HR Voices

(with guest Heather Krueger, Chief People Officer at Engine) Two finalists. One spent three years at a household-name company, but joined after the IPO, once the hard part was over. The other spent three years living through a layoff, a near-collapse, and growth with no playbook, and has the less impressive resume to show for it. Leadership wants the logo. The hiring manager wants the person who has already proven they can function when everything’s on fire, and now has to win that argument with people who’ve only read the resumes. What you’ll hear in this episode: Why “are we hiring the logo or the person?” is really two different decisions, and why the biggest red flag in this scenario is how leadership is reasoning, not which candidate wins The “how” questions that cut through polished, AI-assisted interview answers: how did you handle it when the roadmap changed three times in a quarter, or when everything was an emergency? How Heather uses interview transcripts and AI to map a new hire’s gaps against the job description, then builds the onboarding plan around those gaps, because the hiring manager owns the person’s success, not just the decision What a 30-to-60-day “incubation period” of modeled behavior looks like, and how an operating rhythm helps leaders be shock absorbers instead of shock amplifiers Why Heather reads LinkedIn more than resumes, hires non-HR people onto her HR team, and considers a realistic job preview the biggest gift you can give a candidate Why an interview panel where everyone agrees might mean your assessment has a blind spot About Heather Kruger: Heather Kruger is Chief People Officer at Engine. She has led people teams through more than one high-growth company, so she knows how brutal the first six months of a scaling role can be. She’s skeptical of resumes, a fan of hiring HR people who didn’t start in HR, and runs her people function like a product org: if employees don’t feel the value, it’s just a tax. HR Voices is a podcast by AllVoices, the AI-powered employee relations platform for HR teams who handle the hard stuff. Learn more at allvoices.co.

(with Adam Goldman, CHRO at Cacique Foods) Your step-count challenge got a standing ovation from the exec team. It also passed legal review as ADA compliant. And it’s quietly telling employees with disabilities to choose between disclosing private health information, begging for an exemption, or paying more than their coworkers. Unwinding it without torching a program leadership loves is harder than it looks, especially when you’re the one who launched it. What you’ll hear in this episode: Why “not technically a penalty” doesn’t hold up when some employees can’t reach the discount at all How most wellness programs end up rewarding the people who were already healthy, and what “meeting people where they are” looks like instead How to tell leadership you missed something without calling it a failure, by framing the fix as phase two rather than a do-over Why an annual physical will likely do more for your healthcare costs than 10,000 steps ever will How to design one program for a workforce split across an HQ, production floors, and sales reps who spend half the day in the car Why the most mediocre HR teams protect the process instead of the result, and how to keep pride of authorship from getting in your way About Adam Goldman: Adam is CHRO at Cacique Foods, where he leads HR across a headquarters office, two manufacturing facilities, and a remote sales team spread over more than a dozen states. After spending most of his career in California, he now works from Texas and brings a strong bias for results over process. He’s also the HR leader who will tell you to get out of your office and walk the grocery aisles with a sales rep. HR Voices is brought to you by AllVoices, the employee relations platform for HR teams who’d rather catch issues before they become backfires.

(with guest Jaime Akers, VP of Team Member Relations at Hilton Grand Vacations) For two years, an employee's performance reviews were drafted by AI and lightly edited by her manager, and she only found out because the tool credited her with a project she never touched. The AI isn't really what stings. It's the question underneath it: has anyone actually been paying attention to her work? Now HR has to decide whether this is a performance management failure, a documentation integrity problem, or both, and what it means for every review that manager has ever delivered. What you'll hear in this episode: Why the first move is to pause and notice your own thinking before bias quietly becomes your conclusion Why your AI acceptable-use policy, not your personal judgment, has to anchor the investigation, because consistency breeds credibility How a "hallucinated" project might actually be a botched redaction, and why that still doesn't let the manager off the hook Where a policy violation ends and a coaching moment begins, and why the cover-up is usually what turns one into the other Why a performance review is a moment of connection, not a writing exercise, and what repair looks like when that connection breaks The case for one-page policies, since legal and compliance are usually the only ones reading page two About Jaime Akers: Jaime Akers is vice president of Team Member Relations at Hilton Grand Vacations, where she leads the Team Member Relations Center of Excellence in the Human Resources department and initiatives focused on employee relations and leadership partnership. With over two decades of experience spanning hospitality, gaming, technology, financial services and human resources, Jaime is passionate about building people-centered workplaces that balance human connection with business performance and the evolving future of work. She is a global HR executive, doctoral researcher and advocate for modern leadership practices that foster trust, accountability, and engagement. Outside of work, Jaime is a member of a running club in Las Vegas and recently completed the Ragnar Trail Soldier Hollow relay in Utah with her team. She adores her husband and two children and brings energy, curiosity and a commitment to growth into everything she does. Those same qualities shape her leadership approach and reflect her belief in continuous learning, both professionally and personally. HR Voices is a podcast by AllVoices, the employee relations case management and whistleblower hotline platform built for situations exactly like this one. Learn more at allvoices.co.

(with guest Jeremy Edmonds, EVP of People & Culture at Snooze) An employee under a performance investigation has been secretly recording every one-on-one with his manager for eight months, in a two-party consent state where that's illegal without disclosure. Now, he wants HR to treat the recordings as proof that his manager set him up to fail. The evidence may be both illegally obtained and true, and choosing to use it or ignore it each carries risk. Jeremy, who has spent 25 years in HR, explains why the urge to act fast is the real trap. What you'll hear in this episode: Why Jeremy splits this into two "swim lanes," the employee's complaint and the recording itself, and why you can't sweep either one under the rug How to get what's in the recordings without listening to them, by asking the employee to walk you through the moments they think prove their case Why the risk of using the recordings depends on the likely outcome: coaching a manager is a very different decision from terminating one The two intake questions that reframe the whole case: "What changed eight months ago?" and "Have you raised this with anyone before now?" Why, in 25 years, Jeremy has never seen a manager deliberately set someone up to fail, and what's usually going on instead How consistent investigation practices have won him court cases, and why "if it's not documented, it didn't happen" About Jeremy Edmonds: Jeremy Edmonds is EVP of People & Culture at Snooze, an A.M. Eatery. In 25 years in HR, he's built his approach to employee relations around separating the issues, bringing in legal early, and documenting everything as if it will end up in court. HR Voices is a podcast by AllVoices. If you're juggling investigations like this one, see how AllVoices helps HR teams keep case documentation consistent and defensible at allvoices.co.

(with guest Chris Corneen, CHRO at MSI) An employee reports financial irregularities in her department. The investigation confirms she was right, and also finds that she went along with some of the irregularities before she decided to speak up. Now HR has to protect her from retaliation and hold her accountable for her own part, at the same time. And everyone who's thinking about reporting something someday is watching to see how it plays out. What you'll hear in this episode: Why Chris assumes the information has already spread before the complainant even walks in, and why a well-meaning manager running their own side investigation can do more damage than the person being accused Why a judge or the EEOC isn't asking whether you reached the right conclusion, only whether your conclusion was reasonable given a sound process (sixth-grade math rules apply: show your work) How letting scope, not the clock, drive the investigation keeps it moving, and why what looks like time pressure is often a different problem you can solve directly The "funnel" interview approach: start broad, play a little dumb, and hold off on confronting anyone until you've seen where their story starts to fall apart How to flip retaliation protection into something more useful, by putting in writing that the whistleblower did the right thing before you ever ask about their own role Why a delay in reporting is only one data point, why the reason behind it matters more, and why you'd better run the best investigation of your career if it ends with disciplining a whistleblower About Chris Corneen: Chris is the CHRO at MSI, where investigations are part of the job, whether that means coaching business partners through their own cases or reviewing work before it goes out the door. Chris has defended investigations in front of the EEOC and other federal agencies and has seen firsthand how they get picked apart. Chris's advice for anyone handling a case like this for the first time: go get help, and know whether your organization expects you to ask a peer or escalate to your manager. HR Voices is brought to you by AllVoices. Chris's rule for every investigation is simple: the process will get more scrutiny than the outcome. AllVoices gives ER teams one place to document every intake, interview, and decision, so when someone asks how you got there, the answer is already written down. Learn more at allvoices.co.