HR is in the middle of it all! Carrie Cherveny talks about what the future holds for HR and more

Edgy, cool, and a bit of an introvert...Carrie Cherveny is the Senior VP of Strategic Client Solutions for HUB International. She comes into the Spotlight today and discusses HR's role of risk management and the pressure HR professionals have on their jobs in today's environment. Carrie also talks about her "Crystal Ball" for 2021 and upcoming HR challenges.

You can see Carrie's iconic Disrupt HR Orlando presentation “F” In The Workplace — And Other Colorful Language here - https://disrupthr.co/vimeo-video/f-in-the-workplace-and-other-colorful-language-carrie-b-cherveny-disrupthr-talks/

You can follow Carrie on LinkedIn and see all of her great insightful posts at www.linkedin.com/in/carrie-b-cherveny-esq-7037a95 and check out the HUB International Coronavirus Communications Resource Center - https://www.hubinternational.com/products/risk-services/hub-crisis-resources/coronavirus-resource-center/

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Transcript

Chuck Simikian: 0:01

edgy, cool, not your normal HR person. I talk about smiles and files for HR. My guest today is not smiles and files. I cannot wait to bring her to you, folks standby for the latest episode of the HR and leadership spotlight show. All right. With me today is Carrie. Cherveny. Carrie, welcome. Thanks for having me. Hi. Hello. So I would say words that describe you are not timid, shy, meek, correct. Although you did tell me earlier on you. You can be an introvert. Correct?

Carrie Cherveny: 0:55

I can be an introvert. Yes, people find that surprising.

Chuck Simikian: 1:00

Well, folks, and and I want to tell you so much about Carrie and she's got a lot to share today. But before we do carried your bring anything for us today. What are you drinking?

Carrie Cherveny: 1:10

I brought a mocha peppermint latte. Cheers. Cheers.

Chuck Simikian: 1:16

Cheers. Excellent. Well, welcome to that Starbucks. And, you know, a lot of times, now that I've been working from home and I know you're working, working from home a lot, I actually indulged myself and I bought a Nespresso machine. I already own one, come on, it's the best as you press one button, and then you press the other button, and it foams up your little milk and, you know, that sort of thing. And I use oat milk, just stay away from dairy. And man, it is the best. It's the coolest thing. Taking videos of it, send it to people. So anyways, so folks, Carrie is with us today. She is the Senior VP of client solutions for a group called hub international and I'm gonna let her tell you all about that in a minute. Because that is a huge title. It's very cool. And and, and like my guest, she is edgy. She is cool. I saw her at a live event at it was called disrupt HR here in Orlando, where people get up and they do these presentations. What are they like five minute presentations carry?

Carrie Cherveny: 2:30

Yeah, five minutes,

Chuck Simikian: 2:32

five minutes. And they they pick topics and Kerry's topic was F in the workplace f like as in profanity, correct? Yeah, f bombs all day long. f bombs and tell it and you you, you dropped them. I mean, you were dropping f bombs left and right. Part of the presentation. It was like, Whoa, wow. But it was cool. It was a great presentation had a great point. Can you tell us how you came up with that? That topic, because I do want to hear all about you and your journey. But that was pretty cool. And folks, you can actually search that you go to YouTube, search disrupt Orlando, and maybe type in Kerry's name, and I fact you know what I'm gonna do in the show notes. I'm gonna put a link to that, if you don't mind. I don't mind that that's a pretty iconic presentation. How did you come up with that?

Carrie Cherveny: 3:25

So you know, believe it or not, when I was a litigator, working in employment law firms, I was really surprised by the frequent use of the F word in the workplace. And one day, my legal secretary, she was wonderful. Her name was Ruth, she was probably 80 years old, walks in my office and plunks down on my desk 42 uses of the F word, single page document. So over photocopy, that everything was all wiggly and zigga Lee. And I thought, you know, I think I better research this and make sure that we're not creating some liability here in the workplace. And that was about 10 years ago, and I've been lecturing on F in the workplace and hostile work environment ever since. Because I think that there's a real misperception and misunderstanding around the use of F word, the value of the F word under certain circumstances, and the liability it can create in the workplace. And I think it's really helpful to HR people to understand where those boundaries are and where those lines are. And let's face it, Chuck, it was a lot of fun to talk about it. And it's a lot of fun to build those programs. My national marketing department called me from Chicago when I built out the deck that you saw and they said, I can't believe that I have to build a deck filled with the F bomb and like if you're offended, I'm sorry.

Chuck Simikian: 4:55

Yeah. I love that. You know, I've been to a number of those eight, disrupt Orlando. HR, disrupt presentations. And the only one I really remember is yours. It's the craziest thing. And it was great. So folks, you have to check those out in the show notes below. So Carrie, sure, Vinny, tell us about you tell us who you are, talk about your journey, and how you got to where you are how you chose to be involved in, in human resources. And, you know, just that journey, I think we'd love to hear that.

Carrie Cherveny: 5:30

So I think when I look back at my travels, through my career, and through my life, it's a story of honestly, fate and destiny, and having good friends and the right network in place to help me along when people say it's all about who you know, it's absolutely true. And not because who you know, means that you can pull strings or get advantage. But friends help friends by propping them up, friends help friends by opening doors. And that's been the story of my life. You know, I graduated from the University of South Florida with a master's in speech and debate in the middle of a recession, what the heck was I going to do speech and debate, believe it or not, at the time, I didn't know I wanted to be a lawyer, I actually thought I was going to be a college professor, because I love teaching and publishing and writing and researching. And I got accepted to two PhD programs, which required me to move out of state. And that just, I didn't want to leave family. I'm very, very tired and connected to my family. So I got a job in HR because a door opened and I walked through it. I practiced HR, I was an HR professional for about six years. And to be honest, I got really frustrated with our lawyers telling me what to do. And I didn't always agree shocking. And I started asking them to send me the cases that they were relying on, well, you know how much they love that. And I finally said, you know, if they can do it, I can do it. I'm going to give this a shot. And every step of the way. I said, Well, I'll, I'll see how this goes. And if this door opens, then I'll go to the next one. So, you know, first I filled out the applications. And then I took the L sat and somehow I got into law school and somehow I got financial aid. And it all kind of laid out for me in a way that I can't help but believe it was meant to be. And I practice law for about six years defending companies I made partner and five I knew it was very important that I knew and understood how these lawsuits would evolve in court how the facts sets would help or work against clients. But I always knew it wasn't where I wanted to be. I always knew that I wanted to be on the teaching education helping preventative side. And one day, I got a phone call from a friend of mine network. Hey, there's a general counsel position open at this company. Are you interested? I was there for about four and a half years. And lo and behold, I got a call from a friend of mine network who said, Hey, have you heard of hub international? they're hiring. These senior executives have seen you present? Are you interested? And five years later? I've been at hub since February five years ago. Wow. Wow. So

Chuck Simikian: 8:18

your title Senior VP. So we know you're up there a Grand Poobah of sorts, but strategic strategic client solutions what exactly? What exactly is that tell us what you what you pretty much do every day, every week, every month. For the last four years.

Carrie Cherveny: 8:41

Oh, it's funny that we really struggled with what to call me I'm the only person that have international that provides compliance guidance to clients both an employee benefits and employment law. Our compliance officers across the country are solely focused on employee benefits. But with my vast employment law background, it didn't make sense for me to limit the conversation I had with clients. And we didn't want to build out the role in a way that pigeon holed me into a pure lawyer compliance covey because one of the things that I pride myself on is that I can work with clients to give practical advice and guidance, balance the real world business needs with the compliance and the risk side of the conversation. So I didn't want to be purely the lawyer or purely the compliance person because when you give guidance to clients, you've got to give them guidance and advice that is executable that is common sense that will work for their business while mitigating risk. So that's where we landed on the title. We have continued to revisit the title to see if there's something different, better more succinct, less words, less syllables, and haven't come up with it. So if anybody has an idea, I'm open.

Chuck Simikian: 10:08

But, and that's and that's fine. I tell you, despite your title, no matter what your title is, you're putting out some great stuff. And I follow you on LinkedIn, I might even be a super fan at some point. But you share some some great posts. And I a couple of weeks ago, I ran a car across an E book called workplace safety. It was a self inventory toolkit. It was a, it was under the hub h UB. And, actually, we probably want to add an answer to the audience. What hub is what is how, by the way,

Carrie Cherveny: 10:51

is the fourth largest Insurance Brokerage in the world. So we specialize in employee benefits, commercial lines, and we have an entire consulting division just around risk management in specialty areas like health care, transportation, manufacturing,

Unknown: 11:10

etc.

Chuck Simikian: 11:11

I know that I follow you on LinkedIn, and you have some great stuff. And at times, I would even say I'm a super fan. I think I love your posts. I love what you share. And it's really relevant to me, as an HR consultant trying to help other clients. Plus, I love HR. And I love a lot of the the things that you're sharing really just adds new perspectives and things you don't normally see out there. But I was following one of your things. And you had something that came out it was called the workplace safety, self inventory toolkit, you shared that. And it was under the hub hub International, which is your is your company, but I'd love to hear about that. But tell our visitors or visitors, our viewers today, what is hub, by the way,

Carrie Cherveny: 12:09

hub is the fourth largest Insurance Brokerage in the world specializing in Insurance Solutions for employee benefits, commercial lines, and risk management consulting along with personal line coverages.

Chuck Simikian: 12:23

Okay, all right. So I asked you, I said, that is really well done. That is really well done. And you said thank you. And then you said you wrote it. So tell me about that. Tell me about the there's another a couple other ebooks you've shared COVID and the holidays best practices. So you write these ebooks for hub also correct. Tell me about that.

Carrie Cherveny: 12:52

Correct. So listen, it's always a team effort, right? I've always got somebody partnering with me on research or peer review or editing or feedback. But certainly this year, I've spent a great deal of this year building content for our clients, especially around employment law and COVID. COVID has created a area of compliance that includes topics and considerations that are highly unusual for HR people to deal with. You know, not any time in the past. would an HR generalist think that all in one conversation they have to deal with Employee Benefits coverage, or Risa, OSHA employment practices liability, title seven, the Americans with Disabilities Act, family medical leave, and now the ffcra. So I feel my heart goes out to the HR community because I'm part of the HR community and started my career there cut my teeth in the HR role. And so I just felt compelled to put together guidance that would help teach would help educate, but more importantly, help HR people build programs that protected their organizations. You know, I've said so many times this year, when the Affordable Care Act came out, I thought, Oh my gosh, these poor HR people, you know, the the amount of complexity associated with the Affordable Care Act is unbelievable. And now I look at COVID. And I think fordable care acts a walk in the park compared to what we've had to face and deal with with COVID. So that's really the foundational inspiration or thought process behind putting together the materials that we've put together.

Chuck Simikian: 14:46

Okay, yeah. And they're really well done. And folks, it's not just available to hub clients, correct you. It's available to the public and I'll put Kerry's contact information on LinkedIn. You're gonna want to go, you're gonna want to follow her. And you're gonna want to check out a couple of these ebooks, they're, they're really, really well done. Carrie, I love having people on the show talking about their philosophies, maybe it's their leadership philosophies, their management philosophies, their HR philosophies. And you said something early on in the interview early on a couple of minutes ago, that inspired you to want to move down the line in your career, to the point that you wanted to be a lawyer. And you said, You wanted to provide people, and you want to provide your clients with guidance and advice. That is executable, correct. So talk about that and talk about your overall philosophy in that vein.

Carrie Cherveny: 16:01

So I remember, my very first HR position like real HR was my department, the company was counting on me, I was all by myself, I was part of one. And I walked into a company with 250 employees that grew to 2000 employees in under a year, they didn't have a W four, they didn't have an i nine, they didn't have personnel files. And quite frankly, I couldn't spell title seven at the time, I was baby baby in my career. And I remember the people who helped me along, and I remember the people who made my life more complicated. And there are a number of people, one of whom is my mentor, who helped me learn and understand the complexities of the human resources field and my role. And he did it in a way that helps me build programs, build processes, and deliver in my organization, and didn't give me esoteric, idealistic, black and white policy, please kind of guide us there were lots of those people in my life too. And I realized early on that being able to design and implement, would determine the quality of the guidance that I received. And I've never forgotten that. And my goal has always been to help people who were sitting in that seat today, because I remember how it felt, I took my job. So seriously, I knew and understood, if I screwed up, my company was going to pay the price, my leadership was going to pay the price. And the owners of my company invested their money, their savings, their reputations, and all you need as an HR person to screw something up and do a lot of damage and harm. So that's the lens from which I view our clients. And I view the world if I can't give you guidance, help and support that is not practical is not executable is not something that you can operationalize that I haven't done my job. Right.

Chuck Simikian: 18:13

I love that, you know, I teach a number of classes. And I yesterday actually taught a couple of sessions of a class called the one person HR department, something along those lines. And a lot of the folks in there were brand new HR people, or they were HR folks that had, you know, as companies grow, right, they grow, they mature, they grow up, and all of a sudden they realized that an HR person and they're like, you over there, you can be the HR person. Right. And, and so that was the type of folks in this session I had about 100 100 folks, and I, I always take them down, but down the path of trying to make them understand the gravity of their new role. They might have been the office manager, maybe the front desk receptionist, they the accounting clerk, the marketing rep, but now they've got HR in their title. And I try and make sure they understand that anything and everything they do from this point forward, can put their company in jeopardy. So it's cool that you You said that it's called the chin. I actually tell them I say your job is now risk management. Your job is now risk management, the the number one job and I asked him I said what's the number one job of HR? And I'll bet you're probably going to say if I ask you what the number one a job of HR is, what would you say the number one job of HR is,

Carrie Cherveny: 19:47

you said it perfectly. It's risk management. In fact, I sit in the risk management consulting division that hub because we recognize that the support and guidance I provide as managing the risk for Employers I mean, HR people have so much pressure on them today, they're in such a high profile, hot seat and more is being asked of HR people than ever before. Even even with even with the implementation of ACA. You know, at that time, we thought HR was really in a tough spot. But today with COVID, I mean, the calls that I get from my clients, my heart goes out to these HR folks, you know, managers won't wear masks, people are showing up testing positive with COVID. And coming to work anyway, employees don't want to stay home because there isn't any emergency paid sick leave laughs So they're just going to lie and come in and all this risk, and all these individuals with different appetites for COVID, coming into work, not coming into work, and HR is in the middle of all of it, trying to navigate all of that risk, and then layer on top of that open enrollment and year end layer on top of that civil unrest, and all the conversations that are so important in that area, but still lands squarely on HR. And then by the way, folks, starting in January, we've got IRS, ACA tax filing season and vaccines. So HR people have always been the heart and the backbone of the company, but never ever more so than today. And, you know, reach out and give your HR person a hub, not a sexually harassing hug.

Chuck Simikian: 21:32

Absolutely. So your crystal ball, we're getting up to our time right now. And I know that one of a couple of the posts that you've shared has been with a new with a change of administration. And as we're recording this, were moving from a republican administration and the presidency to a Democrat. And this is not a political discussion as much. But when those things happen, Republican demo, the winds of change, blow differently. Correct. And one of the things that I tell folks is, as I've read things, is that we're going to be going more overall from a guidance perspective to a more enforcement. And I know you've shared some things out there in your, your crystal ball. So can you share some of that with our, our viewers today? What is your crystal ball telling you as far as what we as HR professionals and as leaders, and maybe as business owners need to probably expect over the next couple of months or so?

Carrie Cherveny: 22:50

Well, I think the number one thing on my list, believe it or not, is unions. I know that President Obama was very supportive of the Union world, and I believe Biden is likewise as supportive of the Union world. And in its natural transition, the National Labor Relations Board will cycle out some of the senior leaders and President Biden or President Elect Biden will appoint new members of the National Labor Relations Board. And as with any administration, the folks who will be appointed will be those whose philosophical and worldview is similar to that of our leadership at the time. So we can expect to see I think, more activity in the Union world, I also think we will see a change in the guidance and the interpretations coming out of the National Labor Relations Board, for example. Under the president obama administration, there was some guidance issued by the NLRB that really opened the door for almost any kind of communication by employees about the terms and conditions of employment under President Trump's administration and that neighbor, Labor Relations Board, the guidance really dialed in what kind of communication about terms and conditions of employment was appropriate? We I expect that will change there was guidance around limitations on communication in your handbook, you know, slander, profane language, that sort of thing. We expect that guidance to change. So I think, keep your eye on the guidance coming out from the NLRB. I also am wondering what will happen with the Department of Labor opinion letters. If you remember, under President Obama's administration, the opinion letter program was stopped. And then under the President Trump administration, we started getting opinion letters from the department. And I personally need letters because it gives us a view into how the Department of Labor would interpret and apply the law to start Facts said I find them to be very instructive. In fact, we just got to out last Monday, I think,

Chuck Simikian: 25:05

yeah. And what are they meant to deal with? insect farming? And I thought that was pretty cool.

Carrie Cherveny: 25:10

I was great. So I'm wondering what happens with opinion letters. I hope that the program continues. I think it's really helpful. But I'm just not sure. So I think we just have to keep our eyes open, I think there's going to be some President Elect Biden, as already said, there's going to be some executive orders that will dial back some of the Trump administration, he's already I believe, made clear that the executive order around the diversity training in the federal government sector, that's going to change and President Elect Biden is going to overturn the executive order limiting the diversity training in the federal sector. So we'll definitely see some change. But the good news is, there's some great people out there like you and the rest of us in the community to stay on top of it, provide guidance and help clients navigate their way through it.

Chuck Simikian: 26:03

Yeah, I have a friend that teaches a lot of seminars, and she uses the analogy in her classes that you as the HR person, you're the knight, you're the knight defending the castle. And, you know, you've got to have your your armaments, you've got to have your horse in good shape. You have to have things ready to go. You have to be and it's, it's it's a great metaphor for what the HR folks are doing. Carrie shirvani. I am thrilled to have you on the show today. I said you're a legend. From that video on F in the workplace. You've got some great things to share out on LinkedIn. I'm gonna put the links to all of that in the show notes below. But Have I missed anything? Is there anything you want to add? Before we we end our segment today?

Carrie Cherveny: 26:58

Thank you for asking, um, have international built a Coronavirus Resource Center. And one of the things that I love about being part of hub is that hub is very community centric and community focus. So our Coronavirus resource center is open to everyone and anyone because we recognize our responsibility to help our fellow community members through this crisis. So any materials that you're looking for if you can't find them through LinkedIn, check out the hub international Coronavirus Resource Center. There's tons of information. We have an FAQ that we built. That is I think it's about 200 questions now. That covers everything from benefits to health and safety, OSHA families first FMLA what we tried to do is consolidate the vast information into one document and I think it's a great resource and tool that may be helpful.

Chuck Simikian: 27:55

Awesome. All right. Well, Carrie, thank you for being on the show today. And yeah, folks, thanks for watching, and we'll see you next week.