When disaster strikes, will your employees be able to handle the unexpected expenses, even relatively small ones? Many probably cannot, as research by the Federal Reserve has shown. In light of this, employers who don’t want their workers’ lives to be upended by natural disasters and other emergencies have increasingly turned to a relatively new kind of employee benefit: employee relief funds, which give out cash grants to help workers get through their crises.

Events including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina provided the inspiration to develop such benefits, a need now underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in extreme-weather events. A From Day One webinar last week explored how companies can launch employee relief funds (ERFs), how they work, and how they’ve had an outsized impact in helping workers and their families. Highlights of the conversation:

“Our mission at Truist is to inspire and build better lives and communities,” said Lynette Bell, president of the Truist Foundation, the charitable arm of Charlotte-based Truist Financial Corp. “That applies to those 50,000 employees. We want to ensure that they have the opportunity to thrive.” In partnership with E4E Relief, Truist has raised funds, some donated by employees, to help workers in distress pay for essentials like food and emergency home repairs.

Leading with Compassion

A key component of creating safety nets for employees during emergencies is compassion in the face of the unexpected, says Holly Welch Stubbing, CEO of E4E Relief. “We were committed very early on creating a mantra around compassion, readiness and excellence, trying to treat people well because they are in the most difficult moment–maybe in some cases–in their lives,” she told moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company.

By helping employees in a jam, companies can benefit in terms of goodwill, building a sense of unity and purpose in the workforce and the communities they reside in. “Corporate America, their greatest asset is their people,” said Stubbing. When those people have a flooded basement because of a hurricane, or a loss of income from a furlough, they will long appreciate that their employer had their back. “Things happen to us as we live every day,” said Bell. “We want to make sure that when those catastrophic or unexpected things happen in life, this organization is there to support them.”

How Does It Work Exactly?

Companies looking to provide such a benefit for their employees often turn to non-profit partners like E4E to administer the funds, which are set up according to tax codes that allow the relief money to be distributed on a tax-free basis. Working in a partnership, the companies and nonprofits are able to assess needs and design programs to fit the companies and individuals, sometimes focused on a particular situation. One such example is the Brave of Heart Fund for families of frontline health-care workers who have lost their lives battling the coronavirus.

A key feature of such funds is that workers take part in the funding. At Truist, employees can donate to relief funds directly and the company may donate an additional $4 for every $1 an employee donated. “So what you're creating there, hopefully, if it's run well, is a virtuous cycle, where programs are funded in large part by employees themselves, to help their fellow employees and their peers. And then grants are awarded to those same employees in a charitable way with the best tax impacts possible,” said Stubbing.

Rallying the Right Team

In leading the creation of such programs, an emphasis should be put on diversity and the inclusion of new perspectives, our panelists said. “I think we've gotten smarter about asking the right questions up front and knowing who to bring to the table earlier rather than later,” said Stubbing. “I think when we first started we were afraid to do that, to be honest, because we were just a charity, but it's really important that we get the right players early on.”

How long does the setup process take? “Maybe there's been a [factory] that got entirely wiped out by a hurricane and they want to do something now, now, now,” said Stubbing. However, “there is a balance between quality and efficiency and I think companies that put leadership like Lynette in place understand that balance and they understand that you have to have both things at the same time. Those are the best people to work with,” Stubbing said of Bell’s role at Truist.

Leadership can come from unexpected places as well. Bell mentioned engaging with community leaders, nonprofits and those with the finger on the pulse of communities at the center of crises. When these leaders are engaged and on board, the fundraising response has been overwhelming, she said. When tornadoes hit Tennessee this spring, one team raised $370,000 in a relief fund for those whose homes were destroyed.

“And guess what? That was during the time of our 4-1 match,” said Bell. “Those employees really rallied into that.”

The Importance of Stories

When it comes to helping employees within your organization, a simple way to build morale in tough times is through sharing success stories, our panelists said.

“The first week of us unveiling the Truist Cares initiative for COVID, an employee's husband got laid off right away, and their mortgage payment was due,” said Bell. Their relief fund was able to help this employee quickly. “It felt easy and seamless to them. They got their money five days later and paid their mortgage.”

E4E Relief shares uplifting stories like this on its website as well, highlighting ways that employees have bounced back after natural disasters including earthquakes and hurricanes.

More is surely on the way. “The predictions are that it's going to be a very active season with four major hurricanes this year,” said Stubbing. “They're predicting 16 named storms, eight hurricanes, and four of those to be major hurricanes. And that gives you a 69% chance that a major hurricane will hit the US coastline.”

Rallying employees to donate to these funds not only gives them a stake in their own safety nets, but empowers them to help their peers as well. Said Stubbing: “While companies are wrestling with their own revenue and their own financial challenges, you still see them trying to find ways to fund [relief efforts] in conjunction with all of the other things that they're trying to do for the employees.”

Editor’s note: You can watch a playback of the webinar here and check out upcoming events on our website.

Mimi Hayes is a New York-based author, comedian, and assistant director of content at From Day One. You can read her work at mimihayes.com, check out her podcast "Mimi and The Brain," or find her first book, a comedic memoir about her traumatic brain injury on Amazon.

Innovative and Engaging Approaches for Leadership Development

“The war for talent is over, and talent won.”This was a quote that resonated with Miguel Oliveira, senior HR director supporting the brand management and marketing teams at Danone North America, he said during a recent From Day One webinar.Leaders are now being evaluated “not only on the results they bring to the business, but on results from engagement, well-being, and retention,” he told moderator Lydia Dishman during a From Day One webinar about supporting tomorrow’s leaders.Amanda Grow, director of customer success for ETU, says the company has leadership training programs centered on skills related to values such as authenticity and courage, emotional intelligence, and psychological safety.“I always want to see inclusive and emotionally intelligent leaders, because that really does have a major impact on every organization and your culture and what you're trying to instill in your employees,” said Grow.Things have changed tremendously in the workforce in recent years, which impacts what leadership looks like, says Johann Laville, the chief learning officer at Merck.Remote work is becoming more commonplace, the workforce is younger and more diverse, and “technology is driving our future at light speed,” he said. As a result, leaders are listening more and focusing more on leading with humility, he says.Tips for Training Future LeadersEarly talent programs are a way companies can develop future leaders, says Minh Pham-Costello, vice president of business management at Santander. Employees can get an endorsement from their manager when applying.It’s crucial to make sure the employee is committed to the program “because sometimes you push programs to people and they either don’t have the capacity or the desire,” Pham-Costello said. It is also important to have programs that cater to senior leaders’ professional development needs.Programs for future leaders shouldn’t be one size fits all, according to Grow.“It’s great to have a global skill set that we’re trying to adhere to, but we also need to dig down and go to the level deeper and really understand how those skills show up at different role levels, different proficiency levels, and more, so that you really can personalize some of the training,” said Grow. For example, a senior leader who takes a junior-level course probably won’t find it engaging.The panel of leaders spoke about "Supporting Tomorrow's Leaders: Innovative and Engaging Approaches for Leadership Development" (photo by From Day One)Oliveira compared leadership training to trying to teach someone how to ride a bike. You can have trainees watch a movie on how to do it or “put them on a bike and have someone hold the bike to let them understand how it works,” he said.When exposing employees with leadership potential to management fundamentals, “It’s really important to create ways and mechanisms to give them visibility to what it looks like without the responsibility of leading someone directly,” Oliveira said. “I still see today many people stepping into their first managerial leadership opportunity and they still lack those fundamentals, and unfortunately, those suffering are those reporting to the individual.”How Employees Can Demonstrate Leadership SkillsAlthough organizations are investing in leadership development more than ever before, individuals still need to take the initial steps toward getting to the next level, says Pham-Costello.“Of course, other people can help you, but when you take the initiative with your career, you are not only developing your skill but also showing the organization that you are committed to the company and to your growth,” she said.Business resource groups (BRG) are essential when it comes to leadership development, says Pham-Costello. A BRG “gives you that visibility. People see you leading and influencing.”Laville said Merck has a true gig economy. This means if an employee wants to demonstrate their capability of being an effective leader and there’s something they are passionate about – whether it’s a topic, division, or product – they can apply internally, be interviewed, and be selected.That employee would then have support from the leader who releases them into the gig and the leader who would accept them “to come in and provide a new value,” Laville said.Seeking mentorship is another way for those who wish to be leaders to get to that level. Mentors are “subject matter experts that you can have some really open conversations with to help guide you on that path,” he said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, ETU, for sponsoring this webinar.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.

Redefining Recruitment: The Advantages and Challenges of Skills-Based Hiring

The HR industry is abuzz with a new phrase, “skills-based hiring,” but according to recent research, relatively few employers are actually following through with it. Why the gap? One major factor is inertia–hiring managers just keep doing what they’ve done in the past.For companies that hire white-collar workers, employers have been slow to look past four-year degree requirements and Fortune 500 employment pedigrees. Even for frontline workforces, where four-year degrees aren’t typically required, hiring managers may favor familiar brand-name employers, specific training programs, or familiar resume histories. The results are much the same.Now, companies are turning their attention to skills-based hiring in which capabilities and potential are given greeter credence than any professional pedigree. How skills-based hiring and talent management affects the frontline workforce was the topic of discussion during a recent From Day One webinar on the advantages and challenges of skills-based hiring.Getting Started With Skills-Based HiringNicole DeLue joined DISH Network, the satellite TV company, about nine months ago. As the new head of talent acquisition and frontline recruiting, one of her first projects has been overhauling the company’s recruitment process. Not an easy feat for a company that hires more than 800 locations. To boot, DISH hadn’t updated its hiring practices in two decades. Her goal has been to update the process into one that prioritizes skills and potential over employment history.Up against a stale process and long-held habits, DeLue evaluated the entire employee experience from application to talent development. “It was important for me to peel back the layers for the end-to-end candidate and employee lifecycle,” she said. “I wanted to take a deep dive and understand, what are we attracting for? How are we evaluating those skills? And are we actually developing those skills? Is what we’re attracting and qualifying candidates for is what we’re actually developing? Are employees being evaluated on the skills they’re being hired for?”The move to skills-based hiring helps level the playing field for applicants, and for the business, it helps solve the ongoing problem of talent scarcity. “The workforce has really changed over the past couple of years,” said panelist Lori Mix, SVP of talent acquisition at customer experience outsourcing company ibex. “Some specialized areas, like healthcare and finance, have moved to the skills space because there just aren’t enough workers.”Prioritizing skills and potential is also good for the bottom line, Mix pointed out, because it equips the company to grow and adapt in the future. “We want to have choices and give people opportunities to come into the company,” she said. “And as we grow, and are solving our customers’ hiring problems, we want to put people in that are going to be good leaders down the road. So we have to make sure we’re hiring the right skill set from the get-go.”Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza spoke with Dan Sapir of JobGet, Nicole DeLue of DISH Network, and Lori Mix of ibex during the From Day One webinar (photo by From Day One)Dan Sapir, general manager of frontline job platform JobGet, says this new approach to hiring has proven to motivate and energize a part of the workforce whose upward career potential has long been limited. “What we see in our own ecosystem is that as we expose job seekers to jobs that they had no clue they’d be a good fit for, they’re more excited to apply. They’re more excited when they go through the application process. And when they talk to the hiring team, they come off more personable. And because they’re more excited about that role, they stick around for a longer time.”Breaking Old Hiring Habits to Find the Best CandidatesSkills-based hiring is still a relatively new practice for many organizations, and many recruiting leaders have a long road of habit-breaking ahead of them.DeLue found that hiring managers at DISH were so involved in the hiring process, some were even reviewing resumes. Not only is that a time-waster, it can bias the managers, who may be inclined to evaluate candidates on past employers or jobs rather than future potential.Now, she’s waiting until the interview stage to show candidate profiles to hiring managers, and they’ve experimented with removing candidates’ names and previous employers altogether.“There are so many different ways that you can do it, but I think that it boils down to instilling confidence in your customer,” she said. “It’s about getting alignment on the skills you’re screening for, and not the profile. The minute that you let [managers] go back to ‘they worked at this company, and we just had five people a trip from that company,’ you’re going to get in that vicious cycle.”At ibex, Mix uses resumes to start conversations that can help her evaluate sought-after skills. For instance, she doesn’t let an employment gap disqualify an applicant. “There are so many life events and real-world issues driving reductions in force and employment gaps. I want to leverage the interview by focusing on what their attitude is on overcoming all those challenges,” she said. The company needs people who are good at problem-solving, are quick thinkers, have good attitudes, and possess the flexibility to overcome challenges—these aren’t skills that can be deduced from employment history.Skills-based hiring expands the internal talent pool as well, making it easier for the company to recruit and retain from within. To this end, ibex has coaching and mentorship programs that open workers to new jobs and careers with the company. “Our frontline workforce understands that they can take different paths,” Mix said. “They can pursue the leadership trajectory or they can be a subject matter expert, but either way, you know that there’s growth potential.”In frontline jobs, where turnover is typically quite high, giving workers the opportunity to move around can keep them there for longer. Career growth is a retention strategy, JobGet’s Sapir says. “There are a lot of job seekers that have transferable skills from one role to the next, and the more you can encourage them to look at other opportunities that they could be a great fit for, it actually helps make your company sticky.”Sapir pointed out that as promising as skills-based hiring is, workers and job seekers aren’t accustomed to this new way of doing things. Used to traditional job requirements, they may be self-selecting out of great positions, so companies need to budge their audience, he said. “You want to encourage more people that, if you think you’re a good fit for some of this stuff, please apply.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, JobGet, 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, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Transforming Your Organization into a Skills-Based Powerhouse

“Skills-based hiring allows us to focus on making better hiring decisions based on actual skills rather than subjective factors,” said Kristen Baller, head of talent acquisition at satellite provider DISH Network. “Traditional hiring practices often favor candidates who have specific educational backgrounds or tenure with [brand-name] companies. Moving to this model helps mitigate that bias. It allows employees to showcase their capabilities that could directly impact the roles and the requirements of a job.”Baller is part of a growing number of employers making skills-based hiring and promotion a priority. According to LinkedIn’s Future of Recruiting 2024 report, 73% of hiring professionals say skills-based hiring is a priority. Further, between 2019 and 2022, the number of companies that omit degree requirements from job postings increased 36%.There are many advantages to adopting a skills-based mentality: It grows the applicant talent pool based on relevant rather than arbitrary factors, it can improve the quality of hire, and it can promote internal mobility, giving workers a reason to invest in their own skill development and to stick with a company longer.“The importance of having consistency and scalability is important to any recruiting process,” said Kristen Cooper, head of North America solutions consulting at recruiting tech platform SHL. For skills-based hiring, “it comes down to the requirements of the job on day one versus what an organization can train its new hires on. A huge part of this is branding and marketing. It’s so important when a candidate reads a job description that it actually reflects what they’re going to be doing.”Cooper and Baller were part of an expert panel at From Day One’s webinar on how to transform an organization into a skills-based powerhouse. The group spoke about changing the hearts, minds, and processes that undergird this progressive new attitude toward workforce development.How to Break Old Habits and Adopt a Skills-Based ModelShifting to a skills-based hiring approach is easier said than done. Job descriptions, processes, evaluations, interviews, scoring, and even tech platforms have to be reimagined. It helps to involve hiring managers in the planning, and in doing so, begin challenging biases and breaking old habits.Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the webinar about "Transforming Your Organization Into a Skills-Based Powerhouse" (photo by From Day One)“We’re really focusing on internal mobility and standing up practices like workshops and lunch-and-learns across the organization,” Baller said. “We invite our executive leadership to talk about the organization and the work they’re doing, but really, we ask them to focus on the skills and competencies that individuals need. That triggers the individuals attending these lunch-and-learns to think about what skills they possess that could transition into another job.” People leave the sessions energized and able to envision career opportunities they had never considered, she says.Redesigning Candidate Assessment ToolsFor many, retooling hiring practices will include new modes of screening candidates’ capabilities. The New York Times is one employer building its own assessment tools. Monica Parodi, the Times’ VP of talent acquisition, described how constructive it’s been to have those already in the organization assist with skills-based methodology and assessments.“We just finished building an iOS and an Android assessment. In recruiting, we don’t have that technical knowledge. There are great vendors and tools out there, but it’s also great when you can take your in-house talent and allow them to be a part of building that interview plan. We had them build in the ability to test their iOS-building skills and their Android skills and their coding abilities. They’re the ones who know what skills are needed to complement their team.”Not everyone will have the funds or in-house capabilities to invest in proprietary tech, but everyone can get the teams involved in identifying new capabilities that need to be added.Parodi is clear that making the change, and even implementing skills-based hiring, is an arduous undertaking. It requires forming new habits, conducting deeper and more critical research on roles, and writing requisitions differently. The process is a tough one, but a lucrative one. “That’s one thing about skills-based hiring in general: It’s a lot more work on the front end, but the rewards are worth that return on investment.”Powering Skills-Based MobilityAssisted by technology, employers are also reaping the benefits of skills-based hiring for upskilling, reskilling, and internal mobility. “Companies tend to be pretty excited about the ability to bring some science and precision to that whole process,” said Cooper of SHL.“We realized a couple of years ago that there are some pretty big gaps in the market for the talent that we need,” said Angie Lombardo, the VP of talent acquisition at engineering consultancy Arcadis. “So, we started researching different technologies that could assist us in the process. We decided to invest in a skills-powered AI tool.”Employees create a profile, and the platform helps them identify career paths and options within the company based on their skills and interests. “It helps people kind of see, ‘Oh, I could probably do this job; I never thought about it before.”Lombardo recognized that the company’s internal mobility rates were low, largely due to lack of communication, which is a challenge in a large organization with so many business units. “The right hand is often not talking to the left hand,” she described. “You have someone who has this specific experience in water or wastewater, for example, and they really want to do something in a different business area, but the divisions don’t talk to each other. They have transferable skills, but the visibility isn’t there.”Skills-Based Hiring as a Tool for Business Growth and Employee RetentionPrioritizing skills has significant implications for internal growth and mobility too. “It’s much more cost-effective to move an internal employee into a role than to have to [resort] to external hiring practices,” said Baller. “When we move to focusing on skills-based hiring over traditional qualifications, it enhances internal mobility opportunities across the organization. It promotes a more dynamic and flexible workforce where individuals are not limited by their job title or their background.”Mapping career paths and connecting the nodes with skills can help workers envision an enriching future with the company. At business consulting firm Slalom, senior director of talent acquisition Laura Sullivan is using a talent module to support internal moves.“It does a really lovely job of showing the jungle gym that your career could be at Slalom. Each level has skills and roles that are associated with it, and it helps people to see, ‘I have this skill right now, and these other roles also include these skills, so I could take my career in this direction by earning these certifications, or by potentially working on certain types of projects.’”Sullivan pointed out that skills-based career movement is especially valuable in the consulting industry, where employees are already placed on projects based on their skills and capabilities. “When people roll off a project, they’re on our bench, and the bench is a great time for people to upskill. We invest in certifications, training, and workshops to help people take on bench projects. They can learn how to help with RFPs, for instance, if that’s a skill that they don’t have yet. It’s a great way for us to give people new opportunities, and help them fill any gaps that they might have in their experience.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, 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, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

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