Brandon Hall Group- Excellence at Work

Hosted by Rachel Cooke

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Episodes

100

Latest episode

Oct 2026

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About the show

HCMx Radio is the only podcast in the human capital management arena that features current market research and industry leaders that are driving innovation, modeling business success and enabling competitive performance into each episode. This podcast is produced by independent HCM research and analyst firm, Brandon Hall Group. It is hosted by Rachel Cooke, Michael Rochelle, Mike Cooke and Brandon Hall Group's Analyst Team.

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60 recent

October 26, 2026Episode 232 min

Excellence in Practice Series EPISODE 2: Smarter Technology Requires Smarter Leadership

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence in Practice podcast, host Mike Cooke , Chairman and CEO of Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Rachel Walter , Chief Innovation Officer at ansrsource , about why successful business transformation requires more than new technology. Their conversation explores how co-creation and trust drive enterprise-wide change, why AI should amplify human capabilities rather than dictate how people work and what organizations must do to develop the next generation of leaders. Walter draws on her experience in enterprise learning, performance improvement and innovation, including ansrsource's award-winning work with Hilti to address the operational complexity of global training delivery. She shares how organizations can rethink workflows, accelerate experimentation and introduce AI without losing the human judgment, curiosity and business understanding that make transformation successful.

October 26, 2026Episode 122 min

Episode 1: What If Every Candidate Became an Ambassador for Your Brand?

Excellence in Practice Series In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, Mike Cooke , Chairman and CEO of Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Natalie Zahorska , Executive Head of Talent Supply Chain Practices and Programs at NTT DATA , about transforming employer branding into a globally connected, data-driven talent acquisition strategy. Their conversation examines how NTT DATA unified fragmented recruitment marketing activities across more than 70 countries, strengthened its employee value proposition (EVP) and achieved significant improvements in candidate engagement, hiring efficiency and the overall talent experience.

October 26, 2026Episode 30918 min

Episode 348: The Job Has Changed. Why Hasn't the Pay?

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, Heidi Grecsek, Managing Director, Human Capital Management at Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Mahesh Kumar, Founder and Managing Director of TraineryHCM, about the widening gap between what employees do and how organizations define and compensate their work. Their conversation examines the impact of AI on job responsibilities, the difference between a heavier workload and a bigger role, and how HR leaders can make fair, evidence-based compensation decisions. Mahesh brings more than 15 years of experience advising organizations on HR technology, job evaluation and compensation processes. His consulting work helped shape CompBldr, a platform designed to connect job descriptions, job architecture, evaluation and compensation planning. Heidi brings a leadership and HCM perspective to the discussion, exploring the difficult conversations managers and employees face as roles evolve

October 26, 2026Episode 34728 min

Episode 347: Sales Kickoffs Can Turn Leadership Intent Into Seller Behavior

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, host Rachel Cooke, CEO of Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Melia Coury, Associate Director at BTS, about what it takes for a sales kickoff to change what sellers and their leaders do once they return to the field. Melia is BTS's product owner for Commercial Kickoffs, Meetings and Summits and has led global leadership transformation and sales enablement programs that combine business simulations, AI-enabled practice and coaching. She also co-leads the BTS Women's ERG, and a background in acting and improvisation shapes how she coaches leaders to communicate authentically. BTS earned 72 Brandon Hall Group™ HCM Excellence Awards in 2026, and Melia was involved in many of the projects that were recognized.

October 20, 2026Episode 220 min

Episode 2: Leaders Think Everyone Is Further Along Than They Are, and Transformation Pays the Price

Excellence Outlook Series: In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, David Forry, SVP at Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Kelly Stuart-Johnson, VP, Global Learning at VML, about why change initiatives stall after the announcement and what learning leaders can do to bring people along. The conversation previews their fireside chat, Driving Successful Organizational Change and Transformation, at the Brandon Hall Group™ HCM Excellence Conference, January 26–28 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

October 13, 2026Episode 34939 min

Episode 349: Building a Business Empire Without Losing the Entrepreneurial Spirit

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, Mike Cooke , CEO of Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Alex Campos of Vensure Employer Solutions about the entrepreneurial philosophy behind Vensure's remarkable growth, its unconventional acquisition strategy and the opportunities artificial intelligence creates for small and midsize businesses. Their conversation explores how organizations can expand without sacrificing customer relationships, why employee trust matters during acquisitions and how AI could reshape productivity, entrepreneurship and the future of work. Campos shares his journey from immigrating to the United States from Cuba as a child to becoming a technology entrepreneur and helping build a global employer-services organization. He discusses Vensure's 118 acquisitions in eight years, its approach to retaining entrepreneurial ownership and its investment in AI specifically designed for human capital management.

October 8, 2026Episode 117 min

Episode 1: Putting Humans in the Lead as AI Joins the Workforce

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work series, host Heidi Grecsek, Managing Director of Human Capital Management at Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Lisa Calicchio, Chief Human Resources Officer at WCG, about how organizations can bring employees, contractors, specialists and AI agents together into a single working system. The conversation previews Calicchio's breakout session, Orchestrating Capabilities Across the Extended Enterprise, at the HCM Excellence Conference on Tuesday, January 26, at 3 p.m. Calicchio has spent her career moving between business operations and HR at companies that include Merck, Johnson & Johnson, Covance, Wyndham Worldwide and GAF. At WCG, a clinical research services and technology company, she works where heavy regulation, scientific specialists and new AI tools meet every day. Her leadership team had watched a demonstration of a new AI-enabled product the day before the recording, which gave her a fresh example to draw on.

October 2, 2026Episode 34631 min

Episode 346: Learning Leaders Should Stop Waiting for Perfect Before They Act

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, host David Wentworth, Managing Director for Learning and Talent at Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Matt Paretsky, Learning and Development Project Manager at VPS Learning, about a leadership skill that rarely gets its own spotlight in development programs: the willingness to take an informed risk and move forward without every answer in hand. Paretsky's background includes years of work in risk management and business continuity planning outside of learning and development, and that experience shapes how he approaches leadership training today. He also draws on his time working alongside successful leaders and business strategists, as well as a current client project that is extending communication and emotional intelligence training well beyond the management ranks.

September 25, 2026Episode 34528 min

Episode 345: From Launch to Product: How Grant Thornton Is Rebuilding HR's Foundation for AI

In the latest episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, host Michael Rochelle, Chief Strategy Officer and Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group™, sits down with Jeanna Shapiro, Chief People & Culture Officer at Grant Thornton Advisors LLC, to dig into new Brandon Hall Group™ research on the AI-enabled HR operating model. Shapiro brings nearly 30 years in HR and talent leadership across Booz Allen Hamilton, Oliver Wyman and now Grant Thornton, where she has served as Chief People & Culture Officer for the past 3½ years. That mix of HR expertise and business ownership shapes how she pushes back on the idea that a successful launch is the same thing as a successful outcome.

September 25, 2026Episode 34439 min

Episode 344: Why Skills Have to Be Earned

In this episode of the Brandon Hall Group™ Excellence at Work podcast, host David Wentworth, Managing Director of Learning and Talent at Brandon Hall Group™, talks with Bernie Barbour, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Skillsoft, about why most of the skills data organizations already have cannot actually be trusted, and what it takes to build a system that turns skills into a measurable business discipline instead of a completion rate. Barbour brings the technical and product view of what it actually takes to build that system at scale, from separating claimed skills from earned skills to using AI without letting judgment quietly erode. Together with Wentworth, Barbour digs into why proficiency is so hard to define, what changes once a skill has to show up in real work and why picking one problem to solve beats trying to fix everything at once.

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