Anna Papalia gives us a sneak preview of her book, Interviewology, the New Science of Interviewing, published by Harper Collins and out this coming January. Anna is a career influencer with over 1.5 million followers across social media platforms and has coached over 10,000 clients to interview better. She discusses why conventional interviewing advice doesn't work, how to master the job interview, and describes the four main styles people exhibit in an interview: a Charmer, a Challenger, an Examiner, or a Harmonizer.  A fascinating conversation - there's a reason she's amassed over a million and a half followers over social media!

Dr. Mark Attridge is President of Attridge Consulting, Inc., which focuses on workplace mental health and employee assistance programs. He joins us to discuss four studies he led that measured EAP outcomes based on over 50,000 users of EAP over five years. The studies focused on: EAP-driven clinical and work outcomes; EAP and coaching; EAP and its impact on anxiety; EAP outcomes when an employee is referred by their manager. We also touched on major trends in the industry and peered into what's ahead. The evidence-based studies were sponsored by CuraLinc; Mark’s co-authors were the company’s President Sean Fogarty, MBA, and COO David Pawlowski, MA.

Our conversation focuses on WorkatWork’s just published 2023-2024 Salary Budget Survey, which organizations have come to rely on to design competitive compensation plans that attract and retain high-performing employees. Joining us are Liz Supinski, Director, Research & Insights at WorldatWork, and Michaela Leo, Head, Compensation & Benefits for Ipsen, a global specialty-driven biopharmaceutical group. We discuss the 1 or 2 most important takeaways, the most surprising findings, what listeners need to know about salary budget surveys in general, and what’s in store for next year’s survey.  https://worldatwork.org/resources/research/salary-budget-survey

Lulu Seikaly, in-house employment counsel for Payscale, joins us to discuss pay transparency: the law recently passed in Hawaii and how it’s different, varying levels of stringency by state,  benefits to employers, unintended consequences and trends employers need to be on the watch for.

Rich Fuerstenberg, a Senior Partner with Mercer, works with clients on their healthcare and group benefit programs, connecting dots for employers and employees helping them reduce cost and risk while improving the benefits experience. The focus of our conversation is employer-sponsored sabbaticals – the different types, why they’re offered, ways they can be structured, how to prod employees with “tenure” to take them when they’re reluctant to do so, and best practices to ensure productive (paid and unpaid) sabbaticals.

We’re joined by the two co-founders of Zayla Partners, an executive compensation and corporate governance consulting company: CEO Chris Crawford and Managing Partner Ian Keas. Our conversation focuses on solving the challenge of executive retiree incentive compensation: why more older employees are working past age 65 than the prior generation, the importance of succession planning and a “good leaver policy,” planning for a ”principled outcome,” and other timely issues.

Steven Brink is President and Chief Revenue Officer of uFlexReward, providers of a digital total reward platform to improve the employee experience and enhance the organization’s global understanding of the total reward spend. He joins us to discuss total rewards optimization: the challenges/benefits of consolidating the various benefits silos, how to tailor rewards for the "new shape of work," and the ways it improves decision-making.

Sunil Vatave is the U.S. product advisor to DarwinBox, an HCM platform that helps build better workplaces. He brings a broad perspective to the topic of compensation, having been an employment lawyer, Vice President of HR, and HR technology provider. He joins us to discuss how to make compensation management a strategic advantage.

Jon Hyman is a nationally recognized employment and labor attorney, author, speaker, blogger, and most importantly, a friend of the Workspan pod. He joins us to discuss the three landmark decisions recently handed down by the Supreme Court on religious accommodations, affirmative action, and LGBTQ rights. He is just the guy to tell us what it means, doesn’t mean, and could mean for employers now and in the near future.

Mario Ceron, Managing Partner & CEO, Zereon Associates, gives us a global perspective on total rewards, workforce mobility, digital transformation, leadership and team development, and executive compensation. He also discusses emerging compensation trends, the impact of AI on total rewards, and how leadership must evolve to meet the challenges in the changing world of work.

Joe DiMisa, Senior Client Partner and Korn Ferry’s Global Sales Force Effectiveness Leader joins us to talk about designing and implementing sales compensation solutions that increase sales and profits. We discuss how to set pay levels for sales roles, where to get reliable data, and how often you should benchmark, among a host of timely topics.

Brett Christie, WorldatWork's Digital Content Manager and Strategist joins us to discuss an exciting new development – the eagerly awaited unveiling of a newly updated and expanded online resource for anyone in the total rewards and comp fields. Members (and non-members) now have easy access to every pay equity law, salary history ban law and pay transparency law for every state in the U.S. It includes an alphabetical search bar at the top that allows users to easily navigate to the state they are looking for. You can find it here: https://worldatwork.org/resources/tools.

Julie Lammers is Senior VP, Advocacy and Corporate Social Responsibility, American Student Assistance (ASA). Julie has broad and extensive public sector experience (from the House of Commons to the US Senate) and was recently widely quoted in a #evolve article titled, “Apprenticeships are a Growing, Attractive Solution for U.S. Employers” - the topic of our conversation. We discuss apprenticeship programs for tech workers – which is a relatively recent phenomenon – to what organizations need to do to implement a successful apprenticeship program.

Arthur Woods is co-founder of Mathison, a technology platform equipping employers with everything they need to manage their diversity hiring, analytics and training. He is also partner at Plenty Search, an executive search firm for venture-backed startups with a strong track record on diversity. Over a year ago he joined us to discuss the latest in DEI; we asked him back to discuss the developments since in light of the increasing push-back DEI has received. He also shared fascinating insights on what's ahead, with a "bonus" chat on the implications/challenges of AI.

ESG is a very hot, not to mention, controversial topic – you’d think it just emerged on the scene, but it’s been around for a while. Dr. Hermann J. Stern, managing owner of the financial research company Obermatt, is an ESG expert who works primarily with Swiss and German companies. Few are better equipped to discuss the origins of ESG, how companies he works with apply it to assess/mitigate risk, and how it will be used in the coming years. He also gives his perspective on the increasing push-back in the US on ESG. It’s one of the best conversations we’ve had on a broadly misunderstood topic.

We’ve had guests on the pod who’ve spoken about empathetic leadership and the need for more empathy in the workplace, but none who brings the perspective and rigor to the topic as Katharine Manning. She spent close to 16 years as a senior attorney in the US Department of Justice specializing in victim’s rights and services, and is President of Blackbird DC, which provides training and consultation on empathy at work. Katherine is also the author of The Empathetic Workplace: Five Steps to a Compassionate, Calm, and Confident Response to Trauma on the Job. One of the most fascinating and insightful conversations we’ve had on this podcast – check it out!

Nu Yang, editor of #evolve, WorldatWork’s digital-only publication, discusses the stories she and her staff are working on, her vision for #evolve going forward, and a recent story that she wrote that’s stirred up a lot of conversation, titled“Retaining and Developing Women Leaders in the Workplace."

Patrick Dalin, Of Counsel with Fisher Phillips, represents employers in a full range of employment law matters. Patrick breaks down a recent 6-3 Supreme Court decision (involving rare agreement between liberal and conservative factions of the court) that delineated between exempt and non-exempt employment. We discuss tests to determine salaried and hourly workers, and the broader implications for this ruling, particularly in today’s gig economy.

We’re joined by Sheetal Raut, Managing Director at WorldatWork India and Rahul Puri, Director of Business Development with WorldatWork India, to discuss the location’s growth from its inception in 2021 and what’s been driving it. We also discuss the adoption of total rewards in India, the impact of technology on benefits delivery and utilization, plus the demand for personalized benefits and sophisticated rewards solutions. Sheetal and Rahul also share several exciting initiatives they have on tap in the coming months. Check it out!

We’re joined by the perfect person to demystify AI, machine learning and people analytics: Margret Bjarnadottir, Associate Professor of Management Science and Statistics, at the University of Maryland. Margret gives us a sneak preview of her forthcoming session at WorldatWork’s Total Rewards show in San Diego this coming June: from the explosive growth in the use of people analytics tools to how to guard against machine learning bias. Fascinating stuff.