If you dread hearing the words “we need to hire for an open position”, you’re not alone! Creating a hiring process that’s a positive experience for everyone involved can be tough! That’s why I was intrigued when I heard Sophia O’Rourke talking about how she turned her company’s convoluted hiring process into one that she deemed “Plug and Play”.

Sophia loves to build people initiatives and processes that allow her to create something from the ground up. And that’s exactly what she has done in her current role as Director of People & Culture at Newstory. Sophia set out to build a hiring process that was a positive experience for everyone involved - her People Ops team, hiring managers, and the candidates themselves - and joined us to share her journey.

Learn from her experience in this episode and then check out the incredible templates she has shared with us!

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Where to begin when overhauling your hiring process.
• How to sort issues into four categories: Automate, Templatize, Delegate, Eliminate.
• Where in your hiring process you can create templates to do 90% of repetitive tasks.

MENTIONED RESOURCES/LINKS

• We gathered Sophia’s templates into a single document to share with the Want To Work There community, including one for a hiring process framework, creating job descriptions, candidate communications, and more!

CONNECT WITH SOPHIA O’ROURKE

• Connect with her on LinkedIn
• Her employer, New Story Homes, is hiring!

MORE FROM WANT TO WORK THERE

• Signup For the Weekly Newsletter
• Training for the Modern Manager
• Free Tools and Templates
• Connect on LinkedIn or Instagram

DID YOU LOVE THE EPISODE?

If so, I’d love for you to share it with a friend or colleague who shares your passion for building a better world of work! They can find us at wanttoworkthere.com/podcast or by searching Want To Work There wherever they listen to podcasts.

Oh, hey there! No - you’re not imagining it. I did disappear from your stream for quite a stretch without any notice or explanation. More on that to come soon, I promise. For now, I’m thrilled to be dropping a new episode filled with ahas from the brilliant Lia Seth. Enjoy and I’ll see you back here with another new episode in two short weeks! - Your host, Jill Felska

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Would you be nervous if an employee came to you with a disability accommodation request? Many People Ops professionals and managers would say yes - and it makes sense!

Discussions about workplace inclusion are widespread when related to groups like people of color and women, but not as common around how to be inclusive or provide accommodations to those with disabilities. It’s also unfamiliar legal territory for most, which makes a lot of folks nervous.

The good news is that you don’t need to be a compliance expert in order to support someone with a disability. You (mostly) just need empathy. This is just one of many takeaways from this episode’s conversation with Lia Seth, HR Operations leader and self-proclaimed accessibility queen.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• What accommodations are and aren’t
• What someone with a disability might think through before requesting an accommodation
• How managers should and should not respond to a disability request
• Best practices for managers and People Ops professionals to prepare for these conversations
• What a disability accommodation actually looks like

MENTIONED RESOURCES/LINKS

• Check out the Want To Work There guide to creating your own personal “read me” document.
• Lia recommends learning from these leaders in the accessibility space by following them on LinkedIn: Tim Reitsma, Julie Harris, Greer Procich, and Marion Anderson.

CONNECT WITH LIA SETH

• Visit Lia’s website
• Connect with her on LinkedIn
• Follow her on X (Twitter)

MORE FROM WANT TO WORK THERE

• Signup For the Weekly Newsletter
• Training for the Modern Manager
• Free Tools and Templates
• Connect on LinkedIn or Instagram

DID YOU LOVE THE EPISODE?

If so, I’d love for you to share it with a friend or colleague who shares your passion for building a better world of work! They can find us at wanttoworkthere.com/podcast or by searching Want To Work There wherever they listen to podcasts.

This one is vulnerable for me, friends. In conversation with my best friend Lois Weinblatt, I speak to my ongoing struggle with burnout and what I plan to do about it moving forward. Namely, I’ll FINALLY be committing to writing my own personal 3-year vision as part of a Lois’ January February cohort. If you’d like to join me, you can find more information at wanttoworkthere.com/cohort.

Note: The January cohort filled up before I could even get the episode out...so I convinced Lois to launch a second cohort in February. Hope you'll join me!

In this episode we’ll cover:

• My biggest AHA during my latest battle with burnout.
• Why I believe people ops practitioners are especially vulnerable to burnout.
• The importance of establishing your own personal definition of success, that isn’t a result of cultural programming or the values held by family or friends.
• What Lois’ personal visioning process entails and why I’m manifesting a January cohort of like-minded women. 

MENTIONED RESOURCES/LINKS

• Learn more about the January cohort here: wanttoworkthere.com/cohort
• Or email Lois directly at lois@truenorthvisionaries.com

MORE FROM WANT TO WORK THERE

• Signup For the Weekly Newsletter
• Training for the Modern Manager
• Free Tools and Templates
• Connect on LinkedIn or Instagram

DID YOU LOVE THE EPISODE?

If so, I’d love for you to share it with a friend or colleague who shares your passion for building a better world of work! They can find us at wanttoworkthere.com/podcast or by searching Want To Work There wherever they listen to podcasts.