Ever had an employee claim they're underpaid compared to the market? In this episode, I chat with compensation expert Carolyn Kildare about the nuts and bolts of effective salary benchmarking.

We dive into how to respond when employees bring outside salary data to you, where to find reliable compensation surveys, and how to build credibility in your benchmarking process. Carolyn shares practical wisdom from her years at Mercer and as owner of Cadence Compensation to help you navigate these challenging conversations.

Key topics we cover:

• Building a solid compensation philosophy as your foundation
• Why data quality matters (and which surveys to trust)
• Handling employee challenges to your compensation structure
• The difference between inflation and salary increase budgets
• When and how to "age" older salary data

Perfect for HR professionals looking to strengthen their compensation strategy and confidently handle those tricky "but everyone else pays more" conversations.

Find Carolyn at https://www.cadencecompensation.ca/ or on LinkedInFind me as always: https://thehrhub.ca

Is your L&D team flying blind? In this episode, I sit down with edtech strategist and author Lori Niles-Hofmann to unpack why data-driven learning design is a game-changer for HR professionals.

Lori reveals how borrowing tactics from marketing can transform training effectiveness and explains her practical "duct tape approach" for organizations without perfect data systems. We explore everything from using digital body language to predict learning needs to her bold prediction about AI coaches replacing traditional courses.

Whether you're struggling to measure learning impact or looking to modernize your training approach, this conversation delivers actionable insights for mid-career HR professionals ready to elevate their L&D strategy.

Guest: Lori Niles-Hofmann, EdTech & AI Transformation Strategist and author of the upcoming "The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation"

Topics covered:• Why intuition alone fails in learning design• Essential data points every L&D team should track• Overcoming common barriers to data-driven approaches• How A/B testing can revolutionize your training effectiveness• The future of personalized AI-powered learning

This episode is also sponsored by iSpring - an all-in-one e-learning solution that makes creating training easier.

Also check out: 👉 Lori's new book "The Eight Levers of EdTech Transformation" coming this spring👉 Lori's course on LinkedIn Learning about Data-Driven Learning Design https://www.linkedin.com/learning/data-driven-learning-design👉 My website for consulting to SMBs - https://thehrhub.caALSO this episode is sponsored by iSpring - an all-in-one e-learning solution that makes creating training easier. Check out my demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8q-zhHHvkUhttps://www.ispringsolutions.com/They have offered discount codes (good until the end of 2025) as follows: 'ANDREA-SUITE' - For purchasing iSpring Suite with a 10% discount.'ANDREA -SUITE-MAX' - For purchasing iSpring Suite Max with a 10% discount.

Connect on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-adams1/ or find me at https://thehrhub.ca for consulting to SMBs.

Let's plan for 5 years down the road with a thousand moving pieces - many of which you have zero control over. That's strategic workforce planning.

I have had a growing interest in workforce planning with the rise of AI. I don't want to be doing miserable HR - like mass layoffs when you didn't plan for the shift in 30% of tasks to AI.

My guest this week, Ross Sparkman, has literally wrote the book on strategic workforce planning. When you google 'workforce planning books' his book, 'Strategic Workforce Planning: Developing optimized talent strategies for future growth' comes up and the 2nd edition came out last week! He is currently the Sr. Director of Workforce Planning at Walmart and held similar roles at Nike and Meta.

It's complicated, but we need to plan for the future:

- What roles and skills do we need now? In the future? When in the future?

- What risks impact our plans? And how will we mitigate?

- Do we have the right mix of full-time, part-time and contingent workers?

- Are we hiring in the right places?

And so many more. Workforce planning is the pinnacle of big picture HR. Ross tells us how to do it in the short-term and then how to scale up to the bigger picture.

Check it out! And read the book - I can hardly think of another topic where reading the book would be more important.

Find Ross' new book on Amazon! It was just published last week: Strategic Workforce Planning: Developing optimized talent strategies for future growthYou can find Ross on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ross-sparkman/You can find me https://thehrhub.ca/or on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrea-adams1/