Logistics of HR and Customer Service with Norman Poon

Zebras to Apples

Host Bryndis Whitson welcomes Norman Poon, co-founder of BitWide and an instructor at Bow Valley College, to the show to discuss his career in a variety of industries from healthcare to banking, mainly in a Human Resources capacity. They examine the systems behind every industry and how employee needs drive those systems. Norman presents these industries from a customer service and employee perspective, highlighting organizational systems set up for stock, item returns, employee mindset, and store layout.

Norman shares the challenges involved in ensuring healthcare providers have enough medication or emergency supplies on hand and how to arrange training and onboarding of new staff for a grocery or retail store opening. He takes Bryndis through the logistics involved in correct staffing levels, the different grocery stocking needs that arose during COVID, and the ins and outs of being in Human Resources. Norman explains how the study of organizational behavior is linked to recruitment, motivation, and connecting employees to a revenue-involved mindset. His insights into the human side of industry shed light on how logistics enters the recruitment and hiring process, and the organizational elements that drive many of the industries he’s worked in.

About Norman Poon:

As an immigrant, Norman moved to Calgary with his family at the age of 9. Norman’s life in Calgary has been greatly impacted by the work of Diversecities. Both Norman and his brother were participants in Diversecities’ youth summer camp programs. As an after-school volunteer tutor for Diversecities, Norman was able to witness firsthand the struggles of building a new life in Calgary for newcomers and their families. This experience has resulted in Norman’s passion to assist newcomers in establishing a better life in Calgary, especially in the areas of navigating the complexity of job searching in a new country.

Norman holds a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Alberta and has spent over 15 years in the private and public sectors as a human resources professional. He and his business partner are now working with technology companies across Canada and the USA to help get their products and services to market.

During Norman’s free time, he loves spending time with his family and trying out the many great restaurants, breweries, and distilleries in and around Calgary and the area. Norman is also a news and politics junkie.

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Contact Bryndis Whitson:

• Website: ZebrasToApples.com
• Instagram: @ZebrasToApples
• LinkedIn
  
  

Contact Norman Poon:

• Website: BitWide.com
• Website: Diversecities.org
• LinkedIn: NormanPoon
  
  

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Transcript:

Bryndis 0:03

Hi, my name is Bryndis Whitsen, and you're listening to the Zebras to Apples podcast, the fun and fascinating stories of supply chain logistics. Today's episode is with Norman Poon, co-founder of BitWide and instructor at Bow Valley College. Norman has worked in a wide variety of industries, mainly in HR, some in banking, but also in healthcare, in retail, so a wide variety of experiences. And how does that figure into supply chain? Because, every industry has their own systems. There's needs for employees that we don't necessarily think of. What are the skills needed in someone doing stock and inventory versus someone working in cashier or sales? Sometimes a little bit of a different strategy is needed. So that's part of the conversation that I have with Norman. Please join me with my really good friend, Norman Poon. Okay, I am here with Norman Poon, and so Norman and I met when we were in grade 11. That was a few years ago now, and it feels like yesterday in my mind, and we met at a summer camp for political geeks, and just kept on chatting ever since, and kept in touch over the years. Norman went to the University of Alberta, and I went to the University of Calgary, and then you kind of got into many different paths that lead you to this path that you're here today too.

Norman 1:51

Very much. So very much. So life's been interesting.

Bryndis 1:55

So, you took at university- You took business, correct?

Norman 2:00

Correct.

Bryndis 2:01

Was it a focus on anything in particular?

Norman 2:04

My focus was on HR with a minor in organizational behavior.

Bryndis 2:15

I think people, for the most part, kind of understand HR. But what is organizational behavior?

Norman 2:21

Organizational Behavior, really where it is, is that it is study, discipline, on how people behave in a group, within an organization. So you're looking at teams, how teams behave, and generally speaking, what happens is that organization will be for a lot of time. Generally speaking, you start off with how a person is. Generally speaking, most organizations start off by looking at the person and what motivates them, and then extrapolate that all the way up into a team setting, where they're part of a small group, are they part of a bigger group, and where they're part of an organization. So you kind of see how they kind of evolve. And you also studied there how at each level, the culture of that, the culture of the person, affects the whole picture. So ultimately, every organization is a mixture of individual or combination of individuals, and combination of bigger groups of individuals to establish an organization. That's generally where it is. And then how do you work within those groups? How do you motivate them or demotivate them, and how do you pick the right groups of people? So that's generally organizational behavior in a very short sense.

Bryndis 3:39

Okay, but I can see, just in, like some of the presentations you've done over the years, how the organizational behavior kind of filters in and factors in too.

Norman 3:53

Very much so. I think one thing that I've always said is that, I mean, we all are looking for a place to find home. We all, we're all looking for a place to fit in. And that's really where it is. Is from a personal level, you're looking for a place, a team, a company, that aligns with your values, your lines, and then a lot of it is driven by the leaders of the group and from the very front line, very directly to all the way up to leaders that you really would never meet them, but yet you kind of know them so there's that element as well, and a lot of that would be driving and all that starts from a lot of organizational behavior as well as, how do you motivate and manage yourself all the way up to being that leader. How do you motivate and manage people who are quite far away in terms of hierarchy?

Bryndis 4:48

Fully, and when you look at it too, because, like, the example I was thinking of is you were talking about how you're an extrovert. And, if you're in a more quiet environment, one might not be the right fit.

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