HR BESTIES - Employee Engagement Surveys

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Today’s agenda:  Date a Tradie Cringe corporate speak: “We’re Like Family” Hot topic: Employee Engagement Surveys Are surveys anonymous? Survey data can be useful Action plans Question...s/Comments  Your To-Do List: Grab merch, submit Questions & Comments, and make sure that you’re the first to know about our In-Person Meetings (events!) at https://www.hrbesties.com. Follow your Besties across the socials and check out our resumes here: https://www.hrbesties.com/about.  This episode is sponsored by SixFifty - https://www.sixfifty.com/ and head to sixfifty.com/besties for more information. We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting - don’t worry, we’ll have a hard stop! Yours in Business + Bullsh*t,  Leigh, Jamie & Ashley Follow Bestie Leigh! https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto https://www.instagram.com/hrmanifesto https://www.hrmanifesto.com Follow Bestie Ashley! https://www.tiktok.com/@managermethod  https://www.instagram.com/managermethod https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyherd/ https://managermethod.com Follow Bestie Jamie! https://www.millennialmisery.com/ Humorous Resources: Instagram • YouTube • Threads • Facebook • X Millennial Misery: Instagram • Threads • Facebook • X Horrendous HR: Instagram • Threads • Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Have I told you guys that I used to live in Australia? Yes. Yeah, do tell. I mean, if you've met me for two seconds, I tend to work it into the conversation. Sure. As one would imagine. Talk about having a fun fact for an icebreaker for the rest of your life, right? Everyone else is going around the room with some whatever.
Starting point is 00:00:22 I tried pickles, fried pickles. It was fun. I love Halloween. That's usually mine like some whatever. Oh, I tried pickles, fried pickles. Oh, it's fun. I love Halloween. My turn. That's usually mine. Yeah, my turn. Oh, no big deal. I lived in Australia.
Starting point is 00:00:32 Like, oh, now you have questions. Oh my God, shocker. But we lived in Sydney, Australia for two years with my husband and kids. So we moved as a family for my husband's job. And I actually worked remotely for a US company there. So I would start working Tuesday through Saturday at 4.30 in the morning from our kitchen table
Starting point is 00:00:51 because my office was in the bedroom and it was pre-COVID. And so I would during they have like the camera like severe angle against the window so that people couldn't see that I was recording from my bedroom as if there was like some shame of not wanting to spend an extra $2,000 a month to have an office. But it was so interesting, like the different terminology,
Starting point is 00:01:12 as we talk about, like cringy corporate speak, that's why I'm so curious of different countries, but it was amazing, like the Australian people were fantastic, all of this terminology and things like that. But so, once, I had a really good friend there who's a CFO, like a female powerhouse CFO. And she had gotten, she'd gotten divorced. But so she'd asked me, she was like, we met at CrossFit.
Starting point is 00:01:37 So she was tough as nails, but she said, would you help me with my online dating profile? And, oh. Oh, that's fun. Yeah, I helped people. I would love to help somebody. Ooh, that's fun. Yeah. I helped people. Yeah, move. I would love to help somebody.
Starting point is 00:01:48 That's exactly the type of thing. Like if you're at work and you have a pressing deadline and you're like, I'm really focusing on this. And someone's like, oh, I was gonna have you work with my dating profile. Sure, move everything away. Like, this is... I just cleared my schedule.
Starting point is 00:01:58 Yep, this is much more fun. But so she had this profile, but so she was explaining to me, she's like, I'm signing up for this site called date a tradie.com. And I was like, what's that? You know, she was like, Oh, have you not heard the commercials? She's like, that's how I learned about it. I'm like, no. So basically, it was a whole site in Australia to sign up to like, you know, shag a handyman. But what like an amazing like to find a partner that you know that shag a handyman. But what an amazing, like to find a partner
Starting point is 00:02:28 that you know that they're gonna be handy. And so all of these things. But I remember thinking to myself, like, I don't know, okay, like I get it from like a helpful perspective. I'm like, you're just dating. I go like, I don't really get it. Let me tell you, we were in a rental. The first time a tradie came over to like fix our,
Starting point is 00:02:47 you know, toilets, probably, probably toilet. I show up at the door and I'm, you know, dressed like a ragamuffin. But then get like a Pizza Hut pizza, like in one hand. I open it. I mean, it's like the start of a soft corner. I mean, every single time. I took it farther,
Starting point is 00:03:05 you've never seen anything. I mean, it was literally like staring at the Netflix like boo-boo. So I suddenly got exactly why someone might want to sign up to date a tradie, especially someone that's worked in corporate America that's like, I need someone that is handy. And as I said, it was like Chris Hemsworth,
Starting point is 00:03:24 Chris Hemsworth on my front door as opposed to the US, which is handy. And as I said, it was like, it was like Chris Hemsworth, Chris Hemsworth on my front door, as opposed to the US, which is Bob. But you know, Bob or just Pierce Brosnan. Yeah, it's like a Pierce. Russell. Yeah, Russell back in the day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was like, I tell you what, I remember when people would ask me these questions about Australia, and I was obviously still to this point, eager to talk about them, but it was a really remarkable thing. So there are some benefits to working from home. So I can see why anyone in Australia is going to be really against the RTO mandates.
Starting point is 00:03:56 Because... Ashley was constantly breaking your toilet. Yeah, it was the fourth time. The fourth time I was a little suspicious. Can you send Chris Hemsworth a gift? But they would. We would do like, even like grocery delivery. They'd have grocery delivery come and I liked to do that because I shop like an American. And so I'd have a full cart and people would go, oh my god, like eyes emoji.
Starting point is 00:04:17 And so they would come and every time it was a different person. And they'd be like, oh miss, where'd you like your bags? I can't do an accent. But I have to tell you, some of those cultural differences were really, really fascinating. So any of the listeners in Australia, because I know that we have some, my goal is to get the HR besties to Australia.
Starting point is 00:04:37 So I can shut the fuck up about how great it is. And you all can- Improve it. Improve it. Trades and also if there's a trading- Trading convention. Trading convention. Then let's do it. And prove it. Trades and also if there's a Trades convention, then let's do it. So your global teams, ask them about their what's unique about your environment. Because that's probably what I would have told them.
Starting point is 00:04:56 I probably would have gotten disciplined. But there we go. So Trades is a thing. So that's like the American equivalent of pool boys or something. It's literally like a like a man. Like or something. Yeah, like it's literally like, like, you know, that's stereotype. Oh, yes, exactly. Yeah. Like the like the Desperate Housewives. Exactly. Yes.
Starting point is 00:05:11 There you go. Yeah, that that. Because like our plumbers are known for ass crack. Oh, my gosh. OK. Yeah. So please, Australia. Yes. Australia. 2024. Good. Yes. I know I have a lot of followers in Australia.
Starting point is 00:05:27 So if you're hot, reach out, let us know. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Crypto is like finance, but different. It doesn't care when you invest, trade or save. Do it on weekends or at 5 a.m. Or on Christmas day.
Starting point is 00:05:43 At 5 a.m. Crypto is finance for everyone staff meeting, HR Besties. We are going to start with some cringe corporate speak, and I'm on the agenda for that today. And then we are going to move over to our hot topic, which is all about employee engagement surveys. Don't we all love them? We are all shaking our head. Yeah, that was great. They're great. That's great we all love them? We are all shaking our heads. Yeah, that's great.
Starting point is 00:06:28 We love them. But we're going to talk about all things employee engagement surveys and then of course we are going to end with some questions and comments before we move into our hard stop as always. And so I'll kick it off with the cringe corporate spate and it's one of my favorites. And it's something that I favorite to make fun of. I've got I've got several TikToks on this that went viral, but it's we're like family here. We are like family here.
Starting point is 00:06:57 And now, now, if you are interviewing with somebody and they pull out the F word, which is family, run, just absolutely run, because that is gonna be a workplace that lacks accountability, that probably doesn't have defined roles and responsibilities, and they are gonna exploit and gaslight the fuck out of you. And I'm sorry, they just are facts.
Starting point is 00:07:16 Fast-track facts. Just put it in the job posting. So to drop, just put it in there so you can, family here. You can send the red flag right away. Exactly, put it at the top. Bold it. Bold it at the top. You know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:07:28 That honestly just screams toxic to me. Well, and I've definitely been in environments that would say that. And there's times I really didn't think about it until all of a sudden it's like, you know, job loss, things like performance terminations, like these difficult conversations. Oh, I'm sorry, you had a loss, but you only get two bereavement days per leave. So no, that's not gonna happen.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Like, oh, that's very familial of you. It really is an exploitative term, flat out. And it's not, it is a working relationship. And you know, someone should put that effort in, working relationship and someone should put that effort in. You should encourage them to put that effort in. But I completely agree. It tends to take those aspects and really mindfuck employees. I know. It's ick. You're not a family. You're a team if you're doing it right. That means there's accountability, there's respect and dignity. Because let's be honest, there's no one you treat worse
Starting point is 00:08:27 besides yourself than your family. Because you're so close to them and because you can, they're gonna maybe love you anyway. I mean, you know, but that's just how it is. You're in close quarters with somebody, you're your real authentic self, like hardcore, sometimes gross in some ways with those people. And so you do not want that in the workplace at all.
Starting point is 00:08:46 No. And so we are like family here. We'll try and drop that here throughout the episode. Feel free to cringely use it during your workday as well. But from a hot topic perspective, segue into employee engagement surveys. And if you do have a family workplace, do you give a fuck what your family thinks?
Starting point is 00:09:07 No, you don't. I'm gonna do a family survey. I'm just gonna have my real family. Ooh, yeah, there you go. Survey monkey. I can't invite to the survey. Non-anonymous. No, it's not, no, no, it is not.
Starting point is 00:09:18 Well, maybe if you wanna get the real, the real thing. Yeah, if you wanna get the real thing. Let's do that. We'll play a game just like they do in corporate, which we'll get to, which is to do a survey in the anonymous survey. You want to figure out who said what. Who said what.
Starting point is 00:09:29 And so that's a game you can play with your real family. That sounds kind of appealing. There are some stories about my mom's life that I truly never get tired of hearing. My mom graduated law school at 54 and ran her first marathon at 56. And I love hearing those stories, but I realized I also have so many questions
Starting point is 00:09:51 about what it was just like for her growing up. And I wanna hold on to all of those stories, but also make it really easy for her to preserve them. So just in time for Mother's Day, I found the perfect gift to do just that. It's called Story Worth. Story Worth helps to capture her stories and turn them into precious memories for our family forever.
Starting point is 00:10:12 How it works, so every week Story Worth will email my mom or your loved one a thought provoking question that you get to help pick. We always had music playing in the house growing up. So I asked my mom about a song that was memorable to her. And Storyworth makes writing really easy. So all they have to do is respond to the email with a story, long or short, doesn't matter. And you get their responses through the year so you can see what they're saying and hear their stories.
Starting point is 00:10:37 And then at the end of that year, Storyworth puts together all of the stories and photos into a beautiful keepsake hardcover book so you can look at it time and again, keep it for yourself, get multiple copies, and families love Story Worth. So for this Mother's Day, give all of the moms in your life a unique heartfelt gift that you'll all cherish for years, Story Worth. Right now, save $10 on your first purchase when you go to storyworth.com slash HR besties. That's storyworth.com slash HR besties to save $10 on your first purchase. Do you need a place where you can combine
Starting point is 00:11:15 your notes and documents? One that's simple, beautifully designed, and even has AI built right in? That's Notion. So how do you use it? Well, I used it to create an interactive version of my new employee guidebook. Now I created this guidebook for new hires
Starting point is 00:11:30 to have prompts of questions you can ask your boss and others so when you start a new job, you not only sound smart, but feel smart. I first created it as a paperback, but now I've turned it into a Notion template so people can use it more easily and add and update their own notes. Notion is a place where any team can write,
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Starting point is 00:12:07 You can use it as a manager, experienced employee, even a business owner. Try Notion for free when you go to Notion.com slash HR Besties. That's all lowercase letters. Notion.com slash HR Besties. And start turning ideas into action. And when you use our link, you're supporting our show. So go to notion.com slash HR besties. So I'm going to jump in here and kick us off because in pretty much every single one of
Starting point is 00:12:37 my jobs, I've been the person that has manned the engagement survey or the satisfaction survey. I womaned it. Fuck, I said manned again. Yeah, you womaned it so you did it right. I womaned it, yeah. I womaned it. So that is from the beginning, preparing the questions. The Genesis.
Starting point is 00:12:57 Benchmark. You know, the benchmark, what did we do last year? How, where do we want to go this year to the census? Typically, you are in this and I've done a series on this on TikTok. Wait, what's a census? Oh, just like an employee listing census data. Okay. Your employees.
Starting point is 00:13:16 Who's getting sent to an audio demographic. Yeah. So, you know, typically you're working with the third party. Don't get me wrong, some people don't. That's a different, we'll get into that. And then all the way to the end, right? So when we get the results, where did we hit? Where did we not hit? What can we do to improve?
Starting point is 00:13:37 What action plans are managers putting in place? Literally sitting with managers and helping them action plan because half the time, it's just a whole bunch of fucking jargon and pie charts and you're like I don't know what any of this means. So if the company takes it serious enough I can see true results. I've seen them personally myself. True results can occur from engagement surveys. I think the problem is there is such a stigma around them and them being truly anonymous. The truth is I don't want you to take it as an employee if you're not going to be honest. I understand you're worried, but what I can tell you in all my years is they are truly
Starting point is 00:14:19 anonymous. Once you've done. Now, if they are on... Yeah. Yeah. Now, I do know that I've had a couple of people reach out to me through social media and be like, and I'm like, oh, it doesn't sound like it could be anonymous. You know, you make that decision. If you don't feel comfortable responding, don't. And that's okay. But I will say the demographics, the senses that are sent to that third party, typically what has to be on there is your name,
Starting point is 00:14:45 your work email address, sometimes even your zip code, because that might be what logs you into the system. That, the company, the third party does know who said what. But I can tell you, I signed a contract that I'm not allowed to have that information. And I know you're like, oh, I bet she's bullshitting. I swear to God. I've never been able to pull who it is.
Starting point is 00:15:07 The only time that I've been able to is in the text box. They put something very specific that only HR or that manager's gonna know what the hell they're talking about. And I'll tell you, I can't believe how many people incriminate themselves. But we do, like at least every survey, I would suggest this to all of our HR pros out there, too, is have, like, a red flag piece, so the key words, harassment, retaliation,
Starting point is 00:15:35 that those are immediately flagged and sent to somebody, whether it's you who's womaning the survey or even your leader that can start that investigation immediately. Because what we did is it was a healthcare system and it was all across the country specifically. So when we'd have those, we would immediately start of investigation. It would say the location, but it would tell us nothing else. So we knew we had a starting point. And that's kind of where we went from there. But you know, also it's, what do you do then
Starting point is 00:16:06 after the engagement survey wraps? What happens then? Well, some of us, I mean, to your point, one thing you said at the beginning was, overall, getting a sense of how people are feeling and getting their input is really important. And sometimes a survey, you know, can do that, or there's mechanisms of it.
Starting point is 00:16:21 And so in HR Besties, we want to talk about the things that are important, but also the way that things at times go wrong and what you can do, all of you listeners and our ideas to make those better. And so I agree, some of it is communication. I mean, I've worked on like anonymous hotline type things, which aren't surveys, but similar,
Starting point is 00:16:37 but whether it's a survey or hotline. Ethics hotlines. It's having this information, but also explaining exactly what happens. Like this is how, because this is the gap, there's a lack of trust. Is this confidential? Explaining that in real talk.
Starting point is 00:16:50 But also thinking as you're working on it, because in addition to name, the zip code, sometimes it says department, location. And people are filling out and they're like, I am the only person in my department, so you are going to know what it is. And so thinking about those categories, and so I tell organizations, it's better to get less data about who that person is and have more of a text box where they can just put
Starting point is 00:17:13 their thoughts because I get that you want to see trends and things like that. But if you're trying to get people's input, the fewer questions identifiably you ask, the better information you're going to get. And so I think my tip, and I love the least thoughts on what you do and what you do afterwards, but mine is really being thoughtful about the questions you ask. And as a people are going to look at it and think, well, you know exactly who the freak I am. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:36 Yeah. No, I've, I would just like to say, you know, to Jamie sharing that they've always been anonymous in her career, they've always been anonymous in mine. sharing that they've always been anonymous in her career. They've always been anonymous in mine. And so there is this, you know, sense on the internet, on the interwebs, right? Everyone's like, oh, don't actually fill out the survey. Well, yeah, don't do it if you're not gonna be honest.
Starting point is 00:17:55 That's totally fine. I'd prefer that. Don't do it if you're not gonna be honest. But really they are anonymous. If the organization is using a third party and depending on what type of organization you work at, right? And so, yes, it may be true that, you know, this guy had an experience where it wasn't
Starting point is 00:18:13 so anonymous, but you know what, nine times out of 10, I'm going to say if someone, if an organization is funding an employee engagement survey, they're paying for it, they're resourcing it, it's gonna be anonymous. It just is. And to that point, people I think sometimes believe that we care about details like that, that we don't have time to care about. I literally would not have time to go and hunt
Starting point is 00:18:41 something down, nor would I care to. Yes, I care about you and your feedback. I don't give a shit who said it, like it was said. But I don't think it's HR. This is the gap is I think people say HR. People say it's actually not managers, it's C-suite leaders. They're like, who said this?
Starting point is 00:18:55 Well, I just know. The people that are literally saying, we want it for strategic reasons and their whole role is strategic. Ooh, a C-suite leader will become sucked into that is the most, you are listening, are thinking of, you know, some of these C-suite leaders, that they will get pulled into that minutiae.
Starting point is 00:19:11 And when they get that feedback, that by, you know, by God, an employee is relying on that confidentiality. And I agree, all the tools I've ever seen are confidential. Why it's not is when people ask those questions that like, that come with the survey data that you know I will leave you know who I am but the C-suite will react and when someone has talked about their experience or their feedback Like you know this leader makes me feel you know makes me feel less than in the workplace or makes me feel like an idiot When I speak up well who said that I bet I know who's figured
Starting point is 00:19:40 Oh, yeah, it's always the managers that are like who do do you think said that? I think it was Monica. And I'm like, we don't know if it was Monica. I was like, we have no idea, but guess what? You can't fucking retaliate. Shout out to Monica Lewinsky, by the way. We're all big fans of her. We would love to have Monica on the podcast, BTW. And I'm gonna throw it out there.
Starting point is 00:19:57 But it's a good point. It's confidential, but what you do afterwards? Something. Like literally in full stop right there. You do something. Or else you do afterwards? Something. Yes. Like literally in full stop right there. You do something. Yes. Or else you know what? Don't fucking ask people for any of their feedback.
Starting point is 00:20:11 Or their time. That is so cruel. To bother to take the 10, 15 minute survey. It is so cruel and it is so rude to just do a survey for the sake of doing a survey. Because you want to check a box and feel good about yourself. You know what I mean? Like literally take the survey, take it seriously and do something with the results. You have to have some sort of action, you know, and something, an action that is actually
Starting point is 00:20:36 going to do something with the data you got, not the type of lip service action after, which is like, here's the results. Yeah. Yay. I think it's also important like, here's the results. Yeah. Yay. I think it's also important too for when the results is every manager should be held to action plan and not just truly say, oh, okay, these are your results, share them. No, no, I want action plans.
Starting point is 00:21:04 I want to know. And I'll actually tell y'all about a funny time. One time it was- We'll be the judge of that. One time in our corporate office, there wasn't a whole lot of people in the corporate office. It was very lean. But I think we had like 30 to 40 people.
Starting point is 00:21:22 We had one microwave and I cannot, yeah. And of course everyone wants to eat at the same fucking time. I cannot tell you how many times it was mentioned about having more than one microwave. Do you know what a simple fix that was? I bought, I'm not kidding. I bought on my lunch break, I went out and I bought two additional microwaves.
Starting point is 00:21:43 So we had three and people were like, well, I mean, they didn't and I bought two additional microwaves. So we had three. And people were like, well, I mean, they didn't know I did it. But that was the glory. No, but people like the buzz around that, like, oh, my God, that was something so simple that executives didn't think about because they're usually going out to lunch or, you know what I mean? I'm curious. Did they do they say we got this feedback and that's why we bought the microwaves? Because I will say, I think that's a really important part of it. It sounds trite, but we did after the fact.
Starting point is 00:22:13 So our we had our CEO present the results. It's like no one's getting a pay increase, but by God, you're getting a microwave. But it's so funny that it really can be that simple. I remember another time where employees were specifically in one of our medical facilities, didn't feel safe after dark because the back lights in the parking lot never worked. Another thing, I called up that manager and I said, three employees said this, figure out how we need to fix this light. I mean, sometimes it is that simple. Sometimes it really is a light, a microwave.
Starting point is 00:22:49 I appreciate that because we talk a lot about managers and like feedback and survey about managers, about leaders, but you don't always have the avenues to talk about like literally things like that, like your safety at work or travel for work, how that feels, how that can feel to have to go and travel, like putting, you know, advancing expenses to the company, but also colleagues that aren't managers. And talking about, you know, so I think some of those questions that you say, like, are, like, even to get some of that recognition, like, are there colleagues that you feel like, you know, went out of their way and really helped you in their work?
Starting point is 00:23:21 Or there are other times where you felt disrespected by a colleague? And asking some of these questions. And I know from the lawyer aspect, there's people that don't like to ask these questions because they think, well, this is just going to open up Pandora's box. Well, let me tell you, if you have things open, there's no box involved. And so people aren't having to keep things secret. And so I'd rather have those communications out in the open. And so some of it's up and down, but also some of it's across and getting a sense of
Starting point is 00:23:44 where there's hang-up. So I love that idea of things that can make an impact. Do you ever wish that you had an HR legal bestie in your pocket? 650 is just that. Your trusted, always available ally for your employment law questions, minus the hefty price tag of a lawyer. Compliance may not be your favorite chore in HR, but it's important and it's hard. But 650 is here to make it easy.
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Starting point is 00:24:36 HR pros juggling multi-state teams, simplify your compliance today. Visit 650.com slash besties, that's S-I-X-F-I-F-T-Y dot com slash besties and discover how to stay ahead with 650's seamless solutions. So I'm curious, do you all have any horror stories from employee engagement surveys? Any horror stories? You know, I'll share from, you know, Jamie's example about the text box, right? There's always things in the text box. And some of those have been, wow.
Starting point is 00:25:10 They almost use them like a priest or a therapist or a judge or something. But that's when actually going to the third party and getting details on someone can be important. Because, you know, I've had someone like divulge they wanted to hurt themselves. Right. So those types of things will come out. And that's when it's really important to be, you know, not anonymous, right? If someone's personal safety, and then having somebody say, Oh, I want to hurt somebody
Starting point is 00:25:41 or kill Eric, like literally somebody's like, Oh, okay. Well, we're gonna let somebody or kill Eric. Like literally somebody's like, Oh, OK. Well, we're going to let me ask the vendor who you know, who this is. Right. Because we take you have to take those things very, very seriously in the workplace. I don't have any horror stories, actually. But I was always so surprised how detailed people would be in the text boxes. I mean, they might as well just say, I'm Jamie Jackson. I work X and my boss is the C next to you. I mean, you know what? Then kudos.
Starting point is 00:26:10 Get it out. But it was always so shocking to me. And of course, me being the one that read all of them, it was always like, wow, well, all right. You incriminated yourself. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah, I'd say from a horse's eye, like definitely things you see and to Lee's point, and that's why I do think it's communication and telling people this is confidential. We don't know. The only exceptions to this is if something comes in that has things like self harm, you know, threats, you know, discrimination, harassment, then we may have to. And so if you have those type of concerns, we would ask you to, you know, and give people an alternate avenue
Starting point is 00:26:45 and explain because it's important to us to follow up and then follow up. And so that's why the levels of communication and writing them. One of the things I've done frequently is work with organizations to rewrite some of the language on their survey. And every time, oh my God, we didn't think about that.
Starting point is 00:26:58 I said, well, that's why you're listening to HR Besties because we, you know, the silver lining to some of the gray clouds that we've lived in in our employment and that you have as well is using those experiences to help others to add that in. But, you know, it's interesting, it's related to surveys, like I said, kind of hotline surveys, things like that. As I've worked globally, and this is more lawyer and HR Ashley, you know, you can't
Starting point is 00:27:17 have these like anonymous surveys everywhere. There are countries, like I want to say like, you know, France, Belgium, that like, it's very limited what you can anonymously report. Again, I may be misspeaking, so please don't take this as gospel, but it's, there's all over the world. So some of these things, it's like, you can only report like financial fraud through an anonymous survey, everything else you have to actually report. And it's so, to me, it's so unusual, because I actually think having these anonymous avenues,
Starting point is 00:27:44 whether it's a survey or whether it's a year-round type portal and giving people that so that they can vocalize that is so, is absolutely important. But it is, it's an interesting part for some of our global audience that like the idea of an anonymous survey to you may be like verboten to use a non-French or Belgian word. Right. So to that point, any questions or comments? Any questions or comments? Lee, do you want to kick us off this time? Because as a family member, as the head of our household,
Starting point is 00:28:17 we're like family here. In that question, do you want to kick us off? Sure, I absolutely can. Not a comment, but a quick question. What is the coolest engagement activity you all have ever seen in the workplace? One of my favorite ones is an escape room. I know that is so fucking cheesy and I hate myself. I love myself. But it's, yeah, I love an escape room,
Starting point is 00:28:45 but it's funny the roles that people play in the room are different than what they play at work. So I'll use myself as an example. So at work, am I a leader by title? Absolutely, but I don't, I am one with the people. But in that room, I am fucking screaming. I'm bossing you around I am like you Lee go over there get the thing out the microwave Yeah, I am I take charge. I am the leader and I am very aggressive where I'm not super aggressive
Starting point is 00:29:20 At my actual real job. So I those are my personal my favorites so I I'd say I was part of a legal team and it was, we called ourselves the best team ever. And we once did a cake decorating offsite and we were in teams. But let me tell you this, lawyers, they like to be perfect. They like to get shit right. I am not creative.
Starting point is 00:29:43 I am a shitty cake decorator and I've literally realized this about myself, but it was like literally hilarious how people are teaming together and people had like looked up, brought in like a printed design the night before. I mean, there were no, like lawyers, there should have been some rules,
Starting point is 00:29:56 but I tell you what, it was absolutely quite a bit of fun because you did see some of the creative things and we all got to eat cake at the end. So it was a, it was, it was a total win-win. It was a lot of fun. Well, it'd be like, is it cake? Oh yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:09 Love that show. Love that show. We do. Shout out. Shout out, is it cake? We sent each other. We wanna be on it. Yeah, we wanna be, that's our dad. That would be a dream because.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Please. Oh my God. We would love to be the judges. There's three. Like we sent each other videos of, is it cake? And we have to guess. My six-year year old loves it. I know.
Starting point is 00:30:26 He screams it out with me. I'm gonna put it on our socials when this comes out. Yeah, manifestation. I did it at home. I made a grilled cheese and tomato soup with my kids. Is it cake? It was cake and pastas, dessert and pastas.
Starting point is 00:30:39 Oh yeah. So I guess it wasn't as a cake exactly. I'm mixing metaphors, but yes. Oh my God, I am a slut for cake. What's your engagement? So I think one of my funnest, and I've had the luxury of quite a few really cool engagement activities in the workplace, was when we did a site-wide haunted house. And what this looked like was our whole facility turned into this haunted
Starting point is 00:31:05 house, but it was different rooms based on departments. So the way this workplace was set up, like there was the HR offices and then there was the finance offices. And so we decorated for literally weeks. Okay, like, I mean, we probably almost shut the business down, to be honest with you. Like everyone took so much time. We had to give departments budgets to really decorate. I mean, it was intense. Okay, it was intense. And we opened up the whole place as an open house for families on Saturday.
Starting point is 00:31:34 And everyone got to go through it, right? So it was like the Saturday before Halloween or whatever. And everything was themed. So I remember HR was like superheroes and we did like a skyline out of construction paper. We all dressed as superheroes and all this. Engineering did like a zombie apocalyptic wasteland. Like what was that show?
Starting point is 00:31:55 Walking Dead? They film it here in Atlanta. Yeah, well, they did a Walking Dead. And they like unhinged some of the fluorescent lights, turned over desks. There was like thousands of newspapers everywhere. Like it was you thought you were in. Yes. And then, you know, some of the the welders downstairs put together
Starting point is 00:32:14 this huge like 20 foot scrap robot. I was probably like against policy, like how we use scrap. You know what I mean? This huge robot with light. I mean, it was legit. That's so cool. So shout out to that business, we all had so much fun. It brought us like, it really legit brought us together. It was like a real cool engagement activity. I actually just thought of another one
Starting point is 00:32:34 that I can't believe I forgot. When I worked in hospitality, we took the grand ballroom and we rented a shit ton of bounce houses and slides and stuff. We had so much fun. You forgot that and mentioned the skate rooms. What the fuck is wrong with you? I know. Oh my God.
Starting point is 00:32:56 That is so cool. I cannot. That was fun. Who got hit in the face with the ball? Somebody got hit in the eye with the ball. No. No. There was no balls.
Starting point is 00:33:04 There was no balls. Good. It's good. Good audio content. No balls. But, oh my God, actually, the secret, this is when me and my husband were actually working together at the same time and briefly dating and working together. And like me and him had a damn ball. We had a damn ball to the wall in there.
Starting point is 00:33:26 And that I can, I remembered like people years later being like, can we do that again? It's like yesterday. You know, I love that. I mean grown ass adults in a bounce house just giggling and laughing and free. Yeah. I'll add my comment to this, which is related, which is as we talk about things, think about this, this in the memories that you have from the workplace and these memories, you know aren't oh I worked on this project I'm so proud and I'm sure you have those but this idea like some organizations and you have to decide what's gonna work with your organization and blah blah blah, but
Starting point is 00:33:57 but this aspect of like the thing that people do to have fun and giving people that like Levity like God by God when I've worked in legal and HR departments, sometimes the most fun we would have is watch these YouTube videos or the dressing. Is it blue or white or silver, whatever. That type of stuff, it matters. And it is, yes, it is work. It is life.
Starting point is 00:34:17 And workplaces have this unique ability to make real ripple impacts on people's lives and have things. And HR has a privilege to help to show why this matters. And you can find all the data in the world online and just pull up your Google to show this. But listen to the energy and the things you think about and make time and space for that. Because by God, life is too short to come in and check in and not have these moments
Starting point is 00:34:43 that you're like, God, this was a blast. Yeah, no, I love that. Yeah, treat it like your family. Except for, it's not a blast, but when Jamie's made me cry in the corner because I fuck up in the escape room. Aside from that, it's all fun and games. Oh my gosh, Jamie, any question or comment?
Starting point is 00:34:59 No. Just like a real meeting. You should just her, no, no. I'm good, I got places to be. And to that You should just her cut you. No, no, no. I'm good. I got places to be. And to that point, we do have a hard stop everybody. Thank you so much for joining our meeting today.

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