Friends with Employee Benefits – Details, episodes & analysis

In today’s competitive job market, finding skilled workers has become a pressing challenge for employers across various industries. Jim Bologa, President and CEO at Porter & Chester Institute, joins Jeff Cross to share valuable insights and strategies to help bridge the skills gap. The two speak on workforce shortages and explore how Porter & Chester works with employers across New England to help solve this problem. 

Music By: Colin Cross Music 

100% retention in 24 months in this labor market? Sounds impossible - but that's been the reality for The Walker Group and co-CEO, Jessica Rich, who over the past year helped her organization turn to a Perpetual Purpose Trust (PPT) ownership structure. PPT for short, made most popular by Patagonia recently turning to this structure in 2022, legally empowers a company to organize around its purpose, rather than just profit. In this episode, Jeff Cross, podcast host, and Jessica Rich dive into why the Walker Group looked into PPT, what it has done for their business, their employees, and the community as well as why employers are reaching out to learn more about this ownership structure.

Join Jessica and her team for a virtual panel discussion on Wednesday, September 25th, from 12-1 PM EST on their transition to a Perpetual Purpose Trust. Click here to get more details!

Check out The Walker Group's website for more details on PPT: https://www.thewalkergroup.com/perpetual-purpose-trust

Music By: Colin Cross Music

With being almost a full year into the new Connecticut Paid Family and Medical Leave program, we decided to sit down with a CT-based employer to find out how things are going. Kate Pikul, HR Director at Avid Marketing, shares her experiences with the state plan, how her team and employees are finding the process, what hurdles they are still facing and what's next as they look at the private plan options. This 40-minute episode is packed full of great insight into the CT PFML program - take a listen and let us know what you think!

For more information on CT PFML, check out our website here: https://www.onedigital.com/ct-paid-leave/

Music By: Colin Cross Music

Rachel Waldmann, Sr. Manager of Employee Experience at Privy, joined us this week to discuss the shift we are seeing from the term "Human Resources" to this idea of the People Experience and how employees are expecting more from their employers, brought on by the pandemic and the Great Resignation. The two also get into this idea of being happy at work; why employers should care about their employee's happiness level and ways that HR professionals and other leaders in the organization can get their teammates more engaged at work. Lastly, Host Jeff Cross asks Rachel where she sees the future of HR heading. 

Music By: Colin Cross Music

Most likely, the vast majority of your employees have or are currently experiencing some sort of trauma brought on by current life events. Inflation, rising gas prices, the war in Ukraine, political divisiveness - just to name a few of the ongoing stories hitting the 5:00 news that are causing stress levels to rise and distracting us from being able to focus on our daily tasks.

Adrienne Rouan, Executive Trauma Coach, sits down with Jeff Cross for a candid conversation around how we can better manage the amount of turmoil going on in across the country and the world. The two also get into how to prevent divisiveness between colleagues at work, and what we can do during Mental Health Awareness month to better support our employees' and our own mental wellbeing. This is 29 minutes packed with great insights and open dialogue - grab your coffee (or tea!) and enjoy.

Music By: Colin Cross Music

Karen Casey, Head of People & Culture at Canidae Pet, joined Host Jeff Cross this week to discuss an important topic that all human resource professionals run into at some point in their career: managing poor performers. The two get into a great discussion around coaching vs. managing, how much time performance improvement plans should be given, how the employee's role in the workplace culture may be just as important as their performance, advice for when you have to let someone go, how to deal with the fall-out amongst other employees, and more. There's a lot packed into this 36-minute episode and for good reason. If you are in HR, or have a part in the people side of your organization, give this a listen!

Music By: Colin Cross Music

58% of those who are feeling stressed, depressed, and lonely attribute it to financial problems.* Whether employers realize it or not - a majority of their employees are dealing with financial stress which leads to distractions at work and decreased productivity. For business leaders who truly care about their employees and want them to be able to thrive at work while also being ready to retire on time, tune into this episode with Gordon Oliver at Cambridge Credit Counseling. You'll walk away with actionable steps you can put into place now to better support your workforce moving forward.

*John Hancock. "The impact of the pandemic on stress, finances, and well-being." August 2021.

Music By: Colin Cross Music

Tune into this episode with Rebecca Sarkosi, Associate & Director of Interior Design, as she dives into something most employers forget about when putting together their strategy for combatting the great resignation: the physical workplace. During this discussion, Rebecca shares with Jeff how employers can leverage their office space to help their employees feel more comfortable coming back into the office. Topics include what changes employers are making to the workplace since COVID-19, making the commute more appealing and how the office space can aid in stress management.

Music By: Colin Cross Music

Stephanie Johnson, Training Consultant, joins Jeff Cross on our first episode of 2022 to chat about hiring diversely. Employers have been prioritizing their DE&I efforts over the past few years, but many are still struggling with where to start. Stephanie dives into what it means to hire diversely, the steps HR professionals should take to ensure they are increasing the diversity in their applicant pool, where she finds they usually get stuck and how blind resumes and interviews play a role in the process.

Here are additional resources to support the conversation:

• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/global-and-cultural-effectiveness/pages/beyond-the-numbers-creating-a-truly-diverse-organization.aspx
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/alineholzwarth/2021/02/18/how-to-actually-hire-for-diversity/?sh=40dcba8846f9
• https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/8-diversity-recruiting-mistakes-how-to-avoid-them.aspx
• https://sapientinsights.com/capabilities-diversity-equity-inclusion/

Music By: Colin Cross Music

Sara Martin, CEO at WELCOA, joins the podcast to chat about her thoughts on the Great Resignation, how mental health has played a role, what employers and leaders should be doing about it and where she sees the future of work heading. An impactful 30-minute episode for any organization looking to support their workforce holistically in 2022.

Music By: Colin Cross Music