Theme
Hourly workers, deskless employees, field teams, retail/restaurant staff
Ep. 1 · February 18, 2026
Kelly Costanza · CAVA
Successful organizations, particularly in frontline-heavy industries, must prioritize a 'full human experience' for employees by deeply embedding values, fostering human connection, and continuously adapting programs to meet evolving needs, thereby enabling exceptional customer experience while leveraging technology to enhance, not replace, human interaction.
Score
100%
Ep. 138 · June 19, 2025
Nichole Upshaw · Cirkul
Effective HR leadership is built on a deep understanding of the business and its people, with transparent, two-way communication being the foundational, yet often unsolved, key to driving employee connection, engagement, and productivity, especially amidst rapid change.
Score
90%
Ep. 182 · May 20, 2025
Cortney Worle · Cafe Rio Mexican Grill
HR leaders must embrace continuous evolution, proactively engage across business functions, and be willing to tackle diverse projects to transition from an 'overhead' perception to a strategic business partner driving organizational success.
Score
90%
Ep. 365 · December 27, 2024
David Hawthorne · Anchor Point Management Group, LLC
The restaurant industry, often mischaracterized as a dead-end, actually provides substantial and proven long-term career growth, leadership development, and lucrative opportunities for employees, underpinned by robust internal development and continuous bench planning.
Score
90%
Ep. 23 · December 8, 2025
Valentina Gissin · Curana Health
Effective HR leadership stems from a first-principles approach, focusing on solving core business problems with people and process solutions, rather than adhering to traditional HR metrics or pre-designed frameworks. True influence in executive roles comes from driving alignment through interrogation and proactive problem-solving.
Score
80%
Ep. 77 · August 13, 2025
Heather Krentler · Thomas Cuisine
A lasting and scalable company culture, especially in fast-growing or dispersed organizations, requires intentional planning, embedding values into every aspect of the business, and empowering values-aligned leadership, rather than expecting it to perpetuate organically.
Score
80%
Ep. 145 · June 17, 2025
Jillian Plummer · Quest Diagnostics
Employee wellbeing is not a mere perk but a strategic imperative that directly impacts business performance and sustainability, necessitating a data-driven, employee-centered approach embedded in the daily culture by leadership.
Score
80%
Ep. 200 · May 7, 2025
Courtney Martinez · Lou Malnati's Pizzeria
High employee retention and performance are fundamentally driven by fostering genuine, trusting relationships and actively valuing employees, rather than relying on conventional perks or superficial incentives.
Score
80%
Ep. 215 · April 28, 2025
Marc Hinson · Smokey Bones
While efficiency-driven AI and automation are valuable for HR operations, genuine human connection and consistent, personal performance management are essential for building and retaining high-performing teams and ensuring an excellent customer experience, particularly in the hospitality sector.
Score
80%
Ep. 296 · February 18, 2025
Jill Bruneau · Powder Mountain
Companies, particularly in dynamic or seasonal industries, must embrace an agile 'startup' mindset in HR, challenging traditional approaches and prioritizing competitive, innovative total rewards to attract and retain talent.
Score
80%
Ep. 341 · January 20, 2025
Jed Milstein · Asbury Automotive Group
Exceptional customer service and business differentiation in the automotive industry directly stem from a profound commitment to internal employee well-being, fostering transparency, and meticulously integrating cultures during acquisitions to ensure continuity and drive productivity.
Score
80%
Ep. 348 · January 15, 2025
Terry Chace · Vail Resorts
Designing effective total rewards and benefits, especially for diverse and transient workforces, requires a data-driven approach, flexibility beyond traditional offerings, and a deep understanding of unique employee needs and location-specific challenges.
Score
80%
Ep. 24 · November 13, 2025
Dina Perreault · the Faulkner Organization
Effective HR operates as a strategic business partner, deeply understanding the organization's goals and fostering human-centric communication and trust, which technology alone cannot replace.
Score
70%
Ep. 93 · July 24, 2025
Marie Garrigue · Fitness Connection USA
HR leaders must be bold, deeply understand their business's operating model, and proactively identify innovative solutions that provide value and support, especially in complex environments like franchising, while navigating legal boundaries.
Score
70%
Ep. 130 · June 25, 2025
Mandy Clark · Shutterfly
The long-term investment in employee development and loyalty, often seen in 'academy-like' companies, is crucial for building strong leadership and organizational culture, a practice often missing in today's short-term focused corporate landscape.
Score
70%
Ep. 152 · June 11, 2025
Thomas Lokar · National Car Wash Solutions
HR must proactively transform into a strategic value creator, leveraging technology and data to move beyond transactional tasks and drive tangible business outcomes.
Score
70%
Ep. 164 · June 3, 2025
Lionel Riley · Riceland Foods
Effective employee experience, engagement, and retention stem from actively listening to employees, visibly acting on their feedback, and fostering a strong sense of purpose, culture, and community, rather than solely relying on monetary perks, especially in competitive or challenging environments.
Score
70%
Ep. 169 · May 29, 2025
Kevin Henry · PulteGroup
Effective HR leadership is rooted in humanity, empowering employees through clear communication and strategic recognition, and embracing innovative thinking to drive both business performance and a thriving organizational culture.
Score
70%
Ep. 191 · May 14, 2025
Jessica Mitory · Advance Auto Parts
HR's strategic role is to create value for shareholders by building high-performance organizations, achieved by prioritizing and investing in employees who serve the customer, especially during periods of transformation, while continuously learning and adapting.
Score
70%
Ep. 193 · May 13, 2025
Jeanette Winters · 8x8
Strategic HR must transcend compliance, deeply understanding business economics and cultural nuances to align talent strategies that directly drive tangible business outcomes and foster genuine employee engagement.
Score
70%
Ep. 209 · May 1, 2025
Eileen Cooke · Amtrak
The sole purpose of corporate training and learning & development is to equip the workforce with the knowledge and skills needed to do their job, and its success must be measured by post-training performance outcomes and business results, not just the training event itself.
Score
70%
Ep. 218 · April 24, 2025
Shelley Wells · PeopleInk
Building a high-performing, people-centric organization requires a consciously designed, values-driven culture that is integrated into every aspect of the business, from hiring to accountability and customer branding, and sustained through continuous discipline with unwavering leadership buy-in.
Score
70%
Ep. 278 · March 12, 2025
George Garcia · Areas, United States
HR must transcend its administrative function to become a strategic business partner by deeply understanding company financials and operations, speaking the business language, and consistently demonstrating ROI, while steadfastly championing the human element.
Score
70%
Ep. 326 · January 28, 2025
Renu Chhabra · Tyson Foods
Effective total rewards strategy necessitates a data-driven approach that understands diverse employee needs, offers tailored choices, promotes financial transparency, and prioritizes holistic well-being, rather than simply chasing every new trend.
Score
70%
Ep. 334 · January 23, 2025
Ashleish Alexander · Lifepoint Health
A comprehensive, holistic approach to employee benefits, effectively communicated through modern digital tools and empowered HR leaders, is crucial for fostering a healthy work environment, attracting and retaining top talent, and enabling employees to thrive personally and professionally.
Score
70%
Ep. 343 · January 17, 2025
Emre Altun · Harmony Public Schools - Texas
A systematic, data-driven, engineering-inspired approach to HR is essential for designing scalable people systems, aligning financial incentives with organizational goals, and effectively addressing complex workforce challenges, particularly in unique sectors like education.
Score
70%
Ep. 32 · October 8, 2025
Liezl Tolentino · PT Solutions Physical Therapy
HR's true power lies in being a central, strategic driver of transformation and value creation, requiring leaders to prioritize self-care and authentic leadership to make a profound human impact.
Score
60%
Ep. 41 · September 26, 2025
Bruce Nichols · HR Solutions
Effective HR leadership hinges on deep business understanding, a constant presence with the workforce, and the 'humble decisiveness' to prioritize human connection and fundamental principles, especially amidst technological advancements.
Score
60%
Ep. 113 · July 10, 2025
Stephanie Montanez · Vagaro
Investing in employee training and development, often by strategically leveraging state and federal funding, is crucial for building career paths, enhancing retention, and shaping a skilled workforce without preconceived notions.
Score
60%
Ep. 166 · June 2, 2025
Luc Stefani · LS HR Consulting
HR must be deeply integrated with local business needs and cultural contexts, acting as a strategic partner to drive organizational success and talent retention, especially by embracing flexibility in a rapidly evolving work environment.
Score
60%
Ep. 173 · May 27, 2025
Ren Akinci · Emerald
Removing college degree requirements is a 'talent-first' business strategy, not just a diversity initiative, that unlocks a vast pool of skilled individuals, enhances talent pipelines, and ultimately leads to stronger organizational performance.
Score
60%
Ep. 184 · May 19, 2025
Mark Arell · Herc Rentals
HR's primary role is to act as a business partner, strategically aligning talent initiatives with core company goals and leveraging data to cultivate internal capabilities that directly drive and enable measurable business growth.
Score
60%
Ep. 250 · March 28, 2025
Jamie Durling · Luxury Goods & Retail (various organizations)
HR must transcend traditional people-centric views to become a strategic business facilitator, quantifying its impact on financial outcomes and proactively partnering with finance to drive top and bottom-line results.
Score
60%
Ep. 363 · December 31, 2024
Shelley Okeefe · Platinum Dermatology Partners
Effective culture and employee experience are built by deeply understanding employee demographics, leveraging existing organizational strengths, and adapting flexibly, particularly through significant organizational changes like M&A, mirroring customer-centric marketing strategies.
Score
60%
Ep. 368 · December 23, 2024
Shawnee Irmen · Thriveworks
Prioritizing employee well-being and psychological safety is not merely altruistic but a strategic imperative that directly drives organizational performance, requiring HR leaders to demonstrate a clear return on investment to secure executive support.
Score
60%
Ep. 374 · December 18, 2024
Jon Caldwell · Valvoline
Effective HR leadership requires a constant balance between strong relationships and data-driven decision-making, coupled with strategic agility and consistent execution, to drive business outcomes and foster employee well-being.
Score
60%
Ep. 399 · October 23, 2024
Cory Rose · TAG (The Aspen Group)
Effective HR leadership demands a deep understanding of unique business contexts and diverse employee personas, advocating for adaptable, data-driven strategies over fads or 'one-size-fits-all' approaches.
Score
60%
Ep. 11 · January 15, 2026
Tonya Seavers Evans · Cinch Home Services
Effective internal communications must prioritize trust and transparency, adapt to rapid changes using diverse channels and data-driven insights, and leverage AI efficiently while preserving the authentic human and brand voice of the organization.
Score
50%
Ep. 37 · September 30, 2025
Jill Wrobel · Brunswick Corporation
Sustainable continuous improvement is critical for organizational success, especially in dynamic sectors, and must be intentionally embedded into a company's unique culture, values, business systems, and leadership behaviors, all communicated with authenticity and care.
Score
50%
Ep. 102 · July 18, 2025
Suzan Morno · Latham
People, not strategy or systems, are the ultimate drivers of organizational success and transformation. HR's power lies in driving business strategy by focusing on the human element.
Score
50%
Ep. 103 · July 17, 2025
Eduardo de la Loza · SABORMEX
Culture is the operating system of an organization, and HR's most powerful role is to be the guardian and architect of that culture, ensuring all strategies and tools reinforce it.
Score
50%
Ep. 131 · June 25, 2025
Amanda Sedars · Mindr
A strong legal foundation, coupled with a relentless focus on human connection and strategic networking, empowers HR leaders to navigate complex, fast-paced environments like private equity, driving performance while building resilient, values-driven cultures.
Score
50%
Ep. 133 · June 24, 2025
Maura Stevenson · MedVet
Effective HR leadership requires a strong, adaptable point of view, grounded in data and tailored to the specific organizational context, to build a cohesive talent agenda that drives culture, capability, and business growth. Progress is often nonlinear, necessitating strategic sequencing and transparent communication to achieve buy-in and measurable impact.
Score
50%
Ep. 231 · April 15, 2025
Leander LeSure · Smarsh
HR must transcend administrative functions by deeply understanding the business and having the courage to make strategic talent decisions, thereby intentionally shaping culture and aligning rewards to drive sustainable organizational results.
Score
50%
Ep. 274 · March 17, 2025
Phil Rhodes · Phillips 66
Effective L&D fundamentally leverages experiential learning, democratizes skill development for all employees, and builds strong business partnerships by demonstrating tangible impact to drive organizational growth and individual career mobility.
Score
50%
Ep. 302 · February 13, 2025
Courtney Abraham · Current Lighting
HR leaders must adopt a business-first mindset, focusing on measurable value creation and organizational impact, while simultaneously fostering a people-centric culture through active listening, robust feedback mechanisms, and creative, resourceful initiatives, particularly in resource-constrained environments.
Score
50%
Ep. 304 · February 12, 2025
Hope Harris · Real Floors
HR professionals must transition from compliance-focused roles to strategic business partners with cross-functional understanding, while cultivating an environment where employees feel valued and their work aligns with a greater purpose, fostering engagement and positive impact.
Score
50%
Ep. 328 · January 28, 2025
Josh Greenwald · Elevance Health (previously Bank of America, TIAA)
HR must build durable, future-proof talent strategies, develop learning-agile leaders, and foster human-centric cultures to navigate the accelerating pace of business transformation, especially with AI, while proactively mitigating burnout and enhancing employee experience.
Score
50%
“I would wave a magic wand by saying, let's give everybody what they need in order to make their lives as easy as they can be in the workplace so that they can then in turn give that great guest experience.”
“I was on a plane every single week, either in a retail dispensary or in a manufacturing plant working right alongside of our employees. So they knew that we were not asking them to do anything that, that we weren't doing...”
“The amount of noise hitting providers from every which direction is only increasing. And so clarity and simplicity for them is incredibly important.”
“we're having mobile mammogram vans going to laboratories and meeting our female population where they are. If they can't go out and get their mammograms, we're gonna, we're gonna meet them at their job.”
“In my model, on that manufacturing floor, the impact was swift and business outcomes responded accordingly. We reduced our safety issues, we contributed to reduced attrition, and we improved productivity.”
“You, we need to view ourselves as operators. We are operators in whatever industry that we're in.”
“How do you ask somebody to walk into a senior living community with a resident that you know has tested positive for COVID and ask them to still show up with empathy, care, and compassion and courage?”
“Workplace safety records are exceptional, and anything it feels like the external or internal environments throw at us, we've been able to tackle successfully together as a team.”