In today’s competitive job market, attracting and retaining top talent goes beyond offering standard benefits packages. To build a truly inclusive and diverse workforce, companies must evolve their approach to employee benefits, ensuring they meet the unique needs of various demographics.

This was the focus of a recent panel at From Day One’s NYC Benefits Conference, where five panelists shared how inclusive benefits—from financial wellness programs to wellness initiatives—are key to fostering a thriving, diverse workforce. Kelsey Butler, equality reporter at Bloomberg, moderated the session.

Regular Benefits Audits

On a yearly basis leaders at Wolters Kluwer conduct benefits audits. This ensures that what they are doing is working, but it also brings up what they might need more support in. This is at the core of inclusivity and retention—keeping up with what a diverse workforce actually wants.

We really saw so much connection between benefits and wellness and DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging). So we work hand in hand, and it's very fluid, very integrated,” said Deb Foley, director of DEIB at Wolters Kluwer.

One big consideration is being inclusive across generations. As Foley pointed out, this is the first time ever there have been six generations in the workforce together. Each generation faces its own set of challenges.

Recently, they introduced a new benefit that will help younger employees who are entering the workforce get a jumpstart on their finances as they start their careers. “For those employees who are currently paying off student loans, they can get matched,” she said. Typically a company match is only for retirement benefits, but now they are applying that to student loans. “This is a huge benefit for our employees, and has been really well received.” And it’s all because they proactively sought the data and responded to what employees needed.

“It’s about doing the right thing for our employees, not necessarily because it’s going to check a box or because it’s going to make us look good. It’s about doing the right thing,” Foley said.

Kelsey Butler, equality reporter at Bloomberg, right, moderated the executive panel discussion

At the same time, it’s also important to notice things employees need that they aren’t necessarily asking for. At Wolters Kluwer, they’ve realized the importance of wellness so employees can have a good quality of life.

“We have really amped up our whole wellness,” said Foley. “We rolled out a Wellness Week [and we use our] employee networks. We have several of them as well to actually share their stories.” The focus on wellness, along with sharing stories, has been a great motivator for employees in their own journeys all while promoting inclusivity among workers.

Employee Business Networks

With 50,000 employees, most of them frontline workers, Quest Diagnostics works to meet the needs of a diverse population. They’ve launched 11 Employee Business Networks (EBNs) to meet employees where they are and promote wellness and diversity.

These EBNs cater to various groups, with thousands of employees involved nationwide. The result? Inclusivity and retention. “Our employees want to talk to each other,” said Gillian Plummer, director of employee health and wellness at Quest Diagnostics. “I’ve had employees laughing, crying, venting, and it just personalizes that experience and includes that employee within the company and conversation. It’s been a really big success for us over the last year and a half.”

As for making the most of benefits, Quest is also focusing on preventative care, launching its Blueprint for Wellness that screens over 100 biomarkers and offers a health risk assessment for employees. The data gathered helps the company know what to offer that will best help employee populations.

“Our highest costs at Quest are oncology and type two diabetes. So that is something we’re focused on. How do we change behavior in chronic conditions and use data to inform that?” she asked. Many times, employees don’t even realize the benefits offered, so companies must keep them informed.

Quest recently held a Health and Wellness Summit, with input from executives, middle management, and frontline workers to select wellness programs. They invited eleven wellness organizations to headquarters to identify which benefits to offer employees.

Interestingly, of all the offerings, employees overwhelmingly chose Weight Watchers. “This was so fascinating,” Plummer said. “We have a 63% engagement rate for Weight Watchers. Our population's 80% female, and that right there was missing at Quest.”

Attracting and Retaining with Benefits

As life continues to get more expensive, employees are asking their employers to do more. Benefits are more important than ever. In fact, 38% of employees would consider moving to another job for better benefits, says Corrinne Hobbs, general manager and VP of employer market organization at Ovia Health.

The other consideration is that younger generations especially care about sustainability. “They want to work for companies that align with their values. And we’re seeing a lot of that with millennials and beyond. They’re choosing their employers based on that, but then also on different policies, like parental leave, FFB (fertility and family building benefits), and flexible work schedules,” she said.

Companies should always have those core benefits that cover most populations, but they should also look outside the norms, especially as people and families are changing. Fertility, adoption, surrogacy, all the ways people want to grow their families should be considered. Beyond that, Hobbs pointed out the importance of workplace support once the baby comes.

“What do your return to work policies look like? Are they equitable? Are you offering flexible work options? Parental leave?” she added.

The act of embedding those inclusive benefits offer results: 30% decrease in absenteeism and a 35% increase in productivity, Hobbs says. “But then also, when you have people who can bring their full selves to work, and you have diverse populations. Pew Research reported that there’s a 30% increase in innovation. So if you really want to drive your companies forward, it’s important to embed this,” said Hobbs.

In addition to employee benefits, companies should pay attention to dependents. What do they need? Do they know their coverage? What else could help them? This is a big part of attracting and retaining employees, Hobbs says.

Looking at Financial Wellness

When thinking of company benefits, typically physical health is the main focus. But more and more, financial wellness is becoming a big part of what employees want in their benefits package. Which is where Northstar, a financial wellness platform for employees, comes in.

Britt Barney, the company’s manager of client success says that their financial planners get asked this a lot: is this benefit something that really benefits employees?

Recently, they’ve been seeing a desire for housing discounts as a benefit, often structured as preferred rates. “A preferred rate is amazing, but it does not matter if you can’t afford the house.” Northstar helps employees understand what they might need and how they can achieve their goals through financial education.

An open feedback loop is key. Constantly taking note of what people are asking about helps companies know where they should place their focus.

One of their biggest challenges is the stigma with “financial planning” especially in diverse communities who may associate it predominantly with the white and rich. Barney reiterated that financial planning is customizable and is helpful for everyone.

“Everybody needs it; it doesn’t matter if you have $30 or $30 million, you need some guidance,” she said. At the same time, they want to make sure the diverse world is reflected in their workforce, so people will feel comfortable with their financial planner.

New Approaches to Traditional Coverage

Last year, Greystar rolled out several enhancements to its parental benefits, focusing on inclusion of a diverse population.

“We introduced a gender neutral, paid-parental leave policy,” said Anitha Dhanwada, managing director of global total rewards at Greystar. “Regardless of whether you’re the birthing parent or non-birthing parent, if you end up in a situation where you are the primary caregiver to that child, then you are eligible for the full 16 weeks of paid parental leave.”

The company’s expanding benefits have also reached outside medical coverage and into something many employees wanted help with—housing. “Being in the real estate property management space, one of the best ways that we thought we can actually help employees be able to improve their affordability was to be able to provide a discount to the folks who are working on site at our properties.” That includes a 40% discount for employees working on site, and a 20% discount for those living at a different property than the one they manage.”

“That’s been received very well across the board, and has actually improved our attrition numbers incredibly well,” she said. It’s another example of listening to employees and delivering the benefits they truly want and need.

As the workforce continues to diversify, so too must the benefits that companies offer. By proactively assessing employee needs and incorporating inclusive programs—whether it’s financial planning, wellness initiatives, or flexible parental leave—businesses can not only attract but also retain a diverse array of talent. Ultimately, the integration of inclusive benefits is more than a strategy for talent management; it’s a commitment to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, supported, and empowered to succeed.

Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Building a Workplace Culture That Prioritizes Well-Being

When it comes to well-being in the workplace, one can hardly generalize, as every generation has its demands. Boomers are gearing up for retirement, Gen X is sandwiched between childcare and eldercare, Millennials are starting their families and dealing with a housing crisis, while Gen Z is fresh out of school.“It’s not a one-size-fits-all, so if you don’t know what the population is looking for, you might be investing in the wrong places,” said panelist Stefanie Christmas, global head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Inizio, during From Day One’s Philadelphia conference.Still, there are some industry-wide areas that are demographics-agnostic. In 2023, The American Psychiatric Association found that the majority of the employers think the work environment is healthier than it actually is. More than 50% of workers strongly (21%) or somewhat (34%) agreed that their employer thinks their workplace environment is a lot mentally healthier than it actually is, and 43% reported worrying that if they told their employer about a mental health condition, it would have a negative impact on them in the workplace, reads the report.Well-being does not just mean wellness. “We’re looking at well being in the less traditional way: we’re looking at it through the lens of social, emotional, and financial wellbeing,” said Magdalena Dexter, SVP of communication and HR at manufacturing company Saint Gobain, which operates in 76 countries and has a workforce of 76,000 in North America alone. “Think about well-being holistically. It [encompasses] physical, financial, career growth,” Christmas said.When thinking about well-being and how to build it within an organization, the first question Tyler Zalucki, client executive at Marsh McLennan Agency asks is: “‘What is your feedback loop?’ and ‘How are you capturing the sentiment of employees and colleagues through a well-being lens?’”The panelist spoke in a discussion titled, "Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture," moderated by Lizzy McLellan Ravitch, Business Coverage Editor, the Philadelphia Inquirer“In our organization, the respective manager will fill out a survey and speak with individuals to capture their sentiment and aggregate it,” he said. Then, during their town hall, the CFO and HR Director offer solutions to what was shared. “This feedback led to changes like implementing paternity leave, increasing contributions to the 401(k), and making December 24th a full day off,” he said. “It reinforces the sense that ‘my voice matters,’ because if feedback goes into the ether, employees feel unheard.”Getting Specific With NeedsCora Claus, VP of HR at Burlington Stores, emphasized the importance of understanding the employee population: who are they? What do they need? What do they want? “I work for a retailer, largely female based, and for a long time we had a lot of them going on leave of absence, starting their families, and they’re not getting paid but a minimum wage,” she said. “We now are implementing policies: as you’re designing the policies, who are you writing them for?”Getting to know the workforce also means helping to clear away any misconceptions. Scott Thompson is the CEO of Tuition.io, which helps employees with financial education. The total amount of student-loan debt is close to $1.8 trillion dollars, and you might be surprised at who the most affected group is. “The fastest growing segment for student loans is 55 and up,” said Thompson. “That’s parents taking on debt for their kids.”In order to thrive at work, people need to feel included. “As we know, DEI is under intense scrutiny, but at its core, it’s about inclusion—making sure people can bring themselves to work in a way that feels comfortable,” said Christmas. “A lot of people say, ‘Bring your whole self to work,’ but many employees feel more comfortable bringing just 55% of themselves. How do we support that?” Christmas emphasizes the idea that for DEI work to work, “it has to be seen as everyone’s responsibility. This includes sponsoring events and encouraging leaders to show up. One impactful practice is having senior leaders participate in quarterly calls, asking questions, and engaging in the conversation.”Ultimately, a company can have the best programs, but if the leaders don’t buy into them, don’t lead with that and implement them, you really don’t have a culture of well-being. “You can put the best parental leave in place, but if a senior leader can complain that he has 3 people out, it’s going to send waves through the organization about how we truly feel about it,” said Dexter. “It’s not just about having the program, it’s about talking positively about it, showing examples of how important it is to take advantage of it.”Universal NeedsStudent loan debt has only become more challenging for borrowers, partly due to all the noise in the media. Efforts to improve the situation have unintentionally made it worse, as some employers diminished the importance of loan support, assuming it would be resolved under the current administration. “That hasn’t happened—and likely won’t,” said Thompson.“When we break down student loan debt by age segments, we see the impact. For example, a recent college graduate with $40,000 in debt faces a monthly payment of about $500 after taxes,” he continued. “At 25, I would not have been able to make that payment. And it doesn’t get easier over time; most people aim to pay off their loans in 10 years, but it often turns into a 21-year commitment due to the financial missteps that come with starting a career,” said Thompson.And while he is not suggesting that all companies need to contribute to loan payments—though that would be nice and certainly helpful, “offering assistance in understanding options and finding pathways to manage debt is a big win, with spectacular retention benefits,” he said. “It’s about meeting employees where they are and helping them move forward.”In many companies, the adage seems to consist of teams being told to do more with less, and that might be at odds with well-being. “When I think about my own organization, when I think about doing more with less, we have an AI tool that allows you access to compliance resources and will also write emails,” said Zalucki. Other resources include open office hours to ask questions and then do modules exactly on what one is working on that day. “Do the things you like and enjoy and iterate admin tasks,” he said. “At the end of the day, we want to spend more time with our family.”A similar mindset also steers employers and employees towards an 80/20 perspective. “For so long, our organization has been focusing on being perfect,” said Claus, noting that they changed towards 80/20. “Are we comfortable with 80? It’s that permission to be directionally correct so that we don’t spend too much time getting to false perfection.”This also requires leaders to understand the cycle of an organization. If Q4 is the busiest time of the year, for example, a slower Q1 should allow employees to take a break. “Don’t let them sprint through that, let them have moments to breathe,” said Dexter. “What can we deprioritize? What can we take off?”“It’s about how you’re showing up but also how we empower our team to have conversations that need to be had,” said Claus. She speaks about how frustration can pile up because we don’t have the courage to speak or there’s no safe space to do so or there’s no empathetic leader. They began coaching associates to handle conversations independently, teaching them to engage and leaders to respond with positive intent.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.

The Backlash Against DEI: How Perceptions Are Being Driven by Fear and Sensationalism, Not Facts

DEI has faced intense backlash, often turned into a partisan dog whistle by those aiming to politicize its goals. But is this pushback grounded in reality? In truth, the vast majority of companies remain firmly committed to DEI, both in the U.S. and internationally. Most Americans approve of DEI initiatives, including 78% of Black workers from a Pew Research poll from 2023.Dr. Stephanie J. Creary, Assistant Professor of Management at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, says the backlash against DEI doesn’t tell an accurate story. “What we found is a story that is not being shared in the media or by politicians, and that is that of all the industries that exist right now, finance is leading the charge. Tech–its commitment to any kind of DEI, including towards black employees or black communities [has] continued to increase–in spite of the external environment. And Pharma is in the middle.”Creary spoke with Earl Hopkins, arts and culture reporter for the The Philadelphia Inquirer, during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Philadelphia conference. They discussed the false narrative around DEI and its future in the workplace.Recently, Creary spoke at a conference of bankers, a group that Hopkins identified as being stereotypically not diverse. Creary was worried about what kind of crowd she was going to have and what the reception was going to be like. “What does banking look like? It’s predominantly white and predominantly male,” Creary said. But what she found was encouraging and inspiring.“I was inspired by those institutions that were continuing to lean into the evidence, either internally from their own organization or externally from academia. That suggests that it does make good business sense. There were a lot of people in the room who were saying it’s hard that the topic has become so politicized when that’s not why they had invested all these resources into [DEI].”Earl Hopkins of the Philadelphia Inquirer interviewed Dr. Stephanie J. Creary, of the Wharton School Hopkins pointed to the politicization of DEI and how recently it’s faced a lot of legal and political backlash. “Which has prompted many companies to retreat on their initial commitments, or at least...keep their head down amid the storm,” Hopkins said. For example, Ford Motor backed out of its DEI initiatives this past summer, no longer participating “in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.”The headlines can be misleading and frustrating. “I lead with evidence, and every day I get some person in HR or DEI calling me saying, ‘Can you come speak at our organization and help us?’” There's a contradiction between the headlines and what she sees in her inbox.Right now, she and her team are “combing DEI reports from 2019-2023 (2024 data won’t be available until next year)” in Fortune 100 companies in three industries: financial services, pharma, and tech, which all show DEI efforts as stable or increasing.“Now that’s not to say that a few companies are reducing their commitments, changing practices, but it’s not a trend. It’s not an empirical trend in the way that is being suggested.” Still, the reported decline in DEI in the media, she adds, isn’t accurate to reality and may be more related to how news is covered and how we consume it.“I think what we’re suffering from is people who are covering these stories, the people consuming them, are very new. They’re novices. And I can say this as an educator, when people are new and they’re learning something the first time, they tend to make concrete generalizations about things that are complex.”She points to our innate tendency to “reduce the complexity of the world around us,” she said. “There’s an over simplistic reporting and consumption and interpretation of something that is much more multifaceted and dynamic and nuanced.” Basically, we’re not hearing enough from experts in the field. “And certainly political leaders are not experts on this conversation.”Looking to the future, does Creary think DEI is going in the right direction? She says she’s hopeful but skeptical.“So the challenge with the field of DEI practices [is] that there's not always evidence being used to justify the problem that needs to be addressed. And, there’s not always evidence showing that we should continue down this path with these practices, because they’re working.”There’s hope, she added, in organizations that are “leaning” on the data to identify the problem that needs addressing but also looking to see if the interventions they put in place are working.However, having access to the right data is still a problem, and Hopkins pointed out a wide discrepancy between quantitative data and qualitative data. “We’re beginning to understand what's happening with people who are in the minority. Oftentimes that doesn’t show up in the quantitative data because they’re underrepresented,” Hopkins said.Creary confirmed this in a recent analysis conducted with a media company. In her team’s analysis, they looked at the performance reviews between Black and white employees, where the performance reviews were “way more telling than” the quantitative data. “The quantitative data would say that Black employees don't perform as well as the qualitative data. But when you look at the qualitative data, it's very clear that the managers are not all using the same metrics to assess performance. And sometimes the Black employees are getting measured on things like, do they turn their cameras on during meetings and not on things that are actually agreed upon performance indicators.”“The qualitative data can often tell a much richer story about what's happening and why something is happening than the quantitative data can,” Creary said.Matthew Koehler is a freelance journalist and licensed real estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in Greater Greater Washington, The Washington Post, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.

How People Analytics Can Help Employers Match Worker Skills to Future Needs

As technology continues to evolve and impact our daily work lives, is it an employee’s technical skills that will be the most valued? Not necessarily. “These more enduring human qualities that all of us possess, these are the things that are going to differentiate workers in the future. It’s really that resiliency, the decision making, and the ability to exhibit emotional intelligence,” said Peter Boyle, VP, HR, Dell Technologies, said during an executive panel at From Day One’s Denver conference. “As we blend digital and human labor together,” he said, it’s these skills that will drive future organizational success.With the universe of workplace skills expanding constantly, employers have to think ahead about what they’ll need as their businesses change and grow. What are the best ways to assess the skills of current workers, predict the skills that will be needed soon, and build the methods to bring employees up to speed? At the same time, how can employers adapt their talent pipelines so they're drawing on a wider and more relevant pool of candidates?Putting People Analytics to WorkData collection has been around for a while, but it’s the predictive power of software that’s truly transforming the landscape. “We’ve been studying and counting people and tracking what they do for centuries. What is changing is the technology that we can lay over people analytics that allows us to not just describe where they're at today, but what's possible tomorrow,” said Matthew Gosney, VP, organizational development at UCHealth.People analytics can, and should, be incorporated holistically into an organization’s overall metrics, noting how one worker’s tenure, background, and employment history might correlate to the quality and quantity of their output. “That is really the future of people analytics: looking not just at the person, but the work they do, and how you can help them to be the best they can be,” said Neil Taylor, VP of product marketing at Visier.The panelists spoke about "How People Analytics Can Help Employers Match Worker Skills to Future Needs"Organizations are also using analytics to measure soft skills and decide how to leverage them. “We love how the technology can tell us a story, but we really want to see how we can bring those human-centered skills (better thinkers, problem solvers) to address certain issues and build up more organizational confidence in productivity and teamwork,” said Erin Gabrysh, head of learning and development, Bundle. “It’s more than just [attaining] the numbers, but using that to take action.”Another area where people analytics is playing a major role is employee listening and engagement. For Jennifer Herrod, senior director of talent, global learning & development at Johnson Controls, her team works with managers to help them understand and utilize the insight gained through employee listening software. “What are their teams telling them through the survey that they’re not telling them face to face? And how can they then leverage that data to get them the right skills that they need? It’s [about] finding the detail in the data and the story behind it, which is how it can help connect to skill-building,” she said.It also can help improve employee retention, as well as prepare for future hiring needs. “People analytics can actually help you predict who might resign, and along with that, which skills are walking out the door,” Taylor said. “You need to understand the learning development plans that you have in place to develop those skills internally, how you’re hiring, and how you’re retaining skills that might be in demand. And the only way you can do that is through connected data that is pushed out to the edges of the organization.”Adapting to a Changing Work EnvironmentThe skills needed to succeed in the modern workplace are evolving as rapidly as the workplace itself. Fortunately, the tracking technology is keeping pace. Traditionally, says Boyle, employees would simply check off boxes for skills on an internal database. “But that doesn't necessarily tell you the depth of their knowledge.” Nor does it stay up-to-date for long. Nuanced people analytics software can help leaders infer a greater depth of knowledge among a talent pool, cross-referencing other factors like certifications, tenure, and employment history, and match them accordingly to future roles.And the ability to adapt to rapid change itself is a quality that is vitally important but hard to measure traditionally. “Human-centered leadership, which I think is the emerging model for leadership in the future, is focused on change management, psychological safety, and key components of leadership that are going to be critical in a very dynamic work environment,” Gosney said. During Covid, his organization’s workforce quickly had to make a transition to virtual care. “We knew who could do it, and we could move them there. The challenge was in understanding, capturing, and quantitatively measuring soft skill. I don’t know if we have a great answer for that yet, but I know that’s the next mountain to climb.”One way human qualities like psychological safety can be measured, Gabrysh says, is through their impact on other areas. “When organizations embed psychological safety training, when organizations create this safe space, people are more comfortable saying or doing [certain] things. That’s where we start to see change occur, and the rest of the metrics start to improve as a result,” she said.And the utilization of people analytics itself, Taylor says, should engender psychological safety within an organization, “because [workers know] the entire person is understood, the entire workforce is understood, their impact on the business is understood, as well as the business impact on the person. If it’s just a manager making a decision based on emotion [then] there’s no psychological safety in that.”People analytics is also making strides in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion, shedding light on areas where it may be lacking and where, Gosney says, leaders can enact change. “People analytics is changing our HR structures to support solving problems instead of supporting traditional processes,” he said. And for UCHealth, it’s paid off. “We’ve improved our BIPOC internal promotion rate by 40% in two years.”Making People Analytics Work For YouSo how can an organization that has yet to dive into people analytics get started?“When you’re talking about people analytics, you need to start with desired business outcomes,” Gosney said, noting the need to first define the goals, objectives, and challenges the organization is facing. “Then you translate that into key employee experience components. Is it psychological safety? Is it flexibility? Is it skills development? Is it retention, or is it engagement? That then informs the questions that you ask in an engagement survey, or the data points that you’re looking for.”The measurement of skills should then impact the action taken by the organization, particularly when it comes to developing talent and filling the gaps. “Developing that continuous learning culture is paramount,” Gabrysh said.Adding AI to the Equation“Data is organized and structured and predicts outcomes, whereas psychological safety is constantly moving,” said moderator Noelle Phillips, senior reporter for The Denver Post. So how can it be quantified? That’s where AI comes in. Herrod’s organization introduced an AI conversation coach–after a deep data privacy review–to boost employee engagement. The AI reviews comments gained from employee listening to identify meaningful themes and recommend leadership actions.The ability to work with AI is also a skill that will need to be accounted for. “We’re all feeling this need, individually and as businesses, to adapt to a dynamically changing market, and AI is compounding that,” Taylor said. Workforce planning will need to happen more often, he says, than once a year. “This is an ongoing thing that needs to happen every day. And it isn’t just an HR job. It’s the manager’s job to make sure that you have the right workforce. And so, having the right data around the skills that you need, the skills that you have, [and] the skills you need to develop internally becomes really important, and you have to continuously shapeshift your workforce in today’s day and age.”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.

How Inclusive Benefits Can Help Attract and Retain a Diverse Workforce

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