4 Steps to Success, Seasons of Life and So Much More

Traci Scherck is a business owner that focuses on building HR teams to help create best practices from the ground up. She and I had a great conversation about her 4 step process and the different seasons of life that we all go through. Traci is a podcast host, HR coach, and all-around Leader in her field.

 

Contact Traci

E-mail - traci@elevatedtalentconsulting.com

LinkedIN - linkedin.com/in/traci-scherck

Podcast - https://elevatedtalentconsulting.com/podcast-2/

 

Leighann Lovely  00:20

HR professionals, business owners and operations at all levels are struggling to figure out what needs to change. Our system has been shocked practices have been questioned, and conversations are finally happening. We all know there has been a huge shift in what people want. inclusion and diversity are common phrases. But often misunderstood generations are coming together more than ever on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about what's important for employees to be successful in life and at their job and how companies can create an environment to allow them to do both because successful people will make up a successful workforce. I'm Leighann lovely. Let's get this conversation started. 

 

Traci Scherck is the Chief Strategy Consultant and Owner of Elevate Talent Consulting. Traci is a certified HR professional. With nearly two decades of experience in employee development, and engagement, performance consulting and training facilitation. Traci began her career in retail and nonprofit organizations building inclusive teams to best serve her client base. She was responsible for building an HR department from the ground up including training and talent development programs. Each of these programs focused on culture and organizational impact. She transitioned into healthcare consulting with a long-term care center on developing and creating talent pathways into and through their organizations. Traci worked one on one with business owners and management teams to improve manager effective pneus to communication coaching motivation, conflict resolution, and performance management. Traci uses her consulting expertise to serve clients in applying behavioral concepts to hire and selection, designing and implementing talent pathways, coaching, motivation, and more. This is going to be an awesome conversation with Traci. She is a talented and brilliant woman. 

 

Traci, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to have this conversation. So why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about yourself?

 

Traci Scherck  02:45

Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. Leighann. So, my name is Tracy shirk, and I love working with organizations on ensuring every employee is fulfilled in their work and meeting the business outcomes. So the background to that is, you know, really growing HR departments from the ground up for the last 20 years.

 

Leighann Lovely  03:10

Awesome. That's okay, so how did you I'm sorry, as we're having this conversation, I am trying to cool myself off because I have COVID here. So it's gonna be a fun conversation, Tracy.

 

Traci Scherck  03:27

Hey, guess what my one of a member of our team had COVID Last week, and she called me looking like you are right now Leanne, and I told her to go take a nap.

 

Leighann Lovely  03:36

Right. So I appreciate you putting up with me.

 

Traci Scherck  03:41

Oh, thank you for having us. Absolutely. And I think that's like a fun conversation. Right, right. You know, as we look at HR, you know, how do we play with this work life balance? How do we play with COVID and dogs puking behind you? And you know, all the crazy things that happen, right, like from this work from home environment? And here we are.

 

Leighann Lovely  04:04

Right? Absolutely. So why don't you How did you tell me how did you get started in your I mean, to go out on your own? How did you get started and then decide that it was time to go out on your own?

 

Traci Scherck  04:18

That is such a great question, Leighann. So I was working for a top 50 CPA firm doing HR consulting for them. So they had a consulting arm of their business. And what I found was culture is so incredibly important to being happy and fulfilled in your role at work. And what I found was it was a great organization. They were very process focused. They also were an organization that had a lot of controls in place. I mean, it was a CPA firm, right? And for who I am I especially when you have a sales role and those types of things. I needed to have more autonomy In my role, and so what I found was that I was frustrated with the culture because it wasn't a great culture fit for who I was. And so that was kind of one of those key things. And then the second thing was I saw, especially for small organizations that they really needed support in building the HR function from the ground up. So what I was doing is going in and doing what I lovingly called, butt in seat HR, versus training and elevating someone internal to the organization, which in the long term is lat is more cost effective to the organization versus an outside firm staying in the HR role for ever. And so that is what I went out to do.

 

Leighann Lovely  05:49

Interesting, and, butt in seat HR. And I love that. I love that.

 

Traci Scherck  05:57

Right? Like, your butt is in the seat, and you're doing HR all day long. Right? You know, right?

 

Leighann Lovely  06:05

No, absolutely. Absolutely. So you you're a, you're a trainer, you're a coach, you work with HR professionals to help walk through and you and I had previously spoke, you know, kind of about like a four step process that you walk them through, correct? Yeah, so for sure. Let's talk a little bit about that, and how how that approach helps them and kind of your philosophy on that.

 

Traci Scherck  06:33

Yeah, absolutely. So Leon, you just said, Hey, you've got a four step approach that you walk folks through to build their HR departments from the ground up. And I want to start from the end and work my way to the beginning here. We're going to do it backwards. But how we came up with that four step approach? And what it is, is we looked at, you know, what has employees be engaged in their work so that they produce in their meeting the business outcomes, and they're fulfilled in their role? Right? So when we looked at what are those drivers are those levers to engagement, there's really four levers to engagement, the first is fit to roll. Are we hiring individuals into the right role? Right? And so we call that hire, are we hiring them into the right roles so that we've got fit to roll? The second lever that we look at is, once they're in the role? Are we really inspiring them to perform their best. And so that has a lot to do with a manager, right? So is the manager leading them the way they need to be led? The third level that we look at is we look at the team. I don't know about you, but I've worked on some amazing teams. And I've worked on some teams where I felt like bonk, bonk, bonk on my head all day long, like, I couldn't do anything, right. And there was always this like one upmanship. And well, I did this better than you. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, I cannot do this. So that team environment plays a significant role. And then the fourth lever is the organizational culture. And I kind of talked a little bit about that at the top of the podcast. So the four step process that we walk individuals through to build an HR department from the ground up, has to do with are they in the right role? Do they have a leader that is leading them the way they need to be led? Are they on the team so that they have a team that is executing a very specific strategy? And are they the right player on that team for that? And then the fourth is, do the personal values align with the organizational values? So you know, that four step is hire, inspire, design and engage?

 

Leighann Lovely  08:54

Awesome, so Okay, so now in you said, you work, you work your, your way backwards on those rights. So when you go in, the first thing that you that you work with, or you talk with, I'm assuming with an organization is making sure that you understand what their values are?

 

Traci Scherck  09:17

Right, so So absolutely. So it's understanding what their values are. And when we walk into an organization, my first question is always, what's your pain point? Right, right. So because if I understand what their pain point is, I know where to start. Right? So it may be that we need to start with hiring the right people and getting that infrastructure in place. It may be that we need to start with you know, hey, we just lost our five best employees and we don't know what we're going to do. So we need to focus on retention, it may be that it truly is values that they want to redefine their organizational values, and you know, really have those tightened up So it really depends upon what pain point they present with. And then yes, we always get into the mission vision values because it threads through absolutely everything. But it's a yet we want to ensure that we're meeting them where they're at. So we're solving that key problem that they have first.

 

Leighann Lovely  10:21

Right? Right. So since you know, this season really is is a great deal on retention and training and in hiring. What are you seeing right now, in this market? You know, I historically have always asked people like, how did COVID affect the well, we've I think we've beat that one, you know, to a pulp. Right. I think the world is now understands like COVID has, speaking of COVID, but, right. Hey, I just this is my first time, okay, I've managed to make it three years, by the way, without getting COVID. And now I'm like, Oh, this is why everybody didn't want to get this. It's horrible. It's absolutely horrible.

 

Traci Scherck  11:08

Like I said, Leighann, have you built naptimes into your day? If not, you need to for the next three weeks, right?

 

Leighann Lovely  11:14

Well hey, the last three days, the entire day has been naptime. Let me tell you, I've set alarms to get up for meetings. And then I just hit the snooze button, go oh, wait, I have to let them know. I can't make it to the meeting because naptime hasn't ended yet. Okay, anyways, I diverse, or I mean, I digress. Okay, so we've been we've, you know, we've completely and totally, you know, beat what has COVID done to the world? What, what, what is the world now doing? To try to figure out how to hire, retain, train, you know, what, what is? What is this? I hate the world I hate the phrase this new world doing, but I think it's necessary now.

 

Traci Scherck  12:03

Absolutely. And I'm smiling at this question, because I just posted a podcast today, the day that we're recording this on, you know, what the massive layoffs the impact that the massive layoffs are having on our culture? And so that kind of leads me to answer your question and saying, What are companies doing? I think a lot of companies are really starting to double down and look at their culture, and what kind of culture are they creating? And is that culture attracting the right people? And is it retaining the right people very specifically, around? Are we creating a coaching culture, especially because we have, you know, so many of our folks working from home where we no longer can have this, I see your butt is in the seats, and I see you're working? You know, now it's really focused on managing by performance and having those performance metrics in place, which leads to leading very differently, which means that we need to lead really through, how are we coaching those individuals, when we're not seeing them on a day to day basis? How are we pulling the metrics to look at that until very specifically, look at that process. And even for the clients that we have that everyone is still in person based on the type of work that they're doing and or that culture, it is still looking at the culture. So even for organizations that are saying, hey, we want you 50% in the office, it has so much to do with the culture and the collaboration.

 

Leighann Lovely  13:35

Interesting. And, and I've obviously have spoken with, with numerous companies, and you know, that cultural shift is definitely I see everybody sees this happening, but it doesn't happen overnight, which means that more and more individuals are are jumping, looking for that culture. So I guess what advice do you give to each company that you work with on that immediate? That immediate, like, how do you keep these people right now?

 

Traci Scherck  14:09

Yeah, this is such a great question. So I met with a company two weeks ago and did and worked with them on really aligning their mission, vision and values. Yet, before we walked into that workshop, I had a conversation with every employee. So this is a smaller organization, and essentially did a state interview with every employee, right? And so what we did is we just essentially said, Hey, what do you love about this organization? What do you not so much love? Right? And this went everywhere from benefits to the of course, pay comes up, right? Of course. But and then it went into again, we looked at the four areas, right? Tell me about the role that you're in. Tell me about You know how your how your manager leads, you tell me about the team you're on, tell me about the culture, mission, vision values of the organization and how that impacts the work that you do. So we literally went through those four levers in this stay interview. And what came out of it was an incredibly beautiful conversation, and very specific alignment about where the organization felt the mission vision values were versus what the lived ones were those lived behaviors, and there was a realignment, and a reigniting of the passion and commitment to the organization, which meant engagement went up, guess what happens when engagement goes up? employees stay, and productivity goes up and profitability goes up, right. And so, you know, a conversation that I just had with the same company yesterday was one of their employees had mentioned to me, you know, some frustration with her job title based on the role that she was doing, et cetera. So I went back, and I shared that with the owner of the business. And so we she goes, well, she's my number three, I want to ensure that she stays here. You know, I don't want her to be a flight risk. I said, Well, let's do an alignment conversations. So we met for an hour, this week and had this alignment conversation, which essentially says, Hey, your job title just changed. You know, employee, can you share with us what winning looks like for you in this role? And so she went through a named what winning looks like for her. And you know, then I kind of went to the owner and her supervisor and said, so Did we miss anything? And how do we measure it? So if that's what winning looks like? How do we know when you actually had it? And what we found was, is that the goals aren't necessarily measurable. And so often, we create this vagueness and this ambiguity, that we never know if we're winning or not. And so really, when you know that that advice, back to your question is, you know, do you have alignment between what the supervisor manager feels that winning is and what the employee feels that winning is? Otherwise? If you don't, you know, the suggestion would be sit down and have the conversation about what does winning look like? And I love that question, because we all want to win. And if I say what is your job, you get? Oh, no, versus what winning looks like? Well, I'm going to hit 1000 downloads this month. Right, Lian, right? I'm going to, you know, million, three new sales accounts, I'm going to XYZ and that needs to align with what your business outcome is. And I know you just started a brand new business, which I just said, Hey, you want to land three new clients in the seals business that you have? Right?

 

Leighann Lovely  18:05

Right. And that's it. You would think, and I say this, lightly, I say this, you know, you would think that every organization would go, Oh, well, da, I need to make sure that my employees know that they're valued by understanding exactly how we're going to measure them how we're going to, you know, you would think that a manager would be able to go to their employee and simply have a comment, like, are you happy? Do you understand your role? Are you you know, fulfilled? Do you feel like your job title matches? You would, you would think that this is a conversation that can happen easily within an organization. However, as you are telling me this, I'm pretending that I'm the employee having this conversation and what the feeling that I'm getting is, oh, my gosh, what are they going to think of me? If I'm complaining about my job title? What are they going to think of me? If I'm, you know, are they going to be upset? Are they going to be mad? Like, this may be insignificant to them, but wildly important to me? Because I feel XYZ, right.

 

Traci Scherck  19:26

Yeah. And let me add some clarification. This conversation came after we changed her job title and gave her the title that she wanted.

 

Leighann Lovely  19:33

Right? No, and exactly but but here's the thing is that she she had to, she had to initially tell you, she had to initially feel comfortable enough to tell you that she wanted a different job title. Right. Right. And so that and that, and if you were to ask me, Leon, what do you want your job title to be? I'd be like, I don't really care. Right now. But that's because I'm, I'm at a different level. Right? If you are, I'm going to guess that this employee was probably probably closer to being a a entry or to mid level, individual or she gets paid based on her level.

 

Traci Scherck  20:20

Yeah, she was at a manager level. Okay. Yeah.

 

Leighann Lovely  20:23

When you get to a certain level of you know, employment or you've been in, you've been in your job for, as long as I have 20 years, I just I stopped really caring about the title. Because, and again, some people are very wrapped up in titles. I don't care if I'm a Director of Client Services, or if you call me a salesperson, I really don't care. Either way, my job is the same. But some people it is wildly important. Because and that's the difference is that some people, it holds a huge, huge importance for them, especially depending on the role that they're doing, right? I'm in sales, sales, sales, sales, sales, does not matter what title you give me. Regardless, at the end of the day, I do the same thing. Right. Right. Right.

 

Traci Scherck  21:17

And I think that that's so interesting, because when we talk about, you know, that manager role or that inspire role, what we were doing in that conversation is we were inspiring her to perform, right. So we looked at not the fact that, you know, I or whoever else in the room, you know, don't care about titles, we looked at what is important to her, right? And how do we meet her where she's at where we can, and that's a really important piece is, as an organization, we cannot always meet it, nor is it equitable to meet it. Right. This was and so we did, and with that, we, you know, said, Hey, with this title change, there's also some change in responsibilities. And yes, there's a change in pay, you know, but with that, there is some change in responsibilities. You know, and one of my favorite lines that a mentor told me when I moved into my first director role was, So Tracy, you're no longer in the cheap seats, and you can't sling mud anymore, because you're the one making the decision. So what are you going to do? Right?

 

Leighann Lovely  22:27

Right. And, and again, that, again, that comes back to because of the type of job that you were in the title directly correlated with the with a job, right? And that's why for me, who is a serial salesperson, it doesn't matter what you call me. I, at the end of the day, do the same, you know, did the same thing. I was a business developer, I was a director of sales, I was at the end of the day, the job was exactly the same for me. So for me, title did not matter. So that was the point I was making. And that's companies have to realize that. And I was trying to come to a point. And it just wasn't Coralie, and just wasn't making sense, because maybe my brain is a little bit mushy today. I'm all good, right? But companies have to realize that, like, hiring somebody like you, you're able to get to the core of what's important to each individual. And I think that's we've gotten so far away from that, there was a time where HR, you know, we had multiple people in HR. And then now we've made every single role, or we've tried to make every single role a cookie cutter, right? Because we wanted to treat everybody exactly the same in order to mitigate liability. Trying to make sure that we cover ourselves on all angles. For years, that was the goal, write, write down everything that you do write down, this is the job now we can plug and play, this person doesn't work out, we shove another person and we teach them the role. And we move on and now we've got, you know, number 1856 employee, you know, in this role and you know, blah, blah, blah, right? Now, I'm not talking about right now I'm talking about this is the way that it started to go the world started to go. Now, all these employees are, you know, these plug and play employees that we can literally plug in, train them, they do the job, they go home, we realize as a society that we can't do that anymore, because they're not machines. These machines actually have feelings, emotions, desires, wants, all of these other things that come along with them. And now the world is shifting yet again. saying Wait, no, I'm not employee one eight. Five to seven or whatever, I'm LeighAnn lovely. And I have, you know, feelings and desires and wants and goals within this organization, if you want to keep me, then you have to actually know me and understand what those feelings desires and wants are, or I'm going to go over to XYZ company, where they actually listen to that, and try to meet those expectations. And so, so many companies were so used to the whole idea of let's just do the cookie cutter so that we mitigate all of this liability. And now they're realizing, Oh, we have to treat humans like humans. But what about everything else? Like? Is there going to be, you know, liability associated with this? Is there going to be everybody's going waiting? Or no, the liabilities and the old way that you're doing it? Because now you're actually discriminating against the fact that people are different. Right, right.

 

Traci Scherck  25:57

Yeah. And I think that, you know, with that specific example to it was we gave her the space to listen, and every single employee had an opportunity to share what was great and what wasn't right. And action was taken on it immediately, right? And so even for those employees that want to come and do their job, leave and never grow within the organization, guess what? That is absolutely okay. Because we still need that job to be done. And we are still listening to what they have to say, but we're not moving their cheese.

 

Leighann Lovely  26:34

Right? Right. And I used to be one of those people, I used to be the, you know, hey, don't move my cheese. I'm completely happy where I am. But you grow out of certain. And I think you and I talked about this, you and I did talk about this the Season of Life, seasons of life of you know, so and I'd love to dig a little bit more into that. Because I think that each one of us, you know, we have different points in our life where we're comfortable in a certain point. We may grow out of that without even realizing that we have and then we move on. And that's okay.

 

Traci Scherck  27:08

Yeah, for sure. And when I say seasons of life, first, I just want to pause because Leanne, I have a podcast as well. And I can always hear my listeners on my shoulder going. Move the cheese. Yes, we are both from Wisconsin. And we are both in Wisconsin and moving the cheese as a reference to changing something on someone without them knowing it. So I just don't want anyone getting lost in that.

 

Leighann Lovely  27:28

Well, no. And it's also a book. It's also a book. Is it a book? Yes. Who Moved My Cheese?

 

Traci Scherck  27:34

Oh, the mouse book for kids?

 

Leighann Lovely  27:36

Kids? No, no, this is this is. This is a book, the same author who wrote The Present. And it's a book about change. So you Oh, wow. So we learned something new. This is an amazing book. It's about a 45 minute read. I'm trying to think right now off the top of my head who the author is?

 

Traci Scherck  27:55

Well, you'll just link it in the show notes.

 

Leighann Lovely  27:57

Yes, I will. Absolutely. It's an amazing book. My dad gave it to me when I was. Actually I thought you were referencing that.

 

Traci Scherck  28:05

That's hilarious. By the way. No, I was just talking about, you know, moving somebody's cheese,

 

Leighann Lovely  28:11

right? No, that's an actual book. It was written by Spencer Johnson. It's a number one best selling his number one best selling selling author, and it's called Who Moved My Cheese. But it is about the concept of, of change. And there's four characters in there. And again, it's, you're able to identify on what kind of person you are based on these four different characters? Are you the kind of person who when change happens, gets up and is ready to go? Are you the kind of person who is like, Nope, I'm going to, I'm going to drag my feet. I'm not going to. I'm not gonna. I'm going to fight this all the way. And I absolutely used to be the person who used to fight it all the way, every step, every meter to the last moment. Now I'm the kind of person that if you change something on me, I'm like, Okay, I'm the first in line, Let's learn. Let's figure it out. Let's roll with this. I love it. But that's a work in progress, right? We all have to, we all have to figure out. And that's part of the whole season of life for me anyways, for a longest time, I hated the concept of change. It's also becoming a mother. Right? Nothing ever stays. Right, you know? Any, any one day for that matter? Right? So anyways, I get off a no, this

 

Traci Scherck  29:42

is perfect. And I loved your transition back to seasons of life because Absolutely. 100% And so when we talk about seasons of life, you know, it's looking at Where's an individual at currently, right? So you've got folks that you just talked about becoming a mom, you know, that probably shifted you into a different work role for a period of time, may or may not, but it's a season of life, right? You know, a season of life is when a parent is ill or a parent is passing and you're taking care of a parent a season of life is, you know, the honeymoon phase of a marriage a season of life is a divorce a season of life is you know, becoming empty nesters a season of life is any of those things that create a major life change for you that guess what have an impact at work as much as we try to compartmentalize things, it's all the same pot of soup. And so when we look at what those items are, as HR and as leaders, it's incredibly important to not make assumptions for someone else. Because guess what that is discrimination. And, and it can definitely be that if you say, Hey, we're not going to have Leon travel anymore, because she's pregnant. Yeah, no, not okay. But to say, hey, Leon, you know, we've got a couple options, what would you prefer, giving you the choice and knowing that you're going into a different season of life is, is looking at us as humans and saying, Hey, there's choice here. And we want you to choose that. And we also know that energy levels may not be as high today, as you have COVID. Nothing I call COVID a season of life. It's ugly, however, you know, it kind

 

Leighann Lovely  31:34

of is right now for me, and somebody's gonna have to wheel me back to the couch after this conversation. So love it. But yes, I mean, it. You're right. I mean, different points, different seasons of life definitely. Have drivers for, for all of us. Right.

 

Traci Scherck  31:58

Right. And another one I didn't mention, like, I remember when I, you know, started to get really bored in my job. So I went back and I got a master's degree, right. Like, that was a season, you know, I went and I got a coaching certification. Because, you know, guess what, there's a season that led you to go do those things. And so a lot of times, you can look at seasons and say, how is that season going to impact the career changes going forward. And as HR, we don't typically know what's happening with staff, and sometimes we do. But with that, it's just something to be cognizant of is that there are seasons that every single one of us is going through. And so if you see somebody at peak performance, and you know, six months later, you're like, okay, they're, they're still getting everything done, but like, they were hitting it out of the park, for a solid year and a half. Now, they're now you know, we're, we're doing bass hits every day, which is fine. Guess what, we can't always be on peak performance. And that's not you know, that's the machine versus saying, there's ups and downs to this. And when we can have empathy and compassion, and you know, kind of create those goals, share those goals, cheer that on, we're going to be with that individual throughout the ups and downs of those seasons.

 

Leighann Lovely  33:22

And I something that you said, you know, as HR, we can't always know what's going on with our employees. And I wish that and again, I don't I, before I say this, I want to make sure that everybody understands I'm not saying that, that we should be allowed to know, or that we should cry, or that, that this is something that I'm just I'll just say it and then I'll we can talk about it. I wish that we that we did that we that that employees had enough confidence in HR, again, to be able to approach them and say, Hey, I've got something going on at home. You know, this may, you know, XYZ is going on, I'm really struggling with this. I really want to do a great job here. I just want to give you a heads up, you know, and then for for HR to be able to say, here are some resources available to you if you need help. But we've gotten to a point where employees are so guarded by HR that they're afraid they're going to get fired that it's a hush hush, like don't let anybody at the company find out or I'm gonna get fired. I mean, that's it's the fear mentality that drives the secrecy. Completely. I mean, right. Here's an example I called my husband and I said, I just tested positive for COVID. On my end, I said you should probably inform your employer that you know, we're we have to look for different childcare because obviously, I can't wait You know, I can't have the nanny coming over to the house, we need to contain this blah, blah, blah, will test our daughter will test you, you know, providing that you guys don't have symptoms, you know, all that kind of stuff, I'll remain in the lower level and my husband goes, I'm not telling my employer and I'm like, why? Well, what if they make me not come to work for seven days? And then we, you know, blah, blah, blah? And I'm like, Well, okay, I get that. And he's like, I'm just, I'm going to test I'll do the responsible thing. I'll stay home tomorrow, but I'm not going to inform them of what's going on in my personal life. And I'm like, Okay, you're right, you have the right to do that. As long as you're doing the responsibility, things didn't, you know, testing and all that other stuff. But it's like, why is that so fearful? Why are we so afraid to give information?

 

Traci Scherck  35:47

Right, right. And I think because there's been so many situations where there's been a negative response to it. Right, right. And, you know, let me just give one and for our HR professionals out there, you may kind of give me the side eye on this, and that's okay. But, but you know, somebody's coming to you with something and just saying, hey, go see EAP, what you did is you just put them into another system without having empathy around what they just shared with you. And I think one of those key things is, you know, when we do have that sharing, happening, and before, after, during all the things is, how are we creating space and holding space for those individuals in our office, and really just listening in and providing that sounding board to them not taking their stuff on? That's not what I'm saying. But really providing that space, having empathy for what's going on with them, and then shifting the conversation into, let's start to brainstorm some solutions to move you forward. And what are those key goals? And there's the coach coming out, Leighann.

 

Leighann Lovely  36:54

Right? You're right, and not every HR professional is a coach and in, you know, prepared for what happens if an employee walks in their office and says, you know, I realized, I'm an alcoholic, and I'm gonna go for treatment. You know, a lot of HR professionals, especially younger ones, or ones that haven't been around the block are like, Okay. Well, what do I do? How do I handle this? And unfortunately, over the years, we have gotten a bad rap. I mean, I've had multiple friends call me and go, What do I do? So and so just got fired? Aren't they? You know, do we have a lawsuit? And I'm like, well, first of all, probably shouldn't jump to the lawsuit. You know, let's not, let's think this through first, you know, but you know, HR, people forget that the first thing that HR has to do is protect the interests of the company. But that doesn't mean that there's not a human beings sitting in that chair too.

 

Traci Scherck  38:10

Right? There's an an both with how do I show empathy? And how do I create the protection and you can do an an both, right? Because it's in the way of your being, and in your doing, it's an and both to, to the person and the organization to how you are showing up and what you are doing in those actions.

 

Leighann Lovely  38:36

Right. But, and like I said, HR has gotten, and I trust me, I was in corporate HR. And there were times where people would see me coming, and they'd be like, okay, they I would see like, multiple people just like leaving, and I'm like, okay, nobody wants to be around the corporate HR lady. They, you know, everybody, nobody wants to, like, Hey, I'm a cool gal. Like, I swear, I, I swear I say bad words. I drink I know, I mean, maybe but this was this was like 15 years ago, that made me cool at that time. Okay, maybe not, I don't know. But I love it. Nobody wanted to be anywhere, you know, they everybody would scatter. And it was like, okay, you know, that's fine. But it's the same thing of, you know, a cop walks into a party. Everybody's like, Should we all stop drinking? Should we should we go home? Should we, you know, it's the same thing like it's the same concept, I guess. And I want to see that shift again. And I think we are starting to see that where companies are focusing a little bit more on that but for I don't know, it's time will only tell right? Well we are coming to time I just realized how late it was. So the question of the season what would you change about your job or the practice that people have in your role if you could?

 

Traci Scherck  40:14

So what would I change about my job so as the owner of a company I would not do anything with it or systems and it would all just be done for me it worked perfectly.

 

Leighann Lovely  40:27

Okay I second that I absolutely second IT systems or you know what I'm gonna even say the marketing piece. I a sales person through and through, but when it comes to marketing and creativity, I black. Okay,

 

Traci Scherck  40:46

I just wrote an email about Smurfs. Because yes, so much like the little blue men Smurfs. Yes about Smurfs The little. Okay. Now I have to tell you the story about Smurfs donor. Yes. All right. So I go into TJ Maxx, and I'm out a conditioner and I don't want to go by the Aveda conditioner. So I go on to TJ Maxx and I find this bottle wrecking conditioner. I'm like, great. smelled it? It smelled good. Fantastic, right? Like the things that we think are important is how does it smell? So I get home and you know, like I'm taking my shower, and I'm washing my hair and doing all the thing I looked down and I'm blue, this conditioner. And of course I look at the bottle now and the bottle says blue pigment in the bottle is blue. But I didn't pay attention when I bought the conditioner that the bottle was blue. How often do we do that in our HR policies and with things that we think that we know like what our handbook says, then we actually go look at it. And we're like, oh my goodness. So I buy the red conditioner. I put it in my hair. And then I'm blue. And I just keep like, you know, rinsing my hair with this redkin conditioner, and the blue goes away. But the beautiful part Hold on. I see you're like why is the conditioner blue? It's blue so that it starts to hide the gray. However, I didn't realize that I was turning blue that day.

 

Leighann Lovely  42:11

So wait a second, it actually died your skin?

 

Traci Scherck  42:15

Blue? Well, no, but just like it didn't die it but like I'm like, I'm like you look down and you know, it's like when it takes a bit to like

 

Leighann Lovely  42:23

write it. Right? Oh my god, blues.

 

Traci Scherck  42:29

But how often do so I'm going to do a marketing piece for you. Right? How often do we think we know something and tell it shows up in our face? And we're like, oh my gosh, that's not at all what I thought it was. And in HR, we see that in our policies. Right? Yeah. It's like, what are the unintended consequences of the wording of this in this way or of having the conversation in that way? So my rule here is pay attention so you don't become a smurf. That's really good marketing lesson for the day. I don't Okay.

 

Leighann Lovely  43:00

That's actually pretty good. That's pretty good. Hey, I temporarily dyed my hair purple, which stayed purple for about three washes and then turn pink. Because my hair does not and what did stay bright purple was my scalp. Which it was yes, it was a nightmare. I will never dye my hair again. I will not give the brands because they do not want to, you know, bash any brands or anything. But by the way

 

Traci Scherck  43:33

That was not bashing redkin it was just like, this is a no brand. I know I sprained my trust it. I don't have to look at it.

 

Leighann Lovely  43:40

Right, right. No, no, I'm right. But this with my hair. Um, I temporarily dyed my scalp. Bright, bright purple because I didn't read the directions clear enough saying make sure to keep it off your scalp and use a lubricant around the rest of your skin to keep it off of your skin or it will dye your skin. So the next day I went to a networking meeting with still purple dots all over the back of my ears, the back of my neck. Oh, yes, it was it was a blast. Fantastic. This is yet again. Because as an HR professional, I still didn't read the entire directions basically stating, do not get this on your skin. Oh, I also had purple thumbs. It was yes, it was just a blast. Never again. Well, it's fun.

 

Traci Scherck  44:36

I hope you now have your marketing inspiration.

 

Leighann Lovely  44:39

Yeah, yes. I'm not even going to Okay. If somebody wanted to reach out to you. How would they go about contacting you and where can they find your podcast?

 

Traci Scherck  44:50

Absolutely. So you can find me on LinkedIn. It's Tracy sharp. You can find me on our website which is elevated talent comm salting and our podcast is talent optimization with Tracy shirk.

 

Leighann Lovely  45:05

Excellent. Thank you so much again, Tracy for this awesome conversation. I really appreciate your time today.

 

Traci Scherck  45:11

And I appreciate you and all of your COVID conversation that we just had.

 

Leighann Lovely  45:19

Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support without you the audience this would not be possible so don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode to follow us, like us or share us have a wonderful day.

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/cruen/family-time License code: 2330NZD3BLNDKPY

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

employee, traci, conversation, organization, hr, role, season, absolutely, hr professionals, conditioner, life, companies, job, hiring, people, important, culture, individuals, meeting, create

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