Leveraging Data to Improve Employee Well-Being with IQ Solutions Jillian Bernstein

Better People Podcast

This episode, IQ Solutions Vice President of Human Resources, Jillian Bernstein, talks about leveraging data for employee engagement and well-being, manager engagement, and the importance of work-life balance and kindness in career success.

Jillian Bernstein is the Vice President of Human Resources at IQ Solutions, a federal contractor focused on communications and web design for federal health agencies.

Prior to this, Jillian progressed from an HR Generalist to Vice President within the HR team at Walker & Dunlop, and then spent ten years of practicing HR in the real estate finance world. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Better People:

• How to use data for DEI and benefit analysis
• The importance of pulse checks and stay interviews in addition to surveys.
• The amount of time employees spend at work compared to their home.
• How to use work groups to build employee connections.
• Ways to create employee loyalty.
• How companies should treat their employees.

Resources:

• IQ Solutions
• MidAtlantic Employers’ Association (MEA)

Connecting with Jillian Bernstein:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with Holly DePalma:

• LinkedIn

Quotables:

• 18:23 – “So what do you feel your pull is? Like what's, what's exciting to you? Do you want to be helping with different innovation work? Do you want to help with different business development opportunities? Do you want to help come up with diversity, equity, and inclusion and belonging activities and get involved in the company that way? So really this is a great way for us to outreach to our employees and because sometimes people get so focused on the project that they're working on, this also allows them to have kind of more breadth in terms of who they're interacting with on a day-to-day basis.”
• 29:16 – “I do feel like we've had such a transformation and I don't know if it's more Gen Xers kind of coming into the ranks, but even my boss who I reported to, our chief financial officer, and he's a baby boomer, but he has been ever since day one at, at IQ. I remember the first week I was there, my son had started kindergarten and got sick in the classroom, and it was, I was so embarrassed because it was my first week, I was like, I am so sorry, but I need to go pick up my son. And he's like, go family, go, go, go. And I was like, I don't know that I could work anywhere else that doesn't have that. And I think if companies don't provide a family first mindset, that we really are doing our employees a disservice.”
• 32:40 – “I truly believe as an HR professional, again, if you're not coaching, and you're not seeing the employee as a whole person, then we're not doing our jobs as an HR person in terms of how we're structuring policies. And I think you'll get more loyalty out of employees if you have the flexibility that if you have a one-year-old at home and the one-year-old isn't feeling good that day, you're going to need to stay home. And that's okay.”
• 42:44 – “Just bring kindness to work with you every day and in your interviews and in your career. You just want to be gracious and kind. And I think that honestly will take you so far. And I think the other aspect of kindness is showing a kind of, not overly eager, because that could be off-putting for some people, but like a tempered solid eagerness to learn and to also be a little bit humble if you ever make a mistake and be like, I want to learn how to do that and do that better. And I think that that goes a long way too.”
• 34:19 – “You have to be intentional about it and that's why we saw it getting really carried away and we, we needed to kind of make sure that people rolled back, and our typical workday is 8:30 to 5:30, assuming an hour, people take an hour for lunch. But we have early birds, we have night owls, and that's okay. We want people to work when they're able to work and, and juggle family priorities too. So the thought really is like, just get the email ready, send it during that window though. And that way you can kind of feel like you did what you need to do. And then in the morning before you run off to take your kids to school, send all those emails that you worked on last night at 10 o'clock if you want, but don't do it then.”