Effective HR Functions in This Moment ! Ft. Joey Price

Zach: What's up, y'? All? Y' all are listening to Living Corporate's flagship podcast. If you didn't know, Living Corporate helps organizations build employee engagement and market trust through data analytics and data transformation, our elearning platform and brand marketing storytelling. We're so excited for you to be here today. The conversation you're about to hear is going to connect the dots between employee experience and go to market effectiveness. If you're not ready, get ready. Here we are. Go. HM hd. Founder, entrepreneur, speaker, author, innovator, technologist, father, husband, Joey Price on the Living Corporate podcast. Joey Price, how you doing, man?

Joey Price: Hey, Zach. I'm doing well. I had to look over my shoulder because I was like, who else is in the room? M. Man, that was such a great introduction. I'm like, geez, I really do. Where does all my time go? Because I do spend my time doing those things, brother.

Zach: You know, it's, you know, I know you, you and I both are in the fatherhood game. It's wild. You think you look back and you realize how much time you had before the kids got involved. And then when you think about the stuff you get done in spite of that, it's like, how do I do all this stuff, man?

Joey Price: You know why? You know why Rome wasn't built in a day? You know why I say that?

Zach: Why is that, man?

Joey Price: Because they became family members, men, and they got kids, and it's like, I can't do it all as fast as I used to, so gotta pace myself. Pace myself.

Zach: No, it's true, man.

Joey Price: It's true.

Zach: Listen, um, you know, I, I, I don't know if there was ever a better time to be talking about the current and the future of HR than right now. Right? You're the CEO and founder of Jumpstart hr. You've been in the HR space for, um, for well over a decade. You know, I'd say closer on the 20 years than on the, on the, on the 10 or 15.

Joey Price: Yep.

Zach: Talk to me about the landscape as you see it right now. You know, what are things that are top of mind for you in this season? And, and when you think about the clients and the kind of conversation that you're having, you, uh, know, what's all that looking like?

Joey Price: Well, Zach, you said something I really want to impress upon, and you said, there's no better time than to think about the future, the past of hr, than right now. And honestly, the reason why that is so such a accurate statement is because there's never been an inflection point like the one that we're sitting in right now. I mean, we think about the way that a, uh, human's relationship with work has changed in the last five years versus any other point in time. There's so much that has changed. Um, everything from where do you work, how do you work, who do you work with, what do you work with, how are you compensated? Uh, all of these factors have shifted so drastically and have a potential to shift so much more drastically that it calls all of us as HR professionals to just stop and say, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, where is this thing going? And what role do I play in that? And I'm not just talking about in our organizations. I'm talking about the world of work, broadly speaking. I have this mantra of wanting to create a world where people are more excited about Monday than they are about Friday. I want to help people love their jobs. I get to do that through the fun work that we do with my team and with my book. But there's so much that's changing about the way that we work, not just in the HR department, but in the legal department, in the marketing department, in the sales, our frontline teams, managers. So much is changing about work, and so it's making our job as HR folks a little bit more challenging. But if you can embrace this new challenge, it can set you up for a future that you've never, never even dreamed of.

Zach: You know, it's interesting. You talk to different generations of workers right now, and, you know, everyone has a slightly different response. You know, know, like millennials. You know, we're like, okay, we've been here before. This is like our third market crash. Like, okay, this is like our third or fourth war. We've seen, you know, okay, a couple, Another government coup. Okay, whatever. Another stock market crash. Okay, whatever. But it's interesting, when you talk to, like, boomers and gen zers, both of them are just really trying to figure out what is the future look like, right? I mean, it just seems really bleak. You have layoffs, um, with, with no real plan, it seems, for at least from a corporate, corporate or, or public sector on what recovery or, um, relief or support supplement looks like. And then you have hr. Really? I, I, I feel Joey, like, in a really unique position of, like, you know, being tasked with being the face and management of some really tough, challenging decisions, while at the same time being forced to transform themselves as a function, in a role. And also they're staring down the barrel of massive layoffs. I mean, when you talk to, like, your HR colleagues in this Moment, like, what? And you just. And you engage that industry. Like, what are you hearing from them?

Joey Price: Yeah, that's a great question. And I do talk with HR pros, the ones who are looking for that corner office and the ones who have seen it, done it, and now they want to be independent contributors and consult. Um, I had a really interesting conversation with, uh, a woman who was involved in our research, and, uh, we were doing a focus group. And she said, you know, I learned AI because the way it was introduced to me is that it was going to take my job. And so I wanted to understand this thing that had the potential to disrupt my life. And so that is the posture that I'm seeing from many, uh, HR professionals. Um, the other posture, uh, from a technology standpoint is, hey, we still don't have the word from our senior leaders of what they want to do, so we're just kind of going with the flow. And as products update themselves, we'll take it, you know, one update at a time. Um, so. So for the most part, man, this, this transformation is, is, um, it's still catching people off guard, even though it's happening to all, all of us. Um, we can't even rely on the government numbers as far as how many jobs that the economy is adding or losing, because we'll hear one strong number, and then three months later, they'll say, oops, just kidding. Hold that in pencil, not in pen, because we actually lost these number of jobs. But what you feel across social media, what you feel in conversations at conferences, is really that uncertainty you're speaking of is like, um, I'm tired, I'm exhausted, I don't know which way is up, but here I am, continuing to put in the work and try to make a difference for my team. And so, um, we're in a transformative time. We're in an uncertain time. Um, and I think many people are looking for what the North Star is. And I think if I had to give that answer of what the North Star is, is beyond. Be as smart as you can on these tools, because it's either going to work and you're going to win, or it's not going to work, and we're all going to have to figure something else out. So, uh, I just say lean in and, and try to make yourself unfairable.

Zach: You know, when you think, when you talk about tools in this moment, like, are there any tools out there that excite you? And I don't want to be. I don't want to keep it that broad. I can Help you a little bit, Joey. Like when you think about, you know, HRAs and organizational analytics tools, or you think about other data visualization or sentiment measurement tools, or um, onboarding and training tools, like, is there anything out there over the last year or so that has you like, oh, that's really interesting. Or that could really be. That could really redefine a function or emotion that HR is responsible for.

Joey Price: Yeah, I'm not in a place where I can like endorse one tool over the other. Uh, I can just talk about signals and where I am seeing products be innovated, uh, on a class basis. So to your point, the hrs or the performance management or the applicant tracking, um, where I would encourage listeners to start is if you never heard of the word HR analyst or HR Technology analyst and you don't know what that is, I would say understand that there is a very small world of people who study these tools and make suggestions, recommendations and commentary to help you be smarter at your job. And so, you know, shameless plug. We have a research division at Jumpstart HR that does this. But those are the kind of people and voices that you need to build in your, uh, toolkit of advisors, whether you have a personal relationship or not. Um, if I were to ask, you know, the average HR professional, where do you go for certification or training? They're going to tell you two places, right? If I was to say, oh, what blogs are you reading or what websites you go to to stay up on news and events? There's probably like four places. Maybe there's, you know, um, AI HR, um, HR Brew, um, HR Dive, HR.com, like all those different places. Right. Um, but if I were to ask, okay, well, who, who do you listen to to learn more about the tools you use? They're going to say, oh, I'll just talk to the vendor. Well, the vendor is going to tell you what they want you to know.

Zach: That security keep on using their product.

Joey Price: Yeah. To keep you using the product. Um, that's all well and good. There's, there's no shame or shade in that. But who's giving you a balanced perspective? Who's telling you the limitations of the product you're currently using and the uh, item, the capabilities, um, of either point solutions that can bridge it or the um, the enterprise software that you can use to maybe do more things and, and just pay one, one check? Um, I would encourage the audience to go look up HR Technology Analyst and um, bring that information into your, into your toolkit.

Zach: You know, there's something to be said about like, and I hear your point about not wanting to endorse a particular tool or not. I, I think there's something to be said about the way this technology is going and like being responsible for yourself and your own organization of learning the technology. Right. Like, because you're absolutely right. Like if you just continue to defer and ask like the workday vendor about how workday works. I mean the, the loud secret in technology is tech salesmen tell you anything.

Joey Price: Yep.

Zach: They'll tell you he wants to make

Joey Price: the president's club, baby. Everybody wants to.

Zach: Tech sales will tell you any damn thing. I never forget when I worked at Survey Monkey. I mean we had folks on those, that, we have sales folks on those calls just saying anything. They saying our technology, they're saying the surveys could do, measure and do all manner of things. And it's like it can't do that. But the goal is to, the goal, right? And this is, and this is just part of tech sales culture. It's not germane to one company there. The goal is to get the sale right and then, and then whatever doesn't work in native in that system, then you know, just go and get the professional services team to fill out the, fill in the blanks.

Joey Price: Right.

Zach: And that's what you do.

Joey Price: We'll probably promise it on the roadmap.

Zach: Just say, hey, promise it on the roadmap. Hang with us for another next quarter. We're gonna have some, we're gonna have some. We're gonna, we'll include you in the uh, in the beta next quarter. And, and we just, can you just continue to punt that down the road? Because we're not going to talk about how oftentimes, especially depending on if you're product led or customer uh, led, those teams don't even talk to each other internally. It's just a bunch of people just running around. And so it was a whole separate pod. But, but you know, there's something to be said I think right now, especially in this world where um, generative AI continues to be, um, the, the, the uh should be increasingly in vogue and you have, you know, vibe coding, you have people working, you know, they're prompting and kind of speaking into Claude and other types of tools to help create uh, features for their products or their sites or their apps. But they have no actual foundational knowledge of like how this thing is being built. They have no real appreciation for the back end. Even if they're connecting to some type of git, they still don't speak any of these languages. So they end up having to talk to AI to fix AI. They have to talk to AI to fix the code of uh, a language they don't understand. And so there's so much exposure and risks there. And so what happens? So then you're trying to measure that or blend trying to do this and coordinate this with your existing tech stack. It's just a mess. It's just an absolute mess. So 100% agree that you have to be accountable to um, you owe it to yourself to learn about the products you're using and, and engage not just the people trying to sell it to you. I mean you can be creative, right? Like Google is your friend, even though it's significantly worse in its search functionality since it's mobilization of AI was again probably another topic day. But like look on Reddit, look on Reddit threads, look on product threads, look on, you know, engage, mobilize your network, talk to people about the technology so you can really have a hands on point of view with it. You know, when we talk about Jumpstart hr, right? Like you know, again you've been, you've been at and with this organization, um, with your, with your company for uh, several, several years. Why this work? Why HR in this way and not like with a major company. And then two, what is getting you the most excited about the work you're doing right now?

Joey Price: Yeah, well when I started Jumpstart, I started it because there was such a need for strategic HR in almost every small business that I learned and grew my career in. And I said well if, if this small sample size of, of HR functions in these small businesses are missing strategy, what else is out there? And so I, there were a few kind of like decision points that I made in my career. Um, one was, you know, I always wanted to help people. I always wanted to teach. I always wanted to help people um, maximize where they're at. Uh, do I go to PhD route in business so like PhD in HR and teach the next generation of HR professionals or do I start a business? And uh, uh, uh, I went to this program that was for minorities, um, in business PhDs. Great program. I think the best thing they showed me is that that wasn't the route for me because I was like I want to teach, I want to teach, I want to teach. And they were like, yeah, don't tell that to the, to the schools because they want you to research, research, research. Now fast forward 15 years later, I'm both teaching and researching, just not through a Ah, PhD model. Um, but I started it because I wanted to help small businesses. But as I have gone through this journey of now almost 15 years running, um, this business, I wanted to open up the aperture a little bit more. Um, yes, people can learn, um, and benefit from my book or learn and benefit from hiring us as an organization that helps build out their business. Um, but the research capability that we have now is super fascinating and interesting to me because it allows that reach at scale, um, and that reach specifically being helping to create a world where people are more excited about Monday than they are about Friday. Helping to create the tools that are deployed across millions of organizations across the globe. So I started in a profession and felt, okay, I'm going to have an impact on one business, the W2 business that pays my bills. And then I made a jump to say, okay, I'm going to have an impact on tens or hundreds of businesses, the businesses that pay my company now, uh, I'm privileged to be in a seat where it's still, you know, working with tens or hundreds of companies, but the companies that we work with now work with millions of businesses and millions of, uh, individual employees. So that's just kind of the sweet spot for right now. And what excites me is just being able to learn from so many people and hear so many different perspectives. So any given day, because of the seat that I sit in, I'm talking to HR professionals who are frustrated at open enrollment. And then I'm talking to HR technologists who are like, oh, yeah, we can do, um, our new AI agent can do payroll migrations at the push of a button. I love that I get to be in that seat because I get to understand, well, what are the pain points of the HR professional that's going through open enrollment and how can I help this business that is streamlining, um, a very frustrating part of moving from one payroll system to another. How can I help them talk better and how can I have them produce better wins for one another other?

Zach: I mean, it's exciting, right? You get to see the entire spectrum of work and you're able to. And it's, and it's, it goes beyond theory, right? You're talking practically, which then gives you, which then reinforces your own expertise as you then consult and give points of, uh, of guidance to, to other brands. You know, because of that and just where you sit, I feel like you have, I feel like, and I'm not calling you Nostradamus, but I feel like you have, I feel like you have a good beat on, just like the, the HR space. As you think about the technology that we're looking at. You just talked about AI agents talking about the landscape of work. Started off this, this conversation talking about, you know, massive layoffs and um, and, and I would say organizations continue to shift from being like a pyramid to a diamond. Like, you're seeing entry level workers being reduced, you're seeing um, increasing pressure on mid level managers. And then you're seeing um, even, you're seeing me even stringent, more stringent, uh, boundaries being placed on executive level leaders in terms of the, the, the rope they're given before they're eventually also let go. Where do you see like, let's just say like the next 12, 18 months? If you were to sit down and talk to a room full of HR executives, where would you say they should be paying attention to most? Where and what do you think they should be giving most of their time and attention to?

Joey Price: Yeah, I'm not Nostradamus, but I do get to hear from pro product leaders and HR leaders. And I would tell a room of HR leaders the same thing that I would tell my niece who is getting ready to embark upon college and get a career. Um, she chosen healthcare. So not uh, the same field, but similar advice. I would say understand how to use technology to make you so unfairable and so indispensable. Um, unfairable is just like table stakes. But the indispensable uh, piece is anyone who's having significant conversations about advancing the business, they need to hear what you have to say. And so that's, that's what I would tell them. I would say make sure you are in those rooms. If you're not in those rooms, understand that you're not in those rooms today for a reason. Because there may be, um, your, your, your CEO may not feel that you have the skills or the diplomacy or the analytic, um, perspective or the financial management perspective to say something that credibly moves the needle on his or her thinking. So you got to change that. And so just understand that um, being the chro in an organization is as close to being a second chair leader as possible because you are responsible for the largest line item in the budget and the overall headcount of the organization. So do what it takes to be, uh, indispensable and unfiable.

Zach: Listen, it's been Joey Price. I appreciate you man. I'm glad we're able to connect. I. And also let me give you your flowers on, on mic, on camera. You reached out to me several years ago just to say what's up?

Joey Price: Yeah.

Zach: And I appreciated the intentionality, the energy then. I appreciate the intention, intentionality and energy now. Uh, man. Make sure y' all check out the links in the show notes to learn more about Jumpstart hr. Make sure you check out the links in the show notes to learn more about Joey Price. Get connected, get familiar and uh, stay in touch. Till next time y'.

Joey Price: All.

Zach: Y' all been listening to Joey Price. HR executive, CEO, founder, technologist, speaker, author, writer, father, husband, overall dope dude. Till next time y'. All. Peace.

Joey Price: Peace.

Speaker C: M Living Corporate is a podcast by Living Corporate llc. Our logo was designed by David Dawkins. Our theme music was produced by Ken Brown. Additional music production by Antwan Franklin from Musical Elevation. Post production is handled by Jeremy Jackson. Got a topic suggestion? Email us@livingcorporatepodcastmailuh.com youm can find us online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and living-corporate.com. thanks for listening. Stay tuned.