This week on the #HRHappyHour Podcast Network

This was a big week on the HR Happy Hour Podcast Network and with the HR Happy Hour on Alexa, so in case you missed anything or wanted to catch up on your favorite HR podcasts this weekend, here is a quick rundown of this past week on the HHH Network:

The Human Friendly Workplace 5  - The Power of Purpose in Business with Jason Lauritsen

In this episode, Jason interviews Kristofor Lofgren, CEO of Sustainable Restaurant Group, the parent company of Bamboo Sushi and Quick Fish--two sustainable fast casual restaurant concepts. In the discussion, Kristofor shares how creating a culture of purpose has helped him to not only attract the most qualified employees, but also to keep them. He also explains that when you treat your employees like adults and show empathy, sympathy, compassion and thoughtfulness; you will have a devoted workforce of leaders.

HR Happy Hour 325 - Connecting Technology, Data, and the Employee Experience with Steve Boese and Trish McFarlane

Sponsored by Virgin Pulse - www.virginpulse.com

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve and Trish were joined by Scot Marcotte, Client Technology Leader from Conduent HR Services, a digital interactions company that serves HR organizations as an 'aggregator of experiences', to help HR organizations deliver better services by bringing together, data, insights, and helping employees be more informed of the services and programs for health, wealth, and career programs that are available to them.

On the show, we talked about some of the major technology and organizational changes that are driving and shaping how leading HR organizations are providing services to their employees and helping the organization achieve their desired business outcomes.

Research on the Rocks 6 - Measuring and Driving Employee Engagement with Mollie Lombardi and Madeline Laurano

In this episode, Madeleine and Mollie catch up on their spring conference travel, and sit down with Willis Towers Watson to talk about how they are measuring and driving engagement within organizations. They discuss how tools can help enable managers to take action on employee sentiment data, as well as the power of a "listening strategy" when it comes to managing change and driving performance.

Reminder: You can subscribe to all the HR Happy Hour Podcast Network shows on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast app - just search for 'HR Happy Hour'.

Finally, the HR Happy Hour Show for Amazon Alexa is going strong too - in the Amazon Alexa app you can add the 'HR Happy Hour' skill to your Alexa's daily Flash Briefings for updates three or four times each week from Trish McFarlane, Steve Boese, and Ben Eubanks. These are short, 3 - 5 minute 'mini' episodes covering a wide range of topics on HR, the workplace, technology, business and more. And if you don't have an Echo device you can also listen online at  the HR Happy Hour Show on Alexa.

Here's a sample of one of the shows from this week:

HR Happy Hour on Alexa - Episode 28 with Steve Boese

Welcome to the HR Happy Hour on Alexa. A short, quick version of the popular HR Happy Hour Podcast, where Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane, and Ben Eubanks take on topics on Human Resources, HR technology, work, and the workplace. And more.

In this episode, Steve talks about the Life at 2.0x speed, and what listening to podcasts at double speed says about our work culture.

That's it from your pals on the HR Happy Hour Podcast Network - have a great weekend!

PODCAST: #HRHappyHour 325 - Connecting Technology, Data and the Employee Experience

HR Happy Hour 325 - Connecting Technology, Data, and the Employee Experience

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Guest: Scott Marcotte, Conduent HR Services

Sponsored by Virgin Pulse - www.virginpulse.com

LISTEN HERE

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve and Trish were joined by Scot Marcotte, Client Technology Leader from Conduent HR Services, a digital interactions company that serves HR organizations as an 'aggregator of experiences', to help HR organizations deliver better services by bringing together, data, insights, and helping employees be more informed of the services and programs for health, wealth, and career programs that are available to them.

On the show, we talked about some of the major technology and organizational changes that are driving and shaping how leading HR organizations are providing services to their employees and helping the organization achieve their desired business outcomes. Some of the topics we talked about included the focus on employee wellbeing, how wellbeing can be a strategic talent advantage, employee financial wellness (and how that can impact talent management), how HR organizations can make sense of all the data now available to them, employee data security, and much more. 

We also had a quick update from the suburbs - pool installation, snakes on the porch, and rogue cats. And how the 'EAP' plan needs a re-branding.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, on your favorite podcast app, or by using the widget player below:

This was a fun and interesting show, thanks Scot for joining us.

Remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts (new), or wherever you get your podcasts - just search for 'HR Happy Hour.'

Learn a new word: 'Foldering'

From the world of 'the lengths people will go to in order to keep their employers, law enforcement, and/or the government from snooping on their digital communications' comes today's Learn a New Word - 'Foldering'.

Not familiar?

Neither was I until I saw the term pop up in one of the (many) legal scandals and issues swirling around in the Federal Government lately.

Here's the definition of 'Foldering' from our pals at Wikipedia:

Foldering is the practice of communicating via messages saved to the "drafts" folder of an email or other electronic messaging account that is accessible to multiple people.

Foldering is sometimes described as a digital equivalent to the dead drop.Like the dead drop, it has no usage outside of clandestine communications.

So you want/need to send someone an email, but want to (try) to make sure that no one but the intended recipient gets their eyes on its contents?

Well, since we know employers can see your sent emails and so can big tech like Google or Yahoo (once they get an order to turn over data from the Feds), you try this 'Foldering' tactic.

You set up an email address, create your intended email, but instead of sending the email to your recipient, you save the message as an unsent Draft. You then share the email account's login credentials with your recipient, (hopefully not in an email), and then they simply log in to the account, read the draft message, and then update the draft message (again without sending).

The two of you then go back and forth updating the message(s) in the Drafts folder instread of actually sending any email - thus the term 'Foldering'. Once the needed information is shared, someone deletes the draft - the idea being that by not ever sending the message it is less likely to be ever discovered by outsiders.

But the practice of Foldering while not that common, appears to be pretty well-known by Federal authorities who tend to interpret the act itself of indicating some kind of questionable or sketchy behavior. It isn't illegal per se, but it sends a red flag to information security and law enforcement types for sure.

I don't know if this really has too much of a workplace connection, unless your workplace is, well 'unusual', but it might be something you want to check on with your IT folks once in a while anyway. Maybe your kids too. Except your kids probably don't use email.

Learn something new every day. Like a new word. Like 'Foldering'.

Have a great day!

A chart, like a picture, says more than words do

Welcome back to the work week (and try not to skip out on too much of what you need to do this week to watch the World Cup). Actually, can we pass a law that makes the World Cup more convenient to my personal time zone? But enough about that.

Here's what I wanted to share today, an interesting, quick read from the Washington Post on how much more effective charts are when compared to straight text for making sure your audience clearly understands the underlying data surrounding a particular issue.

Researchers from Dartmouth College and the University of Exeter recently published some interesting findings, ones that you probably already would have guessed at, around the effectiveness of charts in combating false conclusions or ones that are not supported by the facts.

To prove this thesis, the researchers took a given issue, say whether or not participants believed that the Earth's temperatures were increasing, and then showed one group a chart containing the relevant climate data, a second group was given a text-only version of the climate data, and a third group was given no additional information at all.

Here's the chart (naturally), of what the researcher's found happened to the levels of incorrect or non-factual beliefs that were held by each group after seeing the chart, text, or just going with their gut.

I am sure you noted on the chart that the actual groups of people being tested in this experiment were folks who identified as Republican, but for what I took away from the Post piece and the research itself, that is only a footnote. What really matters here is that among folks holding a particular belief, one that seems to be counter-factual, (or even flat out false), you have a much better chance of getting them to embrace the facts (and change their opinions of those facts), by showing them a chart of the relevant data, not a text-only passage. Doing nothing at all, or just shouting at them, is definitely the most ineffective strategy.

In the experiment above, using the chart of global temperatures drove the percentage of people holding incorrect beliefs down to 10%, a huge improvement from the text-only or 'nothing' strategies. That's the takeaway from this, don't get caught up in the political topics themselves. T

his strategy can be used for just about anything in the workplace where there are incorrect beliefs, perceptions, or just a person or a group that has dug their heels into the ground over a particular issue and you can't find a way to make them budge.

That's your assignment for the week - find one opportunity to send your message and make your point in chart form - don't rely on a simple email or a chat message to convince anyone of anything.

Ok, I'm out - have a great week!

PODCAST: #HRHappyHour 324 - HR and the Internet and Technology Trends for 2018

HR Happy Hour 324 - HR and the Internet and Technology Trends for 2018

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Sponsored by Virgin Pulse - www.virginpulse.com

Listen HERE

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, hosts Steve Boese and Trish McFarlane talk about the Kleiner Perkins Internet Trends Report for 2018 and the key tech trends that are impacting work and workplaces.

The Internet Trends Report is published annually by VC firm Kleiner Perkins, led by Mary Meeker, and provides a massive overview of the most important internet, technology, and software trends, on a global level, and is read and cited by just about everyone in the technology space. The report covers e-commerce, social networks, digital advertising, technology at work, enterprise technology, and much more. It is must-reading for anyone who needs to be current with what is going on in tech.

On this annual HR Happy Hour Show covering the report, Steve and Trish identify three major themes from the 2018 Internet Trends that we think will impact HR and work - personalization and consumerization, the on-demand workforce, and finally Artificial Intelligence.

We hit each of the three topics, shared some thoughts on how HR and HR tech are responding to them, and how HR leaders can use knowledge of these trends moving forward.

We also talked about the weather, (of course), the virtues of the Slip 'n Slide, and why Steve doesn't like to buy green bananas.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, on your favorite podcast app, or by using the widget player below:

This was a fun show, thanks for listening. Remember to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, or your favorite podcast app - just search for 'HR Happy Hour'.