What your employees need to hear during traumatic events. Reflections on how HR leaders should respond to the January 6th insurrection.

Like millions around the world, I watched with sadness as fellow citizens stormed the Capital building in the United States yesterday in an attempt to disrupt democracy. (note: I realize this is a volatile topic and some of you reading this may view these events differently — but I’m writing to facts, not feelings).

We’ve watched singular and seismic events like this unfold before. 9/11, terrorist attacks, tsunamis, and other natural disasters. These are times when our employees need to hear from us, but too often we’re silent. Either unwilling to address these events or paralyzed in an attempt to find the right words to do so.

There are additional variables at play that may make finding the right words difficult. Maybe your company is based outside of the region of the event and you have a pocket of employees who may be impacted? Perhaps you’re stuck on who sends the email? CEO? CHRO? Local MD? Managers?

As people leaders, we need to meet these moments and let our employees know we see them and recognize how they might be impacted by the unfolding events. There’s a lot of nuances here. Often these events will be seen and felt through their own lens. Your employee’s reactions to yesterday will include:

• A difficult reminder of white supremacy as the images of white protestors moving unchecked through the capital while police watched is a painful juxtaposition to the violent crackdown on the Black Lives Matter protests months earlier
• Sadness at the conflict and breaking norms of a peaceful transition of power
• Some may also see it as justified actions based on the misinformation they’ve consumed and believe about the election being “stolen”
• Threading communication across these populations and perspectives is not easy — but it’s vitally important. This is the general tone of what your communication should look like when events like this unfold.

Team,

We’re closely monitoring the X events as they unfold. Like all of you we share your concerns about what’s taking place.

It may be difficult for you to focus on work right now. We get that. We’re feeling the same way.

Your well-being during this time is our priority. Take the time and space you need to process what’s happening and prioritize your own self-care over work.

We encourage managers to cancel any non-essential meetings.

We’ll continue to communicate proactively as the events unfold. In the meantime, we want to remind you of our [EAP/etc] resources if you need to speak with a professional to process what’s happening.

My team and I will also be available to support you however we can.

Name

This post was inspired by a discussion in the People Tech Partners community. I want to specifically acknowledge the contributions and ideas of Beth Steinberg for influencing this piece.

Note: This post from January 7, 2021, is re-posted in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

I’ve been thinking about specific steps I can take to address systemic racism and inequity. This will be a long-term effort for me, but I wanted to share some of the initial steps I’ll be taking on this journey.

I’ve worked in the HR/Talent space for over two decades. During that time I’ve built a deep network of progressive people and business leaders, editorial contacts, and conference/event organizers.

Most HR/Talent editorial and event contributors are white men. I want to play an active role in using my network and connections to amplify Black voices and ensure there’s better representation in what we read and see in the industry.

These are some specific steps I’m taking to amplify Black voices in HR:

Editorial:

• I’m building an open-source doc titled Amplify Black Voices in HR that will launch later this week. This will be an open collection of Black writers, bloggers, and speakers in HR/people ops/talent/recruiting — both established and aspiring. I want to read their work and learn from them. I also want to make it easier for HR/people/talent publications to identify potential contributors and diversify their authors.
• I’m going to use my editorial contacts at Fast Company, LinkedIn Talent Blog, ERE, SHRM, and others to make introductions and open doors.
• I will ensure there are Black voices represented in the modern HR book I’m writing

Events:

• The open-source Amplify Black Voices in HR resource will also include speakers so event organizers can ensure they have Black voices on their virtual and digital stages.
• I will no longer speak on any panels that are all white men. I will suggest Black speakers from this list and my network in my place.

UPDATE: You can visit the new platform below.

Amplify Black Voices in HR

I realize these are micro-steps to address a macro-problem. I’m committing to doing more, but felt this was a tangible place where I could start. You can learn more about these actions, and my thinking that led to them, in the podcast below.

Ep68 Amplify Black HR Voices

Lars is the Founder of Amplify and Co-Founder of HR Open Source. He’s spent 20 years in HR and recruiting building talent strategies for a broad range of companies and industries. He’s a writer with regular columns covering 21st Century HR in Fast Company and Forbes, co-author of Employer Branding for Dummies (Wiley, 2017), global speaker, and Host of the 21st Century HR podcast. You can find him on Twitter at @Lars.

The world of work has been evolving slowly for decades. Legacy practice roots run deep in how we design work experiences and build people systems to support them. What if we designed work from the ground up today?

Our workplaces are being transformed by COVID-19. Practices that have been scaling incrementally (i.e. remote) are now making giant leaps forward. Businesses have had to make significant adjustments and rapidly rethink the constructs of “work” in order to support employees sheltering in place, juggling childcare, struggling with isolation and mental health, and more.

Many companies are now developing their “return to work” plans. What are we returning to? When are we returning to it? What will “it” look like? The truth is we don’t fully know — we only know it will never be the same as it was.

What if this is our chance to reimagine work altogether?

Since February I’ve been curating and crowdsourcing a range of resources, tools, templates, and articles on how companies are responding to COVID-19 - most notably the Coronavirus HR/Business Communications & Resources Guide. It’s been an interesting front row seat to the conversations and considerations facing business leaders today.

People/HR executives have an incredibly difficult role in the best of times. The mental and emotional toll of this pandemic is consuming for them. They rarely have much bandwidth for thoughts outside of guiding their company through this. When they do, it’s often around “where we go from here?”

Reimagining “Work”, Together

Last week I raised a question to my network on how they might design work from the ground up, today. I received dozens of responses and ideas I compiled here. As the ideas mounted, I quickly realized static questions and answers weren’t optimal for a discussion like this.

I began creating a more interactive platform (built using Coda with the help of Kenny Mendes 🙏🏼) that would allow visitors to contribute ideas, upvote, easily review top suggestions, and browse by category (below).

This idea board was created to solicit thoughts on how and where we might reimagine work in our current COVID-19 world. Not just today, but over the next 3–5 years and longer. The aim is to crowdsource ideas that can spark conversations and plans as people and business leaders adjust their operations to our current times.

This is a difficult time for everyone. Struggles often yield invention, so this situation is also a unique opportunity to rethink work in general.

My hope in creating this is to spark ideas and conversations that might lead to new practices that better support our employees, our businesses, and perhaps the way people team operate.

You can visit the site below where you can review ideas, add your own, upvote, and more.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions on how to make it better I’m all ears. You can reach out at any time at info@amplifytalent.com or @Lars.

Reimaginging Work Idea Board

Lars is the Founder of Amplify and Host of the 21st Century HR Podcast. He’s a writer with regular columns in Fast Company and Forbes and co-author of Employer Branding for Dummies (Wiley, 2017). You can find him on Twitter at @Lars.

These are strange times. As a global community, we’re experiencing something that will shape our generation and steer our future in ways we can’t yet imagine.

As a content creator, I’ve been wrestling with how to be supportive and additive during the crisis. It started with a Fast Company article I wrote back in February about how HR leaders are preparing for Coronavirus.

The velocity of change outpaced a static blog post so my efforts evolved to create a crowdsourced Coronavirus HR Comms & Resources Guide google doc to dynamically track how companies were responding to the crisis.

I’m still curating content for that guide, but continue to wonder if there’s more I can do to support our community.

I host a podcast called 21st Century HR where I interview CHRO’s, CEO’s, and talent executives about their career journeys and progressive initiatives they lead. The typical format felt disconnected with our current reality so I suspended the scheduled episodes and shifted to coronavirus special coverage where I’ve interviewed HR executives about how they’re guiding their companies through these times.

As the situation continues to evolve and many of us with the privilege of being able to practice social distancing expect we’ll continue quarantining for the near-term future, I wanted to create something that supported our need for information, education, resources, community, and hopefully add some levity and positivity to the day during these difficult times.

Introducing 21st Century HR Live

Ep55 Introducing 21st Century HR, Live

21st Century HR will be a live stream show featuring news, information, and interviews from the world of work. The show will air Monday through Friday from 12–12:30p ET and broadcast on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

The format will be loose and light. It will feel something like one of the late-night remote interview shows (with 78% less polish and 95% less star power).

Some of the content we’ll cover includes:

• 👩🏼‍💻 Interactive conversations with talent and business leaders
• 🔦 Key news and updates impacting the world of work
• ⚖️ ️Real discussions on quarantine life spanning work, parenting/schooling, mental health, productivity, fitness, and more.
• 🤲🏼 Resources to support those impact by COVID layoffs
• 🤙🏼 Positive news stories and initiatives

The show will launch Monday 4/20. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel, follow me on Twitter at @Lars, and connect on LinkedIn to be notified of broadcasts.

The guests for the launch week include:

Tues 4/21: Hung Lee

Weds 4/22: Katelin Holloway

Thurs 4/23: Laurie Ruettimann

Fri 4/24: Craig Fisher

You can learn more about the new show in the video below.

Hope to see you there!

On February 5th, 2019, I launched a podcast on a whim. I wanted to add another dimension to a series exploring modern HR I was writing in Fast Company. I saw podcasting as a way to add more depth to stories beyond what could be illuminated in 1,000 words (scroll down, for example, here). The 21st Century HR podcast was born. 🎉

The aim of the podcast is exploring how to build better businesses through modern people practices and approaches. Each episode spotlights progressive practices and leaders that are reshaping the field of HR.

I wanted to illuminate what it takes to build people-centric companies. Shine a light on great HR. Guests are typically Chief Human Resource Officers, Chief People Officers, CEOs, Heads of Talent, etc.

I originally intended to keep the episodes at 30 minutes. I failed. Badly. Most podcasts are bifurcated into two parts: career journey stories and deeper dives into specific people/talent initiatives. Covering that in even 40 minutes is more of an art than I expected.

The time and effort that goes into self-producing a weekly podcast should not be underestimated. It’s a lot. I tried a range of productivity hacks, including batch recording, batch editing, etc. They made a modest impact, but ultimately if you’re self-producing, there is only one resource you can allocate — time.

I started writing a book last month, so I knew my time would be even more finite. I shifted the podcast to a bi-monthly seasonal format for 2020, as I knew this would be a much more manageable (and realistic) cadence to maintain.

I’m a big proponent of open-source and shared learning, so I thought I’d celebrate the first anniversary with an inside look at the show — tools, stats, lessons learned, mistakes, and all. I hope you find it helpful.

Tools I Use

In 2019 I published podcasts weekly. I wanted to be self-reliant, so I would have full flexibility and autonomy. I taught myself how to use the following tools below to schedule, record, edit, publish, market, and promote the podcast.

Remote Recording: Zencastr — VOIP cloud-based recording tool designed for remote podcast recordings.

Studio (Home) Equipment: I use a Rode NT1 mic connected to a Rodecaster Pro production studio running into my Mac.

Remote Recording: Zoom H6 field recorder.

Production: I use GarageBand in Mac for editing. I occasionally use LANDR to polish the edited audio if necessary.

Hosting: I use Fireside.fm for hosting. It easily syndicates to iTunes, Spotify, etc. and creates a landing page for the podcast. I also have a dedicated podcast website hosted on Squarespace.

Marketing: I use Canva to design podcast collateral (see below) and Hootsuite to schedule social posts (mostly Twitter).

Stats & Metrics

In the beginning, I was borderline obsessed with metrics. How many downloads did I have? How many shares? How much engagement? How the hell do I know what these numbers mean?!

The truth is, I never really found reliable, standardized benchmarks. I (tried to) let go of that and focus more on becoming a better interviewer. I still monitor them, of course, but it’s more to compare episodes with each other to understand what stories and content resonate with listeners.

Here’s a look at the show’s metrics over the first year.

• 54 episodes published
• Avg duration: 30 minutes (I had a few short podcasts that brought down the avg)
• Cumulative downloads: 100,976
• Avg downloads per episode: 1,870

Lessons Learned

Content: Most of my podcasts have been with guests. Some have been solo. Guests (almost) always get more traction.

Guests: As you might expect, guests with well-known brands or companies tend to get more traction. My most downloaded podcasts featured interviews with executives from Basecamp, VaynerMedia, Spotify, Reddit, Asana, SurveyMonkey.

Sponsorship & Monetization: I don’t monetize the podcast and haven’t taken on any sponsors (outside of my own company, Amplify), so don’t have any wisdom to share here. I’ve had offers to sponsor. I wouldn’t necessarily rule it out, but I haven’t had any offers more compelling to me than keeping it independent.

Engage Your Audience: I use LinkedIn quite a bit to engage listeners around episodes and topics they want to hear about, trends, etc. It’s been hugely valuable to build this with them and have their direct feedback on the topics, guests, etc. they want me to explore.

Get Personal: While the general tone of the podcast is upbeat, some heavier episodes got into topics including coming out at work, burnout, mental health, depression, suicide, and addiction. My favorite episode, and by far the hardest to produce, was a tribute to my brother Kai who died four years ago from opioid addiction (below). Listeners want to connect with you as a human, not just a host. Don’t be afraid to let your guard down and be real.

Ep35 When Addiction Comes Home, Remembering Kai

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading and listening. If you’re interested in learning more about modern HR and people operations, you can check out the podcast and subscribe below. 🎧

21st Century HR

About The Author

Lars is the Founder of Amplify and Co-Founder of HR Open Source. He’s spent 20 years in HR and recruiting building talent strategies for a broad range of companies and industries. He’s a writer with regular columns covering modern HR in Fast Company and Forbes, co-author of Employer Branding for Dummies (Wiley, 2017), global speaker, and host of the 21st Century HR podcast. You can find him on Twitter at @Lars.

Under The Hood: Metrics From My First Year Hosting “21st Century HR” Podcast was originally published in The Startup on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What comes to mind when you picture an addict? What thoughts fill your head when you hear about the opioid epidemic? How distant are those thoughts from your day-to-day existence?

Four years ago I lost my brother Kai, another casualty in the opioid epidemic. Before Kai’s death, I was blissfully naive about addiction. I knew it was a disease that impacted millions, but somehow up until that fateful October day in 2015 it never impacted anyone I knew or loved — or so I thought.

In the years since Kai’s death, I’ve grappled with understanding addiction. I struggled with processing my own feelings of grief and loss. Both of our parents had passed away. Kai was all that was left of my immediate family. Now he was gone. Why?

I turned to writing to try and cope with the maelstrom of emotions and feelings that swirled inside of me. I wrote Kai a letter on the one-year anniversary of his death, hoping it would provide a cathartic release to the feelings of loss I still couldn’t process. Naive perhaps, but something else was happening.

In my quest to understand addiction and chip away at some of the societal stigmas that make it so difficult for addicts to get the help they need, I discovered how widespread addiction really is — and how difficult of a struggle it is for those battling the disease.

I heard from friends, family, colleagues, clients, executives, and strangers — all opening up to me about their own struggles. They shared how Kai’s story, and my story, touched them. Through their stories I learned how difficult this disease of addiction is to overcome — and how the struggle for sobriety is a daily battle.

My blissful ignorance towards addictions has been replaced by a deep empathy — for both addicts and those who love them.

I had to come to this place of understanding in the hardest way imaginable. The truth is I’ll never fully heal from Kai’s loss. That’s the reality of grief — and I know that. What I can and will do is to try and use this grief and honor Kai by telling his story, and hopefully in doing so change perceptions around addiction.

I recorded the podcast below is a tribute to my brother, Kai. Like all addicts, Kai was so much more than his addiction. In this episode, his friends and family share stories of the man Kai was — and the impact he had on their lives.

If his story resonates with you, please considering sharing so others may reconsider their views on addiction.

Ep35 When Addiction Comes Home, Remembering Kai

Rest in peace, sweet brother.

What do you do?

It’s a common question with uncommon answers. For most of my career my answer was pretty traditional. “I’m a recruiter.” “I’m a recruiting leader.” “I’m an HR executive.” My answer now? “It’s complicated.”

Recently, I was speaking with a mentor, Bob Schwartz, about repositioning my business and got the full Simon Sinek treatment. Why?

Not why are you repositioning — it went deeper than that.

Why do you do what you do?

It was a pointed question that pierced a hole through my pitch and drained the confidence I had built up in that story. The query went beyond business models and services. It cut through the bullshit and got to the very core of my work.

I rambled out a stream of consciousness answer. Then I grew quiet to sit with my thoughts and really reflect on the question to provide an honest response. This introspection led to a bit of an epiphany (and a keen realization of how lucky I am to be in this position and have great mentors who challenge me).

My why? I want to drive the HR industry forward.

I admit I cringe a bit at the pompous feel typing that sentence gave me. Please hold your 🙄 and bear with me a moment.

When I was leading recruiting and HR teams in my past corporate roles I had incredible mentors. Plural. They helped shape my views on the field and fed my appreciation of how great talent and HR practices can transform organizations. I wouldn’t have the career I do without them.

As I pursued a leadership path, I took those lessons and tried to embed them into my teams. Mentoring and developing talent was the most rewarding aspect of my job. I measured my success as a leader in their success. I celebrated their wins. I felt their losses. I shared tears with them in low moments and swelled with pride in their accomplishments.

When I left my corporate career to launch Amplify I lost that. Sure, most consulting engagements included an element of mentoring and coaching, but it wasn’t quite the same. While a lot of my creative and intellectual needs were being met, something was missing.

Around this time, I also began writing and speaking more frequently. I’m no Hemingway, but I enjoy working out loud and sharing what I’m working on and learning. Those themes became the core of my writing and speaking. I didn’t realize it then, but those talks and blog posts were really outlets for addressing that mentoring void in my new career.

As I reflected on my “why?”, I realized just about everything I do in my career today ties back to that purpose.

Writing for Fast Company and Forbes. Launching and scaling HR Open Source. Writing a book on employer brand. Speaking. Consulting. HR Executive Search. Advisory and coaching work. Building a new community for modern HR Executives. Hosting the 21st Century HR Podcast. All of this work comes from the same place — a desire to mentor and drive growth.

Somehow along the way I’ve managed to embed my “why?” into almost everything I do.

I still have more questions than answers, but the conversations sparked across those outlets feeds a deeply-rooted desire to pass on the ideas and boundary-pushing approaches my mentors seeded in me years ago.

So, what do I do? It’s still complicated and evolving, but I now have a much clearer view of how it’s all interconnected.

I was recently included as a “HR Influencer” by Workforce Magazine.

It was a surprise and I’m grateful to be listed alongside many people I admire in the space. I’m not sure I deserve this recognition, but I do have some thoughts on the article and some of the conclusions it draws.

The author paints a picture that influencers make up to $150k on their status as an influencer? Come again? I might be doing this wrong. ;)

I have a ton of respect for everyone included on this list. All are solid contributors to the field. Most are good friends.

The views below don’t speak for any of them. They’re mine alone.

I thought it might be helpful to share some of my direct experience, as it runs a bit counter to some of the “cashing in” narrative in the post.

Advisory boards:

I’m on three of them. I’m given a modest equity stake for my time and advice. Let me frame modest for you. One of them was acquired this year. I got a check for $3,500. I easily logged 50+ hours with them. Let’s just say that early retirement wasn’t a driver for this partnership.

What were my drivers? I had a lot of respect for the company, leadership team, and my fellow advisors. I knew I’d benefit from learning more about the industry and field through their global lens. Ultimately, I felt it was a great opportunity to learn, grow, and contribute.

Speaking

I’m speaking less these days (@6/year) as I’m minimizing travel to spend more time with my family. In the past I’d speak at up to 15 events/year. Maybe 3 of them would be paid (in the $5,000–7,500 range).

I’m a business owner so speaking at a conference takes me away from client work. This means I have to find the balance of ROI on free vs. paid speaking gigs.

This is probably a legit benefit of being an “influencer” as I wouldn’t be paid if the organizer didn’t think my session would draw paid attendees, but paid talks are the exception not the rule (for me at least).

Disclosures

All of the companies I advise are listed on my company website, LinkedIn profile, and are disclosed any time I might recommend them. If I recommend them to a client (or anyone) I disclose I’m an advisor — no exceptions.

I’ll often recommend competitors if I think their products could fit the company’s needs.

I don’t accept any referral fees from any company — whether I advise or not. This allows me to recommend HR Tech because I think it’s good, not because of monetary incentives.

Motivations

The notion of being an “influencer” always made me a bit uneasy. The way it’s often framed makes it seem disingenuous — like it’s something people seek out and consciously craft.

I was fortunate to do a lot of pioneering employer brand work at NPR back when I worked on the corporate side around 2011. We experimented a lot, had our share of failure, experienced some wins, and learned a lot during that time.

I wanted to share that journey to contribute back to the field so started blogging. That led to speaking, which led to more writing, which led to a book, which led to being included on a list about HR influencers.

My motivation was to try and do cool and impactful work, share it, and give back. That’s pretty much it. It was driven more as a way to honor all those who’ve shared with, or inspired, me along the way.

Have any other questions about what it’s like to be an “influencer” (I’m adding quotes only as the term is applied to me) AMA in the comments below.

Lars Schmidt is the Founder of Amplify, an HR executive search and consulting firm. He’s also the Co-Founder of HR Open Source (HROS.co) and writes for Fast Company and Forbes. You can find him on Twitter at @Lars.

When was the last day you got a random thank you or public recognition for the impact you’ve had on someone’s life or career? How did that make you feel? Did it make you smile? Did it change your day?

Most of us move through our lives at breakneck speed. We hustle. We chase deadlines. We too often sacrifice the things that really matter for the “grind”. What if we took a day to hit pause, take stock of where we came from and where we are, and recognized some of the people who helped us get there?

The was the inspiration that led to the original “Random Tweets Of Kindness (#RTOK)” day in 2014.

Five years ago I decided to take a full day and dedicate it to recognizing and thanking others who’ve been influential in my career and life. What happened next shocked me. What began as a day of serendipitous gratitude gained traction and became a globally trending event on Twitter the next year.

Random Tweets of Kindness (#RTOK) grew into something much bigger than I ever imagined or intended, and became an annual event.

RTOK return this Thursday 3/8. It’s grown beyond Twitter and has become a dedicated day to say thanks, share gratitude, and surprise others who’ve been influential in your career — however and wherever you’d like.

How to get involved

• Help spread the word with your networks ahead of the March 8, 2018 Random Tweets of Kindness day.
• Join the Random Tweets of Kindness Facebook page (feel free to share that with your friends — yes, we understand the irony of a Facebook event page for an event with tweetsin the title.)
• Write your own blog post about why you’ll participate, and promote it using the #RTOK hashtag
• On Thursday 3/8 send tweets, Facebook updates, Snaps, emails, phone calls, carrier pigeons, or whatever channels you’d like throughout the day to thank anyone you feel deserves recognition for their work — or just some kindness
• Keep an eye on #RTOK throughout the day, RT any tweets you feel compelled to share

That’s it.

Please consider sharing the website (below) and initiative with anyone you think might want to participate. Thank you.

https://randomtweetsofkindness.com

I’m traveling to London this week for meetings and to emcee and present at #RecFest about the future of Employer Brand.

I’m a technology geek, particularly mobile technology. That background made me curious to explore the new series platform on Medium.

👉

Series is a mobile-only storytelling platform on Medium. It’s designed to have no end, so stories can be continued and expanded over time by the author.

I’m intrigued by this new vehicle for storytelling and will be testing it out this week in London.

Subscribe, and you’ll be notified as the story unfolds and more content is added.

IAD ✈️ LHR

Day One

Hello, London.

🇬🇧

Day 2

But first, ☕️.

Next stop: Hootsuite’s London nest.

Each Hootsuite I’ve visited has unique (and of course owl-themed) art.

Meeting wrapped. Time for a trip to Borough Market for lunch.

El Pastor 🌮 ftw.

The spirit of Londoners is inspiring. If there is any city that won’t be intimidated by terror, it’s London.

Time for a touristy walk to Shoreditch for dinner meetup with friends.

Shoreditch street art.

To be continued…