Kimberly Saied

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

▶0:48GuestYeah, thanks, Dave. Thanks for having me. My career journey has spanned over about 20 years. I started out working in telecommunications through HR, the Department of Defense, And then in a couple of other industries. Within HR, I have worked in almost every facet of HR from the entire life cycle of an employee. And then of course, depending on industry, there are certain specific aspects of HR, like with the Department of Defense, there are certain aspects of HR you don't see in the private sector. So it's been quite a journey over the last 20 years or so.

▶1:31HostKim, you recently wrote about the evolution from employee engagement to employee experience. Can you explain that shift and why it's significant for HR leaders today?

▶1:42GuestI think it's really important to understand, especially the generation that is in the workforce right now, where we are expecting the highest level of productivity. So a lot of the people who are coming into the workforce have a high engagement as long as we can foster their experience in the right way. And I've had conversations with people who've been in the workforce for a while who are at the leadership level and managers. And the one thing that they keep saying is that people today coming into the workforce don't want to do things the same way that their parents did. They want to have more of that balance, they want to be able to have more of a holistic employee experience. So, you know, they don't wanna work the super long hours and get the same pay as someone who is just coming and working and doing what they're supposed to do every day. They can do a lot more in a lot less time and have that balance that they really wanna have. So finding that. Way to have that holistic employee experience more than just engaging them. It's getting all of them engaged in every way.

▶3:01HostKim, what are some practical ways that organizations can enhance their employee experience, especially those with limited budgets?

▶3:10GuestYeah, so there are things you can do that don't require a big budget, such as Just having recognition programs, employee feedback loops. So that's creating open forums. So you've already got your resources, your employees, but just having a forum for them to voice their concerns or share suggestions. It doesn't take a big budget to do that. Even wellbeing initiatives, there are ways that you can create employee groups where they can share resources or they can combine resources to together in a way where they're able to support each other with a limited budget as well for doing things like that. Just having regular check-ins, mentorship programs, all of these things are things that you can do within an organization that don't require a big budget in order to make it happen.

▶4:02HostKim, you implemented a captive healthcare program that saved your organization over $500,000 in the first year. Can you break down what this model is and how other companies might benefit from it?

▶4:15GuestSure. So the captive plan, health plan is a hybrid plan, which is a combination of a self-insured plan, but it also gives you the flexibility to bring in a TPA, have a rented network. So you are not doing all of the long, tedious paperwork and backend processes that go with a self-funded plan. Or a self-insured plan, but at the same time, you have the flexibility to see everything that's happening, make changes as you go throughout the year. You have more view on claims data, but then you also are able to implement new things into the plan whenever you see that there's something that an employee would really like to have that you don't currently offer. You're able to see what your spend is so you can make those adjustments. It gives you a lot of flexibility, but it also gives you the money back as an organization rather than it going to a fully funded plan where you don't see a lot of the rebates and returns that you would typically see on a self-funded plan. So it's a good mix between the two.

▶5:31HostKim, with your extensive experience in immigration and global HR, how do you see the landscape of workforce mobility changing?

▶5:40GuestWith this, it's very interesting in the time that we're in right now, it changes almost daily. So you have to really, I think, one, have a good immigration partner because if you don't have a good immigration partner, then it's very hard to keep up with all of the changes that are happening. But beyond that, you also need to find ways to find that kind of balance between looking externally for people and looking internally. I think a lot of times we're very focused on looking externally and seeing what we can find in terms of employees outside of our organization. I think we've gotten very used to doing that, where now we should be looking more internally. And what I've also found is that with the changing landscape and keeping up with the latest updates of what's going on, there's also a need just to rethink our policies, right? Because we have to be a lot more proactive, especially in cases where you have right now situations, you may have people turned away who would normally be able to coming to the country, or even if they have visas, they may be sent back to their home country and they're not able to work. And then that starts to put us in a bind in terms of filling roles or getting that niche experience that we were hoping to get out of bringing someone from overseas or someone offshore. So it's a challenging time and it's really just keeping up with what's going on and having a really good immigration partner that would help to ensure that everything smoothly and there are no operational setbacks.

▶7:37HostKim, what's your perspective on leveraging technology platforms like Workday, Lattice, Culture Amp to create sustainable HR programs?

▶7:46GuestIn the article that I wrote, I was talking about Workday, Culture Amp, Lattice, these types of programs. They really can help you in terms of automating a lot of what you want to do, not just in employee experience, but also employee feedback, performance. They're great for goal setting, career development, and these are a lot of the things that employees are looking for today. They're not the most cost efficient, so if you were looking for something which is in the middle. There's so many resources out there today, which are also low-code, no-code type of avenues that you can go down in order to create your own sustainable systems. But certainly Workday, Culture Amp, Lattice, these are some of the ones that I've personally worked with in the market that I found give us the best results for what we're looking for, especially when it comes to employee experience.

▶8:48HostKim, what parting advice would you like to share with our audience?

▶8:52GuestI think the biggest thing now for HR leaders today is to lead with empathy, but backed by data. So you really want to ensure that you truly understand and support your people, especially in a world of hybrid work with mental health challenges and rapidly evolving expectations. But also using the data, which will give you insights and credibility to make strategic decisions. It'll also help you influence leadership and show the real impact of your people initiatives so you can make sure you're staying on track, you're making sure that your policies are aligned with your company culture, and also just drive performance and wellbeing.

▶9:37HostKim, thanks so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶9:42GuestThank you. Thanks, Dave.