Manufacturing jobs are back on American soil. The factories are running. The roles are open. But the workers? They're missing. In this solo episode, Tim Sackett unpacks the growing gap between opportunity and desire in today’s labor market. Why did generations of proud factory families embrace these jobs - and why do today’s young workers turn away? From cultural shifts and education gaps to lifestyle choices and societal stigma, Tim explores the uncomfortable reasons behind this silent rejection. Is it a temporary hesitation... or a permanent shift? And if manufacturing jobs no longer inspire the next workforce, what does that mean for America's future? Connect with Us: Tim Sackett Follow Tim on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timsackett Visit Tim’s Website: hrutech.com Read Tim’s Blog: ⁠⁠https://timsackett.com/

AI agents aren’t coming for recruiting. They’re already here - and they don’t care how many reqs you filled last quarter. In this episode, Tim Sackett sits down with Jason Roberts, SVP of Tech & Analytics at Cielo, to break down what AI is actually doing inside RPOs and staffing firms - and why the old recruiting playbook is about to get torched. From sourcing automation that 5x’s recruiter output to building a fully operational AI agent of yourself, Jason pulls back the curtain on the tools reshaping talent acquisition in real-time. They talk agentic workflows, how execs are chasing 50% AI-driven recruiting models, and why most CRMs still suck. The future of recruiting isn’t theoretical - it’s operational. And if you think your job’s safe because you "build relationships"? Think again. Connect with Us: Jason Roberts Follow Jason on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jasrober Learn more about Cielo: cielotalent.com   Tim Sackett Follow Tim on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timsackett Visit Tim’s website: hrutech.com Read Tim’s Blog: ⁠https://timsackett.com/

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.  

In episode 25 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee discuss Jlee and KD’s return to the office, Apple’s paid time off for employees to vote, and President Trump’s new plan for skill-based hiring in the federal government. 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 returned to your work office yet? Jlee returned to her office for the first time since March. She had to get approval to go into the office and she thought it was a very bizarre experience. KD also returned to his office and he thought it was something out of a zombie movie.  6:00 - Jlee missed her typical office amenities when she went back in and had to bring her own coffee, water, and snacks. Also, she had to change all of her calendars to the right month and throw away her old coffee cup (from March)! 9:00 - Nike released a video about the new protections they’re implementing for their offices in Asia when employees come back to work.  10:30 - First BIG topic of the day - Apple is giving all employees paid time off to vote or volunteer at a polling place in upcoming US elections. Tim gives his employees time off to vote within reason and he commends Apple for allowing retail workers to have time off to vote. 14:20 - Tim Cook and Auburn University shoutout from KD! 15:00 - KD doesn’t think that Apple’s decision is that out of the box. He brings up the potential logistical concerns in manufacturing or other settings where scheduling could be an issue.  16:00 - KD and Tim discuss the potential influence of who to vote for from company execs. Tim talks about how his Mom used to share wisdom on who to vote for and why.  18:00 - Tim and Jlee think Apple should have released to the public the memo on PTO to vote for good employment marketing.  20:30 - Jlee is planning on taking a PTO day for the day after the election hangover. How late are you willing to stay up to watch election results? 22:00 - HR Famous supports Apple CEO Tim Cook and Auburn University (at least KD does). If you’re reading this Tim, we would love to have you on the pod! 22:30 - Second BIG topic of the day - President Trump signed an executive order in late June ordering the federal government to revise their qualifications for jobs, in hopes to prioritize jobs skills over college degrees. Ivanka Trump is leading this initiative to help those without higher education get good federal government jobs. 24:30 - Tim praises the federal government for catching up to private industry and taking out unnecessary job qualifications for certain jobs.  26:30 - Tim and KD worry that this news coming from the Trump administration will be discounted because it’s coming from President Trump and both of them think it’s a pretty progressive move.  31:00 - Tim talks about how he used to require all of his recruiters to have a college degree and the determination it shows to finish a degree. He has changed his requirements since and he’s seen some of his best recruiters come in without a degree.  33:20 - Tim asks Jlee and KD what percentage of jobs they think actually require a degree. What do you think? 36:50 - One final War Eagle and Tim Cook shoutout!

In episode 24 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee are back to discuss the escalation of career expectations for college students (as well as the musical Hamilton and Glassdoor/Indeed changes).  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 now a user of a standing desk. How do you like yours? 2:00 - Hamilton time! Tim convinced the rest of the crew to watch Hamilton on Disney+ and Jlee says she respects it but is not the biggest fan of musicals or history.  4:20 - Tim asks KD and Jlee who they think each of the HR Famous crew is in the Hamilton cast. Tim and Jlee both think they’re Alexander Hamilton. KD doesn’t think that Hamilton is charismatic enough to be Tim. KD wins by being compared to George Washington and King George by his friends. 11:00 - First topic of the day: Indeed and Glassdoor are merging services. Tim thinks that this is bad news for Glassdoor and worries that Indeed will sell out the mission of Glassdoor for $$$.  14:45 - Second topic of the day: new grads! We welcome Tim’s middle son, Cameron, who is a recent graduate of the University of Michigan to discuss his latest experience in the job market. Cam is looking for a job in the entertainment industry in marketing/social media and he spends a lot of his time applying for jobs and reaching out to UMich alums to network. 18:15 - KD asks Cam about the alumni network at the University of Michigan and how he tries to leverage that connection. He talks about the different types of responses he gets and the steep cost of being a member of the U of M Alumni Association.  22:00 - KD and Jlee talk about network fatigue that is occurring right now due to the many people who are currently looking for a job and how this will make it harder for anyone to make new connections.  23:30 - The HR Famous crew wants to see Cam out in the news space talking about his experience. If you want to interview a new grad on his job search or are interested in Cam for your company, find him on LinkedIn! 24:30 - Tim talks about his perspective as a parent of a new grad and a HR professional and how he’s had to watch the struggles of his son enter a bad job market.  26:15 - Tim asks Cam about candidate experience and what kind of response rate he’s getting from companies. Tim talks about how he thinks the data from this year about candidate experience is going to be really poor.  29:00 - KD discusses his worries about post-grad jobs in a COVID and post-COVID world. He thinks we’re setting difficult expectations for high performing college students who are entering the job force. Jlee worries that colleges are just using student’s successes and expectations to get the best crop of incoming students.  32:45 - Tim talks about his blog post he wrote about Cam’s college admissions experience and how the college admission system is screwed up. KD is a big fan of the comments on the blog post and still subscribes to them 4 years later.  35:30 - KD asks Cam about how he remembers his college admissions experience and the frustrations he felt during this time.  37:30 - KD asks Jlee about her experience going through college as a child of immigrant parents. She discusses the high expectations that her parents had for her and how she’s going to change and adapt those expectations for her children.  40:00 - Jlee discusses her rebellious streak as a young adult and how she did well enough to get by and still rise to the top of her field.  41:30 - HR Famous thinks the cream always rises to the top! 44:00 - KD posted a blog post on the HR Capitalist this week about a woman who reached out to him that had worked at the same call center for four years. He thinks that regardless of where anyone starts, the best will always rise and reach where they want to be.  47:00 - Cam talks about what he thinks about taking a call center and his hesitations. He says that he would be more willing to take a customer service entry level position if he’s joining a company that has great upward mobility and career mentoring.  48:45 - The HR Famous crew gives their last words of advice to Cam on the job search. 

In episode 23 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee are back to discuss Jlee’s recent vacation, Tim’s new favorite shorts, different proposed plans for return to work bonuses, and privacy concerns about TikTok and other apps on company owned devices.  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: 1:20 - Jlee is back from vacay! Jlee went on a working vacation to the beach and returned with a nice tan.  3:45 - Do you turn on an out of office reply on your email when you go on vacation? The HR Famous crew has rarely if never turned on their out of office reply.  6:00 - Tim comes through with the much needed fashion advice. He says to check out Fair Harbor shorts! (Also, we’re open to a sponsorship!) 7:00 - First topic of the episode: return to work bonuses. Republican lawmakers are calling to an end to the unemployment benefits coming from the federal stimulus package and replace them with a return to work bonus. Tim says that he’s hearing from many companies that they cannot find workers right now.  9:30 - KD lists off a few of the proposed return to work bonus plans that are being considered. Jlee brings up the fact that many states have waived work search requirements for those receiving unemployment benefits.  12:00 - KD praises the government for moving fast in the beginning of the pandemic to get money to those who really needed it, although there may be problems with the policies.  14:00 - Idaho implemented a version of a return to work hiring bonus but the funds are first come, first serve. Tim worries that some people will return just to get the bonus and then quit and go back on unemployment.  16:20 - Tim discusses a company that he is currently working with and how it is harder to recruit positions for that company in places where Amazon warehouses exist.  18:00 - A big factor for many people to return to work depends on decisions schools make to go virtual or return to in person instruction. KD brings up some counties in the Atlanta area who have decided to do virtual learning for the upcoming school year. Tim talks about how he would want to recruit other families to do virtual learning together.  21:45 - Next topic of the episode: TikTok and employer’s rights! Last Friday, Amazon emailed employees to delete TikTok from their phones. Later in the day, they issued a statement that the email was a mistake and their employees didn’t need to delete TikTok. Wells Fargo also directed their employees to delete TikTok from company owned devices.  24:00 - Tim brings up the bitcoin hack on Twitter and privacy/security concerns on there as well. Although TikTok is a Chinese owned company, there is still risk coming from American owned companies like Twitter.  25:50 - KD discusses the differences in security issues on different kinds of devices or softwares. Tim brings up how many tech companies have allowed their employees to work on whatever operating system they’re most comfortable with and how there may be IT concerns surrounding that.  28:00 - KD asks Jlee if she thinks that people will delete TikTok from their personal mobile devices even though most people have other privacy sensitive information on their devices. Jlee thinks it’s not going to happen and says the only way employers could have complete control over the employee’s devices would have to be somewhat similar to government agencies that work with national security concerns.  30:00 - Tim discusses concerns over TikTok being a Chinese company and therefore, somewhat state-controlled. He thinks a solution may be getting a US owned TikTok alternative to replace the platform. Jlee is very sad about the potential outlawing of TikTok.  32:00 - Tim thinks that people should be allowed to have multiple logins on a phone like you can have on a laptop or a computer. KD thinks that companies should just pay for their employees to have their own company device to solve any security concerns.  33:30 - The HR Famous podcast promotes wearing a mask! Mask up! 34:00 - Is your family stocking up on new devices for back to school? Jlee’s family is spending a lot of money on back to school and Tim may need to buy his son a new laptop.  35:00 - KD is working on bringing a manager training series online at Kinetix. Look out for that coming soon! 36:00 - Check out friend of the podcast, Stacy Zapar, for recruiter training. 

In episode 22 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn are joined by Shana Lebowitz Gaynor to discuss her work at Business Insider and specifically her articles about SHRM’s handling of BLM statements and top HR innovators. The crew also talks about Tim’s Utah adventures, the CHRO move of the week, and KD’s many ideas for HR-related articles at Business Insider.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - No Jlee this week! We hope she’s having fun on her beach vacation! 2:00 - Tim just got back from another (socially distanced) Southern Utah vacation. Tim and KD talk about how to get into Zion National Park and how Tim works the system to get into Zion the easiest way. KD thinks Tim is getting spoiled with views.  4:50 - Check out Tim’s instagram for all of his cool Utah excursions and his most recent jet ski and cliff jumping adventure.  7:20 - New segment alert: CHRO move of the week! Eileen Moore Johnson is the new EVP and CHRO at Scientific Games. Johnson moves from an operational role at Caesars to this new role. KD and Tim break down what they like about the move. 12:00 - Time to welcome our guest for the episode! Shana Lebowitz Gaynor is the correspondent and HR insider writer at Business Insider.  14:00 - Where are most HR people getting their news from? Shana thinks most HR people are getting their news like many other industries, on social media platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn.  16:00 - Tim asks Shana about her experience at Business Insider and what she sees people are connecting most with their content. She says that people respond the most to articles about what to do if you hate your job.  17:50 - Shana says that her time at BI has taught her to get to the point and be succinct in her articles. KD praises BI for this formatting.  20:00 - Tim asks Shana about her article about SHRM and their response surrounding BLM and the response she got to the article. She says she learned about the passion of SHRM members  22:00 - Tim discusses his and KD’s criticism of SHRM and how the toughest critics are often the ones that want to see an organization succeed the most. Shana talks about how she sees the criticism of SHRM as a microcosm of what’s going on in the business world.  24:20 - KD asks Shana what surprised her about SHRM and the HR community that she learned in the writing of her article. She responds by saying that she doesn’t see the demands from racial injustice and other injustices going away.  27:00 - KD has a lot of requests for HR reporting! He brings up an idea to create a list of HR companies that are doing the best work to take meaningful action to get results.  28:30 - Tim brings up Shana’s article “HR innovators who are transforming company culture”. Shana talks about FedEx’s program to hire young tech talent and a tech startup’s effort to make a non-homogenous workforce.  34:00 - KD asks Shana about any grassroots efforts she’s seen that she is excited about. Shana talks about PWC’s training program for new employees and their commitment to better mental health programs for employees.  36:30 - Tim asks Shana about how she foresees company culture changing in our new WFH environment. Shana takes an optimistic view and sees a better and more flexible company culture and increased humanism in the business world.  42:00 - Check out Shana on LinkedIn, Twitter, or read her articles on Business Insider! Thank you to Shana for joining us this week and for all of her great work about the HR industry! Check out their paid membership for all of their content.

In episode 21 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee come together to talk about The Rooney Rule and VMware’s new commitment to include a minority and female candidate in every search at the company.The gang also discusses how often they’ve filled up their car tanks during quarantine, and something called Generation Zoom.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:30 - How many times have you filled your gas tank during quarantine? Jlee has only filled her tank once since March! 3:00 - Who doesn’t love a best friend duo that runs together? KD and Tim went running in Celebration, Florida together. KD was on Zillow on his phone the entire time they ran in the community and Tim was dying.  5:45 - KD has been reading a lot about “Generation Zoom”; our younger generation that has been learning through distance learning. Jlee talks about how her young kids may have trouble learning in the future since they are losing a lot of development time in school.  9:00 - Do you think there will be a dip in SAT and ACT scores in the coming year? Tim is interested to see where the data falls.  10:45 - First major topic of the day: The Rooney Rule. This NFL rule places interview quotas for minority candidates for coaching positions. Tim talks about how more minority candidates have been put into the interview process and what it’s meant in hiring minority coaches.  16:00 - Jlee discusses her own personal experience getting an opportunity that she might not have based on her resume and how she relates to the experience of Mike Tomlin.  18:00 - Tim talks about some negative views on the Rooney Rule and how often coaching positions are planned and picked out far in advance.  20:00 - KD and Jlee bring up another positive of the Rooney Rule, in that it forces forcing hiring managers to look harder and potentially finding special people that they may not have been able to find before, even if it’s not for that particular position.  22:30 - Second topic of the day: VMware’s CEO (Patrick Gelsinger) announced their company would commit to interviewing a POC and a woman for every single position. KD thinks this sounds similar to the Rooney Rule. KD and Tim praises VMware and other companies who have come out recently with new processes and practices to help diversify their workforce.  26:20 - Jlee brings up potential backlash from recruiters and other hiring managers. She notes that leaders need to give recruiters some leeway in order to reach performance metrics and new interviewing goals.  29:40 - How will this new hiring practice work in practice? KD brings up the self ID process and when it comes into play in the hiring process. Jlee discusses the data recruiters will be giving to hiring managers and how they will report that they are meeting a certain requirement.  33:00 - KD reads VMware’s CEO statement again to Tim and gets his reaction. Tim thinks there are many aspects to this new rule that need to be addressed in order to be successful in finding the best possible candidates.  36:00 - Pat (CEO of VM Ware) is a new best friend of the pod! 36:20 - Jlee and KD praise the leadership at VMware for going ahead with this announcement and implementation of the rule instead of getting bogged down in details and complaints.  38:45 - Jlee and KD talk about the concept of equality vs diversity, with KD bringing up Salesforce’s move years ago to grab the high ground of equality. 41:00 - HR Famous would like to congratulate Patrick Gelsinger from VMware on a job well done with their new version of the Rooney Rule. 

In episode 20 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee come together to discuss this week’s Supreme Court ruling, pronouns, and Zoom fatigue. The trio talk about the new developments that may come out of the SCOTUS ruling, the calling for the resignation of Adidas’ CHRO, and micromanaging WFH employees.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! SHOW HIGHLIGHTS 2:40 - Weird voicemail time: Tim talks about a voicemail he got from a young person looking for a job with no information whatsoever. Do you have any crazy voicemail stories? 4:50 - Do you put your phone number on your LinkedIn profile? Tim has his out there and he doesn’t get a lot of spam calls (yet). 5:40 - First major topic of the day: SCOTUS ruled on Monday that the Civil Rights Act protects LGBTQ workers from workplace discrimination. Jlee thinks that this is may open up a new dialogue about transgender workers amongst HR professionals and compliance. KD wonders about self IDs and any new developments with affirmative action.  10:00 - Tim discusses the importance of collecting gender in order to collect data on discrimination. He also talks about how he first was hesitant about the importance of pronouns and how he’s come around on the importance of proper pronouns in the workplace.  12:00 - Any Billions watchers out there? 13:00 - KD brings up the issue of a few corporations encouraging or forcing the use of personal pronouns on platforms like LinkedIn profiles. He thinks it may slow the progress of the adoption of this new practice.  16:00 - Tim thinks that companies can force pronoun use and identification onto employees if they’re a company that fosters a more progressive culture. He thinks it may help with less offensive situations by encouraging leadership to adopt the practice and see the culture change from the top down.  18:30 - Second topic of the day: Adidas employees are calling for the resignation of the brand’s CHRO Karen Parkin due to previous problematic comments on racial issues within the company. Jlee discusses how companies can’t have any missteps right now and if they do, they have to react quickly.  23:00 - Tim and Jlee comment on their distaste for digging up old dirt and bringing it back up years later. He commends Howard Stern and his genuine apology for doing blackface. He also brings up the differences in racial issues across the world and from country to country.  26:20 - KD says that it is hard for him to fathom a business leader that isn’t able to acknowledge issues within a company when confronted. Jlee discusses the need for humility and empathy as HR professionals.  28:15 - Final topic of the day: micromanaging! We’re not talking about the messaging platform but about leaders who micromanage their teams. Tim calls out Jlee for being a micromanager but she claims her extra micromanaging is due to the uncertainty of the times.  31:40 - Tim doesn’t believe in Zoom fatigue. Do you? 33:50 - “Do you know what’s worse than Zoom fatigue? Not having a job.” - Tim 34:00 - Jlee stands up for permanent remote employees who weren’t forced to show their face on camera before but are now due to everyone working remotely.  35:20 - Did you know KD writes on the side? 37:15 - Tim thinks that 25-30 working at home may equate to 40 hours to an office. Resources: 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 19 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn, and Jessica Lee are back to discuss a number of topics about diverse hiring. The trio talk about Adidas’s new hiring goal, tech companies’ contribution to the BLM movement, and Starbucks’ uniform debacle. Later in the episode, Tim is joined by HR leader Jonathan Zoob about hourly hiring and sitting courtside at an NBA game.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:30 - The gang is finally back together! It’s been a few weeks, but Tim, Jlee, and KD are all back on the podcast this week! 2:30 - First topic of the day: popular brand pronunciations. Apparently, the US says everything different than the rest of the world.  3:45 - Adidas has announced that 30% of their hires will be diverse hires. The gang praises Adidas for putting a number out there to start progress but they question where the hiring is going to cause change.  8:40 - Tim discusses a goal that he had at a previous company for diverse hires in leadership roles. He talks about push back from hiring managers and other certain people that feel victimized by diversity hiring goals.  10:30 - KD talks about his favorite “Tim working at Applebee’s” story. Tim says that Applebee’s restrooms are like “a war zone”..... 11:30 - CNBC compiled a list of different tech companies and what they’re doing to support the BLM movement. Every company on the list contributed lots of money, but only one organization announced a change in leadership, when the CEO of Reddit stepped down from his board seat to fill it with a POC. Tim accuses many tech companies of “buying their way out of this conversation” instead of making real change happen. KD thinks that monetary contributions are still commendable but they need to effect real change too.  14:45 - “You have to have money but you also have to have tangible movement”.  16:30 - Starbucks’ employees were told that they could not wear apparel supporting BLM to work. They received backlash because Starbucks’ allows their employees to wear Pride-related uniforms in the month of June. They have pivoted since their original decision. Jlee praises them for pivoting and listening to their employees and what they want.  20:00 - Tim thinks that Starbucks’ and other companies that enforce uniforms should standardize their uniforms and not allow anything other than a standard option since it is easier to manage and can raise many issues. He says that you can support diversity and other causes and keep a plain uniform.  22:00 - “Print the shirts” -KD 23:30 - Time for this week’s special guest! Jonathan Zoob from Fountain has joined Tim for the second half of this week’s episode to talk about hourly hiring.  25:00 - Tim and Zoob talk about their bucket list to sit courtside at a NBA game. They’re both Golden State Warriors fans! 27:00 - Back to business talk. Tim discusses hearing about pre-pandemic struggles to hire hourly workers and he asks Zoob what is going to change about hiring hourly workers.  30:00 - Tim asks Zoob why companies should use different systems for hourly workers.  32:30 - Are new hiring practices for hourly workers causing companies to lose the traditional experience of finding the best candidate? Zoob discusses how his company’s work allows non-HR professionals to find more and better candidates.  34:30 - Tim brings up issues about hiring to create a diverse workforce and how training hiring leaders may not be enough. Zoob discusses how often those doing hiring won’t get diversity and bias training.  36:00 - What do Fountain’s clients see getting better when using the Fountain system? Zoob says their time to hire decreases significantly.  37:15 - Tim asks Zoob how fast time to hire should be and Zoob answers that companies must engage candidates in the application process to really get them to stay interested.  39:00 - Last question of the day: will mass hiring start to happen without interviewing in the coming years? 40:20 - Find Jonathan at fountain.com for a demo or on LinkedIn!  Resources: 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

The HR Famous Crew welcomes in author, SiriusXM radio host, and D&I Talent Strategy expert, Torin Ellis, to talk about how and what organizations can do in light of recent events surrounding the George Floyd killing. Torin delivers both practical advice for organizational leaders, but also directly to HR and TA leaders who have been struggling to move their D&I strategy forward in light of pandemic budget cuts, during what might be the most important time in recent history to be all-in on D&I. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:50 - Welcome to the pod, our special guest Torin Ellis! Jlee and Torin are tired, guys! 2:45 - Tim emceed the Transform HR virtual conference last week so he too is tired.  3:30 - Check out Torin’s podcast Crazy and The King! 5:30 - Is Baltimore different from the rest of Maryland? Jlee’s husband thinks so but Torin defends the great city Baltimore.  7:00 - First topic of the episode: virtual conferencing! Tim discusses Transform HR and the great experience he had last week emceeing the conference.  9:00 - Torin discusses his experience as a keynote speaker at Transform HR the past 2 years and praises the conference for allowing him to use his platform as a keynote speaker to raise awareness and money for causes and to bring humanity to the conference.  12:20 - Insider report: Torin scratched his entire keynote presentation the night before the conference! 13:30 - Tim asks Torin about how he thinks the current the Black Lives Matter movements and protests will affect D&I campaigns within corporations. Torin remains optimistic but wants substantive movement moving forward.  16:00 - Although Nike is often praised for their response to social issues, Nike board member Peter Henry, has said that only 8% of Nike’s VPs are black. Tim references The Prof G Show podcast episode “Slow Thinking”.  18:30 - Jlee and Torin are surprised by Peter Henry’s thought that he didn’t expect a social movement like what we’re seeing today for another ten years. Torin thinks that maybe Henry’s maturity is causing him to be a little out of touch with younger people.  21:20 - Jlee brings up a recent experience she had with a black female team member about being reached out to a lot in the past week by white friends. She asks Torin about the burden and exhaustion black people and other POC are feeling and how to work through it.  23:40 - Torin responds by discussing the bad timing by these people to ask for guidance by their black peers. He recommends for non-black people to go to each other and figure out why such discrimination has happened for many years.  28:00 - Torin encourages everyone to read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein. Check them out to learn how to be a better ally to POC and about the systemic racism built into every system of our lives in the United States.  32:00 - The topics shift to discuss budget cuts in D&I departments. Tim asks Torin how to see growth in D&I in this time of reductions. Torin believes that organizations that cut their D&I departments now will be behind for many years to come.  34:45 - Tim brings up small changes that organizations can make to promote D&I. Torin advises recruiting from a wider range of schools and breaking the norm from current recruiting patterns.  40:00 - Find Torin on all social media platforms @torinellis and at torinellis.com. Also, check out his show on SiriusXM Channel 126 on Sundays at 1 pm!

In episode 17 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett come together to discuss Crocs, compensation strategy, Facebook’s new location based salary adjustments, and the return of the MLB. The duo discuss the different compensation adjustment strategies companies have been taking, why companies have been choosing which strategy to implement, and how decisions made during the pandemic may translate to problems when life returns to normalcy. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:00 - Haven’t heard about Crocs in awhile? No worries! Tim starts the episode talking about the resurgence of Crocs and talks about his history with the infamous shoe brand.  5:00 - Tim wears his Crocs around the house but KD lives in a strict no-shoe household. Is your house a shoes on or shoes off home? 6:45 - Today’s topic: compensation strategy. Tim discusses the 3 different strategies companies are taking during the pandemic recession.  8:30 - KD wages that the specific compensation strategy chosen by businesses depends on how the economy is looking and how it will be in the future. Some industries will be hit differently at different times.  10:45 - Airbnb recently announced that they’re cutting 25% of their staff. KD discusses the strategy the CEO took for their layoffs and how they went about it.  12:30 - Quick digression: Vegas time! Las Vegas is opening up in June and Tim talks about casinos that are giving away one way tickets for Vegas’s grand reopening.  14:00 - We have seen upper level management and executives cutting a lot from their earnings. KD praises execs for doing a good job of forgoing or cutting salaries during the pandemic. 15:20 - Last compensation cutting strategy: location based pay. Facebook has announced that employees who elect to WFH permanently will have their pay adjusted to their personal cost of living.  19:30 - How to adjust pay becomes a new problem with this compensation strategy. Tim and KD discuss how salary adjustment based on location and cost of living could add to the problem of wages and unfair pay 24:30 - “Stop using forever when you tell people they can work at home.” - Tim Sackett 25:00 - Google is giving their remote workers $1,000 to set their employees up for success in a WFH environment. Tim said he spent $4,000 on his personal home office when he worked remotely. KD seems stunned by the price but Tim reminds him furniture is expensive. 27:40 - KD brings us back to the days of relocation compensation. He thinks that $4,000 seems very high and argues for the side of “bootstrap America”. Bootstrappers don’t need a Herman Miller chair for their home office! 30:20 - Tim discusses the draw of working for highly known brands and how the experience of working for these brands goes away when working from home. Tim says that these companies should have Uber Eats drop off lunch for their WFH employees and KD groans. Okay boomer! 31:50 - One last topic for today: sports! KD and Tim laugh at the potential new plans for social distancing for the 2020 major league baseball season.  34:00 - Want to go visit Spanish beaches? They’re planning on creating beach reservations that adhere to social distancing standards. Tim loves the idea. Who is down for a Spain trip? Resources: 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 16 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leader Kris Dunn speaks with the Head of HR for Mikron Ed Baldwin for a continuation discussion about return to work plans. Kris and Ed discuss Mikron’s early decision to start working remotely, what changes they have made in their manufacturing plants, and what tactics allowed them to be on top of the pandemic. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:00 - KD starts off the episode by asking Ed about his position and what Mikron does and their unique position that helped them to be better prepared for the Coronavirus pandemic.  5:15 - KD and Ed establish the timeline of the WFH and circumstances that Mikron faced.  6:00 - Ed outlines the plan and decision Mikron made for remote working, why they made that decision, and how they implemented that plan.  9:30 - KD asks Ed what he attributes Mikron s early call to have employees work from home to. Ed says that WFH wasn’t as dispurtive as they had thought and frequent leadership team meetings helped their quick and effective response as well as their decision to make remote work a permanent fixture where they could. 11:50 -Ed and KD discuss work/employee density as a driving force in COVID response for a manufacturing company.  13:00 - Ed explains a few things that Mikron has done to keep their workers still working on site safe, like modifying work schedules, increased hygiene and cleaning services, and open doors where possible among other changes.  17:30 - KD asks Ed on how his midwestern upbringing in Iowa has prepared him for his work at Micron and his decision making during this pandemic. Don’t forget where you come from!  19:45 - Check out Ed Baldwin’s profile on LinkedIn and his writing on Fistful of Talent!

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  

In episode 15 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee and Kris Dunn come together to discuss Tim’s extravagant Southern Utah adventure, return to work plans, Twitter’s WFH forever proclamation, and Microsoft Teams. The team discusses the different return to work plans and ideas, new office norms, and a potential boom in the workplace real estate market. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:00 - No Tim on this episode! Are we sad or happy? Stay tuned to find out ;) 2:00 - Is JLee still a kid? Sound off in the comments 3:30 - Tim Sackett is a jerk!!!! His Instagram is making the HR Famous crew jealous with his Southern Utah golfing, jeep trips, and luxurious escapades. Safe travels Timmy! 4:30 - Today’s topic: return to work! Some companies have their plans ready to go but all companies are going to have to get ready for “the new normal”. What is that going to look like? Are you ready? 7:00 - RTW = return to work 7:30 - Jlee sounds off on the differences of work returns there can be and the potential anxiety employees could bring with them. Will there be a major fear from workers? 8:45 - KD is taking the approach of surveying his employees on how they want to return to work. Who wants to stay home? Who wants to return to the office? Who is unsure and has concerns?  9:40 - One size fits all? Not for RTW plans. 11:15 - KD fills us in on how Kinetix is facing RTW: Branded face masks: check! How do you feel about the decorative/branded face masks? 13:15 - Sexy brand check! Jack Dorsey has announced that all Twitter employees can work remote forever. What really is forever? Jlee thinks it’s a cool idea but may be too early to make this call. Only a diamond is forever ;) 16:00 - Will there be an increased need for real estate for workspace? Due to physical distancing needs, there may need more space needed to ensure employee safety.  18:00 - Have you ever had an employee sit on the floor in your office during a meeting? Jlee hasn’t but she thinks that cramped small office meetings are on the way out and virtual meetings are here to stay. 20:30 - KD and Jlee are turning this into a Microsoft ad! Microsoft Teams chat is the new norm for Jlee but may be NSFW because of their raunchy gifs. 22:30 - KD thinks that Eric Schmitt’s perception of a workspace real estate boom is a little tone deaf. With more WFH employees and financial troubles, there may not be a real estate boom especially in spaces made for small to mid-sized businesses.  24:00 - Should we be celebrating companies and CEOs who pledge not to lay off employees? The crew thinks it’s unrealistic to raise the expectation that companies should not lay off some workers in this pandemic, especially in service industries.  26:10 - “Up your sunscreen game” - KD to Tim Sackett. 

In episode 14 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett, and Kris Dunn are joined by Tim’s son Cameron and HR professional Chris Hoyt to talk about holidays during quarantine, finding a job straight out of college during a recession, and recruitersrecruitingrecruiters.com. The team discusses the struggles of finding a job in a recession for a college grad, changes to candidate experience, and better ways to hire during a pandemic. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:30 - Mother’s Day is coming! Jessica wants some peace and quiet for her special day and Tim’s wife wants diamonds. Sounds like some good gifts to me!  3:30 - Where do you get your Mom’s Mother Day flowers? KD shouts out 1-800- Flowers and tells a story about a disastrous bouquet of Wal-Mart flowers. Moral of the story: don’t buy flowers from Wal-Mart.  6:00 - Happy (belated) Birthday KD! What we’ve learned is that KD prefers store bought cakes to homemade cakes. 7:00 - Welcome Tim’s son to the podcast! Cameron is a recent grad from the University of Michigan and joins the conversation to discuss finding a job during a pandemic and fills us in on what his job search has been like for the past few months. 10:00 - Has candidate experience decreased since the recession started? Cameron hasn’t seen anything shady from employers but has seen a lot of uncertainty and jobs being cancelled or postponed.  12:20 - Have you been ghosted from a lot of jobs? Cameron has only heard back from a real person for 3 out of 70 jobs he applied to. Not many rejections too! Is that because of the uncertain nature of the times? 14:50 - Would Cameron go work for Fox News if they offered him a job?  16:00 - Are career services still active during the pandemic? Cameron uses Tim as his personal career coach but has seen lots of friends get early job offers from college recruiting and career fairs.  18:10 - Hot gossip alert! Cameron spills the tea on how Tim is as a personal career coach.  20:00 - Quarantine time is a good time to learn new skills! Cameron has been working on podcasting. Look out for the Disney Channel rewatchables coming to your favorite podcasting service near you! KD and Cam discuss their favorite episodes of The Ringer’s Rewatchables podcast.  23:00 - Tim gives us a branding lesson. Buy your kids URLs and reserve their email addresses and social media handles early!  25:15 - Time for the second guest! Tim welcomes long time friend Chris Hoyt to the podcast. 26:00 - Chris discusses his work Career Crossroads and what they do for talent acquisition and recruiting. Tim loves it! 28:20 - Story time! Tim tells us how his wife, Kim, met Chris in Park City, Utah and really liked him.  29:30 - Recruitersrecruitingrecruiters.com! Say that five times in a row! Chris talks about his newest project inspired by the cooperation between CVS and the hospitality industry during the coronavirus pandemic.  32:20 - Looking for a recruiting job? There’s about 150 jobs available on the platform with over 250 employers.  35:00 - #firstworldproblems. Are you experiencing Zoom fatigue?  35:30 - How can you guarantee candidate experience with such high unemployment? Chris discusses how it’s uncertain whether the same levels of candidate experience can be kept up and Tim talks about mistakes he made in the last recession. 

In episode 13 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett, and Kris Dunn try to defeat boredom and come together to talk about quarantine listening habits, Airbnb’s hiring practices, unpaid internships, and Netflix doc American Factory. The team discusses their feelings and thoughts on Airbnb’s postponed hiring, unpaid internships and other working experiences, and the documentary American Factory. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 2:30 - The team starts out sharing with us their favorite quarantine comfort music playlists full of music. Turns out the group has some different tastes: Tim likes basic Spotify playlists, Jlee likes Nick Jonas, and KD likes grunge. This also features a brief discussion of Post Malone’s tattoos.  8:00 - Onto the rundown for the episode. Airbnb has postponed post-grad hires to 2021 and the crew talks about investment they have made for their own PR. Tim weighs in on the workforce needs for Airbnb and other tech companies and how they will continue going forward.  11:45 - KD sees through Airbnb’s “publicity stunt” and calls them out for being unfair for postponing post-grad hires until August 2021. Tim discusses some potential writing on the wall that may have led to this decision. Maybe they’re being forward thinking? KD seems skeptical.  15:00 - Bro trip! KD talks about the last Airbnb he stayed in with Tim in Orlando. The pictures sure weren’t telling the whole truth…. 16:20 - Marriott plug from Jlee! #notsponsored 17:00 - Topic change: internships! Lots of internships have been cancelled for summer 2020 leaving soon to be grads and recent grads in a bind. Also, Hipster Sackett is the best Tim Sackett 20:30 - Tim discusses the evolution of unpaid internships. He believes young adults need to use unpaid internships to build relationships, have experiences, and find mentors to advocate for them. Do you believe in unpaid internships? Should all interns be paid? 23:15 - Who can afford unpaid internships (especially in this economy)? Jlee discusses the need to look at capabilities and skills rather than experiences for new grads in order to level the playing field.  25:30 - KD discusses the addiction to doing internships with huge brands. He advocates for looking locally to gain experiences instead of going for the big guys.  26:45 - “Interns have zero value” - Tim Sackett. What is the real point of internships? Recruiting. (Just saying an intern is writing this right now so no value???) 28:00 - Should companies be allowed to advertise unpaid internships? KD says no but thinks that unpaid experiences should be allowed in order to benefit the person looking for a resume booster.  29:45 - Jlee predicts Tim’s Glassdoor ratings will be plummeting.  30:30 - American Factory time! KD challenged Jlee and Tim to watch the 2020 Academy Award winning documentary about a Chinese company who took over a GM plant in Toledo, Ohio. The team discusses their likes and dislikes.  35:05 - Jlee weighs in on the depiction of Chinese culture in the documentary. Although she came in skeptical, she was pleasantly surprised by the reception of the workers in the movie.  36:10 - Motor City native Tim discusses fat-fingered Americans and the camaraderie and commitment of the Chinese company.  40:00 - The crew ends on their favorite scene. Tim likes the chairman’s frankness about unions and Jlee agrees. She especially likes the interpretation from Chinese to English. KD likes the cut between the Chinese company energy to the Toledo break room.  43:30 - Watch American Factory!

In episode 12 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn come together to talk quarantine watching habits, unemployment insurance coverage and the Payroll Protection Plan. The team brings up the challenges and nuances individuals might be facing when working through their unemployment insurance and PPP.  3:30 - The team starts the convo by talking movies and Netflix series. Tim calls out KD on not watching Parasite - Turns out KD was thinking about a whole other movie with Kevin James.  6:00 - Talking about Hulu and Netflix specials - KD even wrote about the Netflix American Factory docu-series.  9:20 - Tim brings up the elephant in the room, Unemployment and the broken system of unemployment insurance. What are other countries doing that the US isn't? He also brings up PPP - the US Payroll Protection Program. 12:15 - Jlee and Tim talk about the differences between states on the unemployment savings account weekly payouts.  15:25 - Is unemployment a forced savings plan? KD talks about loving it on the broad level brochure, compares the plan to social security and it's struggles + the start of the new recession era. 21:00 - Tim talks worker bias. If you're going to work, and someone else is unemployed and getting benefits - are we jealous? Paying into a system for something we aren't receiving can be discouraging.  23:15 - Jlee says Tim is sounding like Andrew Yang with the concept of universal income. Regardless, this era will be challenging future changes in the UBI realm.  28:45 - How people should handle receiving the PPP through the CARE Act - are some of your employees making more on unemployment?  31:00 - KD brings up that using the PPP doesn't always make the most sense. With restaurants and service base industries how does bringing back workers work when there's no business?  33:05 - Tim talks about the tax, health insurance and other complications with folks choosing unemployment vs. being rehired 35:15 - The team talks about how fast everything has been moving, even for federal government - but with speed comes some issues and misses. 39:30 - Closing it out by touching back on the more lighthearted Netflix watches.  Resources: 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

It’s episode 11 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kristian Dunn kill some more time by recording a new episode on the pod (of course trying to flatten the curve in their respective isolation pods) focused on what virtual HR looks like today – including what kind of HR services you can get for $99/month. Plus there’s some stripper name talk too. Show Highlights: Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)! 1:42 – Jessica calls Tim sexy, or at least she calls his voice that, while he proceeds to completely pass on the compliment and instead complain about back to back conference calls followed by hating on Kris’ deck, which he sure seems to be jealous of. Not the first time he’s talked about Kris’ deck. Sounds like it’s gonna be a really good episode. 3:13 – The crew takes a cue from John Krasinski of The Office fame and channels some of his Some Good News goodness – at which point KD shares that his house looks more like Lord of the Flies with nearly grown children fighting over Corn Nuts. Just kidding. The real good news is that his boys are home and bonding. Sacks meanwhile shares that his team is finding the purple squirrels. They exist. They can be found. 6:06 – JLee humbly admits that she has finally – nearly 20 years into her career – mastered VLOOKUPs in Excel and shares that she and hubby have come to an agreement to FINALLY allow for some food delivery to start happening in their household. 7:46 – On to the real topic. Wait for it. JLee gets an ad on her FB feed and it’s for… drumroll… get your very own HR manager for $99/month via an L.A. based startup, Bambee. 10:26 – Tim reveals the truth about Bambee. These aren’t HR managers who are on the other end of the phone line providing consultation to Bambee’s clients. (And no, they aren’t strippers either.) These are life insurance sales people disguised as HR relationship / account managers. 12:40 – KD breaks down the model. They start with offering a baseline of HR services targeting SMBs that maybe just to start have an HR coordinator who can also do payroll. At 100+ employees, bigger needs obviously develop and that’s when you can’t leverage Bambee anymore. But Sacks thinks there’s no way there’s any value to be gained from a service that’s $99/month regardless of your company size. 15:15 – JLee gets more curious about who exactly these HR managers are that Bambee is hiring and finds a single job posting for the job. It turns out you have to manage 200 clients at a time in addition to the upsell work they do on the life insurance and training services the company also offers. But look, they have a really good Glassdoor rating as JLee finds. People are happy to work there. 19:29 – The crew exposes the fallacy of Bambee, especially in this era of the Rona – virtual, remote HR services yet they require their HR managers to work on-site. 23:00 – KD prophesizes that virtual is the future and the world will be moving to being employed outside of your metro area. Which gets the group talking about what the true value of HR is, and what it then means to deliver HR in a remote environment. 27:50 – A new business idea emerges. It turns out the crew actually not-so-secretly loves the Bambee model but just with higher end remote resources. They struggle with what to call it though. There’s got to be an available stripper name out there though. JLee quickly moves away from sharing too much about their next business venture and seeks out some advice from the guys.

In Episode 10 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn get together to discuss how COVID-19 has changed their daily life, the Cuomo brothers and work-life balance. Tim wants to talk about PTO: accrual vs. unlimited. What’s better? There are different answers with many variables… The gang continues to talk about how PTO will be molded by the COVID-19 crisis with Kris wondering if unlimited PTO might attract the “average” performers. The team closes by talking about the differences in how different types of employees want their PTO and Tim brings up the demise of the Unlimited PTO plan. Show Highlights: 1:56 – Tim brings up the question “How your life was pre-coronavirus vs. now – what’s the percentage?” He says he has had a 50-60% change where Jlee has had nearly a 90% change, drinking more and bonding with family. 4:05 - KD talks about how he isn’t doing anything. He’s going on a run sometimes and avoiding people as much as possible. He’s also being a little more introspective. Tim calls KD out on his new deck-lifestyle with the cat. 7:00 – KD hits the cancel culture with a “BACK OFF” and brings up the Cuomo Brothers (recently featured in a POLITICO article , since Chris Cuomo has the coronavirus but is still doing shows from the basement. Where’s our work-life balance? Is he a bad example? JLee says haters are going to hate, and maybe he should use that sick leave – but he’s doing a service to the people by showing them what COVID-19 looks like. POLITICO is just hating. 12:10 – There’s rarely a moment where someone reaches the top without outworking someone. KD calls out the bullsh*t – for everyone, you have to put in the work and people who don’t work as hard, can’t expect the same results. You have to grind it out. Shout out to Chris Cuomo. 14:47 – Tim brings up unlimited PTO vs Accruals – you’re not going to be using 4 months of PTO, but what would win if you had to choose? Would more people choose the unlimited plan? 18:26 – KD says the answer is different pre and post COVID-19. Tim brings up that HR pros have different opinions than the majority of workers. 22:15 – KD likes a system where you use it or lose it for your vacation time – but sick leave can be rolled over for extended sick leave, extended maternity leave, etc. It’s important for major medical! Jlee kind of agrees but when she was younger, she banked those days for an unused PTO pay out. 25:03 – Tim says PTO will be shaped by COVID, because people may stop coming to work sick. Hybrid PTO packages might be in our future… 28:00 – KD challenges Jlee – what plans would workers select, if they could? Jlee says, there’s no way it’s a one size fits all. 31:20 – KD asks Tim, “What plan will the top performer select?” Tim says unlimited, but Jlee and KD say no – KD says the real answer doesn’t matter because the best managers treat their high performers different. 34:48 - Jlee and KD talk about accruals being preferred over unlimited because sometimes, you don’t want anyone to call you and you want the official day off. 38:50 – The team closes it out with their final comments and how unlimited PTO just might go away post-coronavirus. Resources: 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 9 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee and Tim Sackett (Temporarily “Furloughed” from HR Famous, KD) come together and talk about what it’s like to be an HR Leader during the COVID-19 Crisis. The team talks about how home/work life has changed for them the last month and the importance of finding your support system. We acknowledge the challenges up ahead for HR leaders and look to past experiences during times of crisis. Listen as the team discusses how industries are relying on each other, the birth of “Gen C” and how to implement fluid strategies during constant change. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!!! Listen on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. 1:30 - Jessica is Back! Kris is now furloughed and Tim and JLee talk about how young they look! Tim says we hate hiring two types of people: Old people and Fat people! 4:00 – Things the bug you about your WFH partners! JLee dishes on what bugs her most about BobbyJ, and Tim shares an amazing drink recipe. Tim found out his house isn’t big enough for WFH for him, since the rest of his family already took all the good spots! 9:00 – What’s it like to be an HR Leader in the world of COVID? JLee believes being an HR leader today can be lonely and isolating when we are dealing with so much heavy stuff. So, Tim and JLee talk through how do we support each other and find coping mechanisms. Everyone thinks HR knows the plan, which adds so much stress to us and our teams. Tim comes clean that he and KD talk every day! 13:10 – It’s okay to be human during a crisis in HR. It’s super hard to prepare for the crap side of HR. Laying folks off, delivering bad news, etc. We all love the great side of HR, but the last decade has made most of us forget about the bad side of HR. Tim gives stories from the trenches when he was considered the Grim Reaper! 17:25 – All Industries rely on each other in times of crisis. The big question is do we become more global or less global from the fallout of all of this. We rely on other countries for so much, but we now know we might need some America-based supply chains to protect ourselves in major crisis. 19:38 GenC is created! We are now calling kids who grow up during Coronavirus times – GenC’s! Tim talks about how his GenZ sons are graduating college in a bad economy and how that has a real impact for those kids who went through primary school during the Great Recession and now come out to the real work world during a pandemic. 23:15 – Fluidity with how you lead. In times of crisis we still need to plan, but you better be fluid with those plans because the only thing we know right now about leadership is as soon as you think you have it down, things will change! 25:15 – Tim gives a shout out to friend of HR Famous Trish McFarland! Introverts you need to contact your extroverted friends and make sure they’re doing okay, and JLee tells Tim he needs to watch Tiger King on Netflix!

In Episode 8 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn (Jessica Lee on break) get together with Dawn Burke (Senior Writer at Fistful of Talent, Sr. Consultant at Recruiting Toolbox) to talk about video meeting etiquette, their virtual meeting pet peeves and their wildest video call stories. The team shares their tips and tricks on tech, framing and lighting for your video calls. Talking about their pet peeves leads to the importance of connection, Zoom’s questionable feature on attention metrics, and how to be aware of nonverbal cues. KD closes by prompting the team to share some embarrassing video call moments that you won’t want to miss. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!!! Listen on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. Show Highlights:  1:30 - Tim says Michigan isn’t shut down completely – YET and the team welcomes special guest, senior writer at FoT, Dawn Burke. Dawn explains she doesn’t eat cat food, and life’s good followed by Tim and KD talking COVID-19 toilet paper memes. 5:00- KD dives deep into best practices for video meetings. Kris gives a shout out to Craig Fisher and talk about how not to suck at video – thinking about your camera, mic and lighting… Tim talks tech with wifi vs. hardwire – and calls out KD on his bad internet, and KD blames his kids who are now home and “streaming”. 8:30- Dawn talks the importance of having the basics first, lighting second… but if you are looking for the right light, there are amazon purchases that makes video calls cleaner, neater and brighter. She highly recommends the selfie ring light. 10:45 -The team digs into the pet peeves. KD’s first: framing and shitty backgrounds. Tim and Dawn agree first on their list is learn how to MUTE.  17:20 – KD asks “What is your dream video meeting background?” Dawn would be in a coffee shop with Jesus in the background. Tim goes 80’s arcade and KD wants a Wu-Tang jpeg. But what you really want, is something that starts conversation. 22:25- KD talks about how your company culture follows you into virtual meetings. “There’s attention metrics on tools like Zoom and the host of the meeting can get a notification if you aren’t paying close attention for 30 seconds” A hack for those with questionable manager techniques… keep Zoom as your active window and get your other windows set before the call is the recommendation. 27:45- The team discusses if it’s important to be looking into the camera. Tim mentions it’s one of his pet peeves – “eye contact is one of our physical ques that indicate if someone’s engaged” 33:30- KD says the best guidance for video meetings, is to show non-verbal ques and interaction because that will help you thrive over those who aren’t picking up those ques. Tim and Dawn go into more advice. Tim says headphones keep you locked in and Dawn says everyone working from home will make our work places better in the future. 37:45 Tim, KD and Dawn start sharing their video call horror stories. From spouses crawling across the floor in the background, embarrassing notifications on shared screens to Dawn’s cat cameos.

In Episode 7 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn (Jessica Lee on break) get together to with Dawn Burke (Senior Writer at Fistful of Talent, Sr. Consultant at Recruiting Toolbox) to talk about Work From Home, as tens of millions of American workers have been told to stay home, keep working and figure it out on the fly. Dawn shares her advice and background from a recent Fistful of Talent feature, focusing on the need to maintain work rituals (eating lunch in your car and watching Netflix rather than in the house) as well as thoughts on productivity expectations, print cartridges, PETS, kids, laundry, etc. Tim and Kris weigh in with stories about day drinking (not them, other people) and the psychology behind work from home productivity and the need to stop texting and emailing everyone ALL THE TIME from your bunker. If you’re new to work from home or managing people who are, this is the podcast for you. Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!!! Listen on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play.   Show Highlights: 1:30 – Tim discloses he’s not working from home since he owns his building at work, which is really just another form of working from home. Dawn Burke, longtime HR leader, Senior Writer at Fistful of Talent, Sr. Consultant for Recruiting Toolbox introduces herself. 4:25 – Dawn breaks down a post she wrote at Fistful of Talent entitled “Working from Home Can Be Awful! Unless You Do These Things”, in which she provides great advice on how to set yourself to work from home, especially if you haven’t done It before. It’s harder than it looks, as she details her transition to work from home and where she struggled as a result. Dawn also talks about people around her – like her sister - struggling over the last few days as they transition from no WFH to full time WFH with zero planning and prep. 11:20 – Dawn, Kris and Tim get into Dawn’s advice for people transitioning to full-time work from home – focused on the needs to maintain “rituals”. Kris goes right to one of the sizzle parts of Dawn’s article/advice, which is the disclosure that just like when she used to try and get out of the corporate office mid-day, she also has a history of trying to get out of the home office mid-day – BY EATING LUNCH IN HER CAR AND WATCHING NETFLIX. Fascinating and scary all at the same time. The gang ends up loving the idea for new folks doing the WFH thing. It’s actually brilliant. Other references – Magic Mike, etc. 17:23 – Speaking of work rituals, Tim and Kris share alcohol-related stories from their time as trench HR pros. 21:00 – Dawn breaks down her top advice for folks moving to 100% work from home. Making appearances in the discussion – print cartridges, PETS, kids, laundry, etc. Tim talks about the productivity bump/burnout function that’s coming for new WFH people. 27:00– The gang talks about the need to stop messaging via Text and Slack when you’re a new WFH person and pick up the phone and talk to people (or via video) – to get human interaction. Interaction is going to be important to prevent isolation. 28:50 – TOP ADVICE FROM THE GANG RELATED TO WORK FROM HOME - Tim and Dawn break down their biggest pieces of advice for folks who are new to work from home. Tim shares his view that things get lost in translation, and you have to pick up the phone, facetime or hop on a video call rather than try to resolve something through 23 emails. Dawn talks about her background and lighting in her WFH set up, and points to exercise/wellness/mindfulness platforms as a huge help to mental and physical health. KD feels like the key to WTH is find a way to reconnect with someone who’s important in your life - personal and/or professional - at least a couple of times a week. NOTE - We’ll be back mid-week with a pod focused on nothing but ZOOM and the art of the video meeting!

In Episode 6 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn get together to talk discuss pay equity issues for women, focusing on the the recent court briefing filed by the US Soccer Federation that claimed the US Women's National Team earns less than the Men's National Team due to (among other things) "men having more ability, strength and speed" (yikes). All the issues you would expect are discussed, including horrible communications/PR strategies, the impact of Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA) and more. KD, JLee and Sacks also discuss a related issue - the efforts a couple of years back from Salesforce.com to tag its D&I focus on equality rather than diversity, and why that move was made and how it's worked out for Salesforce, as well as ongoing challenges with the strategy. Show hIghlights: 1:20 - KD asks JLee and Tim about their work from home strategy in the coming weeks. 4:30 - KD talks about his cord cutting that happened right before the need to work from home more, his move to YouTubeTV and the millennial who sold him on the merits of the solution. Tim talks about the fact his first Netflix password was actually from the girlfriend of one of his sons.   7:40 - The gang breaks down the recent news from the legal proceedings between the US Soccer Federation and the US Women's Soccer Team - a recent court brief from the Federation that outlined one of the reasons men's national team members get paid more that women's national team members - "men have more ability, strength and speed, therefore they should be paid more". Wow.  9:52 -JLee takes on the president of the US Soccer Federation (the one that resigned) for not reading the press briefing from the US Soccer Federation. JLee also breaks down the math between the speed gap vs the pay gap. 11:50 - Tim Sackett HAS READ THE ENTIRE COURT BRIEFING. It's 30 pages according to Tim - double-spaced! Not hard to read through. Tim take a shot at the Federation board that called for the president to resign, stating they didn't read it either. WTF. Tim talks about the fact that pay and benefits for the women's team is collectively bargained (CBA) as part of a union contract and the court will be unlikely to overturn the agreement. 20:05 - JLee disagrees with the fact that the court briefing is a breakdown of communications strategy, instead pointing out the fact that given the depth of the comments in the briefing, it's pure sexism and misogyny - it's what the US Soccer Federations actually believes. 20:45 - The gang talks about the fact that they like watching the Women's National Team in soccer over the Men's National team.  21:40 - JLee and KD talk about the Salesforce pivot from solely D&I focus to more of an "Equality" focus. JLee talks about the Asian influence in diversity hiring for tech companies in the Bay area, and points out that closely the gender pay gap is great, but the results can slip over time.  28:05 - Tim and JLee break down what they're going to get caught up on as the world slows down a bit based on Covid-19. Resources: 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

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.   

In Episode 5 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn get together to talk about all things Coronavirus (COVID-19) and HR, including their personal views, why companies don't plan more for bad things happening and of course, the HR mechanics that have to be figured out by HR leaders in the US if COVID-19 continues to escalate.  Deep conversations around what a sniffle now means, bias around sniffles, managers with a bias to tell people to come to work, and the sticky mess that navigating pay for hourly workers with the condition or waiting to be tested will invariably cause for organizations with narrow profitability.  Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!!! Listen on iTunes, Spotify and Google Play. Show Highlights: 1:45 - Tim isn't a fan of the COVID-19 death tally. The gang discusses the requirement for government agencies to be transparent and inform vs the insane media cycle we're in related to the numbers, as well as all the things with huge negative numbers that don't get reported. 3:20 - Are we hopelessly behind in America related to planning for contagion? What's HR's role in preparing for the worst? The gang discusses not being the panicked HR leader vs the appropriate mode of prep and concern for your organization.  6:21 - Tim brings up the point that it's not the team eligible for "work for home" you must figure out - it's the hourly employees who don't get paid if they don't come to work. 7:45 - KD talks about the challenges of someone getting sick - still the cold and flu season - how do you figure out when to let people work with sniffles and when it's a risk? KD also breaks down what conferences are doing (if they are holding live conferences vs cancelling or going virtual). TRANSLATION: BE PREPARED TO BE TEMPERATURE SCANNED. 9:35 - The HRF team talks about how far we're willing to go as HR pros - are we ready to temperature scan employees before they're allowed to work? JLee talks about the fear that people have when someone coughs, as well as questions she gets asked - "have you been to Asia recently?" (aka, the cough of a PacRim person means more than someone else). 12:45 - KD talks about some hopeful news - that new cases in China have decreased (related to the trend line) for the first time and China is shutting down one of the first pop up hospitals it built in response to the decrease in the trend line. 15:20 - JLee, Tim and KD talk about the complexity of paid time off in the Coronavirus era. If someone comes down with COVID-19, will average companies provide 14 days of paid leave to impacted employees? Are they willing to put people on a form of paid leave when they are waiting for a test? We're back to the issue of hourly employees who don't get paid if they're not at work being patient zero within a single company - they come to work when they're sick, a time-honored event we don't see changing with COVID-19 unless great HR pros help their companies figure it out. Resources: 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 4 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn get together to dip into uncomfortable territory by talking about microaggressions - what are they, how they manifest themselves and what HR leaders can do to make awareness of microaggressions part of their broader D&I stack. Microaggressions can be defined as brief and commonplace daily verbal or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group, particularly culturally marginalized groups. There's less laughter in this one - but more real talk. Tough topic, but if you're an HR leader or HR pro, 100% worth your time to raise your awareness and lead your organization accordingly. Show Highlights: 3:10 - KD intros the topic of microaggression, tells the gang why it's on his mind and gets sidetracked automatically because JLee and Tim don't donate at least annually to Wikipedia.  6:20 - KD finally gets the definition of microaggression out using Wikipedia as his primary source. Turns out the concept has been around since 1970. 7:40 - JLee and Tim react to the concept of microaggression as individuals and HR pros. JLee talks about being from Cali, but people persisting in asking where she's from. Tim talks about the fact that people seek connection by asking others where they are from in metro/urban environments and may be unaware of the connection to microaggression, as well as the fact they might be offending someone. 11:25 - KD leads the gang through the game, "Is it a microaggression? JLee gives great thoughts about low awareness of those providing the microaggression and why the subject of a microaggression should think about giving feedback to the provider.  Covered in this game: --Where are you really from? --Asking where are you from to white people with accents. --Gender references (Sir, Ma'am) and being wrong. --You don't speak Spanish? --No, you're white! --Hey Guys! 22:00 - The gang talks about the impact of microaggressions in the workplace, and how HR leaders should start the conversation in their companies, etc. Linkage to bias training and starting to raise awareness as well as training to lay down a form of behavioral muscle memory across employees is discussed. Framing awareness training as civility rather than the foreboding term microaggression is also discussed. 25:20 - Tim talks about the need to train and coach people to accept feedback (someone telling them they're using a microaggression) in a graceful way rather than feeling attacked or defensive.  28:00 - KD talks about introducing the topic of microaggressions at your next training session/meeting by conducting a simple quiz like the one performed on the podcast to get people talking. Get ready! Tim talks about the fact that many people would say that doesn't actually happen, and a better path might be to have people who have experienced microaggressions talk about their experiences. 29:40 - KD points out that the quiz they did didn't include the nuclear bomb of all microaggressions - "You're so articulate".  30:45 - "OK, Boomer!" Tim drops the fact that when it comes to bias, ageism is an under discussed topic, including microaggressions towards older workers. KD talks about JLee referencing the fact that he looks older while she looks the same.  31:57 - KD talks about the fact that he routinely calls JLee a Tiger Mom and asks her if she's considered that a microaggression in the past. JLee provides positive feedback, but notes that others that hear it might consider it a microaggression even if she doesn't. Resources: 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 3 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn discuss recent legal proceedings designed to force Glassdoor to disclose reviewer identities, take a look at the company involved by reviewing their Glassdoor page and activity, and talk about dramatic changes to the SHRM Annual Conference Influencer Program. Show Highlights: 2:45 – Tim walks though recent changes to the Influencer Program at the SHRM Annual Conference. 12:06 – Tim and JLee discuss the challenges of Glassdoor as employers and discuss Tim’s CEO rating on Glassdoor. 13:42 – KD lays out a recent court proceeding where a company (Kraken) is asking for the identities of Glassdoor commenters due to violation of confidentiality clauses in signed severance agreements. 16:15 – JLee labels Kraken as a JV squad. Tim reviews the timing of the layoffs, the targeting of former employees with a cease and desist letter about Glassdoor comments, smart Glassdoor management and more. 21:18 – The gang breaks down the Kraken Glassdoor page and activity. JLee comes in with breaking news of a warning at the top of the Kraken page. Heavy discussion of the relationship between paid customers and Glassdoor ensues. 22:55 – More Kraken analysis as the gang looks deeper into their glassdoor page and starts sorting by low and high ratings and see what’s most popular and reads titles of negative reviews and analyzes traffic to positive vs negative posts. Spoiler – people read the negative reviews more. 26:34 – The gang discusses the right way to respond to Glassdoor reviews to be credible and authentic. Code words in employer responses are also discussed. Resources: 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 Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Kraken-Digital-Asset-Exchange-Reviews-E938667.htm https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-fights-protect-anonymity-glassdoor-commenter

In Episode 2 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn get together to discuss workplace McLovin - relationships, dating and hookups that occur inside your company between employees. The HR Famous team tells stories and talks about the role of HR and whether there is a need for deep policies to protect your company when people fall in love, as well as when Outlook Exchange and a digital copier are involved. Show Highlights: 3:00 - The gang discuses KD's choice of hotels, whether you can say "white" these days and if white is a primary color. 4:00 - JLee lays down the science behind how long you can say "Happy New Year" and Tim and KD turn it into an manager access issue and a discussion of the Chinese New Year. 5:50 - KD kicks off the topic of C-level McLovin and dating in the workplace with a review of the McDonalds CEO and the Alphabet/Google Legal Counsel going down for relationships at work. 8:40 - Tim and JLee discuss whether companies and the HR leaders need to be the relationship police, including risk management, positional power and more. 13:20 - The gang gathers around the campfire and listens to the gripping story of young KD's first exposure to C-Level McLovin(s) and KD advocates for relationship policies being like a DUI Checkpoint. Tim and JLee weigh in with policy impact, including level considerations, reporting relationships, asking for waivers and potentially asking people to leave the company or change jobs as a result of falling in love. 31:00 - Tim tells his story from Applebees, which is epic and should not be missed, including perceived benefits that don't have a Summary Plan Description or an Explanation of Benefits. 34:00 - KD breaks down another McLovin C-Level story that felt like the Matrix, and tells the gang why all McLovin sightings seem to happen around elevators. Resources: 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 the first episode of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn get together to make fun of themselves, talk about their long term friendship and generally discuss the low wattage impact of being "HR Famous."  Show Highlights: 1:35 - JLee comes over the top to correct Kris for his pronunciation of Marriott, even though the way he says it is how the rest of the world says it. 3:00 - KD, JLee and Tim discuss each other's backgrounds, starting to write and speak on all things HR and the impact all of it has had on them. 7:59 - The gang discusses their nicknames and JLee breaks the news that if she would have taken her husband's last name, future projects inside the team could have been named "Chun and Dunn." 10:05 - Tim breaks down the inside joke and self-deprecation of the name of the podcast, "HR Famous." 13:40 - Jessica, Tim and Kris discuss their top HR famous moments, which is enough to be recognized but quickly followed by something that returns them to reality. Highlights include bosses not realizing they write/speak, being asked to take selfies of other people after they speak, occasionally being recognized on airport walkways before boarding in coach, their likeness being broadcast on a book and friends/colleagues seeking to protect their rights, and being awful with names. 27:50 - KD Shares the origin story of how the gang met when he onboarded Jessica and Tim at Fistful of Talent. Resources: 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

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.

The future of recruiting isn’t coming. It’s already here. And if you’re still relying on your legacy tech stack and spreadsheets, you’re already behind. Enter Steven Jiang, CEO and Co-founder of HireEZ, who just dropped one of the most important AI launches in the recruiting space - EZ Agent, their agentic AI companion built to fundamentally reshape the recruiter’s role. Forget everything you know about “copilots” and “gen AI assistants.” EZ Agent is not just another AI tool bolted onto your ATS. It’s a fully-integrated, always-on agent that plans, reasons, executes, and evolves - empowering recruiters to get out of the weeds and back into real talent relationships. Steven joins Tim Sackett to break down: • Why agentic AI isn’t just better - it’s a whole new operating system for recruiting • How recruiters move from task managers to true talent strategists • What it means to create a white-glove candidate experience at scale • And how EZ Agent is solving the “black hole” problem by giving 100% of candidates a shot at the plate Steven’s built more than a product - he’s building a movement to re-humanize recruiting with AI doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes. If you care about talent, inclusion, and the future of work - this is the conversation you need to hear. Connect with Us: Steven Jiang Follow Steven on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenhireez/ Learn more about HireEZ: https://hireez.com/ Book a Demo: https://hireez.com/customer-success/ Tim Sackett Follow Tim on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/timsackett Need Help with Technical Recruiting: https://hrutech.com/ Read Tim’s Blog: https://timsackett.com/

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!!!

AI isn't coming - it's here. And it's changing recruiting faster than most realize. In this crossover episode between RecTech Media and HR Famous, Chris Russell and Tim Sackett dive into the latest from Phenom’s conference in Philadelphia. 2600 attendees. 25+ new AI agents rolled out. And a vision for HR tech that feels more like science fiction than reality. But what happens when AI isn’t just automating tasks - it’s making decisions? And if recruiters aren’t the ones screening candidates, curating talent pools, or delivering feedback, what’s left for them to do? Phenom is betting big on agents that can reason - detecting mistakes, providing real-time feedback, even building personalized hiring experiences. And they’re not alone. Paradox and Eightfold are in the race, each taking different approaches to AI. But is all this innovation really making hiring better? Or just faster? If AI agents are handling the heavy lifting, where does that leave recruiters? And if everyone’s automating, what actually sets your hiring process apart? Phenom claims they’re two years ahead of the industry. But if that’s true, what happens to everyone else still playing catch-up? Listen to find out why this shift in HR tech could leave even the most seasoned recruiters rethinking their entire approach. Connect with Us: Chris Russell Follow Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmrussell/ Check Out the RecTech Podcast: https://www.rectechmedia.com/podcast Tim Sackett Follow Tim on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timsackett Visit Tim’s website: https://www.hrutech.com

On episode 95 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leader Tim Sackett is joined by HireEZ’s (formerly Hiretual) CMO, Shannon Pritchett, to discusses Outbound Recruiting strategies and the real struggles of modern TA. 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: 1:15 - It’s a Tim solo pod today! He is joined by special guest Shannon Pritchard. She is the Head of Marketing from HireEZ (formerly Hiretual).  6:30 - Tim notes that in marketing, we often don’t devote enough resources to building communities when that could be a great strategy for the longevity of a business. Shannon notes that this is something that HireEZ (formerly Hiretual) has learned from being at a start-up.  9:15 - Tim asks Shannon to explain what HireEZ is to those who might not know. Shannon notes it’s an outbound recruiting process. They want to bring in automation and AI to speed up the recruiting process.  10:00 - Tim discusses how the modern recruiter will say the most difficult part of their job is finding talent. He says that it’s not really the hardest thing but it’s getting talent to respond to you and talk about your position.  12:00  - You heard it here first! Hiretual will now be known as HireEZ.  15:00 - Shannon notes that they’re giving referral bonuses for interviews. 17:30 - Tim tells a story about how a TA leader took several months to get back to him from a LinkedIn message. What are they doing?? 20:00 - Tim says that some TA leaders will ask him if they should hire another recruiter or add more tech. He says they will probably need both.  23:30 - Shannon says that it’s important to not stop advertising but to reinvest in outbound tactics.  25:00 - Tim asks Shannon to discuss the mini-conference HireEZ is hosting in Mountain View this week. They’re calling it Outbound RecruitCon. It’s only an hour long! 26:50 - Tim thinks the future of TA may be having an inbound team and an outbound team.  30:00 - Tim says that he doesn’t see himself in a corporate TA role in the future but he would set up an inbound and outbound team if he were in that role.  36:30 - You can find Shannon on Twitter @sourcingshannon and check out HireEZ.com!