DayoneHR Tea Time Podcast Episode 1: Becoming an HR Tech Consultant [Transcript]

Below is a transcript from Episode 1 of our Podcast. It has been generated using automated transcription technology, so please forgive any mistakes, including grammatical errors. Of course, if you’d rather listen to our Podcast, you can find this episode on Apple, Google and Spotify.

Lauren: Welcome everyone to the DayoneHR Tea Time podcast. We are so glad to have you here. This is a podcast where we talk about  HR technology. HR transformation and overall projects surrounding building a better employee experience. So there's a lot of things that we'll cover over the next few episodes.

But I just want to tell you a bit about me. So, so I'm Lauren I'm the founder of  DayoneHR, which is a project management company. And what we do is really we advise businesses and people on HR technology and how they can use HR technology to really drive business transformation. And this is primarily through project management, as I mentioned, but also through coaching and we have DayoneHR courses as well.

So we are primarily, HR tech consultancy and really we wanted to start with our first episode of this podcast talking more about DayoneHR, but also talking a bit more about the team in particular Yogina who is sat with me at the moment. So basically just to give you more of a background of DayoneHR and a bit about me.

I started the business and I've helped companies over the last five years to support them through change management and HR transformation primarily through HR Tech. And I've been lucky enough to grow the business and have people join me along the way and along the journey.

And really the main part of this first episode is to give you a bit of an overview of us, but also to chat with one of our team members, Yogina who joined us a year ago now as a HR Transformation Consultant, and really hear from her about what it's like working as a consultant in the business one of hers, some of our highlights some low points and funny stories along the way that comes with working with HR teams, but also organizations as a whole.

So. Without further ado. Yogina, would you like to introduce yourself. 

Yogina: Yeah. Sure. Thanks Lauren. Welcome everyone. So excited for our first new podcast, not the first new, the first podcast that we're doing here. So just to talk about a bit about myself, my name is  Yogina and I'm from Nepal and I've been working with DayoneHR for one year since last year and helping business to do HR Transformation projects. It is basically why we exist and I've enjoyed a lot and learn a lot, doing a lot of things back in the year. Yeah, let's keep it short in there. 

Lauren: Great. Okay. So I've got a few questions that I want to ask, but just to give people the context. So Yogina and I worked together a few years ago for a client that I was working with and that's how we met. And Yogina was desperate, I know you weren't desperate. You were just keen to see what it would be like moving from employee to a consultant and what that kind of looks like. And I know that there's a lot of people out there that are thinking about making the move from being, you know, maybe an employee, either in the HR team or a different team and looking to branch out as consultants or contractors as well.

So it's quite interesting for, for those people to. But I've got a few questions that I want to ask you about the last year and how you've got on with the various projects and things that you've been involved in and what you've kind of learned and laughed about along the way. So the first piece for me is obviously HR. There's lots of different specialisms and things like that. Why HR transformation? Why HR projects and why did you kind of gravitate to DayoneHR and the HR tech consultancy that we have?

Yogina: So the first thing in here is me getting into HR was not a deliberate career move. It's something that I was thought about, about whenever I worked or whenever I saw my father doing his business and stuff like that. Why people are key part of your business to grow and everything and what they were like? I had not set my mind that I'm going to go and work in HR. And I was not thought that in school and college. But it slowly started happening when I started my career and I went into the administrative stuff in the beginning and then saw like, okay, this HR as a function that exists, we were not taught about that in the school. Like especially our elementary and primary school. 

Like this was not a career option. No one talked about it. Because then Nepal it was not something that wasn't practiced or what people were doing in the business you know. We're seeing it as a functional department necessarily, but once I started my career, then this thing started coming up and then I gravitated towards a job because of me being a people person. I'm not an extrovert. I am an introvert, but still when I say I'm people oriented, it's more about helping them learn and grow, seeing what how I can help people to be better individuals and such. And that's how I gravitated towards HR. 

And then the next part is like once I started working in HR, there were situations where, you know, you had to make a decision, you had to do something as a compliance part to make sure that people are getting their paychecks. People are getting the information that they need. They are able to get their leave information when they need and stuff. That's the compliance part that you have to do it to make sure that HR is functioning properly. 

But at the same time, there will be individuals who would want to come to talk to you about the issue they're facing. It might be something from the manager, it might be some kind of arguments with their peers or people just want to bottle out everything that they bottled until date. It could be a family issue or things and why they were not able to focus. 

And that point of time, like it made me realize that if you really wanna be able to help them, support people. You can't always be depended on your manual tasks and manual work, where you need to update one single information of an individual with 10 different spreadsheets. And at the same time, be available to them as an HR. Not to be as an HR HR, but you know as a person who they can come and reach out to share their grievances.

Share with them or mentor or coach them on how to be productive at work or for managers to be better managers. And that was the time when the part of HR technology stuck with me. I was like, why it is important to have an HR technology. Hands down, it definitely makes the life of HR, People and Cultural team, Talent team or whatever you call it in the company makes it lot easier for them to do their tasks.

But the unseen part is that the hidden value that it brings to the business, manager and everyone in the company, right. Where, you know, it's one is like easy accessibility of their own information where they don't have to depend to the HR team or people operations team to get the basic information.

And at the same time, it helps the HR team gain more time so that they can focus on major core areas of people operations. We're just not just about documentation or compliance, which is more about building up that traditional. Building up that employee experience where employees feel that they're a part of the company, they are adding values and stuff.

So that's how I gravitated more towards HR technology and how HR should and can use the HR technology to help elevate their own function and their own tasks, completion rates, and, you know, do more things, better things for the business and the company and the employees overall. And the thing that I liked about DayoneHR is.

And why I joined. It was the diversity of HR platforms or HR technologies that I can use here. Before here, I was limited to using one or two HR platforms that I was using within the company, but coming to here helped me elaborate my knowledge on different kinds of HR platforms, how each of them can be used, how each of them can be integrated. 

How, like, you know, so one stage of making the work of HR easier is with HR transformation. Like the basic is that where you at least have an HR software or an application tracking system, but then the next is to elevate like how you can provide services to your employees, through other different HR platforms.

That's how I got inclined towards the one and not do forget to add that, you know, I enjoyed working with you with one of the previous companies that I was working with, you know, the level of leadership and people. Orientedness that you showed and how you help people be themselves, but then at the same time, push them to be better individuals.

So a mix of all of this.  

Lauren: Yeah, and I come find a phase you kind of filled out with interesting about, cause I mean, if I had a pound for every time I spoke to someone in HR and you say, how did they get into HR? And they say, oh, I wasn't meant to work in HR. It just sort of happened. And I was exactly the same.

I did double masters in politics and everyone always says, oh, what's politics got to do with HR. And I always say, oh, you've obviously never worked in HR. Because it is very political and it's, you need to be diplomatic and, and you use all of those behaviors of part of the job. And definitely, I mean, in terms of HR transformation it's key.

It has been key of nevermore. So the pandemics that we have just been through and HR technology has never been more necessary within organizations and, and that piece where he leads HR and to being change agents. So I think that's something that we're really aligned on for sure. Another question is, can you summarize in one word? The, the journey that you've had in the last year from going from employee to, to, to consultant in a consultancy firm. 

Yogina: So I would say the word that describes it best would be an adventure, right. So when you are an employee, there's like a certain set of hours you work in, and then the benefits that comes with.

The kind of exposure that you get in the company that you're working for gets bigger and stuff. But then what I'm consulting, well, why I also wanted to be more of a consultant than an employee is also increasing the level of impact that I can do. So if I'm supposedly if I'm like an HR expert in some area in some sector and I stay with one company, so my impact gets limited to that, that business, right, that number of employees. But if I move out with expertise in one sector and then become a consultant or a contractor, but then I can serve more than one company at a time, even if like say two or three companies at the time, the level of impact that I can make gets bigger because I'll go on in a focused area, do one thing at a time and make sure that all these businesses and employees are getting that benefit.

So it's was to increase that level of impact that I wanted to create as well. 

And the reason that I say adventure is because of the different client portfolios that we have been working with. Some were easy to work with. Some are not that much. And then they go, then there's a whole different level of learning that we need to do ourselves to keep us updated with what's happening on that.

HR technology started because there's a lot of new platforms coming in and then clients have these wild requirement of can the system do this or that. Like, it just might be business administration that they'd say has a word, but then when you deep dive into like, what exactly they're looking for, sometimes it does feel like they're looking for a magic wand, which is not possible.

Right. And we have to tone it down and dealing with all those people and everything. And. One thing that I didn't think of in the beginning that I would get while working as consultant was specifically, DayoneHR was to be able to work with people from diverse background, nation and ethnicity, even though we're limited in what countries we work in, but the companies that, or the clients that we have worked with do have a very diverse workforce in themselves.

So. You might be sitting I would normally be sitting at my home in Nepal and still be working with people from Poland or Greece or the United States or Australia. You know, that that exposure is boundless. 

Lauren: The, the journey that you've had in the last year from going from employee to, to, to consultant in a consultancy firm. I love the word you've used because it's true and so many ways. And I think that, you know, when you are an HR transformation consultant and you are working with so many different even kind of industries, so companies one minute, maybe in the oil and gas sector and the next minute you maybe with a tech startup and they may be based in certain parts of the world, but they've got employees everywhere.

Even companies that maybe are a head count of 100, they've got employees maybe in eight countries. So I think that, yeah, definitely adventure and journey goes together very well for the first year. For sure. And what's your biggest takeaway from the first year? 

Yogina: Well, one thing that has been like pretty much of a change for me, if I look my past one year. And, that's all the years that I've been working as being ready for the risk that comes while you work as a consultant or a contractor, or even like working with different clients that we do right now. So as an employee, I think the risks that you take, there's still risks given how much your company trusts in you about the decisions that you make and stuff.

But when you working as a consultant unseen risk. You know, you never know when your client is going to say, come to you and say like, okay we don't need the services from tomorrow on things. There is it, exists, but still there's a lot of things about you are just an external service provider for a company or the business.

And there might be a lot of internal factors that block your way. You being able to achieve your project targets or objectives. Right. And being able to take on that risk and seeing like how I can mitigate it, not just for myself, but for the client as well, being open and vulnerable to them at the same time.

And being able to tell them like, you know this might be hampering a project on the long-go, and this might be the reason we will not be able to productive or not be able to meet our goals. So I think that that risk taking has changed. And when I say risk, it's just not like blindly going and saying, oh, we'll do it.

And see it when it comes. Being able to forecast those risks and minimizing it. You would agree with me, like without past experience of dealing with a lot of clients, we have now come up with different things that we need to do differently because it's a part of the risk mitigation, maybe.

Able to take that risk and, you know being able to just, oh, I have confidence in my own skills and expertise and making sure that, you know, I am able to nail this risk down or me to get it that I think that that would have been my biggest takeaway. And I see that as a part of a self growth and learning.

Lauren: Yeah. Cause you get, cause you come from being an employee in a space where either the work is naturally filtered down to you based on the company strategy or KPI's for that quarter, let's say, and then you come into an environment where you've got clients rotating on different timeframes projects, starting projects ending, and you're flipping in between.

All of those moving pieces. So it's a very different dynamic and way of working. And, and I think for some people they really dealt with it and it's for them. And for some, they need the more the employee space where things are more constant. And you kind of follow the same journey with that company as you go.

But it is super, super interesting. And I think then on the flip side, what's been your biggest challenge in the last year. 

Yogina: So to talk about the, my biggest challenge that has been, I think I would like internalize it as a challenge within myself and being very blunt and open and honest here is this, like, I would say it as self-doubt right.

Because of the background that I'm from or the place that I'm from where we are dealing with clients on an international level, you know, as we mentioned. There might be a headquarter in one location, but then they have people from all these different countries, which are far more developed and do have a far more, better HR expertise than I might have or exposure.

And there was all the self-doubt of like, would I be able to convince these people, you know, that this is the right solution for them, or this is the right way to do them because, you know the world as a whole, you know, like where you're placed because of where you come from. All of those. 

What do you call it? Preconceived thought of like how it's going to be and who that is. I think fighting myself with myself, doubt that, you know, regardless of where you come from or what you are you can put in your expertise to help these people, what you have been done, what you have done. And what you have been doing is something that these people might have zero knowledge, right?

Yeah. Trust in your experience, trust in the things that you learned trust in yourself and build that confidence to portray it out. And it has worked. But I think like for me, and being an introvert and kind of the personality that, that I have a self-doubt comes in very, very easily, even for simple things, but like fighting with myself to get those off doubts cleared out.

Be able to nail things that I wanted to do is, has been there. And you know, there have been times where I'll be like, okay, I'm going to go and pitch this to this person. I'm going to share this idea. I'm going to say to them, this is not working. This is going to this, or this is not going to work.

This is how you need to approach it. Would they listen to it? But when you put it in a logical way with confidence, people do listen to you. That's where you're spending years learning and learning and again, relearning and doing things that makes, you know, makes, puts that value in your words where people would be convinced.

Yeah, that would be my biggest challenge 

Lauren:  It's so interesting. You say that though, because you know, I would say that I'm kind of an extrovert. And I would say, you know, when I first started the business in the first year, I had a lot of self doubt, you know, a lot of, can I do this? Am I ready for this?

And it really became more of a kind of imposter syndrome. And so many people talk about that about. You know I'm not good enough for this, or I shouldn't be at this table. And I think that when you start working on projects and working with teams and seeing the value that you're giving them, you start to realize, no, this is what I'm, this is what I meant to do.

I do have the expertise. I do have the knowledge and then the confidence kind of. With that, so I definitely don't think you're alone in that. I think there's just so many people out there where it's exactly saying, yeah, 

Yogina: I do actually vent it out with some of my very close friends, whenever there's like something major happening and it'd be like, would I be able to do that?

And they're like, yeah.  Don't  think of yourself, less. You can do it. We have seen it. You have had campuses. And even if you make a mistake, if things do not work out, that's a part of the learning. So trust in yourself and go full on and yeah, just need to I think it would be a shame if I do not thank them out here for always being there and supporting me from the back and being my support system to help me figure it out things and keep paving my way forward. 

Lauren: Yeah. Everyone always needs a good support system. I've always say that whether it's your friends, your partner, whoever it is, you need to have someone that is also your cheerleader and not just you. And one thing I want to ask, which is the favorite thing to ask is I need a funny story.

So please, can you share a funny story from the last year even if you have more funny stories, I'm here. So any funny stories you've got from the last year, please detail 

Yogina: In terms of funny stories. I would one thing that I find really funny myself, and I think about it and it's like we say, English is a universal language.

Everyone knows, and everyone speaks about it, but when you're working with a client and they have a diverse workforce, Then you will hear different varieties of English in itself and times it's like, you're not able to grasp what the other person is saying when they're talking in English. And I do feel like sometimes people are not able to grasp what I'm speaking in English because of the accent or the, because of the way I pronounce stuff.

You know. So, sometimes you're in a crowd and people are speaking English. They're not using different language, but still like. You're having, do they guess what they're actually seeing then? What their activities what are they to the saying that or not? You know, so that that's sometimes something that not a story, but something that I really feel funny then normally when I go and talk to my friends, I'd say like, I'm learning multiple English languages at the moment, understanding how people pronounce it or how they use it.

And things that as such yeah. One very funny thing that happens and might have shared with you as well as while we were working with one of the clients last year. There was this guy as a part of the client's team, which, who was a part of the HR transformation project, because they were dealing with other platforms that the company was using.

And whenever we had a question that we needed to ask this guy, we would ask that, and his response would always be like. It is a very good question, but I don't know why you asking me that.

Yeah. You might remember. It's like, no matter what the question is when we asked it, that was his standard, his default answer always. And then, and then after seeing that, then he goes another five minutes explaining that. Yeah. Yeah. 

Lauren: And then as you ask the question for a reason you don't ask and yet, cause like, and you're just, you know, yeah.

Yogina: But yeah, even though he would give like answers and stuff, that would be all those with the one thing, you know, After a couple of meetings I always just expected him to say those two lines before he starts diving into that answer. And then I found it very funny. 

Lauren: I mean, I know, I know exactly you're talking about now.

Cause I actually remember him just, I think sometimes when people don't know the answer to your question, it's, it's, it's a way they can push it back without them looking like on this big group call that they don't know what you're saying. So every time he said it, it was like, you're just, you try not to laugh because you'd think I knew you were going to say that.

We've got to try  and find a way to ask the question again without asking it in the same way. Yeah. 

Yogina: If he's listening. Oh, we really loved and enjoyed working with you. But, that was one entertainment factors that you go out to with that particular client. 

Lauren: And it's so funny when you say about the language piece, because You know, English is my mother tongue and I'm British, but I find that sometimes when I work with other people whose English is their first language.

So maybe the Americans Australians, when I say something they don't understand what I mean. And usually when you work with clients, you kind of build up a rapport with them on a personal level. And they're interested in what you do in the evenings, what your interests are outside of work and things like that.

And I had a client that I was working with. I was talking to him about dinner time and what we would do at home all the time. And, and I come from a Northern English family where we described dinner as tea. So it would be tea time. That's not pun for the podcast. That's true story. Basically I would say, oh no, in my house, we always have tea tea at 5:30.

And this guy looked at me really, really surprised. He said every night, every night at 5:30 and I was like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. We, we, we have, we have ours early meaning meaning our dinner. And it wasn't until months and months later, when I invited the client to come and see me at my home with my husband, then.

He, he asked for a cup of tea and my husband made him a cup of tea. And then he said, oh, I think it's so great that you have tea at 5: 30 every night. And my husband looked at him as if, to say, I have no idea what you're talking about. And he says tea as in a cup of tea at 5:30 every night. And he said, yeah, I think, I think that's really traditional.

And he said, no, we don't hardly drink tea that much. I'm not sure where you have. Well, it all transpired that when I said I had tea at 5:30 I'm at dinner, he thought, I meant I had a cup of tea every night at 5:30. And this was kind of why I couldn't have my calls with Americans and things like that because I was drinking day by day, every night.

So you can see even when you know English as first language, There's sometimes hilarious. Yeah. It's just like how, what meaning you give to that particular word and people are culturally using that word. Yeah. Yeah, totally. But yeah, we're going to have more funny stories coming in future broadcast.

Cause there's just so many and also there's so many funny stories, even in just hate HR careers. I mean, all the HR listeners, you will have hundreds of funny stories. I am sure of it because something always happens. But finally, I want to finish off by asking you, what are you looking forward to in the year to come. 

Yogina: I think the top of the list will always be the same creating as much impact as I can and working with the clients where we are not just focused on giving the benefit to the business, but then to the employees that as well, which I think we have done that with our previous clients where we are not just, or our recommendations are not on always only focused on generating the business and revenue, but then also making them think about employee perspective, like how they can make the life of their employees better. And with that comes working with like-minded people people who do business, not just focused on money, revenue and other things like that, but also want to work on something that creates impact.

And at the same time also think about how they can make the the employee experience better, how they can. They're just sort of the employees. So that would be on the list and the. Thing that I'm looking forward to exploring more HR tech platforms because they don't stop amusing me at any point.

You know, sometimes we really don't have time to go and research about what are the new platforms that's coming up. We normally do that when we are trying to do our partnerships or do new partnerships with different vendors or only at the time when. There was a client requirement and we need to dig deep into what kind of platforms is available.

But the HR technology sector hasn't stopped to amaze me so we were just looking forward to looking at more platforms of like how this creative geniuses would come out of new ideas. To make the life of people that are  easier. So just looking forward to those things. And so hopefully touchwood the pandemic is towards the end of it.

So also looking for what, on a person level to travel a bit more which I haven't been able to do the past two years and coming to UK has been the kickoff for it. So at this, and looking forward to more travels.. 

Lauren: Amazing. Yeah. And definitely the HR Technology sector is not slowing down. It's changing all the time.

There's new platforms coming forward, new technology. It's really amazing to see. And I'm just looking forward to continuing to work with you over the next year and support more of our clients produce more of our courses, which people can find via our website. And also just keep having fun and have more funny stories that we can share on this podcast.

Everyone is always anonymous to our funny stories. So any of our clients are listening. Don't worry. We won't see your company name. And we won't say any of your employee at all, or like anything to you. But yeah, thank you so much. And I hope everyone's enjoyed this first podcast and we'll look out for many more to come. I hope. 

Yogina: Yeah. And this is our very first podcast. So for anyone and everyone listening sending your feedback or comments, you know, as we love to upskills ourselves and improve ourselves. So your feedback is going to be very crucial and your super thrilled on this new adventure. Another hat. 

Lauren: Yes, and definitely reach out to us if you've got any topics or any discussions or questions. We'd love to read out people's questions in future podcasts. 

Yogina: Hope you enjoy the podcast. Take care. Bye .

If you’d like to talk to us about any of the subjects discussed in the Podcast, or have any questions you’d like us to answer in the next episode, please reach out to us here.