Episode 1 - What is this all about?

Join me and Robb Conlon as he takes the reigns to interview me about Let's Talk HR - Humanizing the Conversation. 

 

Leighann Lovely  0:15  
Let's talk HR is a place for HR professionals, business owners, and employees to come together and share experiences, to talk about what's working and what's not. How we can improve best practices so that companies can better attract, train and retain all generations of workers. We all know that there has been a huge shift in what people want. 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 how the economy has been impacted and what needs to happen to find a balance. I'm your host, Leighann Lovely. So let's get this conversation started. And remember, if you enjoyed this episode, follow us like us and share us. 

Leighann Lovely  1:04  
Welcome to my first episode of Let's Talk HR humanizing the conversation. I am so excited to have a friend and a fellow podcast host helped me launch this episode as a co-host, Rob Conlon, whether he is recording audiobooks, advertisements, building and hiring for multimillion-dollar clients service departments, or creating Stevie's award-winning social media experience for millions of customers or producing one of the dozens of podcasts he's been involved in. Robb has been at the forefront of building great jobs for others for nearly 15 years, using his unique blend of sales, marketing hiring, know-how and radio voice, Robb is your guide to navigating the fires of recruiting hell, Robb lives with his wonderful wife and three sweet rabbits in beautiful Port Washington, Wisconsin. And I am just thrilled that I have him with me today to launch the new podcast that I'm thrilled to get started. So without further ado, welcome, Rob, I am so glad that you agreed to help me launch my podcast. And before you flip the script on me and kind of interview me, I would love to hear what's happening in your world, because I know that you've had some pretty amazing milestones over the last year, especially with your podcast, I'm excited to hear about it. 

Robb Conlon  2:43  
Thanks again, for having me here. It's always fun to launch a new show. And actually, I call shows like yours that I've either consulted on or been a part of the brainstorming session for or even helped to actually produce. I call them my podcasts, children in this case. And now, my show Recruiting Hell, I think he's got six kids now, which is wild. It's a pretty neat thing. So a lot of stuff has been going on in my world. Folks may not know, but I produce podcasts professionally. That is what pays my bills pays my mortgage, which is a fun thing. And we generally do that for Business to Business Show. So while we're not necessarily you know, into true crime or anything like that, my world revolves around podcasting from about 7:50 in the morning until well, depending on how late the night is five o'clock, today I'm recording this recording another one with another great podcast friend of mine at 7:30. So we'll probably go until about 9:00 so, 12-14 hours of podcasting.

Leighann Lovely  3:45  
That's awesome. And you're, brilliant, not only at your own podcast but brilliant. I mean, you've been so helpful. You've given me such amazing advice through my journey, not only on sometimes hard advice of things that I'm like, Oh, wow, okay, I can do better. But you're you really you're a wealth of information. And it's amazing to have a friend like you. Let me just say that, but thank you. I mean that from the heart. So, you've had some major milestones, with Recruiting Hell, I mean, it's grown. Your audience has grown. Congratulations on that.

Robb Conlon  4:31  
Yeah, thank you. Actually, I just got my Spotify rewind the other day. And when you think about it as a small creator, it's really tough to see, like low numbers sometimes. Like, Oh, I got four downloads a day, it's like, that's great. But it's also like four downloads. We're not all Joe Rogan. None of us are gonna be Joe Rogan, unless we're exceptionally lucky or exceptionally skilled. In that case, you got to kind of be the unicorn of that. But the thing about podcasting, the thing about making them is that it's not necessarily for mass consumption, you're not making the next Last Podcast On The Left for horror or true crime, you're not making my Favorite Murder, you're not making this American Life. Because those have that massive appeal, podcasting can niche down so much into people who are just looking for a job in that case with my show. And I think that for a show like yours, which is something of a cousin to mine, in this case, kind of the other side of the fence, if you will, from recruiting versus, being an actual HR professional and things like that. I think that even a small audience and a dedicated audience can be way better than a mass consumption audience. So that's something that, we look at creating inside of this space. And I think that's something that everybody should be proud of. I had in that rewind, they said, You're the top podcast that 15 People listened to this year, and I'm like, wow, like, okay, like, that's actually pretty cool. But there were also some other really neat numbers for me of like, you've been in 56 countries, you doubled your downloads, and all sorts of cool stuff. And that's been a lot of major milestones. I just ended what I call series three of the show, series, four is in production right now. And trying to level it up, every time has gotten progressively harder, which is a funny thing. But the nice thing about podcasting, and the cool thing that I think will work for your show, Leighann, is that taking the best from other shows in your genre, and leaving the things that they do, that you don't like behind is super helpful. So, I'm really excited to see where your show goes. And I'm excited to see how I can continue to give back to the world of, professional podcasting, whether it's in as a guest as a host as a producer, or even just as a resource for anybody out there and invited to be listening to this. Reach out to me on LinkedIn. Seriously, I love talking to people about this stuff, like 24/7.   Robb Conlon -  Linkedin Profilelinkedin.com/in/robbconlon86 

Leighann Lovely  7:10  
Yeah, you're a geek in your own way, just like I'm a geek in HR. Right. I suppose your passion comes across when you talk about it. And that's, I guess, hopefully, what's gonna happen when people listen to my podcast? And with that said, why don't you take the reins

Robb Conlon  7:31  
Sure thing and you know, that's, you mentioned your podcast, and you previously had a podcast, that was really fun to be on. I was a guest on that as well. And you're starting a new one right now. Tell me a little bit about what happened. Why the change?

Leighann Lovely  7:47  
Yeah, so I did, I had a podcast, I brought the idea to my previous company. And it was designed to reach out to individuals that were interested in knowing what was happening in the world of HR. I really enjoyed that. But I was tied to, and it was tied to the company that I was working for. And that being said, I was under the constraints of making sure that I was representing that company and the topics. So I decided on a personal level that I wanted to do more. And I wanted to be able to take my own spin on it. And bring in my own personality, to impact people in a way that brought in my flavor of what I'm trying to, you know, get out to the world. And that being said, I'm a huge supporter of mental health, if you are working in an organization that doesn't see eye to eye with you, and I'm not saying that my last organization didn't, I guess you're kind of under the constraints of making sure that you're not inappropriately represented them. And since this is now mine, I get to tell the world, my story, and I get to, interview people, and talk about whatever, interests me on a personal level. So I just feel like I can do so much more. I feel like I can talk about so much more, and really impact people on a different level. Because now I have the opportunity to talk about those things that are personal to me. And like I said, huge mental health supporter, I've experienced struggles with mental health on my own. And I want to be able to you talk about that on an HR level on a human level on how does that impact the workforce? You know, how does hiring a neurodiverse individual affect the workforce and why aren't we talking about that? Why aren't we talking about, so many other topics that I'm looking forward to, bringing forward as my first season rolls out?

Robb Conlon  9:57  
That's outstanding, and I think cracking open some of the tougher eggs, if you will, there and having the freedom to do so without somebody may be putting on some handcuffs, if you will and say, Yeah, we don't want you to talk about that. Because it's either not germane to the business that you're working in or directly, you know, sometimes having that mental health episode doesn't drive revenue. And that's a business sense thing in some cases, and I hope nobody thinks that I'm a proponent of that. But I can see where somebody who is a bean counter, could very much be like, Well, that didn't interview like a prospect for us, or whatever it might be. So, right, I'm really glad that you.

Leighann Lovely  10:39  
Go ahead. No, and as an owner of a company, I completely understand that how is this benefiting us? I do I totally, completely agree, you know, is having this conversation? Or is this going to turn off a small population of people who otherwise would have worked with us if you have this conversation? And again, I get it. But the way that I look at it is I am authentic, I am who I am. You can choose to work with me or not work with me. I guess I just want to be able to be my authentic self. And you can make your own decision, you know, on whether or not you want to talk with me, work with me, be friends with me

Robb Conlon  11:23  
Well, you're wonderful to be friends with, anybody who doesn't want to be right has something wrong with them. But in this case, you know, it's kind of interesting that you talk about the, drive behind that, you know, I can create a control for a host and for creator, super important, especially when I see this in my job where marketing departments come in, and they put handcuffs on those hosts. And they say you're gonna talk about this, but people don't want to hear about them. Bill, people want to get, you know, get the host in there and, hear their perspective. Well, that doesn't line up with the company. So Right. There's a lot of butting heads. It's not just you know, this transition for Leighann. But it's also you know, it's widespread throughout the business world, I think it's a brilliant idea that you've taken this into your own arena. And you can hold court with it, which is just fabulous. So, again, looking forward so much to seeing how this goes. But there was one other thing that was I thought really interesting, that dovetails right into this, you made a job change not too long ago, what drove that decision? And how did you arrive at that?

Leighann Lovely  12:28  
You know, this is obviously, we all know, an employee market. It's a candidate market. And I looked around at my family, at my life, and I thought, I'm not entirely happy. I'm not completely unhappy. But I'm not, I'm not going to work every day with this huge smile on my face. I know, there are a lot of people out there that do jobs, and they're not necessarily excited to get started. But in this market, you have the opportunity to change that, you have the opportunity to do something that you can get excited about. I had a conversation with one of my girlfriends the other day, and she says, Well, I'm just a server. And I said, No, no, you're not. You're not just anything in this world anymore. I think that the world has shined a light on the importance of every single job that exists from the servers, from the person who pushes the broom. Every position out there is vital. And we saw it when all of the sudden people are like, well, I want to go out to dinner. Well, there are no people to serve you. Those people are extremely important, because, hey, I enjoy being able to go out to dinner. And you know what, if there's nobody at those restaurants, I don't get that small, little pleasure that I normally am used to, I have 100 times more appreciation for those jobs. And all of a sudden it is a lot easier for me to go, No, we need to pay or give a much larger tip. Because they're busting their butts, they're showing up to work. And if you don't like what you're doing every day, why are you doing it, we now have the opportunity to change the narrative of what we are and how we live our lives because jobs are everywhere. So, getting back to your question, because I went on a rant. Why did I make that change? I wasn't entirely happy. So I started to look and in looking realized that I can also take control of a podcast. And there were just so many other opportunities. It's time for me to change my narrative. And when I started meeting with companies, I told them flat out. If you hire me on, I'm going to do a podcast. It's going to be mine. I'm going to own it and you're going to get the entire package. Not one company said, No, we don't want you to do that. They were all like, great, you want to have a side hustle, you want to go and have had a company said, No, we don't like that. I mean, it would have been hands down. No, I'm not interested, in working there. See you later, right companies now want the authentic people, they want people who are, you know, are passionate about other things or passionate about the job that they're coming in to do. I'm in the HR world, I joined a company Vaco (www.vaco.com) there, they're new to the Wisconsin market. They were looking to beef up their sales team on the staffing side that takes care of finance and accounting, and support staff and they needed a sales rep to you know, basically start-up that side of the business. And I went, Wow, this is a perfect opportunity for me to leave the general labor market, which is very rough right now. Yeah. I move into a position that I am very passionate about still in HR. And I jumped at it. And there were other companies that, you know, were pursuing me that I was very interested in. But I met my now manager, he was so like-minded with me that I think we talked about business for 10 minutes, we could probably talk for two hours about everything else. And that's the kind of company that's the kind of people that I want to work with. So it was hands down. I haven't been happier. I've been revitalized in my job. And I'm so excited. It's only been a couple of weeks. And I'm just so excited to take on the world again. Again, if there are people out there who are considering it, now is the time.  Take a look around if you're not happy, now is the time. And I am, you know, with a staffing company, so please don't hesitate to reach out,

Robb Conlon  17:12  
You're absolutely correct that it is it's an employee market right now. And in my lifetime, I've never seen that. I've never, ever seen that in my lifetime, it's always been that the companies hold most of the cards. And if you're an employee, you're lucky, maybe you do have a few cards to play. But it sounds likely that you took a number of those cards that you had in your hand and you really powered and leverage them into something that's a new opportunity for you and you even said yourself, you're revitalized, you're charged back up, you're something new, you're something different than what you were just a couple months ago at your old job. So in that style of difference, Leighann, your old show, HRables loved it. Thank you. What's different about Let's Talk HR?

Leighann Lovely  18:02  
Yeah, Let's talk HR Humanizing the Conversation. It's not about talking to professionals and saying, Okay, what do you do? And what services do you provide? And how do you do it, it's about diving into, that deeper on, on a human level of, you know, from different angles. I'm not just talking to the HR professionals, I'm not just going to talk to the business owners, I'm also going to bring in the employees. And have them walk me through how did you make that decision? Why did you pass on a company and again, I don't want people to get the wrong impression. This is not going to be Oh, I passed on XYZ company because and bash, it's about education, of, hey, they were offering one week of vacation for the first year. And this company was a same offer but offered three weeks of vacation for the firm. It's about education, it's about the feeling that employees had when they interviewed, it's about, you know, what this business owner is doing that has made them successful, and, how, you know, they've leveled up or pivoted to the world that we're living in now. It's not just simply the technical side of what we do, it has to tie into the emotional side of the world and the human side because that is where this world is going. I mean, people inherently want to be heard and, desire to be cared about, and the companies that are doing that and making their employees feel that they are not a number, that they are more important than that, are going to be the companies that succeed at hiring, training, retaining and retaining is really, I think the most important thing, companies can hire all day long. But if they continue to spit them out the door, they need to really take a good internal look. And there are so many professionals out there right now that are addressing those, but how are they addressing those? How are they addressing those issues? Is it management? Is it training? You know, it's just a lot of things that go into that. And that's really what, this is all about, it's about humanizing the conversations and bringing these professionals together to talk about how we can, I guess make a better world that sounds so cheesy. But

Robb Conlon  20:46  
That would maybe make a better, job world, I think is not cheesy at all, I think the job world is something that has been in need of a heck of a house cleaning for I don't know, half a century or so. And I think we're seeing a lot of chickens coming home to roost right now. And I think that the differential that you described there that this is more of the how can we work with people more, here's some HR tactics, I think that's a great differentiator for your show, Leighann, and I think that's why people should tune in, is because getting in touch with the modern, and getting in touch with the way things work in 2021, not 2014, not 1991, not 1976. That is what's going to help companies push forward, finding a much more engaged workforce, there is such an opportunity out there right now for folks who are in industries, like the trades, manufacturing, all of these industries that are generally skilled laborers, where you need some sort of education and things like that. And of course, college degrees can pivot and things like that there's a huge opportunity for these, these industries that have had shortcomings, trucking is another great example, right? To attract brand new talent to their industry, and say, Hey, we're gonna treat you like a darn king. But you're gonna work hard, but we're gonna treat you like a darn king here, right? Because we have benefits second to none.

Leighann Lovely  22:17  
Right. And they are people, I think employers have forgotten that people are, they're emotional. And for so long, it was leave your emotions, leave your baggage at the door when you walk into work. I'm sorry, It's not possible. We're not robots. And that way of thinking is just not ok, there's going to be crossover no matter what. For so long it has been the old school way of thinking it, then on the flip side of that, you know, it's been when you get home from work, leave your work at the door. Why not find the balance between I like my job, I can go to my job and not come home, being miserable. And I can go to my job, not feeling like I can't let some of that whatever's happening at home, bleed over just a little bit, as long as it's allowing me to be productive. If that company has programs or systems in place that if somebody is struggling, they can go and get help for that. Here's a perfect example. There. Right now, there's a major issue with childcare, this is not to pick on them in any way, shape, or form, but they're trying to protect the children. So they're shutting down if there's a COVID Scare. Obviously, this is impacting the families, all of a sudden, I can't come to work because my daycare shut down. Well, this is happening very frequently, I was just talking to, a contact of mine. He's like, Oh, my daycare shut down again. And I'm like, Gee, how often is that happening? He's like, constantly. It's happening all the time. So there are some employers that are like, well, you know, you've missed this much work, you're going to get in trouble. As an employer, you have to understand. So put a remote worker system in place so that when that happens, you can roll with it and allow your employees to not feel like they're failing. I mean, I understand there are jobs out there, you can't do remotely.

Robb Conlon  24:33  
I can't sling tacos remotely 

Leighann Lovely  24:37  
This is the world that we are living in. Make it so that your employees don't feel horrible when life happens.

Robb Conlon  24:46  
Yes, that's a quotable right there. Make it so your employees don't feel horrible when life happens because life's been happening all over the place here these past couple of years. I really liked that. And I think that the companies that do that the companies that can be flexible are the companies that begin to understand that they're not just this monolithic thing where you will work for the pay that we give you. Yes, yes, we are also generous, the companies that move away from that are the ones that are going to win. And the ones that stay that way, the ones that don't listen to this show, and don't learn the new way of doing things. Those are the ones that are going to be screaming out loud. We can't find anybody to work. Well. Maybe if you paid a living wage had some great benefits and treated people like people, you just might be able to find some folks willing to sign on to your company.

Leighann Lovely  25:37  
Right? Those deals, brilliant key factors, livable wage, treat people like people, and benefits. I mean, if you can get those three mastered,

Robb Conlon  25:51  
Yep, solves a lot of problems for people, right? yourself included if you're a business owner. Alright. Now, there is one last question I did want to ask you. And I think it's gonna be giving folks a great insight into why they should come and why they should listen to the show and how it's going to benefit them in their HR career and what they're pursuing,  making sure that hiring the right people and finding the right folks in this new and wild labor market is going to be so important for them, Leighann, what is a commonly held belief in HR that you completely and utterly disagree with

Leighann Lovely  26:31  
HR professionals, get a bad rap, human resource, the corporate human resource often gets a bad rap, nobody wants to go see him/her. And if they see him/her coming, walking towards them, or they're being pulled into HR. I remember, in my younger days, I'd get butterflies in my stomach, like oh my god, am I getting fired. And on the flip side of that, you know, HR truly cares, they do care about, the people. They want to make it better. But often, they're not given all of the resources that they need, or the amount of help that they need. I mean, often, Human Resources has got 50 billion things going on. I mean, if you think about it, they're managing benefits, they're managing every employee complaint they're managing, if somebody stubbed their toe, they're the ones who are overseeing the process, for, pretty much everything. So it's HR professionals do have a tendency to get a bad rap. Now, on the flip side, I think that a lot of employees think that HR is just there to make their lives miserable because they are constantly asking for information. And every time they come around, it's, I need this, I need you to do this, I need you to fill out this, this information I need. And that is not the intent. I mean, they truly, in my, in my experience, if given the option, they would prefer to be down working with individuals. That's why I originally went to school for HR, because they wanted to work with people because they wanted to help people. And it wasn't because I wanted to do all the paperwork or because I wanted to, but that's the job.

Robb Conlon  28:32  
And I think a lot of times people see HR, as HR can sometimes work for the company if you will. And that's something for employees to be cautious about. I caution my listener, sometimes HR is not your friend. HR is looking out for the best interests of the company. But at the same time, there is a human side to that too, where sometimes HR is indeed trying to work with people. I love that your belief there. I think it is summed up as, HR isn't always the bad guy. And I really liked that, that's a at least aside

Leighann Lovely  29:06  
Unfortunately, they also have to follow certain guidelines in order to avoid lawsuit and there are very delicate processes they are trained on how to handle those delicate processes. And because of that, I think that many of them become very standoffish in certain areas. And after being in the industry, you know, for years and years. I think a little closed off and, again, human resource professionals can't be friends with the employees because they may have to fire them.

Robb Conlon  29:51  
Like conflict of interest. Yes. And maybe that's your, HR belief that is you know that it's easy to be an HR person? And it's not. It's not because you have to be a consummate professional if you're not, there's a major problem. Correct? Right. Good deal. Excellent. Well, Leighann I that is bringing us to almost a time here. And I just want to thank you so much for having me on to introduce, Let's Talk HR and listeners if you're enjoying this, this type of discussion so far, very much encourage you to continue to be a part of Let's Talk HR, get in contact with Leighann. Leighann how would a listener best get in contact with you?

Leighann Lovely  30:38  
Well, first this podcast will be available anywhere you can listen to the podcast. I am also available on LinkedIn. Robb it has been an absolute pleasure talking with you I really appreciate that you have taken the time to come and talk with me You have no idea how much it means to me, I look forward to more conversation with you in the future. 

Robb Conlon  32:20  
It's my pleasure and I believe that podcasting is about helping to elevate others as well, when we pull other people up with us we ourselves do better, thank you so much 

If you are interested in reaching out to Robb Conlon or learning more about Recruiting Hell https://www.recruiting-hell.com/ 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Music by Cruen - Family Time

• Likes
• Download47
• Share