up-and-coming texting technologies, especially for frontline workers.  25:45 - Madeline calls out some providers who are doing the workaround skills, but she notes that there are some start-ups and ATS’s who are lumped in that maybe shouldn’t be.  29:00 - Tim asks the crew what these HR conferences are missing. JLee thinks that the conferences should provide a deck for attendees to take back to their teams and share what they learned.  34:20 - Can we pick a better place for HR conferences? JLee is sick of Vegas, but Tim and Madeline think it’s hard to host anywhere else because of the size of the conferences.  35:30 - Tim shares a story about the “BFF Happy Hour,” where Kyle Lagunas came in and started the whole party. Tim and Madeline had to play mom and dad in order to keep the event in check.

On episode 106 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano and Tim Sackett with special friend Kyle Lagunas come together to discuss Global TA day, the first people to be laid off in a recession, and why recruiters won’t be laid off as quickly as we think.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - Welcome to the pod, Kyle Lagunas! JLee is a busy gal and is out this week.  3:30 - Tim asks if they go to the grocery store or if they get their food delivered. Kyle likes his time at the market, and Madeline tries to do delivery.  5:00 - Tim has a whole setup for his Global TA Day: prizes, ice cream social, lunch & learns, and more!  7:00 - Tim put up a LinkedIn post leaning into “hustle porn” and ripped on quiet quitters and how he can’t wait to pass them. Kyle says he’s going to rip him to shreds.  9:30 - Business Insider, a pod favorite, put out an article about the first to be laid off in an economic downturn. The categories offered are recent hires, high earners, Millennials,  12:30 - Madeline talks about why she thinks recent hires may not be fired as quickly as they suggest due to the re-skilling turnover.  15:30 - Tim talks about how Ford had a pretty major layoff, but it was for a very specific reason, the emphasis on EVs.  19:00 - Madeline brings up how we’re still writing and talking about Millennials as if they’re kids. Many Millennials are 40 or pushing it.  21:15 - Tim and his oldest son told a guy they were golfing with that, “I didn’t get good until my Dad stopped coaching me.” Tim said it was a dagger to the heart.  23:00 - This list shares that recruiters are the most likely to be laid off. The crew is quite surprised that this is still the case in a world where companies are having a lot of trouble hiring recruiters.  26:00 - Kyle is really worried about the ramifications that something like this list could have. He says that morale is really low in the TA space, and this could force people to leave the profession.  29:00 - Madeline is surprised that there is nothing on this list about the number of hours worked per day. She thinks there is a signifier in the likelihood of being laid off with the number of hours worked per day.  33:00 - Tim thinks one of the hardest things is to plan a workforce, and HR can struggle at interpreting data and inputs to plan accordingly.

On episode 105 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss work spouses, length of service awards, and the best new candle to buy as a gift! Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:00 - Tim’s headed on a summer vacation to the Cayman Islands. Although it’ll be hot, he’ll be by the ocean! 5:00 - JLee loves these candles, and Tim sent a cheeky one to the crew. 7:20 - JLee asks Tim about his 2 work wives. They’ve been working with him for over 10 years and have been through a lot together. She wonders how he has work wives when he’s in charge of the company. 1 0:00 - Madeline said her work relationships have changed since she started her firm. Now, her work wives/husbands are other industry people, not people that work for and with her. 12:30 - Tim talks about someone who he worked for a long time with that left recently and how her leaving was a lot harder than he expected. 15:00 - JLee brings up the topic of “length of service” awards and how people want to be recognized. She asks the crew what we should be doing with these awards. 18:30 - Madeline did research in 2021 if they had received any recognition in that year for their work. She found that only ½ employees received a “thank you” in the first year of the pandemic. 21:30 - Tim likes the “points” system where you give out other recognition gifts and points to people you find doing a good job at the company. 24:00 - JLee notes a study where at their hotels, smaller gestures are more impactful and meaningful than really big events and “wows” that require a lot of time and work. 25:30 - Amazon color-coded their badges to reflect how long they’ve been at the company. JLee says that they got a lot of hate for this, but Tim says that he likes the idea. 30:00 - Tim mentions that when he’s doing recognition with his team, he tries to get them something they would never get for themselves and something that is really high quality. He thinks recognition gifts should be good quality regardless of price point.

On episode 104 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss catalogs, the follow-up to The Great Recession, and Tesla’s latest drama.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:15 - Does anyone still get catalogs? Tim and Madeline still get tons sent to their houses.  4:30 - Tim thinks that a mailer would work well as a recruitment tactic, even better than email or texting.  5:15 - Tim shares a story that he’s going to put in his book! You heard it here first, folks.  8:30 - Tim’s story revolves around a marketing study where they asked a community what the top realtor in their area was. They created a fake realtor, did some marketing, and then re-asked the community who the top realtor is.  10:00 - Studies are showing that a large number of people who left their jobs during The Great Resignation are regretting their decision to leave their previous position. Madeline thinks that these shifts were pay driven and people didn’t take into account other factors.  13:40 - Tim said he had regrets when he left Applebee’s. Although it seemed like the right decision, he felt the repercussion of the decision almost instantly.  20:30 - Tim was at SHRM a few weeks ago and a lot of the discussions had “The Great Recession” in their title.  21:30 - Tesla and Elon Musk are tracking office attendance by following the “office ID swipe ins”. If you can’t come in, employees are supposed to email in a message that they won’t be in office today. Tim thinks this is draconian and feels very similar to calling in sick for your kids at school.  24:45 - Tim says that he’s embarrassed by the amount of people he’s had to fire by “pulling swipes”.  30:00 - JLee hired someone recently that was affected by the Tesla layoffs and the new hire said that the reports of the layoffs are pretty accurate.  33:00 - JLee mentions how often when layoffs are happening, HR professionals are given scripts for legal reasons but there are ways to make it seem more human and empathetic.  36:30 - Madeline was a part of an analyst firm where there were secret talks about layoffs and she felt like they handled it poorly in comparison to JLee’s Marriot example. 

On episode 103 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to summer vacation, whether hiring is slowing down or not, and the type of LinkedIn posts that go viral.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:00 - It’s officially summer! Madeline asks the crew about their OOO response messages. All 3 of them are not users of an OOO message because they’re all workaholics!  4:30 - JLee mentions she’s seen some really clever OOO messages but also some very sparse ones. She wants more info! 7:15 - Tim asks JLee and Madeline what their kids do in the summer. Madeline sends her kids to summer day camp but she used to go to an 8-week overnight camp. JLee’s kids both won camper of the day at their day camp.  9:30 - Madeline brings up a roundtable she did with Tim about an upcoming recession and hiring. She asks the crew what’s going on with hiring practices, specifically tech hiring.  13:00 - Madeline mentions that the layoffs happening seem to mostly be due to routine business practices and actions rather than preparing for a potential economic downturn.  17:20 - Madeline notes that a lot of the conversation about layoffs and the recession are being driven by emotional LinkedIn posts that are going viral. She thinks it’s become a “Dear Diary” type of platform for long, emotional posts.  20:00 - Shout out to Madison Butler who Tim thinks does social media better than anybody in the recruiting/HR space. She has her format down! 23:30 - JLee was visiting Seattle and she saw a homeless person with their dog. She wanted to help and get them some food and the person gave really intense directions. It’s a perfect LinkedIn story! 28:00 - Tim says that another LinkedIn hack is to post original video. Share those videos people! 29:45 - Tim raises a competition with the rest of the crew: they have to try and hack LinkedIn and post an emotional story and get the most engagement.

On episode 102 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss hiring reality TV stars, ghosting of new hires, and if ghosting in the dating world is seeping into the work world.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:30 - JLee asks the crew what they’ve been watching recently. Madeline tried watching Ozark again because she wasn’t into it the first time. 3:15 - Now for the trash TV! Madeline and JLee are watching The Ultimatum and are loving it.  7:45 - JLee is really curious about who the people on reality TV shows do in their real lives. She asks the crew if being on a reality show disqualifies them from being hired for a job.  11:30 - Tim is concerned about retention because he assumes this type of person is just waiting for the next big show to come around.  15:00 - Tim mentions that this is similar to star college athletes that may not be good enough to go pro. He says that those who stay local may have that past celebrity status.  16:45 - JLee found an article in The Wall Street Journal about the rise of ghosting with new hires. Madeline mentions that she thinks we’re going to see this for a bit longer but may pass when or if a recession hits.  21:30 - Tim got killed on Twitter for talking about the importance of a 2 week notice. He says that ghosting your employer will follow you.  25:00 - Tim demoed a new preboarding software that gives a buddy to a new hire to hopefully retain the new employees at your organization.  28:00 - Madeline wonders if mental health is playing a factor with new hires not showing up for onboarding especially with the heightened struggles of the last 2 years.  32:00 - The article discusses how a younger generation is used to ghosting in the dating world and it could be seeping into the work world. JLee wonders if they’re grasping with this extrapolation. 

On episode 101 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss paper straws, female breadwinners, and how people react when a husband cooks more for his family than his wife. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! :30- Starting off hot with Tim taking a stance against paper straws. He hates them and the crew agrees.  2:00 - Tim did some research to back up his anti-paper straw stance. He found out that 330 million plastic straws are used in the US everyday.  4:20 - Madeline mentions Tom Brady’s crazy tirade on straws a few hours ago. She says you can see Gisele’s influence . 8:00 - Tim’s wife thinks the best straws are McDonald’s. JLee loves Wendy’s and the wide bubble tea straws.  10:30 - The BBC came out with a study about the woman in a relationship being the breadwinner. The study found that women who are the breadwinner actually do more housework.  13:45 - Madeline says that when her kids were babies, she wanted to do all the baby things and it’s translated to more when her kids have gotten older.  16:00 - JLee wonders if this is self-imposed. She thinks that if a woman is in a high-stress, important job that they may have the personality traits of someone who may want things done a certain way in the household.  20:30 - Another piece of this study showed that 30% of females are the breadwinner of their household. This is a number that will continue to grow. He asks if there will ever be a time where men start to do the majority of the housework. 24:30 - Tim mentions that he comes from a family of cooks and he cooked more in the house. He said her family were beside themselves that Tim cooked for the family and his wife didn’t alway have to do it. 27:15 -  JLee mentioned parts of the article that discuss a conversion in a couple where a woman makes more than her male partner. She talks about her own experience with that conversation.  30:20 - Tim talks about how society is going to have to get used to stay-at-home Dads and women being the main earners for their families. 

On episode 100 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together for their 100th episode! They discuss what they remember, what they struggled with and what they loved in doing 100 episodes of HR Famous together! Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:45 - KD couldn’t stay away! He’s back for the extra special 100th episode.  5:00 - Many of the HR Famous episodes are about the differences of life during the pandemic. Tim talked about the difference of COVID caution between going to a college basketball game and a Broadway show. 8:30 - JLee just said that her daughter is now going to elementary school (for the first time) without a mask!  10:45 - Tim asks the crew what they’ve learned doing 100 podcast episodes. JLee said that she’s learned to have an opinion and it’s helped her in her career development. On the flip side, she’s learned how to see both sides of an issue.  12:45 - KD asks Tim and JLee if they made any changes to how they speak after the first episodes. JLee said she tries to start fewer sentences with “well” or “so”. KD tried to be crisper with his speaking cadence.  16:30 - KD says the text group should be a podcast. Release the messages! 18:30 - Is KD the most guarded on the podcast? Tim says so and JLee thinks that could be true. Tim says it’s his political savviness that leads this.  20:00 - Any other flat pillow lovers? JLee is a flat pillow person. KD likes a fluffy pillow you can sink into.  22:30 - JLee asks the crew what episode they thought was interesting and offered a different perspective. JLee’s answer is Episode 79 - Why Are Males Increasingly Opting Out Of College.  25:00 - Tim and KD are still bitter that Gary V requested to connect with JLee on LinkedIn instead of them. JLee is still pining for him to come on the pod! 28:00 - Episode 66 - Geriatric Millennials and HR Influencer Lists is still a point of contention! 31:00 - Tim asks the question “who did you learn the most from?”. Tim says KD because he always thinks he knows what he’s going to say but he comes in with different takes often.   

On episode 99 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss our new co-host, mailing lists, and periods in the workplace! Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:00 - We have a new co-host! We’re excited to welcome Madeline Laurano to the HR Famous family.  4:15 - Madeline is an analyst on TA and HR tech. She’s been in the game for 20 years and started her firm, Aptitude Research 7 years ago.  6:20 - Any remember of the days of blogger vs. analyst? The good ole days.  9:30 - JLee gets upset when she makes a “new friend” and then all of a sudden, she’s on their mailing list.  10:30 - JLee asks the crew if they check who unsubscribes from their mailing list. Madeline gets an email every time someone removes themselves from her mailing list.  14:30 - The lost episode is unfortunately lost for good :(  16:00 - JLee references the lost episode which was centered around an older man writing into a help column asking what to do when their younger female co-workers talk about their periods in the workplace.  19:00 - JLee’s first reaction to the period PTO is that women are more productive so they’ll make up for their time off but then, she started to think about women being treated differently and other logistical issues.  20:30 - Madeline mentions a company in Sweden that asked their female employees to track their menstrual cycle in an Excel spreadsheet.  24:30 - JLee found a Wikipedia page for menstrual leave.  27:30 - Tim mentions how a lot of these benefits stem from paid family leave and how other countries are really passing the US with their family leave benefits.  28:45 - Madeline ran a study at her firm and they found that only 11% of participants were comfortable talking about childcare at work.  32:00 - Madeline mentions how when she was nursing, she had to pump in a dark utility closet where she had to bring a flashlight in to see.  36:00 - Tim mentions that in his 30 year HR career, he has never had a period-related issue with a high performing female.   

On episode 98 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Jessica Lee and Kris Dunn come together to discussl coffee rules of the office, KD’s new job, and changes to the podcast! Listen below (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 still isn’t playing Wordle. Quite late to the party still… 3:30 - Dawn Burke sent the crew her husband’s coffee routine. This made Tim wonder when free coffee at work became a thing. He wants free Diet Mountain Dew at work! 6:30 - Tim has some observations as a non-coffee drinker. He observes the dynamics of bad coffee makers vs. good coffee makers.  8:50 - KD recently visited Tim’s home base in Lansing, MI. He thought it was a lot smaller than Tim makes it sound.  11:20 - Big announcement! KD accepted a new job at Marriott, joining JLee! He’s staying in Alabama but visiting Bethesda, MD every couple of weeks.  14:15 - KD says that he didn’t do the LinkedIn post that talks about leaving a company but without giving an update. JLee and Tim hate those posts.  17:30 - In the very first episode of this podcast, KD got hate from JLee for saying Marriott wrong. It’s Marriott, like a chariot.  22:45 - KD has noticed that some partners at Marriott have been eager to come to Birmingham instead of having him go into the DC area. He says he’s fine to travel to them instead of hosting others.  29:00 - Next big announcement of the pod, KD is going to be leaving. JLee and Tim are going to continue on with the mission! He’s leaving but not gone forever.  

On episode 97 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Kris Dunn, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss Station Eleven, standing desk etiquette, and the phenomenon of life coaching. Be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:45 - Any Station Eleven fans? Tim feels some kinship because it takes place around his home, the Great Lakes.  5:30 - JLee remembers KD’s commitment to do 100 pull ups a day. He says he doesn’t do them everyday but he can do 120-150 reps. 7:30 - JLee asks a question about work from home etiquette. She was on a call with someone that was at a standing desk. She felt like the person standing was being imposing. 12:30 - Anyone else eat spaghetti on Zoom? JLee does. And tomato soup… 13:00 - Coaching is all the rage. JLee asks why it’s so popular and who the type of person is that becomes a coach. Tim thinks it’s all the boomers that early-retired during the pandemic.  17:00 JLee wonders when a coach is even necessary and if an AI bot would just be a better option to chat.  19:00 - Tim went to a coach once and he just felt like all the coach was doing was agreeing with what he was already thinking and doing.  21:45 - KD wonders what percentage of coaches can actually deliver what someone needs. He thinks only 10-20%.  24:45 - JLee wonders why people want to separate the pay conversation from a performance review. Tim agrees and doesn’t understand it either.  28:00 - Tim’s first pay increase in a corporate environment was 3% and he was furious. He couldn’t wrap his head around it.  32:00 - KD starts doing a mock performance review/pay conversation with JLee. The pay will never be what you want.  34:00 - KD says people don’t contrast good vs. great enough.   

On episode 96 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Jessica Lee and Kris Dunn come together to discuss a reported uptick in Glassdoor reviews mentioning inflation and the power dynamics (or lack thereof) of making someone use your Calendly scheduler. Listen below (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: 3:00 - JLee’s dry January quickly devolved into drinking wine on a Wednesday. She just finished Station Eleven and is watching And Just Like That.  5:20 - Tim has been loving season 2 of Righteous Gemstones. He says it’s his guilty pleasure.  9:00 - KD recommends Southside on HBO Max. He calls it “lighter fare” in comparison to the post-apocalyptic Station Eleven.  11:45 - KD found a Twitter thread from an economist about the rising concern from employees about inflation and how it affects their pay. KD asks JLee how much concern there actually is about inflation.  18:00 - Tim doesn’t think the average Glassdoor reviewer is mentioning raises due to inflation but the average employe e may be discussing inflation while asking for a raise.  21:20 - KD poses a situation to Tim where an employee comes in and tells him that his company’s pay isn’t keeping up with inflation.  23:20 - Next topic: the power dynamics of using automated calendars. KD mentions this tweet about the etiquette behind Calendly.  26:00 - Tim doesn’t get how it’s a power play for someone to send a meeting link to someone else for a pre-arranged meeting. JLee offers a different power play scenario that fits the bill.  28:30 - If you click a Calendly link, does that make you somebody’s b****? JLee and Tim don’t see what the big deal is. They also both do not use an automated calendar system.  33:00 - KD says that the person that sends their Calendly link after someone has already sent one is the true power graber.  40:00 - We’re pulling for an early summer!!!