[00:00:00] You know those conferences where you go and listen to some speakers, pick up a new idea or two, maybe exchange a few business cards here and there. You get slightly inspired and refreshed, and then you go back to work and get swept back up in the busyness of it all. Never getting around to applying what you learned.
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[00:01:35] Are you an HR or talent department of one in a smaller organization? Have you ever been, or maybe you're considering a move that would give you this experience? Regardless, today's episode will give you food for thought and some surprising insights. My guest is Jewel von Kemp. Jewel has spent the last 12 years driving the HR experience for startups.
[00:02:03] She brings grit, passion, resourcefulness, and authenticity to her work. She's currently the head of people at Coin Me, a cryptocurrency organization that has as its goal making cryptocurrency accessible to all. She's responsible for all aspects of people operations and loves what she does. She brought so much wisdom and humor to our conversation.
[00:02:25] I know you will enjoy this.
[00:02:27] Hello and welcome back to Talent Management Truths. I'm your host, Lisa Mitchell, and today I'm joined by Jewel von Kef. Jewel is head of People for Coin Me. It's a pleasure to have you today on the show, Juul, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for inviting me. So let's start off by you sharing with our listeners a little bit about who you are and and your career journey to date.
[00:02:56] Yeah. I'm Jules, you mentioned I've been in HR for a while now, but only at startups, which I think is kind of special. So I started off my career, I guess even while I was in college. I was a wild land firefighter and I kind of thought that was the direction. I was gonna go in like for, you know, the remainder of my professional career.
[00:03:19] But as I, you know, graduated from college, I thought to myself like, I don't know if I really wanna be a wild land firefighter. You know, I might wild land. Did you say wild land? I said wild land. Yeah, wild land. So, and it was great and it's. Fun. There's adrenaline, there's good camaraderie. You get to work with a lot of people, but you also get to meet people on all these other crews from, you know, all over the US and sometimes, you know, all over the world people come from Australia to fight these fires in the US and, and vice versa.
[00:03:46] And so it was really, it's really was a great opportunity for me to. To kind of dip my toes into the working world anyways as a young adult. But I, you know, I started to realize that I wanted to be able to date and have a family and I didn't wanna have to deal with that as a wildland firefighter. And I, I'm sure there are plenty of women that, that do have families that fight wildland fires.
[00:04:07] I just, for me personally, I was like, I'm gonna move on. So I moved to Seattle and just kind of. Started doing some odd jobs. I actually went through the process to be a Seattle firefighter, but then I got hit by a car and I was like, that is a sign, oh dear, that I should do something different. So, I, I worked some really odd jobs where I, you know, started to really just kind of learn that I, I like supporting people and helping people.
[00:04:32] Like that's, that's where my passion lies and that's where I'd like to, you know, kind of. Take my trajectory for my career. So I got an opportunity eventually to step into someone's role in HR at a small startup called Three Tier. The previous HR person was stepping aside and the C F O asked me if I wanted to do it.
[00:04:52] I hadn't done it before. I had to be scrappy. was the only HR member there, and so I just kind of learned by. by doing, by doing the work, calling, you know, resources, I had no trouble reaching out to people on the phone. I would say it was really strange for like a d p to get a phone call from someone being like, how do I run payroll?
[00:05:14] But I did it, and that was my foray. And it was really interesting because that company had federal contracts and so there was a lot, a lot more to, to it than just kind of your standard hr. But it was a startup and it, went through mergers and acquisitions and I, you know, in my role, my role went away.
[00:05:32] So I went to a SaaS company, which was really interesting. The previous company was in energies. like a energy forecasting company, so a lot more in the renewal. But energy space, the SaaS company was certainly amazing. There was zero HR when I joined, so, and there hadn't been. So I got to, to not only build everything from scratch, but I also got to Reinvent it later on, right?
[00:05:57] So create, we build out ADP and then later we switch to a different h r s. Like we gotta kind of continue to see that work and the people operations evolve as well as like growing the company, hiring my own boss and inventor, which is, Hmm, I always recommend if you can hire your own boss. Yeah, pull that route.
[00:06:16] And that was essential because as I mentioned prior, Up until that point, my only HR experience had been just me, I can't assume. So how did you land at Coin Me and what do you do there? Hmm. So Skytap had done a great job and, you know, a lot of things had, had been automated and the company was growing and going through changes and I just thought it's a good time for me to move on.
[00:06:37] And I was really interested in Web three and cryptocurrency. I didn't actually have. Any cryptocurrency at the time. I just really wanted to explore it as an industry and I got an opportunity that I just, I couldn't turn away. So I thought, I'm gonna take the dive and the jump and get right into it. So Coin Me is a cryptocurrency company then.
[00:07:02] Yes, yes. It's, it's hard to describe it for some people if you don't know, but basically, coin Me operates the world's largest, fully licensed cryptocurrency cash network with like thousands of locations across 49 states through partnerships with Coinstar and MoneyGram. Okay. And working on other partnerships.
[00:07:21] So we We operate with a simple belief that access to digital currency should be easy and accessible to everyone. So really at the core, the core thing that motivates and I think attracts our employees to coin me and even people to coin me, is that we wanna make, we wanna make cryptocurrency accessible to people who are underserved and underbanked.
[00:07:42] And also then typically, I don't know. I'm gonna say not as technically advanced as like engineers and, you know, savvy investors. So people who might think that digital currency isn't for them. Right? We see it as a way for people to diversify their wealth. Yeah. Got it. Okay. Yeah, so it is fascinating because for some listeners, you know, they may never have sort of dipped into learning more about crypto and so on.
[00:08:06] So it's, it's, it's neat to hear about a company that's kind of right up the middle of, of that, that industry's growth. And you're out of Seattle is the, is coin me also. Courtney's was originally based outta Seattle. Yeah. But we are fully spread out across the United States now, Canada even Puerto Rico, and we have an employee in Croatia.
[00:08:29] So we've certainly spread our, footprint a lot. Okay. I think we only have in Washington, we, we have less than 20 people here now. The rest of our employees are spread out. Yeah. And it's a, I think you said it's around 60 people. Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. So, and you know, I'm detecting a bit of a pattern here in your overall career, where you've gone from, you know, build from scratch, one person, HR department to the next including where you are now, you're a team, a mighty team of one.
[00:08:58] So this, this startup kind of culture of all trades is, is really kind of turned into your calling card. I'd say jewel. It has, and I, I don't mind it. I mean, I love having a team and I love it when, you know, when a team is built out and there's support and it's definitely necessary. But a lot of the time in startups, you know, when budgets get cut and as startups are building, HR is always like, you know, The last to really be built out.
[00:09:28] I would say over the course of my experience in HR over a decade now, I have seen a shift in that you know, CEOs, executives teams are really seeing that value and that, that r o i, that People operations bring to the table. But in small startups, especially like Series A, series B startups, you know, sometimes it's hard to justify, you know, the HR headcount you might need when you are really just trying to.
[00:09:56] You know, build a product that you can sell. Got it. Okay. So tell us a little bit about how you, your observations of startup culture and, and, you know, you haven't worked, like I, I really come from quite large organizations, so I'm on the other end of the, the spectrum. So how would you kind of, characterize these, these smaller startup organizations?
[00:10:20] Oh, well, I can only speak from, from my experience but I find that in startup culture, employees are more invested and have a stronger kind of passion for what they're doing, and I think it's because. Well, for multiple reasons, but one, they might just love the products. And products do tend to have a lot of like energy behind them in startups, right?
[00:10:40] Cause it's new and it's innovative, but also there's a lot more ownership and autonomy in a startup culture. So it's a lot easier for people to see the value in their impact of what they're bringing to the organization. So that's lovely. And then of course, in smaller organizations, it's. It's easier to connect with people and to speak your mind and to really kind of show who you are and be able to kind of highlight that as you, as you work.
[00:11:09] So I find startup cultures to be a lot more collaborative a lot more open to new ideas, to, you know, It's a lot easier to fail fast at a startup culture than it is at larger organizations, you know, to try something new. If it doesn't work, pivot, try something else. So, and they move a lot faster, which is, I think a stereotype, but a true stereotype for, for startups.
[00:11:33] They really, really do move at a lot faster pace. Than, you know, a Fortune 500 company would. Yeah. In many, in many cases. Yeah. And then there, there are some hybrids in out there that are mm-hmm. You know, quite large, quite scaled, and yet have a really entrepreneurial startup culture just for a variety of reasons.
[00:11:50] If they've been more on the it, innovation, cutting edge side of things, I think that can kind of come with the people that are there. But I do, I really, it really resonated with me when you said it's a lot easier to fail fast, because that's something that you know, after 25 years in corporate myself in large organizations, looking back and working with clients as I do now looking in through the windows, so to speak, from outside.
[00:12:16] There is a real reticence to make a mistake. And, and ironically, that's at a disservice to creating you know, a space where innovation is welcome and encouraged, right? If people are too scared to put a foot wrong. So I, you know, I see, I see some, some companies making progress, making strides to change that.
[00:12:36] I think failing fast is. Is probably going to be the key to the future now that we've got AI coming in and all kinds of things. So what does it look like to fail fast where you are right now in your role of one as you've been building everything from scratch? Ooh. I mean, I try new things all the time. one of the things that most remote companies, especially remote only companies are really working on right now is. You know, how do we make sure we're being as productive as we, you know, were, when we were in person, and I mean, I, I think Microsoft, like a year ago, put out an article saying like, their workers weren't as productive.
[00:13:13] I mean, I would argue with that though, because I've worked in plenty of offices and tech offices and there is an incredible amount I've wasted in those offices. As well. But that said, it is something that's at the top of, you know, your mind, especially as a remote only company. So recently I I wanted to put together kind of a culture book, and I failed.
[00:13:35] I put together too much. It was too much, you know, I presented it in front of my team. I was like psyched. And and of course they were. Oh, lovely. But we, you know, it didn't, it didn't go over. I thought it would be like a big win. It was a flop. But from that flop, I have two different, two different things now.
[00:13:53] I have a lot of great information I'm going to use to kind of reinvigorate the coin we foundations and our orientation model. And then I have the information I need to create kind of, instead of a culture book, like a. A small poster of, you know, how we work, how we rise, how we show up. So, and there was no shame in that.
[00:14:12] I presented it, I was proud of it, it didn't resonate, and I was like, all right, let's pivot and we'll see what we can get from it and move forward. So that's a real easy example from an HR standpoint in, in the overall business of like innovation in the engineers and product people trying new things out, it's a similar.
[00:14:31] It's a similar, you know, kind of way of thinking. You know, they come to the table with something that they've had data and input to build and it doesn't work, doesn't resonate. But no one feels guilty about it. Or hopefully they don't. Instead they're like, well, what can we get from this? And then they create something new that hopefully does work and does resonate.
[00:14:53] So there's not a shame in failing. There's an ownership in it, but not a shame. And you just, you tried something and you move over. Move on. Yeah. And the nice thing about that is it's not like, I have this large company that I have to, you know, wait, because I have to run things up a ladder, like, you know, tenfold.
[00:15:09] I can just pivot and move to the next. Yeah. No shame. Just pivot. Yeah. And, and you know, I appreciate that because that's gonna be my new mantra. No shame. Just pivot. You know, in my last organization it was really quite large and, and you know, they, there was discussion of, you know, wanting innovation and yet, You know, the screws would get put to people if, if they made mistakes in, in several cases. And it was kind of, kind of too bad because then people stop speaking up altogether. Whereas here it's this idea of being iterative. Right. And how do we get to the best ideas and yeah, we're we, we've gotta try out 10 of them and nine will be crappy and one's gonna be excellent.
[00:15:48] Like recently. The process in my own business, for instance I had changed something and I won't get into the details, but it kind of blew up in, in a good way, created a whole bunch of new work, let's say in another area of my business that I was trying to, to kind of, fix and. And I got angry Jewel, like I was actually frustrated, angry, like just, oh my God, what am I gonna do with this, this big problem?
[00:16:16] And it took my coach to sort of, and I'm a coach myself, but to sort of say, Hey, you got exactly what you wanted. And now this is just a new problem that's come as a result. So how do you, so you've pivoted once it's created some results you didn't quite expect, which are, are not bad and they're just results.
[00:16:35] And so what do you wanna do with those going forward? So, you know, after kind of cooling my heels and doing a little writing about that, I was able to kind of do that pivot right? And, and figure, okay, I need to, I need to change the original process from before I made this change. And it's made a real difference.
[00:16:51] I'm glad, I'm happy for you. I'm really glad that that worked out. And you're right, I do. I'm, I didn't wanna make it sound like I don't get bothered when I fail. I do, but I definitely, I mean, I, the way in which business itself. Is changing just technology and growth. I mean, I would imagine that failing fast would be something that every company is gonna have to start to adapt.
[00:17:14] You're right. With ai, with, with all the developments. In order for us to be able to even think creatively, we have to be willing to botch it every now and then. Yeah. Just step into it safely, like, like there's calculated risk, right? Mm-hmm. And then there's, there's stupid risk. So I think there's something, yes.
[00:17:31] But now something else that I wanted to dig into a little bit too was this idea that, you know, when you and I first met and, and had a conversation you had shared that somehow you know, in spite of being a smaller company in a HR department of one in a startup, you've been able to. See the, the creation of a very inclusive culture where belonging is very much key.
[00:17:56] And I was hoping you could tell us a bit about what that looks like. Yeah, and I, when I say somehow it happens, I, I, some of it is intentional, but I have to be honest, I think that We've also been lucky, just organically in the people that we've, we've brought on board at ko me. We do obviously hire with like behavioral and emotional cue in mind.
[00:18:16] But when I joined, when I joined Komi, I did like just kind of a basic like touchpoint and survey with the executives, managers as well as employees as to what What they loved about coin meat, what they like, what works, what do, what do they wanna get out of, you know, out of my role. Like what would they like to see?
[00:18:33] And you know, people overall felt pretty, pretty good. And I was like, oh, this is great. But one of the things they, that they mentioned was as a fully remote company, they were worried that, you know, their individuality would kind of, Start to kind of, you know, dis disappear because they would just be showing up as workers.
[00:18:51] And that they also wanna make sure that as the company grows, that they're still, you know, treated equitably and you know, that we're focusing on growing our culture as much as our people and our revenue. And so, With that we created a de and i and B program and did a basic survey off of that.
[00:19:11] And I have to be honest, like even when you feel like your company's like, got it under wraps, so you do those surveys, there's always like surprises, just like, you know, not terrible surprises. That's why we do things right. It's, it, you know, we're just auditing our employees and and we learned a couple of things that were.
[00:19:29] You know, that were important to the employees. So we, one of the easiest wins that any company can do is removing, you know, pronouns out of their documents, like their handbook and their policies. Mm-hmm. Because then it, it automatically should be speaking hopefully to everyone. And. You know, we use, they, them or the employees instead of, instead of he, she, hers, his.
[00:19:50] and of course then, you know, allowing and giving employees that space to kind of say who, who they are and so that, that was an easy win. We created a policy like a lot of you see a lot of companies doing right now. And we updated our handbook to include things like, you know, anti-racism policies.
[00:20:08] Speak your mind policies and, and then we, as in the executive team reiterated that in all of our meetings, we just, not only did we kind of reiterate our policies, we also gave room for the employees to tell us if we did something offensive. So even in this, in this, you know, space, if I were to say something that, Could be offensive that I'm not aware of.
[00:20:33] Then, you know, I invite the employees to reach out to me and let me know so that you know, I can learn and I can grow and And we've had employees respond to that cuz they feel like, okay, I have this space I can reach out. And it always starts with them reaching out to me first. You know, like so-and-so said this, not to get them in trouble, but they just don't feel comfortable.
[00:20:52] But eventually as they start to see like the change in the way we speak and we act, then employees. Feel comfortable just like reaching out to each other, being like, Hey, that meme you put on Slack, although I can see how it's funny, is also, you know, offensive to my culture and they're like, oh, I'm sorry.
[00:21:08] An employee will take it down. So it's not about, you know, shaming people. It's more about just us being open to it. on a recruitment side, we gosh, I don't know, it was years ago. And I was hanging out with a bunch of HR professionals and I re, I just said I wanted to say regurgitated. I didn't regurgitate anything, but I said this phrase I'd heard in my.
[00:21:33] HR world of recruitment, which is, ugh, the pipeline for diversity's just not there. There's no pipeline. I can't get to the pipeline. I'm sure you've heard some sort of variation of this. And this lady just looks at me and she's, granted, I'm in Washington, she's in New, she's from New York. she's just like, oh, jewel, you're not looking in the right place.
[00:21:57] And so I was like, What, what can I do? Like, well, what should I be doing? You know? And I mean, the answers were somewhat, some of 'em were just simple and I was embarrassed, you know? She's like, well, how many of your external recruiters are people of color? And I start thinking, I'm like, N none. You know, like, oh, that's nice.
[00:22:18] And you know, she's like, and are you using more than just LinkedIn? Are you using tools that like, you know, You might have data that people of color or people in the L G B T Q I A or people you know with different ableness might be using, and I was just like, Sometimes I post things on job boards, but you know, and so she really helped kind of provide a way for me and then my recruiters at Cume that I hired to really reach out.
[00:22:45] And it was a lot of trial and error. We made sure to, you know, reach out to people, at organizations like Women in Tech or, blacks in engineering, and to kind of get their input on, you know, on how we can, find. or at least make ourselves more attractive and opening and welcoming to candidates.
[00:23:04] And it really actually, it really worked out. And we, we hit all angles. We went not just like people of color, we went through like L G B T Y A communities. We advertised and posted jobs on different ableness and religious areas. And then I live in a very strongly like military area. So I reached out to our, so a lot of it, we spent time.
[00:23:26] Reaching out to our communities and finding out like, what are these pipelines like? We took the time to, to learn and it was really successful. I mean, Komi was we, we unfortunately, you know, have had some changes over the last year, but prior to those changes we were over 55% people of color at the organization, which is like bonkers for me as a tech company.
[00:23:48] and in hindsight it feels. So natural after making sure that we were just like putting our information out in places that would get a more diverse group of people looking at them. It's so funny. So yeah. So diverse, Vehicles, if you will, for recruitment. Right. For finding candidates to create diversity.
[00:24:05] I, it's, it, it's, it sounds so simple. You know, we say it out loud. I mean, we, and we did a lot of education with our employees Yeah. And our recruiters and stuff to make sure that we are, we're checking our biases cuz we, you know, we've all got them and, you know, And they pop into us, whether it's a, you know, what you might consider like a positive affinity bias, which is still a bias or like a negative, a negative bias.
[00:24:29] And so, and one of the things that I found most interesting that came up a few times early on was in interviews people not looking at the camera or not wanting to turn their camera on, but through our networking, especially with people in neuro divergent communities, we learn that that's not always.
[00:24:48] Like optimal for them. Yeah. And we're like, oh, well then we won't make it a requirement. You know? And I mean, why does it need to be a requirement? So we a lot of asking ourselves questions and changing the lot. Pivoting. A lot of pivoting. A lot of pivoting. I think this is our, our word of the day, so.
[00:25:06] Mm-hmm. So how did you manage training and kind, you know, like with, with people from. Orientation and onward, you know, are related to your D E I B strategy. I mean, we ideally, gosh, in an ideal world, I would've had like a budget to, you know, actually bring some external people in. Not because internal people can't train in the companies, but I just sometimes feel like employees listen better when you have like a subject better expert.
[00:25:35] Mm-hmm. we didn't have that. So we did our own trainings. We put together our, our own trainings, and we had conversations, open and honest conversations with each other. We tested our biases through some of the online, I'm gonna say like tests that are available, like Harvard has, Harvard has a few.
[00:25:53] Have you ever taken those? They have, they, they have a couple that you take in your, it's always surprising. You're just like, oh, you're, you're like, I'm taking this test. You're like, I'm nailing it. And then you get the results and you're just like, just riddled with bias, which we are. And those things are nice because it, you know, when we do the trainings and we can kind of share those as a group, we're like, oh, we all.
[00:26:13] We all are. And and so we put together our own trainings. We put together our own you know, kind of conversation groups and then and then we just continue those trainings. So I recently did a training on HR one-on-one. I thought people would be bored as heck. It was all about like HR laws, which has a lot to do with like, you know, protections of rights, employee rights.
[00:26:35] And people were like, Very attentive and asked a lot of questions and I was, you know, so we really just created that culture of. I guess caring about the people we bring in and the, and making sure that we're doing things right by our people. Right. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, cause the training's interesting to me because if you don't have a team of learning professionals You know, to, to draw on your, you're not using external consultants. It's, it sounds like you kind of banded together with other leaders and, and you know, did sort of, what's the word? A training council approach almost. Yeah. And I mean, I am. Part of a couple of, groups where I can reach out and ask questions.
[00:27:14] My my portfolio group that, you know, is invested in our company has, has a kind of list of HR professionals in the group that we can reach out to. Benny added me to their HR advisory, which is like a huge, organization of HR professionals that you can kind of reach out to.
[00:27:30] So I am certainly. Not above asking people for their advice and even if they have like a sample of a training that they've given and hasn't worked and what resonated. So we have no need to reinvent the wheel. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. I mean, that's part in, first cohort of talent trust which is the, the program I run for HR and talent leaders.
[00:27:51] It's so funny because we still have our WhatsApp. Chat group going, and it's not like it's super active, like when we were in those six months. And yet people are still sharing resources, like entire programs with each other and say, you know, and then go and work from that. So it's like this ongoing gold mine.
[00:28:06] Is that why I like to think of it? I think it's, I think it's great. I don't when I first started off in, just in business in general, everything seemed so. Secretive like mine in the way you did things and I mean, it's certainly extremely different in, in the industry I work in right now. Web three, like I could call.
[00:28:26] Most companies and probably just speak to someone and they would be happy to tell me how they're doing things. It's, but it's, I mean, it certainly has changed a lot and maybe that's part of the, you know, maybe it got, kind of got kicked into high gear with like the pandemic and people working remotely that we just needed.
[00:28:42] We needed, you know, colleagues that are outside of our companies to help us. Absolutely. Oh yeah. It's so important. So that brings me to, you know, this, back to this HR team of one, and, and I'd, I'd like to go over three things in particular. So first, the biggest challenge from your perspective as a, as a pro in this space, the biggest opportunity.
[00:29:03] Because I think for listeners, you know, many of them will relate and some of them won't relate at all. But I like, I think there's learning in this for all of us. So, biggest challenge, biggest opportunity and, and your, your, most essential piece of advice. challenge as an hr, I mean, team of one.
[00:29:19] I feel like it would be obvious if there's just not enough time, right? So like in, in hr. Gartner has this like HR priorities list, like this whole kind of matrix and it is intensive and I'm like, I wanna hit all those things. Yes, there's like 20 plus things on those lists and it's an HR person of one.
[00:29:38] You've got, you're doing a lot of task management, a lot of employee relations, and then of course you have your KRS and your goals and your projects that you're working on. But I will say that other priorities come in, especially like employee relations and stuff like that, cuz you're just constantly, pull things, don't wait multiple directions.
[00:29:56] Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, I would say the constant juggling and prioritizing and just the. Sad acceptance that sometimes your quarterly goals just aren't gonna be met because, oh God, you're funny. The sad acceptance. Yes. Sometimes goals get pushed off. Yes. And that's funny cuz I, I'd commented on a LinkedIn post just today and this, this HR leader, I can't re recall the company.
[00:30:23] We're connected. I'm just, I'm not picturing it right now, but he had posted a list of three recent failures that he had mm-hmm. Personally experienced. He said, you know, we're gonna, we're not gonna hit this particular goal of this. We're not I think that we're trying to reduce retention increase retention.
[00:30:37] Reduce turnover, and. Oh, there were two other, oh, he was training for a marathon. He is like, I've hurt my hip. I can't do it. Something like that. Right. And it was so refreshing and so I actually compelled me to comment and say, you know, how much I appreciated this because we're so often, I mean, I'm as guilty as the next person guilty of, You know, posting the highlight reel or only talking about mm-hmm. The highlights. And, you know, there's a lot to be learned as we were speaking about earlier from, from failure, from, you know, geez. So what does this this mean? Does this mean that, you know, everything's, we gotta just burn the house down? No, it's about more about, it's a pivot.
[00:31:17] It's a chance to pivot, but we're sort of coming full circle. It feels like here it is. That's true. I would say that, so that's the biggest challenge. I think I mean I will say that with the caveat, you're never really, like you are a T of one, but you're also like, not cuz you have, you know, your other leaders in the organization, you, you know, your people to bounce ideas off of.
[00:31:38] So I don't actually ever feel like I'm alone in my efforts. And I think that can, can kind of translate into the opportunity. So one of the biggest opportunities as a team of one is you get to closely work with all those business partners, all those leaders that your, your policies, your programs, your, you know, employee relations are all impacting.
[00:31:59] So there is, there isn't that siloed disconnect that sometimes you see me in a larger organization. Yes. That's the word that was flying through my head as you were saying that was silos like that, that has a positive impact on keeping silos at bay because, you know, so many of the, you know, my clients and people that I talk to day in, day out, just for the show silos, it's a real thing, right?
[00:32:21] It's, it's there's a real need to influence all of those different stakeholders or earn the right to be at the table because you are it that may be less of a barrier. It is. And I would say yes, I agree with you. And one of the most beautiful aspects of it too, that I think is that. You can set these policies and programs and the company will have their mission and their values and their visions, and because of that close connection and that lack of barriers, you know, you can kind of constantly make sure or ensure that you're, each team is kind of still working towards us.
[00:32:52] Like everyone's still on track, right? So you shouldn't be too surprised if you do like a company survey or pulse. Most people. Know the vision and they know how their work adds to that vision and the mission. So I think that's the really, the one of the biggest opportunities. But there are so many opportunities, as many as challenges.
[00:33:10] You know, I, I can make any changes I want. I mean, I have to have obviously, like backing from my team and stuff, but I. I can put together the data myself and I can say like, this is what I think we should do. And you know, I kind of have that ownership to do that. So that's, that's also quite delightful in a way.
[00:33:29] I agree. Well, and so what is your, your, you know, most essential piece of advice then for people that are currently in a similar situation as, as you or who are thinking they might. Move to a, you know, they're looking at opportunities right now. They might be in transition and they're, they're thinking about, yeah, I have, I have two pieces of advice.
[00:33:50] Okay. Two really good ones. Two, I think one is like there are an incredible amount of like critical just daily tasks that have to happen in hr and that's great, but don't. Like get drowned in those tasks. Like as an HR person of one, even a small HR team, you've gotta make sure that you're still focusing on the overall big picture and you're, you know, you do have like kind of policies and plans for the future.
[00:34:18] So cuz if you're living like just for the moment and you're just focusing on those tasks only, you're gonna burn out so quickly. Or if you work on a small team, you're gonna start to get kind of disconnected from that small team. So if you have like, You know, and that's, that's coming from personal experience, so a lesson learned.
[00:34:35] The other thing that I would say is essential and a great piece of advice, and also something I learned down the road is you, you don't have to be like the smartest person in the room and know everything about HR and you're, you should reach out to your colleagues. They're not HR professionals, but you know what?
[00:34:53] They've had other jobs, so they've probably had other experiences, you know, rely on, you know, your colleagues' experiences to, to give advice to you and to help you out. So, currently I'm gonna start reviewing h i s programs. I'm a team of one, my operations manager has offered to help. I brought up the idea and he's like, yeah, I'm totally gonna help you with it.
[00:35:15] He's not in hr, but he's like down to help and I'm psyched. So like, you know, reaching out and getting support when you need it and just listening to advice from your, you know, your peers is always very helpful. And, and yeah. I, I appreciate that. It's, it's, I, I really love you. You know, you, you. touched on it earlier too, about the fact, you know, when you were talking about opportunities that you do have other team members, they're just not called hr, but they are people that you work next to, like this operations manager.
[00:35:43] So really looking at your colleagues internally. I think a, I think HR and talent, people in big organizations forget to do this sometimes too. Right? To engage their peers in the other verticals. Right. Which can go a long way to breaking down silos. Just cuz you, you know, you, you can sort of get into this mode of, oh, you know, nobody knows what it's like in here.
[00:36:03] But it's also about, Reaching out, nurturing, building a network externally, and having colleagues mm-hmm. And networks. I mean, that's, that's my raise on debt. That's what I, I pride myself on, on doing and providing because it can feel lonely in this role. Definitely. Right. You're, you're privy to so much stuff.
[00:36:21] You've got such a broad perspective across the whole organization and all that insight into each employee and, you know, a lot of private information, so it can feel a little bit like, Hmm. Who do I get to talk, talk to? Sometimes it is, it is true. I will say during, I do miss having hr, like direct team members when there's like post real challenging like employee issues that just like I.
[00:36:46] You know, break your heart. But that's why I have a dog and two cats at home. Yeah. I love it. They're like, the animals are so supportive. We just, we just we just adopted a brother for Jesse, actually. Our senior rescue dog. So he's arriving on Saturday. We're very excited. But yeah, so now I have two dogs to talk to during the day when I'm.
[00:37:08] Going a little nutty. It's pretty great. I gotta admit. It's pretty, it's, it's, I, okay. I think that's your third piece of advice we, we need to leave people with. Well, thank you so much for, for coming on the show and really giving us some really interesting insight into your world and into what you've learned.
[00:37:26] It's been very, very helpful. Thank you. Oh, thank you for having me. It's, it's been lovely. You're a delight to speak with and I really enjoy listening to your podcast. I hope this inspires more people to listen. But Yeah, too, me too. I've got some amazing guests like you. And more to come, let me tell you, it's it's an exciting year.
[00:37:46] Absolutely. I've got a lot of really great, great people coming on. Well, thanks again, jewel. Yes, thank you.
