The guest today is Francois Fortier, Founder and CEO of Applauz, a multi-award-winning HR SaaS platform based in Quebec, Canada.Francois has 15+ years of entrepreneurial experience and prior to starting Applauz, Francois was Founder and CEO of The KLF Group, a company specializing in building and scaling companies in the Reward and Recognition space.As CEO of Applauz, he is responsible for overseeing all facets of the business and is committed to providing effective and affordable solutions that help leaders better engage with their employees. Since 2019, Applauz has been on a mission to help companies make their work environment a happier place, by building people-first cultures where managers learn to better motivate and inspire their teams, and where employees feel appreciated and recognized.Questions for Francois include:Why should leaders care about building an authentic culture of appreciation?How must leadership be involved in the development of a culture of appreciation?How can HR leaders overcome obstacles to growing appreciation at work?Why is software only part of the answer? What are the other components?What does a culture of appreciation mean to you and how does that show up in the ethos of Applauz?How can listeners connect with you and learn more about Applauz?We do our best to ensure editorial objectivity. The views and ideas shared by our guests and sponsors are entirely independent of The HR Gazette, HRchat Podcast and Iceni Media Inc.   Support the showFeature Your Brand on the HRchat PodcastThe HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events