Good Morning, HR

In episode 263, Coffey talks with Jimmy Taylor about the state of return-to-office, AI's real impact on workforce participation and HR practice, and why proactive networking and skills-based hiring matter more than ever. 
 
They discuss CBRE data showing peak office utilization reaching 80% and the factors driving successful return-to-office adoption; the hidden financial costs employees bear when returning to the office and how employers should account for that in compensation and goodwill; why early-career professionals stand to benefit most from in-person work through mentorship, visibility, and relationship-building; June jobs report softness, a 50-year-low labor participation rate, and competing explanations from immigration enforcement changes and AI displacement; AI as a net job creator over time, drawing parallels to fears about the internet eliminating insurance agents, real estate agents, and recruiters in the 1990s; the organizational opportunity and challenge of assessing AI skill gaps and reskilling loyal existing employees rather than replacing them with outside talent; Gen Z's surprising gaps in desktop computing and interpersonal skills despite their reputation for tech fluency; the case for replacing traditional resumes with tailored application processes and front-end skills assessments to filter out AI-generated candidate slop; professional association involvement as a proactive career resilience and network-building strategy before a job loss forces it; and Dallas HR's hands-on AI skills day designed to move HR professionals from AI curiosity to practical daily application. 
 
For listeners of Good Morning HR podcast, use 2026-CoffeyGMHR-100 promo code and take $100 off a HRSouthwest full conference registration at https://hrsouthwest.com.  
 
For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP263 
 
Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  
 
If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.  
 
About our Guest: 
 
Jimmy Taylor brings more than 20 years of business and HR leadership to DallasHR and the HR Southwest Conference. As Executive Director, Jimmy is responsible for leading strategic initiatives and overseeing the operations of the organization in the mission to advance and connect the regional HR community. 
 
Jimmy Taylor can be reached at  
 
Website: https://www.dallashr.org/  
Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-taylor-sphr-25b230/  
 
About Mike Coffey: 
 
Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. 
In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. 
Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. 
Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  
Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for all stakeholders. 
Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  
Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 30 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. 
Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. 
Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  
Learning Objectives: 
Evaluate the real costs — financial, cultural, and competitive — that employees and employers each absorb when transitioning back to in-person or hybrid work arrangements. 
Assess an organization's current AI skill gaps and identify practical reskilling strategies that retain institutional knowledge while closing the gap with external market demands. 
Redesign the candidate screening process to replace resume-based review with structured application workflows and skills assessments that resist AI-generated submissions and reduce bias.

In episode 262, Coffey talks with Randy Anderson about the critical differentiators for human performers in an AI-driven workplace. 
 
They discuss AI's inevitability and its impact on task elimination versus full job replacement; the enduring human advantage in relational and interpersonal transactions that AI cannot replicate; emotional intelligence as a two-sided competency — reading others and maintaining self-awareness; nonverbal communication, microexpressions, and the limits of virtual interaction for building culture; the case for renaming "soft skills" as core skills or power skills given their foundational value; generational deficits in interpersonal development worsened by COVID, remote learning, and screen-based communication; how employers can purposefully structure learning tracks, mentoring, and stretch assignments to develop core skills alongside technical ones; top employer-identified skill gaps from a Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce talent survey — emotional intelligence, leadership, global mindset, and adaptability; AI-generated cover letters undermining candidate credibility, including a case where AI reproduced a hiring manager's own quotes; and time-windowed team skill development as a practical organizational strategy for building interpersonal competency at scale. 
 
For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP262 
 
Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  
 
If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.  
 
About our Guest: 
 
Randy Anderson is a self-declared mercenary in the war on employee disengagement and lost productivity. He spent 20 years in sales and management before founding E3 Professional Trainers in 2005. 
 
Throughout his career, he has had the opportunity to work with virtually every type and size of business in almost every industry.Now, through keynote presentations, customized training, and personal coaching, he delivers strategies to help individuals, teams, and entire organizations become more engaged in their work, better equipped to do it, and to feel empowered to experience greater fulfillment in life, both personallyand professionally. 
 
Randy Anderson can be reached at  
 
Your Website: e3professionaltrainers.com 
 
LinkedIn: Randy Anderson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyandersontrainer) 
 
Facebook: E3 Professional Trainers (https://www.facebook.com/E3ProfessionalTrainers/) 
 
Twitter/X: E3ProfTrainers (https://twitter.com/e3proftrainers) 
 
YouTube: E3 Professional Trainers (https://www.youtube.com/user/e3protrainers) 
 
About Mike Coffey: 
 
Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. 
In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. 
Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. 
Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  
Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. 
Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  
Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. 
Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. 

Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  
 
Learning Objectives:
Distinguish between the tasks AI will replace and the human relational capabilities that will remain differentiators for high performers. 
Define emotional intelligence as a dual competency — accurately reading others and maintaining self-awareness — and explain why both sides matter in workplace interactions. 
Design intentional learning tracks, mentoring programs, and structured assignments to develop core interpersonal skills in employees who lack natural exposure or prior coaching.

For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP261 
 
In episode 261, Coffey talks with Bernadette Jones about how leaders can identify, triage, and resolve workplace issues before they escalate into legal and cultural crises. 
 
They discuss leader avoidance of difficult conversations and its organizational consequences; distinguishing between people problems, process problems, and leadership problems; using a triage framework to assess urgency and risk in workplace issues; the TRIAGE acronym as a structured people problem resolution framework; the role of documentation in at-will terminations and discrimination defense; when to bring in third-party HR consultants or employment counsel; the cost and cultural damage of nuisance lawsuits and settlement checks; transparent post-incident communication strategies that protect employee privacy; the connection between ongoing feedback practices and employee trust; and workplace trauma, post-COVID mental health, and psychological safety as cultural imperatives. 
 
Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  
 
If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.  
 
About our Guest: 
 
Bernadette Jones is Co-Founder of Visionova HR Consulting, where she helps organizations lead at the intersection of compliance and culture. With more than two decades of experience in HR leadership, coaching, and consulting, she supports nonprofits, small businesses, and mission-driven teams in navigating difficult conversations, employee-relations challenges, leadership communication breakdowns, and workplace culture transformation.  
 
A national speaker, Bernadette has presented for SHRM, Nonprofit HR, Northern California SHRM, and other conferences across the country. She serves on the Northern California SHRM Professional Development and Conference Committee and chairs the NorCal SHRM DEIB Committee, where she helps shape content and conversations for HR leaders regionally and beyond. Bernadette has presented at SHRM conferences and nonprofit leadership events on topics including workplace respect, harassment prevention, inclusive leadership, and culture-first HR strategy.  
 
She is especially valued for helping leaders move beyond policy-only thinking and toward practical, respectful leadership that works in the real world. With her 20 years of experience, Bernadette has worked with executives, HR leaders, and managers who are navigating toxic employees, scary complaints, high-stakes terminations, and burned-out teams often without a full HR department behind them. She is known for her calm, candid style and her ability to translate complex HR and employment-law concepts into plain language leaders can act on right away. 
 
Bernadette Jones can be reached at: 
 
Email: bjones@visionovahr.com  
Website: https://visionovahr.activehosted.com/f/55 
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettejones-visionovahr/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisionovaHR 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bernadettejoneshr/?hl=en#  
 
About Mike Coffey: 
 
Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. 
In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. 
Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. 
Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  
Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. 
Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  
Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. 
Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. 
Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  
Learning Objectives: 
Apply the People Problem Triage framework to distinguish between people, process, and leadership problems before escalating to formal action.  
Assess the compliance and legal risk level of a workplace issue in order to determine appropriate urgency and next steps.  
Recognize how undocumented role changes, unclear responsibilities, and deferred feedback create conditions for employee conflict and litigation exposure

In episode 260 Coffey talks with Gerald Maatman Jr. about reducing employment litigation risk in an increasingly complex legal environment. 
 
They discuss the realities and limitations of at-will employment in modern workplaces; litigation avoidance strategies for business owners and HR leaders; how employers should evaluate settlement versus defense decisions; reverse discrimination and evolving protected class litigation trends; federal, state, and municipal employment law compliance challenges; managing multi-state employment law requirements and policy administration; workplace culture, employee trust, and internal complaint systems; the role of HR as advisor, coach, and organizational risk manager; wage and hour class action litigation and emerging workplace legal threats; artificial intelligence governance and employment-related legal exposure; workplace privacy, biometric data, and employee information security risks; equal pay litigation and compensation equity concerns; religious accommodation and changing EEOC enforcement priorities; frontline manager training and its impact on legal risk; remote work management challenges and post-pandemic workplace dynamics; practical documentation, communication, and employee relations best practices. 
 
For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP260 
 
Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  
 
If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.  
 
About our Guest: 
 
Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., is the Chair of Duane Morris LLP's Class Action Defense Team. With nearly four decades of experience practicing law, he has defended some of the most significant bet-the-company cases ever filed against corporate America. Mr. Maatman has represented companies, executive teams, and boards across the country in class action litigation, ranging in size from thousands to hundreds of thousands of claims by employees. In addition to his litigation work, Mr. Maatman helps clients anticipate large-scale risks before they escalate into litigation. 
 
Gerald L. Maatman, Jr can be reached at  
 
https://www.duanemorris.com/attorneys/geraldmaatman.html 
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/geraldmaatman/ 
 
https://x.com/g_maatman 

About Mike Coffey: 
 
Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. 
In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. 
Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. 
Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  
Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. 
Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  
Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 31 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. 
Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. 
Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  
Learning Objectives: 
Understand how employment litigation develops and how organizations can reduce legal exposure. 
Evaluate HR policies and management practices that strengthen workplace compliance and employee trust. 
Implement practical approaches to documentation, manager training, and personnel decision-making that withstand legal scrutiny.

In episode 259, Coffey talks with Meg Delp about workplace mental health, burnout prevention, and how employers can create psychologically safe cultures that support employee wellbeing and performance. 
 
They discuss the growing awareness of workplace mental health and its impact on business outcomes; generational differences in expectations around employee wellbeing and psychological safety; caregiver stress and burnout among younger employees and the sandwich generation; mental health stigma and why employees hesitate to seek support at work; practical manager training strategies for handling mental health conversations appropriately; how frontline supervisors can support employees without becoming therapists; the role of psychological safety in employee engagement and retention; burnout warning signs including exhaustion, irritability, and declining performance; how leadership and HR can model healthy mental health conversations year-round; NAMI’s Stigma Free Workplace Initiative and free “You Can Ask” mental health training resources; the importance of employee friendships and trust relationships at work; balancing compassion, performance management, and ADA accommodations in workplace conversations; and how proactive mental health support improves retention, engagement, and organizational culture. 
 
For HR teams who discuss this podcast in their team meetings, we've created a discussion starter PDF to help guide your conversation. Download it here https://goodmorninghr.com/EP259 
 
Good Morning, HR is brought to you by Imperative—Bulletproof Background Checks. For more information about our commitment to quality and excellent customer service, visit us at https://imperativeinfo.com.  
 
If you are an HRCI or SHRM-certified professional, this episode of Good Morning, HR has been pre-approved for half a recertification credit. To obtain the recertification information for this episode, visit https://goodmorninghr.com.  
 
About our Guest: 
 
Meg Delp, PsyD LMFT is the Director of Workplace Mental Health at the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) where she leads the StigmaFree Workplace initiative. As an Organizational Psychologist and (retired) Marriage and Family Therapist, Meg brings both clinical and organizational expertise to her work, helping employees and leaders alike understand how to build company cultures that prioritize mental health, connection, and psychological safety. She’s passionate about creating workplaces where people feel safe to show up as themselves and supported in caring about one another. 
 
Meg Delp can be reached at: 
https://stigmafree.nami.org  
https://www.linkedin.com/company/nami  
https://www.facebook.com/NAMI  
https://www.instagram.com/namicommunicate  
https://x.com/NAMICommunicate  

About Mike Coffey: 
 
Mike Coffey is an entrepreneur, licensed private investigator, business strategist, HR consultant, and registered yoga teacher. 
In 1999, he founded Imperative, a background investigations and due diligence firm helping risk-averse clients make well-informed decisions about the people they involve in their business. 
Imperative delivers in-depth employment background investigations, know-your-customer and anti-money laundering compliance, and due diligence investigations to more than 300 risk-averse corporate clients across the US, and, through its PFC Caregiver & Household Screening brand, many more private estates, family offices, and personal service agencies. 
Imperative has been named a Best Places to Work, the Texas Association of Business’ small business of the year, and is accredited by the Professional Background Screening Association.  
Mike shares his insight from 25+ years of HR-entrepreneurship on the Good Morning, HR podcast, where each week he talks to business leaders about bringing people together to create value for customers, shareholders, and community. 
Mike has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of Excellence by FW, Inc. and has twice been recognized as the North Texas HR Professional of the Year.  
Mike serves as a board member of a number of organizations, including the Texas State Council, where he serves Texas’ 30 SHRM chapters as State Director-Elect; Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County; the Texas Association of Business; and the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, where he is chair of the Talent Committee. 
Mike is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute and a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP). He is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT-200) and teaches multiple times each week. 

Mike and his very patient wife of 29 years are empty nesters in Fort Worth.  
 
Learning Objectives: 
Identify early warning signs of employee burnout and workplace mental health challenges. 
Apply practical techniques for having supportive, work-focused mental health conversations. 
Develop workplace strategies that improve psychological safety and employee wellbeing.