Workplace Champions: The strategies of talent-minded business leaders are exposed inside the realm of mid-sized businesses when business journalist Jack Sweeney and performance thought leader Brett Knowles spotlight innovations in human capital management (HCM). The Workplace Champions Podcast is all about inspiring business leaders as they learn from the failures, Ah-ha! moments, and workplace successes of other small and medium business leaders. It’s no secret that small and mid-sized businesses adapt more aggressively and innovate more nimbly than firms many times their size. And yet, in the realm of employment these companies are less visible and vastly less reported upon than large enterprise business, but their combined influence is large and growing larger as a new class of workplace champions emerge.
Ep 27: Why Hiring Could be a GPT Sweet Spot
Brett & Jack discuss how the hiring function is expected to become the sweet spot for Chat GPT and other AI offerings as the technology emerges as a powerful tool for finding and qualifying talent for organizations. This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Jonathan Carr of Armis, CFO Céline Dufétel of Checkout.com, and CFO Dan Fletcher of Planful.
3/24/2023 • 43 minutes, 4 seconds
Ep 26: The Year of HR Slogans
Brett and Jack discuss the social application Workplace by Meta, and how social media continues to play an important role in human capital communications. Meanwhile, the different finance leaders share their insights on talent recruitment, retention strategies, and the increasing use of AI in various industries. Knowles emphasizes the importance of clear communication and the potential impact of AI and machine learning on accounting functions. Overall, the episode highlights the evolving role of finance leaders in managing and developing human capital. This episode of Workplace Champions features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Wailun Chan of Grafana Labs, CFO John McCauley of Calendly, and CFO Jim Young of Coalition.
2/17/2023 • 52 minutes, 47 seconds
Ep 25: The Chatbot Chill: Why Business Will Be Anything But Usual
Our resident thought leader Brett Knowles explains how artificial intelligence is already being used to predict employee turnover, job satisfaction, and other key metrics, allowing managers to take proactive steps to improve employee engagement and retention. Brett & Jack discuss how AI-powered performance management systems are already tracking employee performance and are providing feedback and guidance to help employees improve. This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Tom Fennimore of Luminar Technologies, CFO Steven Mitchell of Redgate Software and CFO Jared Poff of Designer brands.
1/20/2023 • 49 minutes, 56 seconds
Ep. 24: Managers admit to “quiet firing”
Brett & Jack discuss what might be a popular response to employees "quiet quitting" or what among managers has been dubbed "quiet firing" - the withdrawal of coaching, support and career development to an employee, which results in pushing the employee out of an organization. This episode’s featured Workplace Champions share their different perspectives on how to manage their organization’s talent as a collective unit. Brett believes that human capital pain points are challenging finance leaders to carefully reconsider how to best manage employees and forfeit dated models that may have treated employees as just another asset that can depreciate overtime. This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Brian Gladden of Zelis, CFO Razzak Zallow of Floqast, CFO Kevin Rubin of Alteryx and CFO James Moylan of Ciena.
12/23/2022 • 43 minutes, 53 seconds
Ep 23: The Friday Elon Slept Late
Brett & Jack discuss the workforce rantings of Elon Musk and the new Twitter owner's November 16th deadline for employees to decide whether to leave or stay. Is Musk's leadership style solely responsible for the turmoil at Twitter or are there other contributing factors? This episode's featured Workplace Champions expose how leaders seek to optimize work environments to empower people to do their best work. While Jack views the talent mind set of each of the three featured finance leaders as the upshot of extensive leadership experience, Brett points out there may be a method behind the Musk "madness." This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Anat Ashkenazi of Eli Lilly, CFO Ambereen Toubassy of Airtable, and CFO Evan Goldstein of Seismic.
11/23/2022 • 47 minutes, 58 seconds
Ep 22: Hires, Fires and a Stable Economy | A Workplace Champions Episode
Brett & Jack discuss how hiring challenges have led certain organizations to be more tolerant of poor employee behaviors – a development that could be putting growing numbers of businesses at risk. Meanwhile, Brett points out that new hires continue to fetch bigger salaries creating an imbalance with existing employee salaries. Also, performance is not driven by talent alone. Brett says product issues are sometimes thought to be talent issues leading management to put in motion a string of misguided remedies. This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Asil Syed of Rippling, CFO Ambereen Toubassy of Airtable, CFO Bryan Morris of Demandbase.
10/14/2022 • 40 minutes, 20 seconds
Ep 21: The Employee Value Proposition
Brett & Jack discuss why organizations must have a value proposition for their employees. This episode each of our featured Workplace Champions gives us different perspectives on what they've done to help attract human capital to their organizations. Again, the question management teams need to be asking: What's the value proposition that will help us attract the best talent? This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Claire Bramley of Teradata, CFO Rajesh Gupta of OakNorth Bank, and CFO Mark George of Norfolk Southern.
9/9/2022 • 44 minutes, 59 seconds
Ep:20: Keeping Leadership in Step with Workforce Priorities
Brett & Jack discuss how the economy's is sending the hiring environment mixed signals and how the inefficiencies of the recruitment function continue to be a drag on industry aspirations for building a more productive workforce. This episode features the workforce insights and commentary of CFO Adam Swiecicki of Brex, CFO Manish Sarin of Sprinklr, CFO Jason Keen of Mills Nebraska, and CFO Komal Misra of Starry
7/31/2022 • 37 minutes, 15 seconds
Ep 19: It's About the Team
Brett & Jack discuss how employee teams may hold the key to improving employee morale and retention, and why the growing popularity of remote hiring is likely to lead many more managers to leverage the powers behind objectives and key results (OKRs). Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Ryan Van Hatten of Prophix, CFO Danielle Murcray of Attack IQ, CFO Ryan Gwillim of Brunswick Corporation, and CFO David Barnes of Trimble.
6/30/2022 • 50 minutes, 50 seconds
Ep 18: The Hard Truth About Retention
Brett & Jack discuss how growing numbers of businesses are facing an employee retention crisis as they battle escalating workforce attrition and struggle to fill job vacancies. As the crisis grows in certain industries, more finance leaders are sounding the alarm on escalating business risk and dedicating more time to solving the current talent equation. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Efrain Rivera of Paychex, CFO Anisha Sood of First Choice Health, CFO Will Johnson of Iterable, and CFO Adriana Carpenter of Emburse.
5/13/2022 • 50 minutes, 33 seconds
Ep 17: Employers Dropping Degree Demands
Brett & Jack discuss why a 4-year degree isn’t quite the job requirement it used to be and how finance leaders are reworking their company’s talent equation. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Brandon Maultasch of Moloco, CFO Steve Vintz of Tenable and CFO Kent Kelley of Unanet.
4/22/2022 • 39 minutes, 14 seconds
Ep 16: Hiring for Hypergrowth
Brett & Jack discuss how finance leaders of high growth firm’s are becoming increasingly focused on the ebb and flow of their firm’s talent pipelines. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Gina Mastantuono of ServiceNow, CFO Josh Siegel of CyberArk and CFO Sarah Spoja of Tipalti.
3/31/2022 • 47 minutes, 59 seconds
Ep 15: Employee Engagement & the Less Social World
Brett & Jack discuss how learning and development is one of five key elements of employee engagement - and explore reasons why L&D too often gets overlooked. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Dave Bernhardt of SentinelOne, CFO Joan Hilson of Signet Jewelers and CFO Herald Chen of Applovin.
2/25/2022 • 43 minutes
Ep 14: When HR Becomes a Borderless Function
Brett and Jack discuss how the leadership narrative benefits hiring, and why department hiring budgets may someday soon be replaced. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Cassandra Hudson of EngageSmart, CFO Nitesh Sharan of Soundhound and CFO Michael High of Shell’s Deep Water Gulf of Mexico.
1/28/2022 • 44 minutes, 27 seconds
Ep 13: Hiring is The Beginning of Your Go-To-Market Funnel
Brett and Jack weigh-in on Zoom firing squads, the move to hybrid workplaces and hiring’s enormous impact on your company’s funnel. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Jim Morgan of CallRail, CFO Amol Chaubal of Waters Corporation and CFO Justin Judd of BambooHR.
12/16/2021 • 37 minutes, 12 seconds
Ep 12: Making Salary a Competitive Advantage
Brett and Jack discuss the move by Amazon and other companies to pay employees daily will trigger new approaches in salary administration. Plus, more developments in the age of the "great resignation." Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CEO Craig O'Neill of Versapay, CFO Michael Rosen of Digital Power Marketing, CFO Kurt Shintaffer of Apptio.
11/5/2021 • 53 minutes, 39 seconds
Ep 11: HR by the Numbers
Brett and Jack discuss the marriage of fintech and human capital management, and the of the growing mandate for employee success. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Sameer Ralhan of the Chemours Company, CFO Robert Alvarez of Big Commerce, CFO Laurence Capone of Pipedrive.
10/15/2021 • 46 minutes, 1 second
Ep 10: Where Corporate Culture Trumps Exec Comp
Brett and Jack discuss the highs and lows of executive compensation, and why corporate culture may trump all. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Gregg Clevenger of LiveVox, CFO Charles Freund of FLEETCOR and CFO Jill Klindt of Workiva. Read More
9/3/2021 • 42 minutes
Ep 9: When the Mission Matters
Brett and Jack talk the power of the mission, the CEO return-to-work agenda and covid’s delta variant backlash. Featuring the commentary and insights of workplace champions CFO Beth Clymer of Jobcase, CFO Todd McElhatton of Zuora and CFO Scott Dussault of Workhuman.
7/31/2021 • 36 minutes, 49 seconds
Ep 8: Building a More Inclusive Culture
Prahanth Mahendra-Rajah, CFO, Analog Devices Maria Manrique, CFO, O’Reilly Media Ian Charles, CFO, Flexe Scott McFalane, CEO, Avalara
6/24/2021 • 42 minutes, 5 seconds
Ep 7: Culture & Competencies
Featuring the Workplace Champions CFO Harmit Singh of Levi Strauss &Co. CFO Mark Shifke, of Billtrust CFO Bill Kelley of Treehouse Foods Read More
5/31/2021 • 27 minutes, 4 seconds
Ep 6: Trust & the Individual
Featuring the Workplace Champions CFO Arleen Paladino of Crum & Forster CFO Guy Blanchard of Aerofarms CFO Mike Rasic of Synapse CFO Ross Tennenbaum of Avalara
4/30/2021 • 40 minutes, 49 seconds
Ep 5: Greetings From the Post Covid World
This Episode Features Human Capital Insights & Commentary from: Tom Berquist, CFO, TIBCO, Terry Coelho,CFO BioDelivery Sciences , Kevin Ingram,CFO, FM Global, Robert Linder, CFO, Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar The Workplace Champions Podcast explores the innovative workforce practices of talent-minded business leaders tasked with opening a new chapter of growth for their midsize organizations. More keenly aware of the competitive price of employee burnout and workforce attrition — many midsize companies are today busy rethinking how they attract, hire and inspire employees.
3/26/2021 • 33 minutes, 31 seconds
Ep 4: For the Luv of Dictators, Marching in Step with OKRs
This Episode Features Human Capital Insights & Commentary from: Dynshaw Italia, CFO, Soldo Brad Kinnish, CFO, Aryaka Will Bondurant, CFO, Castlight Health The Workplace Champions Podcast explores the innovative workforce practices of talent-minded business leaders tasked with opening a new chapter of growth for their midsize organizations. More keenly aware of the competitive price of employee burnout and workforce attrition — many midsize companies are today busy rethinking how they attract, hire and inspire employees.
2/19/2021 • 30 minutes, 21 seconds
Ep 3: When Purpose Eases Workforce Stress | Four CFOs Tap the Powers of Purpose
This Episode Features Human Capital Insights & Commentary from: Chad Cohen, CFO, Adaptive Biotechnologies Tom Tuchscherer, CFO, TripActions Deborah Ricci, CFO, Guidehouse Dan Stokely, CFO, Ampio Pharamceuticals More keenly aware of the competitive price of employee burnout and workforce attrition — many midsize companies are today busy rethinking how they attract, hire and inspire employees. The Workplace Champions Podcast explores the innovative workforce practices of talent-minded business leaders tasked with opening a new chapter of growth for their midsize organizations.
12/29/2020 • 32 minutes, 42 seconds
Ep 2: In Search of a Culture Metric | Four CFOs Measure What Matters
This Episode Features Human Capital Insights & Commentary from: Ross Tennenbaum, CFO, Avalara Kieran McGrath, CFO, Avaya Drew Vollero, CFO, Allied Universal Sandra Harris, CFO Tupperware Brands More keenly aware of the competitive price of employee burnout and workforce attrition — many midsize companies are today busy rethinking how they attract, hire and inspire employees. The Workplace Champions Podcast explores the innovative workforce practices of talent-minded business leaders tasked with opening a new chapter of growth for their midsize organizations.
11/25/2020 • 29 minutes
Ep 1: COVID Keeps People Top of Mind Among Business Leaders
This Episode Features Human Capital Insights & Commentary from: Michelle McComb, CFO, Bluecore Brian Whalen, CFO, Branch Markus Harder, CFO, Contentful More keenly aware of the competitive price of employee burnout and workforce attrition — many midsize companies are today busy rethinking how they attract, hire and inspire employees. The Workplace Champions Podcast explores the innovative workforce practices of talent-minded business leaders tasked with opening a new chapter of growth for their midsize organizations.
10/23/2020 • 36 minutes
30: Building a Collaborative Team | Mike DeCata, CEO, Lawson Products
More keenly aware of the competitive price of employee burnout and workforce attrition — many midsize companies are today busy rethinking how they attract, hire and inspire employees. The Workplace Champions Podcast explores the innovative workforce practices of talent-minded business leaders tasked with opening a new chapter of growth for their midsize organizations.
10/2/2018 • 31 minutes, 52 seconds
029: Mike Walters, CEO, USA Financial
Join us when Mike Walters, CEO of USA Financial, explains how a loyal network of financial advisers and new technology adoption -- and some solid hiring -- is helping the Grand Rapids, Michigan, financial company to open a new chapter of grow
7/13/2018 • 26 minutes, 29 seconds
028: The Culture Integration Challenge| Nicole Latimer, CEO, StayWell
6/23/2018 • 29 minutes, 30 seconds
027: Culture-Building & The CFO
6/13/2018 • 41 minutes, 19 seconds
026: Silicon Valley Smarts, Midwestern Culture | Dave Kellogg, CEO, Host Analytics
6/4/2018 • 26 minutes, 46 seconds
025: Why Hiring Must Come First | Andy McGraw, CEO, Adelman Travel
5/25/2018 • 25 minutes, 36 seconds
024: When the Product is Your People | Phil Carpenter, Pan Communications, Boston
“Sometimes we’ll be competing against very large agencies that are global in nature—so they’ve got offices in New York and in Hong Kong and in Munich. At other times, we’ll be playing against a specialty firm that operates out of maybe just one geography, like San Francisco or New York, and operates only in one sector, like tech. So it’s for us both interesting and hard because we sit in the middle. We have good ways to compare ourselves against the smaller firms and to position ourselves against the larger ones.” –Phil Carpenter
5/18/2018 • 33 minutes, 7 seconds
023: Behold the Employee Experience | Mathew Schiltz, CEO, Conga, Broomfield, CO
5/11/2018 • 28 minutes, 14 seconds
022: When Hiring & Culture Are One | Ray Rothrock, CEO, Redseal, Sunnyvale, CA
5/5/2018 • 30 minutes, 44 seconds
The Talent Transformation | Seven Corners, Indianapolis, Indiana
Indianapolis, Indiana—As companies grow and advance beyond their entrepreneurial roots, talent often becomes a major growth hurdle. To meet the demands of an expanding workforce, firms must steadily enhance their talent best practices. Join us when Justin Tysdal, Cofounder, Seven Corners, explains how talent became the primary path for opening a new chapter of growth for the international travel insurance firm. Guest: Justin Tysdal, Cofounder, Chief Strategy Officer Company: Seven Corners Headquartered: Indianapolis, Indiana Ownership: Privately Held Revenues: $40 Million Employees: 150 Contacts: www.sevencorners.com @sevencorners (Twitter) From Brett’s Strategy Note BIG step to get outside help. Apollo – proactive, structure Need for new ideas , innovation Transparency KPIs THANK people
4/26/2018 • 24 minutes, 57 seconds
021: A Workforce Pilgrim's Progress | Glenn Nott, President, simPRO, NA, Broomfield, CO
4/20/2018 • 34 minutes, 22 seconds
020: When Scale & AI Become Part of the Talent Solution | Risk Strategies Company, Boston
Having grown to 38 offices and more than 900 employees, Risk Strategies Company has entered the ranks of leading national insurance brokers with a strut that signals an appetite for M&A. Join us when the firm’s founder and CEO, Mike Christian, explains how acquiring companies in key markets, with key business practice areas, has made the firm a discriminating buyer inside an industry known for its frequent waves of consolidation.
4/12/2018 • 29 minutes, 18 seconds
019: Incentives For All | Power Financial Credit Union, Miami, FL
4/3/2018 • 26 minutes, 38 seconds
018: Where Culture & Brand Are One | Anchor Brewing, San Francisco
016: Holacracy and the Self-Management Priciple | Best Upon Request, Cincinnati, OH
3/15/2018 • 26 minutes, 28 seconds
015: The Servant Leader | Datron World Communications, San Diego, CA
Thrilled to introduce our first WORKPLACE CHAmPIONS e-Book. Featuring employee hiring and retention insights from a DOZEN talent minded CEOs from midsized firms LINK To Download e-Book: http://bit.ly/2nS0KJy
3/7/2018 • 28 minutes, 25 seconds
014: A.I. and the Future of Compensation | Xactly Corp., San Jose, CA
What if your company had unique lines of sight into the compensation best practices and approaches of your customers, and what if those lines of sight annually generated reams of data endowing your firm with a pool of strategic data that few firms—if any—can yet match? Join us when Xactly Corporation CEO Christopher Cabrera explains how customer insight became a primary driver of his firm’s future growth.
2/28/2018 • 26 minutes, 38 seconds
013: Energizing Your Workforce With Open Book Management
Featuring CFO Thought Leaders Few names are better known in the realm of multiplatform games than Unity Technologies. The software developer’s focus on “democratized game development” has primed the pump for independent game producers and led Unity to boast that its technology is already responsible for roughly 70 percent of virtual reality and augmented reality experiences. With few competitors in sight, Unity Technologies CFO Mike Foley says that the developer has begun to leverage a concept dubbed “radical transparency” that aspires to endow every employee with a generous look-see at the financials. As a one-time IT systems engineer, Phong Le has a finance career whose early roots run deep inside the technology realm, where today he serves as CFO of MicroStrategy—one of the data world’s pioneering innovators. Join us to hear Phong explain how burgeoning data insights are summoning finance leaders to become the organizational catalyst for quicker business decision-making.
2/21/2018 • 38 minutes, 3 seconds
012: Once Private, Now Public : Protecting Your Workforce Culture | Appian, Reston, VA
2/14/2018 • 32 minutes, 33 seconds
011: Why Generational Wisdom is Social Wisdom| American Textile Company, Duquesne, PA
Eight years from now, when Lance Ruttenberg blows out the candles on a birthday cake celebrating his company’s 100th birthday, the CEO of American Textile Company will be savoring an industrial hallmark that no Fortune 500 CEO has ever known. Lance and his brother Blake are today the third generation of Ruttenbergs to own and lead the textile firm first established in 1925. While the company may not be in the same weight class as other successful firms with generational-family origins (Ford Motor Company, IBM Corp.), ATC’s longevity is a testament to an ownership/management model that has successfully served an industry, a family, and a devoted employee population for nearly 100 years.
2/7/2018 • 34 minutes, 7 seconds
010: Hiring & The Power of Three | Demac Media, Toronto, Canada
MMTL: Along the way, you’ve made a lot of hires, so we’re going to ask you, “How do you make a great hire?” Matt: We follow this principle that we picked up in a book called Traction, by a guy named Gino Wickman. It’s an operating system for businesses called the EOS. We follow their people process, and it works quite well for us. It comes down to three things: Does the person get it, do they want it, and do they have the capacity to do it? If I could unpack that for you, what it means is that when we define a seat or role in the business and we start looking for people to fill that seat, the first thing we look for is, Do they understand the role? Do they get it? Do they understand what it entails, and if they do, then do they want it? Is this something that they think they would have a lot of fun doing? If they have fun, they’ll likely be good at it. Then, do they have the capacity to do it? It’s never a good idea to take somebody who’s never done a job or something even remotely close to that role and put them into it. This likely means that they don’t really have the capacity for it. We’re usually looking for people with a little bit of experience. Capacity is a lot of stuff rolled up in that, but it’s the anchor, right? They need to know and have the ability and the time and the wherewithal to do the job. The whole “get it, want it, have the capacity to do it” thing has been a game-changer for us in just simplifying how to find the right people.
1/31/2018 • 34 minutes, 41 seconds
009: The Fruits of Decentralized Management | Spreadshirt, Berlin, Germany
1/24/2018 • 36 minutes, 6 seconds
008: Why You Should Only Hire "10s"| InterLinc Mortgage, Houston, Texas
FREE E-Book: Learn how talent-minded CEOs from a dozen midsized companies Get, Retain and Engage Top Talent https://workplacechampions.gr8.com/
Join us when Chris Byers charts the evolutionary path that is leading Formstack to open a new chapter of growth as the software developer grows its workforce and sheds new light on its hiring the internal workings of Formstack’s workforce.
Indianapolis, Indiana - As companies grow and advance beyond their entrepreneurial roots talent often becomes a major growth hurdle for companies that must steadily enhance their talent best practices if they are going to meet the demands of an expanding workforce. Join us when Justin Tysdal, Co-Founder, Seven Corners, explains how talent became the primary path for opening a new chapter of growth for the international travel insurance firm. Guest: Justin Tysdal, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer Company: Seven Corners Headquartered: Indianapolis, Indiana Ownership: Privately Held Revenues: $40 Million Employees: 150 Contacts: www.sevencorners.com @sevencorners (Twitter) From Brett’s Strategy Note BIG step to get outside help. Apollo – proactive, structure Need for new ideas , innovation Transparency KPIs THANK people Subscribe to Workplace Champions!
12/28/2017 • 24 minutes, 29 seconds
005: (S1) A Firm's Talent Crossroads | Atrion
Warwick, Rhode Island — Join us when Tim Hebert, CEO of Atrion, explains how by making Atrion's focus on attracting and retaining talent a top priority the IT services firm would experience more than 25 percent growth annually enabling Atrion to grow to more than $150 million in annual sales. [spp-player] From Brett’s Strategy Notes: All about pro-actively changing things Felt culture the thing to work on Requires an investment in time… from 0% last year to 15% this year Brett's Book Reference Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't By Jim Collins Subscribe to Workplace Champions!