Imagine how booked your calendar would be if you met with every employee at your company once a month.
That’s a practice followed by Annie Osinski, VP of HR at Inclusively, an HR platform focused on making hiring and retention more inclusive of employees with disabilities. Granted, the startup only has around 18 employees, but as a people team of one, Osinski says monthly meetings have helped her build relationships with and advocate for workers, and break down stereotypes about HR. While the meetings are always booked for 15 minutes, they often last as long as 30 minutes.
“I think initially people probably saw a standing meeting with HR [with] the connotations like, ‘Oh gosh, HR wants to meet with me monthly,’” she told HR Brew. “But with it, I’ve been able to establish such a nice rapport with different people.”
Regular meetings with every employee may not be feasible for HR pros at larger organizations, nor for Osinski if Inclusively continues to grow. But until then, she’s glad she’s been able to create a sense of connection, especially since the company’s workers are remote.
“If we were to grow, and say we had 300 employees tomorrow, that wouldn’t be sustainable, right? So I would potentially make them at a less frequent cadence,” she said. “While it might not be sustainable for a massive company, I do think it’s super helpful…to build that type of rapport and do it while you can.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s the best change you’ve made at a place you’ve worked?
The best change I’ve made and implemented is meeting with each of my colleagues individually every month…By maintaining these consistent meetings, I’m able to keep a pulse on the team’s perception of our culture and can proactively squash any issues that might be on the horizon. Also, by building rapport with the whole team, there is more trust and transparency—at least, that’s the goal!
What’s the biggest misconception people might have about your job?
That interacting with HR is negative! We’re here to help, we always have our employees’ best interests at heart, and our job is to advocate for them.
Every single person at our organization is so crucial. That should be the case everywhere. Everyone needs to feel that way…I want to get to the crux of: Why are you at Inclusively? What do you like about it? What could we change? And try to make sure that everyone’s input is not only out there, but taken into consideration.
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What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Helping my colleagues reach higher degrees of workplace satisfaction and growth within their roles is deeply rewarding. Being able to talk through any workplace issues that arise and come up with solutions is extremely fulfilling to me.
We are completely remote…However, I do understand that if you’re not in the same office, you might not understand every person is different. Everyone’s tone of voice, how they communicate, their perspective.
There have been some times when people come to a conversation and they don’t understand each other. I can say, “Listen, I know this person. I think if you just go back and say X, Y, and Z, rubbed me the wrong way,”...I feel like this is very elementary school, but that is an example, I think, with cross-functional teams being in different places and having different priorities and different goals, there can potentially be people who butt heads.
What trend in HR are you most optimistic about? Why?
Reduction of certain unrelated requirements in job descriptions. Slowly but surely, progressive companies are removing legacy requirements that don’t fit the role. How many times have you seen “ability to lift 25 pounds” on a job description for a role that had nothing to do with the opportunity? While that is an obvious example, it’s exciting to see more companies remove degree requirements and be open to adjusting the job experience as well.
What trend in HR are you least optimistic about? Why?
Return to the office. For so many years, employees had been requesting remote work for a variety of reasons, and one silver lining of Covid was that it proved to the world that remote work is, in fact, possible at large scale. With the return to office mandates, many employees are now facing long commutes, and therefore, sacrificing autonomy in their day-to-day lives. Unfortunately, it’s reopening the gap around accessibility and inclusion.