What's up y'all? It's Daniel Littwin, voice of b two b. We're here at the HR Southwest Conference twenty twenty five, and we're here with Scott from the Become More Group. Scott, welcome, man. How are doing today? I'm doing pretty well. Thanks for having me, Daniel. Yeah. It's a pleasure getting to sit down and talk shop on big trends in HR. So why don't you tell our audience first to start boilerplate elevator pitch summary. What does Become More do, And why are y'all critical in the industry? Yeah. So we are an organizational development firm. We partner with organizations to go from here to here. That can be anything from, we want to improve engagement, improve retention, more sales, more revenue, or anything in between. Love it. So let's talk shop a little bit on organizational development for HR. Right? What is making or breaking mature HR departments today? Right? Like, where are you seeing people come to you with challenges that are basically defining if they have a successful department in twenty five? Yeah. So I think we're seeing a couple things, but the one we're seeing that is probably the biggest differentiator is HR readers, teams that are working, whether they may or may not have a A seat at the table? Right. But they're working to get a seat at the table or they have one, but it's really taking the time to say, what is the employee journey? From the moment they apply or the moment we start to interview through onboarding, through the development, that whole life cycle, and identifying what are those moments that really are crucial. Yeah. And we're finding kind of two things. One is we don't hire as well as we could or should. Not taking the time to kind of match up what is their briefcase skills or knowledge, skills, and abilities that usually where they stop. The next level is are we matching their heart, their culture? And then kind of the third level or the most advanced level we see is are they doing some sort of behavioral assessment, psychometric testing, and using those three things to really match people to the job. Because we're seeing when you do that, it's like eighty plus percent higher likelihood that they'll stick with you. Okay. And then the second piece is as they flow into onboarding, it usually is, hey. We're rushing. I gotta get this person in. Right. And we put them in the job, and we're not being purposeful in the onboarding, both in combination with their leader, whoever their leader is, and however they're making sure because they may have the skill set. Right? But they don't know how you do it. And so they get a taste of how you do it, and then it's like, cool. You're off on their own. And then it's like, oh, this isn't what I thought. Right? Oh, that's not what I signed up for. Oh. And so those are The A couple things, and then we can have a whole conversation about how are you managing the rest of the life cycle No. Those are good. Leadership perspective, development perspective. Let's hone in there at the beginning then because, you know, in the current job market, right, the employer does have a lot of power today in getting to be picky and choosy with who they bring on. But even then, you know, I know a lot of organizations struggle with, like you said, that on ramp, the thirty to ninety day on ramp of taking someone who has all of the right expertise on paper, but calibrating those expertise for the specific work environment. Yeah. Oftentimes, you're calibrating for things like, hey. This manager has this quirk and this nuance. This is how you need to work with them. But that's not usually on your slide deck of, you know, onboarding materials. So what advice and strategy are y'all giving to HR teams To make that on ramp into a position, into making new hires more competent for the realities of that specific work environment, not just a job on paper. Yeah. I mean, when you really think about the onboarding process, whether you do something formal or they sit in a classroom or there's some mix of things that you do, you know, What we have seen the most effective is I'm looking at that job and I'm saying these are the work products or the things that this job has to do. Yep. And I'm going to build on it. So the the first week, here's the things I want you to learn. And then the next week, you're doing those things on your own while you're learning the next set. So if you think kind of week one, week two, week three, week four, till they're really, really dotted. Right. We have to parallel path that with who is giving them feedback along the way to say, here's what you're doing well, here's what you're not doing well. Right. And equipping the leader to say, hey. Yes. I know I have quirks, and you have quirks. Yeah. How can we just be honest about those quirks and actually build a relationship? And most of the time, the leader is in a role where it's a transactional relationship. Oh, I'm supposed to have this one on one with you. Right. And I know when we ask leaders, they say, oh, no. No. No. We we do we do one on ones, and it's to build relationships. Right. We're busy getting the work done. Yeah. And we're not Taking the time to be purposeful in our relationship. Right. And so if we're not, because those paths will come together. And you just look at that when you do that. The research is super clear. Yeah. Anywhere from a hundred and fifty to two hundred percent more profitable. Wow. When you actually take that relationship When you take that relationship. And then sometimes leaders will say, well, oh, that's inflated. Well, I mean, that's from McKinsey. That's from Boston Consulting Group. That's their research. And if we just say, alright. They're overestimating ten times. Let's just say they're inflating it. Are you saying you don't want fifteen to twenty percent? Yeah. More profit. Because if you that's okay if you don't. Yeah. Yeah. Right. You can. Here's a choice. Now to turn this into some advice for HR professionals themselves. You know, professionals are often having to ride that line, the walk the tightrope of being both culture champions, but also, you know, the policy police. And, like, you you have to have the company's best interest at heart, but the role of of the modern HR professional is also being a conduit for building up team culture, for celebrating employees, keeping retention high. So with all of that in mind, what's your advice for HR professionals to cut out some of that BS and walk that line effectively where they keep the company's interests in mind, but they don't do so to such a degree that all their relationship building is Yeah. Devoid of life is hollow. Yeah. I believe there's two answers to this. K. K. And let's keep it real. Yeah. Let let's let's let's be real here. Ideally, you erase the line because the moment an organization says HR is responsible for culture, You've lost because it is the leadership's team's responsibility for culture. Period. Period. Period. Now if you're in a spot where that isn't true. Because sometimes it's not true. That leader isn't as mature. They don't see it that way. Like, whatever it is, we can sit and point fingers and say they're bad humans and whatever else. Yeah. Right. That is just what it is. Yeah. Then you have to say, how do I be strategic? And And maybe I can't get that on the strategy formally. Yeah. But I can look at it and say, alright. If I evolve my approach by working with these leaders to understand their pain Yeah. And I'm applying HR tactics to their pain, I now start to be viewed as a strategic partner, right? And I start to talk less about the HR jargon and the compliance and those things. Yeah. And I talk more about what are the things that are moving the organization forward. Love it. Love it. And I might have to be somewhere in between. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. If you had to Condense a sort of focused, guiding light for the HR industry in q four of twenty twenty five heading into twenty twenty six, what do you think the top priorities for organizational development for an HR team should be right now. Like Yeah. Cut out all the noise, the jargon, all the the things that feel productive but aren't really productive. Where should HR leaders and teams be putting their focus today to make a stronger team for tomorrow? Yep. I would tell you, I firmly believe it is, I want if I have to do one thing, I'm gonna tell you it's leadership development. Okay. Cool. So if you look at what many HR professionals are looking at and they're saying, Oh, our turnover is tough. It's higher than we would like. Our engagement scores are low or lower than we would like. Yeah. It comes back to leadership and how are we leading. Yeah. And how are we building that that foundation, that relationship with every team member, and starting to have leaders work at their level because most of the time they're working down Yeah. Below the level they need to work. Is that tough for an HR professional to go to leaders and say, hey, guys. We need to develop y'all's skills. I mean, I I feel like that might create a little friction. So, again, this is a place where if If You bring this up and there's not support for that. Yeah. Then you have to say, okay, I can't get that directly. How do I get it indirectly? Or what are the things I need to layer Yeah. To get to that? Like, build bottom up pressure for the leadership change you wanna see. Yeah. And I may have to look at it and say, okay. I can't do that, but our number one thing on engagement is my ideas aren't valued. Okay. What can I do To create an environment where my ideas are more valued? And that could be Hey. Hey, we're gonna bring them in and we're gonna do small improvement teams. Yeah. We're going to do And then you're just looking at it and saying, Oh, you start to uncover why. Why do people have all these ideas that are unrealized? Yeah. Now we're cooking. There's some good strategy here. I like this. Alright. Scott from the Become More team, thank you so much for joining us here at the MarketScale Media booth at HR Southwest twenty twenty five. If folks wanna learn a little bit more about what you're doing at Become More, they wanna tap into your services, how can they get in touch? Well, they're at the conference, they come see us at our booth. Booth number eight one eight, I hope. Something like that. It's in the eight hundreds. Eight hundreds. Yeah. Go on the floor. If you're not here, then it's w w w dot become more g p dot com. Nice. It's the easiest way. Easy enough. Alright, Scott. Thank you so much for the insights, and I hope folks listening in take some of that advice to heart. Yeah. Looking forward to seeing what twenty twenty six looks like with this evolved framework. So Sounds great. Good stuff, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. Alright. See you on the next one.
