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Susan 00:01
When organizations have strong employee relations, they benefit from…

JoDee 00:06
…higher employee morale and engagement.

Susan 00:10
Increased productivity.

JoDee 00:12
Better retention.

Susan 00:13
Less absenteeism.

JoDee 00:15
Less turnover costs.

Susan 00:19
Welcome to The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast, where we help HR and business leaders embrace joy in the workplace. I’m Susan White, owner of Susan Tinder White Consulting, an HR consulting practice. Joining me is my co-host, JoDee Curtis, owner of Purple Ink, a large-scale HR firm that I’m part of as a senior executive collaborator.

Susan 00:40
Today we are going to talk about employee relations, or ER for short. What we mean when we talk about ER is the connection between staff and management in organizations. JoDee and my experience, is primarily in non-union environments, and with only 9.9% of the US workforce unionized, according to a January 28, 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics news release, we’re going to focus on employee relations in non-union environments for this episode. Apologies to all of our listeners who work in organizations that are, have union shops. Reach out to us and be a guest on a future episode, if you’d like, where we could focus more on labor relations rather than employee relations. But today, it’s employee relations. My experience in employee relations includes being an HR generalist and an HRBP early in my career, then I managed employment and employee relations for a region that included eight individual banks, and then overseeing a national virtual HR Business Partner team that supported over 100,000 frontline employees and the first three levels of supervision. And I do employee relations as well in my consulting business. One of my larger projects that I did was with a global organization. They asked me to come in and help them rethink employee relations and help them fortify an ER Center of Excellence. Today in my practice, I do weigh in on employee relations issues that my clients face. JoDee, I know you’ve got a lot of experience on this front as well. Would you share a little bit about the times in your career you focused on employee relations?

JoDee 02:28
Yeah. So certainly, like you, as a consultant for the last 15 years, I’ve worked with a wide range of different clients on their employee relations issues, but earlier in my career as an HR manager, even director, and even as a VP of HR for smaller organizations, employee relations was really always a part of my responsibilities. And I have to laugh, as I was thinking back about my history in this that I, you know, I’ve told our audience many times that I spent my first 21 years in public accounting, and really only about nine of those were in an HR role, but we used to have so many employee relations issues around the dress code.

Susan 03:28
Oh, the dress code.

JoDee 03:32
And it’s just, they were very professional firms, especially earlier in my career, when, you know, we wore suits and pantyhose, closed toed shoes. And now I look at those firms and think, what do their HR people do? Because all the people wear jeans and shorts and super casual environments and work from home, and I tried so hard to get people to dress professionally for all those years.

Susan 03:58
Oh, very funny. Very funny. Well, employee relations, or ER, is just one of the many functional areas of HR in most organizations. The University of Pittsburgh School of Law posted an article on July 12, 2023 entitled “Employee Relations: A Critical Area of HR Management.” They reported that when organizations have strong employee relations, they benefit from…

JoDee 04:25
…higher employee morale and engagement.

Susan 04:29
Increased productivity.

JoDee 04:31
Better retention.

Susan 04:32
Less absenteeism.

JoDee 04:34
Less turnover costs.

Susan 04:36
More positive company culture, a better employment brand. As we build strong employee relations in our organizations, one of our anchors is good people policies that are compliant with federal, state, local laws and that actually treat our employees with respect and fairness. Good policies have to be communicated well and they have to be understood by all levels of leadership and staff. When you have strong employee relations, you really do need to be consistently applying your policies within reason. It doesn’t mean every single time it’s cookie cutter, what’s the policy? As sometimes it feels in a union environment, you know, what’s in the contract? What’s the work rule? And you’re going to be absolutely even-handed in non-union environments. You’ve got to be consistently fair, and there’s some, there’s a lot more discretion there, but you really do want to be thought of by your employees as somebody who’s doing the right thing. In all likelihood, there’s going to be times when, as an organization, that a decision is made to vary how a policy is carried out, which, as long as there is a good business reason or mitigating circumstances and we’re not breaking the law or discriminating illegally by doing so, it could be the right thing to do. Employee relations in a non-union environment does have more gray to it as individual circumstances and nuances are considered, which is why we really need to have strong employee relations practitioners. Hence, the reason we’re going to be talking about it today. So Pittsburgh University School of Law suggests that the key skills that an ER professional needs to have includes, actually, five skills, and I’d love to talk about each of these first. First one is active listening. JoDee, I have to tell you that probably the very best thing someone who is leading the employee relations effort can do is to pay attention to what people are saying. You know, generally, when people are not happy or they’re concerned about something, they’re going to share it if we’re listening. So making sure that we are taking the time, that we train our leaders and managers and our frontline supervisors to listen. What, what’s your employee saying to you? What’s the second key skill, JoDee?

JoDee 06:58
It is effective communication, and I think both with active listening and effective communication, it is so important to understand what the person is asking for, what they’re concerned about, and communicate back on that. I see people sometimes trying to solve problems that aren’t there or maybe making the problem or the concern of the issue much bigger than it is. If we can listen to what is their question, ask questions around that to ensure we understand their concern, and then effectively address it back to them in a way that connects with them.

Susan 07:44
I like that. The third key skill that the Pittsburgh University School of Law mentions is conflict management. I truly do believe that every supervisor, manager, executive out there should go through some type of conflict management training. I think that often, leaders will present something that needs to be done, and they expect everyone to do it, and when it’s not done, they start thinking, “Okay, I need a new person. I need to put them on corrective action and get them out of here.” I want to say to you, no. I also think that when managers or supervisors see conflict among employees they’re like, “Okay, well, we don’t need that. I’m going to put them on disciplinary action and get them out of here.” I would really want to change the thinking about that. I think that conflict is healthy in organizations that are growing, in organizations that are inviting employee input. We have to recognize that people are going to disagree. Sometimes they’re going to disagree with their bosses, sometimes they’re going to disagree with each other, and you really do want to be good navigators of that conflict so that people can respectfully disagree. They can end up vetting ideas, coming up with probably a better solution than any one individual can do alone. So conflict management, absolute skill that we need to make sure that everybody leading other people has.

JoDee 09:07
Yeah. And number four is to be strategic in obtaining employee feedback in multiple ways, right? Maybe asking questions, asking them even about your response, even if the response is “this is the policy.” Ask if they understand that, or how they might apply that, or how they might work with that so it’s clear that they’re understanding your suggestion or the policy itself.

Susan 09:42
And I would just add on to that, I think it’s important when you have a policy, if the answer is, “well, that’s the policy,” why we have that policy. It’s for… it’s for the, it’s for the client, because we believe a client is first or whatever, or because for your safety, or for — I do think that adults want to be told when it’s the policy, why it’s the policy, so think that’s a good add. I do think that the final one that the Pittsburgh University School of Law mentions as a key skill for employee relations practitioners is important. It’s the ability to implement policies, address concerns, and address conflict. So you really do need to be a change agent as a employee relations person. You’ve got to be able to, as we’ve talked about, communicate well, listen well, handle conflict, but you gotta be able to stand up policies, processes, and programs. So that was all very good advice from them. So JoDee and I, based on the experience we’ve had, we feel as though that there’s four foundational elements of employee relations that for those of you that employee relations is your role in the job, or for those of you who maybe are leading businesses, we think these four are things that you want to hone and think about, how do we get better at so that we can have better employee relations where I work. So the first one is about the policies. Remember, I said I think everything starts with good, fair, legally compliant policies. You need to make sure that those policies are written in a way that people aren’t just thinking, “Oh, I’ll check the box,” you know, “I’ve got to sign off on the employee handbook. Sure, I’ll sign off on it.” We gotta get people really reading it. You’ve gotta keep it alive, meaning that it’s a great idea as the HR department or as the leader of the organization to say we’re going to revisit what our policies are every six months or every year. I want people to take a look at it. Maybe we’ll make it a focus at one of our town halls, but if it’s important enough to put on paper, to get people to sign off on employee handbooks, then people ought, we ought to revisit what those policies are. Otherwise, people tend to forget. You know, two, three years later in their career, they may violate a policy because they forgot or we didn’t, they didn’t think it was that important because we never spoke about it again. So we have, we’ve got an episode, JoDee, on employee handbooks that we did, we launched back in 2024 and it’s called “Mitigating Risk in Employee Handbooks” with attorney Ken Siepman. If you haven’t listened to it yet, listeners, I encourage you to go back. It’s really good advice about how to keep your employee handbook front and center and to keep it updated.

JoDee 12:20
Number two is to hold your people at all levels accountable for their behaviors. I think this is one of the most difficult things for many managers, business leaders, is they might tell people the policy, they might listen to their concerns, but are they holding them accountable for, for the behaviors they have. So when someone doesn’t meet work expectations, or they violate the work rules, and… because they’re not dependable or reliable, and they may fail to live the values of the organization, you should, number one, investigate the situation. Number two, give them an opportunity to share their point of view. And three, determine a path forward. I can tell you, too, it is so much easier to hold people accountable if we set expectations at the very beginning. If people know here’s the rule, here’s the timeline, here’s the deadline, then it’s easier to hold them accountable for it. If you said, “have that done as soon as possible,” and then their, their sense of as soon as possible isn’t the same as yours, it’s hard to hold them accountable. But personally, I advocate having a written and understood formal corrective action process that serves as your guidepost in these manners and have the notation that the severity of any single issue could lead to termination as you subscribe to employment at will.

Susan 14:06
I agree, and I know there’s a lot of schools of thought. In fact, we’ve had a podcast in the episode early into our podcasting where there was advocates not to have written corrective action. I gotta tell you, I, I still subscribe to it. I think people should understand when you’re on the road to potentially losing your job. There should be no surprises. And then you gotta be fair as you move people through it, or else turn around and get people successful through it.

JoDee 14:31
Right, right. And consistently move through a corrective action process with individuals at every level, those who aren’t cutting it. It is fair and gives employees an opportunity to fix a flaw and/or to have the dignity to vote with their own feet and leave before you might end up terminating employment.

Susan 14:56
Yeah, big believer of that. I think that helps your employee relations.

JoDee 14:59
Yeah.

Susan 14:59
Well, number three, our third foundational element is we believe you need to create and maintain excellent communication up, down, and sideways. I know, sounds pretty hard. It’s not that hard when you’re committed to doing it. Employees absolutely want to be seen, valued, and heard. We know that from every study done out there. So you need to set up multiple channels for employees to share their thoughts and their opinions. Certainly direct managers, we’ve got to train them to be open to employees’ thoughts and feedback and to be listening. Do we need to train them to seek input? You know, how are we doing here? What could we be doing better? What are you seeing from your vantage point? I do think that there’s a place for employee engagement surveys so people can anonymously give feedback. I still like suggestion boxes. You know, the old-fashioned, if you happen to have on-site work, workplaces doing listening sessions periodically, and you can have HR do them. You could have different managers for… can do them with groups that don’t report to them, whatever you think you need. Climate assessments, having some type of an ombudsman or a place that in your organization, employees can go to if they’re frightened to go to their boss about something or they don’t feel comfortable coming to HR, maybe there’s a, an ombudsman that you, you create. So having many, multiple avenues for getting information up is so important. Leadership needs to be trustworthy, and although the word is way overused, they need to be transparent. Leaders really do need to have a regular cadence of sharing information and communicating things out. They need to be open to the front, open to the frontline, mid-level management, and anybody else’s input. And when leadership goes a different direction than what they’re hearing employees wanting to do, they need to explain the why. And you know what, if they have the trust of the team, it’s going to work. Gallup, I know that you’ve, you’ve studied Gallup a lot. You know, Gallup says effective leadership starts with employees trusting you, so I think that’s super important. And then the third thing I would say, if you’re trying — that’s kind of the downward communication. If you’re trying to get sideways communication working really well to have strong employee relations, I am a big advocate of creating cross-functional teams whenever issues need to be resolved that are bigger than just one department’s line or one line of business’s issues. Anything that we can do as organization leaders or HR professionals, that we create cross-departmental teams, maybe for… certainly philanthropic work or company initiatives, or maybe there’s a problem that affects all areas, why not get representatives of all areas working together? People are going to grow friendships out of that. They’re going to build trust between different lines of businesses. We definitely want to compete with the world, whatever space we’re in, but you don’t want to be competing with each other. You don’t want departments throwing the blame and pointing the finger at other departments. We want to, we want to operate as one unified, hopefully non-siloed team, right?

JoDee 18:12
And number four is to create and maintain an organizational culture that feels like a community, one that attracts new hires and retains existing staff. I often say as a people manager that we need to re-recruit our talent every day, right?

Susan 18:34
I believe that.

JoDee 18:35
Yeah, and focus on that. And provide time and space for your employees at all levels to build social capital with each other. My hero on this is Margaret Heffernan, “Forget the pecking order at work” TED Talk that we’ve mentioned before. Take time to incorporate icebreakers even into the most tenured teams. Offer group philanthropy, team building efforts, do employee activities. Consider family, partner, plus one social events during the workday if after, if after hours is not attractive to your population, and train your managers to seek and give feedback in the moment regularly to reinforce why everyone’s work matters, how our team is specifically enabling the organization to achieve its mission, vision, values, and our goals.

Susan 19:40
So we pulled four employee relations-related questions that our listeners have sent in over time. Apologies to those of you that keep sending questions in when we only get to them, like, one an episode. So every once in a while, we do an episode where we put in a few questions. So we’ve taken four questions that have been sent in to us because these are kind of ER related. So, JoDee, do you want to ask the first one and I’ll respond, and then we’ll go back and forth.

JoDee 20:06
Okay. “What are specific common employee relations issues, and how should the response vary by industry and workforce?”

Susan 20:16
I love that question, because I really do believe employee relations is very local. Local to the business, the culture that you’re in, and sometimes it’s the industries, the geography, so dealing… I’ll tell you what’s most normal, which is most common, common based on our experience, and I would say to you in general, especially for non-exempt staff, it’s attendance, punctuality, performance expectations not being met, and behavior problems. I’m gonna say those are the four buckets. Now, for professional level, it generally is not attendance or punctuality, because they’re exempt from us tracking that. So take those away. But for exempt level, in general, it is performance or behavior issues. Now, how that shows up in your workplace is probably different based on your location, your industry, your company’s culture, and so on, so forth. It’s so very important when any of these things surface that you investigate. We’ve talked about before, often complaints will come into the employee relations area, and we really do need you, as the employee relations person or the person overseeing employee relations, to take every complaint on face value. Certainly, if you have somebody who’s got a pattern of it, or you think there’s something nefarious going on, you may have to go a different direction and deal with that person. But most of the time, you need to take the complaint on face value, allegations that have been raised by an employee that they’ve been mistreated, harmed, discriminated against in some way. You really do want to take the time to look into it, figure out if it has merit, figure out what corrective actions are necessary, and affect change if it’s appropriate based on your investigation. I also think some other common functions of an employee relations department is employee activities. As we talked about, ways to build community, usually employee relations has a voice in that. If you’re not actually doing it, you’ve got a voice in making sure that there’s employee assistance programs available to employees, that there’s tools, that there’s resources. You may not be in charge of learning and development, but you want to make sure there is learning and development and career opportunities available to create this awesome workplace that people want to stay and that people are attracted to come. You know, although today we have talked a lot at the 30,000-foot level, it’s important to understand your own industry and the workforce that you have in order to be effective at managing your employee relations. I encourage you to spend time… both before you try to start changing the people practices in your organization and holding people accountable and amplifying communications and building community, take time to understand your business. Take time to understand what’s important to your employees and important to your leadership. All right, let’s go to question number two. How can employers protect themselves from retaliation, JoDee? And I think this is a real ER issue, because we’re the ones there that have investigated complaints, and we’re trying to make sure that employees don’t get in trouble for coming forward when they have a charge of discrimination or allegations.

JoDee 23:30
So when you are investigating an EEO-related allegation from an employee, you must be sure there is no harm or retaliation, now or in the future, to that employee for having brought forth that concern. The best way to ensure it doesn’t happen is for you to partner with the seniormost business leader of the area in which the employee works and for both of you to monitor what happens to that individual going forward. Are they receiving fair reviews? Increases? Opportunities for promotion and/or ongoing training? If not, we need to step in and make sure there is no legacy of ill will surfacing. Additionally, as the employee relations person, touch base with the individual down the road to check in and see how they are doing and feeling is… that’s a good best practice in case something is happening that you cannot see.

Susan 24:38
I love that advice, because so often, after somebody has raised a claim of discrimination or that they’ve been harmed and then let’s say we don’t find it or it’s a he said, she said, life goes on. Well, interestingly, a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, when they’re picking people to be on, you know, a special project, or they’re picking people…people to go represent us at campus or whatever, that supervisor, that manager, that influential person who might have been accused, they may not pick that person who accused them. And so we’ve got to be really careful. And it’s not something that’s once and done. You gotta be monitoring it. So employee relations is not, definitely not a “check the box” type of work. It is… You are watching, listening, learning, monitoring, all the time. So thanks for that. Alright, what’s our third question?

JoDee 25:33
“How do you handle if someone says they are recording the conversation, even if you tell them you don’t want them to?”

Susan 25:42
Okay. In employee relations, people will come to you, right, to vent, to share, to raise allegations, to get your advice. And so if someone tells you that they want to record the conversation, personally, I say, “No, I’m not comfortable with that.” In a dual consent state, that’s really easy. They can’t. They can’t use anything from that conversation. In a single consent state, like Indiana, where I live, it only takes one party to consent. The problem with that, I’m going to be really clear that I do not want it recorded. If they do it and I don’t know they’re doing it, for example, let’s say they say, “Okay, fine, I’ll turn it off,” but they really don’t. There’s not a lot you can do in a single consent state. I would tell you that if you ever ended up in litigation, and I’m not an attorney, but let’s just say you do, and whatever was discussed in that meeting, there’s a recording of it, and you’ve said on there that I’m asking you not to record it, I’m not comfortable with recording it. That’s going to affect, I think, the credibility of the person who did the recording in front of a judge, a jury, or whomever, and so their credibility on other things that they say, I think, could be impacted if they lied to your face then, or else, are they not telling the truth. So anyway, that would be how I would respond. Listeners, if you feel differently, don’t hesitate to write us. Alright, and then JoDee, the fourth question we wanted to pull out is ER-related. “What is the best thing to do when you have employees who make allegations and through perhaps an investigation, an employee relations investigation, you find out they are the person who is at fault?”

JoDee 27:17
Well, if you find that an employee has misbehaved and it is serious, just because they are the one who came forward doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it. It’s possible that an employee knows they have done something horrible, and then in order to get in front of it, they are going to bring a complaint forward to assume the victim role or to not be truthful about what truly occurred. Yes, you may want to make sure they are not retaliated against for bringing the issue, but if you find they did do something egregious that violates the law, your policies, or the work rules, I would discuss with your labor law attorney the recourse you have against them.

Susan 28:05
I think that makes sense.

JoDee 28:06
Susan, what is it that brings you joy in the employee relations function?

Susan 28:12
You know, I love being part of creating awesome workplaces where people get up in the morning and they’re excited to come in. I think sometimes in employee relations, we hear from employees that are not happy, and if we can take that not happy and help them reframe their thinking or to make changes in the workplace or improvements that turns that around and they start getting enthused about coming in, there is no greater feeling for me. It’s like light bulbs go off, I’m super happy. It’s really what I want. So good ER practices can energize employees to bring their best selves and their best work into organizations where they feel respected, valued, and doing work that matters. I love being part of that.

JoDee 28:56
Yeah.

Susan 28:56
JoDee, anything from you about this that you enjoy?

JoDee 28:59
Well, I would say the same, but I also love it when an employee calls or reaches out to me with a concern, maybe a valid concern, but a misunderstanding of something of the policy, or, as you mentioned earlier, the why behind the policy, and when I have the opportunity to explain that to them about, here’s, you know, here’s why we’re doing this, or here’s, here’s what created this policy around it. That can be kind of an aha moment for the employee to say “that makes sense to me,” you know?

Susan 29:44
Yeah.

JoDee 29:44
Now, so it’s a learning opportunity for me too, though, then to say, well, maybe a lot of people think this, and to be able to go back and explain it, reword it, reshare it so that people have a better understanding. So I like it when people — I mean, I don’t, per se, like to hear problems all day, people are honest about their concerns maybe because it was something that wasn’t communicated clearly, or that people didn’t understand it to begin with, so.

Susan 30:20
Well, that makes great sense. So thank you.

JoDee 30:22
On to our listener question today. Susan, our listener wants to know, “How do you curb a person who talks too much in a meeting when you are their peer?”

Susan 30:37
I bet every listener out there is picturing a face right now, somebody who is in meetings with them that really loves to hear themselves talk, right? I’ve been in meetings where I have sat and I just watch people who I think, oh my gosh, they’re a legend in their own mind. They keep sharing and sharing, and people can’t even get a word in. I think the first thing to do, and this, I have to remind myself in self-coaching, is to have a little bit of reflection time. Am I overly sensitive that this person is talking because I disagree with them, and so I don’t like what they’re saying, or is it because I just don’t like them? Am I jealous of them? You know, what, what’s causing me to have this emotional reaction to this person talking? Okay, let’s just assume that none of those things are true, and they are talking too much, and they’re wasting people’s time, including mine, and they’re keeping other people from having the opportunity to speak. I think there’s one of two ways you can go. The first one, which honestly probably is where I would go first and, you know, maybe it’s chicken of me, but I would go to the meeting leader, and I would say to them, you know, this person is a, you know, valued colleague, but are you aware of the fact that lot of other people didn’t speak up? Are you aware of the fact that I’m not speaking up because this person is hogging the mic too much? I mean, I would try the meeting leader. If this did not upset the meeting leader, they’re like, “No, I think that, you know, Frank has a lot to say, and we can all learn from him,” okay, message received. I’ve got it. I’ll probably start checking out in those meetings. I mean, I will physically be there, but I probably am not going to put a lot of energy in trying to get my thoughts out. So that’s kind of a sad, I know, approach, and honestly, listeners, it’s real world, but that’s, that’s probably what I would do. I think the more grown up response, the more adult in the room would be to take your friend aside and say, “Hey, peer to peer, I know that you share a lot in the meeting, and you know, thank you. I’m sure I’ve picked up things from you or learned, but by you’re doing that, I think it’s suppressing other people’s ability to speak up, and I don’t know if you’re aware of it. I wanted to tell you myself, so that you had an opportunity if you wanted to make a change, to make a change.” So I, I love the second. I wish I could tell you that that’s what I would do. I’m not sure that I probably in the real world would. JoDee, how about you?

JoDee 33:13
Well, I’m pretty direct. So…

Susan 33:16
Yes, you are.

JoDee 33:17
I like going to the person directly. However, I really appreciate that you were thinking of going to the meeting leader to get other input, because I think maybe, yeah, maybe it is just me, or maybe they just rub me the wrong way, and other people are learning from it. So I think getting someone else’s opinion without being sort of a tattletale to just other peers, but going direct to the meeting leader and getting their input is a great first start. So.

Susan 33:53
Alright, well, listen, the listener who sent that in, if you feel differently, or you tried something else that worked effectively, please get back to us. I’d love to hear. Alright, it’s time for in the news. A February 28, 2025 article on HRmorning.com by Steve Sonnenberg was entitled “5 Cool Ways to Effectively Celebrate Employee Appreciation Day.” The article caught our attention. In the United States, as many know, March 7 is National Employee Appreciation Day, so by the time you hear this episode, it’s going to be far in your rearview window, rearview mirror, right? Don’t spend too much time beating yourself up if you didn’t do anything on March 7. But here’s the thing, I don’t think you should wait for National Employee Appreciation Day on March 7 each year to do something. Any day can be your organization’s Employee Appreciation Day. Sonnenberg cited benefits of taking the time to formally appreciate your employees. Those benefits would include things like lower turnover, increased productivity, higher employee engagement, and greater company loyalty, all the things that we want. So some ideas that Sonnenberg shared which I liked were, number one, give extra paid time off, which is always a favorite. JoDee, I happen to know you did that this National Employee Appreciation Day.

JoDee 35:17
I did. That was my first time to think of that, and for my employees who may be listening, it may or may not be my last.

Susan 35:25
Aha, you gave — if you don’t mind telling our listeners, how much paid time off did you give?

JoDee 35:30
So I gave all full-time employees eight hours, and all part-time employees an extra four hours.

Susan 35:39
I think that’s beautiful. Number two, what was, what’s number two on his list, JoDee?

JoDee 35:45
Empower professional and or personal development. That is, give time and/or resources to individuals to grow in an area they are interested in.

Susan 35:57
I like that. Number three idea, plan week-long activities, kind of the company’s version of a spirit week if you were still in school. We used to do this at the bank I worked at, and now a lot of it was on the middle managers to pull this off, so I always thought, “who’s appreciating me?” but the beauty of it was, is that you could pull together a committee, multi-level staff who wanted to lead, and maybe somebody on your team would want to lead it, and maybe the middle manager can oversee it. But doing something fun every day for a week really can build momentum and excitement and really, I think, be welcomed.

JoDee 35:57
Yeah, I think that’s a fun one. So number four, mitigate small expenses. Maybe provide free in-office haircuts or free massages. I know we did that at several places I worked at before. Mobile oil change service, a grocery stipend, gas cards, or I’ve seen dry cleaning services, but who dry cleans work clothes anymore? Not me.

Susan 37:04
No, I’m so happy we don’t. And then the fifth one that Sonnenberg suggested is surprise everyone with a care package that arrives at their home. You know, a company swag box, a spa in a box, maybe some essential oils, scented candles with a coupon to a massage, an experiential box that maybe includes tickets to a concert, a national park, a theme park, etc. And then — Isn’t that fun? I think you’ve done similar types of things, haven’t you, JoDee?

JoDee 37:35
Yeah.

Susan 37:35
Sent things to people’s homes? Yeah, you’re so creative. And then interest-specific boxes, like books for readers or video games or tickets to a sporting event. So listeners, we’d love to hear any ideas that you have that you’re doing to appreciate your employees, because we should really share them and get more people feeling great about where they work.

JoDee 37:57
Yep, love it.

Susan 37:59
Thank you for listening today. If you’re SHRM certified, you can get credit for listening to this episode. To get the code, go to getjoypowered.com/shrm and fill out a short evaluation. When you finish the evaluation, you’ll get the code and a link to approve a participation certificate. The code will expire for this episode on April 21, 2026. Again, that’s getjoypowered.com slash S, H, R, M, to get the code, and it’s going to expire on April 21, 2026. Thank you for listening, and thank you for your dedication to the HR profession.

JoDee 38:44
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Susan 40:01
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