Ever wondered how to navigate the intricate dance between technical knowledge and human resources? Today, we journey into the heart of HR, inviting you to discover the ever-evolving technological landscape with Meghan Paul, our technical recruiter, and Kaylee Wurth, our HR systems specialist. Meghan's story is one of relentless curiosity, as she shares her experience of tackling complex technical roles that required her to dive headlong into research.
The episode goes beyond the realms of typical HR roles, offering insights into the innovative and project-focused role of our HR system specialist, Kaylee. As a crucial player in the creation of user-friendly systems, Kaylee enlightens us on how she embraces the challenges of an increasingly digital HR world. We further unleash the power of diverse perspectives in HR, exploring how openness and dialogue are ushering in a new era of flexibility and originality in the field. So tag along as we break down the walls of conventional HR and delve into a world where technology meets human resources.
Rebel HR is a podcast for HR professionals and leaders of people who are ready to make some disruption in the world of work. Please connect to continue the conversation!
Ever wondered how to navigate the intricate dance between technical knowledge and human resources? Today, we journey into the heart of HR, inviting you to discover the ever-evolving technological landscape with Meghan Paul, our technical recruiter, and Kaylee Wurth, our HR systems specialist. Meghan's story is one of relentless curiosity, as she shares her experience of tackling complex technical roles that required her to dive headlong into research.
The episode goes beyond the realms of typical HR roles, offering insights into the innovative and project-focused role of our HR system specialist, Kaylee. As a crucial player in the creation of user-friendly systems, Kaylee enlightens us on how she embraces the challenges of an increasingly digital HR world. We further unleash the power of diverse perspectives in HR, exploring how openness and dialogue are ushering in a new era of flexibility and originality in the field. So tag along as we break down the walls of conventional HR and delve into a world where technology meets human resources.
Rebel HR is a podcast for HR professionals and leaders of people who are ready to make some disruption in the world of work. Please connect to continue the conversation!
This is the Rebel HR podcast, the podcast about all things innovation in the people's space. I'm Kyle Rode. Let's start the show.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back Rebel HR community. We are joined with some extremely special guests who I guarantee you just absolutely love their employer because they work on my HR team. You guys don't have to lie. Actually, Before I hit record, this is a safe space, so it's totally cool. We are again coming to you live from the Iowa State Shirm conference. With us we have Kaylee Worth and Megan Paul Some honest HR rock stars on my team. I could not be nearly as successful as we are as an organization without them. So welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:
Thanks for having us and kudos for being like hell yeah, let's do it. Everybody we've asked so far has been like, oh no, I don't want to do this, this is not my thing. So I appreciate you both being helpful to that. So both of you do very critical roles, slightly different roles, so I think it might be good, megan, can you introduce us to yourself and just tell us a little bit about your role.
Speaker 3:
My name is Megan Paul and my title at work is technical recruiter, so I'm literally finding, and I work with technical roles, so it's a fitting title. I'm looking for the project engineers, design engineers, anything and everything that is around a business unit at engineered solutions. I've been with the company almost a year, coming up on a year in November, so that's just kind of a little tidbit about what I do.
Speaker 2:
So all the easy jobs, the technical jobs that are just shadow.
Speaker 3:
to anybody who has oil seed experience, I am your girl.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, highly technical chemical extraction processes.
Speaker 3:
You know there's, there's so many of those out there in the market Mechanically inclined, hands-on, innovative and oh by the way, be able to work well with others.
Speaker 2:
Right yeah, that too, oh yeah that one, kaylee, tell us about your role.
Speaker 4:
Okay, so I am the HR system specialist at CPM. My primary role is to improve and expedite all of our systems that work with HR and other parts of the business, so it can be anything like performance management, our employee engagement survey, merit incentive really just about any system.
Speaker 2:
The honest answer is whatever Kyle wants her to do, it doesn't have time to look at. That's true. And the person in her email inbox says can you do this? But now I'm getting aside and I think you know a couple of comments about these roles and I think maybe, maybe, helpful for the audience. You know these jobs are both new positions within the last few years because of the changing landscape in human resources, so for different reasons, one of them being the integration and implementation of technology, which is why Kaylee's position was created, because we just needed someone to help figure it the heck out. And then Megan's role was because of this, just the critical talent shortage that we were facing, especially in the technical roles, and she's been an integral part of that team, coming in and really digging into what are the processes that we're doing today that are not working as it relates to some of those technical things. So I am not kidding when I say a couple of HI Rocks there. So thanks for joining.
Speaker 4:
I will say the HR team when I started is like a hundred times different and almost better now because we just keep growing. We've grown by like 600 employees since I started yeah, through acquisitions.
Speaker 3:
So there's always something new to do or figure out, set up etc.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, that's that's been a common theme with the folks that we've talked to here is there's always something new, there's always something different, there's always some level of challenge that we really don't have a playbook for, right, so we have to figure it out. So you know I'm fascinated, megan let's, let's start with you. So you came into the organization relatively fresh. Within the last year You've been an extremely integral part of our recruiting team, but you came into a role that required you to have a whole lot of technical like aptitude as an HR person. So walk me through like how do you approach that as a technical recruiter and making sure that, first of all, that you even understand what you're hiring for and then make sure that you're you're you're connecting with the right market of talent?
Speaker 3:
Very, very good question. So I would say first that it helps that I came from a manufacturing industry and I was working remote. So ask me about CNC machines and all that. I had no idea. I literally had to Google a lot of that to know what it a look like. But also a lot of questions with the hiring managers and sometimes I thought they were stupid questions that I'm sorry. I just have to ask this because I need to know. I don't know what the machines look like. I don't know what the environment looks like. I'm just reading on paper, I'm going off of what you say, so kind of the same thing here. It was nice that I got to tour the pilot plant at Lane On a small scale. I got to see what it could look like in reality. But it was a lot again. A lot of questions, a lot of just personal investigation as like, what exactly is oil seed? There's actually a really good reference person, I would say, david Weneck. He is just a library of information on engineered solution.
Speaker 2:
Shout out to David. I love David Seriously that was, honestly.
Speaker 3:
That was very, very helpful In the beginning. A lot of it didn't sink in, I would say, but it was just good to hear the words. But yeah, so talking with the hiring managers all the time, honestly trying to get them to not use technical knowledge as they're talking to me, but that would ensue more questions from me. So really, really just questions, questions, questions, honest opinions on hey, I think this resume is good, but I am not sure.
Speaker 3:
And just kind of confirming hunches that I had and now I can regurgitate pretty well that it sounds like I know what I'm doing that I have a technical knowledge, so I'm proud that in a shortish time I am able to speak a little bit and at least make it sound good. But there's still a lot, and when we do so much it's hard to just yeah, so we've so little background.
Speaker 2:
so we've hired over 400 people in the last 12 months.
Speaker 2:
So it's been pretty active, but I think a couple of really key points that I'll call out there and I think and Megan, you've done a really good job of this is staying curious, right, like being open to hey, I don't understand this. Can you help me understand? Can you look at this and help me make sure that I'm matching up to the right thing? Help me understand what this little thing in the job profile means, because I don't know what that means, like, what is this even about? Right? And then and I think you've also done a nice job of finding the Davids of the world that have a passion for helping others learn and helping you learn as well, and being open to that. So, kayla, your role is an interesting one, and I would argue, it's a unicorn.
Speaker 3:
Yeah well, you're a unicorn.
Speaker 2:
We'll call you that. So the role itself is really focused on it's project focused. It's really focused on figuring out how do we take this big question of technology, data, resources and structures and processes and put it into something that fits our organization and what's the priority. So, as you think about your job on a daily basis, how do you figure out what you're focusing on on a regular time block?
Speaker 4:
So usually I either have a project that I have no idea where to start, because it's like starting from something we don't have at all Side note, this is for leadership on my part, because I'm like usually I'm like I don't know where to start here.
Speaker 2:
Figure this out.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, or we have something that we've been developing and we just haven't developed it in a way where it's like manager or employee friendly, so you have to figure out a way to make it be like that. I will say I'm the opposite of Megan. I don't ask people questions and then I just try and learn things the hard way, which I actually think I can use to my advantage sometimes, because I will remember how to fix something or do something like the back of my hand, like in the past hour, had three questions about performance evals and I was like, oh, I know this exact problem. This is the exact button thing not to click on. I didn't have to like spend any extra time, and so I think that's Something that I've used as a strength my lack of ability to ask anyone.
Speaker 2:
There's a problem in both of those answers, and that's thank God for Google, let's just go with you to this and see what happens.
Speaker 2:
But the reality is like so much of that, so much of your job is about experimentation, right, and being open to honestly, letting this fail like this might not work how we think that's gonna work, but is there something that can be a use case, right? You know great example where we've rolled out multiple systems related to our HR information system, but then it's it's making the integration and connection between those systems, so it's the applicant tracking system. How does that work? How does this work with onboarding and all the paper forms and that you know? And then, oh, by the way, we have this merit process We've got to figure out. We've got this equitable merit process and there's all of these big projects and and so much of it requires true project management as opposed to what it used to be was. Let's hope that the HR manager has enough time to look at this project amongst the 60 hours plus of workload that they have with employee relations.
Speaker 4:
Yeah right, so when you build systems like that, almost the last thing on my mind at first was how to build a human connection. This like, for example, building out a performance evaluation You're like focused on does the form work managers look at it? Are they getting their email? And the last thing on my mind was are they going to enjoy their experience? It's an employee going to actually go if they meet out of an evaluation? And that's where Kyle comes in and all of the directors.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, absolutely yeah, and I. But I think you know I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, kaylee, because I think you know, at the heart of the work that we do, whether it is recruiting work or HR technology work the reality is, the context that we do this work in is all about the employee experience being right. If we figure out the recruiting processes and we get that fit right where we've got the right person in the seat for the interview, that person understands the job. The recruiter understands what's needed for the job and also understands how are they gonna work and fit within this team. That's a great employee experience. On the same Point, if we get the HR technology right on boardings great, hris is great, the applicant tracking system is great Then the employee experience is is going to be amazing as well, and so it is. It is a humanistic lens, natural. So Don't lose. Don't give yourself a little bit more credit.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, recognition for Kaylee's too humble.
Speaker 4:
Okay.
Speaker 3:
That five. Maybe not a technical on my side, but I'd like I don't know this HR part of it like Kaylee, and Kaylee knows the answer. So no, you definitely pay yourself back.
Speaker 2:
So I think we're gonna. We have to call this podcast, stay curious, because this is, you know, it's, it's. It's something that I truly believe in HR. We need to be driving innovation by asking those questions and being open to Learning new things, and ultimately, that makes us better for our organizations. Megan, what's, what's one closing thing you want to share with our listeners?
Speaker 3:
Put me on the spot. I wasn't ready. I'm gonna go two things. One, I'm excited to go to a Session this afternoon. That is the first 15 minutes, which is literally kind of what you're talking about the first 15 minutes of An employee's start as a new player and the important that is. I'm excited to learn more about that and see how I could Improve how I do and also, again, project engineer. If you're a can of fellow fellow, me out on the plug for my job that is a good recruiter right there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, come on.
Speaker 3:
What's.
Speaker 2:
CPM comm. Check it out. All right, kayleigh, what's your? What's your closing Comment for the audience?
Speaker 4:
Okay, I have like a personal agenda comment. I would encourage any HR manager or director to lean on the unique perspectives in your team. Don't just go with the thing that'll check the box. Ask a lot of questions and let people like young HR Professionals have a seat in the room and share their perspective.
Speaker 2:
I couldn't agree more and you know I, as I think about both of these roles. So these are both part of part of my organization's roles that that have been created specifically With the intent to build them into something bigger and to build the organization into something better, and that means that they need to have enough creativity and flexibility within the job so that, so that we can be nimble enough to do so. I appreciate you saying that. So, kayleigh Megan, thank you so much for joining us. Just an amazing conversation and, yeah, one more time. Www out once you can.
Speaker 1:
Alright. That does it for the rebel HR podcast. Big thank you to our guests. Follow us on Facebook at rebel HR podcast, twitter at rebel HR guy, or see our website at rebel human resources dot com. Views and opinions expressed by rebel HR podcast are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Any of the organizations that we represent. No animals were harmed during the filming of this podcast.
