PODCAST · business
The HR Hub
by WRKdefined Podcast Network
Practical advice for mid-level HR professionals navigating real workplace challenges. Weekly interviews with experts who deliver solutions and insights you can actually use.
Episodes
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How to Run Effective Stay Interviews
Stay interviews are not just to keep employees who are thinking about leaving. They help HR and leaders gather employee insights to build a better organization. Juli Prizant, founder and president of OptiPeople Resources, explains how stay interviews compare to exit interviews and engagement...
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Compensation Systems - A Complete Guide
Building an effective compensation framework is essential for creating fair compensation systems, having something defensible and sustainable, meeting pay transparency requirements, attracting top talent and, importantly, defusing pay disatisfaction! Shawn Raible, founder of GamePlan Total…
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Systems Thinking in HR
HR has a a lot of processes. Together they make systems. Each program must connect directly back to core business goals and the business strategy. Former VP of HR Jim Utley explains why standalone performance reviews and disconnected processes create organizational friction instead of…
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Organizational Conflict: You Don't Have to Terminate or Performance Manage
Conflict resolution is the option most organizations skip when two employees stop being able to work together. Chartered mediator Michelle Phaneuf explains how facilitated conversations resolve workplace conflict, what the process looks like from first call to solution, and why letting someone go...
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Contractor or Employee? Explaining the Difference
Independent contractors are easier than employees right? Flexibility, less risk. So many employers create that contract AND unknowingly create legal, financial, and tax liabilities for themselves. Employment lawyer Brady Farmer, partner with Mathew Dinsdale Clarke, explains so much about this and...
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Job Analysis for the AI Era
Job analysis provides the foundational framework needed for many activities of HR. It also will help you understand work and adapt your workforce as artificial intelligence reshapes daily tasks and organizational roles. Dr. Edie Goldberg joins the conversation to explain the critical difference...
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Communicate Well - Even When You Feel Like a Fraud
Going into a presentation and feeling terrible? Watch this. You can do it AND do a good job. Building workplace confidence and executive communication skills is essential for driving career growth and establishing credibility in leadership. Dr. Andrea Wojnicki, an executive communication coach…
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5 Plays for Psychological Safety
There are specific and tangible ways to build psychological safety on teams and help your clients do it too. Leadership consultants Karolin Helbig and Minette Norman share five practical plays from their psychological playbook series to help human resources professionals and business executives...
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The Problem with HR Strategy
You think you have an HR strategy but you don't. Because strategy is not a list of programs. You have a strategy when you create something aimed at concrete business outcomes like risk reduction, market growth, and core operational productivity. In this discussion, Ranya Nehmeh, founder of Elevar...
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How to fix a dysfunctional manager - get to the root
HR is failing when we look at problems narrowly: accepting a manager's convenient opinion that the employee is the problem. This episode looks at how human resources professionals can properly diagnose whether a team issue stems from the employee, the manager, or the system they both work within....
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HR Strategy - Looking Outside our Organizations
Most of us spend our days heads-down focusing on our immediate work - compensation, hiring, performance management, employee issues... But HR leaders need to look up - and out. To build a strong workforce strategy, we must look beyond organizational boundaries to anticipate macroeconomic,...
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[SMB Essentials] Holding Clear Performance Conversations
Performance management conversations can be stressful. This video should help. If you are nervous about it, you have probably been avoiding it and avoidance will not solve the problem. This video will help you prepare for and execute difficult workplace conversations without watering down your…
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Formalizing Support for HR Wellbeing
Research reveals a worrying trend regarding the wellness of HR. While HR professionals are tasked with managing company culture and supporting workforce wellness, the vast majority of us lack adequate support. Clinical psychologist Dr. Jo Burrell shares insights from three years of research to...
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How to Build a People-Focused Culture
Building a positive work environment requires more than just corporate perks or collaboration values on a wall. Josh Block, President of Block Imaging, joins the show to discuss how focusing on "Together, Thoughtful, and Transparent" transforms company culture and employee ownership. How the...
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What is Constructive Dismissal?
Constructive dismissal is an often-discussed but rarely-realized part of employment law where fundamental changes to a role can lead to significant employer liability. This episode breaks down what counts as a unilateral change and how employers can navigate restructuring without triggering valid...
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HR's Role in AI-Driven Change
Implementing AI is different than other types of software. Globalization Partners (G-P) Head of HR Laura Maffucci shares her lessons from navigating an AI mandate, handling employee fear, and building a cross-functional AI governance council. Listen to hear how we transition from informal…
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[SMB Essentials] Discipline and Managing Workplace Conduct
Implementing a clear progressive discipline policy ensures that your organization handles employee performance issues fairly and legally. This episode covers this essential HR topic which I have avoided for over 5 years. 😬 The purpose of discipline, though, is to address workplace conduct AND...
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Severance Law for Canadian HR Professionals
Calculating severance pay in Canada requires understanding the difference between statutory minimums and common law reasonable notice. In this episode, employment lawyer Brady Farmer explains how age, position, and length of service determine what an employee is truly owed. Key Takeaways: - The...
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EQ and the Art of Influence
Many professionals wonder why others with less technical skill seem to get further in their careers. The answer often lies in their ability to build influence and trust through emotional intelligence rather than relying on formal authority. In this conversation, Jen Shirkani explains how to use…
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Workplace friendships: Why they're so important
Workplace friendships are pretty important: they are a primary driver of employee engagement and retention. And, of course, just a nice workplace where people actually want to be. In this episode, Ryan Jenkins explains how modern technology is leading us us to prioritize convenience over...
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[SMB Essentials] Managing Employee Complaints During Performance Reviews
When an employee responds to a performance improvement plan with a formal complaint, it can feel like a calculated move to avoid accountability. This video explains why these counter-complaints happen and how small business owners can manage the investigation without derailing their performance...
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Workplace Investigations: 6 Steps to a Defensible Process
Conducting a workplace investigation is about much more than finding someone guilty. To protect your organization, you need a defensible, neutral process that can withstand the scrutiny of a courtroom or an arbitrator. In this episode, Bob Stenhouse from Veritas Solutions joins me to break down…
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Pay Transparency 2026: What HR Needs to Know
Pay transparency is no longer just a "nice to have" feature for job postings: in many provinces and states, it is now a legal requirement. It's not enough to add the numbers to a posting - consider what your other employees will think when it shows up on a posting for a job similar to theirs and…
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The Myth of Organic Company Culture
Company culture is ignored too often as a focused activity of HR. And it's rare to find someone who has a system for intentionally shaping culture. Nadia Uberoi, Head of People at Garner Health, is that person. She argues that shaping culture is one of, if not the most important activity we do in...
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[SMB Essentials] Handling Employee Complaints - The Draining Kind
Managing employee complaints in a small business can quickly become a demanding role that drains your decision-making energy. If you find yourself frustrated by constant venting about co-workers or office lighting, it is a signal that you may need to shift how you respond to complaints. In this...
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Hiring - An Evidence-Based Approach (w. Dr. Nita Chhinzer)
Stop hiring for the wrong things. When you hire, are you actually screening for success, or just a polished resume and a good interview that ticks the experience and credentials boxes? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Nita Chhinzer (University of Guelph) who challenged my perspective on...
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Emotional Labour in HR (w. Dina Denham Smith)
Emotional labour is the unwritten work of managing your feelings and the emotions of others to be effective in the workplace. HR professionals and leaders often act as "toxin handlers," absorbing organizational frustrations and conflicts without a formal strategy for recovery. In this episode,...
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[SMB Essentials] How to handle employee complaints - the LEGAL kind
Complaints from employees can be intimidating for any leader, but especially in an SMB where you don't have HR or anyone in HR with this kind of depth. This episode breaks down the immediate steps you must take when an employee brings forward an alarming complaint to avoid legal issues and…
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People First Culture - How Caring for Employees is a Performance Multiplier (w. Josh Block)
Building a people first culture is an aspiration for many in HR and leadership. But we struggle to close the gap between our good intentions and the actual impact on people. In this conversation, Josh Block, President of Block Imaging and author of People Matter at Work, explains why caring is a...
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The Future of L&D (w. Josh Cardoz)
There is trepidation in the learning and development community right now. With AI shifting the landscape daily, many are asking: What will the role of an L&D professional be in the future? What will the role of the function be?? I sat down with Josh Cardoz, Chief Creative & Learning Officer at...
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Emotional Intelligence for HR (with Jen Shirkani)
We’ve all seen the 'Brilliant Jerk'—the executive who delivers high-impact results but leaves a trail of cultural destruction and turnover in their wake.In today’s episode, I tackled emotional intelligence (EQ) in organizational behaviour. My guest, Jen Shirkani, has spent 25 years coaching the...
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[SMB Essentials] How to Onboard a New Employee
~ 30% of your new hires will leave before the 90-day mark.Unless you onboard properly. You’ve already done a lot: you spent thousands on recruitment, vetting, and interviewing. You will pay for them and their training. But without a solid onboarding process, there is a high chance that your...
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Connection at Work: The Business Issue No One Is Talking About (w. Ryan Jenkins)
The lack of connection within workplaces is more than a sad fact —it’s a serious business issue impacting performance. It's dollars left on the table. In this episode, Ryan Jenkins (WSJ Bestselling Author of Connectable) explains why workplace loneliness is increasing and how HR leaders can build…
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Wellness Programs Weren't Built for Parents—Here's What Works (with Dr. Rosina McAlpine)
Most wellness programs weren't built with parents in mind. Gym memberships and meditation apps don't help much when you're managing work deadlines while your kid is home sick. Or when you know your toddler can't wait for you to pick them up from daycare. Dr. Rosina McAlpine is back to talk about...
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HR is Not Well: Survey of HR Wellbeing (w. Dr. Jo Burrell)
Wellness at work is easy to talk about, but the actual data is a disaster. These are the groundbreaking findings from clinical psychologist Dr. Jo Burrell’s 2025 survey into the mental health and wellbeing of HR professionals. If we look at the state of HR as a whole, we are facing a crisis. The...
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The HR Guide to Reading any Room (w. Dina Denham Smith)
HR probably deals with more emotional situations than any other department. Angry employees storming into your office sure about what we are supposed to do, leaders who are frustrated, workplace conflicts that we are supposed to solve. And then we also need to read any room we are in.Emotions. A...
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Build Better Intergenerational Teams - And Stop Blaming (with Cam Marston)
How many meetings have you sat through where someone blamed "those gen z's" or "okay boomer'd" their way out of a real conversation? Generational researcher Cam Marston is back to talk about what actually works when you're trying to build teams across four generations. We discussed the real...
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DisruptHR - How HR Can Lead Transformation (with Jennifer McClure)
Jennifer McClure founded DisruptHR 12 years ago. Since then, over 10,000 people have taken the stage at events worldwide to share ideas about work and the workplace. In this conversation, we dig into what disruption actually looks like for mid-level HR professionals who aren't always in the room...
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2025 HR Trends that Will Continue into 2026
Podcast Description: It's the end of 2025 and Angela Nguyen from The Leader Within Podcast and I are compared notes. What themes kept showing up in our conversations this year that we think will endure? We dug into systems thinking - HR has always been interconnected but we haven't always used…
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How to do Reference Checks (with James Lord)
Reference checks: the hiring step everyone does but most recruiters think is dumb. In this episode, James Lord breaks down what HR professionals can do differently to actually learn something meaningful about candidates when they do reference checks. James (of RefApp) shares insights from years...
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How to Hire Good Employees - in the Age of AI
We all want to hire the right person, but what if the skills you're looking for today won't matter in six months because AI is changing so much? In this episode, I talk with Matt Alder, a talent acquisition futurist and host of the top-ranked Recruiting Future podcast, about how rapidly changing...
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Virtual Team Events - What Works (And Doesn't Suck)
Virtual team building could make anyone cringe. The invite shows up, eyes roll, and half the team is suddenly googling "how long does food poisoning last". And most of us in HR were never actually trained for this. We're just handed the task on top of everything else. So I talked with Lee Rubin,...
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Payroll Basics For HR Professionals
If you're in HR and deal with payroll - or just need to work closely with them - getting this wrong can damage your career. Steven Van Alstine from the National Payroll Institute walks us through what HR professionals need to understand about payroll to avoid costly mistakes. And to be more...
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What HR Strategy Alignment Actually Looks Like - with Nadia Uberoi
Is your HR strategy isn't aligned with your business strategy? You might think it is, but when Nadia Uberoi walks through what alignment actually looks like - the quarterly planning meetings, the initiative prioritization, the pushback on random requests - it becomes clear most of us are just...
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Restructuring and Job Loss: The Impacts of Market Trends (with Dr. Nita Chhinzer)
Why can't employers find workers when talented people can't find jobs??Dr. Nita Chhinzer from the University of Guelph joins me to unpack what's happening in job markets right now. Employers are drowning in thousands of identical AI-polished resumes while qualified candidates are locked out of...
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Generation Numb: Exhaustion and Overwhelm in the Workforce - with Josh Cardoz
Feeling overwhelmed at work isn't the same as feeling burned out. What's happening right now might be worse. Josh Cardoz, Chief Creative and Learning Officer at Sponge, recently wrote a white paper called "Mobilising Generation Numb" that captures what's he believes is really going on in...
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Working Mom Burnout: The Impact on Organizations (with Dr. Rosina McAlpine)
Working moms are burning out at higher rates than almost any other group in the workforce. The reasons are complicated, but it will clearly impact organizations. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Rosina McAlpine about what's really happening with working parents and what might actually help. Dr....
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The Impact of Generational Myths - With Cam Marston
Too often, people blame workplace problems on another generation. Baby Boomers won't change. Gen X is disengaged. Millennials are needy. Gen Z won't work hard. I have always wondered if this was mostly wrong. And... it is. Generational researcher Cam Marston has spent decades studying how…
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Reference Checks in Recruitment: Is There Any Point?
Are reference checks worth the effort? Most HR professionals have never actually changed a hiring decision based on a reference check. So are we wasting our time, or are we doing wrong? James Lord has spent 10 years in the reference checking industry and argues we're missing the point entirely....
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How Much Severance? What you should pay in the US.
As an HR Consultant I'm commonly asked "how much severance should I pay?" and the answer is it depends and maybe you should consult a lawyer. This episode is for Americans. I spoke with employment lawyer Leah Stiegler from Woods Rogers who outlined what drives severance decisions in America. We...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Practical advice for mid-level HR professionals navigating real workplace challenges. Weekly interviews with experts who deliver solutions and insights you can actually use.
HOSTED BY
WRKdefined Podcast Network
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The HR Hub have?
The HR Hub currently has 287 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The HR Hub about?
Practical advice for mid-level HR professionals navigating real workplace challenges. Weekly interviews with experts who deliver solutions and insights you can actually use.
How often does The HR Hub release new episodes?
The HR Hub publishes regularly with 287 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The HR Hub?
You can listen to The HR Hub on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The HR Hub?
The HR Hub is created and hosted by WRKdefined Podcast Network.
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