HR BESTIES - HR Besties: Global Employment with Nicole Sahin, CEO of Globalization Partners (G-P)

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Today’s agenda:  Is it process or process? Cringe corporate speak: bite off more than you can chew Hot topic: all things globalization and hiring new talent with special guest Nicole Sahin, CEO of Globalization Partners (G-P) First thoughts on globalization from an HR perspective Hiring outside of the country is a long and lengthy process for both HR and legal within an organization Introducing Nicole and Globalization Partners Access to information is key for hiring managers and leaders Reassuring our HR members and HR leaders that AI is a tool, not a job-taker Emotional intelligence cannot be automated AI overwhelm and resistance to change will not benefit an organization Advice, strategies and effective human and AI collaboration  Questions/Comments Check out G-P Gia! Gia saves you time, cuts the stress, and keeps you compliant. So you can focus on the more important things. Get started today at g-p.com/gia  Your To-Do List: Grab merch, submit Questions & Comments, and make sure that you’re the first to know about our In-Person Meetings (events!) at https://www.hrbesties.com. Follow your Besties across the socials and check out our resumes here: https://www.hrbesties.com/about.  Subscribe to the HR Besties Newsletter - https://hr-besties.beehiiv.com/subscribe We look forward to seeing you in our next meeting - don’t worry, we’ll have a hard stop! Yours in Business + Bullsh*t,  Leigh, Jamie & Ashley Follow Bestie Leigh! https://www.tiktok.com/@hrmanifesto https://www.instagram.com/hrmanifesto https://www.hrmanifesto.com Follow Bestie Ashley! https://www.tiktok.com/@managermethod  https://www.instagram.com/managermethod https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleyherd/ https://managermethod.com Follow Bestie Jamie! https://www.millennialmisery.com/ Humorous Resources: Instagram • YouTube • Threads • Facebook • X Millennial Misery: Instagram • Threads • Facebook • X Horrendous HR: Instagram • Threads • Facebook Tune in to “HR Besties,” a business, work and management podcast hosted by Leigh Elena Henderson (HRManifesto), Ashley Herd (ManagerMethod) and Jamie Jackson (Humorous_Resources), where we navigate the labyrinth of corporate culture, from cringe corporate speak to toxic leadership. Whether you’re in Human Resources or not, corporate or small business, we offer sneak peeks into surviving work, hiring strategies, and making the employee experience better for all. Tune in for real talk on employee engagement, green flags in the workplace, and how to turn red flags into real change. Don't miss our chats about leadership, career coaching, and takes from work travel and watercooler gossip. Get new episodes every Wednesday, follow us on socials for the latest updates, and join us at our virtual happy hours to share your HR stories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Do you all say process or process? Process. Okay. Now, all three of us are in the U.S. and in the kind of southeastern U.S. and at least in Texas, so it's its own region, basically. But I ask because I once had a colleague, and we literally had this conversation, and even almost a debate. Because in the US, people generally will say process.

But outside the US, which for those in the US, there is a world outside of corporate America and a very lovely world, honestly, if you ask people that happen to work there. But in the US, and if you just work.S. organization or in person, you may never have thought of that. But outside of the U.S., a lot of people have different pronunciations of words the way that we pronounce it. And a big one, especially if you're in a function like HR, is process or process. And I had just started at this role.

And so, this was a global organization. And notably, we were not on a call with global colleagues. But so we were talking, and this colleague is from the, she's from Georgia as well, from Kentucky, obviously, but she's from Georgia. And so she's talking about something and talking totally normally. And then all of a sudden she kind of gets this tone and says, well, let's talk about the process. And for the life of me at first, it didn't register. And so I was like, the post post process, like who that person's name, like

thing. I was like, Oh my God process. And you know, me, I can't just let shit go. And so we get through the call. I'm like, kind of giggling. And I have a note to myself in addition to scribbles, like ask. So we get off the call and I was like, let me ask you a question. I was like, why'd you say process? And she said, well, we are a global organization. And so it's important to think about pronunciation from that global perspective. I said, I totally know. I said, I don't know what, you just kind of had this tone the way you said it. And here I am, new hire, dig in the hole, dig in the hole.

And she was looking at me and she's like, no, I understand, but I just think it's important to be relatable. And I was like, I mean, for the record, the person we were talking to was like out of Dallas. Like, we're totally good. I was like, but it was a process person. Right. And so I was like, I mean, I guess it's better than thinking about if you're talking to people

in other geographies and use that anyway. You think I'd take away the lesson and be like, okay, that's a fair point. Either I'd just stick with what I'm doing, live with on my own skin and just keep saying process as I've said for 30 something years at that point, or start saying process. Like, oh, that's a good tip with global colleagues. But instead, every time we'd have a conversation, I couldn't get out of my fricking head. And I would think to myself, like, where are they located? Like, should I say process or process? Like all of this. And so in conversations, sometimes I would vary and then I'd catch myself and be absolutely like, oh my God, mortified with myself, couldn't get past it. And so there's a lot of those things. Like

some people say tomato, tomato, but in the world of global HR, I'd say it's process or process. You know, I've never heard anyone say tomato in my life. I'm just saying as much as I've traveled to. And you like the UK. You like that accent. Tomato. We know that. I do.

Yeah. Oh, I sure do. Oh man. That's what Roman Empire for me. Those accents. But yeah, process is what she said to a Texan and a Kentuckyan. Kentuckyan. Kentuckyan.

I'm just giggling away. Pro-cess. I couldn't help it. I would send her emails sometimes. And I'm still friends with her to this day. I'm the personality hire a little bit in this conversation. So I'd be like, pro, all caps, like little. And I'd shrink the font down to like four, like four process.

Like she'd be like, you fucking asshole. I know, I know, but I just can't help myself. It does make sense. And it is kind of positive in a way process. It's literally like when I think I'd mentioned before, I started an organization and someone set a line and where I'd worked previously, even though it was a very large company, like we, I didn't have to attend meetings. We had total autonomy.

Like people talked like real people. This person set a line. I was like, Ooh, that's a fancy word. And she's like, well, if you say it, it really does. It comes across as like a very professional and commanding word. Right. Oh, okay. Okay. Well, when in Rome, right? I mean, when I'm here in the States, I'm going to say croissant, you know, but if I'm in France, I'll say, croissant. Oh, I'd say Jamie.

You know, it's one of those. Like I'm probably just going to say it how I say it. I'm not even going to realize it. No. See, now you're going to think about it. So now today you're going to see the word, you're going to giggle. Are you planning any exciting trips this summer? I bet something you might not be planning is learning the local language.

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did good. You all would be proud. So let's get more of you talking in a new language. Babbel is gifting our listeners 60% off subscriptions at babbel.com slash HR BestiesL dot com slash hr besties babble dot com slash hr besties rules and restrictions may apply. Well that is the perfect segue to our episode topic today. Quick rundown of the agenda, of course, per usual besties. Cringe Corporate Speak, that's up next, and I'm on the hook for it. And then Hot Topic, which is all about globalization, talent, talent, talent, you name it.

And we actually have a special guest on the show today. You'll meet her later. Nicole Sahin of Globalization Partners, GP for short, and so excited to get her CEO take on globalization and moving talent around the world. And then as always, we're going to end with a little questions and comments, a little Qs and Cs. How's that sound? Fantastic. Awesome. Awesome. Well, let me introduce myself for cringe corporate speak. Lee, take it away. Quirky mood.

Oh, my allergies are crazy. I'm very highly medicated. But today's corporate speak is bite off more than you can chew. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Yum. Just eat that. Eat that up. Right? Do you all use this? Do you bite off more than you can chew? Yes. I know Ashley and

I do for sure. Totally. I like you love nodding along Jamie and I like, fine. Oh, no, totally. We can totally. I'll get that done by EOB. No, no, problem. No, no, no. What does it mean? It means taking on more crap than you can actually handle. Calendar-wise, schedule-wise, capacity-wise, bandwidth-wise, you are biting off more than you can actually do. You're choking on that work. That's what that means. Let me ask Jamie. I'm curious. Sometimes I talk about a Friday me and a Monday me, in their villains to each other. Jamie, does your Friday you hate your Monday you more because you've promised things by end of week?

Or are you the type on Fridays, you're like, yeah, I'll send it on, I'll do that on Monday. Which one dislikes the other more? Usually Friday is one of my most productive days, to be honest, because I usually slack off the whole week. So Friday I am like on point. I'm knocking shit out. So Monday me is probably chill with Friday me. Friday me hates me for slacking off the whole week. And then feeling the need to like catch up and work like eight hours straight. And that sounds like, oh, that's so hard. But like cramming 40 hours into eight hours.

Yes. Very masochistic of you. Ashley, what about you? Who hates you within you the most? Is it Friday you? Is it Monday you? What is it? Probably Friday because I actually do feel more productive on Monday. And I think I'm going to sustain that productivity through the week. Productivity, productivity, productivity, okay. Productivity. And so I think I'm going to be as productive every day. And that's not true. And on Fridays, I just want to have a good time. And it's hard to have a good time when you're like, what's all this shit I claimed I would do and say and be and be. And so that's probably it. What about you, Lee? I try not to work on Fridays and I don't work well on Mondays.

I love that. So my core days are those middle days there, the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Love that. Yeah. I love that for me too, because it used to not be that way, but I have boundaries hard. No, boundaries hardcore. I might adopt that on my new journey. Yeah. I've got nails on Friday.

I've got the appointments on Friday. You know what I mean? I put all that stuff in there, but I may have a taco on Fridays, fun stuff. But do you all like getting your nails done? I don't. You know, I do. I'm religious. They always look... I know you do. I know you do. Well, it's one of my things. You know how everyone's got that thing where they don't feel put together if they don't have something done. These are my real nails. I get them done. I protect the length, right? So you got to keep up on it. TMI, TMI. But that's a Friday thing for me.

So don't y'all don't bite off more than you can chew. Okay, don't do it. Try not to do it. Try not to do it. Easier said than done for yes face Ashley and Jamie. Yeah, I know. I'm always trying to, Leah is a good, she's a great inspirational friend on these things. Like if she's, cause proactively, if she sees that she'll give you that reminder. And it's not the like toxic like, fuck it, like don't listen to anybody. It's like a productive one to like take care of yourself, save time for you. Right. And

I'm actually really proud of you Ashley, cause you've gotten a lot better at it. I've tried to work at it. Yeah, you have. My word for this year, I did say is refine. So I'm not creating that much new stuff this year. I'm refining things. And so I've tried to, but you all bring me up on that. Love it. Oh, well, speaking of refinement, that's a terrible segue because it has really nothing

to do with what we're talking about. But gosh, globalization. Now before we talk to Nicole, which will be quite the treat, thoughts on globalization from an HR standpoint. I'll ask the question, like how many of us have had to hire someone who was not in the country that, you know, like here we're in the US, but we've had to hire someone who was not in the country that, like here, we're in the US, but we've had to hire someone not in the US? I had a job once. Full stop. That's funny, right? I did have a job once.

That doesn't sound fun. I had a job once where I had a team of mostly Americans, and I was based in the US, and they were all expats going in and out everywhere. So it was a field service team globally, working with governments, literally. Not me, but they were, right? And on different military bases and whatnot. Oh my God. The lead time, the lead time, a horrific,

it was a nightmare. Attorneys everywhere. It was hard. I remember thinking then, because this was early on in my career, oh my gosh, if only we could, all of us could get the right people in the right place at the right time. Like, you know, hashtag open borders, like come on for work. But I get it too. You know, I get it. You know, countries are protecting their own talent. They don't want a flood of other talent. They want opportunities for their people.

There's lots of things going on. Some governments aren't. Yeah. Lots of politics. You know, lots of bribes, you know, things like that. Yeah. Lots of things, lots of things. So gosh, so that was a full-time job for me, like legitimately. That was tough.

What about y'all? I've worked in a few global organizations and some of it is, I was a lawyer, particularly in a couple of those. And so it was all around the world and just this total patchwork, like the US is a patchwork of laws, the rest of the world is a patchwork of laws. But when you're in legal and HR, people do think that you are a wizard. And like people say, what's the deal here? And it's, and it's kind of that pause where you think to yourself, do I make something up? Like, honestly, I'd say, you know, I'd have to look that up. I don't want to misquote you. And I'd say it's wild how many different regulations and things there are.

And we can do some of the fun things around, like some of the fun things that you learn around the world. But also it's thinking about if you're on a global team. I remember I was part of a, well, I'll say this first before I get into that is I had moved to a new area. I had, I'd actually moved back to Louisville, totally candidly. I moved back to Louisville and this one I was working for Young Brands for KFC. Had lived in Louisville, but I just really struggled.

Even though it was moving back to my hometown, like we'd come from Atlanta and it's not like Atlanta is like, you know, I don't know, metropolis, but I guess it is. But it was, I really, really struggled. Like most of my close friends weren't living there. And so in the work culture, like it was amazing culture, but it was different. And so I had totally did not anticipated what that would look like. But I was excited because I'd finally gotten into this golf, golf league, like this women's golf league and they play like they played on Thursdays every Thursday.

And I was so excited to finally have something to do. And I went one week and the women were so nice. And so I'm playing, I was so excited. Well, like the next day I got added to a large global project. In part, it was led by the general counsel out of Australia, who I met when I lived in Australia. So the time was, they ended up setting it at like 5 p.m. weekly calls, like hour and a half long calls every Thursday.

And I was the junior member, you know, even with those allures, the junior member of this team. And I remember I was so bugged. Of course I didn't say anything. But so some of it is, and that's what I say oftentimes for organizations, is yeah, people are going to have to work globally. And there's other extremes where I remember at another global organization having calls at 11, 1130 at night, and then at six in the morning telling my kids, like, oh shit, my

husband's traveling. I'm like, I need you guys who were like five and eight. I'm like, you guys got to get yourselves ready for school. Like, I can't literally can't, like I can do a little bit, like stressing for these calls. And so I do think in global organizations, one is being aware of the laws, regulations, culture, everything from hiring to like, no, you can't just make them a contractor and call it a day unless you want to potentially have someone go to jail.

But also, how you work together globally. And really try to be mindful. Yes, sometimes if you work for a global organization, your schedule is going to be a little funky. But trying to minimize that as much as possible and just saying, hey, does this time work? Is there anything? Because I know it would have meant a lot to me to be able to do this. And I actually think with that team, I could have at least spoken up. And maybe the answer would have been no, a little bit shame on me for not saying

something. But that's the second part of it is I think even aside from customs is when people are working globally, not letting it overtake their life. I think even like hiring managers don't realize the amount of hoops that legal and HR have to jump through to hire those, you know, we bite off more than we can chew, those in other countries and how much of a lot of work, but also how long the process can be. That's why I am pro-localization, really getting to know your talent everywhere And who's ready for that big promo in the local region, right? So the answer isn't always trying to plug a talent in, but sometimes you have to, right?

Like I gave the example in my previous role, I was dealing with the US government everywhere and they had certain requirements. It's a good mix, but it's a complex area that's only been made more complex with COVID and how we've changed how we work, or are changing. The workforce continues to shift and oscillates and remote work and all of this. So it'd be interesting to get a CEO perspective on this area. It's definitely a process. And you got to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. You know what I mean? Let's face it, modern work life is complicated.

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to the impacts of self-care culture. See why we've been named one of the top personal finance podcasts by US News. Listen to the Money with Katie show wherever you get your podcasts. And now for a CEO founder perspective. Now besties, you all know that the three of us are located in the US, but HR besties like yourself are all over the world, the US, global, you name it, and companies are hiring all over the world and trying to figure out how to do that. So we are so excited and happy to have with us Nicole Sahin, who's CEO of Globalization Partners, GP for short.

Nicole, welcome. Thank you. So happy to be here with you. Oh, so great to have you. Now, I will not be able to do your bio justice. Can you give us your elevator speech? I'm Nicole Saheem. I'm the CEO and founder of Globalization Partners, GP. And I'm really passionate about helping everyone everywhere have access to opportunity, which ultimately led me to start Globalization Partners, which kind of birthed an industry, which is

the employer of record industry, which helps companies hire talent all over the globe without having to deal with legal tax or HR issues. You all have been around now 12 years. What inspired you to kick GP off? Thank you. Yeah, I mean, so I used to be a consultant helping I helped start another company that helped companies expand internationally. And this is going back a long time ago, but in the early 2000s, we were the drop in international expansion team for companies like Tesla and Infineira and NetSuite that

were the Silicon Valley high growth startups at the time. Our job was to advise clients whenever they wanted to hire somebody in another country, just handle all the legal HR and tax issues. As you know, normally whenever a company needs to hire an employee in another country, they have to set up a company in that country before they can issue an offer, before they can run payroll, before they can basically get started. And it would take three to 12 months to set up a company in another country before the client could even issue an offer, which is just not how people do business, as you know.

After setting up a hundred different companies in the UK for a hundred different companies, hiring one guy in the UK as an example, I just thought, my God, if I could set up one company in each country and give all of our customers access to it, I'd have a much more scalable business model. At the time, that wasn't considered a legally compliant way of doing business. So there was not yet the global employer record industry, which has exploded since the pandemic. And I knew that if I could find a way to make it work, and I came from a legal tax and compliance background, if I could find a way to thread the needle on a country by country and a global base basis, that it would need to meet the needs of an American public company. And we would have a huge market opportunity.

So I quit my job, traveled for a year, meeting with tax advisors and lawyers in different countries and a year later set up the business and started working on it. I would say it took a few years to make sure that it was going to be very compliant, that we could do it well, and to really go to market with it. And then 2015, 2016, it really started taking off. And in 2016, we were named the six fastest growing private company in America. Oh, wow. Fun fact. Fun fact. It took me a year and a half to put an employee in Spain once. Fun fact. It still keeps me up at night. I literally lived this world. Nicole, I wish we'd known each other and I'd known your business sooner.

Otherwise, organizations will say, just make them a contractor and use some U.S. contractor form. Anyway, that is not often the best approach. I'm curious. I know you talked about the growth in 2015-16. Even since then, what has evolved, maybe even before and after the pandemic and now it's becoming a way to do business and then also now with AI as well, how are you transitioning from otherwise evolutions in the employee record market and then like expertise of AI?

Totally. I mean, it's a lot of fun. I feel like I'm a cat with nine lives, you know, to be an entrepreneur for 12 years in the same business in a tech era is amazing and a lot of fun. You're a badass. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's been a wild journey and just constantly to be at the edge of personal growth and business

is it's been a great gift. I would say before 2020, the problem was really nobody knew this business model exists and there was a huge barrier to companies wanting to hire people talent overseas or like, or just not even overseas, just people like trusting people in other countries. I think in 2020 everybody just realized quickly, oh my gosh, like if everybody's going to be everywhere anyway, then I'm not limited to hiring people who are within a 50 mile radius of headquarters. I need to hire people all over the globe and I get better access to talent that way.

That really resulted in a huge like just tidal wave of people wanting to use our platform out of necessity, but it also resulted in a lot of competition. And we started seeing competition come in at that point that was very tech forward. So my intention had always been get the legal stuff really good, like make sure that's set scalable and then build software on top because then it's like a doubly scalable business. And it means that to really handle the capacity that is needed for an industry of this size. We had a lot of competition. I mean, there were billions of dollars in venture capital money thrown

at the remote work industry after 2020. A lot of them came in with just like a flashy front end and not any operational expertise behind the scenes. I think it's been really good for the market. Having competition is a wonderful thing. It makes us all better at what we do. And I think now we're kind of seeing the tail end of lots of new entrants coming in, because a lot of those new entrants just aren't going to make it, frankly. They blew hundreds of

millions of dollars to make $15 million in recurring revenue and created big compliance issues, frankly. But some of the competitors did make it and overall the industry is here to stay. What has been proven is that people want this as a business model and it's just necessary. It's become seen as the way companies can hire talent internationally without creating a huge legal HR and jurisdiction related mess. Everywhere you hire an employee, you need a whole company is a lot. So I think companies really want the platform, but what they want is a high quality experience, both from a compliance perspective and from an employee perspective. And so we have a really high close rate because we've always been focused on the legal compliance, the technology, and the

human services, which I think is really the secret to the sauce. It can't just be tech. It can't just be the legal infrastructure. You know, it really has to be the whole picture. Fortunately, we were ahead of the curve in terms of modularizing our data. We started about three years ago to build out our AI team and are quite ahead of the curve, hence the launch of GIA and all of that. But it's been a journey and an exciting one. So you mentioned, you know, you all are doing a lot of data in AI. We did see when we were doing our homework that you have an annual AI at work report. And so we did pull something really interesting out that in the US, 82% of HR pros believe AI is critical to the success of their company.

So how are you seeing HR professionals using AI today? What's considered a successful use of AI? Well, I think it's a good question. I think everybody knows it's critical to what they need, but they're not using it enough yet. Hence, going back to GIA, and what we're seeing is that the way we've built our AI, I think it's really important, first of all, for people to be very careful to use AI, but to be really careful which tools they're using.

And I think that is where there's a little hesitation, right? Because it might be okay to search open AI for market norm benefits in a country or how many vacation days should I give this person? But we do not want people uploading employment contracts to chat GPT. Yeah, don't do that. I don't want that. And I think we all have some nightmares around that happening and things kind of getting out of the bag. So hence being really careful what people do and what they build and being careful to vet things. But what we're seeing is that most HR people don't yet trust the tools that are available.

When we built GIA, for example, we built it on our own rag. It's not open source. We're not using customer data to feed back into the learning models or anything like that. We keep information private. GIA has been designed not to hallucinate. It has less than 1% hallucination rate. And that type of thing is really important to be super careful. That's less than me. Right. I was like, what does that mean? And is that a bad rate? Less than my hallucination rate. I know. I was about to say, Lee, that sounds like a Lee State School story there, but. Yeah, what does that mean?

A hallucination is just getting it wrong, which you're right, Jamie. I mean, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you're right. I get it wrong more than that. Oh, that's a cool way to say it. We do tell people like Gia hasn't passed the bar exam yet, much less than 50 entries to the point. Nobody has that span or capacity. So I mean, Nicole, one thing that I think is really cool that I hadn't anticipated

the AI use for it is like as I used to work with organizations to take kind of their standard models and standard meaning often like what we use in the US and they're like, this is what we want to do as we grow or we hire someone somewhere else. But taking that and having those conversations with local council and same, and they tell you something like it is going to be 10 and a half months before we will get a response and like, okay. And so using AI, I mean, I think that is, so it sounds like with with GIA taking some of your standard information and taking some of the human element out as far as automating. And then, of course, you can always give that over for local approval,

but just speeding things up and making sure it's consistent. I really, I love that. Yeah. I mean, I think it's like, let's say I was starting cold and I needed to hire somebody in France. GIA can go all the way through drafting employment documentation and an employee handbook and all of these things. But if I were to start cold and my head of sales wants to hire somebody today or issue an offer, normally I'd be like, well, we just can't even move because we have to find a lawyer in France. We have to sign off on their know your client stuff. I mean, it's like a three or four week process to even start the conversation. So I think eliminating some of those hurdles and just putting information at people's fingertips and then they can use it how they want to is really the intention

of what we're doing here. I think a lot of times as HR professionals, we almost feel like we're losing a part of ourselves like our jobs because it is such, you know, humans working with humans. And it mentioned that two thirds, 67% of executives would rather use AI tools and be 50% more productive, even if it means reducing headquail. So how can a company in leadership, as well as like HR leaders, like a lot of our listeners,

like our besties, we reassure them that robots aren't coming for their jobs. I mean, it's a good question. I mean, I'll just say as a C-level executive and CEOs, we don't want to fire people either. The intention, I think, for everyone is to enable more people to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. But I think people are cautious about hiring new people. I think there's an in-brand

loyalty to who's already on your team. With HR specifically, I worry about it a lot less than some other roles, specifically because there's such a human element. When we hire HR people, as the CEO, for example, I don't think about hiring somebody to push paperwork. I'm hiring somebody specifically for their EQ. And there's so much nuance and humanity that simply cannot be automated. You know, that's the core. I mean, if it just worked like that, like if it was like a machine and I could just build software that makes people something work, that would be great.

That is the exact opposite when it comes to HR. So you know, I feel like with HRs, people specifically, it's less worrisome. That would be great. That is the exact opposite when it comes to HR. I feel like with HR's people specifically, it's less worrisome. But I think this is something all of us are facing, really. Well, I was going to say, watch out, Nicole. People are about to hit you up. HR people are going to say, you're the type of CEO that I'd love to work with. And so it definitely is reassuring.

Were there any other findings in the AI at work in your report? Anything that surprised you in that report or anything about the successful uses of AI that you took out of it or that you're sharing with clients? I think even this question of 82% and there were some other numbers in there. On one hand, I think I feel like, yes, everybody's excited to use AI, but on the other hand, where's the other 18%? It's just really obvious. And there were other areas like that too.

It's just really obvious to me that everybody needs to be using AI. And if you're not, that's actually much more of a risk for one's business or job than to just pretend it doesn't exist. You're pretending it doesn't exist as a company, the company's dead. If people don't think it's really important, and if people don't think it's important for their jobs, that's a problem. I think people are concerned. The report indicates concerns around security. But what I've noticed is companies not taking as much proactive education around use of chat GPT and where to use it, where not to do it, where putting limits on it, where not. But honestly, I've even had executives tell me that they think AI is overblown. And I just look at them and I think I just can't even fathom thinking like that. So anyway,

I'd say there's lots of nuggets in this report. And I encourage everybody to dig into it a little bit. Where do you think that opinion's coming from? Why the hesitation there? What I heard on that is, well, we thought we'd have self-driving cars by now. Oh my goodness. Right back to the future. Back to the future part two, because we didn't have that, that nothing else exists.

OK. That is really funny. Yeah. Or AI is just a tool. It's a fad. It's just a tool, and my team uses tools. And I'm like, yeah, or like AI is just a tool. It's a fad. So it's just a tool. And my team uses tools. And I'm like, yeah, but I think this is a tool

that we're going to be inserting in chips into our brain. It's the future of humanity that we're taking into our own hands. That's pretty big. I don't think we're blowing it out of proportion, especially since this is really just in the last few years and it's moving so quickly. Ultimately, I do worry a little bit about people being overwhelmed.

I see a lot of executives and people all throughout most organizations, just like the quickness and throughput of all the news coming out constantly. It's almost like we need to step back sometimes and have a chance to breathe so that we can think more clearly. Yeah, no, there's definitely an overwhelm, right? I mean, it's a lot. And, you know, as an HR leader, those slow adopters in an organization are those that are typically just resistant to change, right? I mean, it's just like, wow, this is a lot. What do I need to learn now, right? It's just, it is a lot. You know, we're learn now? It's just, it is a lot. We're being inundated constantly. But it is such a unique pleasure to talk to a global employment pioneer like yourself,

Nicole. Leave us with some advice and feedback when it comes to effective human AI collaboration. human AI collaboration, right? How can organizations be effective in that space? Any advice there? Anything else you'd like to share on how to make that work? Yeah, I would say from an organization perspective, leaning in and using it and working with and trying to adopt tools, but being very careful to vet what is the product, where did it come from, where

is the information sourced, does our information go back on the internet or is it secure, and making sure employees are trained accordingly, I think is number one. And then in terms of effective collaboration, it is just a tool. Any information that comes our way is just a tool. What I have found mostly is that a lot of the cross-cultural communication mishaps are really just mishaps. So an example of that is, it's like people don't know the perspective of where someone else is coming from. An example of that is we had a client once who was really concerned, their general manager

in the Middle East was wanting to offer, had put education allowances on somebody's payroll because he just had a newborn. And they were like, yeah, this guy does have an education allowance for each child, but these kids aren't in school. They just started as an infant. I almost think I should fire my general manager. It's like corruption. He's just overpaying his team members and just trying to work the system for them.

And when we intervened and said, actually, this is just considered like the employer is like... Locally, it's like the employer is like the paternal. You take care of your employees when they have a new child, and this is considered part of the employee's benefits. It's not actually an education allowance. It's a way of honoring your child as a parent. And they were like, oh, you know, it's just like, I think when people have information

at their fingertips and that's ultimately what these tools and AI brings us, they can see things from another person's perspective, which enables them to kind of smooth over a lot of those HR issues that inevitably arise and that HR people are so good at resolving. Well, gosh, Nicole, it has been such an absolute pleasure having you join us here on HR Besties. Thank you so much for being an HR Bestie. Tell our listeners, where can we find out more about GP and all of your offerings, the AI at work, anything else you'd like to share. Thank you so much. Yes, you can find us at g-p.com. Anyone who wants to sign up to be part of GIA in beta and test the product and try it out for free is welcome to sign up through the website and just have direct access to it. I'd love to hear from any of you. You

can find me on LinkedIn. It's Nicole Sahin. It's such a pleasure to be here today with you. Yes, free people. Got to check it out. Thank you, Nicole. Thanks. Thank you. Thanks so much. Nice to be here with you. Oh, gosh, that was great. Like you said, Jamie, what a badass. When I grow up, I want to be like Nicole. Oh, gosh. What a career. And really trying to find a solution for people like us that have struggles getting talent, the right talent where it needs to be when we need it.

Oh, my goodness. I will say, I mean, because when we have, for example, like a podcast sponsor, Globalization Partners that wants to be part of it. It's important to us to look into, OK, what is the experience in all this? Because so often, we know all too well. We're part of these HR message boards. Everyone assumes you have all the information. You may be nodding along, listening to this, where people are like, hey, who's the best vendor for XYZ? And getting those things. It's been fun for us to get to know not only Nicole, but truly globalization partners and what they do and just that there are people that

can make your life a lot easier and make things go a lot more seamlessly than you trying to figure out the nuances of employment laws and hiring in XYZ country? Absolutely. I wish I knew GP existed 10 years ago when I was in this boat. Same. But this was a big question from listeners, right? So hopefully this helped you all give a little perspective, right? And fun to talk about the future in this space too. So shall we segue to some questions and comments, ladies? What do you got? I got a comment. I can kick it off. Again, not a question, but just a quick comment.

Do you remember when COVID happened and all of a sudden people needed to adjust meetings and some people weren't available and some people just started mentioning that their time zone shifted. These are your employees. Remember how everyone just started freaking moving around the world? Because I do. And then it's like, you had to play catch up to be like, oh, well, FYI, you're not legal in that state or you're not legal in that country. But hey, thanks for the heads up that you freaking moved across the world. Oh my God, it was a lawless town, wasn't it? It was. And then having to set up payroll entities in that state because we had to...

Nothing. Surprise. Yeah. And I know employees did not know that, but on the back end, scurrying... Playing catch up, playing a surprise. Yeah, and I know employees did not know that, but like on the back end, scurrying. Playing catch-up, playing catch-up. Yeah, I still will get emails to my personal email because I was so worried about missing a notification that I would give like four emails to be like, notify me when it's time to acquire an addition to our provider. And so I'll get them and I'll send them off to, you know, old CEO. And I'm like, hey, I'm sure you've got this covered.

Like, I'm not helping, but you know, here you go. So. Oh, God, that's too funny. I have some, which is globally, again, like hiring, all those things. Like it is important to get it right. And whatever you do, having someone help you get it right is very important. But some of it is also helping people get a sense of local customs. And I don't mean to come down on our, you know, you ask people, but often we are a bit United States of America centric and you don't know what you don't know. And

so when you're working with other colleagues, one question can be like, what are work, like, you don't have to say like, what are your personal cultural traditions that you honor? But, saying like, what are work traditions in yours? Or proactively having, like, if you work with a few different geographies, having meetings and having people talk about it. Because, like, you may have seen like some of the meme of like someone bringing a clown with them to like a termination meeting in like New Zealand, like in Australia and New Zealand, and I do know this from working in Australia, if you're putting someone on a performance plan, it is a more formal process. You have to give them notice, and they may have the opportunity to bring someone with

them. I remember seeing that, and I was like, oh my God, we would never have that in the US. If you gave someone notice of a performance plan, you'd be worried about personal safety. It's a bit different culture. But on a more positive, in Japan, for example, the way you present a business card matters greatly. Or they'll have like office clean day where they will keep their offices, like work to keep their offices clean or in different locations.

Like Germany, it may be very, like people speak very bluntly. Like that's just, that's part of it. So like it's not Jokey Jokey or politeness. And so like showing up on time, there are certain geographies where that is a cultural, like you're two minutes late, like goodbye, goodbye million plus deal. And so whether you're having teams work together or doing some of that diligence, if you're going to travel places, it can be wild. The customs around the world in HR can help to facilitate that by saying, like, finding guides and being like, hey,

you may want to know this if you don't already. So then I have a question. If you were getting written up in New Zealand, what would be your emotional support like item or person? I think I would bring my dog. I don't mean to slog against Rosie, who is my, but she, I spent a lot of time with Rosie. I would bring Meryl Streep, but she would need to be Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.

Oddly specific. Oddly specific because I know whatever the outcome of that meeting, I would feel great about choosing her as my person. Even whether we just walked out of there and I get nothing more, but she tells them her mind, I think it would be very satisfying to watch in person and have her be my advocate. Not me like, oh, I would just hire an employment attorney. Logical.

I know. Yeah, I would bring one of those along. Or maybe like Nicole Kidman after she got her divorce with Tom Cruise with Finalize. You all see those pictures? She walks out of it like... Oh yeah. See, power stance. Love it.

Love it. Oh gosh. Well, thank you so much again, Nicole and GP. We hope that this was helpful. It was helpful for us, I know that much. But thank you so much, globalization partners, and thank you, besties. Life sure doesn't come with a roadmap,

but what if you had a guide? I'm Tamsen, and on The Tamsen Show, I'm here to help you navigate midlife, menopause, career shifts, and everything in between. Like a best friend or a big sister who's been there, with expert guests, real conversations, and actionable advice, this is your go-to podcast for living better, loving stronger, and taking charge of your well-being. Listen to The Tamsen Show wherever you get your podcasts, because it's time to own it.