Human Resources - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Let‘s Talk HR - Humanizing the Conversation

Andrea Herran is an amazing business owner, that works to simply HR for her clients so they can say focused on what matters to them, their business. Join us as we talk about how much human resources has changed and continues to evolve as a profession.

Contact Andrea

LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/focushr

Website – http://FocusHR.biz

Phone number – [phone]

Leighann Lovely 00:20

HR professionals, business owners and operations at all levels are struggling to figure out what needs to change. Our system has been shocked practices have been questioned, and conversations are finally happening. We all know there has been a huge shift in what people want. inclusion and diversity are common phrases. But often misunderstood generations are coming together more than ever on what's important. Mental health has been brought to the forefront of everyone's mind. Let's humanize these conversations. Let's talk about what's important for employees to be successful in life and at their job and how companies can create an environment to allow them to do both because successful people will make up a successful workforce. I'm Leighann lovely. Let's get this conversation started.

Andrea Herran is the Founder and CEO of Focus HR. Andrea developed a passion for Human Resources and Leadership from the beginning of her career. One thing she noticed in her corporate leadership roles was that she could really you see the good, bad and the ugly from her managers and employees. Overcoming the bad and ugly was a challenge she would take on, and discovering how to take the good to great, made a lasting impression on Andrea. She brings those insights to her audiences, her clients, and her own team each day.

Andrea has over 30 years of professional HR experience. Early in her career she was fortunate enough to work both inside and outside the USA, in four different countries the US, Argentina, Mexico and South Africa. She enjoys sharing her business strategies, adventures, and experiences with audiences around the globe.

Andrea is a sought-after international speaker, top HR, Leadership and growth consultant, and exceptional author. After 30 years of helping businesses grow, and expand their teams successfully, she is now renowned for her ability to bring out the excellence in every team. With degrees in business and psychology and vast experience working with companies with less than 100 employees. Andrea has worked with teams in the United States, Mexico, and South America and much more.

“Your company will grow as fast as you and your people do. To create a competitive advantage, invest in your people now” says Herran.

She and her team help companies build a culture-driven company that the best and brightest want to be a part of and stay in forever.

Andrea’s forthcoming book is called The People Success Code for CEO’s: 9 Secrets to rapid growth, a winning culture, and uncomplicating the people side of business.

Welcome Andrea, I am so excited to have you join me today.

Andrea Herran 03:21

Well, thank you for having me. I'm excited. Yeah.

Leighann Lovely 03:23

Why don't you start off by telling everyone a little bit about yourself and your background?

Andrea Herran 03:29

Oh, sure. I'm Andrea Herran owner of Focus HR, I have been doing human resources now for 35 years.

Leighann Lovely 03:42

You don't look old enough to have been doing human resources for 35 years. By the way.

Andrea Herran 03:47

Thank you so much. I love that. I'm a mom of two teenage boys. So that keeps me young. I started focus HR about 17 years ago. And for work life balance. That was my main thing you know, and I wanted to keep doing human resources. And as I've grown and added to my team, for me, it's been really important that my team also has that work life balance, and it's worked out. Great. So as you can tell, I do run my company based on my values and so forth. I also recommend that to all businesses to do that because it makes life a lot easier. And like I said entrepreneur for 17 years, I am the daughter of an entrepreneur, I am the granddaughter of entrepreneurs and the great great granddaughter of an entrepreneur, so it's actually my great great grandmother that gives up the entrepreneurial spirit in my family. Oh wow.

Leighann Lovely 04:53

very forward thinking. Woman in the family.

Andrea Herran 04:58

Yes, especially in the 1920s and 30s right. Yeah,

Leighann Lovely 05:02

yes, that's and that's when you say great, great, great, great grandmother? Or great, great, great, great

Andrea Herran 05:09

grandmother. Okay. Well,

Leighann Lovely 05:11

yeah, definitely a very forward thinking woman at that time, because that typically wasn't something that a woman would have done at that at that time. So that's, that's absolutely awesome. So your, your business focus HR is, you and I have spoken about it before it focuses really you have kind of three main buckets of things that you do. Is that correct?

Andrea Herran 05:32

Yep, three buckets. Typically, for businesses that have less than 100 employees. One is like a helpline, you know, for the folks that just want to, like, ask questions, get answers, you know, oh, my god, I can't believe Fred did this. You know, Wilma did that, you know, how do I handle it? I heard something on the news. You know, I heard about a new law or regulation being passed, what does this mean for me to projects, you know, I need a handbook, I need a performance management system, I need an audit, I don't even know if what I'm doing is the right thing or not, you know, it's, I actually get that quite a bit. And then lastly, is, you know, what, just let us take care of HR for you, we will handle it, we will work with you, you know, on strategy, and so forth. But we will implement, we will be the contact for your managers for your employees. So they always have someone to reach out to and we will handle it all. And so in this is how I came up with the name, focus, HR, let us focus on the HR so you can focus on the business.

Leighann Lovely 06:41

And that's awesome. Because there are so many, you know, and again, not to self promote myself, but it is it's the reason I came up with my business, because business owners don't go into business to be HR professionals, right? And yeah, and they don't have, they don't have the knowledge to know how. There's, there's a lot of complex things in HR. So outsource it, to make it not complex, and to make sure that you're getting everything done that needs to be done, right. crossing your T's dotting your eyes, so that you're not missing anything so that even and people don't realize this after you've hired on your first employee, you need to have an employee handbook. Yep. And a lot of people go why I have one employee. Yeah, you have one employee.

Andrea Herran 07:35

Exactly. And you know, in our tagline is uncomplicated, the people side of business. And then you talk about that one employee, people, I only have one employee, what they forget is that once you get that first employee, you know, it's not too far. Typically, it's not too much longer, that you get a second or a third or a fourth. And we actually, when people know they're about to hire, that's when I actually like to do the handbook. Because we've talked about all now like working on handbooks, that's so much, you know, because I think they need this big document. But it's the conversations that we have in order to make it work for that. You know, what do you want to do about holidays? How do you want to handle vacation time off PTO, and 401k benefits? You know, we go through all of this stuff, you know, I'm not going to go into all the details, because nobody likes that.

Leighann Lovely 08:35

I do actually. Which makes me yes,

Andrea Herran 08:38

There's a few of us that gets a little crazy about that. But by having that conversation before you didn't hire your first employee. Because inevitably, what happens is when you're recruiting and you're interviewing people, guess what they're going to ask you, right? What's your time off policy? Which holidays? Do you observe? Are they paid? Are they unpaid? already? You know, how? What about benefits? Instead of saying, Mm hmm. Right? You've actually thought about it. And by having thought about it ahead of time and having a policy that's at least a baseline people automatically see you as more established, more professional and more put together. But in reality could be totally different.

Leighann Lovely 09:24

They won't know that you're completely a mess. So and again, a lot of you know especially first time entrepreneurs, me, first time entrepreneur really, you know, get those are things that you don't you don't realize, you know, right now you're just winging it. You're trying to just make everything work. You're just trying to put all the pieces together frantically trying to, you know, get everything going. And so working with somebody like you that goes, Wait a second, you're going to hire somebody, well, they're going to ask these questions. They're going to want to know they're going to want to come into they don't Want to work for a business, that's unless it's a good friend that you're hiring there, they want to work for a business that they're going to be confident is going to be there in a year, they're going to be confident is going to be able to pay the bills, they're going to be confident that knows their vacation policy, are they going to be paid for the Fourth of July? Are they going to be paid for Christmas? Those are things that a lot of entrepreneurs that when they're in the, you know, the, just the, I'm trying to come up with in

Andrea Herran 10:30

the month of it, the muck of it, that red, it doesn't come into,

Leighann Lovely 10:33

right, because they're not being paid for holidays, they're not getting, you know, vague, they. So working with somebody like you to, you know, basically help get them focused on those important things is is extremely important to a successful hire. Now, absolutely.

Andrea Herran 10:56

And I've been down the road myself, because I started by myself wearing all the hats doing everything, you know, now I'm grateful I've got a team of seven that support me. And so I understand that the decisions the you know, but can I afford it? Or what does that mean? And how do I do that? And something that people forget, you know, sometimes as entrepreneurs is like, Oh, can we try making so much and then I can hire somebody? Yes, that's great. But what they also forget, is what it means to them to let go while they let go, how they handle that off, off to somebody else. And how they make sure that they haven't totally lost control. But actually find that that psychological change for many is harder,

Leighann Lovely 11:52

right?

Andrea Herran 11:53

Oh, process procedures, I get that, you know, step we've got to do this, we got to do that, you know, it's something definitive, it's black and white, right? The letting go of what I used to do and give it to somebody else to do. How do I deal with that? And we will talk through that we will go through that. What do you need to know, you know, what would make you feel comfortable besides an update every five minutes,

Leighann Lovely 12:15

right? Oh, I'm already fearing that I haven't even gotten close to a point in which I'm going to be able to hire somebody and I'm always I'm already going, Oh, my God, well, nobody else can do it. Like I can do it. Not that I'm even that amaze. I'm not I'm not putting myself on a pedestal. I'm just like, Well, how do I train somebody to do this? Oh, gosh, Leanne, get off your pedestal get off your you know, nobody is everybody's replaceable. I remind myself that on a regular basis, regularly that nothing that I do cannot be done by somebody else. But a lot of us get to a point where it's like, it's just easier to do it myself than it is to try to. And that's such the such a backwards thinking. So backwards. Because I'm, I'm, I'm more than happy to say hey, somebody come in and do my book, somebody come and do my, because I don't know how to do it. Which means that there are multiple other things that I could just simply say, hey, come in and do this. Because every there are multiple people out there that are better, or, you know, much better at all of the different tasks that I do. I just happened to you know, yeah. So very good point. Very good point.

Andrea Herran 13:33

Okay, so it's figuring out how to train them, you know, and onboarding, you know, and what that does is that goes back to onboarding. And people think of onboarding as this like this one time, one hour event when somebody starts, and it's like, well, yeah, if you just count paperwork, but paperwork is you got to get it done. Because the paperwork mostly is needed to get them paid, right? You know, it's getting them in the payroll system, and all that kind of stuff. But onboarding, the first few weeks of somebody's employment, will set the pace for how long they stay. So the more interactive, the more supports that you're showing, the more training that you're doing, you're ensuring that they're catching on, you know, you do that heavily in the first couple of weeks, they will stay with you a long time. If you just throw them into the deep end and say, Hey, good luck. I'll see you later. Guess what, right? They're not going to be around right? for that long. So, is it more complicated, more time consuming more of a, you know, some people may think of it as a headache to spend all this time training with somebody up front. But you have to realize that what you spend now is often dividends in the long term, right.

Leighann Lovely 14:57

And that is that is it is hard for a lot of people, a lot of businesses to wrap their head around that. I have seen it because I come from the recruiting world that businesses are I just don't have time to train somebody right now we just don't have time to train somebody right now. Okay, you don't have time to train somebody, where are you going to be in six months, you're going to be further behind than you are right now. But if you were to put in the tube for six weeks now, where are you going to be in six months from now. And they just don't think of, it's the immediate, I need this done immediately, I need this done immediately, okay. But in six months from now, you're still going to be living in the I need this done immediately, I need this done immediately, you're still going to be constantly behind and behind and behind him behind. You need to think of big picture. And a lot of companies really struggle with that big picture of let me get somebody in, we're going to maybe fall behind. But by the time we get this person up and running and trained, we're going to catch up. And then we're going to actually be on time, we're going to actually be able to keep up with the work and not constantly be running two steps behind all the work that's building up. And I've I've struggled with that, as a recruiter constantly, where they're just like, Yeah, we're gonna hold off right now I'm pulling the trigger, because we don't have time. Okay, are you gonna have time in two weeks? Nope. Three weeks? Nope. a month?

Andrea Herran 16:20

Nope. Because you're always going to have less time. Correct? Because they're doing it all themselves.

Leighann Lovely 16:25

Right. And that's, it's such a frustration for people who are trying to work with companies that are always and you cannot talk sense into somebody who is like always in that reactive mode, versus being in that proactive mode? Because that reactive is that that fear mode? And it's it's, yeah, anyways, I digress.

Andrea Herran 16:54

No, it's and it's true. And the thing is, too, is I look back when I first started in human resources, so many years ago, everything had to be done, you know, in person live next to them, because computers were just starting, right? You know, right. I mean, I remember writing training sessions with the overhead projectors, and taking off the acetate Do you notice right topics. And now with all the tools that are available, and a lot of them are free, so it's not a cost issue. But you can start creating videos, especially the things that, you know, you're going to be repeating all the time, and I just did this for my own business. You know, nobody owes more than five minutes, used Canva, which you can use for free, you know, do a slideshow. And it's me explaining, you know, what the company is all about, I've got another one telling them about, you know, who our ideal client is, and the kind of work that we do. And another one about mindset. Because I've noticed, took me a while to figure this out. But I figured it out eventually, that I had to deal with, you know, people that I hired, were coming from being in house HR, and now being consultants in that mind shift, mindset shift that they needed to be a consultant. So I spend time talking about that, you know, and I found this so much easier. You know, because I could do it. For the videos, when I had time. Some of them were recorded late at night, some of them early in the morning. And then they could review it when they were ready to look at it. You know, and it's like, Okay, once you finish looking at all the videos, let me know, and then we will hop on a call to discuss. And it is made onboarding new team members. So much easier, right? With, you know, and they always have access to it. So once they start working with a client, they said, Yeah, I had to go back and then I'm like, okay, that's what I got to remember. You know, and

Leighann Lovely 19:01

right. Well, yeah, the world of technology allows us to, and as long as those videos are not because I've been at some companies where it's like, okay, you're gonna watch this eight hours of these videos. And you're like, wow, my first you know, my first day my first and you're like, eight hours of an I will tell you within the first hour, your brain is checked out. It's boom, you're you're no longer taking no, right. But those are those are absolutely great. And for, you know, in your world, if you're, you know, working with a business and they're like, Hey, we just need a quick like, how do we do this paperwork properly? How do we do this properly? That's a great tool to be able to offer a client where especially forms you know, your I nine forms, for instance, those are, you know, forms that are like, you come in and get audited by the government and they're like Nope, nope, sorry, there is not a dash in the right place, or there's not a number there's or it's missing, or it's not in the right format or whatever. You're like, okay, yeah. Right, you have to have those exact, like, here's a quick two minute, here's the right form, you know, way to do it, here's the wrong way to do it, and still have obviously, you know, be audited by you on a regular basis as a service and that kind of thing. But those are, you know, those are great ways to do that kind of stuff. So,

Andrea Herran 20:31

I do, like, you know, one of the things that we also do, one of the projects is we'll help people move to a new payroll system. Usually, they're going from something really basic, just that they're more robust. And they'll be like, Well, how do I do this? So instead of trying to write an email, or call them and say, okay, click here, do you see that button? Okay, no, no, it's the one next to that. I can record a quick screenshot video. Send it to them, they have access to it today, tomorrow, a week from now a month from now, whatever. And I always get back the same response. So like, Thank you, this is so much easier, I can see exactly what you're looking at what you're pointing at. And when people have looked at a multiple times, because especially if it's things they don't do often, right? You know, yes, I can fill out an i nine form blindfolded. Because I've done it way too many times. Right, we audit on it. But I get it your business, you may do it once every six months. Right. You know, so yeah, if I create a video for you, I want you to have access to it. And you can always see how to do it and refer back to it.

Leighann Lovely 21:41

Right. Yeah, I used to think you know, that I used to have people filling out those. I used to fill up three i nines a day, sometimes more in the staffing world, it was like, it was ridiculous. So but a business again, some businesses hire one person a year. Some more No, nowadays. Yeah. So. So obviously, as an HR professional, for as long as you've been, you've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, you you bring that up in your you know, in your bio. So do you think that, you know, things are getting better? Do you think that we are headed towards things getting better in in the way that that HR handles things? When it comes? I guess? I guess that's a tough question. Because we can't see the future, we can't predict the future. But with everything that has happened, obviously, with cultural shifts with people being more, you know, companies trying to be more sensitive, more inclusive. Where do you see this, you know, going over the next couple of years.

Andrea Herran 22:56

You know, what it's, I'm going to really simplify it. Because there's, there's so many nuances to it, right? But what's going to happen is, first of all human resources, as a profession, is really starting to come into its own now. Yes, companies have had you human resource companies for you know, 50 years or whatever. But there wasn't always a seat at the table. You know, and it was getting a little bit more attention, the pandemic, you know, for this good, bad and ugly, really brought, people started to realize the value of HR, to the company and to its employees, and what their employees mean, and how to take care of their employees. Even if they're a curmudgeon, that's like, you know, especially thankful they have a job kind of person. They still needed to do it the right way, and they still needed to make sure that their employees were taken care of. So HR came to the forefront, because we understood what the laws were saying, we were understanding what the programs were saying. We understood each state handled it differently. You know, so it's, we're at the table, and is, as long as the rest of the C suite, executive leadership owner, depending on the size of the the organization listens to HR and values, HR and HR brings value. You know, you can't, nobody can have a seat at the table if they don't bring value. Right. And they bring that value, you will see it change. You know, each generation of employees, you know, because somebody had asked me it's like, oh, yeah, but Gen Z has got to be the worst. You know, for example, like they said, What about the boomers? They said that about Gen X, they said that about the millennials. Now it's Gen Z's turn, every new generation is considered the worst. Right? Or entitled, or too demanding, you know, and it's just because they are different. And we also need to realize that as a generation, are the one that brought into this world, the following generations, right, going to complain about them, you kind of got to look at yourself.

Leighann Lovely 25:28

We created them. Exactly. Go look in the mirror.

Andrea Herran 25:34

Yeah, you know, as a Gen X, raising Gen Z. You know, when people talk about Gen Z, I'm like, Well, yeah, because I'm raising them, like I was raised, and my generation was raised, because Gen Z is closest to Gen X. Right? As far as the way they look at things. I mean, there's obvious differences, but they're the closest, and Gen Z is is no BS kind of policy, you know, I think is refreshing, you know, I, I,

Leighann Lovely 26:02

when it comes to the Generate, I think this new generation coming into the workforce is amazing. Yeah, I think they are absolutely. Like, they just want to know, like their spot. Do they have a spot at the company? And will you teach me? Will you allow me to grow? Will you train me? Will you give me what I need to grow? Because that's the expectation they have. They don't want to just be a flash in the pan. And I think that that's, I think that's amazing. Because if you look at millennials, they were just like, this powerhouse coming in being like, Hey, I'm here, now. Promote me. And it was like, what? And again, I'm,

Andrea Herran 26:49

that's the everybody gets a trophy generation. Correct. Everybody gets a trophy.

Leighann Lovely 26:54

And I'm part of that I'm at the very, very tail end of that generation. I participate in the, you know, in soccer, I got a trophy. So you know, here I am, give me a trophy. I participated. But now we have a generation of, you know, stop, you know, thinking that you're gonna get a pat on the back for showing up. And they're like, oh, okay, so I have to put forth the effort. So they're putting forth the effort. But they're asking for it. They're asking, I would like to get training. I would like to be a part of this community. I would like to, and everybody's complaining, oh, man, they need hand holding. No, they don't. They don't need to handle they need to be tained.

27:36

They want in the deep end. Correct. That's what people that's what it's supposed

Leighann Lovely 27:40

to happen. They're supposed to, they're not supposed to act like a millennial and be like, Yep, I'm here. Don't bother me. Just give me the promotion, and the money. And I'm out the door at five o'clock. I don't want that employee. I want the one who comes in and goes, I want to learn, I want to grow, but you have to show me how to do it. And why are people complaining about this?

Andrea Herran 28:05

Because previous generations would just suffer in silence. Here's the thing, you know, even with millennials, they were the first ones to say give me feedback. Yep. You know, they were the give me feedback generation. So it's like I talked to people now I got they're always wanting feedback. And I'm like, didn't you when you first started? And they're like, Well, yeah, and I go, so the only difference with this generation is they're vocalizing what you didn't feel comfortable saying, right? Gen Z is the same thing. We all want it to be trained. We all wanted to be given direction. For whatever reason, we didn't say it and they're saying it. They want to have a purpose. They want to know how they fit in to the organization. Right? Personally, I'm so glad to see that because I've been preaching that companies do that. I'm like, people need to know where they fit in. I've been preaching it for eons. Everybody's always wanted to know, what's the difference? Gen Z is vocalizing it right? Where's the rest of us? We're just thinking and going. That would be so nice.

Leighann Lovely 29:08

Wouldn't it be nice if somebody would tell me what I'm supposed to do and how I'm doing it?

Andrea Herran 29:13

Yeah, exactly. So it's funny because people bring that up. And I'm like, you know. But everybody's always wanted these things, right. But they're vocalizing it, where they're going a step further, is Gen Z also wants their companies to take more of a social stat. That is where life gets complicated. Right? But it doesn't have to be, you know, companies like individuals can have their own beliefs. You know, if your belief is I am not going into that, you know, hey, we know what we do. We have a great time we service our clients, we produce our products, whatever it is that we do, we don't do so stance, that's fine, just let them know. And then they can decide whether or not they want to be there. Right? If you do take a social stance, let them know what, where that is. Right? And what is it? Is it about a particular cause? Is it a philosophy in general? You know, I'm trying to avoid politics, but right, that kind of falls in there. But people are okay with it. Because everybody falls along the spectrum that's not, you know, people try to think of things as you know, it's either blue or it's red, it's not, you know, there's purple. And but people just wanted to know, because they want to be part of companies or organizations that share their values. So the more you share your values as a company, and what it is that you stand for, and what you want to be known as they will, they will self select in or out of the company, which verbally during the recruitment process, and not after they've started and taking your time. Correct.

Leighann Lovely 30:57

And I think that a lot of the old school companies choose to not do that, because they don't want. They don't want to exclude talent, they don't want to exclude possibility of an end, the younger generation doesn't quite under some of them don't understand that yet. Because it is taking a risk. Because if especially if they are falling on the line of any political things. Yeah. And and I think that in business, it's, it's smart to stay out of the political arena. Because you can, especially nowadays, with how volatile you know, it can get out there. But you're right, I think that a lot of them, they also want to be able to take part in, in volunteer work, they also want something that that was not a thing. I mean, it was a thing, but it wasn't as important of a thing when I was, especially in my early career, that was not even, I mean, occasionally a company would say, Okay, we're going to have this, we're doing this event, we're all going to do it together, and we're going to go volunteer, or there was a Christmas tree that you know, you had a tag on it, that you could go and you could buy gifts, and then you wrap them and you put them under the tree, and then they donate them. That was the extent of any company that I had ever worked at getting involved in, in anything. And then now the rise of you know, companies saying, Hey, we're going to do this fundraiser, or we're going to do this event, and we're going to raise funds and all of the funds are going to go to we're going to vote on which you know, which

Andrea Herran 32:42

charity charity, we want to support. Correct. And that's,

Leighann Lovely 32:45

that's absolutely amazing, you're seeing more and more individuals want to get involved in their community be part of their community, not just on a social basis, but on a way to give back. And that is that is the rise of this generation coming in that they really want to be involved. They want to give back, which is awesome. And that is the doing of their parents, that is part of the way that their parents have instilled in them on giving back. And, and being verbal in

Andrea Herran 33:13

the school systems. A lot of schools you have to have volunteer hours to graduate. And people found that they enjoyed volunteering,

Leighann Lovely 33:20

right, right. And being more vocal, I mean, I am very diligent with I have a five year old, I'm very diligent, my audience knows this. Probably bring her up and my dog multiple times per episode. Um, my dog is evil. He's still a puppy. He's not evil. Sometimes he's evil, anyways, especially when he eats my sandals. Yeah, that it's my fault for leaving them where he can eat them isn't as, okay. So he's not evil, it's just my fault. Being more vocal, that is also the result of the parents telling kids you know, I tell my daughter all the time, it is okay to be mad. Absolutely. Okay to be mad, it's okay to be sad. It's okay to be angry. But it's not okay to start screaming at mommy and telling her you know that she hates her and that she's gonna go in her room and never come out or that she's going to, you know, all these other random things that come out of a five year olds mouth that I'm like, where did she even learn that? And, again, got to look back at the parent, right? But it's because of the parents realizing that they didn't have the voice that a lot of kids growing up, you know, if I threw a fit my parents were like, That's naughty. And, you know, go to your room. I wasn't told that it's okay to have these emotions because they weren't allowed to have you know, there was a time when if you were a boy and you cried, everybody was like, boys don't cry. Well, what, what is that doing to the psyche? I mean,

Andrea Herran 34:56

which has caused which has caused mental health issues and it And I am so thankful that mental health has become more top of mind. You know, it's as a person who has reviewed health care and benefit plans for the last, you know, 30 odd years, I would see mental health would get like, many amounts, yep. Which still basically puts the whole burden on the employee to, to pay for it in now, through legislation through people realize it's, for example, it took legislation to get there. But I think insurance companies, for example, you know, the healthcare insurance companies have finally realized that preventative medicine, in the long run is cheaper, bright and better than trying to cure somebody after it's too late.

Leighann Lovely 35:51

Now, if we can get the doctors on board, sorry, this is my slam, if we can get the doctors on board to stop handing out painkillers, when somebody goes and says, I have, you know, chronic headaches instead of saying, Oh, here's some medication for your headaches and have them actually go. Well, let's figure out why you have chronic headaches. Yeah. I mean, let's let's, because let's take the preventative because I can tell you that my chronic headaches went away when I got adjusted, you know, my back got addressed, adjusted with my chiropractor, boom, I used to have a headache every day, at three o'clock, every day. I started seeing a chiropractor, and I don't have headaches at all anymore. So let's start it. And again, I've been on medication for years for chronic migraines. And I'm wondering, now can I get off that medication? Anyways, I digress. So if we can get if we can get that aligned, but you're right, on the on the mental health, you know, I was at one time paying $1,500 a month for my medications at a time period in my life where I could not afford that. Right? Luckily enough, you know, we still have, you know, drug companies out there that assist with individuals who have mental health problems or who are diagnosed with chronic mental health, my my being bipolar disorder, and for so for a year, they were able to give me my medications for free. But there are there are individuals out there, you know, we need to focus on chronic diagnoses people who were born with something, diabetes, all of these things that people that are born and come into the world who are diagnosed this is, you know, again, this is an entirely another conversation that we could have about, you know, the the medical fields on on the way that health care plans are put together. You know, I'm I'm born, I get diagnosed with something that I didn't ask for, and then you are the person who ends up paying. And you know what, I think epi pens at one point were, like, $800 is

Andrea Herran 38:10

ridiculous. Yeah, I know. It's good for like a month or two. So right, the keychains.

Leighann Lovely 38:15

Right. So again, I when it comes to I'm glad that you know, preventative medicine has finally caught up mental health, the site of mental health has finally caught up on all of those things getting better.

Andrea Herran 38:30

I think it's still so more to do to really catch up, but it's getting better. Yeah,

Leighann Lovely 38:35

yeah, it's those are absolutely, we've completely gone off on a tangent from HR.

Andrea Herran 38:42

But you know, what, this is, this is what I love about HR, you know, because for us, the day to day can be talking about we can go from handbooks to what do we pay people to health insurance, how to use the health insurance, why does not cover this, you know, the mental health, you know, but what about this and that to performance, and I call this I've always been an HR generalist, because I always say I like having my hands and Oh, cookie jars. And I like and I enjoy that variety. Every day, I can easily just go from one topic to the next to the next and then back again. And you know, and some more. That's to me what makes HR exciting, right?

Leighann Lovely 39:25

And that's why I love you obviously wouldn't have a podcast if I didn't love talking and having conversations like this, like it's, there's, there's so much that goes into it. And on a regular basis. I'm sure you're having conversations with your clients when it comes to all of these different things of the best, you know, health insurance plan and then the next conversation is your employee handbooks and an audit and so but before we run out of time, I do want to ask you the next question that I had, you know, ready for you which is, you know, there are A lot of mistakes that can happen when it comes to HR. But what do you think the biggest mistake employers make that can easily be fixed when it comes to dealing with the HR world? I know it's a loaded question. And

Andrea Herran 40:16

I'm totally oversimplifying this. No, it's to make a point. You know, in kindergarten, we all learn the rules of being in kindergarten. If you don't have anything nice to say, you don't say, Keep your hands to yourself. You know, be polite, be respectful, right? Think if we just keep those rules that we learned in kindergarten, in our adult lives, and as we manage people and work with people, you're going to be great, you've got 80 80% of it is there. The other 20% is just fine tuning to maybe a few laws or whatever, you know, for example, it drives me crazy, that we actually still have to give people sexual harassment training. It drives me crazy, because why do we still have to be talking to people about don't touch people? Don't keep asking them out, telling them that they're beautiful, and you'd like to do whatever with them is inappropriate. I mean, honestly, folks, I laugh crazy.

Leighann Lovely 41:24

I laugh because it seems so simple at the idea that, hey, you're in a work environment. Don't do that. Yeah, but you still have to tell people, hey, that's inappropriate. I know. Can you believe it? I know.

Andrea Herran 41:48

I know, they can't see me. But I'm like,

Leighann Lovely 41:49

I know you're making you're making like that your arms are going all over the place, and you're making faces. It's i I completely agree with you. It's what seems to you and me, and probably 75% of the people listening to this, and I say 75, which seems like a low number, but it really, it's not. No, I even would, it seems like an obvious thing. However, there was a client that I had years and years ago, it was a golf course, when I said you have out you have to, on a regular basis have, you know, complaints when it comes to you know, you know, you have these young individuals going out on these golf carts selling boots, I got to assume you get a lot of complaints from, you know, the the beer cart individuals, and I'm going to use individuals, a lot of us are thinking in their head, you know, what I'm avoiding saying, because at one time it was predominantly females who did that job. It is not, you know, again, and I said, you know, they've got to get harassed a lot by you know, the, the young golfers and the guy goes, Oh, no, no, no, and no. And they went, Oh, okay, great. That's good. He goes, No, they don't get harassed by the young golfers. The old ones, and I went, Oh, he goes all the time. Non stop. It is all of the old golfers. And I went what? Oh, because it was a generational thing. Yeah. And I went, Ah, crap. How did I miss that? i How did I not catch on to that? The younger generation coming up, understand that they understand that you can't make a comment. Hey, you look hot in that outfit. It's inappropriate. A generational my grandpa to this day will still make comments about you know, not obviously not me. But he'll stay still make comments. You know, if we're at a at a restaurant, oh, she's a cute one. And I'm like, Oh, God, but he's in his 70s. You know, and he's not making it to her. He's not making her uncomfortable. But that was a generational thing. They they, it's unfortunate. But in that generation, and unfortunately, there are still a lot of and I'm not gonna say just men it it is not just in the men bucket. Oh, no men and women alike. In the old and I'm not saying it's just in that generation. I'm sure that there are plenty. There are plenty of other people. But there's a large population of people in the older generations that still make the same mistakes. And a lot of people will brush it off and go oh, it's just through age, but it's still inappropriate.

Andrea Herran 45:03

Absolutely, absolutely. And the nice thing is, is, you know, you're talking about how the younger generation is so aware, the younger generation has been exposed, openly exposed to so many different things, whether we're talking male, female, liberal, conservative, gender identity, orientation, things like that. I mean, it's, like I said, I've got teenagers, you know, my boys are in high school, and they're like, oh, yeah, you know, it's we see this, we see that and I'm like, I've never heard that term. What does that mean? And I'm like, okay, you know, right. They see it all the time. And they're like, people are just being themselves. It doesn't affect me. So why should I care? Right? And that's the way they are like, Would you ever do this? And they're like, oh, no, right? No. Why? Why would I be little somebody else? Correct. It's just constantly. Thankfully, they just don't yet. Right? I don't understand why anybody would want to do that. Correct.

Leighann Lovely 46:02

And that's the same. My daughter came home. And we were talking about one of her little friends at school. And I said, Oh, what? You know, what are what about her mommy and daddy, and she's, oh, she doesn't have a mommy. And I said, Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. She goes, No, she has two daddies. Oh, okay. Great. And for her, it's completely normal. There is nothing wrong with it. It's completely normal. For me, I'm going Oh, okay. And I'm thinking, well, maybe I should ask her if she's okay with that. And I'm like, wait, no, I'm not going to say anything else. Because then it's going to seem like there's something wrong with it. And she's going to wonder why I'm asking. So I just went, Oh, okay, that's cool. You know, and we, and we just kept on talking. Because, again, my generation is still, we're still getting used to the processing of processing it. And, and we're still my generation, our generation is still processing the pronouns, and we're still and while I am completely accepting, and I, it doesn't matter to me one way or another, it's still, we're still in a state of processing the information to try to understand it, you know, appropriately. Right. And the younger generation, they're, they're growing up in it, they're in the thick of it the same way that I was, and you, and, you know, the older generation was in the thick of, of, you know, I mean, I saw, I had friends who were experimenting with the same sex at that time, and my parents were like, Oh, my God, no, no, that's not, or my parents actually, were really forward thinking and didn't care, my grandparents would have been, like, you know, oh, my God, that's, that's not appropriate, you know, that's completely, again, each generation shifts to be more accepting of the next. And so at some of these employers who are, you know, are much older, and trying to shift with all of the dynamics of the different younger generation coming in. I would not want to be incorporate HR anymore.

Andrea Herran 48:12

Because it gets confusing, you know, like, one of the things I liken it to is computers. You know, it's, I'm Gen X, a home PC came out in my generation when I was in high school, right? I like to think of myself as computer literate, but I'm sure there's tons of stuff that I don't know, still, you know, where as this current generation doesn't know what it's like not to be without a computer, including the one that's in their hand. I mean, cell phones are just small computers, right? You know, they grew up with all that. So to them, it's absolutely normal. You know, so while the rest of us are still trying to process that, I don't have to remember phone numbers anymore, because now I've gotten in my phone. You know, and we're still processing that. It's the same kind of thing. You know, it's

Leighann Lovely 49:01

right, you know? Yeah. I I asked, we were watching Honey, I Shrunk the Kids with my daughter for the first time. And there's a scene in the beginning where the the girl is on the phone that's hooked to the wall, and it's got a cord on it. And I my husband looks at my daughter and goes Honey, do you know what that is? And she goes, Yeah, daddy, it's a phone. And I was like, Oh, okay. Well, she, you know, she's seen. She's seen them before. And she's got a toy that looks like that. And I was like, well, at least she knows what it is. But who has a phone that's hooked to a wall anymore?

Andrea Herran 49:42

It's very rare. Like I don't know if you've seen those videos of like, they put like teenagers in a room with a rotary phone. And you're saying call somebody and we're all looking at it going? Well, it's like, whatever. But you know, it's funny to watch when you know how it's supposed to work. I can't figure out it out. Like they dial like numbers, they dial some numbers, then they lift up the receiver. done anything.

Leighann Lovely 50:07

Oh, is that funny? Well, we are coming to time. And I want to respect that. So I'm going to ask you the question of the season. What do you think will go down in the history books from what the world has experienced over the last three years?

Andrea Herran 50:27

I think history will talk about these last three years with not just events here in the US, but worldwide, about the great divisions, you know, it's your ego, this or your that in the lack of compromise or willing to compromise. You know, being evidence we, the pendulum has really swung towards, Nope, you're either with us or against us kind of thing. I mean, with anything, even on the international stage, you know, we can talk about Russia and all that kind of stuff. It's either you're with us or against us. So I'm looking forward to when the pendulum switches back moves back towards more cooperation.

Leighann Lovely 51:13

That's very interesting.

Andrea Herran 51:17

I have it's funny, because that's, you know, every once in a while my kids be like, it'd be just so much easier for everybody thought the same way. And I said, No, it would be boring. Yes. And I go, because if everybody thought exactly the same way, there would be no innovation, right? There would be no change, we'd still be living the same way. We did, you know, 100 years ago. But also differences are great. It's what makes us thrive. What we've lost sight of is how to actually have conversations around differences. You know, we're not having conversations around differences. We're having arguments. Which arguments nobody wins, right?

Leighann Lovely 51:57

If somebody wanted to reach out to you, how would they go about contacting you?

Andrea Herran 52:02

Oh, very easy. I can you can go to my website, there's a Contact Us form on there. You know, focus, HR dot biz bi Z. You can email me at Andrea a nd or EA at Focus HR dot biz, or call me. You know, and my phone number is 773-531-8199. Excellent.

Leighann Lovely 52:23

This has been an awesome conversation. I really appreciate you joining me today. And yeah, I mean, it's just been it's been amazing.

Andrea Herran 52:32

It's it's been great. I could talk for a few more hours, but we won't do that to your listeners.

Leighann Lovely 52:37

Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you again for listening to Let's Talk HR. I appreciate your time and support. Without you the audience this would not be possible. So don't forget that if you enjoyed this episode, to follow us, like us or share us. Have a wonderful day.

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, companies, hr, andrea, generation, employees, gen z, conversations, talk, business, work, mental health, hire, started, great, human resources, question, gen x, millennials, paid