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Workforce Therapy Files

Workforce Therapy Files

By: Jim Ray
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 This podcast is designed for business leaders and human resource professionals who are challenged with expanding their workforce. Workforce Therapy Files, an Employer Solutions Podcast, is hosted by 3 separate business owners who operate in the staffing and human resources space. They'll provide perspectives, tips and advice (along with a little humor) to help you prepare for and manage your workforce challenges. Need Help Supporting Your Company’s Recruiting and Staffing Goals? We’re here to help. You can contact us via our individual websites, depending on your specific needs or questions: • Jamie Swaim, SPHR – www.ParcelKnows.com • Molley Ricketts – www.IncipioWorks.com • Jason Heflin – www.CrowdSouth.com We hope you find it insightful and helpful. Thank you for listening!2023 Economics Management Management & Leadership
Episodes
  • Benefits of Vision Boards and Life Boards

    Benefits of Vision Boards and Life Boards
    Jun 3 2025
    File 27: In today’s file, the team explores the benefits of vision boards and life boards. They each talk about how they approach these tools in their own lives. This conversation springs from a new experience Jamie is working through that took an unexpected turn, at the outset. The team welcomes their podcast producer, Jim Ray, to participate with them in the discussion. The Executive Coaching Experience Jamie shares that she’s recently begun working with an executive coach at Building Champions. One way the coach has challenged her is to be more intentional about herself. That came as a bit of a surprise. It wasn’t exactly what Jamie was anticipating, although she knows it’s been an area she’s often overlooked, while helping others. Jamie asks Molley whether she uses a vision board and to explain her overall life-planning process. When Molley’s kids were young, the family would create vision boards during the Thanksgiving break. It was interesting to see how those young brains worked. They’d cutout pictures and color the poster board based on where they saw themselves in a year. As a result, it became apparent that they needed to do something more. While Molley sees the value in using a vision board, life-planning is bigger than that. Assuming the average lifespan is between 70 and 80 years old, she suggests making a grid comprised of 80 squares. Put an X in each of the boxes that represents as year, up to your current age. The visual is typically a grid with many fewer boxes remaining, that you might have initially thought. Is it worth being as stressed out as we probably are? Where do we want to be in 5-10 years? What will retirement look like? How do we begin taking steps to make the life we want to live in retirement? Jamie admits when she considers what the future is going to look like, she has trouble bringing that vision into focus. Jason suggests that may be one of the reasons she elected to begin working with a coach. Jamie comments she feels she does a nice job of talking about intentionality in the professional setting, but when that conversation is focused inward, she struggles. Producer Jim relates to Jamie. As a sales professional and sales manager, he knows how to craft a territory strategy for revenue growth, it becomes much more difficult on the personal level. You realize how quickly time has passed. The thing we used to value may no longer hold as much value in our lives. He’s never built a vision board, so he’s looking forward to this discussion. Creating a Vision Board and a Life Board Molley explains how someone might view a vision board, until they finally accomplish one of those items on the board. Then, the process, focus and meaning begins to fall into place. Jason admits it may feel a little “woo-woo.” But, by placing an item on your vision board, it holds you accountable. In fact, he’s been doing vision boards for roughly 20 years. Jason divides his board into a work column and a personal column. There might be 4-10 items he lists that he really wants to accomplish in the upcoming year. The important aspect is that it’s measurable. It may be a dollar amount, a specific number of days, or some other trackable objective. This way, he “knows what done looks like.” Interestingly, he also resists removing items from his board, unless there’s a major intervening factor. He wants this board to stare him in the face. While his primary board is a 1-year timeframe. He also creates a 3-year, 5-year and 10-year version, enabling him to focus on long-term aspirations. At age 50, Jason comments that understanding the limited time he has left may sound a bit morbid. Molley recasts that perspective as, “How you’re going to feel your joy.” These are an outline of the steps he’ll take to achieve that joy. Jamie asks how Jason and Molley got started with their vision boards. Jason had just left a corporate job. He wanted to take a year off. The board was a collection of activities he wanted to experiment with, such as consulting, becoming fractional senior leader for a small company, etc. Within 4 weeks of leaving his corporate job, he became a fractional marketing VP and had a consulting client. He was astonished by how quickly these items became realities. He knew it was time to take another crack at his vision board. Jason explains that once he added something to the board, he’d take time to work backwards to determine what would have to happen in order for that vision to become manifest. For most motivated professionals, having an item on a vision board can be a significant source of focus and determination. Jamie came up through her education learning about servant-leadership. There was a focus on helping others to live the lives they wanted to live. When she took her first step at creating a vision board, it was very emotional for her. It was ...
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    41 mins
  • Mostly Funny HR Stories

    Mostly Funny HR Stories
    May 21 2025
    File 26: In today’s file, the team is going to lighten-up the conversation with some funny HR stories they’ve either experienced or heard about. Before we begin, we’d like to encourage you to send us your funny HR stories, via the Workforce Therapy Files website. We might read them on an upcoming file. Sleeping on the Job Stories Story 1 Molley begins with a personal example from her “first real job.” She wanted to talk with one of the leaders. She knew he was in the office. She knocked on his office door repeatedly. Finally, the door opened. She was shocked. She asked if he had been sleeping at his desk, because there was an imprint of his watch on his forehead! Molley later explains that the guy and his wife had recently had their firstborn, so he may have been justifiably, sleep-deprived. Stories 2, 3 and 4 Jason also has some sleeping stories. Jason worked at a distribution, during a newly-created 2nd shift. There weren’t many trucks coming it on 2nd shift. The supervisors created some busy work for the employees, between trucks. Jason was sweeping a long aisle in the warehouse. Suddenly, he hears, “Hey dude.” It startled him, so he began looking around to see where the voice came from. He looked up to find his co-worker napping on the 3rd level of the rack shelves. Jason climbed up to find and entire sleeping space the guy had created. After assuring his co-worker that they were cool, he climbed back down and just continued sleeping. There was another role in which Jason knew a co-worker in the office was falling asleep at his desk. Jason would ask him what he was doing and the guy’s head would pop-up and the guy mumbled, “Praying.” It happened often enough that Jason had to eventually dismiss the guy. In his final sleeping story, Jason describes a small office he worked in, years ago. They had an admin at the front desk. Early one morning, the boss unlocked the main door and walked in. All the lights were out, so she continued back to her own office. When she came back out, the admin guy was sitting at his desk. The bell on the front door hadn’t chimed, but he claimed he’d been there the whole time. The boss knew she’d just walked past the empty desk. The admin finally relented and admitted that he’d been asleep under the desk (from a hangover). Reasons People Gave for Calling Out of Work Story 5 Jamie was working her first HR-assistant job out of college. One of her responsibilities was to review the call-out line messages. She tells us about 2 interesting excuses. The first was from a woman who was calling on behalf of a guy who worked 3rd shift. He wasn’t going to be able to come in, because she was getting ready to have a baby. Then she let out a giant labor pain scream. Jaime still tries to imagine the conversation that must have taken place between the guy and the woman about calling his employer, while she was having contractions. Fortunately, once the man returned to work, he proudly showed off pictures of his new baby. Work Isn’t the Only Type of Labor that Happens at the Office Story 6 Jamie tells another story about a woman who actually went into labor at work. While the baby came extremely early, it was a very tense experience, that turned out okay. The work environment required a lot of walking. Surprisingly, the walking induced the birth. Jamie remembers sitting on the bathroom floor with the woman. While this isn’t a funny HR story, unexpected things often happen at work. In this case, you might say, “Life Happens.” Drug Test Fail Story 7 Molley was handling mass-recruiting for a large call center. There was a lot of turnover, so it was a constant push to get people scheduled for interviews. She sent an offer to a candidate. Candidates were required to immediately come in for the drug test and fingerprinting. Other employees started approaching the HR office to let them know a woman was in the parking lot offering $100 to anyone who would provide a urine sample she could use for her drug test. They rescinded the offer that day. In Vino Veritas Story 8 Jason recounts a story he heard about a company conference. There was a 20-person hot tub at the venue. Alcohol had been consumed at the event. Someone came up with the idea of playing truth or dare in the hot tub. Well, some stories came out. Needless to say, there were some very awkward looks in the room the following day. Duct Tape Will Fix It Story 9 Jamie remembers a job she had years ago. There was an individual who was constantly in trouble for pushing the line on what was deemed to be appropriate and inappropriate. He enjoyed wearing t-shirts that had questionable statements on them. While some of them were funny, Jamie knew she would lose authority if she allowed herself to actually laugh at some them. To remedy the situation, she’d give the guy duct tape to cover the statements...
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    30 mins
  • Layoffs and Lay-Ups (Part 2)

    Layoffs and Lay-Ups (Part 2)
    May 9 2025
    File 25: In today’s file, the team wraps up a 2-part discussion on the job market. In this episode, they’ll focus on “lay-ups”. These are the positive ways an organization can assist exiting employees to land on their feet, after a separation. At the same time, this segment will also help area employers to take advantage of the availability of new candidates becoming available, especially if a large layoff has occurred. Click here to listen File 24, Layoffs and Lay-Ups (Part 1). In File 11 (Breaking Up Is Hard to Do), the team discussed the topic of separating with dignity. This might also be a good reference point. There Are Steps that Can Be Taken to Assist Exiting Employees Molley begins by commenting about how once the severance package and other formalities have been handled, there are still additional steps an employer can take to assist exiting employees. This comes back to a them discussed in File 11 about separating with dignity. If the organization knows the separation is going to happen, are there job-placement resources in the community that could assist with re-hiring? Do managers personally know if local businesses that could use good employees? Contact them and invite them to connect with your impacted employees. These types of extra steps can help to ease the transition. Remember, when one door closes, another one eventually opens. In the previous file, File 24, Jamie presented some of the legal requirements a company has, based on the WARN Act, when a layoff is coming. Again, none of the hosts are attorneys, but the information can serve as a guideline for a conversation with your business/corporate attorney. Jamie points out that by helping former employees to land on their feet, there are indirect and direct benefits to the organization, such as lower claims and the avoidance of potential litigation expenses. Not to mention the damage to the company’s reputation as a community/regional employer. Jason discusses a number of actions he’s seen his clients take in these types of situations. He groups them as passive and active steps. An example of a passive action could include writing letters of recommendation for employees. An active action might be contacting local and regional workforce teams and the unemployment office resources. Additionally, if you become aware of a layoff in the area, get your marketing team working on a plan to potentially attract these potential job candidates. Go so far as to engage that company’s HR team to see if you can begin recruiting onsite, before the official layoff date occurs. Consider geo-fencing or geo-targeting the company’s location enabling you to serve online ad notifications to people who show up at that location. Jamie also comments on this aspect. If you are the employer facing layoffs, consider reaching out to other local employers to see if they are looking for good candidates. Your recommendations would be extremely helpful to the HR team, as well as your employees. Jason explains how they helped to identify industry-adjacent employers for a client. They didn’t have the exact same jobs, but many of roles required similar skillsets. Molley describes how affected employees can leverage the skills they’ve developed over the years, yet when recruiters and HR overly-depend on technology to screen applicants, those prospective employees risk being left on the sidelines. We need to help employees to tell their stories differently. Providing a long-term employee resources can be extremely helpful. He/she may need help building a résumé and learning how to apply for jobs. Help them to list their specific skills. It’s also possible to work on improving their social media footprint. Equip that long-term employee with a letter of recommendation, help them to set up an appointment with a staffing specialist, and you might even be able to provide them with information about specific opportunities with other employers. Remember, these are steps to helping with a lay-up, before or after the layoff. Molley suggests contacting the Kentucky Career Center, which is a statewide resource. It’s a valuable resource for employees who are facing a layoff or other separation. Your tax dollars have already been used to fund these resources, so take advantage of them. Placing an Emphasis on Workforce Planning This was mentioned in File 24. Molley provides an example. Organizations over-hire. It’s often because they don’t know how to properly hire. They’re planning for attrition. Instead, if organizations were to create an authentic approach to the hiring process for each position, you’d consider the company’s readiness to hire, the timing for the hire, the reason one or more people need to be hired, etc. This granular approach will help you to know the best time to engage in the hiring process. It can actually lower the overall cost of your workforce ...
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    23 mins
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