Reflections on 15 Years of the HR Happy Hour Show

The original HR podcast, the HR Happy Hour Show, recently celebrated its 15th anniversary. Show creator and co-host Steve Boese looks back on 15 years of the show and shares some memories from the past, and thoughts about what’s coming next. 

Introduction 

It’s often said that many HR professionals didn’t set out to be HR professionals; they just kind of fell into it somewhere along the way. Then having discovered the importance of HR, and the chance to make a difference in people’s lives and careers, they fell in love with HR after all.  

Similarly, back in 2009, I did not set out to create an HR and workplace-themed podcast. In fact, back then, I am not sure I even totally understood the concept of a podcast as a form of media. But once the HR Happy Hour started (more on that below), and I fell into what I eventually knew as podcasting, I also fell in love with the idea, and more accurately, fell in love with the ability to share people’s stories, ideas, and insights with the greater community.  

After taking time these last few weeks to look back on the show’s history, and produce three new episodes (links below) dedicated to both our shared memories and talking about what’s to come, I thought I would wrap up this look back by sharing some of my thoughts about the show, the media network that has grown and expanded from the original show, and where I hope to see the next X years of the show take me and our community. 

So, one last time, let’s look back and then look forward. 

Early Years 

In the 2008 – 2009 timeframe, I worked in “enterprise” HRIT. I use quotes around the work enterprise since I was working in higher education, helping to run, develop, and manage HR and Finance IT systems for a large, private university. That university also offered a graduate degree program in Human Resources Management. Around that time, the administrators of the program began to appreciate the growing importance of an understanding of modern technology for aspiring HR leaders and decided to offer a new course in Human Resources Technology. I was asked if I would be open to teaching that course as an adjunct instructor and gladly said yes, without researching how and with what resources I would teach said course! 

After looking around the available academic literature and textbook databases, I quickly realized I had to get creative to find and develop course material – readings, technical overviews, hands-on technology experiences, and more. While the full story of how I created the class would take too long, I will mention the tie-back to the origins of the HR Happy Hour Show. As part of course development, I decided to try and conduct phone interviews with HR and HR technology industry leaders, with the idea that I would make these recordings a part of the course material for students to listen to, and hopefully, learn more about HR technology from.  

But since this was late 2008 and I was very new to some of the newer technologies emerging with smartphones (I think I still had a BlackBerry back then), the only simple (and free) way I could find to record remote interviews over a standard phone connection was an internet streaming/broadcast service called Blog Talk Radio. On BTR, I could interview a guest from the world of HR and HR tech via phone, save the conversation as an MP3 file, and then have the students listen to the interview as a part of their course “reading.” This was a decent solution for the class and having that solution in place allowed me to launch the HR Happy Hour Show just a few months later. 

Why create the HR Happy Hour Show? In early 2009, there was a vibrant and growing community of HR and HR technology professionals who were active on Twitter (at the time). One day when the HR Twitter conversation was flowing, someone mentioned that it would be fun and interesting to bring the virtual HR community together in a more “real” fashion, such as a conference call or virtual meeting. Since I had the BTR platform already established, designed to support live broadcasting, and could include live call-ins (like any traditional radio show), I agreed to launch the first HR Happy Hour Show live, one Thursday night back in 2009. From what I recall (and I have not listened back to the first show in a long time), we had a lively conversation, a few folks called in to chat, and another bunch of HR friends were following along on Twitter. It was, as I recall, a lot of fun, and had great engagement, so I decided to keep the show and the format going each Thursday night. 

The HR Happy Hour Show ran in that fashion, in a live-streamed audio format, for a few years, with scheduled guests, live callers, and fun Twitter and later, Google Wave (look that one up), backchannel conversations. It was extremely fun for me to host and produce each week. It brought together a fantastic community of HR professionals – pros that wanted to be on the leading edge of workplace trends, tech innovation, and new forms of media and collaboration. It was a unique period for the show, as there were not many other events/shows of its type, and we rapidly generated a decent following and the beginnings of some notoriety in the HR industry. But for me, the schedule of the show, and the format, with each week having to show up “Live” to stream/broadcast, became a grind. Eventually we gave up the “live” aspect of the show, sometime in 2011 or 2012 I think, and shifted to what is now the more common podcast format – with pre-recorded interviews, that we could schedule at more convenient times. Around this time, we also made a few other changes to the show. 

The HR Happy Hour Podcast 

By 2013, the HR Happy Hour had fully shifted to a pre-recorded and syndicated podcast format. Also, Trish Steed joined as a permanent co-host after guesting and hosting several times in the shows’ early years. In this period, the HR Happy Hour leaned heavily into the emerging HR technology, social media, and innovation space. So much was happening in the workplace, much of which was influenced by new technology. That new tech and how it was changing HR and work were consistent themes of the Happy Hour Show during those years.  

Our jobs also were changing during these years which also had a spillover effect on the HR Happy Hour Show and the topics and guests that were predominantly featured between 2013 – 2019 or so. Both Trish and I had extensive experience in corporate HR and HRIT, but during this time we both also spent time working in HR technology product management and strategy – Trish with Infor and myself with Oracle. These experiences, and what came after in our work as analysts and HR technology advisors, shaped what we were doing with the show greatly. Simply put, we did a lot of shows on HR technology – innovations, meeting product executives, and talking with HR leaders at HR tech events. While HR technology is certainly massively important to HR, we also knew that there were more workplace stories to share and tell – more on that later. 

Overall, this period was one of success and growth for the HR Happy Hour. During this time, we passed 1 million, then 2 million listens – both exciting milestones for the show. 

Expanding the Network 

One of my goals for the HR Happy Hour was to expand and try to form a podcast and media network or family of shows that could operate under the HR Happy Hour umbrella. By that time, 2017 or 2018 or so, the podcast market was already getting crowded, and starting a new podcast from scratch, unless you were famous in some other industry or media already, was going to be a tough slog for most new podcasts. By publishing new podcast titles under our banner and feed, any new HR Happy Hour Network podcast would have the advantage of a built-in initial audience of subscribers that we had developed over the first almost ten years of podcasts.  

So, we expanded, and over time, we launched several new podcast titles on the HR Happy Hour (now Media) Network. Currently, the Network hosts HR Means Business, with host Mervyn Dinnen; Inclusion Crusade with host Sarah Morgan; The Play by Play, with hosts Jack McFarlane and Nick Schlemmer; WorkTech with host George LaRocque; and Radical Research with host Madeline Laurano. Each of these network shows brings unique perspectives, topics, and ideas to our group, presenting our community with the most complete and diverse voices and conversations in the entire HR industry. 

In March of 2022, Trish and I launched “At Work in America,” a new podcast that is the evolution of the original HR Happy Hour Show and a title focused on telling more of the real stories of the world of work. On “At Work in America” we’ve been fortunate to hear people share their stories and voices on various subjects impacting the workplace – accessibility, neurodiversity, second chance hiring, addiction, recovery, asking powerful questions at work – and much more.  

On top of the traditional format podcast titles on the network, we’ve also launched at various times over the years short form audio (The Workplace Minute), a pandemic-era live video blog (The HR Happy Hour Work Break! with something like 400 episodes), and our ongoing video series “H3 Live” with Trish and me hosting. These shows (and whatever new things come next) all fall under the HR Happy Hour Media Network family, and continue our ongoing commitment to innovate, share great information and insights, and give platforms for as many interesting, meaningful, and diverse voices as possible. 

What’s Next 

As of July 2024, the HR Happy Hour Media Network and our shows are in a great place. Our hosts help us discuss the most important and timely topics and our guests bring wonderful experiences and perspectives to the conversations. While we feel great about where we are, and what we have done so far, we know that there are new roads to explore. In the coming months and years, we plan to continue to experiment, innovate, and look for new ways, media, and formats to connect with the community. Trust me, while the HR Happy Hour Show, At Work in America, and our other current titles are not going anywhere, we look forward and can’t wait to bring even more to our audience. 

Conclusion 

Fifteen years ago, I certainly did not expect I’d still be hosting the HR Happy Hour Show today. That seems like so long ago, it is kind of hard to remember what I thought about the future – of workplaces, of HR, or even what I would be doing, etc. But the show, the new shows that have been created since the start of the Happy Hour, and the excitement of what is still to come have kept me excited and energized for both the very next show we are scheduled to record, and what is coming soon. I’ve said that the HR Happy Hour Show has been a career-changing experience for me, in fact, in many ways it’s been life changing. And there is more to come, trust me! 

Special Thanks 

First, thank you to everyone who has listened to, shared, commented on, or appeared on any of our HR Happy Hour Media Network shows over the years. And to our listeners especially, many thanks for making what we do possible and hopefully important to our industry. Millions of views and listens later, we still get excited about each new person we reach. 

Thank you to the sponsors and supporters of the show over the years! You have truly made it possible for us to continue this and expand what we do. Special thanks to Paychex – a wonderful company made up of the best people in HR. We can’t thank you enough. 

And of course, thanks to our H3 HR Advisors team – Trish Steed, co-host of At Work in America, The HR Happy Hour, H3 Live and the person who talked me out of ending the Happy Hour at least two or three times over the years! Thanks for being there for over a decade! And thanks to Karen Steed, Media Producer, who makes it easy for us to do what we love to do. Your creativity and enthusiasm are unsurpassed! 

Last, thanks to anyone who made it to the end of this post – over 2,000 words!  

Check out all the HR Happy Hour Media Network shows at www.hrhappyhour.net.