Host: Steve Boese

Guest: Connor Diamond-Yauman, Co-CEO of Merit America

Summary

In this episode of At Work in America, Steve is joined by Connor Diemand-Yauman, for a conversation about economic mobility, workforce development, and creating stronger pathways from low-wage work into sustainable careers.

Connor shares the story behind Merit America and the realization that helped inspire its work: access to education alone does not necessarily create opportunity. The conversation explores their work with adults in low-wage jobs and why human coaching has become such an important part of its model. While learners may initially come for credentials in areas such as IT support, project management, cybersecurity, or semiconductor technology, Connor explains that many ultimately identify coaching as one of the most transformational parts of their experience.

Steve and Connor also discuss the rapidly changing labor market and the challenge of preparing people for jobs and skills that continue to evolve. Rather than trying to perfectly predict the future of work, Connor argues that agility is becoming one of the most important capabilities for workforce development organizations, employers, and workers alike.

For HR and business leaders, the message is clear: expanding economic opportunity requires opening the aperture on how we define qualified talent, taking thoughtful risks on people who may not fit traditional hiring profiles, and creating real pathways for people to turn their skills and potential into meaningful careers.

Topics include:

• Why access to education does not automatically translate into career opportunity
• How workforce programs can keep pace with a rapidly changing labor market
• Why some perceived talent shortages may actually be workplace or business model problems
• The disconnect between removing degree requirements and actually changing hiring practices
• How employers can broaden their definition of qualified talent

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.

Hosts: Mervyn Dinnen

Guest: David D'Souza, Writer, keynote speaker, and advisor

Summary

In this episode of HR Means Business, Mervyn is joined by David D’Souza, former Director of Profession at the CIPD, for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of HR and the capabilities professionals will need to navigate what comes next.

David reflects on how the profession has evolved and why HR’s value cannot be defined by HR alone. Rather than beginning with programs, best practices, or what the function believes organizations should do, he argues that HR must begin with the problems the business is trying to solve and understand how people, skills, structure, and culture can help address them.

The conversation also explores the growing role of AI in HR and why automation creates both opportunity and responsibility. As technology takes on more transactional work, skills such as situational judgment, evidence-based decision-making, curiosity, adaptability, relationship building, and critical thinking become even more important.

Key Takeaways

• HR must start with the business problem
• Human judgment becomes more important as AI grows
• Curiosity and adaptability will be essential HR skills
• Workforce planning must become more agile
• HR needs to enable change, not become the point of resistance

Thank you for your continued support of the show and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Here’s a wild stat: 6 in 10 employees have never been meaningfully recognized for a work anniversary. Think about that. Five, 10, 20 years of someone’s life — and too often, the moment falls flat. Workhuman’s Service Milestones® makes recognition more personal, memorable, and impactful. Milestone tracking happens automatically through your HRIS, the right colleagues are inspired to share stories and congratulations, and employees get access to rewards they actually want.

Ready to make your milestones meet the moment with Workhuman? Click the banner on this episode’s page or follow the link in the show notes to learn more.

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: Kimball Dean Parker, CEO at SixFifty

Summary

In this episode of At Work in America, Steve and Trish welcome Kimball Dean Parker, CEO of SixFifty, for a conversation about how technology and AI are changing the way organizations manage employment law and compliance.

Kimball shares the story behind SixFifty and why employment law became such an important problem to solve. With regulations varying across states, cities, and counties — and changing constantly — staying current can quickly become overwhelming, particularly for organizations hiring across multiple locations. The conversation explores how AI and automation can help organizations manage everything from employee handbooks and hiring documents to required posters, training, and other compliance workflows. Kimball also explains why combining AI with established legal workflows can create more predictable and reliable outcomes rather than simply asking generative AI to produce an answer from scratch.

The conversation also looks beyond risk reduction. When organizations have greater confidence in their compliance infrastructure, they can hire talent in more locations, respond more quickly to regulatory changes, and give HR leaders back time that would otherwise be spent managing administrative complexity. The group offers a practical example of where AI can create immediate value for HR: taking repeatable, time-intensive compliance work off people's plates while allowing HR professionals to focus more of their time on people, strategy, and the business.

Topics include:

• Why employment law compliance becomes increasingly complex as organizations expand across locations
• How technology can help organizations stay ahead of changing employment regulations
• The importance of combining AI with structured, established processes
• How stronger compliance infrastructure can support multistate hiring and business growth
• How automation can give HR leaders more time for strategic work
• Why compliance may be one of the most practical places for organizations to begin using AI

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.

This episode of At Work in America is sponsored by Paychex, an industry-leading human capital management company that combines scale, trusted expertise, and innovation to help businesses succeed. SixFifty, by Paychex helps your business stay ahead of constantly changing laws and regulations with HR compliance software. Curated by experienced attorneys and powered by AI, SixFifty helps turn the impossible job of staying compliant with employment laws across every state into something simple, automatic, and stress-free. SixFifty is available both as a standalone solution and as an integrated offering within Paychex’s HCM platforms. To learn more about how you can make faster, more confident compliance decisions, head to sixfifty.com

Host: Sabrina Baker

Summary

September is the Sunday evening of the business calendar—summer vacations end, executive energy surges, and suddenly every department wants everything finished before December 31st. For small business HR leaders (1–500 employees) operating without a bench of specialists, handling Open Enrollment, 2027 budgeting, and performance reviews all at once can lead straight to severe Q4 burnout.

In this episode of HR Connection, Sabrina breaks down how to move away from telling leadership "we're too busy"—a phrase executives often misread as a lack of time management—and start defining "busy" with concrete calendar data. Learn how to build Quarterly and Annual Roadmaps, translate HR initiatives into "time in weeks," navigate budget requests whether you have a formal HR budget or not, and execute Q4 scrappily without dropping the ball.

Topics include:

• Use a quarterly roadmap to visualize workload and tradeoffs
• Build an annual roadmap to anticipate heavy periods and resource needs
• Create more structure and stronger boundaries around open enrollment
• Connect HR investments directly to time and capacity gained
• Streamline and automate performance review processes
• Avoid changing major HR processes right before launch
• Treat capacity management as a leadership responsibility

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: Meisha-ann Martin, Ph.D., VP of People Research at Workhuman

Summary

In this episode of the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve and Trish are joined by Meisha-ann Martin, VP of People Research at Workhuman, for a conversation about moving beyond stated values and getting a clearer picture of how culture actually shows up across an organization.

The conversation explores one of the biggest sources of cultural disconnect: what organizations say they value versus what they actually reward and reinforce. A company may say it values efficient execution while celebrating heroic firefighting. It may promote innovation while only recognizing successful outcomes, unintentionally discouraging thoughtful risk-taking. Or it may tolerate harmful behaviors because an employee delivers strong business results.

Meisha-ann shares how recognition data can give leaders a much richer view into these patterns. She also explains how advances in people analytics and natural language processing are making it possible to uncover insights that traditional engagement surveys alone could not provide—from identifying differences in how employees are recognized to detecting language that may serve as an early warning signal for burnout.

Ultimately, Meisha-ann encourages HR and business leaders to approach culture with greater intentionality: define the outcome you want, understand the behaviors that lead to it, measure what is actually happening, and continually refine the system based on what the data reveals.

Topics include:

• Why culture is more than the values written on the wall
• The gap between organizational intentions and employee experiences
• How organizations can unintentionally reinforce the wrong behaviors
• The relationship among vulnerability, recognition, and psychological safety
• How language data can uncover burnout risk, bias, and cultural misalignment
• Why recognizing behaviors—not just outcomes—can improve performance
• Connecting leadership behaviors to organizational outcomes
• Why measurement should come before analytics

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.

Ghosting the Ghost Jobs: Navigating Today’s Hiring Nightmare

Hosts: Jack McFarlane and Nicholas Schlemmer

Summary

In this episode of The Play by Play, Jack and Nick dig into the increasingly complicated world of modern job hunting, beginning with the rise of ghost jobs - job postings that remain online even when an organization may not actually be hiring for the position.

Jack shares his own experiences navigating job postings and discusses why organizations may keep positions listed, while Nick offers a different perspective from the golf industry, where professional credentials and industry-specific hiring networks can make the recruiting process much more targeted. Then the conversation turns to AI.

With job seekers able to automate applications at massive scale and employers relying on applicant tracking systems and AI tools to sort through growing applicant pools, Jack and Nick explore what happens when hiring becomes a bot-to-bot cycle. The result can be frustrating for everyone: candidates struggle to stand out while recruiters face enormous volumes of applications from people who may not actually be qualified. So what can job seekers do differently?

They talk about the continued value of human connection in the hiring process, from referrals and networking to directly contacting an organization or hiring manager. They also discuss why demonstrating an actual body of work, accomplishments, and professional presence may become increasingly important as AI makes traditional resumes easier to create and harder to evaluate. And, of course, it wouldn’t be The Play by Play without a little competition. Jack puts Nick to the test with a round of Real or Fake Job Posting, featuring some job descriptions so outrageous that figuring out which ones are legitimate turns out to be much harder than expected.

Takeaways

• What ghost jobs are and why they create frustration for job seekers
• How AI is changing both sides of the recruiting process
• Why AI-powered screening can make hiring feel like AI competing against AI
• How networking and direct outreach can help candidates stand out
• Why a visible body of work may matter more in an AI-driven hiring environment
• Why staying human may be one of the most important advantages in the modern job search

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: Saima Rashid, Chief Marketing Officer at Workhuman

Summary

It’s easy to point to a careers page, recruiting campaign, company values, or social media presence. But ultimately, an employer brand is shaped by something much harder to manufacture: what employees actually experience inside the organization.

In this episode of the HR Happy Hour, Steve Boese and Trish Steed welcome Saima Rashid, Chief Marketing Officer at Workhuman, for a conversation about the evolving role of employer brand and how recognition data can provide a much more authentic view of workplace culture. Saima describes employer brand as the external expression of the internal employee experience. That means organizations need real examples that demonstrate how people collaborate, contribute, support one another, and live company values every day - and recognition data can help uncover those stories.

Because recognition happens in the flow of work and comes from employees across teams, roles, and functions, it can provide leaders with real-time insight into the behaviors, skills, relationships, and contributions shaping the organization. It can also reveal where recognition is missing - giving leaders an earlier indication of potential disconnects before they appear in traditional measures such as engagement, retention, or employee referrals.

Steve, Trish, and Saima also explore how recognition can help new leaders understand their teams, bring greater context into performance conversations, strengthen employee advocacy, and give organizations authentic stories that employees actually want to share. And with AI making it possible to analyze large amounts of unstructured recognition data, organizations have an opportunity to uncover even deeper insights about skills, leadership, culture, and whether business values are truly showing up in the way work gets done.

Topics include:

• Why employer brand is ultimately shaped by the lived employee experience
• The difference between promoting company values and demonstrating them
• How recognition data provides real-time, human insight into how work gets done
• Why specific employee stories can be more powerful than traditional employer-brand messaging
• How recognition can help leaders uncover skills, contributions, and relationships they may not otherwise see
• Why authentic employee advocacy must be earned rather than orchestrated
• How organizations can compare their stated values with the behaviors employees actually recognize
• How AI can help uncover new insights from recognition data

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.

Hosts: Mervyn Dinnen

Guest: Dr. Kelly Monahan, Future of Work and AI Advisor

Summary

In this episode of HR Means Business, Mervyn welcomes Dr. Kelly Monahan, future of work and AI advisor and author of Reclaim the Plot, for a conversation about what it means to redesign organizations for a world where humans and AI increasingly work together.

Kelly argues that many organizations are approaching AI transformation too narrowly - focusing on efficiency and automation without thinking deeply enough about how work, organizational structures, skills, leadership, and value creation need to change. Listen in for a thoughtful conversation about AI, leadership, workforce transformation, and why HR has an important opportunity to help organizations reclaim the plot.

Key Takeaways

• Why AI transformation may increasingly become an HR responsibility
• How organizations can move from short-term workforce reduction thinking to longer-term workforce redesign
• Why HR professionals need greater exposure to how the broader business creates value
• The importance of keeping humans accountable for decisions, exceptions, and moments where judgment matters
• How leaders can approach workforce reductions with greater transparency and humanity
• Why inconsistent AI adoption and invisible workflows are creating new challenges for managers
• How principles, learning, and shared experimentation can provide better AI guardrails
• What the HR function could look like as human and AI work become increasingly integrated

Thank you for your continued support of the show and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

Nearly every HR leader knows the feeling: Teams are stretched thin, priorities keep shifting, and it's getting harder to see what's really going on beneath the surface. That's the subject of Workhuman's new documentary, Spotlight: The Leadership Reset, an investigation into why managers are losing visibility into their teams, and what it takes to see clearly again. Featuring Harvard’s Professor Amy Edmondson, crisis leadership expert Dr. Syra Madad, and bakery-owner-turned-business-leader Joanne Chang. The Leadership Reset premieres September 29th. Register for free today at workhuman.com/spotlight.