Workplace MVP LIVE from SHRM 2021: Katrina Branson, SBDC Louisiana, and Paula Harvey, Shulte Building Systems

Intro: [00:00:03] Broadcasting live from the SHRM 2021 Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center, it’s time for Workplace MVP. Brought to you by R3 Continuum, a global leader in workplace behavioral health, crisis, and security solutions. Now, here’s your host.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:00:21] Hello, everyone. Jamie Gassmann here, your host of Workplace MVP. And we are again broadcasting from the SHRM 2021 Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. And, if you hear some thundering, it has started to storm, you know this 108-degree temperature. Mother Nature’s finally giving us a little bit of a cool off. But with me right now, I have two guests. I’ve got Katrina Branson, who’s a Special Project Consultant for America’s SBDC Louisiana. And I’ve got Paula Harvey, who is the VP of Human Resources for SBS Schulte Building Systems. Welcome to the show, you two.

Paula Harvey: [00:00:59] Thank you.

Katrina Branson: [00:01:01] Thank you so much for having us.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:01:02] Yeah. Really excited to talk with the both of you. So, I’m going to go ahead and kind of start with Katrina. So, Katrina, tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got into your role at SBDC, and a little bit just kind of your background.

Katrina Branson: [00:01:15] Yeah. So, I am a special project consultant with the Small Business Development Center in the State of Louisiana. We have 10 centers all across Louisiana. There is typically an SBDC center within 100 miles of where you live in the United States. We are funded by SBA, the Small Business Administration, and we are a network of centers that provides no-cost or low-cost business consulting.

Katrina Branson: [00:01:42] If you are looking to start a business and you have an existing business and you’re looking to grow a business, you come to us and we provide those resources for you. So, whether that be training, any technical assistance, we would be the person to hold your hand and walk you through the process of starting a business.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:02:02] Wow. So, talk me through, you know, kind of what are some of the normal things that are typically needed as somebody’s venturing into starting that new business.

Katrina Branson: [00:02:10] Right. We have, you know, this new renaissance of people who are wanting to start a business. You know the pandemic and COVID has really taught people that they can do things on their own now. So, we have an influx of serial entrepreneurs who are coming to us for assistance.

Katrina Branson: [00:02:29] When they come to us, typically one of the main things that we want to share with our entrepreneurs is to make sure that they have enough cash flow. That’s important when you’re starting a business, not just, you know, starting that business but making sure that you can sustain yourself within the next three to five years, so working with those small businesses, making sure that they have the cash flow in the financial projections that they need for where they’re going. So, we walk them through that process and detail those things that they are going to need when they start their business. So, we do that.

Katrina Branson: [00:03:02] We also offer a series or a plethora of training programs for how to continue to operate your business, whether that be with QuickBooks software or training that you’re going to need. So, various things like that are kind of the hub of what we are able to offer those small businesses.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:03:23] Wow. So, you’re here at the SHRM Conference. So, is H.R. kind of learning about, like, if they grow big enough that they’ve got a staff? Is that part of some of the support that you provide to them?

Katrina Branson: [00:03:34] Very good question. So, I wear many hats. I am the current president of our local SHRM chapter. So, I’ve been in human resources for about 15 years and SHRM has been a great addition to my career and my professional development and growth. I’ve been a member of SHRM for all of those 15 years that I’ve been in H.R.

Katrina Branson: [00:03:59] But being the leader of our chapter, kind of, is what brings me here. I started my career in human resources and then just kind of progressed with SBDC. So, being here allows me to not only become and continue to be well versed in the field of H.R. but to really help those small and medium-sized businesses with what they are dealing with in human resources and employee retention, especially during these times, where you’ve got those who are wanting to continue to work from home and be offered those hybrid options to be able to work from home and in the office. So, having the network and the support here at the conference is really able to allow me to take back to my hometown in the State of Louisiana, kind of what the industry is saying in those areas.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:04:55] Fascinating. So, it’s kind of almost you’re using it for the chapter but also I got to imagine some of those business owners, you know, once they get that business up and going, and do they come back downstream to kind of seek out additional help if like, okay, I’ve gotten to this point, like, and I’ve gotten out of this hundred employees, what do I do.

Katrina Branson: [00:05:14] Absolutely, absolutely. We don’t just let them go when they start their business. We are there to help them continue to grow and look at different strategies on how they can, you know, not just work in their business but work for their business. You know, we want to allow them to be able to grow and hire more employees so they can be more hands-off to really develop that strategic role that they need to be as a CEO.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:05:38] Wonderful. And so, being at the sessions, what has been some of your best takeaways that you can’t get, you know wait to get back and share with those that you kind of bring that information back to?

Katrina Branson: [00:05:49] Right. I think one of the important things really when I talk about remote workforce is really, you know, how do we retain our employees now? I mean, we have to really look at different ways that we are going to be able to support our employees. If we allow them to work remotely, how do we support them mentally when you’re sitting at home and you’re, you know, whether that be you have someone who is a mother or someone who works alone at home. But being able to support them mentally is going to be a challenge because you’re sitting at a desk and you’re sitting there all day with no human interaction if you’re working from home. So, there are just so many things that we need to change and look at and adapt to with this new dynamic of remote workforce.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:37] And, SHRM, I know, has a number of different sessions that are focused around this, so you’re probably getting some great information that you can take back.

Katrina Branson: [00:06:44] I am. I am.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:44] Wonderful.

Katrina Branson: [00:06:44] Absolutely, yes, yes.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:45] So, we’re going to move to our next guest. We’ve got Paula Harvey, VP of Human Resources with Schulte Building Systems. Welcome, Paula.

Paula Harvey: [00:06:55] Yeah. Thank you. I’m really glad to be here.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:06:57] So, tell us a little bit about your career journey and how you got into H.R. and kind of, you know, how you kind of climb the ranks into the VP role?

Paula Harvey: [00:07:05] Okay. Well, I have been in human resources 34 years, so quite a while. Graduated from UT Austin, and my degree in international business and operations management took me to my first role as a recruiter. I’ve worked in retail. I’ve worked in manufacturing. I had my H.R. consulting business for 12 years and was very successful with it and then sold it to go back in-house that I’ve done for the last six years and been with Schulte Building Systems. They are a metal buildings manufacturer.

Paula Harvey: [00:07:37] But on the H.R. side, to even get some more, I am, assure me I think for life now, I’m on the SHRM Foundation’s board. I’m a board member for the SHRM Foundation. I’ve been a chapter president of two chapters. I started a chapter. I’ve been the State Council Director for North Carolina for three and a half years. And then, I was then elected to the Membership Advisory Council for SHRM for two years. So, I’ve been doing SHRM volunteer work for a very, very long time and absolutely love spending time, helping people, and getting people involved in our wonderful profession of human resources.

Paula Harvey: [00:08:18] So, I’m currently at this conference as a SHRM 21 influencer. So, I’m known as one of the Peacock sisters, and so I’m here supporting one of my dear friends, who is, this is her very first SHRM Conference and she is a speaker. And so, she’s speaking at 4 o’clock today, and her name is Tina Marie Wohlfield. So, she’s excited. She’s going to be talking about how to get better collaboration in the workplace.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:08:44] Oh, such a powerful topic. But, you know, and it makes such a difference in that workplace.

Paula Harvey: [00:08:49] Yeah.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:08:50] So, great. So, Peacock sisters, that’s great. Is that like a –

Paula Harvey: [00:08:54] There’s three of us.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:08:55] There’s three of you.

Paula Harvey: [00:08:55] So, Melanie Peacock is the other one.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:08:58] Okay.

Paula Harvey: [00:08:58] She is in Canada. And, because of what’s going on with the COVID, she could not come here. She was supposed to be speaking. I often speak at the conferences too. But just this year, I’m too busy with the SHRM Foundation and other things, so. But, yeah, we miss Melanie, our third member of the #peacocksisters. So, we’re pretty well known on Twitter and in the #hrcommunity for all our fun that we have with our bright colors, so.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:09:27] I love that. I love that. Definitely have, you know, builds that collaborative spirit.

Paula Harvey: [00:09:34] Absolutely.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:09:34] And, you know, kind of finding people that you can kind of have as like lifelong friends almost within that industry.

Paula Harvey: [00:09:38] You know, Tina Marie’s in Detroit, I’m in Houston, and Melanie’s in Calgary, and we are on a text feed all day long, talking back and forth to each other. And, now, I have three best, you know, two best friends for life, so the three of us.

Paula Harvey: [00:09:55] And, it’s just, you know, and if it hadn’t been for SHRM and all the things that they’ve been doing and the H.R. social hour group, that’s how we became friends. Melanie spoke at her first conference in 2017 and we’ve been friends since then and then now Tina Marie here, and Tina Marie and I met a few years ago because she was posting about H.R. and peacock. So, it’s amazing how you can make friendships over Twitter and then they grow into lifelong friendships.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:10:25] Yeah. That’s fascinating, you know. And, that’s what kind of the beauty of some of these conferences, which is nice, that they were able to have it back in person again this year to kind of, you know, that networking capacity. So, from your, you know, being in the industry as long as you’ve had, how do conferences like this help in building some of that networking, some of that take-home education, you know? And, I know you’ve got the SHRM Foundation. There’s lots of great information within them, you know within that foundation as well. You know, kind of share a little bit about that because –

Paula Harvey: [00:10:54] Well, this is my 20th SHRM Conference. So, I actually wrote a blog on it so you can find it on the SHRM website and find it. I’ve posted it through Twitter too. And, it’s amazing, all the different places and all the different friends and all the different things.

Paula Harvey: [00:11:10] But I think out of all of them, besides it being a family affair because my daughter’s also in H.R., so this is her 9th conference. And so, she’s, you know, it’s just helped to bring some friendships and allow me to do things that I would have never done otherwise. I’ve been an instructor for the certifications since 2001 and teach the SHRM CP and SCP prep courses for Rice University as my side gig. And, it’s really, you know, it’s given me a chance to do things I would have never done otherwise and to be an expert in my field.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:11:45] Yeah. That’s wonderful. So, and being an expert in the field with all of that background that you have, you know what have been some of the trending that you’ve seen that maybe even pre-COVID that maybe got heightened, you know, post-COVID?

Paula Harvey: [00:11:59] We were already starting to see a talent war and that has been coming on. But now it’s a talent tsunami, as we call it, and everything else going on. It is. And, with the great resignation going on, I see it in my own company that we had had really pretty decent turnover because we pride ourselves as being an employer of choice.

Paula Harvey: [00:12:19] But we’ve already passed just recently our normal yearly turnover is, you know, happened in early August. And, I mean, it’s just, especially we hire manufacturing people, welders and fitters and, you know, machine operators, and they can pick and choose their jobs. And, if they just don’t go for 50 cents more now, that they wouldn’t do that. And, we had people, you know, 15 years with the company and making those changes.

Paula Harvey: [00:12:49] So, talent acquisition. I serve on SHRM’s Talent Acquisition Panel and have been on it for several years now as one of the experts in talent acquisition. And, even it’s challenging me who does this and really, you know, gets to talk about how to do it right. It’s challenging me to do it right just because it is such a change.

Paula Harvey: [00:13:10] And then, the other thing is just all the stuff, of course, on DEAI and B, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, for those of you not aware of those letters. But that’s been a challenge since all the stuff from George Floyd and, you know, just how to react and say the right things, to do the right things and be understanding and supportive of all our employees, all of our employees, because we have a very diverse mix in my organization and just supporting that and being, you know, a leader of that is important.

Paula Harvey: [00:13:43] And then, I would say, of course, I’ve become the COVID queen. And, I never thought I would ever learn how to procure masks, hand sanitizer, you know, cleaning supplies, and all those things that I’ve had to do over the last year and a half. And, you know, unfortunately, we’ve had several people test positive and I’ve had three deaths. And so, having to deal with the family and the tragedy of that. And it’s hard and the mental health that it’s hitting for us H.R. people, to be honest, but also with the mental health that’s hitting for our employees. And, I think Michael Phelps talking this morning was such an important and impactful conversation.

Paula Harvey: [00:14:23] And, we are moving with the SHRM Foundation and we have sponsors for this and there’s going to be some education that people can get on how to be a supporter of mental health and understand how to deal with mental health in the workplace.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:14:38] Yeah. And, you brought up a lot of great, you know, kind of challenges that workplaces across, you know, really the globe almost are experiencing. You know, if an employer – you know, from your perspective, if an employer hasn’t been paying attention to those three things, you know, what would you say to them from? I mean, obviously from a consulting role that you’ve had before, but knowing and experiencing it yourself and your current role, what would you say to them?

Paula Harvey: [00:15:03] I would say, you know, each company is different. I work for an essential employer. That means people talk to me about, “Oh yeah, well, I’ve been working and I’m Zoom fatigued and working from home,” and I look at them, I wish. I have been to work every single day. I haven’t been working out of my home. Instead, I’ve had to be – someone has to be there and, as an executive, I need to be there and to support. I’ve let some of my staff work from home, but it’s just a handful of the staff that could do that in a manufacturing setting.

Paula Harvey: [00:15:33] So, realizing that everybody’s different and we’ve all handled this last, you know, two years very differently and had different experiences. But, you know, being respectful of that and caring about that and realizing we all have different things that have happened to us, but it’s been a shell shock to everyone.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:15:50] Yeah.

Paula Harvey: [00:15:51] And just being supportive of everyone in the H.R. industry and knowing what they’ve gone through and sharing our stories and being, you know, part of this greater H.R. community is important.

Paula Harvey: [00:16:05] I really have loved that these – one of my friends runs this thing called a coffee talkie, and so it’s called the H.R. Unite Group. And so, that’s Tina Marie, actually. She runs this out of – and so this is virtually done and you have this group that you meet with once a month and just talk about what’s going on.

Paula Harvey: [00:16:25] There’s another group that I know runs an H.R. Rebels Group that I’m in, and they meet every Wednesday at 2:00. And, having those people just to talk with all over the place is just wonderful because you’re all going through a lot of the same things but then different things and then giving better perspective by, you know, realizing this is a greater size group. We have one gentleman who’s in our Rebels Group who calls out of Spain. He’s on there from Spain all the time. So, it’s just amazing, you know, and you get friends from all over the world if you’re willing to open up your life and, you know, participate. I think that’s the biggest thing. You have to participate.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:17:04] Yeah. That’s been a common theme at this show that I’ve heard. There’s been several things that have been standout, and one of them is, you know, start communicating, getting to know people, and asking questions. And, you know, and everybody has a different experience. But there are similarities in some of those experiences, but you can learn from each other as well. So, that’s very powerful. And, I guess, you know, with an employer like, you know, talk to your people too, like how are they feeling and what’s going on?

Jamie Gassmann: [00:17:28] So, from your H.R. perspective, you know, and I know you’re an influencer here at the show and you’re working with the foundation. Can you talk a little bit about what the foundation does and how you’re focused in some of those areas you’ve mentioned?

Paula Harvey: [00:17:42] So, we are a non-profit entity. We are really like, you know, we’re the foundation for SHRM. So, you can you could use the word charity also. But, you know, people, mainly H.R. folks, donate money for research, for scholarships, for all sorts of wonderful things that we’re doing. And, you can find from the regular shrm.org website, down at the bottom, click on the thing to go to the SHRM Foundation. You can see all the wonderful things that we’re involved in. We’ve done projects on aging. We’ve done projects on getting veterans jobs. We’ve been helping with projects on the formerly incarcerated and having opportunities for them. The more recent ones have been on disability and understanding what it means for that and now this mental health is our next big project, but that we keep supporting the older projects, too. So, we want people to, you know, because these are all topics that are important and that we’re dealing with with our employees in the workplace.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:18:46] Wonderful. So, I’m going to leave with one last question for both of you. You know, what is your passion with H.R.? What makes you wake up in the morning excited to do what you do in that H.R. role? And, I’ll go ahead and start with you, Paula.

Paula Harvey: [00:19:01] I think making a difference in people’s lives. That’s probably the biggest thing. And, I actually will pull it all the way back as someone was asking about this to me recently and I said, I love talent acquisition. Because that’s kind of the foundation of what H.R. starts with is finding that amazing, maybe diamond in the rough, person that you just want you to take a chance on them and giving them an opportunity to come work at your organization and mold them and see them grow into making an amazing employee and, you know, get promotions and things like that. To me, that just makes me feel so good in my heart.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:19:39] Yeah. You made a difference in someone’s life.

Paula Harvey: [00:19:41] Right.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:19:42] Yeah, amazing. How about for you?

Katrina Branson: [00:19:44] Yeah. I’m going to – this is going to sound really cliché-ish, but it’s really the people. You know, I am a real proponent of diversity, and having the gift to be able to talk to and train and really speak to a diverse group of people from the lowest level employee to the highest level is really a gift that’s been given to me. And, to be able to share that in a space of human resources is really rewarding for me. So, I’m really happy to see that. We now have this conversation with, [inaudible], and how important that is. So, being able to really hone in and really stress the importance of the differences in people is really something that is really rewarding for me.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:20:34] Awesome. And, it’s rewarding the organization too, the different perspectives they can bring. Awesome.

Katrina Branson: [00:20:39] Absolutely.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:20:40] Well, thank you both for being on the show. If somebody wanted to get a hold of you, how would they go about doing that? Paula, why don’t you share how they can get in touch with you.

Paula Harvey: [00:20:47] Find me on Twitter, @paula, number 4, Harvey, so paula4harvey.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:20:52] Great. How about for you?

Katrina Branson: [00:20:54] I’m on all of, pretty much all of the social media channels. I spend most of my time on Facebook and also Instagram. Our center is also on Facebook as well, so you can follow us there as well.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:21:10] So, that would be the America’s SBDC Louisiana, and that’s Katrina Branson, so just to kind of – and then Paula Harvey, I know you shared your name. I just want to make sure.

Paula Harvey: [00:21:19] Thank you.

Jamie Gassmann: [00:21:20] Well, thank you both so much for joining us here. It’s been so great to chat with you. And, if you are listening in and you are in the SHRM Expo area, stop by Booth 4076 and visit our sponsor, R3 Continuum.