Bringing the Human back to Human Resources

290. Slow Down to Speed Up: The Real Cost of Bad Execution Ft Kevin Ertell

This week's episode is about why most strategies fail at execution, and what leaders can do differently to actually get results. Traci sits down with Kevin Ertell, a vet

289. Policy Pulse: The Trojan Horse Hiding in Your Next Team Meeting

This Policy Pulse episode breaks down three major employment law developments HR leaders need on their radar right now: a Supreme Court ruling that changes how federal ag

288. Agentic AI and the HR Strategy Gap feat. Joey Price

Agentic AI is already changing how HR teams buy technology, lead their people, and think about who belongs in the room when decisions about the future of work get made —

287. Policy Pulse: The New DEI Lawsuit Every HR Leader Should Know About

This week's Policy Pulse segment tackles three major legal developments HR leaders need to know about: the EEOC's lawsuit against The New York Times over its DEI program,

286. AI Readiness: What Your Workforce Needs First Ft. Reimund Neienaber

AI is reshaping how companies hire and how job seekers land interviews, and this week's guest is building the tools making it happen. Traci sits down with Reimund Nienab

283. What HR Gets Wrong About Developing Future Leaders feat. Michael Timms

Michael Timms joins the podcast to break down why most "succession planning" in organizations is actually just replacement planning in disguise, and why that distinction

282. Why Good Employees Leave and What Actually Makes Them Stay

Traci welcomes Dr. Carrie Graham, PhD, a training strategist specializing in scalable talent development who guides small and mid-sized organizations to achieve measurabl

281. Three Kids, a Career, and a Podcast: The Honest Update

In this episode, Traci shares what her return to work has looked like with three kids under three, a demanding career, and a podcast. She opens up about what that took t

280. Building Trust at Work: The Retention Strategy Nobody Talks About

This week, Traci sits down with Greg Roche, founder of Retention and Rewards Partners and author of The Fast and Easy Guide to Networking for Introverts, to explore why i

279. LEGO at Work: The Team Building Approach That Actually Sticks

This week's episode makes the case that your next team building session should involve a table full of LEGO bricks, and JoLynn Ledgerwood, certified LEGO Serious Play fac

278. Learning That Sticks: Why Most L&D Programs Stop at Content

This week, Traci sits down with Chris Taylor, founder of Actionable.co, a company that helps consultants prove the impact of their programs and build deeper, longer-lasti

277. Leading From Within: Self-Awareness, Collaboration, & Human Connection at Work

This episode is about authentic leadership, self-awareness, and the quiet ways competition undermines collaboration in the workplace. Traci sits down with Archana Mohan,

276. Profit Sharing: The Business Strategy Most Leaders Overlook

This week, Traci sits down with Rob Gallaher, Entrepreneur and Founder of ProfitX, to dig into how profit sharing actually works, why most businesses aren't doing it, and

275. Fighting Back on Layoffs: An Employee Advocate's Playbook

This episode closes out the layoff series with a look at what employees are rarely told about severance, separation agreements, and their rights when a job ends. This we

274. What to Do When You're The One Getting Laid Off

This week's episode is part three of the layoff series, and it's focused entirely on the employee side of the experience: what to actually do when you or someone you know

273. What Layoffs Cost the HR Professionals Managing Them

In part two of the four-part layoff series, Traci addresses what often goes unspoken in layoff conversations: the toll on the HR professionals managing them, and how to t

272. The Layoff Playbook: Soft Landings, Survivor's Guilt, and Trust

Traci sat down with Jena Dunay, founder of Recruit the Employer, to talk about conducting layoffs with dignity. We're bringing this one back as the first episode of our f

271. What Group Benefits Get Wrong About Fertility Coverage feat. Flora Fertility

This week, Traci sits down with the co-founders of Flora Fertility to talk about why employer-sponsored fertility coverage is broken and what the first individually owned

270. The Future of Work Is Here and HR Isn't Ready

This week, Traci sits down with Steve Cadigan to explore what the future of work actually demands from HR leaders and why most organizations are still building for a worl

269. The HR Words Quietly Building a Dehumanized Future feat. Joshua Berry

This episode is about how the language we use to describe people at work is quietly shaping both workplace culture and the future of AI. Joshua Berry, author, speaker, an