Building Connection in Companies with Janet Potts

Better People Podcast

Janet Potts is the Senior HR Business Partner at Suvoda and a Human Resources Advisor for Weavers Way Co-op.

Janet is a passionate Human Resources Professional with experience leading projects, operations, and staff in varying industries.

She was a 2022 Finalist for HR Person of the Year, a 2018 HR Rising Star Nominee for the Delaware Valley, and a speaker on HR Today Radio. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of The Better People Podcast:

• The disproportionate amount of white women working in HR.
• How to build a diverse HR department.
• Bringing new initiatives into your HR department.
• Ways to change employee’s mindset.
• How HR can help their managers be proactive.
• How long it takes to change a company’s culture.
• The importance of managers connecting with their staff.
• The emergence of the multi-manager leadership style.
• Metrics you can use to measure the success of managers.
• How to help employees find their strengths and passions.

Resources:

• DisruptHR Princeton
• Suvoda
• Weavers Way Co-op
• Gartner HR report

Connect with Janet Potts:

• LinkedIn

Connecting with the hosts:

• Holly DePalma on LinkedIn
• Margaret Uhrich on LinkedIn

Quotables

• 7:13 - “What I found is that it is really just a different way to help people and that’s what I really enjoy is when you do HR right you’re really just building strong cultures and great places for people to live the majority of their life, we spend so much time at work and the one thing that I hate is seeing someone whos not happy at a place that they have to spend that much time in so I love being that person that can really make sure that the people that are there are enjoying the fact that they’re there.”
• 13:07 - “Programs are important don’t get me wrong but when you can feel that something is just the base part of a culture, that it’s just a practice within the organization where it doesn't have to be a special program that's focused on something that’s when people truly feel the impact of it.”
• 16:35 - “It’s really building relationships on both sides, employees need to feel comfortable coming to talk to you, as you spoke about in the beginning of our discussion, about things that are very personal and serious, and managers and leaders need to feel comfortable expressing their concerns and seeking your guidance so the process of building those relationships requires a lot of empathy.”
• 18:13 - “People thrive when you allow them to, when you really give them the support and to be that person to stand there and say I know you can do this, and here I’ll give you the way to do it, I’ll guide you through it, you have me in your corner, let’s go see it through, people have that desire to succeed and they want to see positive things happen.”
• 22:37 - “The working world that we had 20 years ago where people came in and they clocked and did their job and had their cordial relationships and then went home that's not really what we have any more people expect something different of their workplace and they want to feel engaged and they want to feel like it’s a community and it’s our responsibility to make sure that there is that feeling of community in a workplace.“