Posts Tagged ‘HR’

Bringing Encouragement for Work Through Workplace Incentives IHN HR Podcast

Podcast: Bringing Encouragement for Work Through Workplace Incentives


Every day, employees who are disengaged, distracted, or discouraged cost employers time, money, frustration, and opportunities. Rob Marchalonis is committed to changing that.  Nothing motivates a team more than when they share in the success or gains they help achieve. Through Rob’s leadership he has been able to take many organizations to the next level.  Not just for-profit organizations, but nonprofit organizations as well.  Listen in and learn how incentives and variable compensation plans can motivate and energize your employees to achieve remarkable results.

As a former CEO, Rob understands the challenges organizations are under.  Rob is the creator of IncentShare and founder of LSP123. Years of hands-on experience as CEO, marketing director, engineer, entrepreneur, coach, and consultant have given Rob deep insight into organizational dynamics, motivation, incentives, and sharing to get results. He has advised thousands of business and nonprofit leaders.

Rob’s experience as an entrepreneur, engineer, and 25+ years as a hands-on CEO has given him deep insight into the power of effective Leadership, Strategy, and Process deployment to fuel workforce productivity and results. Connect with Rob on LinkedIn or contact him here.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

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Podcast: Creating a Flourishing Workplace!


Many organizations find themselves spinning their wheels in work cultures filled with toxicity, dysfunction, conflict, and fear. Unengaged employees drag down productivity, and ineffective management undermines morale. How can we create workplaces where people don’t just struggle to get through the day but instead thrive and love what they do and where they work?

Al Lopus, cofounder and Board Chair of Best Christian Workplaces, has studied hundreds of organizations to discover eight key drivers in companies with healthy cultures and engaged employees. He gathers best practices from across a range of companies and ministries to demonstrate how people at all levels can work together to accomplish work that matters. Principles and real-life examples provide concrete ways that organizations can flourish by building fantastic teams, cultivating life-giving work, attracting, and retaining outstanding talent, and much more.

Road To Flourishing: Eight Keys to Boost Employee Engagement and Well-Being. “This is a book for leaders of every kind of Christian-run organization, and even Christian leaders in secular organizations can benefit greatly from these principles. They have been proven in churches, parachurch ministries, mission organizations, publishers, media organizations, schools, city missions, conference centers, and a host of Christian-owned for-profit businesses in all sorts of industries. You’ll hear hard-earned lessons and penetrating insights from leaders in many of these sectors that the Best Christian Workplaces Institute has been privileged to work with and learn from.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Podcast: Employee Volunteerism


Employee Volunteerism: Spreading Hope in Schools

How does the Bible affect employers? Listen in and understand why the Bible matters. When we have a happy and fulfilled faith-driven society, we, in turn, have prosperous communities. Learn how you and your organization can contribute to this outcome.

We believe that children need to hear Biblical truth, especially in today’s culture. They are bombarded with so many things on a daily basis that have the potential to impact them negatively. Bible2School is offered to children in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade because that is the age their brains start to develop morals and values and their thinking goes from concrete to abstract. In fact, kids at this age often ask big, life questions. Thanks to the national released time rulings, we can help these children learn about God’s love for them during their public school day!

Listen in and meet Kori Pennypacker, CEO of Bible2School. Kori’s faithful journey with Bible2School began in 2009 as a volunteer. Her love for the mission grew, and she quickly became the Executive Director just two years later. Today, Kori serves as the organization’s CEO, where she oversees the mission and builds relationships with businesses, churches, and community leaders on the topic of the importance of spiritual training for children nationwide.

Kori thrives on building relationships, and she loves inviting people into the Bible2School team as valued members, volunteers, and donors. Kori’s courageous leadership, humility, and expertise have been paramount to the growth of the Bible2School program.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Building Out of This World Leaders Banner

Podcast: Building Out of This World Leaders


Research shows that front-line leaders contribute as much as 60% to your employee engagement survey results. What are you doing to increase leadership capacity across your organization?

Come learn some strategies that NASA employed over the last 30 years to build better people leaders. Fortunately, these strategies are not rocket science! Any organization can take similar approaches. In fact, our guest, Brady Pyle, is bringing those approaches from NASA to his new role with a 350-employee non-profit organization.
What have you done in the past?

Brady took an early retirement from NASA in February 2023 after a 30-year career in HR, culminating in his role as Deputy Chief Human Capital Officer, where he supervised 12 HR Executives. Brady was a two-time recipient of NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal and played a key role in NASA being named Best Place to Work in the Federal Government for 11 Consecutive Years.

Brady has blogged about leadership over the last 10 years at OutOfThisWorldLeadership.com, earning recognition in Feedspot’s Top 100 Leadership Blogs.

Brady currently serves as Vice President of Human Resources at Space Center Houston—a leading non-profit science and space exploration learning center that serves as Official Visitor Center for NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Lead with Prayer Banner

Podcast: Lead With Prayer


If prayer matters, why don’t we live and lead that way? And what would happen if we did?

Peter Greer, along with Ryan Skoog and Cameron Dolittle, spent over one hundred hours interviewing world-changing leaders across six continents, asking a powerful question:

What prayer practices are fueling your impact?

They learned from personal interviews with leaders like:

  • Joni Eareckson Tada
  • Francis Chan
  • John Mark Comer
  • Gary Haugen
  • John Ortberg
  • Mark Batterson
  • Tim Mackie

And global leaders serving more than one hundred countries

These leaders not only affirmed the primacy of prayer in their lives but also shared specifics of what motivated them to pray; how they overcame disappointments, distractions, and obstacles to prayer; and how they even made time for prayer.

Peter wants to give you practical tools to become a praying leader equipped to build a thriving culture of prayer where you lead.

Peter Greer is president and CEO of HOPE International, a global Christ-centered organization working to alleviate physical and spiritual poverty in more than 20 countries around the world. Peter’s favorite part of his role is spending time with the remarkable entrepreneurs HOPE serves.

A graduate of Harvard’s Kennedy School, Peter has co-authored 15 books, including Mission Drift, and Rooting for Rivals. He lives with his wife, Laurel, and their four children in Lancaster, PA.

Learn more about Lead With Prayer here.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Allan Collins IHN HR Interview

Podcast: What Is the Top HR Priority Today? HR Leadership Must Bring Positivity in 2024


The economy, divisive politics, conflicts around the world, and greater demands in the workplace: They can all lead to business challenges. But those challenges don’t have to be insurmountable.

Every organization should feature an HR department that prioritizes promoting positivity. In this episode, we’ll meet Alan Collins, the greatest contributor to the HR profession Mark has ever known. Listen in as he reveals secrets that HR professionals can use to increase employee satisfaction and help their organizations achieve higher performance.

As former vice president of human resources at PepsiCo, Alan led initiatives for the Quaker Oats, Gatorade, and Tropicana divisions. With 35 years of experience in recruiting, staffing, talent management, organization development, and labor relations, he’s seen it all.

Alan is the founder of Success in HR, where he’s inspired tens of thousands of HR professionals from all over the world. Alan especially has a heart for young professionals and focuses many of his resources on helping develop them into truly confident, competent company resources.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Navigating Religious Freedom in the Workplace Sharing a Kingdom Perspective

Podcast: Navigating Religious Freedom in the Workplace


Navigating Religious Freedom in the Workplace
Sharing a Kingdom Perspective

We all know the workplace is getting more and more difficult to manage. Since coming out of Covid, many organizations are floundering under new assumptions of how to operate. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There is a hope and a future we can offer our employees – one that benefits everyone involved.

Depending on the business you operate, that might not sound feasible. After all, there are two classes of employers: religiously exempt (non-profit) and secular (for-profit). One can hire based on religious affiliation; the other is legally prohibited from doing so.

So what about the Christian-owned for-profit organization? How can it promote the best possible workforce anyway?

Listen in as Stephanie N. Taub, Esq. navigates the dos and don’ts of sharing your faith in the workplace. She and Mark also discuss the use of chaplains, allowing employees to volunteer on company time, Bible studies, prayer at company-sponsored meals, and other topics of interest.

Taub serves as senior counsel with First Liberty Institute, where she focuses on restoring religious liberty in the marketplace. She also advocates for the rights of employees and business leaders of faith to work with integrity that’s consistent with their religious convictions.

Taub has authored pieces published by National Review and the Federalist Society, and has appeared on Fox News as well. In addition, The Texas Review of Law and Politics published her findings on federal employment law protections for faith-based employers. The article elaborates on the statutory right of religious institutions to cultivate communities of faith.

Before joining First Liberty, Taub worked as a law clerk to the Honorable Reed O’Connor in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. She graduated from Harvard Law School and is a Blackstone Fellow. And for her undergraduate studies, Taub graduated summa cum laude, receiving a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Southern California.

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Subscribe to the Podcast!

Kingdom Investing

Exploring Kingdom Investing: Innovest Portfolio Solutions


In today’s tumultuous economic situation, Christians can struggle to navigate financial complexities and challenges. The prevailing global obstacles, ranging from shifts in politics to economic instability and social unrest, are impossible to ignore. 

Uncertainty seems to loom everywhere. Many Christians are seeking solutions, to stay true to their values in a culture that contradicts their deeply held beliefs. Many want to use their dollars and invest their dollars in a biblically-responsible way. 

While many organizations advise and manage money for Christians, nearly all have conflicting cultures and values and happily do business with organizations that are in direct conflict with the Kingdom. In addition, they sponsor and donate to nonprofit entities that are antithetical to Jesus’ teachings. 

When it comes to selecting an investment consultant, there are many choices, but one firm that stands out is Innovest Portfolio Solutions. Founded 27 years ago, by two devout Christians, Innovest is guided by Christian values still today. Innovest has a deep understanding and expertise in working with Christian organizations including nonprofits and retirement plans. Innovest also offers services for individuals, families, and family offices that want to invest in a biblically-responsible way. 

Let us explore this unique company and discover the power of kingdom investing with values backed by the Christian faith!

After gaining years of Wall Street experience, co-founders, Richard Todd, and Wendy Dominguez, established  Innovest as one of the first fee-only investment consulting firms in their region. Their goal? To eliminate conflicts of interest and create investment solutions that serve the best interests of their clients. 

Innovest is truly one of a kind thanks to their mission of stewardship. Innovest strives to serve, not be served. Innovest honors God in everything they do, and they are dedicated to the Kingdom. 

But what truly sets Innovest apart is their skill and expertise in constructing portfolios that are congruent with Christian beliefs. 

Kingdom investing is very important to our clients like you! That is why we are so confident about Innovest’s approach. Their mission is a true example of a Christian-based business changing the industry and people’s lives in the process. Their dedication to custom portfolio solutions, fiduciary guidance, and uncommon service is unparalleled in the industry. 

While the world seems to crumble around us, Innovest remains a beacon of faith that clients can return to over and over, just like a trusted friend. For those investors, like you, who want to promote their faith, and not the world, Innovest may be just the perfect solution.

We sat down with CEO and Principal Rich Todd to talk about this amazing organization. We think you will be impressed by what he had to say!

Mark: It is wonderful to meet with you today, Rich. It is truly amazing what your organization has been able to accomplish since its inception. Can you tell us why you exist and share a little about why you began this company?

Rich: Thanks for having me, Mark. My co-founder, Wendy Dominguez and I started Innovest 27 years ago because we were tired of the conflicts of interest on Wall Street. It got to a point where we were told to look out for shareholder interests over client interests and we did not think that was right for the client. We started Innovest, an investment consulting firm, with 25 clients and a mission of stewardship, putting our clients’ interests first. Today we consult to more than 300 clients and advise on close to $50 billion, including a large number of faith based organizations.

Mark: Rich, what a great story. It seems God has really inspired you. So, with that being said, what sectors do you invest in? Or if it is easier to describe, what sectors does your firm avoid? 

Rich: We help our faith-based clients build biblically-responsible portfolios using products, managers, and strategies. We recognize there is a spectrum when screening out sin stocks, and different Christian organizations may have different goals. Some may want to eliminate all funds that invest in abortion, pornography, or alcohol, and some may just want to focus on earning the highest return possible and not screen at all. We help our clients identify where they fall on the spectrum. 

Once we understand a client’s goals, Innovest utilizes our vast experience in finding and monitoring managers that invest in publicly traded companies according to preferred biblical criteria. We help fiduciaries assess and carefully implement a biblically-responsible investment agenda to ensure that any investing they initiate or contemplate does not violate their governing regulations or their fiduciary responsibilities. Christians are challenged to build biblically-responsible portfolios while maintaining prudent diversification and high-quality managers. In fact, Innovest goes a step further and monitors the fund manager’s adherence to biblically-responsible investing. We have reached out to all our fund managers and have included their responses specific to Christian based biblically-responsible investment policies in our manager database.

It was through our extensive due diligence, asking values alignment questions, that we uncovered a fund manager was taking Christian client fees and donating them to Planned Parenthood. We asked them why they work with so many Christian organizations, and they said that Christians are backwards and through their work with those in the church, they hope to influence them.

Mark: We noticed while researching your organization that you have been able to grow in a relatively short period of time. Our readers are nationwide – primarily Christians in the marketplace, higher education, and those in pastoral or ministry careers. Can you share with them how you have been able to expand so quickly? What would you say is the key to your success?

Culture Is Important In HIS Name HR LLC

Rich: Our culture is our key to our success. Peter Drucker said, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Our culture is our secret sauce. We have a Christian culture at Innovest. We are stewards to our employees, clients, and community, including the Kingdom of God. We strive to serve, not to be served, and as a result, our people flourish. Our professionals see their work as a vocation where there are no boundaries between Sundays and Mondays, allowing for an integrated life. They understand that they represent Innovest at all times. While this may sound onerous, Innovest has won “Best Places to Work” nearly every year. While we care about intellect, education, and experience, none of those trump character. We thoroughly evaluate the character of each potential Innovest candidate.

At Innovest, we “give back” to our community monetarily and actively with our time. Each month, we volunteer for the less fortunate. Our team members have invested in the community by feeding the poor, painting houses for the elderly, giving comfort to those on the street, and donating school supplies, among others. We tithe 1% of our Innovest revenue.

Faith-based organizations seek us out because of our values, our reputation as a character-first firm, our expertise at building biblically-responsible portfolios, our thorough due diligence, not only of investment strategies, but also of fund providers, and our “fee-only” approach. We work as a team, implementing a consistent process for all clients to deliver nothing short of our best.

Mark: Rich, if an employer like a Christian primary school wanted to use your firm in managing its 401(k) plan, is that something your firm could do directly? Or would they need to choose a broker to work with? 

Rich: Yes. We can help any Christian organization with managing their 401(k) and/or 403(b) plans. For instance, we currently work with Focus on the Family and other organizations such as colleges and universities, churches, and dioceses. 

There is no need for an organization to work with a broker, they are conflicted, and they are not fiduciaries – meaning they are not legally bound to act solely in the best interests of their clients. We are a consultant and a co-fiduciary; we will act in the best interest of the organization. We will ensure the organization is offering a quality retirement plan for their participants. As part of our retirement plan services, we will analyze the goals and objectives of the plan, design a thoughtful participant friendly menu, and assist in creating an education strategy. In addition, we will mitigate fiduciary risk to the plan sponsor. 

Mark: Are there any sectors your firm invests in that the average investor is unaware of but should know about?

Rich: Yes. Alternative investments can be a great way to further diversify a portfolio, especially for long term assets. Examples of alternative investments include private debt, private equity, and real assets. Alternative investments have a lower correlation than equities and bonds; therefore, they can help portfolios withstand volatility in the markets. In 2022 when equity and bond markets were down, Innovest had reduced exposure to fixed income and increased exposure to real assets like timberland, farmland, and infrastructure. These all work well with a biblically aligned portfolio.

Mark: What advice would you give to smaller employers? We have many smaller organizations with 10-40 employees that are looking for retirement plan help and investing help.

Rich: Offering a retirement plan can be a challenge for smaller employers. We are in conversations with a Christian membership association about creating a MEP, a  multiple employer plan. A MEP allows multiple businesses to participate in a qualified retirement plan. They benefit from economies of scale in pricing and minimize their fiduciary liability. Furthermore, a MEP removes the administration burden so employers can focus on running their organization. We recently implemented a MEP with Catholic Benefits Association, and we are exploring the same solution with an association that serves evangelical organizations. A MEP can be a great resource for smaller organizations. We welcome any opportunity to speak with smaller organizations to help them find a retirement plan solution. 

Mark: Do you have a specific success story to share with readers? Perhaps an individual or organization that used your firm and achieved kingdom-minded results while also achieving financial success?

Rich: We recently started working with a Christian university.  The reason that they chose to work with us is because of our Christian values alignment, great reputation, and 27 years of experience.  Their previous consultant did not share the same values as the university.  They told them that their portfolio was aligned with their Christian values, but as we started analyzing the portfolio, we recognized that their portfolio wasn’t what they were promised. We started to implement high quality Christian products, managers, and strategies into their portfolio. 

Mark: What is the best way to have an interested person contact you for kingdom investment services for their employees?

Rich: They can reach out to me at rtodd@innovestinc.com or my colleague, Sarah Newman, Vice President, at snewman@innovestinc.com and we can set up a call. My cell is 720-586-6353.

___________

Concerned about the HR programs at your organization? The benefits of having a trusted partner to guide you and your team to excellence are invaluable. Contact us today. You—and your employees—will be glad you did.

Rise with us by implementing our high-performance remote human-resource programs to help find great people! E-mail us here.

Mark A. Griffin is president and founder of In HIS Name HR LLC. Connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter

Coming January 2024: New Podcast Series
Encouragement for Work
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Protect Your Mission CCCA Sectional 2024

Protect Your Mission CCCA Sectional


HR practices that can best help your Kingdom-Minded Camp while protecting its mission in today’s hostile world.

CCCA Sectional
White Sulphur Springs
4500 Milligans Cove Road
Manns Choice, PA 15550

Monday, February 26, 2024
4:00pm

Presenter Mark Griffin has seen it all in his more than 25 years of Human Resources experience gained by working with a wide range of organizations, from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to Christian Colleges, Ministries and Churches.

Let Mark help you by sharing his experiences in helping a variety of organizations manage their beliefs in the reality of today’s workplace.

Leading your Camp with Christ-centered values makes organizational sense.

Mark will share why he believes Christ-centered organizations experience:

  • Lower absenteeism
  • Higher quality products
  • Fewer employee morale issues
  • Safer work environments
  • Better perceptions by customers and vendors

Mark will also share how he helps organizations develop HR practices that reflect their core values and still build a high performance organization.

Topics to be Covered

  • DEI and Biblical alternatives why is this important?
  • Protecting your religious liberty
  • Dangers from proposed laws
  • Current state of religious liberty in court
  • Creating a high performance culture through practical HR competency development
  • Where most organizations go wrong engaging employees
  • Setting expectations
  • HR tools for creating success
  • Employee policy manuals
  • Codes of Conduct
  • Employee relations and communications
  • Performance management
  • Counseling and discipline procedures
  • Terminations
  • How the Civil Rights Act administrative guidance affects your Camp

Mark is a human resources professional with 25-plus years of experience in both public (Quaker Oats Company, Kodak Inc., Merck Inc.) and private companies (Woolrich, Conestoga Wood Specialties, Valco Companies Inc.), Mark is passionate about building high-performance workplaces by utilizing best practices while leading organizations with strong values.

About The Presenter

Mark A Griffin

Mark A. Griffin, MBA
President and Founder In HIS Name HR LLC

Speaker, accomplished HR consultant, and the author of How to Build “Kingdom-Minded” Organizations and College to Career: The Student Guide to Career and Life Navigation, Mark A. Griffin encourages leaders to build values-led organizations during these increasingly complex times.  Mark and his wife live in Lancaster PA and have two adult children.

Presented and hosted by the Christian Camp and Conference Association Allegheny Region. For ticket information visit them here.