Allison Mairena, Global VP of People at New Globe, joins Dr. Jim to bust the myth that HR can't be trusted. Allison explains that HR teams genuinely care about employees and their needs, and their goal is to create a happy and engaged workforce. To dispel this myth, HR leaders should have open conversations with employees at all levels and collect feedback to make a case for happier and more productive employees. Connect with Allison on LinkedIn to learn more.
Key Takeaways:
* Allison Mairena's background in teaching English internationally influenced her approach to corporate leadership and HR.
* New Globe, where Allison serves as a VP, partners with governments to enhance public school education through technology and curriculum in developing countries.
* A persistent myth in HR is that employees can't trust HR and should be afraid of it, which Allison Mairena aims to debunk.
* Employee engagement is crucial for productivity, as happier employees tend to be more productive, supported by reports from reputable sources like McKinsey.
* HR strategies should include listening tours and conversations with employees at all levels to gather candid feedback and to demonstrate genuine employee advocacy.
Chapters:
0:00:00
Introduction and welcome to Allison Mairena
0:00:39
Allison's background and role at New Globe
0:01:39
Impact of teaching experience on leadership philosophy
0:02:56
Myth: "You can't trust HR"
0:03:52
Dispelling the myth and changing perceptions of HR
0:04:54
Importance of employee engagement and productivity
Music Credit: Shake it Up - Fesliyanstudios.com - David Renda
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Mentioned in this episode:
Engaging Leadership Outro
Engaging Leadership Intro
Transcripts
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Thanks for hanging out with us, Alison.
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[00:00:23] Dr. Jim: Thanks for hanging out with us. And I'm super appreciative of your help in our myth busting efforts.
But before we start doing that, I think it's going to be important for the viewers to know a little bit more about your story and some of the cool things that you're up to in your day to day at New Globe.
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So we partner with governments in developing countries to bring technology and curriculum into public schools. And so the majority of where we work is in [00:01:00] Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and India.
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[00:01:09] Allison Mairena: I actually started my career as an English teacher in China. And so I originally, I thought that I wanted to be an interpreter as a trade, but I really fell in love with teaching. And so the reason why I got into teaching was because I wanted to move to China and I needed to face, student loan debt, right?
Most of us have it and really just fell in love with the field. And after my first year of teaching, I was starting to think about what are the ripple effects that I'm personally having on students. And I can only teach, maybe 125, 150 students at any given time. But I was able to transition into the teacher recruitment and training team.
And I know because I was able to transition into that team, that I personally have impacted the English language learning of hundreds of thousands of students across China, Russia, and Indonesia with that company.
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[00:02:10] Allison Mairena: Absolutely. And so I think like the biggest parallel that I've personally found is that when you're teaching, and even everyone is a learner, right? We've all hopefully gone to school at some point. And students have different methods of learning,. Some people are more auditory. Some people are more visual.
Some people are kinesthetic. And you have to think about that when, not only when you're teaching to develop your lesson plans and delivery for your students, but also when you're a manager, you have to think about how your direct reports also will need to probably have a catered management style too.
And so I think that's probably like the easiest parallel that I've found.
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[00:02:44] Allison Mairena: Oh yeah.
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[00:02:56] Allison Mairena: The one that definitely gets me the most is when people [00:03:00] say you can't trust HR, you should be afraid of HR.
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[00:03:04] Allison Mairena: Where that stems from is that, Originally, back in the day when people teams were human resources teams and personnel teams, the function was formed to ultimately protect the business.
But I feel like, especially in this modern day and age, and even as we're hearing from so many leaders that transform that people functions genuinely care about the employees in their organization. Nobody goes into HR saying, yeah, let me protect a company or who I really want to fire someone like that.
That's the crappiest part of the job. And what we really do on a, most of the time is advocate for our employees needs and wants, because. That's what makes the company successful is having our employees be engaged and happy.
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So let's make it tactical.
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[00:03:56] Dr. Jim: When you're thinking about changing that perception or busting that myth, [00:04:00] what are the things that people leaders and HR leaders, what are the things that they should be doing? To dispel that myth and get it more aligned with what the real work of HR looks like.
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And so by having those conversations, with those that are in the entry level and more associate level positions, they can give you like very real, candid feedback. And then you as the leader collecting that data and getting to form this case, such as, happier and engaged employees are considerably more productive,.
I don't know the exact statistic offhand, but. That's what the McKinsey studies say.
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[00:05:03] Allison Mairena: I saw that article
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So really great point. I appreciate you hanging out with us. I know we're just scratching the surface of this conversation. Sure. If people want to continue the discussion, what's the best way for them to get in touch with you?
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So I'm a big LinkedIn fan girl. So look out for me on there. I do have two last names on there. Allison, my rent a sprawl recently married. Yay for me and my husband.
