- [Announcer 1] Production and distribution of City Club forums on idea stream public media are made possible by PNC and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland Incorporated.

(bright upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to the City Club of Cleveland, where we are devoted to conversations of consequence that help democracy thrive.

It's Friday, June 3rd, and I'm Cynthia Connolly, director of programming here and proud member.

It's my pleasure to introduce to you today's forum, which is part of a series on workforce talent development.

It's a series we're presenting in partnership with the Deaconess Foundation.

There are these phrases that get used so much.

We almost forget what they mean, workforce development, human resources, take those phrases apart for a minute and examine them.

What would it mean to truly develop your workforce?

What would it mean to think of the humans you work with as resources and in turn, what would it mean to ensure that those humans had all the resources they need to be successful in their roles?

The reality is human resource management is an entirely different job today than it was before the pandemic.

And that job was different than it might have been say, 10 or 20 years ago.

Today, HR leaders are advising on how to simultaneously manage a remote and hybrid workforce and they're tasked with creating healthy, safe, and truly inclusive spaces for employees.

Add to that an economy where the competition for top talent has never been greater.

It is not an understatement that HR management has expanded far beyond traditional employee services.

So how is the HR community redesigning the workplace to meet the needs of their employees and what has changed in their approach to their jobs in these evolving circumstances?

That's the terrain our panelists will explore today.

And we have with us George Sample, he's vice president, People & Culture at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Tiffany Short, director for culture and organizational effectiveness at MetroHealth and Dalithia Smith senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Oatey Co. Moderating the panel today is Bethia Burke, president of the fund for our economic future and her latest research paper called where are the workers focuses on the factors that are keeping people out of workforce participation.

Before I hand this off, I want to remind our listening audience that if you have questions for our panelists, you can text them to 330-541-57494 that's 330-541-5794.

You can also tweet them @thecityclub and our staff will work them into the program at the second half.

And now members and friends of the City Club, please join me in welcoming our panelists today.

(crowd applauds) - Thank you so much and good afternoon.

It's a pleasure to be here today.

As we get started, I'd love just to check in with you all.

So it's been a hard couple years and it's been a hard two weeks.

You're all in the business of supporting people, but you're people yourselves.

How are you, how you've been holding up?

- Yeah, so what's tough.

We're talking about being an HR professional and the emotional energy you need to expend to make sure you're supporting your workforce.

You sometimes take that home with you.

So luckily I have a few sports that I get to do run around playing some basketball, some paintball to relieve that stress, but that emotional energy you need to be a confident and impactful HR professional is something else.

- Yeah.

Tiffany, how about you?

- I'm doing well.

I will say the last few weeks, especially has been really hard.

I think that even through the pandemic and, you know, dealing with the pandemic itself and trying to find solutions that did really take a toll, but you know, I have a great support system, so that's always good.

And I really took the time, especially over the last few weeks, just doing some self-reflection around what's important to me, both professionally, personally, and I indulge in a lot of self care.

So, you know, self care is everything, but I'm doing well.

But I will say, you know, these last few weeks coming off of the pandemic has been kind of challenging.

- Yeah.

How about you?

- Definitely it's been tough, but I won't complain because when I think about something that's not going well, you think about people that may have just recently lost a loved one and we're here and in good health.

So it's all about perspective.

So I'm doing well, but over the course of the couple of years in the last couple of weeks, it really makes me know that being in HR is my passion and my calling, because it tells me your part of the solution to all the craziness and madness that's going on.

So that helps me get through the stressful times and the tough moments.

I try to do more self care.

I need to do that more, but it's been tough, but, you know, I won't complain because I do know that I am blessed and having my health and having my loved ones still here.

- Well, I appreciate you all pausing on that.

And just as a reflection, I have been surprised at how we just checked in for a minute.

I've been surprised at how few employers have ways of checking in with their people, especially in this period where we know people are carrying around a lot.

I wonder if anybody wants to talk about the ways in which you hear from the people who work with your companies and what you're hearing from people these days.

- Yeah.

When the pandemic first happened, we were intentional about connecting with our employees.

We were able to very quickly go work remote from a technology standpoint, but I don't think from an emotional standpoint, people would prepare to disconnect from their workforces.

So we did the effort to reach out to every employee individually getting beyond the work by saying, how are you feeling?

How are you dealing with now being a basically stay-at-home teacher?

Or how are you dealing if you're a young professional and your network was at work, how are you dealing with the isolation of now being home for the pandemic?

So it's been a privilege to be able to step in and support those employees.

And we are glad to be able to continue to do so.

- Now what about over at MetroHealth, Tiffany?

How do you check in with people?

- Well, there's quite a few things that we do.

We do roll out surveys, you know, to get some data, some qualitative data, but then we also have focus groups and listening sessions, healing circles even, so that employees can really unpack what they're feeling and get the support of their colleagues as far as a themes perspective, I mean, of course everyone is stressed out, you know, you're being asked to do more with less and remote versus not.

I mean, there's so many things, but some of the themes that we've really focused on over the last year has been around in recognition because we want employees to really feel valued.

I mean, you're coming to work, you're making this commitment and we wanna take time to really be intentional about saying thank you.

So we've rolled out a lot of tools to really help employees, not just managers saying thank you, but letting colleagues be able to express their thanks and gratitude to each other.

So we have some online tools that they can use.

We also have monthly appreciation events for our employees and we engage our leadership around that.

And then I would say, lastly, we make sure that our managers are driving recognition and appreciation within their departments too.

Because again, you know, we all have choices and you could choose not to come to work.

And so we wanna make sure that, you know, our managers are keeping their teams encouraged.

Recognizing them for their efforts.

- And Dalithia over at Oatey.

How do you know if somebody, when you reach out and you hear from people in a variety of ways, how do you know that they're telling you what's really on their mind?

- So that's where we really encourage our managers to be very watchful and listen for different cues and just the sound of the associate.

If they're typically really engaged and talkative, but their demeanor has changed.

Don't be afraid to ask what's going on.

Are you okay?

And what's going on at home is everything at home okay?

So it's not just about the workplace anymore.

We need to view the associate or the employee in their entirety, because so much from home comes into the workplace so much from the workplace goes into the home.

So really being mindful of picking up on cues, if there's a change in demeanor, don't be afraid to ask.

It's not prying.

You never know what you can uncover.

Depression is up since the pandemic, there are subtle cues that you can hear and offer that associate help.

We've had so many people and not so many, but too many people say, thank you for just asking, thank you for caring and even a couple of years.

Well, when the pandemic first started, our executive leadership wrote handwritten notes to all of our associates to say, thank you, thank you for working, thank you for coming.

thank you for showing up and that went such a long way.

Now we may have carpal tunnel after doing all of that, But it went such a long way.

People really appreciated that.

- Increasing your worker's comp claims.

- Yeah.

- Pressing up your hands.

You know, Tiffany, I wonder if we could come back to you because you said something about checking with yourself and reflecting on your work life balance.

And I feel like one of the things I've heard a lot about is this shared reassessment of the value of work and the balance with life and where we might have done that individually on milestone birthdays, now we're doing it all at once over this past two years.

How is that, what does that mean in your profession?

How do you respond to that reevaluation that people are going through?

- Well, I think it's really just creating space, you know, creating space and encouraging them to be empowered, to take that time for themselves, to think about what's important, what they value, how that aligns with the organization that they're with, you know, even saying, it's okay if your, you know, priorities have shifted a little bit, but I think it's really just about creating that space for people to feel open and transparent and psychologically safe to come and talk with you.

But I think it's something that we should do more of, you know, I think, you know, as bad as the pandemic has been, you know, and the loss that we've felt, I think that the flip side of that is that it kind of made us stop and pause and reflect, you know, and because we don't do that often or allow ourselves to do that often, you kind of look back and you're like, wow, the last 10 years, I haven't really taken stock of what's going on and checking in with myself, checking in with others, checking in with my colleagues, you know.

So I think it's really just about creating that space.

- And I wonder, you know, this shift and I would imagine has also opened up the creativity in your professions.

Are there practical changes that have happened that you're really excited about that maybe you wouldn't have gotten to do before?

- I would say it's for us, it's opened us up in regards to the talent we can tap into.

So having this hybrid working model where we can talk into talent all across the country has been very helpful for us, especially some of the bigger projects that we have, people being more thoughtful about how they show up and going to the question you asked, Tiffany, it's important for us as HR professionals and leaders to model that flexibility for our workers.

If we say you can be flexible, but we're not flexible.

That's sending a mixed signal.

One of the things I like about our chief human resource officer did was talk about how sometimes she'll come in for a morning, but leaving the afternoon, cause she has to tend to kids and being able as a leader of the organization to share that that's so helpful for people within an organization to able to step into that flexibility for them.

- Yeah.

Yeah.

And George, you know, you work over the Cleveland fed, which is a pretty different environment.

I would imagine then Dalithia Smith over at the Oatey corporation.

I wonder if you might, you know, what kind of practical things are you seeing and are they similar to what George described or are?

- Absolutely.

So flexibility is key.

I think, regardless of what industry you're in, what type of role.

Flexibility, especially with the pandemic has been an absolute requirement.

One of the things that we did that we wouldn't have probably ever thought about doing before is we brought on a dedicated mental health therapist.

From the standpoint of ensuring that our associates are okay, you know, are they happy and engaged at work?

Are they facing some challenges?

Are they happy and engaged at home?

Whatever it is that they need to have that unbiased third party to talk to that kind of best friend that's not a best friend, we wanted to bring that to our associates without having to wait in line or be on hold, trying to schedule an appointment through your, you know, your medical provider.

We have a therapist that's dedicated to Oatey.

We went from one day to three days, a full schedule that's booked and we're looking to expand that.

So we wanted to make it easy, no cost to our associates.

And it really makes a difference because sometimes when you just talk about things, you get that weight off and then you can move on and keep doing your work and be productive and just enjoy the day.

- And that's the kind of thing that is an added cost to the company.

I can imagine that you're retaining people, you've got healthier employees, but how do you sell that upfront cost or how do you get to these solutions that are good in the long term, but hard in the short term?

- Retention.

So there are so many reasons why associates can leave, but we need to give associates all the reasons why they should stay.

So supporting your mental health, of course, comp and benefits, engaging in exciting job opportunities, growth and development and inclusive environment.

Having, you know, I'm a Gallup person.

So I'll say having that best friend at work.

We have to tell and show our associates, why you should stay.

This is a time where we probably all have options.

Any one of us probably could leave our organization and find five different job offers within a two week time period.

It is more beneficial for an organization to focus on retaining your associates and having to bring new talent on.

And that's gonna show and enhance the dedication from the associates for years to come.

Not just thinking about the short term.

- Yeah.

And Tiffany Short over at MetroHealth.

In addition to these practical solutions, one of the things that I imagine you're dealing with is the issue of burnout and at a level that probably is different in other places, given the high burdens on healthcare.

How have you been dealing with that and what can you do?

And the reality is you still have to care for people and your employees are probably feeling a lot of burden.

- Yeah.

So similar to what Dalithia was talking about, we have a internal employee assistance program, and so employees can receive counseling services, wraparound services, as well as referrals, obviously bias being a healthcare organization, we have mental health professionals that are available to our employees, but we also offer free online tools to our employees as well, such as Headspace, if you're familiar with that type of application.

But it's a really great tool to get those coping tips and meditation and resiliency.

And then we have the healing circles where employees can receive that additional support from their colleagues.

So, I mean, we've handled it from a multiple, you know, multiple ways to try to really alleviate some of that stress with our employees.

And I think also with the employee appreciation events that we're also doing, I mean, that's just another reminder to employees that we appreciate you, we hear you, we see you, we want you to be well, and here are these other resources that you can leverage for your mental health and your wellbeing.

- And are these new things?

Were you doing them two years ago?

- We were doing them two years ago.

Yes.

So a Headspace, that's new, you know, some of those online tools are somewhat new, but we've always had an internal employee assistance program.

And the listening circles and healing circles have always been in place.

- Is there anything that this, and for anybody, is there anything that this really opened up that maybe you had on your, your list of things you'd love to do for people, but you faced pressure before, faced resistance before that you were able to use the evidence of the pandemic to bring in?

- I'll say, we've been more intentional about, you know, getting together in our spaces, cause we we're both working remotely for two years and then we were talking about coming back to the bank, it was, well, why should I come back to the bank?

So with the time we've been back at the bank, we've been so intentional about making sure that we come together, we collaborate, we create reasons to celebrate and really lean into those reasons to celebrate.

So the energy that we have in a building now is better than the energy we've ever had in the building.

- Yeah.

That's amazing.

- You know, one more thing I would add, something that's somewhat newer for us, but we've always really been in this space since we're in healthcare, but we started having our employees take the social determinants of health assessment.

And so that really is, you know, looking at the whole person.

So similar to what Dalithia was saying as well, but looking at the whole person.

So are they experiencing challenges with transportation and food deprivation, you know, childcare, all those things that really feed into your ability to be healthy.

And so where we were pushing that to our patients, we've now started to have our employees take that assessment as well so that they can get the resources that they need in order to be, you know, healthy and their wellbeing in place.

- And are you able to connect between how they respond and those resources, how does that work internally?

- So internally, I mean the assessment, you know, we have a team, the Institute for Hope that is managing that.

And so they will talk with those employees and then point them to different resources.

So it's a soft handoff, I mean really depends on what it is, but for the most part, you know, they make sure that they do the appropriate follow up with the employee and then provide those resources to them.

- Yeah.

Great.

- The only thing I will add is just the focus on taking the time to have relationships, taking the time to talk, because I think prior to the pandemic, it's head down, get the work done, we gotta focus on numbers.

We gotta, you know, ensure the revenue, the profit, all of those business dynamics are there.

Now it's pause.

Have a conversation with your colleague.

We are in a hybrid environment now.

So it's so great to see employees back in the office and having the chatter in the cafe and hearing people talk and really focus on enhancing or strengthening those relationships.

That builds that sense of connectedness, which hopefully makes a person feel better, but also leads to greater retention, which is important from a business standpoint in getting things done.

- That's great.

I love the improvement that's going on in workplaces.

And the other thing that, you know, we've talked a lot about from the workforce development perspective is the desire to, to change entry requirements, to really expand opportunities for people.

This has felt like the point in time to do that, right?

We're in a choice market for workers.

How much have you shifted or are you thinking about shifting entry level requirements for various jobs within your organizations?

- So we're doing that slowly.

You know, as we look the different jobs, knowing that, you know, sometimes educational requirement is an artificial barrier, cause it's really a proxy.

Educational requirement is a proxy for a set of skills.

So we're starting to take more of a skills based approach when we look at our positions to make sure doesn't really require this credential or that credential, or is that creating an artificial barrier, which is sometimes disproportionately impacts certain importance of our population.

So that's been helpful for us to be more thoughtful about those job descriptions and barriers entry into our organization.

- Well, I feel like you're singing the song of my heart when you say that.

So that's really great to hear and I would love to, I'd love to know over time, like how that expands the people you're able to attract in and really grows your workforce.

I don't know if Tiffany or Dalithia, if there's anything on in your world that has changed in that regard?

- I would just say the same.

We're doing the exact same things.

- No, there are a group of people in this room.

We talk about skills-based hiring probably 10 years.

So we're all really enthusiastic and thrilled to hear about it.

I wonder looking at this panel, this is a panel that is more commonplace now, when you look at the demographics of the people up here there might have been even 10 years ago, but certainly 30, 40 years ago.

There seems to have been a shift in the conversation from increasing diversity to increasing belonging.

And I wonder if you could talk about your reaction to that statement and you know, is it more than just a squishy feel good feeling?

What is that, what does that mean for you all?

Go ahead.

- Well, I would say in order to really thrive in any organization, you have to be able to bring your authentic self into work.

And so that sense of belonging is really important that you feel included and seen and valued for your differences for, you know, all of your experiences that you bring into the workplace.

So I think it's highly critical.

And I also think that organizations are just finding that and realizing that it's no longer just a nice thing to do.

It's a business imperative, right?

It really is directly tied to employee satisfaction, retention, innovation.

I mean, so there's a business case for creating a culture that's diverse and inclusive to all.

And this is really, you know, the next step of that, that we are seeing the evolution of that coming to fruition.

- And I would just add, you know, there's so much focus, especially over the course of the last couple of years with everything that's happened.

Organizations that focus on D, E and I, you have to do that.

It is a business imperative, but you have to be genuine with it.

If you're doing it just to check the box, not only are you hurting the associates that are within your company, you're hurting your company's reputation and you're wasting a lot of time and resources.

The diversity piece of it, whatever dimension of diversity that you wanna focus on, bringing all of that into the organization, definitely is a differentiator for your company, innovation, productivity, retention, all of those things.

But inclusion is the piece that makes it even more effective.

You can bring all the different people in, but if it's not an inclusive environment, if I don't feel as though I can be my authentic self at work and be valued for what I bring to the table and my experiences and my differences, you might, you know, you just waste it a lot of time and more than likely I'm gonna leave because I'm not feeling valued or connected or have that sense of belonging.

So diversity is imperative inclusion.

You have to have that there in order to be successful going forward.

- Absolutely agree with that take.

One of the things we did, we created an allyship program.

Which Tiffany and Dalithia points, it's so important.

In that program, people felt the space to talk about their experience authentically and share some of the challenges of our organization.

You know, and we shared that with all the leadership in our organization and we are making steps to use that information that we got from that to make improvements in our culture.

We feel like we have a really good culture, but to your point, you know, it's so important to dig into that and us being able to have those authentic conversations with people - Absolutely.

and get their real feel of how their experience in the organization was goal to us.

- Can you say more about what this allyship program is?

- Sure.

So this is circles of people.

Each one has a table leader.

And so we have minority employees and we have table leaders who are non minorities And those table leaders, the learning went both ways in regards to, Hey, here's how I experienced the organization and the leaders of those tables, who non minorities, who are leaders in our bank.

And they're able to hear a different perspective that they don't live, a different lived experience.

And it helped them actually our table leaders that have changed their lives.

It changed the way that they show up at work, it changed the way they parent, it change the way they see the world.

And now they're able to step in as more effective leaders for our organization because they have a more complete and concrete view of the organization from someone else's perspective and from someone else's view.

- I wonder, I'm thinking about the vast array of CEOs who are out there and many of whom I would suspect really want to have good work cultures who might never have really thought about what you're saying, how do they even start?

Right.

They've they've thought about diversity, they've been tracking their metrics, they've been doing different outreach, but they really haven't thought about this workplace environment thing, do you have any recommendations for how to start thinking about belonging and inclusion?

- Start with empathy.

So there, you know, there are some people who will say, oh, diversity, doesn't, you know, that doesn't affect me.

I can't be included in that conversation, but from an empathy perspective, everyone can put theirselves in someone else's shoes to really have an understanding of what they're going through.

So it could be not feeling included.

It could be racism, discrimination, whatever the case is that someone else is feeling or experiencing, if you start with empathy, that gives you a glimpse into the life of someone else and hopefully be able to see, as you were talking about George with your allyship program.

Okay.

If I'm that person and I'm feeling, you know, not valued or I'm not included, what can I do?

What small thing can I do to shift or, you know, shift the needle, shift the pendulum and swing in a way that allows everyone to say, I am valued.

I am going to set this entire organization up in a way that it can support everyone in our organization and not just to select few.

So putting yourself in the shoes of others is easy.

You don't need tools, resources, you just need to listen and reflect.

- I love that point.

We have a postop about empathy as a competitive advantage.

That what you're saying really connects with me.

I wonder, as you reflect on, you three up here are three leaders who are really thoughtful.

And you're from great companies that are really thinking about your workplaces.

We've got lots and lots of organizations across Northeast Ohio, is your gut that we're moving in the right direction.

How are you feeling about the profession and where we are, you know, across multiple companies in multiple industries?

- I'm feeling very hopeful in regards to the profession.

You know, for human resources professionals being able to step in especially over the course of the pandemic, believe the value of human resources professionals of dealing with COVID or do we come to work or don't we come to work, the different interpersonal challenges and just the mental health.

The value of HR professionals who've really stepped up and helped lead their organizations has never been more important.

So I feel really good about profession.

I feel that the HR profession responded to the pandemic in a really strong way to support their organizations because without strong HR presence, those organizations would've floundered.

- I agree.

I think HR has had to step up.

I agree with that completely.

They're wearing different hats now, you know, the business has an expectation that they're coming in to the table and being thought leaders and strategic partners.

So we've shifted quite a bit from when you think about HR from years and years ago, just being more so personnel to these strategic thought partners.

And so I'm very excited about what's ahead for HR.

Yeah.

I think we're definitely going in the right direction.

- We are the heartbeat of the organization.

I like to say that you know, because I'm passionate about HR.

You could have the best product, but if you don't have people designing, making, selling, talking about that product, you know, it's not gonna go anywhere.

So HR has stepped up.

We are partners, we are strategic partners.

We can help businesses be successful financially, be successful in the community, be successful and make a difference of all the lives of the employees that you have.

Just think about that person who got their first job or someone who was laid off.

And they got a job after being laid off for some time or someone who's ready to retire.

And they spent 30 years with a company with great memories.

HR is in the center of those things.

So we are the heartbeat.

(panelists laugh) - Well, I know we're getting close to our question time here.

So I think last question for this panel up here, as you all think about things that you would love to extract and extract from the group up here, I would just love to know, what one thing would you want everybody to hear about workers today that you think matters that isn't getting maybe getting as much lift or as much attention, if you could give to the voice to the people that you represent and support every day?

- Yeah.

I would say no matter how big your organization is, when you think about your employees on a one to one basis, because no matter what the demographics are for your workforce, every workplace in your workforce is having their own individual experience.

So for you as leaders and managers to be able to connect with each of your employees on one-on-one basis, that will help you pull them in and have a different experience at your organization.

- I agree with that, but just to add to that is around what are you doing to really create that psychological safety for your workforce, right?

For them to be able to express all of the things that they are experiencing and how can you empower them to be the best versions of themselves.

- Yeah.

And lastly, just meet employees where they are.

Some people can thrive in chaos.

Some people maybe not so much.

So making sure that you don't have anyone that's left behind and you have a focus on everyone to ensure they're okay.

- Well, thank you so much.

I really enjoy talking with you all today and I know we're gonna shift over to Q&A here.

- Yes.

Hello again, I'm Cynthia Connolly with the City Club of Cleveland, and we're about to begin the Q&A here with the audience.

I want to thank you for being a part of our conversation on the changing reality of human resource management.

Our panelists are George Sample from the Cleveland Fed, Tiffany Short with MetroHealth and Dalithia Smith of Oatey Co. Bethia Burke of the Fund for our Economic Future is our moderator today.

We welcome questions from everyone City Club members, guests in those joining via our livestream at cityclub.org or radio broadcast at 89.7 Idea stream public media.

If you'd like to tweet a question, please tweet it at the City Club, you can also text them to 330-541-5794 that's 330-541-5794 and our staff will try to work it into the program.

May we have our first question, please?

- Our first question is a text question that we received.

Gen Z is just starting to enter the workforce during a time of ample job availability, a stark contrast to millennials who came of age during a great recession.

How have you pivoted in your approach between these two generations who seem to have clear differences in what they value in job and career.

- We're throwing as much Adam, as we possibly can.

I'm gonna say is every generation that comes into the workforce this my take, is more skilled than that when we came before it.

They have more capacity.

They have more skill sets.

They work differently.

So the people who have come out of college or who are early in their career, just have such capacity.

And it's not the situation where you just say, go make copies and have them sit somewhere in the corner for the first five, 10 years of their career.

They're coming in straight into your organizations and contributing if you allow them the space to do so.

So we are very much allowing them at the bank, the space to contribute immediately as they join our organizations.

- We have a second question via text.

There is a changing of the guard in leadership, across many sectors and so much of your job status has to do with your boss.

How can companies help bosses better become better bosses?

How can companies help bosses become better bosses, especially those new to their roles?

- I would start out by saying one, ensuring that your organization is set up to provide the tools and resources that all your leaders need.

So ensuring that there's a clear understanding of the organization and also focusing on the soft skills.

So how to interact with the employees, how to have conversations, how to focus on not just the technical aspects of the job, but those things that are gonna make associates feel like they matter.

They have a place within the organization, and also not being afraid to have tough conversations with those leaders, because sometimes you can be really good at your technical job, but horrible as a leader.

So making sure that those leaders know this is where you excel, this is where you have some opportunity and have a plan for them to be able to improve.

- And while I'm not on this panel, I am newish to my role leading an organization.

And I think the observation I would add to your question is there's a changing of the guard and there's a changing of the demographics of who is leading organizations and who is leading companies.

And I think it is everything that you just said.

It is giving, making sure that we're thoughtful about giving the right amount of runway as people develop into their roles.

And it's probably changing our opinion about what makes a good boss, because the people filling those roles look and feel different than the people who were there before But it doesn't mean they're worse.

- Yeah, I would say the only thing I would add to that is also remembering the people that are working for the organization too.

So those changes can be very much anxiety inducing situations for your workforce.

And so making sure that you have a solid change management plan on what that's gonna look like, what that transition is gonna look like.

So that people have a sense of comfort, opposed to fear will be helpful in the acceptance of it.

- Good afternoon.

This is a great discussion.

My question is for Mr.

Sample, you mentioned that the federal reserve was intentional about getting people to come back to the office and hinted that there was some resistance to that by at least some people.

So my question is what do you think you were losing?

What were the disadvantages of so many people working remotely and what kind of program do you now have?

Is it everybody comes back every day or is it a hybrid?

- Yeah.

So we've come back into a hybrid program.

You know, so every department is either two or three days a week, just depending on what their function is.

When you talk about some of the resistance.

I mean, I was like, I don't know about this.

I mean, I spent two years home.

Like we throw the shorts and go downstairs.

That's where we're working from.

So yeah, there's for sure resistance.

For us it wasn't emphasizing the things you're going away from, it's emphasizing the things that we gain by coming together.

I mean, show of hands who liked to coming here in person and hanging out with people in person.

Like we thrive on energy.

We're humans.

We thrive on that energy.

So for us, we were intentional when we came back in the building to make sure people came into the spaces to make sure we took every excuse to celebrate small wins, to bring people together for town halls and make sure that energy was infused into the workforce to make sure people were collaborating in person.

Having those happy accidents and those great conversations that happen in the hallway that don't happen when you are not gonna bump into your folks, cause you're stepping on Legos at your house.

So we were very intentional and we have stayed that, like I said earlier, we have an energy in the building that is more palpable than we had before we left for the pandemic.

- Hi, thank you for a wonderful topic that I'm very passionate about.

Thank George.

My question is about speaking about the importance of pipeline and developing the new generation of talent.

And I know George what you do and I know a little bit about what you Tiffany do at Metro.

I would love to hear be what you're currently doing to expand the pipeline and how important it is for everybody in this room to be intentional about expanding and creating a new generation of workforce?

- So I could start, you know, one of the things that we're doing, we are really trying to be intentional about tapping into under represented populations.

So for example, high school students.

And so, you know, we've started to engage high schools across the city to really give their students some exposure to what's possible career wise in healthcare.

And we recognize that the benefit of that is that they can make more informed choices.

So at MetroHealth, for example, we have a partnership with Lincoln West high school, which sits right inside of the actual hospital.

And so we offer programming to those students around healthcare, health disparities, job shadowing opportunities, career panels.

I mean it runs the gamut and we're looking to expand that beyond just Lincoln West.

And so when you think about CMSD, CMSD school systems graduate an upwards of 2000 students a year and 50% of them go directly into the workforce.

So if we can get in front of those students earlier and more often, and really expose them to all of the opportunities and create that access, it then builds a stronger feeder into our pipeline.

- Some of the things that we're doing at Oatey.

So we have your traditional apprenticeship programs.

So for those who don't wanna go to a traditional four year institution, we really try to promote all types of career opportunities whether you're gonna go into a trade, you come right into the workforce after high school to do some really good work experience, or you have that four year degree.

We try to promote all of that.

In addition, we are looking to create our own reentry program.

So there are so many ex offenders that are being released from jail.

And we are partnering with the communities to not only ensure that there's a viable path for those ex offenders to have a great job, great income, to be able to give back to the community, but it gives us a great pipeline as well.

So apprenticeships, our traditional internship programs, co-op programs, entry level college graduate programs in the re-entry is what our focus has been to ensure we have a full and robust pipeline.

- Well, good afternoon.

So my question, she was a little bit into my question, but I'm gonna reframe it a different way.

So when we speak of DEI, DEIB, DEIA, all the acronyms associated with it.

In today's time, we have the tendency to be very quick with these words and not really dig into the intentionality of what those words really mean and how they apply to our individual organizations.

Much of what we can do as leaders at times can be influenced by inherent biases, by which we make decisions and then our organizations look one way and we don't intend them to look one way.

So can you all provide some expertise in terms of what you see in your organizations to kind of chop that up a bit so that when we pull up our websites or when we're at the table, it actually reflects DEI, DEIB, DEIA?

- Yeah.

One of the things from my background, I've had diversity roles.

I've had HR roles.

I had a gait of that.

I've seen DEI efforts be most impactful when they're very much tied in with our HR processes, especially our talent management processes.

You have to be thoughtful because the outcomes you seek a lot of 'em are the HR processes, talk about promotions, performance management, hiring, those are all processes that are managed by HR.

So making sure those efforts are tied in there, we have programs where we're looking at, what does the distribution of our performance management look like in the ratings, you know, by ethnicity, by gender, do we have inherent biases that are there?

And then if we find those things, how do we find the root cause?

And I'll use that example there.

We found that sometimes our minority professionals, we're getting less opportunities for those high visibility, high priority projects.

So yeah, they were doing a good job of getting achieves.

We talked about exceeds and outstanding.

Those only happen when managers are thoughtful about going beyond their go-to people and then giving those high visibility, high priority assignments to people who are not the go-to folks.

So once we started doing that, we're seeing better results now because more folks are being able to shine and being able to bring their full selves and their full skillset.

And we find out we have more go-to folks than we thought we had to had because we're going beyond those just top 10% of people that were usually getting all the plum assignments.

Now we're getting greater distribution.

So that's just one example of us being very intentional about thinking about diversity equity inclusion, but what does it look like at the ground level, at the operational level?

And that's one way to operationalize it.

- And being in the manufacturing industry, we're a little bit different at my organization where we are very diverse in our manufacturing plants and distribution centers for our hourly associates or the entry level.

But when we look at the managerial ranks or the salary ranks, diversity was almost nonexistent.

So we are very intentional in our talent acquisition practices to say, we have to have a diverse candidate slate coming in the door so we can build our minority representation within our managerial ranks, not just hiring for a number, but ensuring we have quality hires coming in.

We don't want a quota.

We don't wanna just get the stat.

We wanna ensure there's quality in the talent.

And that background may look a little different.

So if you say you have to have a certain amount of experience, well, you really have to look at the population that has that experience.

If it's something that's traditionally filled by white males, you can't say that's what you want coming into this because you already have a deficit in the talent pool that is lacking that experience.

For example, maybe wholesale sales from a plumbing perspective.

If there's not a lot of minorities there, you can't require that experience because you're just bringing in more of what you already have.

So we're being creative in the experience that we're aligning to.

What's gonna work at our organization and being very intentional with where we're going to seek new talent coming in.

- I have a question via text.

Sometimes it feels like HR professionals are being asked to do too much.

We talk about employee retention, but what about HR management retention?

- [Bethia] Who is ready to quit their job?

(panelists laugh) - What can the workforce development network do to help the HR sector?

- You know, I guess I'll share a unique experience.

So I think it's that sense of community, right?

And collaboration, not just internally within your HR teams, but then also externally, you know, it made me, as you were asking that question, I was reflecting on the workforce collaboratives that are now kind of emerging over the last few years.

I'm part of the healthcare collaborative.

And so, you know, in talking with my counterparts at Cleveland clinic or UH or some of the other institutions that's really been helpful, you know, that community and having a space in which we can share ideas, share best practices and getting an outside perspective, you know, and so that's always recharging for me personally, and then bringing that back into the HR teams, that information back into the HR teams and how, you know, that looks for us specifically within MetroHealth.

But I think it's leveraging your community for sure.

- Yeah.

I agree with that.

It's all about your community.

So I serve as president for the Cleveland Site, human resource management, and those are great opportunities to connect with other HR professionals because you're HR professional, you got headache after headache coming left and right.

So to be able to connect with other HR professionals who are experience similar things and be able to sometimes complain, sometimes we complaining about y'all sometimes.

- So it has to be a trusted space.

- It has to be a trusted space, for sure.

But to know the folks that are going through that and be able to problem solve through that and work through those shared experiences you have in different organizations is important.

So going back to what Tiffany said, us having that sense of community is vitally important.

- Right.

And other HR professionals, we know what each other goes through.

So we have an appreciation.

Whereas we may like, for example, in participating in the planning call for this session, I had an employee relations issue and I was late joined the call.

And, you know, I know my colleagues here could appreciate that because they're in the same space.

So having someone that can understand and empathize with what you're going through, is very helpful and is a good stress reliever for us in this field.

- Good afternoon.

This is a great discussion.

My name is Craig Plat.

I lead the it sector partnership.

And a lot of the great data we get from Tim Neil says about 2300 entry level jobs go unfilled every year in IT.

And so as I set around with my employer leadership team, and we start talking about that, they mentioned Craig, our biggest need is 40% of the openings are mid-level.

So as you look at talent acquisition, how do you turn that into talent development, so people can achieve their goals and move through the organization and have shared prosperity?

- Yeah.

And one of the things we talked about earlier was that instead of looking for credentials, looking for the skill sets.

So if you have those positions that are open, how do we make sure that we are creating opportunities for people to build those skill sets?

Sometimes non-traditional ways so we can fill some of those opportunities that are there.

So that's what we've been looking more intently at that knowledge, skills and abilities and how do we create more talent that way, Because there's definitely a gap in the need right now.

- Yeah.

- And don't let your development programs be the first things that are cut when your organization says, Hey, we gotta do some cost cutting, keep the development programs cause if you cut them, you're cutting the skills that you need in order to generate more revenue.

So you have to do that and just be intentional with creating those programs because it's a great motivator for your associates to be able to grow within their organization as well as bringing in new talents.

So if you have internal training programs, take your entry level, develop them internally.

They know your organization and they have that fulfillment of, I started here and now I'm continuously growing through their organization.

- Yeah, that's huge.

I remember when I worked for the regional sewer district, we created a maintenance training program.

So we took people who were, they're painters, they were janitors and took them through a program where they brought education to them head on job training and turned 'em to electricians and mechanics.

They're grateful forever for that opportunity cause you've changed their life.

So for your organizations, if you can create programs, they're gonna train them, give them a high level skillset.

There's a different level of connection they're gonna have with your organization long term.

- Absolutely.

- We have a question from Twitter.

With recent mass shootings across workplaces.

What are you hearing from employees about their concerns?

How do you balance offering active attacker training to frontline employees who have these concerns and then balancing the message that sends about their safety in the work environment?

- Wow.

It is truly first and foremost, allowing that safe space for associates to talk about what has happened, what is happening, whether they're personally affected or they know someone who is affected or just affected because of all of the media attention.

So having that safe space to have conversations, but then also being very transparent about what the company is doing to ensure that our environment is safe.

So not only, you know, we've always had our environmental health safety and security practices in place, but now we're enhancing that.

So we will have active shooter training for all of our associates, not just corporate associates.

So we're in the process of developing that.

Reminding associates, we have a badge system and security system for a reason to get into our facilities.

Don't just open the door for people thinking, oh, I'm being nice.

If you don't know that person, let them buzz in with the receptionist or whoever before just opening a door.

So reminding all of our associates some of the simple safety practices and as simple as it may seem to say, if you see something or hear something that just doesn't seem right, speak up about it, we would rather kind of waste the time to have the conversation and look into it because something may be there versus having an associate saying, well, I thought, but I didn't wanna bother anyone.

Speak up about anything that may seem odd to keep us all safe.

- We're gonna try to squeeze one last one in if we can.

Here's my question, imagine you're the HR lead at Tesla and you have a one on one with Elon Musk.

We can leave it there, but no, it says, how do you advise him after his pronouncement about returning to the office?

- Yeah.

- A person might stop tweeting.

(panelists laugh) - Right.

- You know, it it's hard.

We've had, I mean, this is not the first time you've had pronouncements from high profile CEOs say we're doing this way or going either to the office or going back home.

So it's tough cause every leader is going to lead in their own different way.

He has his own brand.

But I would say more generally in regards to leaders more generally or not Elon Musk, but high profile leaders, you have to be thoughtful about what your organization needs and you have to be tuned in to what your organization needs.

Every organization has a different culture.

They have different way that they operate.

So, you know, a bank is not gonna be the same thing as a manufacturer, but the leader has to be all the way tuned in into that and what the needs are for their employee base.

So I would say Elon, stop tweeting (panelists laugh) and let's step back and be thoughtful about what are the specific needs of our specific workforce.

- All right.

Thank you (crowd applauds) to our panelists.

I'm Cynthia Connolly, director of programming at the City Club.

And we've been talking about the changing reality of human resource management with George Sample from the Cleveland Fed, Tiffany Short with MetroHealth and Dalithia Smith of Oatey Co Our moderator today was Bethia Burke of the Fund for our economic future.

Thank you all for being here.

We'd like to thank the Deaconess Foundation for their partnership and guidance on this series on workforce development.

And thanks also to our friends at Bank of America for their help with this as well.

Our next forum in this series is coming up in late July.

Keep your eyes on our website for that at cityclub.org, we would like to welcome guests at tables, hosted by the Deaconess Foundation, the employment collaborative ERC, Fund for Economic Future Global Cleveland, and USI Insurance.

Next Friday, we'll welcome, nationally known artist and author Dr. Anne Basting.

She will discuss how to radically change the ways we interact with our elders, which includes infusing arts, creativity and even improv comedy into elder care settings.

And starting June 21st, who will spend our Tuesdays in public square with such a change of the guard in leadership recently, we will be speaking with some of these new and emerging leaders.

This includes Hannah Halbert of Policy Matters, Ohio, city of Cleveland city planner, Joyce Wong, Tony Richardson of the gun foundation and new nonprofit editors in chief, Lila Mills and Jim Crutchfield.

You can learn more about these forums and others at cityclub.org.

And that brings us to the end of today's forum.

Thank you, George, Tiffany, Dalithia, Bethia, and thank you members and friends of the City Club.

I'm Cynthia Connolly and this forum is now adjourned.

(crowd applauds) (bright upbeat music) - [Announcer 2] For information on upcoming speakers or for podcasts of the city club, go to cityclub.org.

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