Alexis gives tips to employees and employers on how to keep “the water cooler conversations” so that everyone on the team feels connected. She also talks about how to recognize special events, like birthdays, promotions, and project deadlines.

To connect with Alexis:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexishultine/ 

People are wanting flexible employers and for them to trust

Alexis Hultine

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Today’s guest is Alexis Hultine. Teresa and Alexis discuss A New Hope: Remote Work. They discuss how remote work can be a positive thing for most companies and how many employment seekers are specifically looking for remote or flexible work. Hybrid work is here to stay, we found with the pandemic that can help with productivity and a happier workplace.

Alexis gives tips for employees and employers on how to keep “the water cooler conversations” so that everyone on the team feels connected. She also talks about how to recognize special events, like birthdays, promotions, and project deadlines.

To connect with Alexis:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexishultine/ 

People are wanting flexible employers and for them to trust

Alexis Hultine

Episode Timeline

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The second guest in our Return to Work Series is Theresa Agovino, workplace editor for the Society for Human Resource Management. Teresa McQueen talks with Theresa about what the workplace could look like in 2025.  Facebook and Twitter were one of the first companies to hire a Director of Remote Work to help manage the amount of people working remotely.  Another trend that Theresa says will continue is the push for diversity and inclusion. Theresa also believes that the COVID-19 pandemic has made companies think more about the health of their employees.

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Companies Have Realized That People Can Productively Work From Home. It’s Made Companies So Much More Aware Of The Health And Safety Of Their Employees

– Theresa Agovino

Check out the Theresa’s article mentioned in today’s podcast :

What Will the Workplace Look Like in 2025

The first guest in our Return to Work Series is Susan Lund, partner of McKinsey & Company and a leader of the McKinsey Global Institute. Teresa McQueen talks with Susan about the Future of Work : Post Covid-19. Many employers and employees have faced challenges over the past year, but what will the future hold for the workforce? Listen to the episode to hear about McKinsey’s recent study.

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There Is Work, But It Is Going To Be Different Work And In General, It’s Specialized Skills. It’s Been Really Hard For New Employees To Join A New Organization And Work Only Via Zoom. It’s A Mindset Shift
– Susan Lund

Check out the McKinsey Global Institute’s report mentioned in today’s podcast :

What 800 Executives Envision for the Postpandemic Workforce

What’s Next for Remote Work : an Analysis of 2000 Tasks 800 Jobs and Nine Countries

Thank You To: Susan Lund

Today’s guest is Nicole Miller, People Operations Manager at Buffer. Teresa McQueen talks with Nicole about Buffer’s 2020 4 Day Work Week Experiment. In May 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Buffer decided to experiment with a 4 Day Work Week. After a month, they felt the need to extend the trial of the experiment to December. Listen to the Podcast to see what they found out!

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We Encouraged People To Make It Their Own. We Really Tried To Look At What Is A Creative Way We Can Address It, Make Our Team Feel Supportive, Make Them Feel Heard And Make Sure That We Are Focusing On The People And Human Component Of Our Work Place.
– Nicole Miller

Thank You To: Nicole Miller

Click here for the article on 4 Day Work Week

Today’s guest is Katie Womersley, VP of Engineering at Buffer. Teresa McQueen talks with Katie about working remotely. Katie gives her myths and pitfalls of remote work and how you can create a team atmosphere and not be in the same room as your co-workers.

Teresa and Katie discuss Buffer’s efforts in tackling mental health in the workplace, especially in the time of a pandemic. Katie gives our audience her tops for maintaining moral, preventing burnout and how to work better, while working remotely.

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Today’s guest is Ben Eubanks, principal analyst and Chief Research Officer at Lighthouse Research. Teresa McQueen talks with Ben about Artificial Intelligence in Human Resources.

Teresa and Ben discuss how Artificial Intelligence and Human Resources are integrating, what area Human Resources are using Artificial Intelligence now and what are the benefits and challenges. Ben gives his tips for those who are looking to integrate Artificial Intelligence into their Human Resource programs

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Today’s special guest is Michael Ashley, Owner and Creative Content specialist at Ink Wordsmith. Mr. Ashley is also a speaker and co-author of “Own the A.I. Revolution: Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy to Disrupt Your Competition.”  SAFFIRE LEGAL PC’s founder and principal attorney Teresa McQueen talks with Mr. Ashley about his views artificial intelligence and its impact on the workforce of the future. This engaging conversation delves deep into Mr. Ashley’s theories of how artificial intelligence may impact existing jobs while increasing our quality of life and improving certain professions. 

“AI poses an opportunity for us to be more human than we’ve been before.”

– Michael Ashley

Highlights From This Week’s Workplace Perspective:

• “AI is any task or activity completed by a program or a machine that if a human being did the same thing we would say it requires intelligence to complete it.” Michael Ashley

• Andrew Yang – author of “The War on Normal People” – states that:
  “The media and the public need to be talking about artificial intelligence and the possible threats of automation more. We have some understanding that AI is coming for blue collar jobs – truck driver is raised a lot – but what people don’t realize is that it is also coming for white collar jobs.”

• Amazing new technology called AI Writer aggregates content on the web to help write blogs. Mr. Ashley discusses how this can be considered plagiarism since the person who publishes the blog post just copies and pastes it. But also considers how far is that from original AI content.

• Author Kai-Fu Lee in his book “AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order” speaks about what AI does for you. In a sense we do have superpowers when we use artificial intelligence. We – in essence – merge with AI to become bigger or greater than we are right now.

• The ethics of artificial intelligence: How super intelligence is achievable through AI. We are able to behave and think in ways beyond how we can think now. What happens when everyone has the capability, but there are some that won’t have access. Do they get left behind?

Michael Ashley’s Tips for Employers and Employees:

• We need to begin to see the humanity in other people.

• We need to find value in other people more than just how much money they can earn us.

• If we recognize that automation is coming for most jobs how do we begin to relate to each other? Will we begin to relate in a way that we should have been doing all along which was to be kind to one another because they’re a living creature.

• We need to have more awareness about artificial intelligence and more public discussion about the future.

• Artificial intelligence can’t do what people can do which is to integrate information.

• Artificial is exactly what humanity needs in this moment. It is a catalyst for us to change how we relate to each other.

Today’s special guest is attorney and Human Resources professional Mona Shah. With over ten years of HR experience Ms. Shah as accumulated a wealth of experience working in the field of human resources. Her impressive career spans various industries and includes working as an HR professional for Twitter, Kaiser Permamente and most recently California Pacific Gas & Electric. 

SAFFIRE LEGAL PC’s founder and principal attorney Teresa McQueen talks with Ms. Shah about her views and insights into our traditional 9-5 culture and how the workplace dynamic is shifting to become more flexible. This engaging conversation delves deep into the ways companies are evolving to accommodate both local and international employees to obtain the best possible talent available.

“Market conditions, workforce demands, and globalization has changed the work culture and environment. The 9-5 brick and mortar isn’t working any more due to these factors. The work place is shifting to a more flexible and remote workplace.”

– Mona Shah

Highlights from This Week’s Workplace Perspective:

• Employees get a better work/life balance and can work from home is a trend that is coming up and benefiting employers and employees.

• It’s not just tech industry that’s adapting this type of workplace – the remote workplace demand is driven by micro climates too. Even older companies are making changes to acclimate to this new environment.

• The difference between companies that are open to these changes versus some tech companies that have had these procedures were in place since the beginning of the company. There is an appetite for [remote workforce] and many companies are starting to figure out how to supply it.

• Need to implement policies and procedures and processes that are fair, consistent, scalable and sustainable to make sure that these distributed  teams can be managed in the right way, Otherwise there is a lot of derivative types of things that can happen if these teams aren’t managed in the right way.

• “Distributed workforce” – anywhere from someone who is working flexible work hours or someone who is working remote full time or employees who are working in the office or around the office domestically or around the world.

Today’s special guest is Dr. Chip Espinoza, author and Dean of Strategy and Organization at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA. SAFFIRE LEGAL PC’s founder and principal attorney Teresa McQueen talks with Dr. Espinoza about his views on the impact Millennials will have in on the workforce of the future. This engaging conversation delves deep into the gaps between the four generations in the workforce right now and what the future workforce will look like once Millennials and Gen Z transition into their own dominate workforce rolls. 

“If you want to make a difference, master their way before you suggest your way.”

– Dr. Chip Espinoza

Highlights From This Week’s Workplace Perspective:

• How the Millennial generation will influence working in the future.

• Why Millennials are the first generation who don’t need an authority figure to access information.

• “Demographic Metabolism” – the transition from when older generations are losing control of the workforce and a newer generation is taking over.

• How having negative management experiences can damage or create a malevolent view of older generations in the workplace for Millennials.

• Why some workplaces value experience over education and the kind of barriers that can create.

• The importance of communication that is focused on readiness and preparedness with Millennials instead of expecting them to follow outdated work mentalities.

• “Structural Lag” – outmoded social institutions failing to provide opportunities for its members who represent a growing group.

• What does it mean “to work?”

• How does the conversation about Millennials translate to other generations.

• Millennials are more alike around the world than any generation before them

Dr. Chip Espinoza’s Tips for Employers and Employees:

• Focus on building a relationship between employees and managers

• Take the initiative to reach out to the employees to help them building experience

• Help employees by establishing a career path for them with milestones they can accomplish

• Provide frequent feedback and communication

• Be careful about how you present a potential job

• Be aware that if there’s no room for advancement or the description doesn’t match the actual daily work, there’s less chance of retaining a Millennial workforce

• Understand that young professionals want to make a difference in the company and contribute to the betterment of the  organization

• Focus on providing opportunities that have meaning and allow for self expression