The following transcript is provided unedited.
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Every Friday, human resources would have dance parties and invite our team members to attend Inhuman Resources with music and song and dance. And we all just had a grand old time. And let me tell you, it worked.
Tony Lee:
Welcome to the HR Storyteller podcast series from the Society for Human Resource Management. I’m your host, Tony Lee, head of content here at SHRM. Thank you for joining us. Our HR Storyteller podcasts feature practitioners and thought leaders in human resources sharing stories about why they love HR, what motivates them, and what’s moved them in their careers. Today we are joined by James Abeyta Stevens, CHRO of the New Mexico Wellness Center in Albuquerque. James, welcome.
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Welcome. Thank you, Tony. This is awesome.
Tony Lee:
Oh, I appreciate you being here. So let’s start with a story. You’ve got a story that you’d like to share.
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Yes. I have an aha moment that I love to share.
So being in human resources… I actually started 23 years ago when I was just out of college, fresh out of college, didn’t know what to expect. Started my first human resources position and quickly realized that human resources was a lot more than paper pushing. The conversion from it being personnel to human resources opened a lot of doors and especially for me personally as well.
But let me tell you one door that it opened. It was about culture. One day, got up off my desk, I was going to lunch and headed down a hallway and met five or six employees and came across an employee who was in tears. I stopped and I helped her and said, “What’s going on? I’m in human resources.” She looked at me like I was a policeman. And I said, “No, I’m here to help. Can you tell me what’s going on? And I can help you.”
And she said, “I work in food and beverage and I’m a dishwasher. And something happened in my family that it was hard for me to focus today, but I really don’t want to tell you because the word “sour” is in resources.”
I backed up. I’m realizing at this point in this organization that we have to change the way that human resources, the culture of human resources, interacts with the daily operations and those that work for the organization. So I went back to my team and my senior leadership and said, “Okay, we’re going to change the culture. We’re going to be culture leaders and no longer is human resources going to be looked at as Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers walking in and out of the organization just trying to fire people.”
So from that moment, it wasn’t my story. It was about their stories and how we can help them build their lives and their community and their support, not only in work but outside of work. We took it under our wing as a human resources department, and we realized that we needed to change the name from employees to team members, because we’re all in this together.
So my senior leadership was amazing on what I had to tell them. Over the course of time, we changed that perception of being sour to being sweet, to where every Friday human resources would have dance parties and invite our team members to attend Inhuman Resources with music and song and dance. And we all just had a grand old time. And let me tell you, it worked. Our productivity went up. In fact, in New Mexico, our tribal organization, large tribal organization, won 12 number one Top Workplaces and Best Places to Work on Culture consecutively in the entire state of New Mexico, up against other large corporations. We are continuously winning awards based on how we looked at our team members and the stories that they told that we would help.
So talk about an aha moment. And you know what inspired me was the story of the old man and the starfish. If you have not read that story, I encourage you because it’ll give you an inspiration. It’ll give you motivation and education on what we need to do with each individual person and how to help them.
Tony Lee:
The old man and the starfish? Not familiar. Can you fill us in?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
There was a young man walking on a beach and on the beach where thousands of starfish. This little boy would pick up one starfish and throw it in the ocean. Pick up another starfish, throw it in the ocean. And kept on doing this. Well, an old man was coming next to this little boy and saying, “There are thousands of starfish on this beach. You cannot possibly make an impact on all of them.” And the little boy looks up at the old man and said, “But it makes a difference to this one.”
So with that, it’s person by person. And that’s what that story teaches us. Impact is individual. And it makes a bigger impact knowing that I’m making an impact on that one person. So I get energized, the person gets energized. There are thousands of starfish out there that we need to throw back in the ocean and it takes all of us to help. If we just touch one person’s life, imagine how much better the world will be. Just one person, each of us, to make an impact on that person.
Tony Lee:
Wow. That’s wonderful. So I’m very curious, James. Tribal HR experience.
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Yes.
Tony Lee:
How is tribal HR different from what everyone else does in their job?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
It is very different. Working on sovereign nation, it’s their own land. It’s almost, if I had to say apples to apples, it would be a nation within a nation. Tribal nations don’t have to follow anything at the state level. It’s more federal.
For instance, we really don’t have to follow ADA. We do it to be an employer of choice. We don’t follow EEOC. We don’t have requirements of posters to put up except for the federal minimum wage and OSHA regulations. Everything is different based on the tribe’s affiliation and how they govern, because they’re self-governing, how they govern themselves in and where they’re at.
So tribal human resources is a bit of a challenge because we are trying to recruit people from the outside to come work for organizations who may be accustomed to what laws are from other organizations outside the reservation or outside of the sovereign nation. And they’re accustomed to that. So we have to make do with what we have and we were very successful at doing it.
Tony Lee:
Wow. So what’s your biggest compliance issue?
James Abeyta Stevens:
Well, the biggest compliance issue… Oh, that’s a good one, because we have tribal compliance that we have to deal, with each individual nation. And then the federal compliance.
Tony Lee:
So FMLA is still a-
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Yes. And for instance, especially FMLA, the law is Family Medical Leave Act. However on tribal lands and the way we set it up was a mimic program, Family Medical Leave Allowance. To maintain our sovereignty so we still have control over the program. However, to still attract people that may have been on traditional FMLA outside of sovereign nations.
Tony Lee:
Hmm, that’s fascinating. So a lot of people who work in HR give back in a lot of different ways. In your case, you teach. Right?
James Abeyta Stevens:
Absolutely.
Tony Lee:
So how did you get into that?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Well, that’s the next phase of my life. I officially retired from human resources last year, after 23 years. And now it’s about volunteerism and giving back to put the mentorship programs in place that have been instilled in me by my mentors. So what I do is I teach at the local community college. It’s called Central New Mexico Community College and it’s the largest community college in the State of New Mexico. I teach in the Human Services Department. I’m also a mental health therapist, so I do have my handful of clients that I see telehealth. This way it allows me to incorporate the humanistic side and the human resources side on the business and the mental health to students, so when they graduate, they already have the best of both worlds as they go on to the different professions.
I also am the SHRM New Mexico State Council Director, so I’m still involved in human resources and building a legacy with my board. And the volunteerism for me hits my heart and I’ll probably start crying for this, because without the volunteerism and the passion and the energy and the synergy, then organizations such as SHRM not necessarily reaches the individual member. I know it’s up to me to reach the individual member for SHRM.
Tony Lee:
Mm-hmm. Yeah. So let me ask you this. As a teacher, you get to meet with folks who may not have been sold yet that HR is the path they want to take. Right? They might be exploring a lot of different options. So what’s your guidance?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
I’d say plant the seed. Show them the good, the bad and the ugly. Let them be involved in the conversations. Let them ask questions. Let them pick my brain. So many oftentimes we’re in an educational setting where they’re preached at. In New Mexico, specifically, we have programs where they are directly involved in experiencing certain things such as internships. They can meet with me individually and ask me questions about the various phases of my life that I can give them some mentorship. And especially for human services and human resources, when people love people, they know they’re in the right program in the first class.
We make it fun for them. We make them learn about what we do and the impact that we have, not only the individual person, but the profession itself and the organizations.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. So you talked about mental health as being a piece of what you’re doing. And mental health has really come front and center in HR-
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Absolutely.
Tony Lee:
… and a lot of organizations. Is it getting the attention it should be getting or we still have some work to do?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
We still have some work to do. From my personal experience, being a mental health therapist and being a human resources director worked hand in hand. So I was more of an onsite EAP program for our team members where they can come to, if they’re having a bad day or they’re having some issues, that I could talk with them, get to the core issues and then refer out to a professional if needed. But I was the frontline person helping that person. And all it took was just me sitting in front of them listening to their story and understanding where they’re at and showing them some empathy and some love from the organization standpoint.
Mental health, right now we lack resources. We lack money in the different programs. And hopefully someone out there is listening to this podcast that can make a difference in their organization and make a difference in Capitol Hill where we can unlock some mental health resources for the different states and the different organizations so we can make a bigger difference. Mental health right now is on the forefront and we need to act now.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. What are the mental health challenges you’re seeing? I mean, what are employees coming to you with?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
With the pandemic that just passed, substance abuse is on the rise and absenteeism was on the rise and people adjusting to different things, to Zoom meetings rather than going in the office, or being laid off, or being put on pause in their lives and having to change their entire lives where anxiety was at its highest and depression was at its highest. Not only that, but domestic violence. People were locked in their houses. And if you have somebody that’s being abused, being locked in the house with the abuser is not the best place to be.
So we need more mental health resources to get to the bottom of the second pandemic that we’re going through with the mental health pandemic to have more providers offer different things for people. For instance, we need more providers.
What about more scholarships for people going into mental health to be a therapist? What about more resources and CEU trainings for current therapists to handle different areas of the pandemic that we bottomed out on? Those types of things are definitely needed. Or programs to increase places where people can go to get help here and now, rather than calling a number.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. We’ve heard some feedback that EAP is basically table stakes. Everybody’s got E, and in many cases it’s not enough. I’m an HR professional and we have an EAP program. Am I doing all I can do or is there something else I should be doing?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Well, it’s twofold. The first thing, I’m so happy for EAP programs because they exist in the organizations. First of all, the organization needs to push the EAP program to the team members. And if they don’t, the team members don’t know that it’s there as a resource to use.
Secondly, we need human resources professionals when they come across someone that is in crisis for some sort, maybe even to walk them to a phone, to help them call. It’s that simple. Or, have a list of resources in their community for mental health agencies or mental health therapists that they can connect directly with that could accept their insurance or not. At least have that list available so when somebody is in crisis, they don’t know where to turn. It’s not as simple as picking up a phone call and dialing because when your mind is not there, there’s no way they’re going to remember a number. Even though as human resources professionals, we can say, “Just turn over your insurance card and the number’s right there.” It’s not that simple to the person in crisis.
Tony Lee:
Right.
James Abeyta-Stevens:
We need to act and help that person get help. And be almost like a case manager to assist with the different resources, the allocation of different resources to that person. It makes all the difference in the world. And it could be either a life or death situation.
Tony Lee:
Wow.
James Abeyta-Stevens:
We could be saving a life as HR professionals.
Tony Lee:
Yeah. And you know, you can’t categorize. It’s not hourly employees versus salaries, it’s across the board, right?
James Abeyta-Stevens:
Absolutely. Mental health, it doesn’t classify people by their title, doesn’t classify by gender, by ethnicity, by their culture, by anything else is that it is prevalent in today’s society after the pandemic. And it hits all of us just the same in all of our different stages of life.
Tony Lee:
That’s great. James Abeyta-Stevens. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it. This has been great. You can hear all of our HR Storyteller podcasts by visiting our website at shrm.org/podcast. Thanks for listening.
