uh I'm Kevin Brooks I am the chief of staff for service now global public sector business line and a 26- year air force force Support Officer so I've got some background in both ex and you know HR and I'm here today to have a we gonna have a little conversation me you know Bri and Bri Brett and I are gonna have a chat so I'm GNA go to the next slide and he can then introduce himself as I go through some questions it's interactive um you know we're going to obviously have some questions we're going to talk about but i' love questions at the end I know I'm the we're the last thing between you and Cocktails so we'll try to keep it energetic so you all are are engaged and make it worthwhile yeah let's see so Brett uh let's just start off like you know first introduce yourself what you do yeah yeah so my name is Brett einsidler um I two was in the Air Force only did my foure stint and got out um made the transition over to HR from public health um not too crazy but you know admin admin all the way um been at Kastle run for about two and a half almost three years now it's been a really interesting Journey never thought I would kind of transition into an HR role um but really my focus during this time has been employee experience making the journey as smooth as possible for every person coming in no matter what your affiliation is and so yeah that's really what I do cool so start off you know what is kle and what type of talent do you need to run that organization yeah so kessle run um if you look on our website it will give you the the textbook definition the the definition by the air force of being a system program office for you know blah blah blah blah blah blah blah I don't know all the technical things that we do every day to fend off the war fighter and stuff like that what Brett's definition is we a soft for a factory for the Air Force we make systems for the warf fighter to do their jobs I don't need to know what those are I need to employ the people to do that um so that's really what we do but we have contractors military members um civilians I'm a I'm a federal civilian just the wide range every category you think of whenever you think of you know working in the government um and so that's been a real challenge of looking at what that looks like and how each journey is different AC cross those different sectors but to make an enterpris approach from it as well so little audible who who are your main competitors for talent our main competitors for talent are just Google yeah s now those other places that can can pay well but do not have the direct impact to the mission and the war Fighters that is our our thing that we are able to really push um and get some incredible Talent directly from the pipeline of military members and people transitioning out of the military but but our our our main competitors are really you know um everyone else that is enticing them with the the the monetary values and and yes we we do try to pay well and try to you know work the line of what what is Equitable um but it's also we we are at the heart of the warf fighter we we are a direct Mission partner for air operation centers across the entire globe and we're expanding rapidly too that's awesome so tell me about you guys what what do you do every day how do you so we explain the mission you know the importance of that the talent hunt so what do you what's your plug-in role in that yeah so I I have two roles um a an HR business partner pretty straightforward just kind of working with senior leaders across the organization understanding where their their pitfalls are how I can interject how I can make sure that the HR teams the talent teams are kind of working alongside them to make sure that we're actually hitting the mark um and then the portion that brings me into service now is I'm pretty much the employee um the Enterprise employee workflow manager so I kind of oversee all of the case managers so to speak the administrators who kind of do day-to-day case management and ensure that we are from the day someone is hired to the day they leave that we are able to transition properly and that's is where most of my day works I I am always you know assisting the IT staff for um you know new features or whatever to make sure our processes are smooth or I'm going into cases and assisting the case managers and then reporting up to leadership on how effective we're being how how quick we're doing things um yeah that's that's kind of what I do okay and so in all that thing you just listed there which is quite exhaustive uh give me some of your pain points that you know in a typical day that just yeah so I I would say I I you asked this question before I got the the list and I was thinking okay well I've had a A variation of pain points right before service now and after service so before you know our our we had no understanding of a process we didn't really understand what our Journeys were we didn't know who our people were where they were what they were doing and how to get them appropriately the systems and and business operational things that they need um so that was my big pain Point going into this um and just the the complexity of the dod the Air Force specific Al our mcoms our major commands you know you have all these different bureaucratic layers and then how do we fit into that how do we make it smooth for the employee you know understanding those complex layers was has always been a pain point for myself myself and others and so now my pain points are very different my pain points are how do I effectively get that per that that process you know fine-tuned to make sure that we're not hitting bottlenecks because we already understand all of those things that I just listed we we've looked at it wholeheartedly we've taken years to do this and to really understand A to Z what that process looks like in the journey from you know I don't like cradle to grave but especially un employee cycle but um you know to reti yes hire to retire and um so my pain points now are just looking at the the effectiveness of our products and how we can do it better and better and better and make it simpler for everyone that's awesome that's good thank you so kind of staying the same Lane you know so do you have any thoughts on how to get how we create a work environment that Fosters that productivity that you obviously need as a software Factory gives people a sense of mission so that Google doesn't snatch them up and positive employee experience yeah I I definitely think that it we have to look at them together you know the employee experience and pro High productivity are hand in hand like 100% if you've been in any of the other sessions today you've heard that from other people way higher than me and the Air Force and DOD and other government agencies that are saying the exact same thing that they're they're they have a synergistic approach to it um and so for me personally I I think that you know leading with empathy is huge you know you need to understand where your people are and and who they are in order to to hopefully get some high productivity out of them if you don't even have that then you're going to fail right that is for me what I think and then as I've grown and as I've you know went higher in rank and and in leadership roles and things I've really noticed that um something that's super super important in how we create that environment is vulnerability being open to having those hard discussions when things do not go our way we don't get what we want that that to me has been so helpful you know we can read leadership books all day to find the best best ways to do whatever project management or whatever you want to do but if you don't know who your people are and you're not treating them well and you're not being vulnerable with them yourselves then how are you going to get a high producing employee out of them good so you you mentioned that you know the high performing uh you know employees the leadership you've modeling and so give me some examples of the experience that you think contribute most to that engagement and productivity so what are some of the things that you as an organization or any organization could do yeah so timeliness I think is huge and timeliness is very broad right Timeless in responding to emails even if it's to say hey I don't have this answer and I'm gonna find it for you that is an answer in itself timeliness to a customer timeliness to your employees is extremely helpful because we all don't like that limbo period um looking at uh the vulner like um sorry I'm like blanking take a time um I don't know why I'm blinking right now it's okay anyways um I just think there's many many things and I I think I probably just added it to it to the previous one but um you know those those types of really knowing your people when you're getting into that yeah so and it's kind of going down Lane and not really one of the questions we talked about in rep but so how do you think technology can and help that Journey you just talk about how do you think give some tools and we're going to not not kle run I want your opinion because you know you're a HR professional and you know you are exactly where the rubber beats the road yeah yeah being able to to access information quickly and efficiently in any space no matter what you're talking about what you're talking about like um leave balances how do I promote like any of those types of places where you're going to look at a knowledge based article or whatever it is um access to information is key and at the Forefront of that um to me as an employee I I always think you know okay what would I want am I going to benefit from this if I would then let's see if it's going to help other people and and um maybe I'm wrong and maybe it's not the correct way to go but let's find the best ways to access that information or or give them the the things that they actually want great so now that's your opinion now let's take it one level higher so how what is service now how is service now let's get specific to you know why we're here uh our approach to connecting systems helping kessle Ron to address your human capital challenges r l yeah so I I really thought about this for a while and and my best answer is I don't know if servers now will like this answer but um I see it for us we don't need an hris system but it acts like that for us it acts like the information system for our data because we have so many levels of data and and variations of it from various different sources that we can't always consistently access or there's only a few people that can so we're able to bring that down and so that's what service now is able to do for us we're able to bring that down so we can actually operationally move the data to do what we want to bring people on quickly to give them access to Business Systems quickly to get them ready to get provide the services to the warf fighter as quickly as possible that's really our mission is that's as HR in an organization like this that's what we're to do and service now has been instrumental in that why would you think I wouldn't like that answer that's a great answer because you're system so like and some people will get touchy with those those I understand that I think workday might get up that we we are a platform so if we can replace something or make it easier for you to access that that's absolutely the EAS we want want to breing your life and the the the way that we are able I I was talking to someone at the lab the other day about they were discussing how they're trying to go away from SharePoint and trying to get heavily away from it I I don't personally don't like SharePoint that much but you know as a federal employee that is mandated by Congress in certain aspects to maintain a SharePoint site uh we are unable to do that so being able to pull it in being able to have a portal that is able to have that information and those those specific places that we require our employees to go in one place oh my goodness you know we can't just get rid of SharePoint we can't get R rid of PowerPoint and all those things that sometimes make us mad uh we can make them better and give them greater access and I think that's that's what service now is able to do for us that's awesome have you noticed a uh an increased ability to report status faster up the chain yeah it it's actually great that I'm able to um hand my chief of staff and the chief of talent who's my direct supervisor a a dashboard of them their own and say here this is for you I don't need to tell you all day every day if you would like me to I will but this is the operational data right now of what's going on how we're effectively doing this and you can ask me we can work with it we can change the aspects of it and I think that has been so amazing having the the real data right there and I I forget who was saying it yesterday or earlier about not copying pasting PowerPoints uh just being able to show that data immediately right there and having them be able to access it without having to go through me as well absolutely okay so again just to make sure this is not tyly a service now commercial tell us what we're not doing right and how we can improve I think that oh that's a that's a hard question sorry put on the spot there I think this is a great Point increased communication but so so we were talking earlier in some of the other panels in the the luncheon about the dod employees wanting access to to Greater information to share and someone had commented about oh are there abilities to share code like you know without going to the store without making a a a spoke or an API that's in the store ways to trade that information easily without us having to create an entire ecosystem of conversation I think that's something to look at and there's ways to do that and I think having you guys push us and allow us that platform would be extremely helpful because we we have to you know a lot of times we're constrained by resources and so we don't maybe don't have the Manpower or the the Personnel or the the money to do something like that to hire developers to tell us these these amazing things and give us that information but we can share it amongst ourselves but I don't know who all the customers are yeah you guys do so that that's that's something that that would be extremely helpful that's very fair um you know and the role that I'm in the organization that I'm in was created to start helping share use cases across governmental agencies globally so that's a point that is very fair and we've taken that to to Heart yeah so and I will say that what you guys have done in the special insance groups has been really helpful for me but the 15 or so people that know about it and come quarterly that's who it's benefiting not everyone else the hundred some people that were in that room that may not know that it exists or that they might not have found it helpful that one time that they went that's good so you know so I'm out of question so you guys are now interactive part this is where we're going to go do we have mics awesome so and there's got to be questions because you know this is your last chance to ask tough ones that's why I ask a tough one first just you kind understand or any comments any questionsa so no and this I'll tell you the reason why because we have our own syst we go through Gmail for most of our so so we're a federal agency however we we do go through a couple different back channels and we have a Google Suite of most of our business systems we still do the Nipper side of things where we have you know Microsoft teams and stuff like that so we personally have not needed to go that route as as of now because the majority of our Workforce Works off of MacBooks and Gmail and things like that because we have such a high um development staff that don't require you know basic you know Windows systems okay thank you okay responsibity responsibility you talk about sharing yeah yeah [Music] yeah I think that that's definitely a good good Avenue to look at uh you know from a customer perspective it's definitely something that's like you know I I found out today a few people that was chatting with all use the same partner implementation partner the same people that are already fed ramp certified that are already going through the same process so they can be that that pivot point I think that's an actual that's a great point we could yeah look at that I mean we we oh yeah looking at going with our implementation partners and people that are are fed ramp certified already to kind of maybe bridge that gap of communication for the the spreading of knowledge how I saw it correct okay any other questions up there so uh I've got you for 16 more minutes and I'm not going to keep you for 16 more minutes but I will say um you know what the Kastle run is doing is is is very very Progressive by Air Force standards uh as I said I did Air Force HR for 26 years and uh there's a couple things out there that are still dirty words in the Lex of personnel people in the Air Force that I was responsible for so I won't say them and um the things they're doing are Cutting Edge and they're really pushing hard to elevate the employee experience and they have to because they have they have a kind of Workforce that they do have to compete against Silicone Valley for you know I mean there's always a competition for talent period but when you're competing against you know companies that give signning bonuses that give stocks they give stock refresh they hire at a pretty high rate um there has to be a sense of mission and in order for folks to care about that mission you have to treat them well and make sure their experience is there so there you go I uh just in terms of our our employee Workforce oh okay so um you know we were actually having that conversation about like we have agents that are doing case management for for HR cases or cases and stuff like that and we haven't tapped in as much as we should to the things we've already paid for in terms of of of skill Services you know myself as the the highest HR person that is in the in the weeds sometimes you know I've gone through those ca those courses but it the majority of our staff in terms of that administrative staff are contracted staff so it's a little difficult when we're requiring them to take trainings that's not per the contract and stuff so we do have a little bit of that however in the context of of the direct civilian force that we have a little more in the military members uh a little more leverage over um we make it mandatory for some of them that are actually in those roles to to take the time out and do those courses we also have many um learning you know platforms that we have invested in not only by the air force uh you know defense University is is a large one that's been a conglomerate for many people um but you know Udacity for specific upskilling training and things like that that we we have offered to our employees and and it it's like the boot camp classes and we'll also pay for the certification you just have to pass the class first and and we give that to our entire Workforce so they're able to tap into those resources to make themselves more competitive as well I think the H went over here I was a 4E Public Health so I was a public health technician that got essentially promoted to the OIC during the pandemic because everyone deployed it was very wild do you want my terminal AFC or you want the history so I was a 38f I was contractor yeah my question is and I'm working withell ageny specifically um my question is where we started with it so what was the first in terms of that's where you kind of that use Cas that absolutely high side right most of the data is on the low side to build something on the high side them yeah to be able to go through the process because most ofi people were basically you know approving those yeah um and for those that don't speak the language high side meaning like the secure side of things the the ones that's harder to tap into um so for us specifically you know onboarding was our first that was our biggest um so when I first kind of looked came on to Castle Run I was transitioning out out of the Air Force and uh needed something to do for six months and um I came over to a colleague of mine that I had known who happens to be my boss now and she said fix onboarding please can you can you figure it out can you figure out what we do and how we do it and what we're doing um so I spent about a year understanding you know it turned from six months to a year understanding from A to Z what that process looked like because we have all of those different personas that all have varying different needs um so I I did that up myself and then took it to gitlab at the time we used that for our project management for Dev SEC Ops types of stuff as well um and that was what we agreed that we were currently doing our onboarding ticketing from which you know seems weird when you look at it and you think about it but it actually worked really well because we were able to put everyone in one place and gitlab themselves as a company they do it there they have their own ticketing and then but it integrates with their hris and integrates with all of their other systems that was the P the pivot point where we're like okay what we have now is unscalable it's not going to work in the long term so what can we do tasked by the CTO that came in to go and look at services and see what what options we had that's when we came around service now because we were already using it for IT services and various you know things in that nature so okay let's see what we can do and you know two and a half years later we' going strong great sure I folks are sometimes slow to adop new technology maybe a little resistant do so when you were rolling stuffing you come to face any of that change absolutely we still face it every day absolutely uh you know organizational change management is at the Forefront of everything that we do in HR like that is what what we have to think about every single time we do anything okay how are people going to react to this and that goes back to the empathy piece you know like where are they are they understanding where we're coming with this new document requirement or whatever so in this implementation we absolutely have but the thing that has been really instrumental from us is getting you know executive leadership sign off and and you know sponsorship having our leaders from our we have a colonel who is our CEO type person um and him as well as the other seite members have all signed off and agreed that this is the correct way to go and so coming from them that okay your process may change a bit but it's really just where you're going to be doing the work the work is staying the same in whatever you're doing pretty much we we may change a couple forms here and there and so we absolutely have but it's just been the tactual way of how we're presenting it to people you know having certain you know steering committees with specific people um subject matter experts to understand what the impact is to that direct team that may be having the biggest um you know issues with the change um that's been extremely helpful for us and understanding at what levels that we can have that impact and sometimes they're right sometimes we do change something and it does not work and that's the great thing about service now is being able to turn off Services turn off things that maybe didn't work we had an MVP plan that we really thought out really well and it didn't pan out and the customers our employees didn't like it that we have to face that ourselves too if it didn't work out and they were actually right so understanding you know where they're coming from in those those uh fears and anxiety that they bring time for one more question going once going twice it's thirsty crowd okay okay folks I want to thank thank you for your time uh it's been a pleasure talking to you I love the fact that even though I don't work HR anymore HR and the Air Force is in good hands uh the Next Generation taken over so I can I can leave and be be comfortable with that uh and I want to thank you all here for coming to the service now Federal Forum this is your last formal event of the day uh please enjoy the hospitality uh in the in the foyer and then of our partners later this evening if you're still around and we'll stick out for a few minutes to ask any questions so with that thank you very much for