The HR Sound Off Podcast Show

Let‘s Sound Off on Supporting HR Pro‘s in Their Career Development

Ricklyn Woods is an HR Pro on a mission to support her fellow colleagues in landing the job they deserve and she does it with great passion and style.
Taking all of her knowledge and experience from her HR career, Ricklyn chose to pivot in 2020 during the pandemic to offer her services to the people supporting the people. In this episode, Ricklyn and I discuss:
🌟 Her inspirational HR origin story
🌟 Advice to young women on how to rise from unexpected detours in life
🌟 The impact of connecting with intention on LinkedIn
🌟 How her career pivot has changed her life and the lives of those she serves
🌟 Our petition to HR leaders to support the personal and professional development of their HR teams
Listen to us put Tracie Sponenberg on the spot as we petition for our first HR Rebels retreat to be in Barbados.
Ricklyn's Picks
📚 Betting on You - Laurie Ruettimann
📚 Own Your Career, Own Your Life - Andy Storch
📚 Redefining HR - Lars Schmidt
🎙 Side Hustle Pro
🎙 Switch Pivot or Quit
Be sure to connect with Ricklyn on LinkedIn and check out her podcast show "So You Think You Can HR".

Let‘s Sound Off on Unconscious Beliefs in the Workplace

Sejal Thakkar is a woman on a mission to bring awareness to the many unconscious beliefs we hold in the workplace that limit our ability to create great relationships and experiences with others. Sejal is an employment law expert and currently holds the position of Chief Culture Officer at Nobody Studios in California.
In this episode, I had the privilege of talking to Sejal about:
🌟 The inspiration behind her first TED Talk
🌟 Defining unconscious beliefs
🌟 Microaggressions and affirmations
🌟 The Power of making intentional connections on LinkedIn
🌟 Biases in recruitment
🌟 The HAT theory
Listen out for us fangirling over Luvvie Ajai Jones and our shout out to Brian Bachand.
Sejal's picks:
📚 Blank Canvas by Craig Stanland
🎙 How to be a Professional Trouble-Maker - Luvvie Ajai Jones
Be sure to watch Sejal's TED Talk The Pain, Power, and Paradox of Bias and follow her on LinkedIn

Let‘s Sound Off on Demystifying Fat Phobia in the Workplace

Fat phobia is defined as the fear of fatness and fat people and is something that Dr. Joy Cox and I are no strangers to, unfortunately. Dr Cox joins me in this episode to discuss her book, "Fat Girls in Black Bodies: Creating Our Own Communities," as well as to share her insights on how we can create a more inclusive workplace by showing support to employees who are fat.
When I read Dr Cox's book there were many things that resonated with me about how I have been treated as a fat black woman by family, friends and work colleagues. I hope that our conversation moves you to become more educated about fat phobia and causes you to think about how you frame your conversations with us.
Dr. Cox shares some practical tips for HR and leaders on how to make the workplace a more inclusive space for fat bodies and some words of encouragement to the fat community.
Dr. Cox's resources:
🎯 Ragen Chastain - Dances with fat
🎯 Ivy Felicia - Fat women of colour
🎯 Dr. Veronica Garnett (LinkedIn)
🎯 Tigress Osborn (LinkedIn)
📚 Leah Vernon - Unashamed: Musings of a fat black Muslim (Amazon)
🎯 Jabbie (FaceBook)
Be sure to connect with Dr. Cox on LinkedIn and Instagram @freshoutofthecocoon
My favourite quote from this episode would be, "The magic that you (organizations) need is resting in the bodies you reject."

The ABC‘s on Becoming a Great Recruiter

Adam Posner describes himself as a human connector and has a firm belief that to be the best recruiter, you need to fully understand the needs of your client and the candidate. A formula that many in the talent acquisition space get wrong. In this episode, Adam and I discuss:
🎯 Adam's origin story into recruitment
🎯 Life as an entrepreneur and lessons learned
🎯 Why everyone cannot recruit
🎯 The impact of extended open roles on the employee experience
🎯 Reflections and advice to his younger self
Adam also shares his thoughts on the "great resignation" and why he would prefer to refer to it as the "great migration."
Poz's Picks
📚 Betting on You - Laurie Ruettimann
📺 Below Deck Meditteranean
📺 White Lotus
📺 Ted Lasso (Apple TV)
📺 Never Have I Ever
📺 Billions
📺 The Morning Show
Be sure to connect with Adam on LinkedIn and check out the PozCast which is available on all podcast platforms.

Let‘s Sound Off on Intentional Leadership in HR

If you are an HR Manager, VP, Director, CHRO, how would you describe your leadership style? Are you approachable? Does your team like working with you? or do you rule with fear?
This week, Lotus Buckner joins me to discuss what authentic leadership in HR means and what it should look like. Some key takeaways from this episode include:
🎯 How to build trust as a leader
🎯 The power of vulnerability in leadership
🎯 How to become more self-aware as a bad leader and turn behaviours around
🎯 How to have courageous conversations with a bad leader
🎯 When to give up and move on
Lotus was very open about her HR career and the changes going on in her life and we also took the time to discuss the one misconception that people have about HR that really bothers her.
Be sure to connect with Lotus on LinkedIn.

Let‘s Sound Off on Developing A Career in Industrial Relations

Judon Bowden is no stranger to Industrial Relations and Compliance. He gives credit to his mother for seeing something in him that moved him to develop his career in HR. Judon joins me in this episode, to touch on one of the most heated topics in the HR space at this time and that is the subject of mandatory vaccinations in the workplace.
In addition, we discuss:
🎯 Judon's career highs and lows
🎯 His thoughts on the future of men in HR
🎯 Why HR is not about people-pleasing
🎯 Judon gives his advice to HR professionals on how to handle delicate conversations around vaccinations
Judon's references:
📚 The Pause Principle - By Kevin Cashman
📚 The First 90 Days - By Michael Watkins
📺 Manifest on Netflix
🎧 Essence - WizKid
Be sure to follow Judon on LinkedIn and Twitter

Moving From Insight To Action In DEI

I met Darlene Slaughter earlier this year while I was moderating a panel discussing at the Hacking HR conference on moving from insight to action in DEI. I knew from that moment that we needed to continue the conversation we started from the panel, on the show.
Darlene is the VP, Chief People Officer with March of Dimes and her knowledge and experience in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion space is so great that we wanted to share it with you.
In this episode, Darlene and I discuss:
🎙 How the Black Lives Matter movement has impacted her as a human and DEI practitioner
🎙 What DEI means to Darlene
🎙 Why having a heart of gratitude matters to Darlene
🎙 The misconception about HR that bothers her the most
Darlene briefly shares her story of losing her husband to COVID, as we have a very vulnerable conversation about where do we go from here to create inclusive workspaces knowing what we know now.
Darlene's resources:
The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World
Be sure to connect with Darlene on LinkedIn

Let‘s Sound Off On Building an Equitable Workforce With Intention

Aubrey Blanche is an absolutely incredible human being. Aubrey joins me today to talk about her journey in the DEI space and why she is so passionate about the work she does. Aubrey is the Director of Equitable Design, Product & People at Culture Amp and I am a huge fan of her and this organization. In this episode you will learn:
What equity in the workplace means to Aubrey
Aubrey's mental health story
Why building a culture of belonging in the workplace matters
What it means to bring your whole self Vs your authentic self to work
Aubrey's resources
The Calm App
The Inner Work of Racial Justice - By Rhonda Magee and Jon Kabat-Zinn
This Bridge Called My Back - By Cherrie Moraga
Chicana Feminism books
Also, listen out for our very open conversation about fat-shaming in the workplace.
Be sure to follow Aubrey on LinkedIn.

Let‘s Sound of on Creating a Talent Acquisition Community for Evry1

Shannon Pritchett is the Head of Community at Hiretual/Evry1 and joins me this week to discuss the Evry1 community and why creating such a forum matters to her. In this episode, we will also discuss:
🎙 What sets Evry1 apart from other online communities in Talent Acquisition
🎙 What Shannon believes Recruiters should be focussing on to enhance the candidate experience coming out of COVID
🎙 Her experience of being recruited and how it has impacted her career as a recruiter
🎙 Qualities of a great Recruiter
Shannon also shares her fangirl story of an encounter that she had with Drew Brees during a university scouting tour as a swimmer. Be sure to follow and connect with Shannon on LinkedIn and check out the Evry1 community.
Shannon's resources:
The Moment of Lift - Melinda Gates
Below Deck on Bravo
Marketing Podcasts

Let‘s Sound off on Employee Wellbeing

Gethin Nadin joins me in the sound booth this week to talk about employee wellbeing through the pandemic and beyond. Gethin is an award-winning MBPsS Psychologist, employee wellbeing champion, author and speaker, and likely to be the one to walk up to your employees on the street to ask them, "do you believe that your employer cares about you?"
In this episode, we talk about why employee wellbeing matters, what employers got wrong at the start of the pandemic and how we can move forward to intentionally include wellbeing in our organization strategy moving forward.
Gethin's resources
Your Honor on HBO
The Truth Manifesto
Connect with Gethin on LinkedIn