Empathy, the HR Superpower with Brandon Springle

How do you put people in the best positions to be successful? How do you draw stories and insights from data to shape your employe engagement experience? The answer is empathy and an absolute focus on helping people. This episode features our conversation with Brandon Springle, Director of Human Resources for Shaw Industries. Here are a few of our takeaways:

Leaders don't solve problems in isolation.
Leaders need to recognize they don't have all the answers. They need to go to the source and listen for understanding. Needs have changed. When leaders listen to the individuals that have the feedback they can really move the needle forward

A paycheck is not enough to retain and sustain talent.
There's been a shift in employee expectations and behavior. We're in the midst of the great resignation. Employees are thinking about their options and opportunities. Instead of seeking overtime many employees are seeking to spend more time with family. Leaders need to be very intentional about creating an environment where people want to be. A paycheck is not enough to retain and sustain talent.

Build an employee experience program not an engagement program.
Data has become more and more important in trying to drive the right actions. Metrics that only focused employee engagement can be replaced with metrics that focus on employee experience. You should draw stories and get insights from data to shape your employee experience. Employee experience decisions can't be made by gut feeling alone, they should be backed by hard data.

Overcome bias with empathy.
We're all flawed in some way. Always assume positive intent even when it doesn't appear to look so positive. "The first thing I try to do is build relationships with people that I connect to, even if it's a quick connection, just so we can have an honest conversation. If I can control my response to a degree, seek to understand and seek to educate, if there's a teachable moment, then I think we end up with a much better outcome in that situation. "

You can't ignore "hot topics" today.
What happens in the world does have an affect on people and their performance. In the past many leaders and organizations would ignore highly political topics as if they were not happening. Today leaders need to focus on having these conversations in a healthy and constructive way.

About Brandon Springle
Brandon is a dedicated HR Leader with over 15 years of evolving experience working in multiple industries including Manufacturing, Background Screening, Health Insurance, and Sports & Entertainment. 

Brandon is a certified coach/facilitator leveraging the “4 Stages of Psychological Safety” framework created by Dr.Timothy Clark. Brandon is also certified as a Change Manager with intimate knowledge of the ADKAR process created by Prosci.

Brandon's superpowers include active listening, workforce assessment, talent development, strategic planning,
organizational design, conflict resolution, and cultural design.

Brandon is an intuitive and empathy driven leader focused on providing an amazing experience at all levels
through a service-oriented approach that is rooted firmly in psychological safety.

Strategically, Brandon is future focused as he curates proactive solutions that affect positive change.
Brandon recognizes that there is power in aligning individually diverse talents to a shared vision where the success
is dependent upon the collective brain trust of the “team”.

More than anything, Brandon loves to see people thriving as opposed to simply surviving.