How Employers Are Strengthening Support for Employee Mental Health and Well-Being
BY Carrie Snider April 16, 2025Burnout has become a critical issue in healthcare, especially for providers treating chronic pain. The emotional and physical demands of patient care, combined with mounting workplace stressors, are pushing many to the brink of exhaustion. Experts say the solution lies in a holistic approach—one that recognizes the deep connection between physical pain, mental health, and organizational culture.Across industries, employee mental health remains fragile. In a post-pandemic world where wellness is a top priority, companies are grappling with a key question: how can they offer support that’s truly meaningful?At From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference, a panel of experts explored the evolving landscape of employee mental health and wellness. Moderated by Michal Lev-Ram, contributing editor-at-large at Fortune, the discussion covered the role of technology, personalized wellness initiatives, and global strategies for cultivating well-being at work.“Pain is never just physical,” said panelist Claire Morrow, senior manager, PT consultants at Hinge Health. “It’s influenced by psychological and social factors, and that applies to providers just as much as patients.” Healthcare workers who spend their days managing patients’ pain often struggle with their own, leading to a cycle of stress, fatigue, and burnout.Toxic workplace culture only makes it worse. Studies show that negative workplace relationships can delay pain recovery and contribute to emotional exhaustion, Morrow says. A lack of support from leadership or colleagues can push already overburdened providers to their breaking point.“A healthy work environment isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential for both patient care and provider well-being,” she said. “When providers are burned out, it directly impacts the quality of care they can give.”Thankfully, the rise of telehealth and flexible digital platforms is reshaping healthcare delivery, giving providers more control over their schedules. At Hinge Health, physical therapists can work remotely, reducing the stress of long commutes and rigid clinical hours.“Giving providers flexibility in their work helps prevent burnout and ensures they can keep delivering high-quality care,” she said. As healthcare continues to evolve, industry leaders are pushing for solutions that protect both patients and providers. The fight against burnout isn’t just about reducing stress, but about ensuring the future of quality care.Technology’s Role in Mental Health SolutionsTechnology has its place—it should enhance, not replace, human support. AI-driven tools provide employees with a confidential, accessible entry point to mental health care, especially for those hesitant about traditional therapy. Platforms like Unmind’s AI-powered system guide employees toward self-care and offer a seamless transition to professional support when necessary.Despite advancements, burnout remains high, a result of high-performance cultures that overlook well-being. Advanced analytics allow companies to measure burnout’s impact on productivity and healthcare costs, demonstrating mental health as a business priority. “The business case for mental health is clearer than ever,” said panelist Matt Jackson, GM, VP of Americas at Unmind. “When companies invest in prevention, they see reduced absenteeism, increased engagement, and ultimately, better business outcomes.”The U.S. healthcare system prioritizes treatment over prevention, but employers can lead the shift toward proactive mental health strategies. “The future of workplace mental health isn’t about reacting to problems—it’s about using technology to prevent them before they start,” Jackson said. Preventative tools offer real-time support and data-driven insights to address mental health challenges before they escalate.By integrating AI solutions, companies can scale mental health care, reduce costs, and build a resilient workforce. “Digital tools give employees the autonomy to access support on their own terms while ensuring organizations can offer consistent, scalable care,” he said. These tools also help foster a psychologically safe environment, equipping leaders with the resources to prevent burnout and enhance employee well-being.Global Approaches to Wellness As companies adapt post-pandemic, Enphase Energy has focused on helping employees prioritize self-care and family care in a world still adjusting. Panelist Vivian Hung, head of total rewards at Enphase said that “Post-Covid, everyone’s mental head space and self-care prioritization has shifted, and that extends to how they care for their family and how they care for themselves after they leave work.”To accommodate its global workforce, Enphase tailors wellness programs to meet regional and cultural needs. This includes offering fertility health benefits globally while also ensuring inclusivity for employees in different life stages. Executive panelists spoke about "Enhancing Employee Mental Health and Wellness Support" “I don’t have 100% of my workforce thinking about family formation,” Hung said. “So how do I take care of the rest of the population?” The company offers a wide range of benefits to ensure that every employee’s needs are met, irrespective of location.In addition, Enphase maintains a strong focus on work-life balance, particularly through its implementation of blackout meeting periods. They employ a blackout period to be respectful of local time zones. This ensures employees aren’t burdened with after-hours work, promoting true disconnection from work, she says. Financial wellness is another key pillar at Enphase, recognizing that financial stress is a global issue that impacts overall well-being. The company provides educational resources to help employees understand their total compensation, easing financial concerns and strengthening their connection to benefits.Fostering Meaningful ConversationsHuman connection is key to building a supportive work environment. Since each employee’s experience is shaped by their location, culture, and personal circumstances, companies must take a flexible, personalized approach to wellness. In short, panelist JoAnn Taylor, CHRO at Rakuten, says organizations must meet their people where they are. “We try to make sure that we know what’s going on, and we can be agile so we can react quickly to make sure that our employees have the support in place that they can access when they need it in confidentiality,” she said. This adaptability allows companies to offer tailored solutions, ensuring that employees feel understood and supported.While digital wellness tools play a role in wellness programs, the human element is just as crucial. “Having one meaningful conversation a day raises all the good hormones, and that builds your inner strength, so you can be more agile when things start to come at you,” Taylor said. In today’s hybrid work environment, balancing flexibility with meeting business needs is essential. That’s why they introduced Wellness Fridays, where employees get the afternoon off to recharge.As the panelists pointed out, with the right tools and a focus on human connection, companies can create a resilient, engaged workforce capable of thriving in today’s challenging landscape. By embracing flexibility, integrating preventative mental health tools, and fostering personal connections, companies can create a resilient workforce equipped to thrive in today’s dynamic work environment.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
What Trump’s Immigration Agenda Means for Employers
BY Katie Chambers April 16, 2025Do you and your team have a plan in place if ICE shows up at your office looking for one of your employees? It’s a shocking thought, but something that HR must now consider in our new normal.The new Trump Administration 2.0 is moving aggressively on new immigration policies, including significant changes to the immigration process. Yet we have plenty of experience from his first term to help guide us toward adapting to the new era.During a recent From Day One webinar, attorneys Matthew Hellrung and Matthew Meltzer, co-Founders and managing partners of Meltzer Hellrung Immigration Solutions, discussed what they see as the most likely immediate adjustments, as well as later developments, and the steps you can take now to ensure compliance and minimize disruptions to your immigration program moving forward.They offered an insightful and practical guide to how employers can adapt and anticipate the myriad changes to U.S. immigration policy to ensure access to a global talent pool.The State of ImmigrationPrior to the start of the new Trump administration, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS), had a 4% denial rate, U.S. Department of State (DOS) had a 20% denial rate, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was largely focused on arresting undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges.“I-9 enforcement was focusing on employers that didn’t use E-Verify and employers that were suspected to have people who might not have work authorization, businesses that have historically unauthorized workers, like car washes, factories, or slaughterhouses,” Meltzer said.Actions Affecting Lawful Immigration PathwaysUnder the new administration, lawful entry into the U.S. has become even more difficult. Refugee entry, including pending applications, has been suspended indefinitely pending a 90-day review and report, stranding 22,000 previously approved refugees. And there is a directive heightening the already very high identification standards such that current unsettled approvals may be denied. This is a particular challenge for those coming from countries that don’t have as rigorous and standardized an ID system as the U.S., Hellrung says. Matthew Hellrung (pictured), led the webinar along with Matthew Meltzer (company photo)Asylum seekers, those who arrive at the U.S. border claiming a credible fear of persecution in their home country, unlike refugees who wait in their home country for approval, are also facing challenges. “Via the Constitution and the various immigration laws, CBP is required to accept those individuals to document who they are, to potentially interview them for their asylum claims, and then release them into the United States with a court date to plead their case for the asylum benefit that they’ve applied for at the border. As soon as Trump took office, essentially all asylum applications that were in process were halted,” Hellrung said. Reports indicate CBP no longer honors asylum claims at any U.S. Border, and the “CBP one app” asylum interview system was terminated a few days into the new administration, canceling 30,000 appointments. Humanitarian programs and parole, which are generally granted by executive order, are no longer available for Cuban, Haitian, Ukrainian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan nationals seeking entry. Trump also ended Biden’s green card program reuniting families separated from children (enacted in response to the first Trump administration), and ICE is now allowed to invalidate anyone’s parole immediately. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has been partially rescinded for over 800,000 people. “[TPS] is temporary permission that allows folks coming from war torn countries, famine, and natural disasters to enter the United States for temporary period of time,” Hellrung said. “There are a lot of folks employed as Venezuelans [and Ukrainians] in TPS status. They do have the authorization to work. They pass the I-9 process.” He says the administration is likely to rescind most or all TPS designations in the next 18 months, impacting 14 nationalities. DOS has also made it harder for visas to be renewed abroad via Dropbox. And some moves have happened as political retaliation, such as the canceling of hundreds of Colombian visas after the country complained about deportees, and the looming threat of canceling F-1 student visas for supposed Hamas sympathizers, often conflated with those simply supporting Palestinian rights. Hellrung says some of the more extreme measures may not come to pass, including the executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship. “It’s pretty clear in the Constitution that birthright citizenship is a right. We don’t think this is going anywhere.” But he warns to expect continued ICE harassment and arrests of green card holders and U.S. citizens as the officers work to meet their arrest quotas. Actions Affecting Undocumented ImmigrantsWhile most employers are less concerned about the actions affecting those who are in the U.S. illegally, “it can still have a significant impact if you are a supermarket or a place where people congregate publicly–a food bank, a health clinic.” Even if your employees are here legally, your clientele may not be, and ICE will often make their arrests at public gathering spots for easy access. ICE noncriminal arrests have increased tenfold, and ICE is now empowered to remove someone from the country immediately without due process.Meltzer advises employers to stay prepared regardless of their direct workforce or customer base. “I always remind all of my clients that you don’t know who your employees’ families are,” he said. “You can have people who work for you who are U.S. citizens, who are married to undocumented workers. You can have people who are U.S. citizens who are the children of undocumented people. The stress here is real for workforces, regardless of whether they’re not undocumented.”One of the biggest changes is that DOS has been ordered to create a registration process for all non-U.S. citizens and failure to register would be a criminal offense. Meltzer notes that this law has actually been on the books since the 1940’s but was never truly implemented until now. Immigration enforcement is taking top priority, as workers from other agencies like the IRS, DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security are being taken off of other criminal enforcement to focus on immigration instead. Most of these provisions against undocumented immigrants, Hellrung says, have lawsuits against them pending in the federal courts. What to Expect NextGoing forward, Hellrung warns employers to expect travel bans in over a dozen countries, while others will be expected to improve their security and information sharing so their citizens can still be allowed to travel to the U.S. plus delayed consular processing for visas. Employers may be impacted by increased barriers to immigration benefits, including higher income requirements for permanent residency and an increase in filing fees for humanitarian, family, and employment-based visas. There may also be termination of work authorizations for asylum applicants, parolees, and H-4, L-2, E-3D, and J-2 dependent authorizations.“You should know who these people are inside of your workforce and identify them because they are at risk of losing work authorization,” Hellrung said. “It would be a good idea to sponsor that person in the [visa] lottery if they qualify.” Plus, there may be termination of TPS designations and all humanitarian parole, affecting about 1.5 to 2 million immigrants in the U.S. with work authorizations. And a rise in inquiries, audits, and denials across all family and employment-based filings. Trump has mentioned a substantive change in the H-1B lottery system, making it more merit-based, but what that means exactly has yet to be determined. Currently, Hellrung’s clients are already experiencing increased site visits from USCIS and ICE, auditing I-9s, checking on H-1B and L-1 workers, or doing worksite raids for specific individuals. They also anticipate increased immigration coordination and enforcement by federal, state, and local law enforcement, since the “mass influx” designation allows the deputization of state and local agents. How to Stay PreparedIn the face of this daunting information, there are a few concrete ways Meltzer and Hellrung suggest employers can stay prepared: Centralize your company’s I-9 and immigration data. Adopt a system that allows for safe storage and quick reporting and adopt E-Verify or E-Verify+ if appropriate. Review your I-9 completion, storage, and audit procedures. A spot audit might be useful to understand your overall financial risk.File everything you can file now! This includes work authorization extensions, before the possible expiration. Initiate green card cases as long-term solutions and ask vendors to prioritize the fastest options, including EB-1, EB-2 NIW, and EB-2EA. And sponsor workers for the H-1B lottery if you can. Create a site visit protocol plan. Who will receive a government agent? Where will you put them? Do you know your employer rights? The latter, the ICE site visit, is the most daunting for many employers. Gather as much information as possible, including names, agencies, and badges. Know which parts of your business are considered public and which are considered private, which impacts whether a warrant is needed. Be ready to supply paperwork when asked. Meltzer advises to keep your cool “and don’t assume the government is going to do everything right.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Meltzer Hellrung , 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 AnnaStills/iStock)
The Debate Over RTO and WFH: What the Research Really Shows
BY Katie Chambers April 15, 2025Despite headlines over the last year touting the full RTO of major corporations like J.P. Morgan Chase and Amazon, Nicholas Bloom the foremost expert on remote work and professor of economics at Stanford University, says the RTO trend seems to have already passed. Citing a recent study of more than 1,000 companies, he said “we asked them about their return to office plans, looking ahead a year, and 85% of them said they have no plans to change.”“The big data I’ve seen suggests there is not a major return to the office. I don’t think there’s going to be much major change outside of the government sector,” said Bloom. Some companies have been tying bonuses to office attendance to incentivize employees to come in, which Bloom finds ineffective. “There are only so many dollars you can give [an employee] for a bonus,” he said. “If you start to take away some of that from performance and put it onto days in the office, you’re just giving her less bonus for performance. You’re basically saying, as a business to a manager, ‘We care less about performance.’”And still, latest headlines regarding return to office are contradictory. “One will say that being in the office full time will make your workers more productive, and then the next day you might see one that says being hybrid or fully remote will make your workers more productive. What is the actual answer?” asked moderator Katherine Bindley, technology reporter at the Wall Street Journal during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference.As more large employers enforce a return to office, Bloom shared insights on what the latest research shows about productivity, employee engagement, and other factors that companies need to take into account when developing their policies. For employers insisting on RTO, what can they do to make the arrangement more effective? And for those offering flexible arrangements, what approaches provide the best results?We all want to know: which is the more effective strategy, RTO (return to office) or WFH (work from home)? “It really depends on the task,” Bloom said. Certain duties like call center work benefit from the quiet of home. Generally, Bloom and his student researchers have found that a hybrid model is optimal.A recent two-year study on the company Trip.com did an A/B test of their workers, with half working from home two days per week and the other half in the office full time. The study showed no demonstrable effect on performance.“[In interviews] they’d say there’s a huge benefit of coming into the office. It’s great for mentoring, it’s better for innovation, it’s better for building culture,” Bloom said. “But by the time you’ve gone three days a week in the office, it’s not obvious that days four and five are useful.”In fact, spending the other two days at home allowed for deep work and an additional 90-minutes of working time. And the employees who were allowed to work part-time from home were 35% less likely to quit. “The Trip.com CEO and the board said this is massively profitable, because every person that quits costs us something like $30,000 to $50,000,” Bloom said. It can be hard to measure performance among certain professions–even more so when employees are working from home and you can’t physically see or hear what they are doing, says Bloom. But it’s crucial for employers to figure out how to gauge results to allow employees this highly sought-after benefit. “Make sure you have good performance evaluations,” Bloom said, suggesting complex metrics and sliding scales based on each role.How to Enforce RTOBloom cautions against using RTO as a method of downsizing, referring to Amazon and even DOGE as guilty of versions of this, essentially making work so uncomfortable through RTO and other mandates that people quit. But organizations that do really need a full RTO need to roll it out in a way that is both enforceable and attractive. Companies that announce RTO, he says, see an uptick in “card swipes and Wi-Fi logins” at the office at first, but after the initial mandate, compliance starts to slip. Buy-in from managers is key, as they set the tone for their teams. “What’s happening is this very weak enforcement. In order to enforce, you have to have a strong mandate and incentives,” he said. Bindley also notes the importance of having the actual space to bring back workers, especially after so many companies downsized their spaces during the pandemic. “You have to have enough desks,” she said. Nicholas Bloom, William D. Eberle professor in economics and foremost expert on remote work, was interviewed during the fireside chat The Best Model of Hybrid With hybrid schedules, it can be hard to coordinate workers, Bindley says. You don’t want a situation where people head to the office just to be on Zoom with colleagues at home. “The most common model is three days in the office: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,” Bloom said. “There’s no exact science on which days, but you want to coordinate two or three days.” People still work on Fridays, but most do it from home, Bloom says. In fact, the London Underground has even made Friday an off-peak travel day due to the change in work-styles.And with coordination must come enforcement. “There’s an old Roman saying that a good law is an easy to enforce law,” Bloom said. Allowing employees to work from home means “treating employees more like an adult,” Bloom said. It means you trust them, knowing that even though they might be technically working fewer hours as they pick up their kids or go to the dentist, they will still make it up on the other end to get everything done. Workers end up less stressed, and more personally and professionally productive, when they are trusted to manage their own time. Looking ahead, WFH is the way of the future, Bloom says. And we’ve been moving toward it for years, with the advent of personal computers in the 1980s, inexpensive Wi-Fi phone calls in the 2000s, and the like. Innovations like Google’s Starliner project and other technological advances will make remote work that much easier.And perhaps most importantly, it’s what the next generation wants. “If you look at the people that are against working from home, they tend to be 50 plus. As time goes on, those folks tend to drift out,” Bloom said. “If you look at leaders in [their 30s-40s], they’re much more balanced on this. Those folks, in 10 years, are going to be the CEOs of the future.” 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.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
Leading Transformation When There’s No Playbook
BY Jessica Swenson April 15, 2025As companies continue to introduce change initiatives borne from both internal and external sources, it becomes more vital for leaders to have the ability to navigate teams through uncertainty while sustaining engagement and connection.“When we talk about transformation where there is no playbook, the previous rules about leadership and management and what you do, don’t apply,” said Carl Sanders-Edwards, CEO and co-founder of Adeption, during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference.Since the inception of desktop computing and its transition to the cloud environment, we have lived through multiple shifts in computing power and how work gets done. With the emergence of AI, we are in a new era of possibility that is again profoundly impacting jobs and workflow. Companies are leaning toward using AI to solve technical challenges and leaving more nuanced work for humans.Technical vs. Adaptive ChallengesTechnical challenges with teachable processes, a defined path, and known solutions are a bit clearer, but novel, or adaptive, challenges often haven’t been done before and have no known solution. The problem and the solution may be intertwined and need to be separated before progress is made; experimentation and learning will likely be required from everyone involved. A significant percentage of change efforts fail, Edwards says, because organizations treat adaptive challenges the same way they treat technical challenges. “One of the greatest things we can give the leaders and the people that we serve in our field is letting them know about the distinction between these two things, and there are different approaches for different types of challenges,” he said.Edwards acknowledges that success isn’t as linear as we may think; it isn’t as simple as taking data in, responding with action, and receiving a result. There is a hidden step between data receipt and response where the data is filtered through our mindset and influences emotion, which in turn influences our response. “We see the world as we are, not it as it is. And we're always projecting ourselves onto the world,” he said. Harnessing these unconscious mindsets is one key to effectively managing and resolving an adaptive challenge. This type of challenge appears resistant to teachable techniques because we are using prior experience and knowledge to solve something that is completely new. However, the overarching, high-level suggestions that come from our unconscious mindsets can help teams to progress on adaptive challenges.Carl Sanders Edwards, CEO and co-founder of Adeption, led the thought leadership spotlight Citing the example of a Silicon Valley company experiencing a decline in sales, Edwards outlined a few mindsets that might be helpful in that type of adaptive situation. A product expert mindset might focus solely on product perfection and attempt to make the product better. An achiever mindset may set goals and enforce attainment, promote training, or recommend more sales people. A transformative mindset may introduce new systems, while a marketing awareness mindset would avoid negative market impact by changing the product’s pricing model from subscription to consumption-based.Identify, Refine, and Apply Unconscious MindsetsWhen we have experiences, we create stories (good or bad) and those stories become a part of our unconscious mindset. By adding deliberate reflection and speaking with another person about it, says Edwards, we can refine that story to heighten our awareness, accelerating the ability to create and access these mindsets for future problem-solving.This is the origin of Adeption’s B3 leadership development methodology, which promotes habit-based learning in the flow of work. During his session, Edwards invited audience members to consider a challenge of their own through this lens and think about anything they might be able to do differently once the session ended:Be conscious. Reflect and make sense of the current situation you’re in. What’s important? What’s working? What isn’t?Be curious. Gain inspiration from other perspectives, ideas, and tools. Can any of the concepts learned today help with your challenge?Be better. Deliberately experiment with new ways of leading in response to what currently matters, learning from success and failure.Over 80,000 people have used this methodology to plan 500,000+ deliberate actions. Leadership struggles were reduced by 54%, 360° scores were impacted (others noticed an increased ability to empathize), and this method appears to accelerate progress on resolving adaptive challenges.It is helpful for people to understand their own unconscious mindsets and grow their range, Edwards says. Assessments are available for individuals to identify their predominant mindset, including an Adeption assessment that also allows users to “try on” other mindsets. People have seen new things that seemed to be hiding in plain sight after trying alternative mindsets.Edwards notes that the skill to develop skills is very important for future leaders. He said “I also think that the disruption that we’re facing now is not a doom and gloom situation. It’s actually a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create the type of leadership we need in this world.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Adeption, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
How Generative AI is Reshaping Workforce Upskilling
BY Ade Akin April 14, 2025Zac Rule’s daughter is just one example of how online learning can make a difference. She didn’t land a competitive marketing internship at a tech company based on her university credentials alone, it was the skills she gained from a Meta digital marketing certificate on Coursera that set her apart from the competition.“She talked about what she learned in that course, and it really differentiated her,” said Rule, Coursera’s VP of global enterprise sales, alliances and channels account. Rule spoke with Alexandra Urban, senior solutions consultant at Coursera during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference. Rule’s anecdote underscores a broader trend as artificial intelligence (AI) transforms industry workflows: Professionals who upskill strategically have a critical competitive edge as organizations race to keep up. Coursera is at the forefront of this global shift, with 168 million learners from anywhere. The speakers shared insights on how AI disrupts jobs, increases demand for new skills, and reshapes corporate learning strategies. Gen AI tools like ChatGPT have grown tremendously, reaching over 100 million users less than two months after launch. “Technology is advancing at an ever-increasing rate,” Rule noted, emphasizing that while AI will disrupt some roles, it’s more likely to augment productivity than replace humans outright. For example, humans working with AI enjoy an 11% productivity boost according to research from Accenture. The economic incentives are clear, and the demand for AI-related roles has surged, per Lightcast data. Employers offer premium salaries for expertise in fields like prompt engineering and machine learning. Coursera’s Gen AI course enrollments have skyrocketed, driven by people seeking these high-value skills. Technical Expertise Meets Human-centered LearningAccording to the World Economic Forum, AI literacy, analytical thinking, and leadership are the top skills to have in the AI era. However, mastery in any of these areas requires more than technical know-how. Zac Rule, VP Global Enterprise Sales, Alliances and Channels Account at Coursera (pictured), spoke along with Alexandra Urban, Senior Solutions Consultant, Coursera (featured photo)“Nothing of impact gets done unless you work effectively cross-functionally,” Rule said. For example, a marketer who uses Gen AI tools must also translate results into business value for stakeholders.Coursera launched its Gen AI Academy to address this reality, offering role-specific training for executives, engineers, and non-technical teams. “Legal, finance, and HR professionals are already experimenting with AI tools,” Urban said. “We’re creating unified upskilling strategies tailored to their workflows.”Coursera Coach: Personalized Tutoring at ScaleOne of Coursera's most innovative tools is Coursera Coach, an AI-powered tutor embedded in courses on its platform. Unlike generic chatbots, Coursera Coach draws from in-house expert-created content, provides practice exercises, and explains concepts in various languages. Since its 2024 rollout, Coach has assisted over a million learners, with 89% reporting high satisfaction with its capabilities. Coursera Coach is narrowing gaps for traditionally underserved groups like: Women are 11% more likely to use Coach because of increased “psychological safety” when asking questions. Engagement rates are 40% higher with early-career learners. Learners with college degrees show higher completion rates with Coach. “Learners using Coach are 9.5% more likely to pass quizzes on their first attempt,” Urban said. “And they move through content faster, critical for working professionals.”Coursera also uses AI tools to grade assignments and peer reviews. AI graders are surprisingly stricter than humans, with average scores dropping from 88% when graded by humans to 72% with AI. “Learners assessed by AI submit more attempts to pass,” Urban added. “It increases rigor and completion rates by delivering faster, detailed feedback.”Coursera’s Course Builder curates AI-powered programs, combining courses from universities like Stanford and companies like Google for corporate clients. “It reduces manual effort for L&D teams,” Urban said, “while generating new assessments aligned to business goals.”The Path Forward: AI as a Collaborative ForceRule reflected on his early career at Silicon Graphics, a predecessor of today’s GPU giants, highlighting how organizations that adapt quickly emerge as winners during technological waves. “Upskilling isn’t just about avoiding disruption,” Rule said. “It’s about unlocking new ways to engage customers and redefine industries.”Coursera aims to democratize access to these opportunities by providing tools like Coach and its Gen AI Academy. AI literacy is no longer optional—it’s the currency of the future. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Coursera, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Ade Akin specializes in the emerging applications of artificial intelligence.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
Enhancing Employee Engagement Through Whole-Person Management
BY Katie Chambers April 14, 2025The best way to find out what employees want is to ask, but the next step is not always straightforward. “Employee surveys can reveal a lot about what people need, but translating that feedback into action is really hard,” said moderator Rebecca Knight, contributing columnist for Harvard Business Review.Whole-person management is revolutionizing the employee experience by recognizing the importance of addressing all aspects of an individual’s performance and well-being. What are some effective strategies and initiatives used to enhance the overall employee experience? Experts during a panel discussion at From Day One’s March virtual conference discussed the different areas of the whole-person approach: financial, emotional, familial, and more, and offered tools and strategies to bring value to employees while mitigating costs. Keeping the employees involved throughout the whole process, not just the initial inquiry, can be effective. Amina Lobban, head of culture, engagement & HR business excellence, GMS & GQ at Takeda, shares that her organization’s Mexico site had a relatively low well-being score, so it immediately took steps to get them more engaged with each other in ways that were most fun and meaningful to them through what they called “a people squad” with various interests that showed up in surveys.“They formed a volleyball squad. They started yoga. They started doing celebrations for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Children's Day–all these different days,” Lobban said. “Their well-being score went up by 12 points, which is remarkable. It was an employee-led solution. When you involve the employee in ‘What is it that you want?’ versus telling the employee, ‘This is what I think you should have,’ that's when you see success.”Working Across DepartmentsRebecca Tinsley, VP, talent engagement & culture at Teradata, and her team have found success by working across departments, pairing benefits, well-being, and talent development to form one cohesive strategy. “We’re analyzing trends in learning, program participation, engagement survey and we’re also looking at benefit awareness and usage,” Tinsley said. “What that’s allowing us to do is to tailor programs to different employee segments based on what they’re directly telling us, or what they may be indirectly telling us through some of the feedback.”Panelists spoke about "Enhancing Employee Engagement Through Whole-Person Management" (photo by From Day One)This has led to new initiatives like their mid-level management program that blends leadership training with well-being support for some of the stresses that naturally come along with the role. Or financial wellness sessions that are integrated into career development programs. “I like to think of it as a mix between growth and balance,” she said. “It’s helping our people feel empowered to thrive in all different aspects of their life.” This holistic approach values both an employees’ personal and professional life and recognizes the impact of one on the other. Providing Rewards With an Eye Toward Cost “Compensation is a huge part of feeling valued and supported at work,” Knight said. Rewards programs can help your compensation model go the extra mile, especially when corporate budgets are tightening and “employees are struggling to afford life,” said Aaron Shapiro, founder and CEO of Carver Edison. His organization struck the balance when it launched its cashless participation program, which helps employees increase their overall compensation through stock purchases.“Employee stock purchase plans were actually America’s first modern financial benefit written into law in 1964 as part of Johnson’s War on Poverty, almost 15 years before the 401(k) came into existence,” he said. “The number one wealth creator is equity ownership.” And the statistics are indicative of this type of program’s success. “87% of employees using cashless participation at public companies, ranging from small NASDAQ biotechs all the way up to the Fortune 500, said that cashless participation is a more important financial benefit than other benefits at their company because it gives them the flexibility to build wealth while at the same time freeing up disposable income,” Shapiro said. More Than Just Job TitlesAn inclusive culture can be valuable to employees and make all the difference for acquisition and retention. “Sometimes the benefits are not even something that we need to spend money on. Community doesn’t require investment,” said Fatma Ghedira, head of community at ThinkHuman. “Sometimes it’s just employee-led ideas that really feel valuable to them.”“A strong culture is really what determines whether employees feel valued,” Knight said, and “whole person inclusion” can make employees feel respected, safe, and ultimately more engaged. “Shared values and beliefs need investment over time,” Ghedira said, for employees to feel the true impact. Culture has become a buzzword, and Ghedira warns employers to take an intentional approach as they set out to define their workplace values.Leaders should understand why they are developing a culture, whether the goal is engagement, performance, or something else. HR can help coach leaders on how best to communicate culture to employees. “If we do not know how to communicate the vision, and how to communicate conflict or feedback, then there is no way of actually creating the way we relate, which comes down to behavior and how we interact with each other,” she said. Part of a “whole person” approach is systemically encouraging employees to take breaks and practice self-care. This includes instructing managers to respect boundaries around breaktime and role-modeling behaviors, Lobban suggests. This is especially pertinent for remote workers who, thanks to technology and the blend of workplace and home life, feel like they are “always on.” Innovation like delayed delivery on emails to respect time zones and office hours can be helpful. Increasing Engagement Through Accessibility and Creativity Managers are often on the frontlines of encouraging culture, boosting morale, and explaining benefits, but don’t necessarily have the training to take on the whole-person approach themselves. Tinsley’s organization has systematized this through management training sessions, quarterly check-ins, and creating toolkits and conversation guides. Digital solutions, like Teradata’s “People Hub,” can also provide a one-stop location for employees to easily access vital information about their benefits offerings on their own.Employers will need to remain nimble in their strategies to adapt to rapidly changing times. “I would encourage employers to think about how to be more flexible, be more creative, [and] to come up with solutions to help address some of the challenges employees are seeing on the affordability side, but also that shareholders are demanding from a cost perspective,” Shapiro said. “Now is the time to think in a slightly different way and take some new approaches to some of these historical problems.”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 jacoblund/iStock)
Change Is Hard. What HR Leaders Can Do to Make it Easier and More Successful
BY Jessica Swenson April 10, 2025One of the most significant and foundational opportunities HR leaders have is to empower frontline and middle managers through scalable tools, resources, and information, says Steve Arntz of Campfire. Leaders at this level may not have influenced the decision-making, but they do need to be able to effectively articulate the plans and guide team members through the process. “Middle managers are often the ones delivering the change, but they’re not the ones who have to make the decision,” said Arntz. “So what tools and resources can we give them to help them have honest, consistent conversations?”Change initiatives can leave employees feeling frustrated and overwhelmed. A cross-industry executive panel at From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference discussed how HR leaders can help streamline change in their organizations and improve the employee experience. The conversation was moderated by KSL-TV anchor Lori Prichard.It can also be helpful to reiterate what is not changing, says Amanda Harper, the global head of growth learning experience and performance for Square. “Talking to my team about what’s not changing in those times of great change has been really helpful,” she said. “We can anchor to those [core values] to say, ‘Here’s the stuff that stays the same.’”Panelists agreed with Marcus Cazier, bioMérieux’s senior director of L&D for the Americas, that HR can leverage their C-suite relationships to advocate for frontline employees. “HR is a great advocate for the front line to the C-suite,” he said. “You have access to more senior business leaders so you can help communicate the reality back up the ladder.”With 86% of HR leaders reporting directly to their CEOs, according to The Talent Strategy Group’s 2023 HR Operating Model Report, Harper also emphasized that those in the room should use their seat at the table wisely: “We’re there in most cases, so it’s up to us to use our voice at that table.”Nate Beck, SVP of learning experience and design for Zions Bancorporation, says that HR leaders cannot just tell the C-suite what they want to hear; they need to be confident in communicating hard truths.For leaders without a seat at the C-level table, Cazier recommends boosting visibility and building trust by bringing data and strategic plans to help executives meet their priorities. Clear alignment with their goals will position you as an asset and illustrate your investment in the company. The ability to bring forward an authentic perspective from frontline employees can help build credibility. By proving with data that you have a purpose in that space, and use your strengths to influence and drive success. To advocate for business partners and frontline teams in the C-suite, it is also vital for HR to build trust with those teams, says Beck. Simply spending time with your partners to understand their daily workflow and the impacts of change can help build relationships and demonstrate that you’re there to help them thrive, says Cazier. It’s important for listeners to have hard conversations that support individuals and help align them with the organization’s strategic direction. The panelists also agreed on the importance of building a culture of accountability. Rather than employees first hearing about a change from HR, Harper likes to see leaders champion changes before rollout. Arntz urges people not to let business partners “hide behind HR.” They should communicate expectations to their team members and work through the performance management process before any handoff to HR.Relationships can also be leveraged to encourage bottom-up change. “Don’t wait for the C-suite to come to you,” said Beck. “Advocate for your team from the start—you’re a part of every change that happens in the organization.”Panelists spoke about leading through change at From Day One's SLC conference Cazier emphasized encouraging senior leaders to take an iterative approach to shaping change strategies: “Stress test it with team members. Run it by them. Get their feedback,” he said.Another opportunity lies in reviewing performance management processes, said Arntz. “Your performance management process sits at the center of all of it,” he said. “We take that for granted. We teach some behaviors and reward completely different ones—and that creates a system with no safety.”Change Management vs. Transition ManagementBeck takes a proactive approach to making change better for everyone around him. One key step is reframing “change management” as “transition management.” “Change is about the event—flip a switch, it happens. But people are not the same way,” he said. “Transition management is about navigating the ebb and flow of people’s feelings during a transition.”Change has a collective impact, but senior leaders do not always have the capacity to look at change from an individual perspective, says Arntz. Recognizing and leveraging team member strengths can help orient the rest of the team. In these situations, Arntz identifies and empowers results-oriented, relationship-oriented, and process-oriented people to support their team members during the appropriate phases of change.Harper recommends implementing feedback loops and modeling a solutions-oriented approach. “If you have feedback loops in place, knowing how to correlate that data to what matters to the executive suite is really important,” she said.Navigating Unpopular MandatesHR leaders also have a role to play in return-to-office mandates. “If the decision is based on real estate commitments, don’t pretend it’s for productivity,” said Arntz. “Just be authentic with your message.”Similarly, leaders must communicate clearly about emerging technologies like AI. “AI can’t take judgment from us—it needs us to operate it,” said Arntz. Harper added: “HR is in a unique position to prepare organizations to use AI in a way that enables our workforce, rather than replaces it.”Beck encourages a practical, human-centered approach: “Let AI do the good things, so we can focus on the best things,” he said. Meanwhile, Cazier noted that AI implementation presents an opportunity for HR to support not just tools, but people: “There’s plenty for us to do—not just help write emails or generate e-learnings, but also to help people navigate the changes hitting their world.”Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Sean Ryan for From Day One)
Developing an Employee-Experience Strategy for Your Organization
BY Katie Chambers April 08, 2025The statistics are grim: a recent Gallup survey showed employee engagement is at a near-all time low, while the share of workers who want to switch jobs is at a 10-year high. “Why is it so darn hard to fire up the team these days?” asked moderator Callum Borchers, columnist at the Wall Street Journal during a fireside chat at From Day One’s March virtual conference. Fortunately, some companies are finding a way to break through the doldrums with innovate their engagement strategies.Global Head of Employee Experience Jason Simmonds and his team at Morgan Stanley, a global financial-services firm with 80,000 employees across 41 countries, has developed a comprehensive employee-experience program, covering resources that improve employees’ careers, the workplace, and well-being. Among the upgrades: improving the onboarding process.Responding to Changing TimesThe social contract between employer and employee has shifted dramatically since the onset of the pandemic, Simmonds says, as workers came to expect greater mental health support and increased their focus on their families. “Employers reacted in kind, providing more generous benefits [and] flexible working arrangements, investing in products and tools that ultimately provided more to employees,” he said. Gen Z has also entered the workforce within recent years, and their unique values are beginning to impact demands on benefits. They prioritize mental well-being, social impact, meaningful work, and flexible working options—having never known anything else—leading to tensions as “return to office” mandates increase, Simmonds says. HR professionals are even starting to see “a managerial gap,” as balance-focused Gen Z hesitates to take on higher level positions due to the anxiety that can come with the job. Callum Borchers of the Wall Street Journal spoke with Jason Simmonds of Morgan Stanley (photo by From Day One)While the “talent wars” of the immediate post-pandemic period might be over, with a 26% decrease in open positions and layoffs on the rise, employers still need to take engagement seriously, Borchers says. To put it bluntly: In today’s job marketplace, if an employee is unhappy, they will leave. “Ultimately, if you want to attract, retain, [and] develop talent, and differentiate yourself amongst your peers in this quite increasingly competitive landscape, employee experience is really central,” Simmonds said. “Most people agree that their employees are their greatest assets. So how do we invest in them? How do we make sure that they're providing the best outcomes for the business and for their team?”Shaping an Employee-Experience StrategyMorgan Stanly experienced major growth during the pandemic, including two major acquisitions and record revenues. They also guaranteed no layoffs during that time of global crisis. The bigger challenge came, Simmonds says, coming out of the pandemic with a newer, bigger workforce. “50% of the firm was hired in the last five years,” he said, and the organization needed a strategy to help transition those newer workers into a hybrid or fully in-person working model. During the pandemic, the organization had already amped up its benefits offerings, without the official title of “employee experience strategy” per se, including better mental health resources and expanded paid parental leave. “And then also we did a lot of investment in reimagining and redesigning our workplaces, [so] that when we bring people back into the office, we provide a flexible working arrangement that fosters collaboration, that fosters innovation,” he said. The company launched a branded employee experience program called “My Experience,” focused on three pillars: career, well-being, and workplace. “The importance of the ‘my’ part is that we wanted to create more ownership and connectivity between the experience and our employees,” Simmonds said. Within each pillar are sub-pillars like “financial” and “family,” so that employees don’t need to “doomscroll” through a roster of benefits options before they find what they need. The “My Workplace” pillar of the program also comes with its own app for better access and a chatbot to efficiently understand HR policy.Prioritizing the Communication of Resources While the launch of the program did mark the addition of several benefits options, the rebrand also served as a way to refresh and better communicate the ample offerings that Morgan Stanley had already had available for quite some time. Simmonds says this employee-centric rebrand led to an uptick in awareness of and engagement with the program. His team also relied on employees themselves to be ambassadors for it. “What better way to market our employee resources than to amplify the voices of employees who have used it?” he said. “We’ve been starting to highlight employees who’ve gotten out of debt using our financial wellness resources. We highlight employees who survived cancer, leveraging our relationships with cancer research hospitals. And even if you're not in that situation, I think it makes employees very proud to work at a firm that has these resources.” Onboarding is also a crucial part of the employee experience, and it too hinges on communication. Having all the employee resources consolidated in a single, easy-to-understand package helps keep new workers from getting overwhelmed and empowers them to better understand both their role within the organization and what the company has to offer them. Morgan Stanley has a digital onboarding process that relies on fun and informative videos. “It brings the experience to a 21st century, and it creates better connectivity with our firm leadership”Of course, adding employee benefits costs money. “How do you achieve an employee-centric culture in a bottom-line driven business?” Borchers asked. One way a good experience program can offset costs is through retention, since replacing employees is expensive. “90% of employees decide to remain with the company in their first three to six months,” Simmonds said, so the sooner they understand and enjoy the experience program, the better. Simmonds says that happier employees often turn out to be better workers: “When we communicate through this employee-centric lens, it helps to increase engagement, increase culture, and ultimately increase business outcomes.” 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 Urbanscape/iStock)
Optimizing Hiring: Using AI and Automation to Enhance the Candidate Experience
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza April 07, 2025HR is a big job, and teams are feeling the pressure. SHRM’s 2025 State of the Workplace report showed that 62% of HR professionals feel like they’ve been overcapacity in the last year. Fifty-seven percent report being understaffed. The report also points out a promising development that can help teams get a handle on their responsibilities: artificial intelligence.From Day One gathered a panel of recruiting leaders for a webinar on using AI and automation to enhance the candidate experience, most of them well into their experiments with AI, and all of them ready to talk about how it’s saving them time and energy, and making the hiring process better.Panelists were eager to put to bed some common misconceptions about how AI is being used in hiring. First, that it’s used to auto-reject candidates. “I’ve never seen that happen, and frankly, most recruiters I talk to wouldn’t want that to happen,” said Kyle Forsberg, senior technical recruiter at biotech firm Thermo Fisher Scientific.Another is that recruiters are somewhat “brainless,” said Michelle Yoshihara, senior manager of talent planning at HR software platform Greenhouse. That they go through the hiring process allowing AI to make decisions for them and failing to advocate on behalf of their clients. Also not true.What it is doing is freeing up a lot of time, which lets recruiters source and interview candidates the way they’ve wanted to do it for some time. Polina Morozov, a senior technical recruiter at Grammarly, uses the company’s AI writing assistant to personalize candidate outreach and make messages more attention-grabbing. She’s been using it for two years, to great success. “Whenever I have any subsequent communications with candidates, I do run it through AI to make sure that I’m getting my point across, especially in written form.”Panelists spoke about "Optimizing Hiring: Using AI and Automation to Enhance the Candidate Experience" during the conversation moderated by journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza (photo by From Day One)When you have more time, you can expand your talent pool to find better candidates. “We’re making the process simpler for candidates,” said Chuck Kostomiris, who leads global executive recruitment at energy firm ConocoPhillips. “Not just less pre-screening questions, but more inclusive pre-screening questions to help hopefully more candidates come through that meet the basic requirements for a position.”At Google, senior technical recruiter Steen Whidden fills roles for freshly minted PhDs and other highly credentialed talent, often with 30 years of experience, which means he’s working with multiple generations at any given moment, and he’s using AI to tailor the candidate experience.“For people recently out of PhDs, maybe they just want a short prep call right before they start interviewing,” he said. And at the end of the process, “maybe some don’t want a rejection call, but would rather get an email instead.” More senior workers sometimes like a more high-touch style of recruitment, Whidden has found. Meeting candidates the way they want to be met hasn’t always been possible, simply because there isn’t enough time, but “as we get more time freed up, we can hopefully provide even better candidate experience,” he said.Others are using interview transcription. Kostomiris tells candidates ahead of time that he’ll be using a transcription tool—though the interview recording itself won’t be stored or recorded—and that they’re welcome to opt out. He likes that he doesn’t have to worry about taking notes, and instead can focus on building rapport with the candidates.Forsberg uses it to communicate with hiring managers who have more technical expertise than he does. “I can send them the recording they can hear straight from that candidate, instead of playing a game of telephone between the hiring manager and myself.”Introducing new steps in the process or augment existing ones won’t get you very far unless you persuade hiring managers to buy in. They have to know ahead of time that anything you ask them to do is deliberate and toward a very specific end. “Take a moment prior to all these changes and say, ‘This is the year we’re really focused on AI, so a lot of the changes you’re going to see are going to be us amplifying our processes with AI or automation so that we can make our process more efficient,’” said Yoshihara. When managers see the direction, they can trust that you’re not chasing trends or complicating the process unnecessarily. Disclose to candidates how and when you’ll be using AI, panelists agreed. And as far as possible, give them the chance to opt out. And if you’re going to use AI, don’t expect or require your candidates to totally refrain.But don’t introduce AI into the hiring process if it’s not necessary. “AI for the sake of AI is not what we need,” said Forsberg. “If it ain’t broke, you don’t need to fix it.”“It seems that there will be an AI solution for any number of challenges that businesses face,” said Yoshihara. “But for a recruiting team, as you’re thinking about the candidate experience, you have to consider where this is best applied.”There are some things AI can’t do. Morozov noted that the excitement of finally extending a job offer can’t be done with an AI assistant. And she doesn’t want to hand it over either.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Greenhouse, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by Nuthawut Somsuk/iStock)
Managers Are Overwhelmed. How Leadership Development Can Help Them
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza April 04, 2025Shifting economic forecasts, mass layoffs, political turmoil, inflation, and exhausting news cycles have people feeling like they lack control. That troubled feeling is seeping into the workplace in the form of costly employee burnout.“Managers now really need support to address and handle the shifts and the impact on their teams, their functions, even, quite frankly, themselves,” said Rochelle Arnold-Simmons, the senior director of talent management at sportswear company Under Armor, during the closing panel at From Day One’s March virtual conference on employee engagement.Managers are taking on more responsibilities, and while their work is being supported by new innovations in HR tech, it doesn’t entirely solve the problem of being overwhelmed. Employers can step in to help alleviate their burdens, panelists said.The Problem of Unprepared First-Time ManagerIt begins with promoting and training the right managers.The first-time manager unprepared for the role is a major issue for employers. Managers often get the job because they were top individual contributors, “and a lot of times they lean heavily on what got them to that promotion in the first place, but being a manager is a totally different job,” said Derek Greenacre, head of talent management at commercial insurance firm AXA XL. Organizations, he said, need to do a better job of helping new managers “ruthlessly prioritize” what’s most valuable for the business.The problem is, executives don’t always bother to help. Executive coach Adam Weber gave this example: An executive team makes a big strategic change that affects everyone in the business, but they fail to give managers context or instructions on how to implement the changes. “As soon as they share this new bold initiative, their team asks the one question that the manager doesn’t have the answer to,” Weber said. “So the manager is in this really confusing spot: They can either fake it–and it’s really obvious to the team that they’re faking it–or worse, and more common is that they commiserate and join the team.”Executives need managers on board, but without support, they set them up to oppose the change, even tacitly. “As leadership teams, we need to share as much context as we possibly can when big decisions are made.” Gather managers for a town hall and ask, “What’s the toughest question your team will ask?’” Provide answers to those FAQs. “Equip them to be an advocate for the company,” Weber said.Feeling Safe Enough to FailManagers must feel comfortable and confident enough to press leaders for more information. It helps to have a culture where senior leaders are already candid about the mistakes they make themselves, said Kavita Juvvadi, director of HR tech transformation at Amtrak. This sets the tone for a team “where there is no fear of retaliation or criticism, a culture where mistakes are normalized and treated as opportunities to learn from, rather than failures.” In short: psychological safety.Of course, ask any manager and they will tell you that their team is psychologically safe, but how do you really know? “If all the decisions are escalated to the top level, that’s an indication that people don’t feel empowered,” she said, “They may be afraid to make the decisions for fear of being wrong.”Developing Managers Within the OrganizationMore than 11,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day, which means employers are facing rafts of retirements and open leadership roles. Not only are companies losing years of institutional knowledge, they have to spur succession plans and prepare new managers to climb the ladder.This is especially true for industries like accounting and insurance, which over-index for older workers. This is what Greenacre is facing at AXA XL. To prepare, the company has invested quite a bit of money into building skill profiles for key roles. They then map them across the organization and say, “I know you’ve only thought of yourself in this particular product line, but have you considered other places where you might be able to almost cross pollinate the other?”Journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the panel (photo by From Day One)One way to avoid new manager regret is to begin vetting and training them years ahead of time. This is why Juvvadi prefers to fill leadership roles internally, “because we have an opportunity to observe talent over a longer period of time,” watching those who “may not have a title but are problem-solvers, who naturally identify inefficiencies, who are action-oriented, who are early adopters of technology and innovation. Future leaders are sometimes hidden stars in non-traditional roles.”Arnold-Simmons likes to identify high-potential people early and invest in their careers, in part to retain them, with things like executive coaching and career development. “We look to see where our gaps are, and then find those leaders that we believe can accelerate.”Even if you’re not regretting the promotions the company has made and you’re satisfied with your succession strategy, don’t neglect your people managers. “No matter how big your company is, it’s better to do something than nothing” to help them do their jobs, said Weber. He recommended two things: First, create a one-page guide on what it means to be a manager in your organization” expectations for one-on-ones, how to give feedback to team members, and how to delegate tasks. And second, gather managers to problem-solve together. “Have one person show up with a problem and let people ask questions, then start brainstorming ways to solve the problem together.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by wenich-mit/iStock)
Student Debt in 2025: Essential Benefits for Recruiting and Retaining Top Talent
BY Tabitha Cabrera April 03, 2025The student debt landscape has undergone rapid change in the past four years, with new repayment options, proposed forgiveness programs and further shifts anticipated under the new presidential administration. According to BestColleges, public college tuition increased an average of 5% a year between 2001 and 2021. During a From Day One webinar, Jon Harold, head of sales and partnership success at SoFi at Work, shared the big picture of student loans, the student debt crisis, and how that’s affecting employees. SoFi at Work is a division of SoFi, a company known for pioneering student loan refinancing and being a one stop shop for your financial needs. “Student loans are now at $1.7 trillion, a crisis in the United States, with over about 25% of Americans holding student debt,” said Harold, making the topic especially pertinent. As the workforce not only accumulates more student debt for degrees and advanced degrees, student debt programs can have a large factor in which position to take. “62% of private sector employees indicate that student debt influences their job decision,” said Harold. Additionally, “56% of employees spend three or more hours a week thinking about their finances, including student debt, and then, 36% of employees with student debt are less likely to remain with their employer than those without student debt, meaning if you have student loans, there’s not some sort of benefit, you’re less likely to stay if you don’t have student debt,” he said.The workforce is not unfamiliar with student debt associated with higher paying salaries within industries but even with the enticement of higher paying salaries through education student debt often becomes a great concern when seeking employment and staying within an organization. Employer Help With Student DebtHarold outlines four things employers can do to support their employees with student debt. The first is education, “giving employees access to guides, articles, webinars, with areas for them to ask questions.” The landscape of student loans is consistently changing, and employers can provide updates to their employees to keep them informed about the rapid changes in the student loan policies. Harold of SoFi spoke with journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza (photo by From Day One)Second is advice, and third is navigating student debt, Harold says. Providing counseling around student debt, such as talking to a student loan specialist. Sometimes the most impactful conversations are those that provide a variety of answers to a hard pressed question, like ‘What should I do with my student loans? Which payment plan is right for me?’ The fourth step is refinancing. Saving money whenever possible, whether by refinancing your student loans, consolidating them, or securing better terms, is essential.Often student loan borrowers are released into the workforce not fully understanding the options in front of them regarding payment plans, reimbursement, and loan forgiveness, employers can bridge the gap by providing resources to their employees. Offering Student Loan BenefitsLooking at the objectives of the company can provide the answer to these questions, says Harold. “We can help you evaluate student debt within your workforce, and then based on that you know, what are your objectives?” Companies can look at if they are having trouble recruiting a specific population or retaining a specific population, or do you want to just offer broader financial or student debt and financial well-being benefits. The percentage of companies offering student loan repayment benefits has doubled, jumping from 17% to 34% by the end of 2023, according to research. Currently, employers can offer up to $5,250 combined in tax-free student loan repayment and tuition assistance per employee through 2025, with the Consolidated Appropriations Act. Student loan repayment can create a strategic advantage that helps strengthen employee loyalty. The amount of changes in student loan repayment options, changes in the governmental role, rising cost in education, and gravity of stress related to finances provides an avenue for employers to harness benefits for employees that center around the mounting financial concerns including student loan payments. “Student debt is worsening and employees need help now. The government is incentivizing employer action and reducing support directly to borrowers” Harold said, encouraging employers to take action. “Companies that are offering student debt benefits gain an advantage in recruitment and retention–and SoFi makes it simple,” he said.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, SoFi, for sponsoring this webinar. Tabitha Cabrera, Esq. is a writer and attorney, who has a series of inclusive children's books, called Spectacular Spectrum Books.(Photo by Inna Kot/iStock)
Fostering a Workplace Culture of Purpose, Passion, and Play
BY Jessica Swenson April 03, 2025While data and process are important elements of running a global business, Liz Ference, head of employee experience at Mattel, says “there’s something that’s really missed when we don’t [consider] the qualitative side of things as well.” There are key aspects of the employee experience that numbers can’t convey, which she discussed during a fireside chat with moderator Nicole Smith of Harvard Business Review at From Day One’s March virtual conference.It can be easy to treat employee experience as a catch-all, so when Ference started in her current role she charted out the employee life cycle into a comprehensive experience map. This exercise helped identify important questions about how the company facilitates talent acquisition and management. It also led to deeper insights into employee programs and experiences that enabled her to see possible gaps while understanding the business levers available to influence change.The Company’s MissionMattel has shifted its mission from well-being and optimism to incorporate the themes of purpose, passion, and play, Ference says. This strategy encourages team members to balance efficiency and achievement with recognizing the value of their work and taking the opportunity to experience everyday joy. One way to do this is by bringing the magic of what they do to the center of their employee experience. This allows everyone—even team members separated from the company’s products—to boost their sense of purpose by seeing and participating in this positive collective experience.Given the business that Mattel is in, the company sees play as not only an important business lever but a basic human imperative, according to Ference. She acknowledges that it can be hard to find time to play in an overwhelming, deadline-driven environment, emphasizing the value of creating play opportunities that are authentic to your culture and business. “This is actually when we need to create the space for it more than ever,” she said. While Mattel has fun experiences built into its everyday culture—like a life-sized Barbie box for selfies or a giant Hot Wheels van that can be used as a meeting space—the company is also purposeful about creating occasions for teams to step away from deadlines and have fun or learn together.Signs and Impacts of BurnoutLeaders need to notice when their team is approaching burnout and offer support to get them back to a place of balance. Regarding burnout, Ference says, “[it’s] completely lost its original definition from the World Health Organization, and it’s kind of a synonym now for just being stressed out. But [that] speaks to how ubiquitous it is.” When in burnout, people may distance themselves from their work or distance themselves emotionally from their coworkers. You might notice that their days are full of wall-to-wall meetings, which means they don’t have time or space for deep-focus work, breakthrough thinking, or life outside of work.Nicole Smith of HBR interviewed Liz Ference of Mattel during the fireside chat (photo by From Day One)“You can have the best benefits package in the world. You can have all of these community events, [and] development opportunities for your people. But if people are not prioritizing that space because they’re so rushed in both areas of life, then they won’t get to those things,” Ference said. She and her team try to counteract burnout by creating space for self-care, development work, and community.Embracing Inclusion and AuthenticityMattel has recently launched new programs to support employee well-being and personal growth. One is a global well-being platform, in partnership with Modern Health, which offers free therapy, coaching, and other resources. The second is a series of personal growth programs that employees have reported are life-changing experiences. Lastly, as people and relationships are one of the largest impacts on the employee experience, Ference says, they ensure that leaders and teams are empowered to make time for community and culture events.To ensure an exceptional employee experience across a large, diverse workforce, Mattel uses a global-to-local approach that relies on regional business partners to optimize broad benefit and community programs for local cultures before integration. The company also maintains its strong public commitment to inclusion. “We talk a lot about how our products and brands are a reflection of the communities that we serve,” she said. “If we didn’t walk that talk and have our employees bring their unique lived experiences to the creation process, our products and our brands would no longer be as culturally relevant as they are.” Mattel’s ten employee resource groups create a sense of belonging through frequent events, relevant speakers, and other community moments.Tools and MeasurementWith so much data to sift through, analyze, and interpret, Ference and her team have implemented a listening strategy. Among multiple platforms and sites that gather and organize employee experience data, one key piece is the company’s Global Pulse Survey. The quantitative employee responses to this survey help them understand whether an initiative is building engagement and going in the direction they had hoped, she says. By combining data across all touchpoints, they can identify and communicate action-oriented themes to improve the employee experience. The company reduces bias in its interpretation and application of these themes in part by embracing artificial intelligence for data analysis.In addition to her leadership role, Ference is a coach in the company’s executive coaching program. She helps leaders use deeper listening and feedback skills to shift performance management from an annual event to an ongoing coaching discussion that continuously empowers employees.When employees achieve balance and start to feel more empowered and flexible, leaders will notice them using their benefits and doing things that energize and refresh them, like taking PTO or engaging in development courses. Employees return revitalized and drive creativity and innovation by infusing their renewed passion into their work.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photo by Aum racha/iStock)
How High-Trust Teams Future-Proof Organizations
BY Ade Akin April 02, 2025In an era of relentless innovation and constant disruption, building trust within teams isn’t just a soft skill for organizations; it’s a strategic imperative. Zach Smith, the chief activation officer at Activate 180, led participants through a thought-provoking exercise at From Day One’s March virtual conference, asking them to cross their arms “naturally” and “unnaturally” to underscore a fundamental truth about human behavior: Our brains are wired to resist change. The exercise’s goal was to remind the audience they would always revert to how they usually crossed their arms, regardless of how many times he made them do it unnaturally. “We naturally revert to what’s familiar—it’s the mere exposure effect,” Smith said. “But in a world where change is exponential, clinging to defaults can stifle growth.”Smith discussed how organizations can tackle this natural resistance to change by fostering high-trust environments as workplaces face unprecedented disruptions.The Neuroscience Behind our Resistance to ChangeHumans see change through a primal lens. It’s either a threat or an opportunity. “Our ancestors survived by treating unfamiliar shifts—new predators, scarce resources—as threats,” Smith said. “Today, that same instinct triggers survival mode in workplaces, limiting innovation.”Zach Smith, the chief activation officer + co-founder of Activate 180, led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)This neurological preference to stick to the familiar often leads to suboptimal decision-making, from clinging to outdated practices to avoiding transformative technologies. Being resistant to change is not a viable strategy for organizations in today’s competitive landscape that’s regularly being disrupted by new technologies. Futurist Ray Kurzweil, whom Smith cited, famously predicted that the 21st century would bring 20,000 years of progress. Kurzweil’s predictions have been startlingly accurate from smartphones to artificial intelligence. “If we’ve seen this much upheaval since 2000, imagine the next decade,” Smith said. “Leaders must rewire teams to see change as an opportunity—not a threat.”The High Cost of Low TrustGallup’s 2024 data paints a grim picture as employee engagement hit an 11-year low, with more than 50% of workers eyeing new roles. Smith says that low trust within organizations is responsible for this lack of engagement. “When trust is lacking, communication breaks down. Silos form. People disengage or leave,” Smith said.In contrast, high-trust teams are considerably better at adapting to change. Dr. Paul J. Zak’s study of thousands of organizations found that high-trust teams:Have 76% higher engagementAre 50% more productiveAre 88% more likely to recommend their workplacePractical Steps ForwardZach’s insights weren’t just theoretical; he provided actionable strategies for leaders looking to transform their organization’s culture. First, introduce new processes and ideas slowly. Run low-stake experiments regularly that allow team members to familiarize themselves with new processes and ideas gradually. “Just as you can learn a new way to cross your arms, you can learn new ways to work together,” Smith advised.Another important component is promoting transparency. Share successes and challenges candidly with team members, inviting input and fostering an environment where constructive dialogue flourishes. Smith says this openness helps to reduce the stress and anxiety caused by uncertainty. “Trust isn’t abstract—it’s a competency,” Smith said. “It’s the ‘savings account’ you build through consistency. Withdrawals—like broken promises—cost more than deposits.”During the conversation, Smith drew an unexpected analogy from nature to highlight the importance of high trust in organizations, explaining how Canadian geese use a “V” formation when flying to share leadership and reduce fatigue. The V formation creates drag as it pierces through the air, leading to the goose at the head of the formation doing the most work while the geese at the tails do the least. This allows the birds to cover much longer distances than they could travel if the group stopped when the leader was tired. “The front goose does the heaviest lifting, then rotates back to recover. It’s shared responsibility in action,” Smith said. Teams that emulate this model—where trust enables collaboration—achieve an “amplification effect,” outpacing competitors.For Smith, systematic coaching is the key to developing a similar level of cooperation. “Trust isn’t just HR’s job. It requires intentional, organization-wide habits—like empowering employees to voice concerns without fear,” he added.Building trust in an organization starts with small, consistent actions. Clarify expectations to reduce ambiguity. Delegate meaningful responsibilities to demonstrate confidence in team members’ abilities, and acknowledge everyone’s contributions to reinforce their value.“Trust transforms employees from transactional workers to invested partners,” Smith said. In high-trust cultures, teams navigate change collaboratively, viewing challenges as shared missions rather than threats.In Smith’s closing remarks, Kurzweil’s optimism about humanity’s adaptability resonated: “Curiosity and resilience will define successful organizations. Leaders who prioritize trust aren’t just preparing for the future, they’re shaping it.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Activate 180, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Ade Akin covers workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by PeopleImages/iStock)
Enhancing Efficiency, Inclusivity, and Personalization: How AI is Transforming Talent Acquisition
BY Carrie Snider April 02, 2025Hiring the right talent has never been more challenging—or more crucial. Organizations must be efficient, but not to the detriment of it becoming a transaction. While AI is helping companies transform recruitment, how can they harness its power without letting the process become robotic?At From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference, a panel of experts discussed how to achieve a human-tech balance. Moderated by Melanie Jones, editor in chief of Utah Business, the conversation explored AI’s role in recruiting, the skills gap in today’s workforce, and strategies for creating a more efficient, engaging hiring experience.Artificial intelligence may be streamlining high-volume hiring by automating sourcing, scheduling, and selection processes. However, the key to success lies in balancing AI’s efficiency with the human touch that ensures a personalized candidate experience.“For us, AI helps with sourcing and scheduling, particularly for entry-level and high-volume hiring,” said panelist Danielle McCaffrey, senior director of talent acquisition at Alorica. AI can minimize front-end work to help them narrow down candidate pools while also making sure that they don’t miss any of them, she says. But what of recruiters?Rather than replacing recruiters, AI is shifting their roles. Since automation takes over repetitive tasks, recruiters can focus on higher-value activities such as interviewing, networking, and refining candidate assessments. “In high-volume recruiting, we tend to get too transactional, but AI helps us move beyond that to create more meaningful conversations with candidates,” McCaffrey said.For companies looking to implement AI, McCaffrey suggested first conducting a time and motion study to assess which tasks are truly repeatable and suitable for automation. “That can give you a good starting point,” she said, reinforcing the need to approach AI integration strategically while keeping the human element at the core of hiring decisions.Future Workforce and AdaptabilityWith technology shaping the workforce, adaptability is key, says Breanna Johnson, recruiting team lead at Zions Bancorporation. “The first implementers of technology are going to be the people coming out of high school and college,” Johnson said. As this young workforce applies for entry-level roles, the landscape will continue to shift. “Just like customer service phone positions were once the standard, and now chat support has grown, new roles will emerge. We need employees who are flexible and leaders with vision to direct those paths.”Despite AI’s advantages, there’s a growing skills gap in the workforce, says Johnson. “We’re seeing a lack of communication skills, especially among individuals who completed their education remotely during Covid. Many recruiters and organizations have noted this as a significant issue, particularly for roles requiring customer interaction. We may need to adjust our training to focus on customer service and communication.”Panelists shared insights on the topic "Making Talent Acquisition More Efficient, Inclusive, and Personalized"That’s why recruiters at Zions Bancorporation are continuously upskilling. “Our team has been attending seminars and lectures to enhance their knowledge,” Johnson said. “We want our recruiters to take the reins of AI technology, not just replace parts of their work but use it to create real value for hiring managers and candidates. In the next three to five years, as AI becomes even more prevalent, our team needs to be prepared.”Everyone has to start someone with the adoption of new technology, says Johnson. “Everyone right now is in the early stages of AI exploration. Even if you feel behind, researching and implementing AI today is the next best step. Look at your core recruiting components—whether it’s Workday, Taleo, or another system—and ensure any new tools integrate well. Vendors may promise the stars and moon, but will it actually work with your system?”Holistic Hiring ApproachThe key to making talent acquisition better is to look at it holistically, said panelist Jay Hart, global head of talent management at Varex Imaging Corporation. “We want to use technology to simplify some of those easily repeatable tasks, maybe the lower value-add activities, but we still need to use human judgment to evaluate and make decisions,” he said. This balance allows companies to leverage technology to improve efficiencies without losing the crucial insight that human evaluation provides.The key is to use technology for the right reasons, and to never let it replace human judgment. “I can’t rely on the way we used to do it, where a recruiter screens a resume, hands it to a hiring manager, who spends 30 seconds on the resume... I’ve got to have skills assessments, a personality profile, and a structured interview process with an unbiased ranking system.” This ensures that each candidate is thoroughly evaluated, minimizing the risk of overlooking potential talent due to a lack of personalization or bias. With this approach, companies can spend time on what’s really important. Enhancing Candidate ExperienceImproving the candidate experience is essential to attracting and retaining top talent, says panelist Julie Cox, senior director of talent acquisition and global mobility at Lamb Weston. So whatever tech you’re looking at possibly implementing, make sure it enhances the experience, she says. Lamb Weston uses several tools, including a CRM tool to streamline candidate sourcing. This automation simplifies the search process, allowing teams to focus on higher-value tasks, like engaging with candidates personally, Cox says.Lamb Weston has shifted its approach to employee feedback by moving away from infrequent surveys to “pulsing” surveys that are quick and easy to answer. What they’ve discovered is that the younger workforce craves professional development—specifically feedback. Responding to this call can help engage the workforce.Microlearning is another innovative approach that the company promotes to enhance employee development. “We were able to say, we want to do two to three-minute microlearning modules,” Cox said. This approach fosters quick learning and offers employees easy access to reference materials.Cox’s team also revamped the company’s career site to make the application process smoother for candidates. “We added 18 additional pages that provide the candidate with a lot of self-service tools. We worked really hard to make sure the candidate could quickly and easily apply to a job at Lamb Weston.” This focus on simplicity and accessibility is key to improving the overall candidate experience.Strategic and Flexible RecruitingPanelist Erin Kap, director of talent acquisition at Intermountain Health, is focusing on enhancing the skills of the recruiting teams post-Covid. “I think we’ve all come out of Covid and what that did for recruiting teams. It was go, go, go at a breakneck pace, trying to fill things and trying to get them back to just the human experience.”AI can help with processes, but it can’t judge character and behavior. To make this transition smooth, the team has initiated a “huge upskilling project” to support their recruiters in continuously developing their skills. At the same time, it’s important to trial and error your way through your methods.“We’ve had experiences where we’ve implemented tools that didn’t work and candidates were averse to so we saw, like, large drop off rates, and that was important for us to be able to recognize and get rid of what’s not serving your business, like what she’s saying. If it’s not serving you, then get rid of it and figure something else out.”As companies utilize AI more and more, Kap suggested they take recruiters along the way. That way, they can be part of the implementation and better adapt to how things are changing. To foster engagement, Kap’s team has worked on creating personalized development plans for recruiters. “We sat down as a team, knowing what we’re implementing, what we’ve already done, said, like, what are really those major skills of the future, and why are they so important? And then we’ve evaluated our team to say they’re doing the evaluation too, to see, like, where am I really at? And creating development plans around that.”By strategically integrating AI, continuously upskilling recruiters, and prioritizing the candidate experience, companies can create a hiring process that is both efficient and deeply personal. Flexibility is key. And in the end, successful talent acquisition isn’t just about filling roles—it’s about building strong, engaged teams for the future.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Sean Ryan for From Day One)
Enhancing Employee Mental Health and Wellness Support
BY Tabitha Cabrera April 01, 2025In 2024 the World Health Organization released a report about Mental Health at Work estimating that globally, $1 trillion is lost in productivity each year due to depression and anxiety. Preventing mental health conditions at work is about managing psychosocial risks in the workplace, the study reports.Business leaders should invest resources in training management to not only try and recognize the struggles that employees face but to ask the right questions to provide important resources to employees within their organization. A panel discussion at From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference addressed this very topic. Leigh Stenby, Mountain States health solutions practice leader at AON, highlighted the spectrum and impact mental health can have within an organization. “It’s important to provide yourself, your colleagues and those that you work with resources, training, and access to tools to help folks, because you really never know what they’re going through,” she said.Stenby, shared the story of a client “who was a smart, young, dynamic woman, and we were doing amazing work together, and she ended up having a very severe mental health episode.” Mental health struggles reach a far and wide range of people in different aspects of their life, which can include, situational mental health, such as the loss of a family member, financial stress, or divorce or can be a lifelong battle that some employees may face managing depression and anxiety. Mike Brandt, VP of HR operations, employee and labor relations of L3 Harris Technologies agreed, highlighting how the company creates options inclusive of all. “So as we think about the support networks that our employees have, whether they’re single parents, whether they have family in town or not, whether they have any other network that can help them with their responsibilities outside of work,” he said. The company focuses on providing support for a wide range of employees and also ensuring they know the resources available, and that they are using them.Connie Washington, VP of people and DEI at Progressive Leasing, provides insight into the responsibility of employers. “There’s so much that people are dealing with, and they don’t leave it home. It shows up at work, whether we like it or not. And so, it’s our responsibility, responsibility as leaders and organizations to determine ways that we can support them through the challenges that they face. They’re our most important and valuable asset of an organization,” she said. Sometimes support looks like giving people time and flexibility to focus on things outside of work. AON provides “two global well-being days per year to our employees, and they’re set days, but they don’t align with any other national or religious holidays, and so they are intended for employees to use for their own self care and their own well-being, the whole company shuts down for that day,” said Stenby. Beth Taylor, assistant editor at Utah Business, moderated the panel discussionDallen Allred, co-founder and CEO of Tava Health, emphasizes the importance of a top-down approach to well-being. “I think one of the things that companies can do is demonstrate more vulnerability as leaders,” Allred said.Ryan Schatzer, VP of people services & experience at Intermountain Health agreed: “Frontline managers are so pivotal for the mental well-being of the workforce.” Resources for managers can include Mental Health First Aid, which is a one-day certification course. When employees feel like there is a culture of openness and an ability to be vulnerable without judgement regarding productivity, missed work, or any other number of factors important to employers they may be able to find what they are needing to make their way through whatever mental health struggle the employee is facing. Schatzer shared an impactful story regarding an employee who was struggling with thoughts of suicide and how important it was for the manager to ask the right questions and provide support in that situation. He goes on to highlight the gravity of providing services, support, and openness within an organization, “How do we support the team and families that have gone through or experienced suicide, but on the prevention piece, create a culture, again, a culture of openness.” Finding a way to see the employee sitting in front of you asking for help, either through their words or action, and having the proper training to either ask the right questions or direct the employee to the support they are needing, can greatly impact the workplace but most importantly the individual. Tabitha Cabrera, Esq. is a writer and attorney, who has a series of inclusive children's books, called Spectacular Spectrum Books.(Photos by Sean Ryan for From Day One)
Modernizing Your Hourly-Worker Hiring Strategy for the TikTok Generation
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza March 31, 2025Twenty-five-year-olds aren’t the only members of the TikTok generation, says Pete Sanidas, head of enterprise at JobGet. “We’re talking about the portion of the population that has become accustomed to and dependent on the algorithm on the ‘For You’ page. It’s the idea that my individual interests, experiences, behaviors, and intentions are delivering me the content that I want to consume.”Get into the groove of a good algorithm and boom, “all of a sudden you have a new hobby, you have a new interest, you made a new purchase that you weren’t planning to make. That’s the TikTok generation,” he said during a From Day One webinar about “Modernizing Your Hourly-Worker Hiring Strategy for the TikTok Generation.”Social media platforms have mastered the art of engaging users with content they never knew they wanted. Why can’t employers do the same thing? That’s what Sanidas is trying to do with JobGet, a job search app for hourly employees.For years, job boards have given job seekers the same starting point: two blank search bars for job title and location. But job seekers seldom fill out that second field, Sanidas says. Because they don’t want to be limited. They’d rather explore what’s available. He believes they’d rather find a good algorithm.If you know about their experience, their day-to-day life, their responsibilities, their compensation needs, and the locations where they want to work, “you can very much match the right kinds of jobs to the job seekers by pushing them to the ‘For You’ page, as opposed to having them come to a blank box and just say, ‘show me what you got.’”Everyone Recruiter’s Least Favorite Problem: Finding Quality Over Quantity Employers are prone to stigmatizing hourly workers, said Sanidas. He often hears companies complain about the old stereotype of quantity over quality. But once you start probing, you may find that a recruiter’s measure of “quality” is simply whether the candidate responds to the recruiter’s first outreach. He said that what those companies fail to consider is their part in the exchange.Pete Sanidas of JobGet led the webinar (company photo)“That becomes a mirror test,” he said. “Look in the mirror. What kind of experience have you provided for those candidates prior to you reaching out to them? Have you let days or weeks go by? Did you ask them to jump through a lot of redundant hoops?”Candidates are most likely to drop out between application and first outreach from the employer, “particularly in large-scale environments that are working with a large amount of technology and have some pretty cumbersome or mature processes.” It’s typically because that job seeker has found a company that was quicker to respond–and refused to subject them to unnecessary technological hurdles.“Outreach is something more than the automated acknowledgement of application received,” he said. It’s actually contact from a recruiter asking to schedule a phone screening or a call with the hiring manager. Fix that leaky pipe and get quality applicants in front of hiring managers as quickly as possible. Understanding the Hourly WorkforceSomething Sanidas has learned in 25 years of talent acquisition is that young young does not equal inexperienced. “The oldest Gen Zers are 27 years old. By definition, if they’re in the hourly or everyday worker category, they could have 10 plus years of work experience.” And when it comes to most hourly roles, like warehousing, retail, and hospitality, experience starts to compound at two to three years. An employee with a decade of experience is invaluable. Across jobs in the hourly work space, there are some specialized roles, but the overwhelming majority require the same core skills: communication, interpersonal skills, and the ability to use internal operating systems (like point-of-sale or inventory management software). Finding the right candidates isn’t so much about skills as it is about whether the opportunity fits the needs of the worker: Is it commutable? Does it pay enough? Does it fit with their schedule? Compensation and location are consistently the most important factors for everyday workers, he said. “Quality candidates appreciate being able to find those matches very quickly and easily,” yet employers don’t always make that information available or ensure it’s accurate.Some employers try to hide from the less-than-ideal parts of their open roles, but “we’re living in a world where it’s harder and harder to hide. So let’s just be real with ourselves.” If you’re not offering the best compensation in your area, don’t omit or inflate it in the job description. And put the actual location of the job, not a zip code or metro area. A five-mile commute in Richmond, Virginia, may be comfortable. A five-mile commute in Los Angeles may not.“Get your non-starters front and center,” he said. Those might be reliable transportation or two years of experience with a unique skill. “Get the big, hairy uglies that you know about your opportunity out there.” Put them in knockout questions so job seekers can move on, and so can you.Ask yourself, “Am I making this easy for qualified talent to easily get connected with my hiring managers and vice versa? Is it easy for my hiring managers to quickly get in front of the quality talent, because in the hourly space, that’s the evaluation you want taking place as quickly as possible.”Keep job descriptions brief and easy to read. Use bullet points and lists. Don’t clog it up with exhaustive boilerplate about the company. “It’s hard to tell the difference between one job description and the next, because really, what you’re looking at is that tiny little slice in the middle that differentiates.”And follow the right metrics. “Cost per click, cost per apply–those are vanity metrics. I can deliver you a really great cost per apply of unqualified candidates that never end up as hires, and that’s not doing your business any good.” Cost per hire is a better starting point, he said. “The most advanced organizations solving for this are going even further and creating their own equations around cost per candidate acquired that we retained over a period of time. If you continue to have really high turnover because of your talent attraction strategy, you’re just making more work for yourself tomorrow.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, JobGet, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by jakkapant turasen/iStock)
How Employees Can Navigate Digital Transformation While Being Heard, Seen, and Valued
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi March 28, 2025Extra Space Storage is a self-storage company that has over 4,000 facilities across the United States and employs 8,000 workers. The company has also only had three CEOs since 1977. At From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference, Whitney Harper, SVP of people at Extra Space Storage spoke with moderator Robert Gehrke, a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune about how the company’s leadership and culture has fostered a work environment that embraces inclusivity, thoughtfulness and has adapted to artificial intelligence.As the nation faces a tumultuous time in politics, the news can be overwhelming and distracting for everyone, especially in the workplace. In order to make sure employees are seen, heard and focused, leaders can incorporate informal and formal strategies, says Harper.Surveys are a common way to check in with team members and get a “pulse check” on engagement, says Harper. Meetings can also give companies insight on how employees feel and what their concerns are.Informally, having conversations while running into people at the office can be a great way to casually connect with others and hear their thoughts. Extra Space Storage has developed a culture of having stairwell chats, while people run into workers from different departments between building floors. Harper also encourages asking the questions of “what’s on your mind?”, “what are you stressed about?” and “what can we help answer?”Showing employees that they are valued is another strategy to creating a thoughtful work environment. “When you have team members that hit a significant milestone, you want to make sure that you are also adequately or appropriately showing up and recognizing and reinforcing and creating kind of that calmness,” said Harper. Extra Space Storage celebrates employee milestones through bonuses. Although they used to send gifts, they found that extra cash was better received by workers. Diversity, equity and inclusion has been a hot topic in the news since the beginning of Trump’s second term. Extra Space Storage has remained committed to DEI efforts since the Black Lives Matters movement following George Floyd’s murder in 2020. The company has adjusted its DEI language to shift more toward inclusion and values because it felt that it more strongly aligned with its authentic self. Balancing the Use of AIWith thousands of employees and a commitment to helping everyone who needs human resource assistance, Harper is a regular user of artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT and Galileo, but she emphasizes to “never let AI be the driver.”Harper said AI has helped the company analyze data from employee engagement surveys and produce reports to share with senior leadership with indications that it was AI generated. This data contains a lot of sensitive information and so Harper clarified that she works closely with the cybersecurity team to ensure that these tools are safe. Whitney Harper, SVP of people at Extra Space Storage, was interviewed by Robert Gehrke, reporter at the Salt Lake Tribune during the fireside chatThe company also uses AI in learning and development. It recently launched a new learning management system called Axonify. “Axonify does trainings, but also does daily quizzes, so it can be testing the individual and also asks the individual, what's your confidence level on your answer to this,” Harper said. The AI training system learns about the individual employee the more they use it and helps them advance their skills in a way that is suited for them.Culture From the Top DownExtra Space Storage serves millions of customers with its storage facilities, but how do they transfer its inclusive work culture down to the members of the public?Harper says its unique company culture and business model all stems from the foundation of the company and its mission to maintain a “win-win relationship.” The founder of Extra Space Storage, Kenneth M. Wooley has always worked under the win-win relationship mindset even prior to the creation of the company, says Harper. “If you’re going to go into business with Ken Woolley, he's never going to do a deal that’s not a win-win with you,” she said. This reputation has continued with its second and third CEO.The win-win relationship is now serving its customers through rate adjustments especially when the company acknowledges that rate increases can be stressful. “We empower our team members to do rate adjustments,” she said. “They are empowered to do that so that they can say, ‘I know this customer, I can empathize. I see what’s going on with them. This is not a good time for you to have a rate increase. Let me make that adjustment for you.’”When the company’s culture is embraced by leaders, team members and third party owners, the positive impact of it “cascades throughout the whole organization,” Harper said.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Sean Ryan for From Day One)
Enhancing The Employee Experience With Innovative Technology
BY Matthew Koehler March 28, 2025Some say high turnover is simply the cost of doing business, and for many industries, that will always be the case. But the numbers tell a different story. Disengaged workers cost the world economy $8.8 trillion in lost productivity, according to a 2023 report from Gallup.“A number like this shows that the opportunity cost of not investing in the employee experience fully outweighs the investment that you would make. 8.9 trillion dollars [is] 10% of the world’s economy. That’s a staggering number to think about,” said Josh Parente, the director of sales at LineZero. Parente spoke about the cost of employee disengagement, and how to re-engage them during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference.Doing Employee Engagement WellLineZero is passionate about the employee experience: “We live our values of ‘People Matter.’” “We focus on building and enhancing the employee experience through technology,” said Parente. LineZero has a long-term partnership with Meta’s Workplace and current partnership with Workvivo, and they’ve taken that experience to new organizations they work with. “Our objective when we work with a lot of our partners is to act as an extension of their organizations. We work with our partners to help them build and deploy their employee experience through technology.”Parente says they start with an employee’s experience from day one, “not just throughout maturity.” They focus on that starting point and “continue to push that positive momentum throughout the lifecycle [of the employee].” HR professionals and leaders should think about how connected their employees are to the mission and whether or not they're “excited and inspired” to clock in every day.During an impromptu survey with the audience, Parente sussed out a few key items that highlighted the lack of employee engagement and what companies are doing about it. Building trust turned out to be the number one challenge attendees were facing in their organizations. Email was how they were dealing with it. And, budget was one thing they'd increase to mitigate disengaged employees, if a “genie” was available. “Investing in the employee experience leads to 43% less turnover, an 81% reduction in absenteeism and a 20% increase in productivity. So if we’re looking at the budget and we’re looking at the opportunity cost, not investing far outweighs the cost of actually making the investment.”Slide from Parente's presentation, highlighting statistics shared When asked whether the above statistics shocked anyone, not a single hand went up. “80% of employees feel lonely. 3 out of 5 are burnt out. These are statistics that clearly articulate that we are facing a massive problem when it comes to the labor market today. So the question is, what are we going to do about it?”Looking back at the Great Resignation of 2022, the data paints a clear picture. Many boomers took early retirement, while millennials left their jobs in droves. But one statistic stood out to Parente. “Of the millennials that turned over during the 2022 Great Resignation, 47% of them were high performers.” That’s a big deal. “High performers outperform the average employee at a rate of four to one, and they make up about 15% of your organization.”If companies want to build strong cultures and retain top talent, they need to invest in the employee experience—especially for those high performers because they will help drive the employee experience and "push the [company] culture forward." Millennials, on average, change jobs every two to three years, meaning another wave of turnover is coming. “There’s a good opportunity here for us to start diving into ways to stop this mass turnover, especially with our high performers,” Parente said.Parente shared another chart inspired by Simon Sinek’s work with Navy SEALs. The takeaway? “The high performance, low trust person—this is a toxic team member. Even though they’re driving high performance, they would sooner select somebody that has low performance, high trust over somebody who has high performance, [low] trust.”Parente's slide on the relationship between trust and performance Take that to heart: The most elite teams prioritize trust over raw talent.Encouraging the Entrepreneur to be an IntrapreneurAccording to a chief people officer at a major enterprise Parente and LineZero works with, “Within the U.S. economy, [that company] [does] a really good job of inspiring and encouraging entrepreneurship,” the officer said. But when companies invest in employee experience, they don’t just keep workers—they create “intrapreneurs,” employees who think like entrepreneurs but stay within the company.The key is investing in high-trust employees.“Those high trust categories are those intrapreneurs that you want to encourage within your organization,” Parente said. “Those are the 15% that you want to continue to keep and continue to encourage to be part of the culture.” The solution Parente says is better technology. Right now, organizations juggle multiple platforms—productivity suites, HR systems, endless apps—but they don’t talk to each other. “What if we had one? One that connected everybody, our cultures, our productivity tools, and our HR systems? The truth is, we have that at our fingertips today.”Yet, many companies still rely on outdated communication methods. “Email is still number one." But mass emails with critical company updates? They get buried. “I don’t know if you guys read them, but they usually fall to the bottom of my inbox.”Parente says we all need to move in a different direction. “Legacy and top down communications [are] something that showed hierarchy. It showed clear efficiency, but it's not effective. It’s not inspiring, it’s not empowering our employees and our team members to go out and be entrepreneurs for the business.”As organizations look to the future, the way they communicate and engage employees must evolve. Creating an environment where employees feel encouraged, not overlooked, when sharing ideas is (or should be) the future. “If we’re not evolving and moving our organization forward, those statistics are going to stay at 60% of burnout. They’re going to stay at 80% of loneliness,” Parente said. “I don’t know about you, but if I go into work and I know that 80% of my coworkers feel lonely. That’s not an inspiring thing. We're not inspiring change. We're not inspiring communication and collaboration. We’re just staying the same.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, LineZero, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Matthew Koehler is a freelance journalist and licensed real-estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Greater Greater Washington, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.(Photo by Sean Ryan for From Day One)
How to Be Clear About Business Principles So Both the Company and Workers Can Thrive
BY Katie Chambers March 28, 2025Justin Sibley, CEO of POWDR, has moved through diverse work environments, from HR roles in Silicon Valley to the more “laidback” culture of a leading outdoor recreation brand. Each experience contributed to a smart, intuitive, and flexible management style, one that has become a particular asset at his organization based in the beautiful mountains of Utah. When employees understand what sustains their business and the purpose of its policies, they’re in a better position to help all the corporate functions work well together. Sibley, the CEO of the adventure-lifestyle company POWDR, owner of Snowbird and many other resorts, illuminated how this principle influences hiring, education, corporate culture, and dealing with new challenges during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference.The Value of TransparencyOne of the keys to clarity is transparency: being honest and open with your employees about what is going on at the business—both the good and the bad. “There’s a lot of dialogue around being authentic. And if you’re in any business long enough, you’re going to have speed bumps, you’re going to have issues that come up, and you’ve got to figure out the best way to get through that,” Sibley said. If that is the first time you decide to be open with employees, Sibley says, you could get burned. “A lot of companies get accused of not following their corporate values when they have to make tough decisions, [such as] not pursue a great opportunity, cut back on expenses, or even [have] layoffs.”Staying open with employees from the outset can help them better understand the how and the why behind painful decisions. “There’s a lot of pressure for people, when they're developing their mission, vision, values, and culture, to present it in this altruistic way,” Sibley said. At POWDR, Sibley and his team aim to “balance the objective with the subjective,” instilling a welcoming community-centric culture while also not shying away from a focus on sales, profits, and longevity. This requires buy-in from HR. “It’s important the HR team understands what we’re doing and why, [so] that when they’re onboarding people, they can support the same thing,” Sibley said. “The HR team is part of developing that authenticity around, ‘Hey, we're in this business because we love it, but we're also in this business to stay in this business.”Reimagining the Hiring ProcessMany of us have a mental image of what kind of person might work at an adventure-lifestyle company like POWDR. “Historically, the outdoor rec industry used to hire people who could display as much passion as possible for a powder day,” said moderator Lauren Gustus, executive editor of the Salt Lake Tribune. But Sibley is changing that. When he first arrived, he found a staff that was full of “really great mountain bikers or skiers,” but was finding it challenging to reach the next level in departments like tech, finance, and infrastructure.So, he prioritized hiring employees who displayed just as much passion in their vocabulary and body language during an interview about their work skills as they do for the great outdoors. “The outdoor industry is just like every other industry. We have complicated problems we need to solve, and we have opportunities that we need to grab on to, and it takes that functional skill set to do it,” Sibley said. This all comes back to a continued conversation with HR about values: “What are we doing, why are we doing it, what kinds of skill sets do we need. It’s just part of the conversation, not an event. It’s what we talk about on a regular basis.” Navigating Modern ChallengesHaving a strong set of values and a focus on organizational growth and success is particularly helpful as POWDR navigates the unique challenges of the current moment, including the impact of climate change on the outdoor adventure industry and how recent immigration reform efforts might impact the availability of seasonal workers, many of whom rely on H-2B and J-1 visas. Sibley wishes the reform conversation in Congress would touch on things like stability, lifting the caps on how long foreign workers can stay, or making the hiring timeline more flexible. Currently those visa candidates must be hired in January, when businesses like POWDR are already well into their core season.His organization is taking a proactive approach. “We’ve hired somebody who has deep experience with working in D.C. with our government and has those relationships, and we've worked on getting in front of the Department of the Interior [and] whoever we need to get in front of to make that happen,” Sibley said. He urges that corporations can’t rely on trade associations alone to advocate for governmental changes for their industries. “When we came through COVID, I realized that we need to take responsibility for ourselves on that front, and make sure we have those relationships and that we're speaking to our representatives directly.” He says HR teams can add value to this process by hosting lunch-and-learns with local reps to familiarize them with business initiatives. Expanding on a National Level With government relationships top of mind, POWDR is now breaking into a new area: national parks. This expansion includes running Stovepipe Wells in Death Valley and the lodge inside Zion National Park, taking over admin, hospitality, and HR from the Park Service, bringing their luxury adventure hospitality brand to established government properties. “We took everything that we consider to be our core competencies, hospitality, food and beverage, hotel management, retail rentals, helping each place be the best version of itself, and we don’t try to homogenize anything,” Sibley said.Even though Sibley acknowledges this side of the business does not have the highest margins, it still provides a valuable opportunity for the staff within POWDR, even boosting retention. Among its 8,000 employees, about 6,000 are seasonal. At the parks, Sibley is finding that people who want to enjoy “gap year” style jobs but keep it for longer can simply shift from working at his ski resorts during the snow season and move on to, say, Zion National Park in the warmer weather. “There’s tremendous employee synergy in having these off-season businesses where we have housing available for people. It’s seamless for them to move from place to place. And kids in their early 20s, they love it.” POWDR looks forward to bidding on additional national park opportunities in the future. Ultimately, company culture must come from the top. “It’s my job to set the tone, hire the team, and make sure people have the tools. My focus is on making sure that [the mission] is well-known. We work hard with the HR and tech teams to make sure that we have scalable ways to disseminate that to the farthest reaches of the organization,” Sibley said. Part of the culture includes communicating actively with all employees, meeting them where they are, whether they communicate via company email or WhatsApp. “But my job is to make sure that I’m living the culture that I say I want,” he said. “And then to make sure that I’m fighting for the resources with the board to make sure we have all the tools to get it done.”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 Sean Ryan for From Day One)
Fostering Connection for Workplace Well-Being and Innovation
BY Carrie Snider March 27, 2025Workplace mental health is in crisis. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 76% of U.S. workers report experiencing at least one symptom of a mental health condition, and 84% say their workplace has contributed to their struggles. As such, employees are demanding change—81% say they will seek workplaces that actively support mental well-being in the future.At From Day One’s Houston conference, TV host, producer, and journalist Dee Brown moderated a panel of experts. As she highlighted these statistics, their discussion maintained that to foster well-being and drive innovation, organizations must create environments where employees feel valued, heard, and safe.Building Psychological SafetyPanelist Jonathan Thorp, chief learning officer at Quantum Connections, highlighted that addressing workplace culture requires understanding employees on a deep level. “A lot of people mistake culture as being this single thing, this entity that you can measure and perfect,” he said. “But culture operates on several levels: the values a company aspires to, the actual behaviors and routines in the workplace, and, most importantly, the underlying beliefs of employees.” Companies must actively engage with employees to uncover these beliefs, Thorp says. “You’ve got no way to learn what those underlying beliefs are unless you talk to them, unless you ask them, and unless you actually build a genuine conversation—leaving that person feeling seen and heard.”Panelists spoke about "The Connection Solution: Bringing Workers Together for Well-Being and Innovation"The key to building psychological safety is not just assuming a workplace culture is effective but continuously measuring and reinforcing it. In Google’s Project Aristotle, he says, which sought to determine what makes the most effective teams, they were hoping to find that there was one Ivy League hero demographic that they could hire. “But what they actually found was that psychological safety was the number one factor,” Thorp said.Creating an environment where employees feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and engage meaningfully with leadership isn’t something that happens by chance—it must be intentionally cultivated and maintained. “You have to work at it, and as soon as you have it, even for an instant, you have to work hard to keep it, because it is perishable.”Data-Driven DecisionsSupporting employees, particularly in high-stress environments like behavioral health, is critical. “Charlie Health is uniquely positioned because we’re in the behavioral health space,” said panelist Christine Ko, chief people officer at Charlie Health. “With nearly 90% of our workforce being clinicians who work with high-need clients in crisis, we have to take a much more active approach to preventative care.”This means prioritizing real-time data collection to anticipate and address burnout before it escalates, she says. But Ko acknowledged the complexity of workplace well-being, particularly when multiple challenges overlap. “You have overarching burnout issues in behavioral health, then you add workplace culture challenges—like isolation and lack of connection—and then you layer on a remote, distributed workforce,” she said. “Suddenly, you have a very complex set of issues to solve in a workplace setting.”Charlie Health takes a hands-on approach, integrating traditional Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) with embedded support in daily workflows. “It’s about teaching our employees to fish,” she added. “We want to give them the tools they need and empower them to use those tools when necessary.”Truly listening requires collecting information, but really analyzing it so they can best use it. “We do quarterly pulse surveys at the organizational level, but that’s just a starting point,” Ko said. “After that, we do deep dives with each team because we have such a diverse workforce—some hourly, some salaried, some in healthcare, some in corporate roles. The needs of each group are different, and we have to understand those unique challenges.”Building trust is essential in making this process successful. “That’s why we’re upfront: We want to hear from you because what you tell us matters. And we’re going to use that information to prioritize initiatives that will have the biggest impact on you.”Sustainable change begins with leadership, says Ko. By investing in leadership training and support, Charlie Health ensures managers are equipped to provide personalized, day-to-day coaching. “If we get leadership right, we can create solutions that truly support our workforce in the long run.”Connection and PurposeLeaders should make sure they are aligning employees with the company’s mission to foster a sense of connection and purpose, says panelist Terry Stringer, head of ethics office, integrity policy and operations at HP Inc. Because of psychological safety challenges employees face, HP implemented a peer-support initiative designed to offer employees a trusted avenue to discuss concerns, which in turn encouraged them to engage more openly and feel safer in their roles. “They should feel comfortable speaking up without fear of repercussions,” Stringer said. HP developed a mental health initiative where executive leaders publicly discussed their personal mental health challenges, sparking meaningful conversations throughout the company. “This openness led to employees seeking resources and HR stepping in to provide more support,” Stringer said. The company also focuses on gathering feedback through various surveys to continuously evaluate the program’s impact and make necessary adjustments. The goal is not just to measure the program’s success, she explained, but to improve the overall work environment and employee experience.It all comes down to balancing the company’s goals with the well-being of employees. “We’re a business, but we care about you as a person. We need you to be well in order for us to succeed,” she said. Use AI to Enhance WellnessAI is one tool that leaders can use to boost connectivity, according to panelist Selena Young, head of HR business partnering at Seadrill. The company uses AI tools to improve wellness among its largely offshore workforce. “Being on a rig for months, disconnected from the world, can be very challenging,” she said. To address this, Seadrill implemented an AI-based platform that provides personalized real-time nudges to employees, encouraging behavior changes that positively impact their mental wellness.The AI tool monitors employee activity, such as time spent on computers and email response times, and tailors its nudges accordingly. This approach complements, rather than replaces, human connection by fostering important conversations and encouraging leaders to think outside the box and engage authentically with employees.Young also stressed the role of leaders in shaping company culture. “Culture is defined by what is supported, rewarded, and tolerated,” she said, pointing out the disconnect when leaders promote wellness initiatives but fail to model the behaviors themselves, like taking time off. She emphasized that true cultural change begins with leaders modeling vulnerability, asking their team members, “What do you need from me?”One of the key challenges Seadrill has tackled is absenteeism, especially when employees struggle with mental health issues but don’t feel comfortable discussing it. To combat the stigma, Seadrill introduced flexible paid time off (PTO) days for mental health, giving employees the freedom to take time off without explanation. This approach encourages employees to prioritize their well-being and ensures they have the trust and support of their leaders.“We as leaders go first,” Young concluded, highlighting the importance of leading by example in creating a culture of wellness and open communication.Complimentary Mental Health ServicesAt SICK Sensor Intelligence, they offer complimentary mental health services—not just to employees but also to their immediate families. This initiative has brought tremendous results, including fewer employee relations events and increased loyalty. “It’s been a really good investment,” said panelist Elise Furlan, president and chief people & legal officer at SICK. Of course, not all of the positive outcomes can be directly attributed to the program, she added, but it’s definitely helped.Despite it being one of the most prevalent health crises in America, mental health is still a taboo topic. That’s why companies must create a workplace culture where mental health is addressed proactively. Effective employee listening tools are also a key part of this strategy. Furlan advocates for anonymous, repeatable, and robust listening platforms to gather employee feedback. “Employee listening is a cornerstone,” she stated, acknowledging the challenges of navigating a post-Covid, socially driven, and artificial society.Furlan’s company has also implemented OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to track progress and ensure that qualitative issues, such as culture and mental health, are not overlooked. She mentioned that focus groups are often used to deepen the understanding of qualitative topics within the organization.Community within a company is vital for people to feel connected. “I think so much of what we talk about is the isolation issue—the degree of connectivity to the workplace,” she said. Generational differences also affect how people connect. For example, younger employees may prefer texting or digital engagement over traditional in-person events.Companies should not chase after trends but instead build consistency in the resources they offer, she says. “Use your resources to build your brand,” she said, stressing the need for year-over-year presence to build momentum and effectiveness.Fostering a culture of connection, support, and well-being is essential for the health and success of both employees and organizations. As organizations move forward, the message is clear: when organizations prioritize their employees' mental health and well-being, they not only cultivate a supportive environment but also drive innovation, loyalty, and long-term success.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Annie Mulligan for From Day One)