Reilly DiPlacido, Founder and CEO of Triumph HR

0:00 The topics and opinions expressed in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W four cy Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. Churchill said, those who failed to learn from history are condemned to repeat it. Kevin Helen n believes that certainly applies to business. Welcome to Winning Business Radio here at W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com and now your host, Kevin.

0:47 Helen Thanks everybody for joining in again today. I am Kevin Hallanan and welcome back to Winning Business TV and Radio on W four cy dot We're streaming live on talkfo tv dot com, and of course we're streaming live at Facebook and that's at Winning Business Radio. And we're available after the live show on every platform where you could possibly find a podcast, YouTube, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple, and the list goes on the mission of the show winning business radio and TV, as regular viewers and listeners know, is to offer insights and advice to help people avoid the mistakes of others, to learn best practices. Those are the how tos, the what tos, the what not tos, and to be challenged and hopefully to be inspired by the successes of others. Those are consultants, coaches, advisors, authors, founders and owners, entrepreneurs, people with expertise. But you know, virtually every successful person that I've ever talked to has had some form of failure in their lives and careers.

1:49 So I say it every week. While we also get our niee skinned once in a while, I'm driven to keep those scrapes from needing major surgery. Let's endeavor to learn from history so we don't repeat it. I've spent the better part of my career equipping businesses to grow from solopreneurs to small to mid sized companies all the way up to the Fortune fifty. And I've seen some of those companies win, and to a varying degree, I've seen some fail. I've had the opportunity to rub elbows with some of the highest performing people around and with some who probably should have found other professions and my own businesses too. I've had a lot of success, but some failures as well, and I like to think I've learned a lot from those experiences. So sure you're going to hear a little bit from me, but mostly I want you to hear from the guests. Those are experts, consultants, coaches, authors, advisors, founders and owners and entrepreneurs. Today's no exception. My guest is Riley de Placido, the founder and CEO of Triumph HR and here's her bio. Riley Placido is the founder and CEO of Triumph HR and HR consulting and recruiting firm that helps growing businesses build strong teams, stay compliant, and create workplaces where people and performance thrive. She works closely with business owners and leadership teams to provide practical HR guidance from yeah from employee relations and compliance to talent strategy and leadership support. Riley's passionate about simplifying HR so leaders can focus on growing their businesses and leading their teams with confidence. She ends up earned a bachelor's in psychology and business from Bridgewater State University and holds the SHR m CP Industry designation. She's a former board

3:23 member of the New Haven Residential Treatment Center and currently the co director of the food Pantry of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. She resides in Attleboro, mass with her husband Matt, and their two German shepherds, Bruski and Bella, who I understands a handful. Riley, Welcome to Winning Business Radio. Hi, Kevin, thanks so much for having me today. Thanks being of course, this is overdue, long overdue, So let's start with your family. Tell us about Matt and the kids. Yeah, I know Bella and Bruski. As you said, the little one is a handful. Matt and I have a really cool story though, so we were both born and raised and rent the Massachusetts We've known each other our entire lives. Not many people get to say that about their spouse, which is really fun to be able to do so many different serendipitous things between us. Both of our sisters had the exact same birthday and grew up as friends, and then we knew each other the entire time growing up. My dad rented an office space from his dad for over twenty years. And they used to go out to dinner at least once a month, hanging out.

4:25 So Matt and my father in law built my parents' house about fifteen years ago at this point, and the rest is kind of history from there. We got married back in October of twenty twenty five, right around the excuse me, October twenty twenty four, right around the same time I launched the business. So so many good things in our two German shepherds are wonderful. Bruski is a very loyal good boy, especially for dad, and Vella is about eighteen months and she is a little punk, all right. So I got to ask a little bit more about you and Matt with her other boy as a girlfriends in that time period. I mean, did you know where you were destined to be together or was there one specific time?

5:06 So it's really cool. So he and I actually did go out on a few dates, probably about fifteen years ago, and then ultimately I decided to kind of I said to my best friend at the point, if I got involved with that, it would be really serious and I wasn't ready for that. So fifteen years later, here we are. So when we both look back kind of at the paths of our life. We both will say that this was absolutely destined for us to be together. It was just a matter of time. That's cool. And I understand you're building a new house and rent them back where it all started. Yeah. So we've always said that we were the biggest townies without living in rent them Massachusetts. But now we officially own land and rent them Massachusetts, so we can kind of say that we're townies, which is nice without living there just yet. But we are building a house.

5:56 So we are building a duplex and my periods all move in and live. Next door to weyh. That's nice, really nice. Yeah, and when will that be ready? Great question, Kevin. I'll let you know when. I'm right, all right, make an announcement, Make an announcement. Yeah, all right. So when you were younger, like high school ish, what were your early interests back then? My early interest back then? I think if my parents had one thing to say about me, two things. My nickname growing up was Smiley Riley, which is very fitting for who I am. And I think as we look at the typical aspirations of a middle school high school er, a lot of them get into sports, and that just wasn't the thing for me, even as my husband will say, now, you were the least athletic person I know, and it is the most true thing. So I was the person on the sidelines typically saying, but aren't we having fun?

6:52 When we were losing twenty to nothing and everyone's sitting there staying, no, we're not having fun. How can you even say that? So I would say most of my fun times had to be just connecting with people, talking and making friends. So you're a high eye yeah very yeah yeah samey. Who were your early influencers? Ooh, my early influencers? So first person that comes to my mind. I have three older sisters and each of them are my early influencers, but especially my sister Sheila. She was the next oldest know beyond me, and I just copied every single thing she did. She is that person who I would look up to as a little girl and want to be like, and still to this day I feel that way.

7:38 Cool. Now, did you have jobs when you're a kid high school? I did so growing up in Rentham, Massachusetts. For those of you who are familiar, we have an outlet here in Rentham, Massachusetts. What we're well known for that was my first job. I worked at Polo until probably I was eighteen, and then from there went to college and all throughout college I worked as well at Rockland, which is a local regional banker. It was a great college job. Then transition to Citizens Bank in their internal h R department, and again the rest is history. So with working at Polo through high school and you know at that time frame, what was a lesson learned you could you could think about that you kind of kept with you.

8:21 Yeah, I would say a lot of it. So the role that I had when I was at Polo, I was the cashier because I talked a lot, which is a great role for me, and I think one of the things that I would always learn from that was a little bit of my competitive streak because they would allow us to say, who is going to get the most purchases today, who is going to have the most X y Z sign ups? Things like that, and I thrive and that type of an environment. So it was nice for me to learn the aspects of a role that I really do enjoy. And then where other people may thrive, you know, folding close by themselves, more introverted, not me. I'd be bored out of my mind. So it was yes, I know. So it was really nice to be able to learn for myself what I needed out.

9:09 Of a job. Where did you get the entrepreneurial book? So my dad owned his own business for my whole life. So he was a toy sales broker, and I think seeing him grow up or me grow up and him grow up too, right in this space where he was always self employed, he was the one who was going out signing the deals, building his business, and how important that was to us as a family and what that meant like he would always say, I'm the one who's putting bread on the table for us, and so it was really nice to see that, and he always put that inside of me, which was always really special. To be able to now be on the other side and have a business as well.

9:53 Did mom work? Mom did not, So she did work a little bit at a jewelry story, she would say, for fun, so that she could get some of the discounts, but and mostly to get out of the house. Front of the house, for sure, Yeah, for sure. All right. So early in your career you said you went from Rockland during college to Citizens Bank. How did you get that role and it was an HR specialist promoted senior HR specialist. Right. Yeah, So when I was getting into Citizens Bank, even going back when I was in college, I was getting my psychology degree and I got into my junior year and said, what the heck am I going to do with this? And at that point in time, my professor in industrial organizational psyche said, you love this, You thrive in this type of environment. Go to the business school, get an HR minor get an internship. See if you liked it.

10:42 Good for them. At that point, I was juggling full time college internship and working full time RUST exactly, so I thrive in those times. So ultimately from there, I think it was just this natural progression for me to find the HR service specialist role at Citizens Bank with my banking history. I was at. Citizens Bank for about I want to say a year, and then quickly outgrew the roles that I was in, and that's where I landed myself into a consultant opportunity. What was the best part of that position at Citizens I learned. So much in such a short amount of time. In learning too from a big organization like Citizens where they have their HR functions very departmentalized and very different circles of the influence and excellence, and that it was the best experience for me to get the breadth and depth of an HR function and to be able to work with different entities such as pay roll, talent, acquisition, employee relations.

11:48 But truly just that foundation. And then what was behind the move to one Digital And you mentioned a different role now HR strategy consultant. Tell us about that role. So I transitioned from Citizens Bank. Before we became one Digital, it was a company called Insight Performance and we got then acquired by one Digital. Over the years, when I started out at Insight Performance, I started out at an HR coordinator level, so I was coming in and my role was to support the consultants who were supporting the clients, so really behind the scenes. Very quickly, I want to say, within three months, I was then consulting with clients on the front lines, which was so fun and exciting. When I was at citizens and outgrew that role, I was working with a recruiter and she really gave me two options.

12:33 Do you want to go into an HR generalist role at one organization or here's this consultancy opportunity or you could disguise the limit. I chose the HR consultancy opportunity, which was wonderful. From after being an HR Services coordinator, I then grew into the HR consultant role senior HR consultant, and then this last role that I was in while I was there was an HR strategy consultant. That was a role that was created for me, and it was hybrid between client relationship management and sales. So I had the ability to learn what it was like to have a quota, learn how to get out there, sell, prospect, build business, and I had a big hand in building our entire HR consulting function in the Connecticut space.

13:21 That's awesome. That's awesome. Most important lesson learned from that role, Oh most that's as hard as the questions get by the way, I. Know, I think there are a few. One I would say is how much I truly love sales and client relationships and I only learned that after I got out of that role. And second to that is I truly learned what it meant to collaborate with other individuals and how sometimes that isn't always the easiest thing to do, but it's the best thing to do. That's great. I love hearing that. All right, we're going to take our first break right here. It's about quarter after the hour, and we'll be back in about a minute with Riley Diplasio.

14:11 You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helene on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Best in Wealth Management is family owned for two generations. They take pride in thoughtful financial planning and wealth management with a family feel for your closely held family business. Best in Wealth Management focuses on deep planning, integrating your business planning with personal taybill help put your money to work and your mind at ease. Go to Bestanwealthmanagement dot Com for more information. Advisory service is offered through Commonwealth Financial Network, a registered investment advisor. Join the Best Family and let our family advise your family. That's Bestwealthmanagement dot Com for your complimentary initial consultation.

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16:00 All right, we're back again with rile Ley Laplacido, founder and CEO of Triumph HR. What's behind the name Triumph? Yeah, it took me a long time, Kevin, to try to figure out and land on Triumph, and it brings in some of my Christian values. I went through numerous amounts of different entities names what felt right, and then when you think about Triumph, it feels so active, it feels so assured, it feels so confident, and to be able to help our clients really triumph over their challenges is what we're here for. That's awesome. That's awesome. I knew it was something that good, So all right, let's go back. You went over to Boston Digital after that director people of Talent.

16:40 Yes, Yes, So once I was at Insight, which turned into one Digital for a combined amount of about seven or eight years, it was time for me to spread my wings and figure out what might be next. This has been my next role as an internal director of people and culture. I worked with them internally, came on they were a digital marketing organization here in Boston, and helped them to get to the point over a two year span where they were ready to sell and they then got acquired by another firm, which was always their goal at play. So it was really fantastic partnering with that organization and also having some experience being that internal director of people in culture. But within that time I realized how much I love consulting, and so that brought me to the next world that I was with in source services, and I went there. They do ITHR and finance consulting, and I came on as a senior HR consultant and that was the time that I was there for about a year and a half, really helping to support mainly nonprofit organizations with their HR needs. And next came.

17:52 Try of all right, so we got to pause on that. Yes, so what was the nextus of that? Why did you want to be I mean, yes, she talked, talk about the it's kind of in your blood and your parent, your dad, et cetera. But what was the timing about. I'm sure you didn't say, Hey, I'm going to get married and start a business at the same time, right. You know I didn't, But it was really fascinating. The entire time that I was at in Source, there was a lot of desire for me to go out on my own, and so I was talking about it endlessly, and at the point where we were about to get married, my husband a week before that lovingly said to me, I love you so much. You are the only one holding you back, and I cannot keep having this conversation over and over again. So you either need to do this and do it now, or we have to stop talking about it. And now, Kevin, if you know anything about me, I'm not really capable of stopping to talk about things that I felt really passionate about. And it really made me pause, and I said, am I going to be happy if I stay where I am? And we all knew what the answer was, and so love and behold. A week before the wedding, I put in my two week notice we got married, you.

19:07 Know, yeah, did you honeymoon right? Then? It was? We went right after we did a mini moon up to New Hampshire which was very nice. Nice. I love New Hampshire. Yeah, all right, so that was October twenty four. Tell us about the company. Yeah, so Triumph HR, which is so amazing. Today we hired our seventh employee to be able to support our clients. Last week we also hired another an individual on our team and our team is just growing and our focus is to help small to midsized companies. So either have no HR or overwhelmed HR, make sure that they're incompliance, that your employees are engaged, and that your culture is what you want it to be. HR is something that founders, CEOs, business owners do not get into business to do. I know that, and it's something that so frequently keeps people up at night. That's where we can come in so we can take it off of your plate and make sure that you can actually get some sleep knowing that it's taken care of.

20:04 Now. I know you know this, you know this well. But guys like Tim Kannely, who represent employers against employees, we know that there are a lot of problems that go on right and you help your clients avoid a lot of those problems. So talk about, first of all, who your typical clients are. I know you say small to mid size ten through one hundred, but give us give us an idea of the type of client you may work with. Yeah, So talking about our typical clients, as you identified, they're typically between ten and one hundred, and we often will support clients smaller than that too. So think about your solopreneur who's ready to hire their first employee. Will absolutely support them to get everything set up and ready from the beginning. That proactive piece is really what we're here for to make sure that there aren't those fire drills where we need to bring employment law in at the end. We're there to prevent that all from happening.

20:57 We're industry agnostic on purpose. We've had success with all the for an industry. We really have a depth between both, whether it be construction, HVAC, plumbing. We also work with some pest control individuals or organizations nonprofits. We also I have a sweet spot for digital marketing too. Just that peace really aligns with my brain, which is so fun to be able to work with them. But We also work with financial institutions, benefits, insurance providers, brokers, things of that nature. So we really spam the entire space daycare schools.

21:40 When you first got started, what was the hardest part of putting the shingle up and saying okay, we're real. Yeah, I think the hardest part and I think a lot of people can relate to this when you go into business, it's the unknown. It's the I don't know how to X whatever that is for each individual. For me, I knew how to build an HR consulting business, meaning I know how to do it the behind the scenes of it. What I personally didn't know was quite honestly, the tax piece, and that to me was the most daunting. But here's the thing. You find the resources and the support to get you through and to teach you all of that. I have a wonderful CPA now, so I'm supported, right, And if I could go back and tell that girl two three years ago, how would they just do it?

22:30 Go? Now? Start? So, how do you like running the business? You know, budget? Now you're doing all that partnership stuff versus are you doing less consulting? Yeah, so we're really trying to make the shift for me to do less consulting over time, and I'm really there for our consultants and clients as that overarching high level relationship manager, but really not in as much of the day to day. So shifting that focus to being about the business and working on the business instead of in the business has been really fun for me. I love being able to be out there and do things with you, Kevin, like networking and getting our name and brand out there, educational content for our clients and prospects, and also, as you said, the budgeting aspect. For me, I love being able to see the numbers and to be able to be behind the scenes knowing what we need to be hitting, where we need to be going and all that looks like it's something that really excites me.

23:32 Right, when should you make that next tire based upon client out revenue, et cetera. Right? Yeah, right, And are you doing the sales? I am, yes, Yeah, So that's a function that I was really missing in the last role that I was in. I love to be able to create great client relationships and really solve problems for our prospects and clients, and so the ability for me to be out there doing that on a constant basis is something that's so exciting in fun to me. Not only am myself doing sales for the business, but we also have my HR strategy associate, Cacidy, who's also starting to get involved in networking and business development as well. All Right, I realize, I forgot to do something and then we'll come back. We're about six minutes away from the next commercial. I forgot to have you in the chat.

24:17 When during the commercial break, type in the chat whatever contact information you want, website, email, if you want to put a phone, and we can do that too, that's totally to you. But describe the individuals and what their roles are on the team. Yeah, So we have at this point in time, three HR consultants. So those are the individuals who are really there dedicated to each client. So if somebody is working with us, you are going to get one HR consultant to you and your team. That way, when you introduce us to your leadership, your managers, and your employees, you all know who you're working with, and we build that relationship over time to truly become an extension of your team and your business partner. Secondary to that, as I mentioned, we have our HR Strategy Associate Cassidy. She helps to do marketing, sales, enablement, and is getting involved in the business development piece as well. We just hired an HR Services Coordinator and so that is an individual who's there to help to support all of the consultants and their day to day work to make sure things are going smoothly and any kind of behind the scenes processes that we can help have her involved in for efficiency. And then we do have our recruiter Courtney as well, so Courtney is there to help our talent acquisition. When our clients need to hire, we are there to be able to support them. We have our own applicant tracking system and not only do we post roles, we actively source candidates as well, so we have some really cool tools and functions to be able to find the right candidate,

25:49 not just do the post and prey like some organizations do. Let's see what sets Triumph apart from other firms. One of the things that I consistently hear when we ask this question to our clients of what made you go with us? We love to hear why they consistently say the relationship and trust aspect that we bring to our work we are focused. I think HR oftentimes has a connotation sometimes as being the police or bringing in a different aspect of compliance, And of course we are here to make sure that you are in compliance, but we're here for your people. We're here for you. We bring a warmth in a relationship aspect to every single conversation.

26:35 We feel like trust build in every interaction, and we're here to build that proactive support for you and your clients, knowing that you're going to get that trusted partnership that your company deserves. Excellent. Now, geography doesn't matter. You said, industry doesn't matter, right, correct, all right, So starting at the top, what are some of the problems that exist that would cause someone to hire you. Yeah, So oftentimes if an organization is growing and they've gotten to a place where maybe their process for that growth has quickly gone beyond what they're able to keep up with, that's a really perfect time to bring us in.

27:16 On the flip side of that, we don't often like to talk about it, but many times organizations will come to us when there might need to be a separation within the organization that needs to happen, whether that be one individual. Sometimes it's performance related or they need to do a larger layoff of their organization. We can help to support that. And not only can we have to support that, but sometimes the HR function might be impacted as part of that, and so we can step in as that outsource fractionalized partner instead of having that full time headcount to be able to support the new organization and really keep the trains on the track. Additionally, we oftentimes will work with organizations where maybe they themselves in a little hot water. Maybe they're dealing with a really complicated leave of absence or employee relations situation, or they're realizing my team isn't thriving right now and I don't know why, help me figure it out. We also will work oftentimes with organizations where the owner the CEO is still the one who's doing HR. In order for your business to grow, at some point you need to delegate that to the right expertise in individuals so that we can have to support it, so you can focus on the business growth and where your energy needs to be.

28:39 So you are really a virtual, dedicated HR department. And that's why I think you can say tailored HR solutions. You can bring whatever they need right. Absolutely, and that's our whole ideal is to be able to meet the needs of our clients. When I look at our client base, we have a digital healthcare marketing client that their needs arely different from the bank that we support, and so we can tailor everything to it. Not only do we work in this space where there might not be an HR person in the seat, we also times will collaborate with the internal HR as well. So that's important to know. And you're absolutely right, Kevin, that we are typically remote. I think COVID really helped to expand that perspective that we can help to support clients anywhere throughout the US, but we are here in Massachusetts and if somebody wants some on site support, we are here to help to support that too.

29:29 Great. We're going to take our second break here. We'll be back in another minute with Riley di Placida. You're listening to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenet on W four CY Radio. That's W four cy dot com. Don't go away. More helpful information is coming right up right here on Winning Business Radio. Bestian Wealth Management is family owned for two generations. They take pride in thoughtful financial planning and wealth management with a family feel for your closely held family business. Best in Wealth Management focuses on deep planning, integrating your business planning with personal They will help put your money to work and your mind at ease. Go to Bestinwealthmanagement dot com for more information. Advisory service is offered through Commonwealth Financial Network, a registered investment advisor. Join the best Family and let our family advise your family. That's Bestinwealthmanagement dot com for your complementary initial consultation.

30:35 The YP dot com website is your local search engine. If you're looking for a good restaurant, it can help you find the right one nearby with ratings and reviews. Or if your car breaks down, you can use the YP app to find the closest repair shop. Or maybe you're just looking for something to do on a Friday night. While it has great local coupons for all sorts of things in your area no matter what, when or where. If you're looking for something, YP local search can help you find it. To YP dot com or download the app to search local, find local, and save local. And Now back to Winning Business Radio with Kevin Helenan presenting exciting topics and expert guests with one goal in mind to help you succeed in business. Here once again is Kevin Helene.

31:28 All right, we're back with Riley Deplasido, founder and CEO of Triumph HR. You said that growth exposes HR problems faster than companies expect. Yes, can you talk about that? Yeah, I think that it's so important. As you said, Kevin, the organization that you were when you maybe had three employees or five employees is not the same organization that you need to have when you have twenty twenty five, fifty fifty five and beyond employees, and your HR needs to keep up with those aspects to be able to help to support your growth. What helps you thrive when you are an organization five years ago needs to continue to evolve today. Your employees have different needs. They want us be seen, heard and valued, and we need to be able to make sure that we're doing that as the employer, and we can help to support that. To be able to do it, we need to be sure that your processes and operations have kept up. Not only are they operational, but they're efficient and they're effective, and so we can come in and diagnose all of those challenges and help to solve the problem and bring over.

32:34 Resolution from your experience. Just generally, how many businesses do you believe are out of compliance? And in what ways? Oh goodness gracious, there, I would say more than not. I honestly don't want to put a number to it because we don't want to expose people too much. Ultimately, I think that more businesses are out of compliance, even if it's a small piece that you might not be aware that you need to do. That's where we can come in and we can be sure that all of those buttons are tied up. I would say I have not worked with one client over the span of a decade who when we started working together, they were one hundred percent compliant. There is it?

33:17 What's a simple way they're that someone could be out of compliance and not even aware of it. Sure, even right now, when you're posting a job, are you posting the salary range? Do you need to be Is that something that you might not necessarily even need to be doing, but should you be doing? That's a different conversation. What about your employee record retention? How does that look when you're putting a file together for an employee? Are you just putting all of the files into one specific subfolder or are you actually sectioning it out? Where does that I nine live? Does that need to be separate from everything else? The answer is yes? What about a background check? How all of those little nuanced pieces that employers are doing their best? And I think that that's something that's so we're into recognize everyone is just doing their best and you're not meant to be an HR expert. That's where we come in because we can help you that expert for you.

34:09 All right, So let's talk about some of the bullets in the areas and just expand on these HR strategy and operations. Yeah. So when we think about HR operations, oftentimes I think from a perspective from the entire employee life cycle from hiring to firing. What does that operational aspect to look like? Do you have a workflow, what's the process? Is it repeatable? Does it live in somebody's head? Is it efficient? Is it effective? How does it make employees feel? So all of those pieces are where we can come in and really optimize the operations aspect of it. When we think about HR strategy, I would say this really blends into the people thriving aspect. Are your people engaged and happy and if not, or we could get them more engaged and happy. That's where the strategy piece comes in.

35:00 So that's where we can bring to life what makes people thrive a your specific organization, because it's going to be different for the organization down the street. So we can come in and we can bring that strategy aspect to it. So you would do the pay uh or give coaching, or give direction or maybe even do the HR or the payroll paperwork, but you don't do payroll. We don't do payroll. So that is something that you're absolutely right, Kevin. We can help to support payroll, so we work hand in hand with a lot of the payroll individuals at our organizations, but we won't be the individuals who are ever pressing the button. For a few different reasons, mainly, the expertise that you need for payroll is very different than the expertise that you need from a people in culture aspect, and so Triumph HR is built on that people in culture strategy of HR. And so we want to leave the payroll to the payroll experts.

35:59 Very good, very good. It's also state specific, as you know, you got it all right. So we talked a bit about compliance, what about risk management? Yeah, you got it so right. Where As you know, Tim Kennely has been a wonderful guest of the radio show in the past, and he is an employment lawyer. And so our job when we're partnering with somebody like Tim and his clients is to help make sure that you don't need to get to the place where you need to work with legal counsel. We will partner with somebody like Tim when there's the time and place for it. There often been times. For example, I worked with him on a really interesting drug screen scenario in Minnesota, so I partnered very closely about that. But there are so many different instances where we can help mitigate the risk. So, say you do need to terminate somebody, unfortunately, how we go about that and what we do and what we make sure we do ahead of time is going to severely a gate or risk from having a wrongful termination claim or having something goes sideways afterwards.

37:07 Is consistency a big issue. Huge, absolutely. I think many times again organizations and employers are doing their best, but there's this thing called precedence that lets you make a decision for one employee. You then set sometimes an unintentional precedence of how you're going to handle similar scenarios in the future. So if there's inconsistency from employee to employee, there's oftentimes that opportunity for one employee to say, well, why did Susie you get this but I didn't? And is it because of my age? Is it because of my gender? Is it because of something else? And we want to make sure that there isn't the ability. To have that question. All right, what about hiring and talent strategy?

37:50 Now, yeah, So oftentimes when you as an organization are going to hire somebody, where do you start? What does that look like? How do you approach it? So from our perspective, we have a dedicated recruiter talent acquisition specialist, Courtney, who her whole career has been focused on finding talent for organizations and so we want to make sure that we not only find you the right person for the role, but the right person for the long term fit for the organization as well. So we approach it in a sense of making sure that your job posting is something that candidates are really excited about, it's also compliant. We then help to support the entire interview process from phone screen to offer and everything in between well making sure those managers feel really confident about interviews. Some managers will go out there, you think that they're going to be great.

38:49 They get into an interview and you're like, you just asked five illegal questions. We can't do that right. Or they oftentimes will leave it and say I'm not sure who's going to be the best fit, or they make a bad hire that costs them some money and then realize there has to be a better way, so we can come in from the beginning and make sure that we're well suited for that seamless process. And do you help with milestones of when hiring should happen, et cetera. Absolutely so we work with our clients off very frequently about we're ready to make a higher or we need to wait. Actually the revenue isn't supporting that right now, we shouldn't be waiting with this is exactly what we need to see when we need to see it, and that will help us trigger that. We oftentimes will be that conduit too between maybe the CEO and middle management in having those conversations and explaining oftentimes to middle management of here's why here's the why of why we want to pause on bringing somebody on at the moment, and here's when we're going to be ready to since they have the extra context and communication around it.

39:55 Are you using assessments of any kind? So when you say assessments, are you thinking disc or PI assess y. Yeah, so we haven't really got into the world of offering those to our clients just yet, but I can certainly tell you my own personality assessment styles which you hit the nail on the head from a disc perspective. I am a HIGHDI which nobody would be surprised about. But at the moment, we haven't necessarily brought that to our clients. So we're the same by the way, Yeah, I'm slightly more eye than dep But and then you talk about employee engagement, what does that look like? Yeah, so how are your employees feeling about work right now? And do you have individuals who are slowly unproductive behind the scenes. Especially when you're in a remote environment, it can be really hard to gauge somebody's engagement level. So we can come in and we can help assess what that engagement looks like right now. Sometimes that will just be through different interviews and conversations. I often call it my own type of what's the word on the street, let's talk, let's get what's going on. Additionally, well, we will do employee engagement surveys and then from there we'll do employee engagement surveys. We will also be that third party who can do that survey so people really trust that it is anonymous and we're not trying to figure out who said what. We don't have any skim in the game. We're skiving The game though, is to make sure that your experience is better than what it is

41:26 right now. And therefore that's what we will then do next is we will assess the data, we will analyze it, We'll come up with recommendations. We will work with c suite to be sure those recommendations are feasible, make sure they're communicated to the employees. But what our dedications are and make sure all of those milestones are. H do you recommend programs events all the above? I mean, what are the types of things that you would recommend to encourage and solidify that engagement. It depends, as you said, definitely all of the above. It can be different programs, it can be different e and sometimes though, I will say the number one thing that we always here and try to shift positively is communication and how is the communication? And so sometimes that doesn't need to be a huge initiative per se, but it does need to be how is that information flowing from individual to individual? Do we need to be implementing more all hands or all staff meeting? What do those look like? What's the format of those? Let's be sure that that's productive, efficient and effective for everybody. And of course we'll do some fun different cultural things as well.

42:35 Do you get into comp plans at all? So we do. We work with almost every single one of our clients regarding compensation and whether that be just their annual merit review process, but also making sure that their market is competitor, they are competitive with the market in certain roles or across the organization. We also work a lot with making sure that you have a compensation philosophy that you feel good about, that you're employe understand and you can stand by and then executing on that compensation philosophy. So you have access to that type of research to know what is appropriate or expected in that market. We do you do sales as well that those get more complicated, but you do those two.

43:16 So we do. I've worked on many different incentive compensation plans, So we do work especially even c suite leadership level incentive plans, bonus plans, commission plans, all of the above. It really just depends on exactly what the organization needs. And well, oftentimes an organization will come to us and oftentimes say we need this, and then our first place is, well, let's talk about your goals. What is it that you're trying to do, what are you trying to incentivize here? And then being able to build backwards from. That perfect and that probably leads into this next bullet, which is leadership support. Yes, leadership support, that is really the bread and butter of exactly what we do. So we sit on the c suite of any client who would like us to be there, and that is many of our clients, So we are part of the c suite for many of our organizations. That leadership support also doesn't just stop at the c suite. That goes down to every leader within the organization, managerial level, directors, whoever it might be, as part of them. The client has the ability to give us access to whoever they would like to within the organization, So we even will help to support employees at the employee level as well, so that support is truly there for everybody throughout the organization.

44:36 All Right, the last bullet and I have some more questions, but culture development, and that's I'm curious how you go about that. Yeah, it's so fascinating because I think this goes back to a lot what we've already talked about of employee engagement. But even when we think about culture development, have you set goals? Have you set values? Have you set a vision? Do you have competencies for your employees? Do they know what they are? Do they know what that means? Care about it? Do they want to? So really being able to help assess what the current culture is. And again I go back to what's the word on the street? What are people feeling? What are people saying you as an organization. I'll even say this, when we were in the hiring process for a Triumph recently, there was a candidate who asked us what is your culture? And luckily I had my age or strategy associate on it with me, and I said, I don't want to answer that. I can tell you what I want the culture to be, but let me have Cassidy answer it for you, and luckily your answers were exactly the same, which is great, but that doesn't always mean that that's going to be the case. And so it's really important to have the north star, but make sure everybody knows what that north star is and is moving towards that together.

45:44 What tools, software otherwise do you provide that help your clients become enabled. Yeah, so a lot of the support that we will provide we tailor everything and create everything for our clients. We do have an applicant tracking system as I mentioned for a hiring perspective, but we'll often say your car are driver. So although we don't do payroll, we do help a lot of our clients with payroll implementation. So just recently we helped a digital healthcare marketing firm seventy five employees go from one platform called Paycore to Paylocity, and so we were really the ones who are spearheading that entire transition. But again I go back to your car our driver. We will make the recommendation for what we're seeing that you may need, but we're happy to be system agnostic, all right.

46:35 A couple of last questions, can you share high level examples of a couple of businesses without naming names, just example, describe them and what you've helped them accomplish. Yeah. Absolutely So. The digital healthcare marketing firm that we were just talking about seventy five employees. Back in Juni or July of last year, their VP of HR decided to go back into a different role within another organization. They ideally would like to see what happens from an acquisition standpoint in the future. They don't necessarily want to be adding on the headcount, so therefore they outsourced their HR function to us. Along with that, we uncovered so many things that were not compliant the way that they were being done. So everything may seem okay on the surface, but when you get an expert in there and you truly dig through what that looks like, we have the ability to say there's risk here and we need to mitigate that. And so even for example, we helped to implement a new payroll transition because the one that they were previously on was too risky for where they were in.

47:45 What was happening on a consistent basis. Their culture was something that was not great. Unfortunately they had to do some layoffs in restructuring within the last year. At this point, I just did a word on the street read seeing how people were feeling, and the culture has shifted to be positive in a really good way. We now have implemented all staff meetings. I have fallen into the position of facilitating them because I think I love it a little bit. I enjoy that and people will see to me all the time, Kevin, You'll get this. They'll say, I feel like I'm joining Riley's podcast or TV show game every time she's there. Yeah. So that one has been a really fascinating one where we've improved the culture, got them to a more compliant space, and are consistently working to optimize the trust of the HR function. Before the last VP of HR, there was a lot of transition within that HR function, so people already had a question mark. And it's so nice to be able to hear from people saying, you're the best HR person we've ever had in our entire career.

48:49 Love it all right, Who in the viewing and listening audiences should reach out to you and why? Yeah? Absolutely, if you own a business or you know anybody who does and you're sitting here and you're saying, I have no idea if I'm compliant, what does that even mean? That is absolutely a place for you to reach out to me. If you were sitting here and you were saying, I don't know if my employees are engaged or not, how would I know? How can I tell? What can we do about that? Reach out to me, because we can absolutely put some assessments in place and make sure everything is going smoothly. Or if you're in transition, whether that be growth or you in the future unfortunately may need to do some restructuring. We're here to help to support that as well.

49:32 Awesome and the easiest and best way for people to reach you is. Yeah, my email address which is just Riley at triumphdashhr dot com. Perfect and the website is the same. In the website Triumph dashahr dot com. All right, Well, we really appreciate you being here. I know you're super busy, very high energy. I'm sure you get a lot done in every minute, but appreciate you being here and thank you for taking the time. Thanks Kevin, appreciate it, you. Bet, and thanks everybody for watching and listening. This is a show about business sometimes and often business challenges. If you've got concerns about the sales effectiveness of your company, whether your sales team is you or small or large, feel free to reach out to me. One of my easy email addresses is kevinat Winning Business Radio dot com.

50:16 Our company is Winning Incorporated, part of Sandler Training. We develop salespeople, sales and sales teams into high achievers, and sales leaders into true coaches and mentors. We're not a fit for everybody, but hey, maybe we should have a conversation. Thank you every week to producer and engineer Wan for another job well done. Thank you one. Be sure to join us next week Monday March sixteenth, when my guests will be Steve Devrees, a focal point business coach and peer advisor to manufacturing companies. Until then, this is Kevin Hallanan. You've been listening to Winning Business Radio with your host, Kevin Helena. If you missed any part of this episode. The podcast is available on Top four Podcasting and iHeartRadio.

50:57 For more information and questions, go to Winning Business Radio dot com or check us out on social media. Tune in again next week and every Monday at four pm Eastern Time, to listen live to Winning Business Radio on W four CY Radio, w four cy dot com. Until then, let's succeed where others have failed and win in business with Kevin Helenan and Winning Business Radio