George Garcia

▶0:01IntroWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce.

▶0:44HostI'm excited to welcome George to the Built By People podcast. George, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask you, because, share a little bit more about your career journey. Sure.

▶0:54GuestFirst, thank you so much for having me. Honestly, my career journey in HR kind of started non-traditionally. I didn't, I always tell people that this is not where I expected to be. I started off in higher education working in admissions and international student recruitment. And I really saw my career in either higher education or government policy. But through networking and things of life, I ended up getting a job as an HR manager for a local company here that brought international workers from Mexico and South America. As well as some Caribbean countries. And that kind of started my career in HR. And I've been doing it ever since, working at different industries. I've worked in immigration or bringing workers from these countries under the H-2B visa programs. Then I transitioned to agriculture with Del Monte Fresh Produce. I ended up in a startup airline and now I work for Aries, which is a major concessionaire in food and beverage and retail in airport spaces and motorways. So Honestly, like I didn't envision it, but somehow I got everything that I wanted because it's a little bit of everything, government policymaking and everything else. But yeah, my path wasn't necessarily the traditional one.

▶2:01HostGeorge, I want to talk about multi-generational workforces. How are the dynamics between Gen Z, millennials, and boomers impacting the workplace?

▶2:11GuestSo we are in a really unique period, which is all these generations are working in the same workforce. In some cases we have up to 5. It's great because you have for the first time all the knowledge of all these generations and all these skill sets in one workforce. You have the technology savviness of Gen Zs, the up-and-coming leaderships of millennials, and you have the knowledge base of boomers that they have all these years of running organizations and businesses. So you have all this plus side. The issue that sometimes arises is the communication between all these different generations and how they cooperate with one another. And more importantly, their styles. You have a boomer that's clearly towards the end of their careers at the tail end. And you have Generation Z, which is at the very beginning and millennials and Gen X are somewhere in the middle entering leadership at this point, or, or been a little bit established there. Each one of them have different requirements, different wants, different expectations as to the career paths and how they communicate with one another. Boomers may like more in-person meetings while Gen Zs and millennials might be more, hey, hit me up on Teams. You also have a technology divide. I know that some people are like, what's this Teams thing? And I really don't want to do it there. I want to meet in the conference room. Other people are all based there. They want to have all their files there, all the communication. So the biggest challenges that we face is really bridging that gap. And HR has to work with the different groups to be able to get them to communicate and understand. That there's no wrong or right in the form of communication. It's just each individual group has their own style and we all have to just give a little. Again, Gen Z may like more of that instant gratification, that Instagram, TikTok thumbs up. Hey, you did a great job. While boomers may not care more about that, may just want that annual review at the end of the year. HR really rose to that communication building and getting everyone to see the other side.

▶4:02HostWhat role does HR play in bridging generational gaps and fostering collaboration?

▶4:07GuestIt's really about that. Again, like I said previous, it's really about that having individuals see that other side and really working on programs that allow for these groups to commingle. Initially, there's always, there can always be that hesitance or that wall that gets put up because I see things differently or I did things differently. One of the things that I. I always, as an HR leader, will coach people on, especially when I hear, when I led this particular initiative, and then they usually come up with a 1994 reference. And I'm like, 1994 was X number of years ago. You know, I was 9 at the time. It's always getting them to like say, hey, look, those times have changed and what you're looking at today is different. And usually when you get to that point and showing that, you are able to get individuals to understand that times have changed and things are different and that technology's evolved and things are evolving. Another important thing is really to get people to co-interact. So whether it's creating a mentorship program in which boomers and Gen Zs and millennials can exchange ideas freely both ways, not just a boomer talking to a Gen Z or Gen Z talking to a boomer. Those are important because it brings down the walls to show that There is benefit in that this particular generation might be really good at technology, might be really good at social media, might be really good at creating videos and edits and different items that this other generation may not have is important. Really where HR plays the role is connecting them. It's really about bringing down those walls and allowing for there to be that free-flowing communication and really remove the stigma or the initial kind of angst that come with this is younger, they don't know what they're talking about, or this, they're older and they're, they're phasing out. If HR can bridge that gap and can move the communication forward and have these generations in the same room talking to one another, that's our main role really, because other than that, the silos will be created and then there's all that back and forth that takes place.

▶6:03HostGeorge, how can HR become a respected voice in the room rather than just being seen as an administrative function?

▶6:13GuestHR owns a seat at the table when HR becomes part of the business and speaks the business. When we are just payroll or benefit or the policy wonks in the room, I think that's when we lose our seat. I think when we gain that seat at the table with the C-suites and with the other members of the operations, really when we start speaking the language of the business. So if you're referring to Turnover. It's not just saying turnover is bad for the organization. It's, well, turnover is impacting the organization in XYZ financially. And this is how we're going to turn it around from the HR perspective. Another thing that I think is extremely important is for HR to know their business. A lot of the times you hear HR is HR, which is great. FLSA is the same across the board. State laws, the same thing. But at the end of the day, we need to know the particular businesses that we're in. I myself have been in very different types of industries. And so you need to learn from what an operator does on the ground floor to what the executives do. So when HR becomes ingrained in the business that way, it's great what you're recruiting for from the talent acquisition side. You know the challenges that you face out in the organization. You know what an operator faces at one of your sites. For example, when I was in the airline, I sat down with pilots. I wanted to know what their issues were. Sitting with them, you knew the challenges that they faced and little different nuances and the fact that they were here and there and in a cockpit and delays. So that always played a role in how I recruited, how I went out there. The same thing goes with areas here. I now, food and beverage was foreign to me, but now knowing the challenges that we face at our locations and the challenges that we face because we're in non-traditional spaces, such as airports, is extremely important. It shapes how we create policies and procedures. From our side. My kind of last point on that end is really about visibility and being out in the business. HR can become ivory tower-y, which means we're in our offices and we just, hey, look, we have this new education program and we think it's the best thing since sliced bread, when in reality there might not be the infrastructure out there. There might not be the time for the operators to do it. So it really is about getting outside of our spaces and in our industry and seeing what it is on the ground level to be able to mold how we react and how we can best contribute to the bottom line.

▶8:32HostGeorge, what strategies can help HR leaders establish influence and credibility within their organizations?

▶8:41GuestKind of what I was giving out, it's really about knowing that business, knowing your business model, knowing your P&Ls, knowing where the company is, how the company is performing, and speaking the language of the business, of the operators, of your executive team is extremely important. You know, I think that For example, I think from our perspective, if we're always saying, well, employee happiness and employee happiness, and there's no meat behind that, there's no like, well, here are the metrics of how employee happiness contributes to the bottom line or how employee happiness contributes to lowering turnover, which then has X number of financial results to the organization. Or if we're putting this training program in place. This is how it's contributing to, for example, what areas, how it's contributing to selling or how it's contributing to promoting our latest LTOs. I think that's how you really get credibility with the organization. It's knowing, it's being part of the organization and speaking the language of the organization. You, we need to view ourselves as operators. We are operators in whatever industry that we're in. And when we start speaking the same financial language as the other members of leadership, when we start speaking about the same goals and objectives. As everyone else, but we add just that human component to it, that HR side of it, which is extremely important to the organization. I think that's when you gain credibility. I think when you become very savvy and it's just all about the very generic HR fluffiness of, oh, employee engagement and happiness and culture, and we start throwing out those key terms with no connection to the actual industry that we're in, then I think that's when we lose credibility.

▶10:20HostGeorge, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶10:24GuestI think my parting advice is really work on getting outside of that traditional HR role, whether you're the chief people officer, you're an HR department, you're people, talent, and culture. Our role is really about contributing to the bottom line of an organization, but at the same time, keeping that people-centric focus, because that's what our role is. Our role as HR is people., and we need to make sure that we are guarding that and we need to make sure that we are moving the culture of the company and we are moving the overall sentiments of the organization in the right direction. But we only get to achieve that when people take us seriously, when people take us not as an administrative function that is just submitting PTOs, releasing that handbook once a year that no one reads except for the PTO policy. Once we get past that, can we actually, or contributing and giving it a metric-centric, ROI-centric communication to leadership and to the operators and creating policies that really move things forward and bring down barriers, cut red tape, I think that's when we really have an ability to impact the things that we care about, which are people, the talent, the culture of an organization, and we can really make a long-term impact. So my parting advice is to really focus on that, never lose the people portion of it, never lose that moral compass that we have as HR, but at the same time, make sure that we're also focusing on items like ROI to the organization, the financial metrics, the P&Ls, which are also important to give us credibility to execute our missions.

▶11:57HostGeorge, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶12:02GuestThank you so much. Really appreciate the invitation.