AT&T’s HR Chief on Career Growth: ‘There Are Opportunities for Everyone’

BY Nick Wolny | November 18, 2022

To stick around and climb the career ladder, employees have to know there’s one available in the first place.

That’s the takeaway from a conversation between Angela Santone, senior executive vice president of HR for AT&T, and Lydia Dishman, senior editor for growth and engagement at Fast Company, in a From Day One webinar on career growth as a strategy for employee retention.

To be sure, compensation matters. Nearly two out of three U.S. workers who left a job last year cited low pay as the top reason for doing so, according to Pew Research. With inflation at 40-year highs, macroeconomic headwinds are leading some employees to seek out better compensation opportunities.

The runner-up reason for departure, however, is something companies can prioritize in any economy. A third of respondents said the fact that their employer offered no opportunities for advancement was a “major” reason they left a job. Employees who perceive opportunities to learn and grow are nearly three times more likely to be engaged in their work, and 91% of them say it’s either “very” or “extremely” important that their manager encourage learning and experimentation, according to LinkedIn’s most recent Skills Advantage Report.

A lack of advancement opportunities stunts earning potential, noted Dishman. So how can stakeholders better cultivate opportunities for their employees–and bolster retention as a result? Santone is in a position to know, because her company is one of the best in the business in advancing its workers. What makes that happen? In the webinar, presented in partnership with the employee-coaching platform BetterUp, Santone offered her insights.

‘There Are Opportunities for Everyone’

Santone says she knows firsthand how powerful career-development infrastructure can be for retention and leadership. Prior to starting at AT&T in May 2019, Santone was an executive at Turner Broadcasting who had ascended from individual contributor to the head of HR over an 18-year period.

Speaking in a From Day One webinar: Angela Santone, top, senior executive vice president of HR for AT&T, and Lydia Dishman, senior editor for growth and engagement at Fast Company (Image by From Day One)

“I joke and say that I’ve been in HR for a hundred years,” she said. “So it’s been a long journey, but never boring. And now, transitioning from Turner to AT&T, it’s a totally different industry, and a great learning opportunity.” Santone notes that, if infrastructure isn’t yet available to them, employees and managers should proactively curate their own mentorship opportunities.

“I think about individuals that have been [my] formal mentors, but also the ones that have been informal mentors,” said Santone. “Even my mom. I learned from her to be independent, to have my own thought process, to be confident.”

But in the new hybrid workplace, mentorship is easier said than done. “How can [mentorship] possibly unfold in this era of work, where we are asynchronous?” asked Dishman. “Very, very small segments of industries are fully in-person, 100% of the time, working synchronously together. How does that even work now, in this hybrid job market?”

“I don’t know if I actually have the answer, because I think not many do,” said Santone. “But what worked 30 years ago doesn’t work today. Before, you could maybe get away with not having conversations with your employees face-to-face. Now, if you don’t schedule time with them to have a call, or a team meeting, you’re never going to know what they’re doing. You’re never going to know how they’re feeling. And those are the employees who are quick to look at other opportunities.”

“People leave managers, not companies,” she added.

AT&T appears to have mentorship and career mapping dialed in. The American Opportunity Index is a new measurement for corporate career advancement, co-published by the Burning Glass Institute, the Schultz Family Foundation, and Harvard Business School’s Managing the Future of Work Project. In it, the 250 largest public companies in America were ranked on criteria related to career growth, upward mobility, and compensation. AT&T came out on top for economic and job opportunity, just ahead of American Express and Cisco Systems.

“At AT&T, fewer than 5% of our positions require college degrees,” noted Santone. “We have over 20 programs that we offer to employees, and a continuous learning culture. There are opportunities for everyone.”

Sweat the Soft Stuff

Soft skills will likely appreciate in value in years to come, Santone said. Companies may want to take on-the-job, soft-skill development opportunities into consideration when weighing hybrid or remote-work policies.

“I worry a little bit about how we maintain the soft skills,” said Santone. “We put such a focus on technical skills, which is obviously incredibly important. I just want to make sure individuals have the ability to share their ideas, have conversations about their careers, and engage. A lot of the kids coming up already have the hard skills.” She said companies will need to pay more attention to how young employees interact interpersonally, and may need additional mentorship or development to close the gaps.

Volunteer work is a big part of the company’s employee engagement, including AT&T Believes, a program of grassroots initiatives to improve local communities (Company photo)

“It’s a skill in and of itself to build in an hour every day for focus time,” noted Dishman, “so that someone doesn't usurp your calendar and stick a meeting in there. I know my prime times for doing certain tasks, but not everybody knows that.” Dishman asked Santone how employees can better advocate for their own development when they’re not always sure what they need next.

Santone says it sometimes starts with saying no.

“No one is going to make you a priority, so first and foremost is having boundaries,” she said. “The older I get, the more I realize how important boundaries are. They matter. If you aren’t willing to set those boundaries, and you’re always saying yes to everything, it really cuts into your time to develop yourself and learn.”

Whether you’re advocating for your own career, or trying to build a culture that encourages your employees to do the same, Santone says leaning into proactive conversations is more important than ever for retention in a hybrid workforce.

“We don’t have a mentality of up-or-out,” said Santone. “When I joined AT&T three years ago, I was completely blown away by how many people come here and have so many different careers at the same company. I always tell the leaders that I talk to about that. You can either keep [employees] where they are, or they’re going to leave the company. If you think they’re that great, I think we want to keep them.”

Nick Wolny is a senior editor at NextAdvisor, in partnership with TIME. He has previously written for Fast Company, Fortune, Business Insider, Entrepreneur Magazine, and OUT Magazine, and was named a “40 under 40” by the Houston Business Journal in 2021.

Related Stories

Building a World of Accessible, Affordable Healthcare For All Women

Women’s health, once overlooked, is now receiving the attention it urgently needs. In response to growing demand, the Women's Health Coalition for Digital Solutions was formed to leverage technology and innovation, and to improve the accessibility and affordability of women’s care by working with employers to improve corporate benefits and workplace support.During a From Day One webinar, experts from the coalition and women’s health advocates discussed resources and solutions to ensure every woman has access to high-quality care tailored to her specific needs, focusing on virtual behavioral health, digital health solutions for women and families, personalized menopause care, 24/7 fertility and pregnancy support, and best practices to support women’s health and improve overall well-being.The Women’s Health Coalition for Digital Solutions was formed two years ago by partner organizations including: Ovia (pregnancy), Conceive (fertility), 30 Madison (reproduction), Evernow (menopause), Talkspace (mental health), FitOn (exercise), and Nutrium (nutrition). “All of these companies came together with a goal of creating access and creating affordability to close the gaps in women's health care,” said Natalie Cummins, chief business officer at online therapy tool, Talkspace.Among those gaps is the growing need for healthcare for women past reproductive age, as employees in their 40’s and 50’s become one of the largest demographics in the workforce. “The fastest growing benefit that [workplaces are] offering to employees right now is this menopause and perimenopause benefit. And they’re looking for something beyond just a conversation with a general practitioner–they’re looking for very deep clinical expertise that can continuously be high touch for this journey, because it really is a decades-long process,” said Dr. Alicia Jackson, CEO & founder of Evernow, which offers online menopause treatment. The cognitive symptoms of perimenopause can start as early as someone’s late 30’s or early 40’s, Jackson says, which can impact their work performance. “Their most severe symptoms are things like inability to focus, brain fog, and sleeplessness, which leads to fatigue and compound brain fog,” Jackson said. “The workplace dynamic gets pretty complicated, because it either looks like they’re not capable or they’re lacking engagement, when the real thing is that they’re going through this huge physiological change without any form of support.”Because of the stigma attached to menopause and aging, women have been afraid to speak about it, especially when facing the glass ceiling at work. Providing women with the tools they need to navigate this hormonal transition, which often happens right as they hit the peak of their leadership years at work, can support their career longevity.Providing Mental Health SupportParticularly post-pandemic, mental health benefits are also becoming a popular option. “This is more than just a women’s issue,” adds moderator Tricia Schmidt, SVP, senior healthcare strategist at Alliant. “It’s more of a family issue,” she said.And indeed, mental health support is essential across all genders, ages, and cultural demographics. Cummins highlights five key mental health trends to consider when planning benefits.First, emotional burnout and the mental health toll of caring for a family are significant challenges, especially for women. Second, hormone fluctuations can have a major impact on mental health, particularly in relation to conception, pregnancy, and menopause.Third, there has been a huge increase in anxiety and depression, which are the top two concerns clients seek help for on Talkspace. Fourth, there is growing acceptance of women speaking publicly about trauma and PTSD. Finally, digital options now provide convenient, 24/7 access to mental health support.Panelists spoke about "Building a World of Accessible, Affordable Healthcare For All Women," during the webinar moderated by Tricia Schmidt of Alliant (photo by From Day One)For all benefits, but especially those related to mental health, immediate access is crucial. “To be able to send a text message to my therapist when I can’t sleep at two in the morning is great because. There are studies that show that [opportunity to get something off my chest] relieves anxiety and probably will put me to sleep, even without a response at the moment,” Cummins said. Talkspace has 6,000 providers across all 50 states and matches a patient with a provider within 24 hours of initial intake. The digital benefits are always there but need to stay top of mind for patients to use them. Cummins says it all comes down to consistent communication and awareness. “We can’t just stop at one-time awareness or a one-time message. It needs to be a true campaign around women’s health and all the aspects around a women’s life cycle,” Cummins said.Incorporating Inclusive Reproductive Healthcare for EmployeesGiven the volatile political landscape in the United States, reproductive healthcare is top of mind for many employees. “What we hear from our patients is widespread uncertainty: uncertainty around access to critical services, and also uncertainty around how to access accurate information,” said Rajani Rao, chief business officer at Nurx, an online platform offering birth control, skincare products, weight management solutions, and more.Nurx is listening to both clinical experts and patients through surveys and direct conversations to understand how best to support them. “27% of women are not confident that their right to use contraception is secure. More than half of women surveyed are concerned about a national abortion ban, and 43% of women are concerned about changes in the state-level abortion restrictions. Just shy of 50% are concerned about more limited access to their [preferred] choice of contraceptive care, and 43% are concerned about changes to insurance coverage for contraception,” Rao said. “That, for us, is additional fuel for how we drive access.”Given the highly localized nature of some of the restrictions, telehealth may become increasingly critical in providing access to reproductive care. “For HR, when you have to manage a program across 50 states with different mandates and different laws, having a strong provider that can provide these services digitally helps you make sure that your employees have coverage,” Schmidt said.Increased Accessibility For AllDigital solutions have more expansive options for follow-ups, allowing patients access to doctors beyond the standard once-per-year consultation that may last only a few minutes. “[Evernow does] a full consultation, but then we also have unlimited care follow up, similar to Talkspace, where you can text your doctor anytime you could do a video visit,” Jackson said. Patients have the freedom to get their questions answered as they pop up any time along their healthcare journey.  Cummins emphasizes the importance of having a strong navigation tool so employees can easily access all the benefits on offer. “When we have healthy minds, we have healthier bodies, we’re more present, we’re less absent, we’re more satisfied,” Cummins said, so providing a benefits navigation tool will impact all areas of business. In terms of measuring ROI, Cummins points to “absenteeism, presenteeism, work satisfaction, retention, and turnover” as stats to measure in relation to the implementation of a new benefits program. Ultimately, providing comprehensive health benefits for women is a way of ensuring economic parity. “In a year, women will have $15 billion more out-of-pocket expenses in the U.S. compared to their male colleagues,” Cummins said. “And so providing these digital solutions, it’s a really important gateway for accessibility and affordability for support.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talkspace, for sponsoring this webinar. 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.(Photo by gorodenkoff/iStock)

Katie Chambers March 06, 2025

Aligning Learning Programs With Business Strategy for Global Workforce Agility

Businesses are placing more demands on learning and development teams, says Jamie O’Brien, AVP of learning and development at investment platform Voya Financial. Most importantly, “keeping learners engaged in a rapidly changing environment, and aligning our learning programs with our business objectives,” she said during a From Day One webinar. The pace of change gets faster every year.“We’re no longer designing and delivering training solutions just for different adult learning styles, but also for virtual and hybrid work environments, with rapidly changing technology, and for five generations of workers,” she said.Voya’s learners are increasingly seeking an experiential environment. They don’t want to sit through lectures, O’Brien says. “They want to do it. They want to try it. They want to feel it. They want to feel like they’ve been prepared and they’re confident in their ability to come out of training and then go do their roles.”Fellow panelist Tim Gerrits agreed: Leaders in L&D now do much more than transfer information. Gerrits is the the head of learning and leadership development at pharmaceutical company AbbVie, thinks about application most of all.“As it becomes easier to find whatever snippet of knowledge you need, that’s no longer the real crux of success for organizations,” he said. “It’s not putting information into people’s heads, it’s how you get that information back out and change behavior.” Lynnette Collins, head of global L&D at office furniture manufacturer Steelcase, identified the “most difficult part, and the most critical part,” of her job: “Making the connection between those goals, our learning experiences, and key performance indicators.” Who completed the training and when is not nearly as relevant to the executives as how they’re helping the business grow.Yet it’s not easy to demonstrate the value of L&D, said Ken Matos, director of market insights at HiBob, an HR management platform. Returns may not happen right away and even if they do, learners may need help identifying just how they’re applying their new skills. As businesses become more complex, so do learning outcomes, and measurement follows suit.Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the panel of experts (photo by From Day One)Ultimately, leaders have to be able to feel the difference, not just see it on paper, says Matos. “Being able to change the stakeholders’ impression of what’s happening in the organization is one of your best, most accessible outcomes, because they are the ones who said it was a problem to begin with. And if they’re not feeling that problem anymore, you have succeeded. Being able to articulate that back to them is a really powerful message.”At AbbVie, Gerrits invites those leading business functions to observe learning in progress at assessment centers. “They see what we’re doing and the transformation that’s taking place with participants, and that gives them confidence that what we’re doing–not only in that assessment center, but overall–is important for the organization.”When Steelcase’s new CEO Sara Armbruster took the role three years ago, “she introduced a long-term strategy for growth, which was new for us in the organization,” Collins said. In the first year, Collins’s team contacted the top 400 global leaders in the company to ask what skills and behaviors they believe are necessary to achieve those new goals, and what might get in the way.“At first, our measurement was really around improving leader perception on how we perform these transformation behaviors,” Collins said. “But now we’re going a bit deeper, because we want to connect it to performance. Ultimately, we want these behaviors to become the way we work to achieve our results.”O’Brien knows her L&D programs are really working when they create a buzz, and managers–or individual contributors–come asking to participate or partner in the design. She knocks on doors, too, to find out whether teams feel that they’re benefitting. If they don’t seem engaged, “that’s a chance for me to ask questions about what their goals are and get closer to what it is that we can deliver.”Business goals can change quickly–just think of how many employers rushed to incorporate some kind of AI into their workflows–and priorities may migrate up or down the list. To stay relevant, L&D needs to change along with them.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, HiBob, for sponsoring this webinar. 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, Inc., Quartz, Business Insider, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza January 29, 2025

Redefining Skills: How Skills Assessment Data Can Give You The Strategic Advantage

Organizations are embracing AI and cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize skills assessment, unlocking powerful insights that drive competitive advantage. With 90% of companies expecting a major shift in required skills within the next three years, staying ahead has never been more critical.Using new technology, organizations can effectively diversify their skills assessment data collection. More efficiently than before, companies can identify leadership and talent skills for talent acquisition, personalized learning, reskilling, succession planning, and internal mobility.During a From Day One webinar, a panel of talent and learning and development leaders shared their experiences of implementing a variety of skills assessments to measure skills, reskill, and improve employee performance.Using Assessments to Propel Workers ForwardLucy Beaumont, a solution lead, manager and leader at SHL, shared three ways most organizations collect data The first is using a form of self-report, manager report, or 360 assessment to obtain subjective data. Next, AI data assessments quickly and objectively sort and analyze internal data to measure and summarize employees’ current skills, skill gaps, and potential. Lastly, personalized behavioral assessments thoroughly uncover an employee or leader’s current strengths and skill gaps.Erin Freshwater, head of learning, talent, and organizational development at Hormel Foods, described the company’s innovative approach to collecting personalized skills assessment data. “Fom our leadership pipeline perspective, it’s been really important that we understand what are the skills that our leaders have in order to lead our teams and our organization into the future,” Freshwater said.Hormel Foods takes their officer-level group through 8-hour-long simulations. Then, psychologists assess their leadership skills. They identify the group’s skill gaps, assess them, give feedback to leadership development, and implement them into development programs for future company leadership.The panelists discussed "Redefining Skills: How Skills Assessment Data Can Give You The Strategic Advantage" during the webinar (photo by From Day One)Stephanie Ketron, head of learning and development director at Westgate Resorts, spoke about using data-driven and personalized assessments. First, the company assesses an employee’s inventory of skills. After their skills are rated, they proceed to individual curriculums based on their skill sets.Leaders then review an employee’s skill gaps identified through their individual assessment and design a personalized development plan tailored to their needs. Ketron emphasized the importance of avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach, noting that even employees in the same role may possess different skill sets.Westgate Resorts has seen this data-driven and personalized skill assessment approach achieve positive business outcomes. However, traditional self-report assessments still create efficient data that can be combined with data from other assessments later on.Julian Allen, director of global talent management at MiTek, discussed the continuing effectiveness of 360 assessments. After creating a strategic plan with company leaders, MiTek refers to external resources to pinpoint the skills needed to achieve business outcomes. Then, by using 360 assessments, they create individual employee development programs to learn the necessary skills.The personalization of these programs is evident, initially only for employees to progress in their internal mobility without input from managers. Now, MiTek is shifting to using 360 assessments for overall talent planning.Ultimately, companies using a variety of assessments improve their hiring processes, Allen says. “So be that job simulations, personality assessments, and multiple different tools that are out there, I think that gives us additional data to make an informed decision,” he said.Skills for Future-Proof JobsWhat are other factors employers consider when determining the specific skills employees should learn? How are employers building roadmaps for employees to learn those skills to advance in their careers?SHL provides data-driven insights to help organizations enhance their hiring, development, and talent mobility strategies. Drawing from client feedback, SHL highlights that reskilling is a critical need across all industries. Beaumont says that reskilling has become a common priority for SHL clients, particularly as industries evolve and integrate new technologies.“As soon as you start your job, it’s going to change and you’re going to have to learn something new. And then from an L&D perspective, we’re just constantly trying to get people up to speed. Whether it’s with new technologies or new ways of working,” Beaumont said.Soft skills are still relevant. However, they are developed differently. Ketron expressed how emotional and cultural intelligence or interpersonal relationship skills are crucial. Yet, these skills aren’t quantifiable. “I think sometimes those are a lot harder as a skill set to kind of measure and determine, and we put very clear behavioral identifiers to those,” she said.Paul Jung, senior director of people experience at Optum, emphasized the significance of technological skills in the healthcare organization. Their clinical key talent group sets a precedent for existing and incoming talent.Using AI, Optum assesses the entirety of company data to identify skill opportunities and gaps, aligning them with business goals, and creating talent pipelines. As AI serves an integral role in managing mass employee data, personalization and a humanistic approach to other skill development remains a necessity. “They don’t want the machines to tell them where they should go next,” Jung said.For example, at Hormel, employees work with a coach for 6-9 months after completing their behavioral assessments. This has proven effective for the company, Freshwater says. Therefore, data-driven skills assessments with peer and leader mentorship for soft skills continue to achieve better business outcomes.Moderator Lydia Dishman, senior editor at Fast Company, summarized using hard data with human mentorship to redefine skills and boost development. “You do need the human component, but you do have this partnership with artificial intelligence in order to put whatever you’re doing up a notch,” Dishman said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.

Stephanie Reed January 28, 2025