Gabriella Bedor

▶0:00HostI'm excited to welcome Gabriella to the Built by People podcast. Gabriella, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always have to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:10GuestYes. Geez, it is a journey, I think, for everyone, right? And I think the journey opens so many doors. And I, I look back at what, you know, has been accomplished and those doors that opened. And I think it is relevant to what I constantly coach, which is to focus on your brand and your performance and doors will open up for you, even if the ones that you didn't expect. So my journey has spanned from being an intern and automatically going into a role of recruitment, and then recruitment into learning and development, and then with learning and development, chief of staff, to an advisory leader, to finally finding my niche in my home, which was back in HR. If I look back at what I've tapped into, I never thought I would be a chief of staff to an advisory leader. There's so many things that I took away and put in my toolkit throughout my journey that I think that learning is never-ending. So here I am today, you know, as the Chief Human Resource Officer, and I didn't really think that would be a goal of mine. When people ask, where do you want to be in 5 years? I'm like, I don't even know where I want to be in 6 months sometimes. So looking back to where I am today, I'm certainly pleased that those doors that opened that I thought I would say no to even applying fell upon, and you pursue it with the attitude of making the best of what's in front. And my journey has become what it is today, and I love it.

▶1:26HostGabriella, you've mentioned in the past that simpler is better when it comes to making people feel valued. Can you share a specific example where a simple gesture made a significant impact on your team's morale or performance?

▶1:38GuestYeah, so for me, it's going old school, and I know that in the state of AI, in the state of ChatGPT, there's so many things that are taken away from the human aspect of things that I believe tarnish the integrity of what was established years ago, which is picking up the phone, right? Writing a handwritten note. And specifically to my team and also the extended leadership team, you know, it started a couple years ago. I try to have the mindset of coloring outside the lines and doing things different in HR. I didn't want the stigma that people should fear HR. It's more of let HR be a part of your journey as well. Let them be a partner with you. And so a couple of years ago, I started writing letters and I wrote letters, handwritten letters to the the upper management. And when my CEO at the time, who has since moved on, he said that when he got this letter in the mail, he thought it was a resignation from me. And he was speechless as to he's never had that done before. So I made that something that I do quite often, whether it's a note of thanks or quite frankly, even with the team, it's a Starbucks or it's a random afternoon to say, you know what, it's raining out, why don't you guys call it a day? Or frankly, like today, bringing in 2 dozen donuts because it's just the simple things. It's the simple acts of kindness. It's the simple acts of appreciation that people resonate with because you know that you're not doing it for a political reason. There's no motive. It's Gabby just being Gabby. And it certainly earns a great deal of credibility because it's genuine.

▶3:04HostHow have you cultivated authenticity within your HR team, and what tangible results have you seen from prioritizing genuine connections in the workplace?

▶3:14GuestI don't know any other way, quite honestly. I think authenticity is something that really can't be learned. It has to be inherently in you. And I think that's in anything. I am not an individual that is a check-in-the-box kind of person. If I do something, even if you have to do something, I know at times you're forced to because it's part of the rule book, but when you're doing something out of the kindness or authenticity of where it's coming from, it garners a great deal of respect, of trust. And within the team, what they have adopted, which I learned years ago in in my tenure is putting yourself in someone's shoes. And when we have issues that come to mind where single moms or there's been a loss in the family or there's been a car accident, it's always life happens. And rather than sitting back and judging, it's rather how can we assimilate to the situation so that we can make it easier for this individual to fall on their feet. At the end of the day, what the team has done very well is shown a great deal of compassion and empathy. Where it does open the door for HR to be that exact partner and advocate for an employee rather than being fearful of, oh, HR is just known to terminate people. So I will say the scores have been extremely high from a morale standpoint in our organization, and HR has highlighted a great deal because HR has been very humanistic in their approach.

▶4:34HostYou've talked about balancing business continuity with compassionate leadership. Can you tell us about a challenging situation where you had to navigate this balance and what lessons other HR leaders could learn learn from it?

▶4:46GuestYeah, that's a great question. And, you know, that's very difficult. It's a very fine line to exhibiting and exercising compassion while you know that you have to have, you have to run a business. The business has to continue running. And sometimes that compassion can take over and cost the business aspects of actions. On the flip side, if you don't exercise that compassion, you're losing on the aspect of the people side. So one year, unfortunately, the industry was taking a really big hit in the telecom world. And our clients weren't purchasing. There was acquisitions between acquisitions. And what was happening is it was impacting our workforce. Now, some of our workforce are project-based, and what they want is longevity in their career without interruption, because who doesn't want that earning paycheck that is one that comes in consistently? And so what we did with the leadership team is we thought through a great deal, and rather than them saying, okay, we got to riff a bunch of people, it's a hold on. Let's think about this. Let's exercise our options. And the first time ever, which we've never done before, is we implemented furloughs. So at least we can maintain the integrity of holding on to people and holding on to people for one, but paying their benefits and saying, hey, this is not what we'd like to do, but we don't want to term you either. Let's keep you on. Let's go ahead and cover your benefits. But as soon as that project hits, we'll bring you back on board. And there was a level of loyalty that they appreciated as employees say, okay, we're not just disposable. We're not a revolving door here. It's rather the company company is doing all that they can to make sure that I have a residual or at least covered from the aspect of benefits, that they do care for me. So that was a huge win for us and then our organization.

▶6:22HostMany organizations struggle with employee retention. How has your approach of making people count contributed to the impressive tenure you mentioned, and what metrics have you used to measure its success?

▶6:33GuestYeah, so I love this question. I'm not gonna lie. I could drink the Kool-Aid every day. As a matter of fact, coming in this morning, There was an individual that says, you're just, you should not be in HR. And I'm like, oh my goodness. I was like, did I do something wrong? They're like, you're too real. And I said, it's, it's making sure that we're always ourselves, whether we're in these walls or outside these walls. And I do believe that's very important. But what's also very important, which I think is taken for granted, is to listen. I have never promised or overpromised and underdelivered here as the people leader, along with the team that we work alongside. It's, Let us listen to the grievances. Some things are easy win benefits. You know what? There was a lot of gripe about our benefits, our health benefits. Can they be better? We probably need to push for that. So you go with the seat at the table, have a seat at the table, excuse me. And it's about, okay, how about we increase what we pay for our employees instead of 50? Let's do maybe 70 or 80%. Let's try to change our carrier. And we did. And it was a huge win for our employees. I think also for me, when I look back, is you really have to understand the triggers of the organization. What may work for me as a trigger doesn't work for the next person. So listening is exponentially a huge asset. And how we measure it, it's the 4th year in a row that we've won our Great Place to Work and Top Places to Work that we haven't prior. So to me, those are huge wins because we're listening. We can't promise that we'll deliver on everything that you bring to the table, but the one thing we can do is listen. And that is, and that's been a really a big win for us here.

▶8:03HostGabriella, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶8:07GuestFor me, it's you need to be in tune. You need to be able to take the rulebook sometimes and throw it out the window. Now, that does not mean living in a space of risk. We absolutely understand as HR leaders, our role is to mitigate risk against the organization, but also be advocacy to our employees. Sometimes as a joke, I say those tough days, gosh, it's like running an adult daycare, right? And at the end of the day, I just want the role of human resources, which I know is an anomaly, is to not be dehumanized. I know there's a lot of competition out there on how to be relevant in the industry, AI, and making things easy at our fingertips. And I don't take anything away from that. I think that the worst thing we can do is become antiquated. But equally, the worst thing you can do is become so far removed from that people connection that you can't meet your goals. Because without people, you can't move the dial. And without making sure people matter, you can't move the dial. When you make people first, which are the people that are essentially generating the success of the organization, it's amazing how you can move mountains even in the toughest of times, because those people are going to be just as loyal to you as long as you are loyal to them. So for me, it's don't ever dehumanize the role and make sure you roll your sleeves up and get down to the level where a simple phone call or a simple gesture of kindness goes a long way with employees that are running the mill for you.

▶9:28HostGabrielle, thank you so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶9:33GuestAnd thank you for reaching out. I appreciate you.