<p><b>Listen to this episode because Honest HR is back! </b>This season of Honest HR brings three new hosts to explore the complicated and sometimes wonderful sides of the workplace. In each episode, you'll hear different combinations of Amber, Gloria, and Wendy taking on topics, sometimes together, sometimes not. In this first episode get to know them as they dive into the tidal wave that's been 2020, discussing remote work challenges, social unrest, and the juggling act of managing personal and professional issues.<br /><br /><b>Key episode takeaway:</b> This year has been unexpected, to say the least.<br /><br />---<br /><b>EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING</b></p><p>Honest HR podcast episodes will help you build your competencies while earning professional development credits (PDCs) toward your SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP recertification! All you have to do is listen to a full mini-series to earn PDCs! All relevant details, including the Activity IDs, are provided during the podcast recording itself.<br /><br />The Honest HR podcast is only one of SHRM's podcast offerings. And currently, it is the only one approved for recertification PDCs.<br />---<br /><b>This episode is not eligible for PDCs, but future episodes will be. </b></p>
Listen to this episode because Honest HR is back! This season of Honest HR brings three new hosts to explore the complicated and sometimes wonderful sides of the workplace. In each episode, you'll hear different combinations of Amber, Gloria, and Wendy taking on topics, sometimes together, sometimes not. In this first episode get to know them as they dive into the tidal wave that's been 2020, discussing remote work challenges, social unrest, and the juggling act of managing personal and professional issues.
Key episode takeaway: This year has been unexpected, to say the least.
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EARN SHRM RECERTIFICATION PDCs FOR LISTENING
Honest HR podcast episodes will help you build your competencies while earning professional development credits (PDCs) toward your SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP recertification! All you have to do is listen to a full mini-series to earn PDCs! All relevant details, including the Activity IDs, are provided during the podcast recording itself.
The Honest HR podcast is only one of SHRM's podcast offerings. And currently, it is the only one approved for recertification PDCs.
---
This episode is not eligible for PDCs, but future episodes will be.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Honest HR podcast, the show that explores the uncomfortable, complicated, and sometimes wonderful truths of the workplace.
Speaker 2:
We're here to have honest conversations, giving you the good, the bad, and the ugly side of HR. Nothing is off the table.
Speaker 3:
This is a SHRM podcast approved to provide SHRM CP and SHRM SCP re-certification PDCs. Details will be provided inside each qualifying episode. And now, let's introduce our three new hosts. I'm Wendy Fong.
Speaker 2:
I'm Amber Clayton.
Speaker 1:
And I'm Gloria Sinclair Miller, and we are your three hosts.
Speaker 2:
We're doing season three a little differently than seasons one and two. In each episode, you're going to hear different combinations of the three of us taking on a different topic.
Speaker 1:
Today, we want you to get to know us, but before we do, we would be remiss if we didn't mention our dear colleague, Callie Zipple, who was the host of Honest HR for the past two seasons and passed away too soon. Callie left her mark on all who knew her and certainly on the followers of Honest HR. We are honored to continue her legacy and her spirit, and to you, the listeners of the Honest HR podcast with a renewed, fresh and candid view of HR and workplace topics. It is what Callie would have wanted. We wanted to use the first episode as a chance for you to get to know us.
Speaker 2:
Yes. Thank you, Gloria. My name is Amber Clayton. I am SHRM's knowledge center director. I've been with SHRM now for eight years, and I oversee a call center of HR professionals who actually help our members with their HR related questions. I've actually been in HR for over 20 years. I went to school in Baltimore. I've worked in various industries such as the retail industry, as well as healthcare, and I'm thankful to be with SHRM and I'm really happy to be there and share the stories with you. Gloria?
Speaker 1:
Thanks, Amber. So I've been with SHRM for the last year and a half, and I have the great honor to work in our membership department as a field services director. So in my role, I get to interact with our state councils and chapter volunteer leaders across the country, as well as interact with our SHRM members. Prior to joining SHRM, I was a volunteer leader. I served in our Philadelphia SHRM chapter as well as served for 20 years as an HR practitioner, and like you Amber, in a variety of different industries, including healthcare, in a hospital and pharma, as well as retail, banking and in the nonprofit space. But super excited to be able to now share all that experience within SHRM and with our SHRM members. What about you, Wendy?
Speaker 3:
Hey. So my name is Wendy Fong. I'm so glad to be here and be with you ladies as well. I'm the senior specialist here at SHRM, also in membership like Gloria. I started back in January, 2019, so almost two years. It goes by really fast, that's for sure, and oversee any membership initiatives, particularly in the SHRM Northern California community, which is SHRM's first ever community, which operates like a chapter but you don't have to pay any additional dues if you're a SHRM member in that area in California. So I'm based in San Mateo, California, which is near San Francisco for those of you that don't know the area, and so I help with the membership engagement, planning local programming, marketing, coordinating our volunteers. And I'm actually new to HR. I went to school at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and I actually studied theater.
So I have a background in theater arts, but of course, I still had to pay the bills so I had my day job where I was in sales, I've done customer service, marketing, event planning. And throughout my career, I somehow fell into the professional association non-profit space and I was working with the California Society of CPAs for about eight years. But then I learned all about the accounting world and CPA industry and wanted to take it to the next level, and that's why I joined SHRM. So it's pretty a much similar professional association, but a global one, and now, I'm learning all about HR. And there's so many facets of it and it's so interesting and I'm really excited to be here with you guys.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Wendy, I always find it interesting when someone has a degree in, say, psychology or a theater arts, and I always wonder, how do they get into the HR field? It's not like when we're younger and we're like, "We want to be a firefighter. No, we want to be in HR."
Speaker 3:
Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:
And so for me, I think it's really interesting. I was in college and I was taking business administration, and I had a professor who was really into HR and she was actually teaching the course and I just found it really interesting. And the way I fell into HR is I was working for Heck's department stores, and for many of you who are actually younger listeners, you may not remember Heck's but Heck's was around before Macy's and actually was acquired by Macy's. And I was there as a salesperson in the purses and jewelry department and it just so happened that there was an HR assistant position available and I went for it and I got it. I was in college and I worked my way up through the ranks as the HR director, and I've been in HR ever since. Gloria, how'd you end up in HR?
Speaker 1:
Similar story where I didn't plan to go into HR. Actually, if you look at my high school yearbook, it says, "Become a paralegal," and I thought that was my track. I actually worked in a legal department for a period of time and worked for a sole practitioner, but right at a critical time when you're graduating high school, I was in my senior year, I got this really cool co-op job working for the state of Delaware. And in that job, I wound up having this opportunity to work in a workforce development department which was focused on the unemployed and underemployed. And I really wasn't thinking about it at that point, I just thought it was a great paying job.
And during that high school year and then very shortly after the summer, I decided, "I like what I'm doing. I like making money too," so continued to work for that department and delayed actually going into school and worked full time for the community college in this space and was able to learn about recruiting, learn how to do interviews, to source all of the basics as you think about talent acquisition today, but also got a little bit of work with employee relations. So four years later, I decided after having this job and doing some part-time classes for free at the community college, I decided to shift and go and get my HR degree.
So went full-time school at Wilmington University in Delaware and got my degree in HR, and very quickly after that, fell into a wonderful opportunity in a hospital, working in HR. And I've worked, as I mentioned, in a variety of different industries, but being in a five person HR team to start your career is the best experience because you have to do everything and everyone's expecting you to have all the answers, and being able to leverage the others in your department to get things done was a critical lesson that I learned very early in my HR career before I transitioned to the next exciting opportunity.
But you never know where some of these opportunities are going to take you and I fell in love with it, and then eventually went and got my master's in HR and continued my career.
Speaker 3:
That's awesome. Yeah, that's funny that you mentioned wearing all the different hats because what I'm learning about HR, I feel like HR people have so many different roles.They're like an auditor or a psychologist, a doctor. They have to figure out all these problems and find solutions to them for people, so kudos to HR and as I learn more about it.
Speaker 2:
So you probably haven't come across any challenges yet but I know for myself and probably for Gloria, we've been in HR for many years now. And as I stated on the website, I could write an HR book, and I'm sure you probably could too, Gloria, but I'm just curious, what do you like the most about working in HR?
Speaker 1:
So you know, and Amber, you've probably heard this the most when you're interviewing, people say they want to be in HR because they like people. So the challenge is you start to not like people when you work in HR because you get to see the good, the bad and the ugly that can happen. But I think what has continued to inspire me to work in HR is you can make this opportunity anything you want it to be. When I started out, I never thought that I would be able to work in some of the companies that I was able to work in or get some of the experiences, not just in the US but globally, to be able to support businesses across the world.
And the other piece that's been rewarding is I love to develop people, I love to mentor, and that's a lot of the work that I have been able to do in HR. Has it been challenging along the way? Absolutely, but I think what keeps me going is watching people grow and watching people gain a new skill and be able to take that to the next level, and that's what keeps it exciting. What about you, Amber?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, pretty much the same for me. It's funny that you say that. Yes, I think I did say I enjoy working with people, and you're absolutely right, sometimes it's a challenge working with people. And so for me, I love the people that I work with and I love the team mentality, if you will. I love being able to help other HR professionals in their careers. I've done it for a really long time and I love the appreciation that they have for some of the advice that I've provided, and to help through some of those challenging situations.
So I find it very rewarding in that we're able to help our members through different situations that they have. And we're not attorneys, I will say that, but we do provide guidance and resources, and I do like that we're here and we're available and we can help to minimize any kind of research time. And I love it when they call and say, "My boss wants this information. Can you help me out?" And we do. And it's just a good feeling. It's a good feeling, not only to help our members, but that our employees, our knowledge advisors enjoy what they do, and that makes all the difference. So for me, yes, I've absolutely had a lot of challenges throughout the years, especially in the healthcare industry, but working here has really made me see how much I enjoy the HR profession.
Speaker 1:
Well, that makes me really excited.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. Wendy, what do you like about it so far?
Speaker 3:
Well working with HR, everyone has been really great to work with. Everyone's been really friendly, very kind. I've never seen this type of kindness in a way, like always saying thank you, always so appreciative of any help or support I give, and it just makes me feel great. Like, "Wow, that person really appreciates my response or how I was able to help them," and it's a great feeling when you feel appreciated and you're working with such a great group of people that just want to help, right?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:
Agreed.
Speaker 2:
So we were talking about challenges in 2020. Oh, my goodness. I think everyone can relate that we just want 2020 to be over by now, just because of all the events and activities that are happening this year that just seem to be negative for the most part. And we've had a lot going on, and for us in the Knowledge Center, we hear a lot from our members and things like COVID, the death of George Floyd, protests, the elections coming up. We've had changes with the legislation this year, some of it good of course, federal overtime. They've increased the exempt salary threshold from 455 to 684, which is good. Many states have actually increased their minimum wage, that's positive too.
Even with COVID, we've had changes such as the legislation for the Family's First Coronavirus Response Act that allowed for paid leave for people who are affected by COVID, and the Coronavirus Aid Response and Economic Security Act, the CARES Act, which gave loans to businesses to try to help them get people back to work. So there's been a lot going on, and so I just want to hear from you, what have you found to be challenging this year in 2020? Gloria?
Speaker 1:
I think when we all rang in the new year on January 1st, no one said, "Okay, and now we're going to have all these challenges." In my role, I travel 60% of the time, so you know that come March, all travel just grounded to a stop because of COVID and the quarantines and everything that's been going on. And for my friends who are still practicing in HR, I know this has been such a critical, critical time for them, but stressful because not only are you trying to manage your roles, you're managing a family. And if you've got children, you're managing, have your children have virtual school, which in some communities is just almost impossible for them. And then here came the spring and summer and the social unrest that is happening in our country. So I'm based in the Southeast, and it has been an experience being in and around this area with the killing of George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and others.
So it's been a really hard time, and I've talked to many of our members and volunteer leaders who are juggling many of these things, not only at work but in their homes, and having to manage through and coach many leaders, and quite frankly, some family members through some really critical conversations and discussions. And it's an election year by the way, so there's so many things that are happening and I'll tell you, I've said to a lot of people, it's tough right now and we all have to be concerned about ourselves as well as our mental health. And I know that's true for all of us as we're juggling, and I know, Wendy, for you in California, there's obviously been some challenging times as well.
Speaker 3:
Yeah. There's just so much going on. It's August, and it's like, when does it stop? Does it ever stop? It's like one thing after the next, like tidal wait after tidal wave. Yeah. I mean, working from home, there's just so many companies in California especially that are just remote indefinitely, like there's Zillow, Twitter, Square, they announced that employees can work from home remotely indefinitely. I know Google and Facebook, they're based here in the San Francisco Bay area. They extended working from home till June of 2021. So commercial real estate, I know that business is being hit hard as well with this transition of working from home is now the new norm. But again, to Gloria's point, childcare, that could be really hard. I'm a single mother, I have a 10 year old daughter and I love her, but at the same time, there's the other spectrum as well.
Trying to get her off the iPad, that whole balance of, "Pay attention to me," because she doesn't have friends to talk with. It's only me and our cat. And so trying to figure out the fall too. They're going to be virtual for the first six weeks, and then if cases don't spike up, it'll be a hybrid situation. But who knows? There's so much uncertainty that it does weigh on your mental health. It does weigh on even your physical health because the mental, the physical, it's all connected. And then you're stuck at home, we can't go anywhere. We're stuck at home and it's so exciting to go to the grocery store to go get some eggs and milk. It's like the highlight of the week.
Speaker 2:
Yeah. I can relate with you. I'm a single mom of a 16 year old daughter, and fortunately, she has actually thrived with the online learning. She prefers to stay at home in the bed looking at the laptop and doing her work versus going into school, but that's been helpful to me and she hasn't really been disruptive with me when I work from home so I've been pretty fortunate in that way. But I know, just from our inquiries from our members, this has been our busiest time that we've ever had, at least in the time that I've been here for the last eight years. So many members have reached out to us for guidance and help with employees, whether it's their personal issues or their professional issues.
We've heard from members saying that people have struggled working from home. Maybe they've lacked technical skills and are having difficulties with using the computers or laptops while at home, and then we've had people who have reached out because there are situations like you just mentioned with children being at home and people trying to be a parent and work full time and juggling those, and also possibly taking care of themselves if they're sick or taking care of their family members.
So I've never seen a busier time here in the Knowledge Center and I'm glad that we're actually here for our members, but it definitely has been very challenging. I'm hopeful that there's a cure, a vaccine found very soon so that we can move on from this and get to the next issue that comes up. Maybe that's the elections, I'm not sure, but I just know from my perspective, personally and professionally, it really has taken a toll on many other people right now, and myself included. But I'm glad that we're in the organization that we're in, that we're able to help others manage these situations, or at least give them some guidance to help them navigate these situations.
So now, I know I mentioned that COVID has been a really big topic in the Knowledge Center, but of course, the other topics that we have talked to members about are what I mentioned earlier, the killing of George Floyd and others. And we've had a lot of questions from members about how to handle specific situations. For example, we've had members who have said that their employees have been arrested while they were participating in protests and they've asked us, what can they do? And our advice to them has been don't just automatically take disciplinary action or terminate employees on an arrest alone. There are state laws around it, but you also want to find out what happened? Why were they arrested? Was it something that they did that was illegal?
We've had questions, for example, around whether or not we have diversity and inclusion and equity training programs and policies that they can put into place to address some of these issues that are happening as a result of the killing and the protest, and so we've guided and given some resources to our members on those things. So even though COVID was the biggest topic for us this year, the protests and the social unrest has been at the forefront as well. How have you heard about it, Gloria, from your take in working with the volunteer leaders and members out in the field?
Speaker 1:
No, Amber, I think you're absolutely correct, that there have been those questions that you alluded to that you're getting from the Knowledge Center, but there's also been with our chapters and leaders that are out really on the front lines are hearing a lot around what can we do from an action perspective out in our communities? One, to show that we are in support of eliminating the racial inequity that exists in our workplaces, and more importantly, how can we be the voice and continue to provide education for those HR managers and those organizations that need education around, whether it's unconscious bias, whether it's more around having these conversations like we're doing today around having an honest dialogue about how someone's feeling, and what they are feeling in the workplace and really providing a more open workplace culture.
And as all of you know, it's been something we've been talking about as an organization and providing resources to our members. I'm super excited about the work that we're doing, that we launched with Together Forward @Work, and our Blue Ribbon Commission that was recently named to really put actions in place to help our workplaces around the country. So there's definitely more coming in this space, but it's what our members right now are really needing and to be able to have these honest conversations, and I know that's true out in California as well, Wendy.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, it definitely is a really exciting time. So now is a time when companies just can't say, "We support diversity," by having a float in the LBGTI parade, or celebrating African American History month in February. It's really about what can we do to create change against racial inequity? In California, there have been protests all over, from big cities, even smaller towns. I live in a smaller town south of San Francisco and even the Target, there's riots and protests, and so it was just spreading everywhere in everyone's neighborhood that this is a time where we can't just be complacent and just sit back. We really have to take a stand against hundreds of years of racism in this country, and it is a very exciting time for a chance to make a difference.
And Gloria mentioned Together Forward @Work. SHRM launched this initiative as a call of action to bring racial equity to the workplace, and this resource is for not just for members, but for non-members, because we really want to start that in the workplace. SHRM believes in better workplaces, better world, because we spend so much time at work that why not start having these conversations in the workplace and really start from our mission and our values at work, and carry that throughout our lives?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely. Think about it, millions of people work, and I wouldn't say that we're going to be able to eliminate racism but it's a start. If we can reach employees through employers and we can have these conversations and have these programs in place to understand what's happening right now and how we can eradicate it, well, again, not completely eradicate it but make a difference, make a difference in the world. We have a great opportunity right now so I'm really, like you said, very excited about the call to action that we have and hopefully, our listeners will go online and take a look at this as well and start moving forward and taking action within their workplaces.
Speaker 3:
Definitely. It just has to start somewhere. Start having the conversation.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely.
I know that we're running out of time, but I really hope you all enjoyed this segment, learning a little bit about us, and hopefully you'll come back and listen to our future shows. We've got some great topics and great guests coming up. You'll hear information regarding bias in the workplace, diversity and inclusion efforts. You'll hear a little bit about our Together Forward @Work initiative. Hopefully, you've heard about it by now, but if not, visit our website at SHRM.org. And if you haven't already, subscribe to the show so you'll never miss an episode. Please tell us what you think. Head over to shrm.org/honestHR. And as a final note, today's episode did not qualify for SHRM PDCs, but our future episodes will.
Speaker 3:
Thanks again for joining us on Honest HR.