HR Voices

Rebecca Taylor
  • 3.7 (6)
  • Management
  • Weekly

HR Voices is a scenario-based podcast for People Leaders who’ve actually had to make the call. Each episode brings experienced HR and People leaders into realistic, anonymized workplace scenarios—the kind you recognize immediately. Performance issues. Messy conflicts. Investigations that don’t fit neatly into a policy box. Instead of talking about their own companies, guests react to outside cases and walk through how they’d think it through in real time. There are no right answers here. What you’ll hear is judgment: how seasoned leaders balance risk, fairness, legal reality, and humanity when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious. HR Voices is for HR, People Ops, legal, and leaders who want to hear how other smart humans actually handle employee relations—without confidentiality breaches, hypotheticals that feel fake, or a lecture on “best practices.”

  1. 4d ago

    AI Resume Screening and Disparate Impact: When the Algorithm Learns Your Bias

    (with guest Lawrence Covitt, VP and Head of HR at Kelly Spicers) An AI resume screening tool quietly filters out every candidate with a career gap longer than six months, disproportionately screening out women returning from parental leave and people who stepped away to care for family. Nobody told it to. It learned the pattern from the company’s own hiring data. HR finds out when a rejected candidate’s LinkedIn post goes semi-viral, and now has to explain a disparate impact problem that no human technically decided to create. What you’ll hear in this episode: Why the scariest part of AI hiring bias isn’t a malfunction: the tool did exactly what it was designed to doWhy “a human makes the final decision” falls apart when AI has already narrowed 2,000 applicants down to 80How to tell whether your screening criteria are actually job-related or just an easy proxy that happens to correlate with your hiring historyWhy “the AI did it” won’t hold up as a legal or PR defense, and how to own the response publicly insteadWhat AI governance in recruiting looks like in practice: pre-deployment validation, adverse impact testing, ongoing monitoring, and a clear path for candidates to raise concernsWhy HR should never learn about a discrimination problem from a LinkedIn postAbout Lawrence Covitt: Lawrence is VP and Head of HR at Kelly Spicers, where he’s putting AI to work and evolving his HR tech stack. A former professor at FIT, he required his students to use AI and show their prompts, and he brings that same “show your work” philosophy to HR technology. He’s a self-described AI enthusiast who believes the answer isn’t less technology, it’s more governance. About AllVoices: The candidate in this scenario had a concern and nowhere to take it except LinkedIn. AllVoices provides a confidential place to raise issues before they go public, and gives HR the case management tools to investigate, document every step, and spot patterns across reports while they’re still small. See how it works at allvoices.co. HR Voices is a podcast by AllVoices.

  2. 4d ago

    High Performer Burnout: When Volunteer Work Becomes a Second Job

    (with guest Sue Ross, Chief Administrative Officer at maurices) An employee starts a volunteer program, and it becomes the best thing the company has done all year. It gets press mentions, praise from leadership, and employees love it. It has also turned her job into 60-hour weeks with no extra pay, and she’s started missing deadlines. Her manager won’t touch it because leadership loves the visibility. So what should HR do when employee burnout looks like generosity and the company has been quietly benefiting from it? What you’ll hear in this episode: Why a high performer who suddenly misses deadlines usually has a capacity problem the company created, not a time management problemHow to tell when “voluntary” extra work has become part of someone’s job, and what the company owes them once it hasWho HR should talk to first in a workload and burnout situation, and why starting with senior leadership can backfireThe “resilience myth,” and why praising employees for tolerating overload sends the wrong message to everyone watchingHow to train managers to spot when someone is over capacity, and why psychological safety includes being able to say “I can’t take on more”What to do when the employee would rather keep the passion project than their actual jobWhere AllVoices fits Burnout problems like this one rarely come in as formal complaints. They show up as missed deadlines, quiet concerns from coworkers, and a manager who isn’t sure whether to raise anything. AllVoices gives employees a safe channel to speak up before overload becomes a resignation, and gives HR one place to document and manage employee relations issues, so patterns across teams don’t stay hidden. AI-assisted case summaries cut hours of documentation, which frees up time for the conversations a situation like this actually needs. See how it works at allvoices.co. About Sue Ross: Sue Ross is Chief Administrative Officer at Maurices, a women’s apparel retailer with stores in roughly 850 communities, many of them small-town markets where employees are part of the local fabric. She leads with a simple mantra for her team: start with curiosity, not correction.

  3. Oct 27

    Grief Leave Ran Out. The Manager Didn’t Tell HR.

    (with guest Anne Buchanan, Chief People Officer, Guitar Center) An employee’s bereavement leave after his spouse’s death ends after five days, per policy, but he’s clearly not okay. His manager quietly covers for him instead of escalating. Three weeks in, his work has stalled and his teammates are absorbing it without complaint, for now. Everyone is running on compassion and nobody is following a process, and the goodwill won’t last. Anne explains why a manager handling things alone is usually the real risk, and what HR can offer once it’s finally brought in. What you’ll hear in this episode: Why managers keep things from HR, and what it says about your culture when they think escalating will hurt the employeeWhy people tolerate unequal treatment when they trust it’s being handled professionally, and resent it when it’s handled quietlyWho to bring in first when a situation like this surfaces late, from the leave and accommodations team to the senior executive who shouldn’t be caught off guardHow to ask a grieving employee what they need in plain language and let HR translate it into PTO, FMLA, intermittent leave, or a phased returnWhat to tell the team when you don’t have the employee’s consent to share details, and how to shift their focus to covering the workWhy documentation protects everyone involved, including the employee, when a preferential-treatment complaint shows up months laterAbout Anne Buchanan: Anne is Chief People Officer at Guitar Center, where she leads the people function for a retail workforce. She’s known for treating policy as a set of guardrails rather than a script, and for working toward a goal she states plainly: ten years from now, employees should look back on their hardest moments at work and feel they were supported. HR Voices is brought to you by AllVoices. When issues escalate, AllVoices gives HR one place to manage leave and accommodation requests, coordinate with managers, and record every step. That way, if a complaint about the situation comes in later, the full history is already there. See how it works at allvoices.co.

  4. Oct 27

    Salary Spreadsheet Leaked Company-Wide: HR’s First 24 Hours

    (with guest Mhyrynde Noah, Director of Compliance & Benefits, Sojitz Corporation of America) A salary spreadsheet meant only for the comp committee goes out to the entire company. It’s live for four hours. Pay gaps by gender and tenure are suddenly the subject of every Slack DM, and HR has to decide whether to address it head-on or let it settle. Silence will look exactly like what everyone already suspects. Mirinda works through the scenario with Rebecca and makes the case that the leak created the crisis, but it didn’t create the inequity. What you’ll hear in this episode: Why the leak and the pay gaps are two separate problems, and why treating this purely as a confidentiality breach backfiresWho needs to know within the first 30 minutes, and why it’s worth asking whether the “accident” really was oneWhat the first message to employees should say, and why “please delete this immediately” only adds fuel when employees have a legal right to discuss payHow to investigate a pay gap beyond current salaries: starting pay, promotion timing, bias in performance reviews, career interruptions, and geographyHow tenure-based pay compression, return-to-office commute costs, and company culture shape what employees see as unfair, even when the numbers hold upHow to pace updates so people trust the process without getting daily emails, plus Mhyrynde’s advice for the first ten minutes after the bad news landsAbout Mhyrynde Noah: Mhyrynde is Director of Compliance & Benefits at Sojitz Corporation of America. She works where compensation, benefits, and compliance meet, including the challenge of updating a tenure-focused corporate pay philosophy for US markets like New York and San Francisco. HR Voices is brought to you by AllVoices. When a pay concern turns into a formal complaint, AllVoices gives HR and ER teams one place to take in concerns, run investigations, and document every step, so nothing lives in a Slack thread or someone’s inbox. See how it works at allvoices.co.

  5. Oct 13

    Proof Over Prestige: Why the Best Resume Isn’t Always the Best Hire

    (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 winsThe “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 decisionWhat 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 amplifiersWhy 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 candidateWhy an interview panel where everyone agrees might mean your assessment has a blind spotAbout Heather Krueger: Heather Krueger 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.

  6. Oct 12

    The Hidden Risks of Workplace Wellness Programs

    (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 allHow most wellness programs end up rewarding the people who were already healthy, and what “meeting people where they are” looks like insteadHow to tell leadership you missed something without calling it a failure, by framing the fix as phase two rather than a do-overWhy an annual physical will likely do more for your healthcare costs than 10,000 steps ever willHow to design one program for a workforce split across an HQ, production floors, and sales reps who spend half the day in the carWhy the most mediocre HR teams protect the process instead of the result, and how to keep pride of authorship from getting in your wayAbout 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.

  7. Oct 7

    When AI Writes the Performance Review, Who Was Actually Watching?

    (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 conclusionWhy your AI acceptable-use policy, not your personal judgment, has to anchor the investigation, because consistency breeds credibilityHow a "hallucinated" project might actually be a botched redaction, and why that still doesn't let the manager off the hookWhere a policy violation ends and a coaching moment begins, and why the cover-up is usually what turns one into the otherWhy a performance review is a moment of connection, not a writing exercise, and what repair looks like when that connection breaksThe case for one-page policies, since legal and compliance are usually the only ones reading page twoAbout 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.

  8. Oct 2

    Illegal Recordings, Valid Complaint: How HR Investigates Without Missing the Real Issue

    (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 rugHow 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 caseWhy the risk of using the recordings depends on the likely outcome: coaching a manager is a very different decision from terminating oneThe 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 insteadHow 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.

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Ratings & Reviews

3.7
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

HR Voices is a scenario-based podcast for People Leaders who’ve actually had to make the call. Each episode brings experienced HR and People leaders into realistic, anonymized workplace scenarios—the kind you recognize immediately. Performance issues. Messy conflicts. Investigations that don’t fit neatly into a policy box. Instead of talking about their own companies, guests react to outside cases and walk through how they’d think it through in real time. There are no right answers here. What you’ll hear is judgment: how seasoned leaders balance risk, fairness, legal reality, and humanity when the stakes are high and the path isn’t obvious. HR Voices is for HR, People Ops, legal, and leaders who want to hear how other smart humans actually handle employee relations—without confidentiality breaches, hypotheticals that feel fake, or a lecture on “best practices.”

Information

  • Creator
    Rebecca Taylor
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    109
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Rebecca Taylor
  • Show Website
    HR Voices