From Day One

Seeing the Benefits: Why One Total-Rewards Leader Loves the Work

If you work a desk job in the 21st century, it’s not always clear what becomes of the effort you put in. White-collar workers too infrequently get their hands on products, find out who uses their ideas, or see the fruits of their labor. That’s not the case, however, with employee-benefits leaders, according to Kimberly Young.Young is the SVP of total rewards at Amentum, an engineering and technology giant with 53,000 workers across 80 countries. Young has worked in benefits for more than 20 years, having started her career supervising pension plans in the early 2000s. Young got hooked on the profession because she could see the effects of her work–and she found it immensely rewarding. For instance, if programs to manage chronic conditions among employees are effective, those results show up in the better health of the workers, and “if claims are high, you can trace back to the cause and you can see the measures you’ve taken to curtail or increase employee engagement in those programs,” she said.From Day One spoke with Young about the changes she has experienced in the benefits space, how to deal with the barrage of new benefits in the market, and what skills have made her team successful in 2024. Excerpts:Q: Where have you seen the greatest changes in benefits in your career?A: The needs of employees have changed. From maternity-leave benefits to family-leave requirements to GLP-1 drugs, bariatric surgeries, and legislation around women’s rights and abortion care–just a whole plethora of life events that happened to employees. What’s also changed is the role that an employer and their medical benefits play in an individual’s circle of life.Q: Is there an accomplishment you’re most proud of in your career?A: I worked on a panel of leaders who managed all of the benefit programs for a certain group of companies. We had to totally redesign our healthcare platform and put in high-deductible health plans because of the financial position of the company. It happened at a time PPOs were the prevailing plan and high-deductible health plans were uncommon. The company filed for bankruptcy, and we had to reduce cost dramatically, so we went full-replacement HSA to lower cost while providing quality coverage to employees at a time when HSAs were not that popular. It was a difficult transition for employees because they were not used to the high out-of-pocket expenses for medical or pharmacy costs. The employee education and engagement that went along with delivering a critical, difficult message–it was challenging–but at the same time it was rewarding because it worked.Kimberly Young, SVP of total rewards at Amentum, has spoken at From Day One conferences on employee benefits (Company photo)Q: What did you learn from that experience?A: My biggest takeaway was how to deliver a difficult message. I also learned the empathy you need to have for the employee side of the house, understanding what it means when they’re getting news about increases or changes. Not all employees have the same needs, but if you know that about 20% of your population have very critical healthcare needs, you know those changes will impact them the most.Q: Are you a naturally empathetic person?A: I think so, but I also think it happens naturally over time, hearing employees tell you their stories, tell you their situation, tell you the impact the changes have had on them. You come to understand some of the complexities employees deal with when they’re caring for a family member or a spouse who has a very significant medical condition. If you don’t have empathy, you get it. Sometimes we get lost in the day-to-day, the production numbers, everything else, and if we’re not close to it, we don’t really understand the impact that these changes have on individuals.Q: Amentum has had a big year: A merger and going public, plus a new chief people officer as of early December. What have you learned in 2024?A: That you have to be resilient. Stick to your priorities as best you can and tackle one thing at a time. I’ve learned resilience because it can be overwhelming.Q: What is your biggest day-to-day challenge right now?A: Right now, we’re going through an integration as a result of the recent merger, so trying to manage multiple priorities and strategic initiatives that include harmonization of existing programs between both companies that will ultimately enhance the employee experience and provide better health outcomes.Q: What about long-term challenges?A: I’m figuring out how we position ourselves as best-in-class from a benefits perspective. With all the new features out there and the trends that are in the market, you want to make sure you’re implementing programs that have engagement as well as quality outcomes.Q: What is your busiest time of year?A: The busiest time for me is March to June, doing the diligence review to prepare for recommendations for next year’s benefit programs. That time period could include RFP outcome reviews, pricing strategies, condition-management options, or adding and changing existing programs on the menu.Q: I’m sure you’re being pitched on a new platform or benefits idea all the time. How do you decide what’s worthwhile? A: Like most large companies, we work with brokers and consultants who help us do RFPs and wade through affordability and quality. But for benefits leaders, it boils down to what’s happening in your population and what do you need to help solve for your population. I don’t think one-size-fits-all if you’re seeing trends in things like cancer or [musculoskeletal conditions]. You need to bring in programs to help remedy and treat those and drive better outcomes. But cost is always a top concern and while you also want to manage what’s happening in your trends.Q: What are the best new ideas in benefits today?A: I think it’s on the wellness side of things. The challenge has been to get employees engaged in benefits not only when they need them or when they’re sick, but to get them engaged in the benefits when they’re well. So there are all kinds of wellness options out there from mental health to gym memberships to pilates classes.Q: What would have made this year more successful?A: More resources, I suppose. You can always offer new, more engaging benefits to the menu, and you can only do so much with a budget.Q: What made you successful this year? My team made this year a success. It’s not I, it’s we. I have a whole team of people that we collaborate and work with, and we wouldn’t be successful without them.Q: What are the most important skills on your team?A: I think they’re very detailed and analytical, and they’re great problem-solvers. You can present a strategy, but you have to have people who can pick it apart and go down to the details, find the issues, pinpoint the errors, isolate the gaps, and help bring solutions.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.(Featured illustration by Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock by Getty Images)

Hope for Cynics: How to Replace a Lack of Trust With “Hopeful Skepticism”

“I wrote this book because I needed it,” said renowned psychologist and author, Jamil Zaki, Ph.D. about his latest book, Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness. “I’ve been studying the science of kindness and empathy and connection for 20 years, and oftentimes people assume that must mean that I walk around blissed out by human goodness constantly. But the secret is that this entire time, I’ve tended towards cynicism,” Zaki said during a fireside chat at From Day One’s December virtual conference.In life and in work, cynicism is making us sick, but Zaki offers a cure. While cynicism is an understandable response to injustice and inequality, in many cases it is misplaced. Dozens of studies find that people fail to realize how kind, generous, and open-minded others really are. Dr. Zaki imparts the secret for beating back cynicism: “hopeful skepticism”–thinking critically about people and our problems while honoring and encouraging our strengths.“We are living through a quiet but devastating epidemic of cynicism,” Zaki told session moderator, Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, reporter at the Denver Post. In 1972, about half of Americans believed most people could be trusted. By 2018, only a third believed the same. He cites the financial collapse of 2008 as a time when our faith in institutions plummeted. “We are living in a trust deficit. When trust is depressed, cynicism rises. Cynicism is poisonous for our mental health, our physical health, relationships, our communities, including our businesses and organizations and our culture.”But not all hope is lost, cynicism is often just a mistake or a bias. “When you pay closer attention to the data, people tend to be more generous, trustworthy, open minded and kind than we realize,” Zaki said. That’s where his “hopeful skepticism” comes in—“acknowledging that oftentimes our bias means we underestimate each other and by connecting more with the data and with people in general, we can rebuild our sense of faith in each other and use that to fight for a future that more of us want.”Hopeful Skepticism in ActionThe difference between cynicism and skepticism is key. “Skeptics withhold their judgment and look for evidence,” Zaki said. And while optimism, in assuming a positive outcome, can lead to complacency, hope instead can inspire action. “Hope is the belief that things could improve, but that we don’t know that… the future is uncertain, and in that uncertainty, our actions matter.” Therefore, hopeful skeptics are data-driven and withhold assumptions, while knowing that people and situations can surprise us in a positive way.Jamil Zaki, Ph.D., Director of the Stanford Neuroscience Lab and Author, “Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness” was interviewed by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, Reporter, the Denver Post (photo by From Day One)At work, cynicism can be lethal, says Ulu-Lani Boyanton. “[There is] a heavy price for mistrust in a corporate environment.” The data shows that cynics are less likely to rise to positions of leadership, have poor morale, perform worse, and are less loyal to organizations. Cynicism spreads easily and having too many cynics at an organization can lead to a collapse of collaboration, innovation, and productivity. “Why take a risk if the person next to you would prefer to see you fail?” Zaki said. “Leaders need to be quite intentional about fostering trust and cooperation, because without that, our tendency is to focus more on the negative.”Political and social polarization can also breed cynicism. “Americans have lost contact with folks who are different from them. We no longer rub shoulders with people who are politically different from us. We’ve sorted so that we interact less with real folks we disagree with. So how do we know who they are?” Zaki said. We rely on media depictions for that information, and often it’s inaccurate. “We conjure up a version of people we disagree with that is quite frightening and quite wrong. And we miss out on the common ground.”This extends to workplace disagreements and divisions. “People stop talking with one another. They start to exaggerate the negative qualities of the other side. They start to think a ‘win’ on the other side is a ‘loss’ on their own. We focus so heavily on what separates us that we lose sight of all the things we have in common,” Zaki said. To solve this within the workplace, Zaki says, bring both sides together and have them list all the things they agree on and disagree on. They will be shocked at how the agreements outweigh the disagreements.Seeing Each Other More ClearlyIt’s incumbent on HR to help team members move past their own biases and internal disagreements. When Zaki surveys employees, he always finds that the vast majority want collaboration and trust to be at the center of their work, and that they also don’t realize that other folks want it too. “If you’re a leader, one way to fight cynicism is not to lie to people, but to tell them the truth and to show them the truth in as quantitative and specific a way as you can,” Zaki said.One way organizations can inspire collaboration, creativity, and trust, Zaki said, is by “rewarding people for not just their individual performance, but how they showed up for their colleagues.” Mission-driven companies like Patagonia or Cotopaxi, that are not only focused on product development but also “advancing a philosophy of caring, not just for ourselves, but for the planet” all speak to Zaki’s tenets of hopeful skepticism.He encourages organizations to invest in developing “soft skills,” or what he calls “human skills,” so that employees can get better at understanding themselves and others and communicate more effectively. Empathy and emotional intelligence are vital to success.Humans suffer from a negativity bias as part of an evolutionary response to physical threats. Noticing that knee jerk response within oneself is key to moving past it. “Being a hopeful skeptic can open us to incredible numbers of social opportunities, whether that’s pleasant conversations with strangers, bridging differences with people we disagree with, building relationships, friendships, collaborations, parenting more effectively, and building more trusting communities. And in all these cases, the steps are simple,” Zaki said. “I’m much more positive and hopeful since researching cynicism, because I realized how much of it is just an error, and that’s true in our politics, in our organizations, but just in our everyday lives as well. Hope is not naïve, it’s not privileged, it’s not toxic. It’s an adaptive and adaptable response to the best data that we have. We can fight for that better future together by seeing it more clearly.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.

By Katie Chambers | January 14, 2025

Developing Leaders Who Can Balance Productivity with Individuality

When Carlos Pardo joined Microsoft 20 years ago as an intern in sales, he knew his ultimate goal was to work in finance. So, he took a gamble and reached out to the CFO, Roberto Palmaka, and asked for a coffee meeting with the note, “I’d love to work for you one day.” Palmaka agreed. One coffee led to two, which led to three, and when a finance opportunity came up, Pardo was top of mind. Now as chief learning officer, Latin America at Microsoft, Pardo is responsible for helping workers navigate their own individual career paths and encouraging leaders to be as generous with their time, expertise, and resources as Palmaka, now a close friend, was to him.In managing a diverse and flexible workforce, today’s leaders need expertise well beyond their technical skills that got them into management roles. How can employers identify and develop leaders with the human insights, confidence and authority to make myriad decisions a day about the people they supervise? How can they set high expectations as well as embracing the individuality of team members? Pardo and other executive panelists tackled these questions at From Day One’s Miami conference.A Culture of Learning and CreativityEncouraging curiosity and professional development can help workers grow in a way that is unique to their own personalities and paths. At Microsoft, this is integral to the corporate values system. “Learning is a celebrated part of Microsoft’s culture and growth mindset,” said moderator Michael Butler, business reporter at the Miami Herald.“We look for everybody to be a learn-it-all versus a know-it-all,” said Pardo. The company promotes this through Learning Days, full days dedicated to professional development at whatever skill an employee chooses. Learning is also integrated into performance management systems, with the goal of having workers articulate lessons learned from both successes and setbacks.Along with encouraging learning, leaders should promote creativity to encourage individuality, in a way that is actionable and sustainable. “Most people think that creativity is about coming up with possibilities. It’s actually not just that. It’s at the intersection of possibility, constraint, and purpose,” said Steven Kowalski, principal, organization & learning evolution at Genentech. He suggests leaders “craft a purpose that’s both meaningful and durable and that has some tension in it.” Embracing Individuality and Fostering InclusionAI can provide transparency and empowerment when it comes to skills matching, career mapping, and professional development, driving employee engagement. Technology can help you understand the skills of current talent or potential candidates and match them with available roles within the organization, says Andrea Shiah, head of talent strategy and transformation at Eightfold. “When you give that transparency, suddenly your employees understand where they can go instead of having to know somebody or [already] understand roles across the organization,” Shiah said. “If you allow your employees to see that, they’re empowered to drive their career in whatever direction they want to go.”The executive panelists spoke about "Developing Leaders Who Can Balance Productivity with Individuality"This kind of transparency also has a marked impact on DEI. “Diversity really rises when it’s no longer who you know, but what you know,” Shiah said. Another way to foster inclusive leadership, says Abbe Partee, VP, head of certified learning and development at DHL Supply, is simple: “Understanding the importance and treating each of our people as humans.” DHL Supply makes this a core tenet of its leadership training program for frontline supervisors. “We’ve got such a diverse group in our workforce today that it’s really important that the people who lead the majority of our population know how to be good leaders and know how to be inclusive. Productivity is great, but that human side is absolutely first,” she said.Today’s multigenerational workforce poses unique challenges and opportunities. “This is the first time we’ve had five generations of people in our workforce,” said Rocki Rockingham, chief HR officer, GE Appliances. “Our frontline managers now need to be retrained and think differently about how they have workers who are Gen Zers or Millennials who want to work differently and who need different things and who have different expectations. When you create a learning environment, it has to be an environment where people learn the way they need to learn.”Supporting Long-term Career DevelopmentThese early career employees are especially invested in career development opportunities, so employers must keep innovating to attract and retain young talent. Partee says DHL Supply offers a platform called Career Marketplace, that shows employees all the training development opportunities and open roles in their area. “We also have extensive talent panels and employee development reviews,” she said. “We spend a lot of time each year talking about people and talking about their careers. How can we help them? How can we sponsor them to make sure that they can have a nice, successful space in DHL?”Genentech offers something similar, called Career Center. “This is founded on two core principles. One is [that] career development is actually part of your job, so you don’t have to sneak there during lunch or after work or before work. And then the career lab is not a place that’s focused on outplacement. It’s about positive internal development,” he said. Career consultants can meet with employees to discuss personalized next steps and guide them through internal learning and development initiatives.Microsoft too, Pardo says, offers internal mentorship programs, both as a way for younger employees to grow and for more senior employees to give back and share their talents. Optional projects are another “really powerful way to allow your employees to learn,” Shiah said, “in addition to just coursework.”Partee notes that junior employees need not just mentorship, but sponsorship. “A sponsor is someone who [speaks well] about you when you’re not in the room,” she said, noting that this is especially crucial for underrepresented groups who might need added support in those behind closed doors conversations. Employee resource groups (ERGs), Rockingham says, help expose diverse employees to those resources and empower them to follow up. “I encourage you [as leaders] to involve yourselves with different groups across your organization, because what it does is it provides exposure on a different level, so that you see people and that people see you,” she said.This all comes down, Kowalski says, to “a spirit of generosity.” Leaders and colleagues should be ready to support other people’s uniquely individual priorities, allowing everyone involved to grow. “To be a sponsor, to be a mentor, to be a coach means, in an organizational context, being generous with your time, with your wisdom, with your intuition, and with your social capital.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.

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