Building a Culture by Investing in Every Relationship
BY Mary Pieper August 26, 2024Maral Kazanjian, chief people officer at Moody's Corporation, will always remember her first day back after a stint with another company.“It was like rejoining your family or coming back to your college reunion where everyone knows you and cares about you and is so just happy to see you,” she said during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Manhattan conference. “I wish every person going to work could feel that included and welcome for who they genuinely are, because I really felt it in that moment.”Kazanjian, interviewed by Emma Hinchliffe, senior writer for Fortune, says that Moody’s cornerstone value is to invest in every relationship. “And what that really meant to us is me talking with you, me engaging a vendor, a colleague,” she said. “How I show up what I do matters. And the way I do it matters just as much.”Rebranding Human ResourcesOne way Moody’s invested in relationships with its employees was by rebranding the human resources department as the people department. “We didn’t want HR to be perceived as a back-office personnel function,” Kazanjian said. “We knew that truly we have a SaaS business, but our product, everything about what we do is our people.”In other words, “the crux of our business is our human capital. And to be an effective human capital function means understanding your business and driving activity that reinforces the things that matter. And for us, that’s trust and relationships.”Leaders at Moody’s work hard to ensure that every experience within the employee lifecycle, from hiring to talent growth to compensation and benefits, “matters in that value proposition of building a place that you can trust and rely on, and that we can trust and rely on,” Kazanjian said. In turn, that helps Moody’s customers have confidence in the corporation.What Employees Value MostEmployees like to feel they are connected to doing something that matters to the mission of the company, says Kazanjian. “I hear a lot about, ‘How do we tell the story of what we’re doing to our people and to each job, so they feel like they have a purpose and getting up and doing what it is they have to do,” she said.Team members also need a sense of psychological safety, which leads to a company operating with integrity. “If you feel safe, you can call out something that feels off to you,” she said. “If you don’t feel safe, you are not going to call it out with the same confidence and comfort.”Emma Hinchliffe, senior writer for Fortune, right, interviewed Maral Kazanjian of Moody'sKazanjian emphasized the importance of focusing on the whole employee experience. Leaders at Moody’s recognize that “work is just one component of your life, and no one’s life is the same every day. It’s incumbent on us as a company to create a space that enables people to achieve the goals of the company, while living a life that is as rich as they want it to be.”The Importance of InclusionWhen Kazanjian rejoined Moody’s in early 2022, one of the first things the leadership team discussed was diversity, equity and inclusion. “We hired a new officer and spoke about the title of that job,” she said. Each aspect of DEI is vitally important, but it starts with inclusion, says Kazanjian.Moody’s did a lot of rebranding around the idea of inclusion. One of the results was a video posted on the corporate website titled “Stand for Inclusion.”In the video, they “show vignettes of all different kinds of people at Moody's who look different, who have different experiences, who come from different backgrounds,” Kazanjian said. “We talk about how that mosaic of different people is what creates the richness of our business.”Having a diverse group of employees gives Moody’s the broadest perspective of insights. “But it also lets every person know no matter where you come from, you are safe here and you are welcome here.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Innovative and Engaging Approaches for Leadership Development
BY Mary Pieper August 20, 2024“The war for talent is over, and talent won.”This was a quote that resonated with Miguel Oliveira, senior HR director supporting the brand management and marketing teams at Danone North America, he said during a recent From Day One webinar.Leaders are now being evaluated “not only on the results they bring to the business, but on results from engagement, well-being, and retention,” he told moderator Lydia Dishman during a From Day One webinar about supporting tomorrow’s leaders.Amanda Grow, director of customer success for ETU, says the company has leadership training programs centered on skills related to values such as authenticity and courage, emotional intelligence, and psychological safety.“I always want to see inclusive and emotionally intelligent leaders, because that really does have a major impact on every organization and your culture and what you're trying to instill in your employees,” said Grow.Things have changed tremendously in the workforce in recent years, which impacts what leadership looks like, says Johann Laville, the chief learning officer at Merck.Remote work is becoming more commonplace, the workforce is younger and more diverse, and “technology is driving our future at light speed,” he said. As a result, leaders are listening more and focusing more on leading with humility, he says.Tips for Training Future LeadersEarly talent programs are a way companies can develop future leaders, says Minh Pham-Costello, vice president of business management at Santander. Employees can get an endorsement from their manager when applying.It’s crucial to make sure the employee is committed to the program “because sometimes you push programs to people and they either don’t have the capacity or the desire,” Pham-Costello said. It is also important to have programs that cater to senior leaders’ professional development needs.Programs for future leaders shouldn’t be one size fits all, according to Grow.“It’s great to have a global skill set that we’re trying to adhere to, but we also need to dig down and go to the level deeper and really understand how those skills show up at different role levels, different proficiency levels, and more, so that you really can personalize some of the training,” said Grow. For example, a senior leader who takes a junior-level course probably won’t find it engaging.The panel of leaders spoke about "Supporting Tomorrow's Leaders: Innovative and Engaging Approaches for Leadership Development" (photo by From Day One)Oliveira compared leadership training to trying to teach someone how to ride a bike. You can have trainees watch a movie on how to do it or “put them on a bike and have someone hold the bike to let them understand how it works,” he said.When exposing employees with leadership potential to management fundamentals, “It’s really important to create ways and mechanisms to give them visibility to what it looks like without the responsibility of leading someone directly,” Oliveira said. “I still see today many people stepping into their first managerial leadership opportunity and they still lack those fundamentals, and unfortunately, those suffering are those reporting to the individual.”How Employees Can Demonstrate Leadership SkillsAlthough organizations are investing in leadership development more than ever before, individuals still need to take the initial steps toward getting to the next level, says Pham-Costello.“Of course, other people can help you, but when you take the initiative with your career, you are not only developing your skill but also showing the organization that you are committed to the company and to your growth,” she said.Business resource groups (BRG) are essential when it comes to leadership development, says Pham-Costello. A BRG “gives you that visibility. People see you leading and influencing.”Laville said Merck has a true gig economy. This means if an employee wants to demonstrate their capability of being an effective leader and there’s something they are passionate about – whether it’s a topic, division, or product – they can apply internally, be interviewed, and be selected.That employee would then have support from the leader who releases them into the gig and the leader who would accept them “to come in and provide a new value,” Laville said.Seeking mentorship is another way for those who wish to be leaders to get to that level. Mentors are “subject matter experts that you can have some really open conversations with to help guide you on that path,” he said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, ETU, for sponsoring this webinar.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Supporting Women’s Well-Being Through All Their Life Stages
BY Mary Pieper August 16, 2024Women’s health goes beyond maternity, menopause, and fertility. “There’s so much in between,” said Corrinne Hobbs, general manager and VP for employer market organization at Ovia Health. “Women are complex, and being able to support women at every stage in their journey is important. And each journey is unique.”Hobbs credits an app she can access through Ovia, a family-building solutions company, with helping her succeed at her job while being a busy mom. “Having that loyal companion in my pocket to give me trustworthy advice about kids, lactation, and also supporting my return to work, ensures I understand what my options are, what I should be asking my employer, my physician, and beyond,” she said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s July virtual conference.“What employers are looking for is full spectrum end-to-end support,” she said. A solution that incorporates all components of women’s health and well-being is crucial.Workplace Solutions for Nursing MothersDionne Adams, director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging at Pacific Gas & Electric Company, says the company’s women’s health network, an employee resource group, has helped management see the need for nursing moms’ rooms for women returning to work.“When I was a nursing mom, I had to go into an IT closet, which was not a great feeling,” she said. “I’m excited because new moms don’t have to experience this. We have designated rooms throughout our headquarters in different locations.”These rooms have chairs to relax in, breast pumps, and a refrigerator for breast milk, says Adams.Similarly, a colleague who was a new mother had to figure out the logistics of business travel while nursing, says Mindy Fitzgerald, global director for diversity, culture, and engagement for Air Products.“We were able to institute some nursing facilities at that location as well as some breast milk transport back home to her baby,” Fitzgerald said. “The big win for her was that she spoke up and said, ‘This was amazing. I didn’t miss out on a potential career altering conference. And I had the support to continue nursing my child.’”The company was able to codify that benefit into its policies and procedures. “That’s a small but really exciting example of a high-potential employee figuring out how to make life work in the midst of all their responsibilities, both at home and at work,” Fitzgerald said.Onsite Child CareMartin Payne, chief commercial officer at Empowerly, says onsite child care and other benefits for caregivers are game-changing, especially for front-line employees.“There are many corporate employees who have a lot of resources and can take care of some of those things themselves,” he said. “But there are a lot of employees who really have gaps. And those gaps can make a big difference in whether or not they can get to work.”Lydia Dishman of Fast Company moderated the panel about "Supporting Women’s Well-Being Through All of Their Life Stages" (photo by From Day One)Child rearing still falls predominantly on the shoulders of women, even in a two-partner household, says Payne. So support for these employees is necessary. “Having that resource and that extra time and breathing room in your workplace really just makes a big difference for them,” he said.Menopause: Breaking the SilenceOf all the stages of a woman’s life cycle, “I feel like menopause is the one that’s least talked about and supported right now,” said Lesli Stasiek, senior director of HR at Cencora.Most women experience menopause between ages 45 and 55, when they are hitting peaks in their careers. This impacts the talent pipelines for senior leadership positions at companies, says Stasiek. Some women opt out of the workforce altogether during menopause, which equates to a loss of $150 billion globally, Stasiek added.The stigma surrounding this life stage doesn’t help. About 50% of women aren’t comfortable talking to their employer about menopause symptoms, and 73% of women are not treating menopause, says Hobbs.Employers should ensure that women have access to educational materials about menopause and help them find certified menopause experts. Hobbs also recommends peer-to-peer groups and connections to a nursing team.PG&E’s women’s health network is helping the company roll out menopause support for its workers, says Adams. “We’re partnering with our benefits and employee relations team to create communications around that, and then educating leaders to have more awareness around this particular stage of life for women that are either entering menopause or in the midst of it,” she said.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Pathways to Growth: The Role of Learning and Development in Internal Mobility
BY Mary Pieper August 13, 2024In 2021, Correlation One, a workforce development program, partnered with Amazon to help promote employees in its warehouses and fulfillment centers to higher-paying jobs. “I’ve heard some really incredible stories about how life changing these types of programs can be as people move into family sustaining wages,” said Rachel Bittarelli, head of career coaching & development at Correlation One, during a recent From Day One’s July virtual conference.One worker came to the United States on an asylum visa and went from being an Amazon frontline worker to getting a full-time job with Accenture, a digital technologies, data, and AI company that’s part of the Amazon ecosystem, says Bittarelli.The four-month program that got her there “just had an incredible impact on her life and her family’s life,” Bittarelli told panel moderator Lydia Dishman, senior editor of growth and engagement at Fast Company. The initiative also helps Amazon, as it helps fill roles without having to look externally, which keeps employee satisfaction high.Pathways for Upskilling and ReskillingWhite Lodging, a Chicago-based hotel management company, designed and launched a career pathing program called Pathfinder last year with help from a consultant.“[The program] looks at 120 different positions in the company and outlines the skills and training that’s needed in those roles,” said Steve Ransone, VP of talent and organizational capability for White Lodging. “And by aligning around them with their subject matter experts, we then have a common language that we could use when developing people.”White Lodging is a people-focused company rather than a tech-oriented one, so having managers work individually with employees who want to move up in the organization is crucial, says Ransone.“We are very much on a journey, and it’s a very passionate journey for me, helping our people to not just send people to training because that’s the easy thing, but really develop them and really connect them back to the things that matter when it comes to being successful in a job,” he said.The executive panelists discussed the topic "Creating Opportunity Within: How Employers Are Boosting Internal Mobility" (photo by From Day One)Some managers need training to recognize the importance of giving their direct reports opportunities to develop their skills, says Carrie Berg, VP of learning and development at Teladoc Health. “Managers often set the tone for the employees on their team,” she said. “They create the space that allows the employees to participate and to learn.”Berg recommends that managers market and promote upskilling opportunities to employees. “I believe in the value of branding, like, ‘This is going to be short, it’s going to be sweet, we’re going to give you a tool, a tip or a trick, we are not going to talk at you for 40 minutes with 40 slides,’” she said.Employees also need to understand their strengths and weaknesses and have some level of self-awareness to know what skills they should work on, says Berg. Teladoc uses a tool to give workers insight into this so they know which learning resources are best for them.Ensuring That Learning Opportunities are EquitableWhen Kimber Hanrahan, head of learning and development for GoDaddy, was working for another tech company, the organization hired a blind man but didn’t have the software to support him during upskilling sessions.Learning facilitators may be great at what they do, but they need to ensure that their tools are accessible to all employees trying to better themselves. “It’s important to ensure that you have those things enabled within your e-learnings.”Tim Gerrits, head of learning & leadership development at AbbVie, said the company developed a tool similar to LinkedIn, but internally, to help all employees who wanted to advance within the company.Employees who opt-in can create profiles that include their career interests so they can receive personalized job matches within the company, says Gerrits. “We send them matches at their current level, or one level above where they are today,” he said. Employees are also able to create their own job searches and alerts based on the criteria they put in.AbbVie also measures the movement of its internal labor market for all talent segments. “Regardless of performance, regardless of potential, we measure that and representation as well, and we look for discrepancies and do an audit on how we are doing on our internal mobility,” Gerrits said.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Caring for Caregivers: Strategies to Support a Healthy Workforce
BY Mary Pieper July 25, 2024When Julia Cohen Sebastien had a loved one become ill, that was all she could think about at work.“It definitely lowered my productivity,” she said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s July virtual conference. “I hit burnout a lot faster in my job, and ultimately I had to take medical leave and started racking up new costs for my own treatment.”The HR department wasn’t fully supportive, says Cohen Sebastien. Even her mentor told to get over it and put on a smile.Cohen Sebastien left that job and went on to co-found Grayce, where she is the CEO. Grayce is a family care navigation platform that partners with employers to support personalized care journeys for their employees’ diverse needs.“At Grayce, we really take a holistic care approach to supporting an employee and their family,” Cohen Sebastien said. “And that’s about giving them tools, resources, and hands on support, to take things off their plate, so that they can navigate both the short-term and the long-term care responsibilities, including taking care of themselves.”More Employees Are Caregivers Than Employers ThinkCohen Sebastien noted that around 73% of all employees have some type of outside caregiving responsibilities for a loved one, whether that be for children, aging parents or grandparents, spouses or partners, siblings, or even themselves.Julia Cohen Sebastien led the thought leadership spotlight titled, "Caring for the Caregivers: Innovative Benefit Strategies to Support a Healthy Workforce and Families" (company photo)“Up to 50% of employees say that they’re afraid to reveal their caregiving responsibilities to their employers because they are afraid of what that will cost them at work,” she said. In addition, the amount of time people are spending on caregiving duties for their loved ones is skyrocketing because fewer professional caregivers are available, which drives up prices for those services, says Cohen Sebastien.When employees take on caregiving duties, it can become the equivalent of a part-time or even full-time job. Sometimes, they take multiple days off each month due to those responsibilities.Those who are in the sandwich generation find themselves caring for their young children as well as their aging parents. These employees tend to have a lot of seniority in the company and are difficult to replace, so their support needs to be comprehensive. Organizations need to consider the ROI of supporting employers who are caregivers. “It’s a pretty important topic to make people’s lives easier just at that moment when they need it,” she said. How to Support CaregiversCaregivers want a variety of support from employers. “Beyond time away and flexibility, employees want help to lighten the load,” she said. “In many cases, they need help accessing things, removing barriers to care and navigating the complexity.”For example, one of Grayce’s licensed clinical social workers helped an employee who was concerned about his aging father’s physical and financial safety. The employee was taking leave to travel and wanted help transferring his dad’s guardianship to his sibling.The clinical social worker expedited the guardianship transfer and helped transition the father into a safe senior living community of the siblings’ choice. The employee “was able to come back to work in 10 days with confidence and peace of mind,” Cohen Sebastien said. With the help of Grayce, many employees have been able to stay in their jobs and not have to take leave, or at least shorten the time they are on leave, says Cohen Sebastien. Although mental health days and general wellness solutions are excellent support for employees, they aren’t enough to give caregivers the help they need. It’s all about “going after some of those key life challenges that prevent them from being able to be present and happy.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Grayce, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
How to Navigate Different Learning Styles to Include Everyone in a Large Organization
BY Mary Pieper July 24, 2024“How do we engage 1,500 learners at a single time, and how do we have content that meets the needs of all who may be attending a particular learning event?” This is a question Dr. Sherri Brooks, chief learning officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care works on each day.The organization employs more than 21,000 people, including 1,500 in leadership roles. With such a large team, learning and development efforts can be complicated. Some people are kinesthetic learners, meaning they need to engage physically during the learning process. In contrast, others are auditory or visual learners.Brooks was interviewed by Nicole Smith, editorial audience director for Harvard Business Review during a fireside chat at From Day One’s July virtual conference on upskilling and career mobility.“I’ve stopped passing judgment on what I think people should know and how I think they should behave, because what I also recognize is that not everyone is a lifelong learner,” she said. “Not everyone loves learning, engaging, and developing,” said Brooks.People come from different backgrounds and have different motivation levels. That’s why she takes ownership of “all that I can do to impact someone else’s life, particularly as it relates to professional development and growth, and learning and development.”What Makes a Good Learning Environment?Brooks says the key ingredient for an effective learning environment is leaders who “take advantage of teachable moments when there’s an opportunity to impart knowledge or insight into what a particular team member may be doing.”In particular, middle managers have an essential role because of their direct impact on frontline workers, says Brooks. “They set the tone for the organization because they are responsible for facilitating changes that may come up for explaining what’s the new learning topic of the month, or what’s needed for the organization,” she said.Nicole Smith of Harvard Business Review interviewed Dr. Sherri Brooks of Baptist Memorial Health Care during the fireside chat (photo by From Day One)Baptist Memorial Health Care holds quarterly leadership development intensives to address specific desired outcomes. “For example, if our goal is to improve overall patient experience ratings, we can do that by demonstrating compassionate connected care, which is the framework for how we really work alongside each other,” Brooks said.The organization’s leaders are trained to model specific behaviors, such as empathy. “When you have a team that's empathetic towards one another, then that translates into empathetic patient care, which then increases patient experience, which increases our patient experience ratings,” Brooks said.Ensuring Learning is Creative and EffectiveAs a large organization spread across three states, Baptist Memorial Health Care embraces technology as part of the employee learning process. They offer virtual and hybrid training methods and have invested in audience interaction tools to make presentations more engaging, Brooks says.Brooks also recommends varying learning methods. “We’re not going to call all 21,000 team members into a classroom to teach and train them on something. We have to offer content and micro learning bursts in 10 to 20 minute chunks.”Many workers don’t always have access to a computer since they don’t work from a desk, so the company makes learnings available on an app or provides desktop computer kiosks where employees can go when they have downtime.Another way to avoid learning fatigue is to avoid a fire drill approach where employees have a lot of material thrown at them at once. For example, Baptist Memorial Health Care decided to spread its orientation for new nurses over a 14-week period, where they would take a 90-minute course one day a week and then practice what they learned on their floor. “That tremendously decreased our turnover,” Brooks said.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Retention is the New Recruiting: Strategies to Build and Keep a High-performing Workforce
BY Mary Pieper July 12, 2024The hiring environment is on the cusp of change, with rates of decline beginning to slow down, according to monitoring done by Workday. “We might be at a kind of inflection point where hiring starts to stabilize,” said Greg Anderson, Workday’s principal product marketing manager. Anderson spoke at a From Day One webinar titled, “Retention Is the New Recruiting: Strategies to Build and Keep a High Performing Workforce.”Voluntary turnover decreased dramatically in 2023, with employees staying longer in their given roles, says Anderson. “This is driving a lot of value to their position and to the organization. But also resulting in a lot of pent-up demand, particularly from your high performers who are being asked to do more,” he said.Decreased internal mobility means companies and employees “haven’t seen some of the internal growth that they’ve been looking for,” Anderson said. This could lead employees to leave a company for another employer, but it could also be “a really great opportunity for your organization, depending on how you choose to navigate some of these challenges,” he added.“There is a lot of bottled-up employee energy, knowledge and experience in your workforce, and that’s a huge asset,” Anderson said. “This is a real opportunity to take advantage of this window and really invest in talent.”How to Make Retention the New RecruitingGreg Anderson, pictured, led the webinar with colleague Phil Willburn (company photo)The Workday platform allows employers to solve the challenge of quickly finding and matching talent to potential opportunities. Around 70-75% of job openings can be filled with internal talent, Anderson says.Phil Willburn, VP of people analytics at Workday, says tuning up your internal mobility engine is a key to turning retention into the new recruiting. “If you haven’t put any love or attention on this, especially when it comes to using automated tools, and streamlining the match, matching with skills, there’s a lot of opportunities there to make it much easier for your employees to find great opportunities and retain the best employees,” he said.Listening is also crucial, says Willburn. During the pandemic, “we were concerned about our employees’ needs, we were reaching out, we were caring for them, we were trying to see what they need to be productive,” he said. “And then after the pandemic, companies stopped listening as intently.”Employees respond well when employers listen deeply to their needs and take action to improve their on-the-job experience, says Willburn.How Workday Boosted Internal MobilityWorkday employers were looking for growth during the Great Resignation several years ago, but “they did feel like they were stuck a little bit,” Willburn said. Company leaders decided to make it easier to advance within the organization. Still, they had to address some pain points along the way.Some team members felt lost trying to navigate the promotion process and wanted more transparency and the company achieved this by posting every available role on a Workday Talent Marketplace and Career Hub that all employees could access.Some Workday employees “wanted opportunities to stretch themselves and get exposed to new things without necessarily taking a new role internally,” Willburn said. And so, in 2019 the company introduced gigs for workers to learn new skills. This was a massive pipeline for internal mobility because team members were 42% more likely to get a new role if they did a gig first.Workday's efforts to boost internal mobility resulted in a significant increase in the number of employees applying for new roles inside the company. “We’ve seen about 30% of all our roles filled by internal candidates, which is good because we did the research and found that internal hires consistently performed and ramped up faster than external hires,” Willburn said.When employees move up within the company, "that gives them that sense of growth," Willburn said. We saw a 26% increase in overall retention. If we’re making internal moves, we are keeping employees longer.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Workday, for sponsoring this webinar.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Using Innovative Technology and AI to Revolutionize Hiring for Top Talent
BY Mary Pieper July 10, 2024Like many other companies, MGM Resorts has been undergoing a talent acquisition transformation over the past few years in the wake of the pandemic and the Great Resignation. “We’re enacting a strategic way for recruiters to evolve into more of an advisor role,” said Justin Fronberg, executive director of talent acquisition for MGM Resorts.Fronberg spoke during an executive panel discussion about “Using Innovative Technology and AI to Revolutionize Hiring for Top Talent,” during From Day One’s June virtual conference. “What’s been critical for us is to relieve them of the transactional aspects of the position,” he said.Fronberg told journalist and session moderator Lydia Dishman that using an AI chatbot creates efficiencies for recruiters and job candidates alike. The chatbot allows candidates to determine if an open position is something they are actually interested in without talking to a recruiter, he says.Some people have reservations about using AI in recruitment, but Jane Curran, global head of talent acquisition at JLL, reminds her team that “you can’t put the genie back in the bottle.” “The tech is here, and we are ready for automation. So why don’t we dig in and find out what works for us, leave the human parts of the job to us, and automate the boring stuff?” she said.How AI Can Broaden the Talent PoolIf used correctly, implementing AI in recruitment can also reduce bias, says Ken Oliver, vice president of corporate social responsibility at Checkr. “We can focus on things like skill-based learning and the different skill sets that the candidate may have rather than look at things like gender, race, or age, which sometimes come up in the recruitment process,” said Oliver.AI can also help expand the talent pool by looking beyond more mainstream job boards such as Indeed, says Oliver. “To get the most diverse and inclusive candidates, oftentimes you have to look in some of the most unusual places," he said, noting that this could include social media.However, AI is “only as good as what you input it with,” he said. For example, if a candidate has a legal record, there’s typically not much understanding “about what that means or what it doesn’t mean, especially when it comes to a specific role.”But with AI, “we can provide much more context around the candidate and the specific charge, the date of charge, and whether it’s relevant to the job,” Oliver said. This scope can lead companies to consider candidates that they might have traditionally overlooked, says Oliver.Using AI in the Interview ProcessAnother way organizations can ensure their workforce is diverse is to standardize the job interview process using AI. “This allows candidates of diverse backgrounds to be evaluated fairly against objective criteria that should be set at the beginning of the process, rather than try to make that up towards the end,” said Seán Delea, team manager of talent acquisition, EMEA at Greenhouse.For example, a recruiter and a hiring manager will align on a number of key attributes needed for someone to be successful in a particular role and then design an interview process to assess candidates for those attributes objectively, says Delea.“Then you can do things like use AI to help you generate some of those interview questions. This step alone is helping to reduce human bias when you’re building out the best interview process,” he said.The panelists spoke on the topic "Using Innovative Technology and AI to Revolutionize Hiring for Top Talent" (photo by From Day One)Christopher Rotolo, VP of global talent at Mitek, says technology has helped standardize the interview process and also write job descriptions. “It literally will pull out the skills and create the interview questions, the guides, the scoring sheets and everything, from soup to nuts,” he said.The AI technology Mitek uses comes with a package of possible interview questions that the hiring manager and the talent acquisition partner can tweak so “candidates aren’t hearing the same question over and over through the interview process,” Rotolo said.Some organizations use tools to automate the interview scoring process, even “inferring personality through speech patterns and tone,” Rotolo said. “And I think that will mature. We’ll all be talking about that probably three to five years from now.”Keeping the Human ElementBut even with all of these innovative AI tools, the human touch is still needed, says Curran. For example, when it’s time to promote someone, “You need to know the talent,” she said.“Who’s the top talent I should be helping make the next move? The connection, the career conversation, the prep, that’s the recruiter’s job,” said Curran.“[Candidates] want to be treated like a person rather than a number. So, we abide by the stance that AI should assist but not replace humans in the hiring process,” said Delea.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
High-Performance Culture: Creating a Workplace Where People and Productivity Thrive
BY Mary Pieper July 10, 2024Some years ago, when Cameron Cozzens, CRO of the Arbinger Institute, met with a group of leaders at NASA, one of them described the challenges of getting human spaceflight to Mars. “He said, ‘It’s not the science that’s getting in our way. It’s the people stuff,’” Cozzens said during a recent From Day One webinar. The issues didn’t have anything to do with the ability of the NASA team, which was composed of the best astrophysicists and engineers in the world.“What it really comes down to, and what a lot of leaders don’t get, is it’s not a performance problem, or a no communication problem or a workload problem,” said Lisa Sharapata, chief marketing officer of the Arbinger Institute. “It’s typically a culture problem.” There are many different definitions of workplace culture, but the Arbinger Institute defines it as “how people work together every day,” Sharapata said. So, when we really start to look at how you would fix these problems, how you would make these kinds of changes, we want to change how employees are approaching their work in relation to each other.”Developing Leaders Who Empower OthersThe Arbinger Institute, which provides leadership and professional development solutions that transform business culture for better performance and lasting results, has found that employees in organizations that prioritize leadership development are 4.5 times more satisfied with their culture, says Sharapata.“On the flip side, they’re also experiencing fewer negative effects,” she said. “There’s fewer staff shortages and issues with morale or communication.”Leadership development also prevents turnover, says Cozzens. “People don’t quit their jobs,” he said. “They quit their leader, they quit their boss, they quit their first line supervisor. And conversely, the more mature that employees become in the workforce, the more they understand the importance of finding a place where they feel seen and heard, and where their opinions matter.”Developing self-awareness within the leadership team and fostering a culture of collaboration where people are open and receptive to each other’s ideas “will start to enhance productivity and create less friction and stress,” Sharapata said. “It’s a mindset that’s going to create more of that outwardness rather than inwardness.”The Importance of Team Performance TrainingCameron C. Cozzens of the Arbinger Institute led the webinar (company photo)Employees who are encouraged to participate in team performance training are twice as likely than others to work for companies that saw a significant revenue increase over the past year and three times more likely to describe their company as highly adaptable in times of change, says Cozzens.Bridging the performance perception gap is a key component of team performance training. The Arbinger Institute’s research shows a gap between how employees see their own performance and behaviors and how they would rank the performance and behaviors of those on their teams.“Everybody is waking up in the morning, thinking that the problem in their organization is not with them,” he said. “The challenge is how do you invite change in these people?”“Really being aware of others’ goals, objectives, challenges, what they're trying to accomplish every day starts to impact the ultimate objectives of the organization and what you're working towards,” she said.Fostering a Culture of InclusionAn inclusive culture with a strong sense of psychological safety sparks collaboration and creativity, says Cozzens. According to the Arbinger Institute's research, 97% of employees encouraged to participate in inclusion training feel more comfortable taking on new challenges.However, when inclusion training is “calling people out, focusing on their behavior and how they should modify their behavior and telling people what to do, or having them memorize definitions of things, it’s highly ineffective.”Instead, it should be about “inviting people to participate in dialogue and getting to these authentic, real, vulnerable stories where you can really start to unpack what you're bringing to the table and understand the person next to you.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, the Arbinger Institute, for sponsoring this webinar.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Promoting Well-Being While Boosting Performance in a Changing Workforce
BY Mary Pieper July 02, 2024Who does the work and how they do it is constantly evolving. “So, how do we make our work environments still attractive? How do we still develop our employees?” asks Kami Peterson, senior director, regional HR & employee Relations, U.S., Thomson Reuters. At From Day One’s Minneapolis conference, Peterson spoke on a panel titled “Boosting Productivity in a Changing Workplace–and Workforce.”“We need to think about not just the products in which we serve our customers, but also what type of product we are delivering internally. That’s programs, that’s processes,” Peterson told moderator Megan Thompson, Special Correspondent for PBS Newshour.Whether people are working remotely or hybrid, “There’s also the high degree of reactivity that we’re seeing that pervades the workforce,” said Andrew Deutscher, founder of Regenerate. “That’s partly stemming from the overwhelming workloads that we’re all contending with.” When employees feel their workload is too big, that diminishes productivity, says Deutscher.Workers are also dealing with a digital onslaught of emails and text messages throughout the day, which distracts them from more profound work. Other factors hampering productivity are diminished resources, meaning employees are forced to do more with less, and a lack of continuity due to high turnover rates, says Deutscher.How Company Culture Impacts ProductivityCommunication is the key to creating a culture that fosters productivity, says Chad Deshler, senior VP of U.S. sales for LifeSpeak Inc. “There are two common themes that I’ve seen with organizations," he said. “One is how you communicate, and the other is how you communicate.”In today’s workplace, some employees don’t feel their employers have a sense of loyalty toward them. “If you open up that door of communication and create a level of transparency, it goes a long way, sometimes even more than what a paycheck can do for somebody,” he said.Joel Geary, vice president of human resources, global business units & medical scientific affairs at Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, says it’s crucial for an international company to have a common culture and way of doing things that crosses borders. Beckman Coulter Diagnostics has many offices around the world, so whether you are in Dubai, Japan, India, China, Mexico, or the United States, “everyone from manufacturing to R&D to sales uses a shared language rooted in our continuous improvement business systems, a guiding force of our culture” he said.The company uses its strong culture as a recruitment tool, Geary says. “It’s a big part of how we fulfill the employee experience and deliver results,” he said.Strategies for Increasing ProductivityCarita Hibben, vice president of human resources at C.H. Robinson, says the company’s new CEO is emphasizing a new operating framework based on lean methodology. She said this means “having the discipline to hold yourself accountable to the strategy you are trying to drive.”“What we’re seeing with that from a productivity perspective is a continuous process improvement mindset, as well as elimination of waste,” she said.The executive panelists spoke about "Boosting Productivity in a Changing Workplace–and Workforce"C.H. Robinson is also going to its locations and asking desk-level employees, ‘“Where do we have the pain points in the process that we’re trying to evaluate?’” Hibben said. The company uses AI to make processes more streamlined and efficient so employees can focus on giving customers the personal attention they need.“I would encourage you as an HR individual to partner with your business to say, ‘What does this mean for your teams? And how can we think about upskilling? Or how can we think about where we shift our resources to work on things that are a value add to the customer?’” she said.Thomson Reuters recently began having learning days several times a year where employees can sign up to learn from both internal and external speakers. These skills-based sessions are where team members “gather in our new world and help move the change, or the pace of change even faster,” Peterson said. “That’s definitely made an impact on performance.”Well-being and ProductivityEmployees aren’t as productive if they try to come back to work while they are still sick, and “we also know when we’re physically healthy around our sleep, or nutrition, or movement, we’re more focused and optimized in what we’re doing,” Deutscher said.Company wellness activities that have a high impact don’t have to come with a high cost, says Geary. For example, Beckman Coulter Diagnostics’ Chaska, Minnesota, facility does a 5K walk/run annually on a workday. The production line adjusts schedule so employees who want to participate, can participate, and it’s an annual highlight.“Don’t underestimate the value of a small group of people that are very passionate about something and want to make a difference with their teams and their organization,” said Geary, referring to the program that has been valued for over 12 years now.Physical health is only part of the equation. When people are emotionally and mentally healthy, they are better equipped to deal with setbacks and challenges, not only in their personal lives but also in the workplace, says Deutscher. “We’re more creative problem solvers when we have more energy to bear,” he said.Thomson Reuters now gives employees two mental health days per year. The entire company shuts down for those two days. “Everybody asks around, ‘What are you going to do during the mental health day?’ We’re trying to create that safe space, reintroducing that it’s OK, we all need a break. And they will talk about going into the spa or spending the day with their spouse,” Peterson said.Deschler pointed out that most of the people in the room for the panel discussion were in the “sandwich generation,” meaning they care for children as well as elderly parents. In addition to their oftentimes complex caretaker duties, they are also working full-time.“So, when I talk to companies and organizations, we’re trying to think of creative ways to engage their population so that they can feel productive and healthy. When you're taking care of yourself, we all know that you’ll be more productive,” he said.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
The Best Managers Don’t Fix, They Coach: Actionable Strategies for Your Leadership Toolkit
BY Mary Pieper June 21, 2024Anita Hossain Choudhry, co-founder and CEO of The Grand, a group coaching platform, learned the importance of coaching when she was managing several people who had just graduated from college. “I reflected on my first job after college, and I had this manager who was so unclear,” said Choudhry during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s May virtual conference. “She didn’t give me the right level of support to be successful. And I really vowed to do the opposite. I had this notion that I had to fix my direct reports’ problems.”One day, one of Choudhry’s direct reports came to her because she felt overwhelmed with everything on her plate and couldn’t figure out how to prioritize things. “I told her to take out a sheet of paper, draw a triangle on it, and break it up into thirds,” Choudhry said. “In the bottom section, I wrote down three to five things she had to complete for the week. In the middle section, I wrote down three things she had to complete in the next three days. And then at the top of the triangle, I wrote down one thing she needed to focus on before the end of the day.”Choudhry did this every day for several weeks with the employee, thinking she was solving the problem for her. However, over time “I really saw her creativity wane. She would spend long hours trying to do her best to get those critical tasks done,” she said. At around the same time, Choudhry took her first coaching course, “and I realized I wasn’t actually helping her fix her problem. I was actually hurting her because I didn’t empower her to trust herself.”Anita Hossain Choudhry, co-founder and CEO of The Grand, led the virtual thought leadership spotlightThat’s when Choudhry shifted her default approach from fixing to coaching. “Instead of being the hero that saves the day, I asked myself how I could enable my direct reports to do their best work and be their best selves,” she said.During her next one-on-one session, Choudhry asked the employee to take the lead in filling out the triangle. She also questioned her about the type of work that attracts her and where she saw opportunities for the firm to grow. “Over time, it helped her come up with some of the most creative ideas deployed at the firm,” Choudhry said. “She returned to that vibrant, innovative person that I hired in the first place.”When managers attempt to fix problems rather than coach an employee, they tend to do most of the talking, says Choudhry. “The conversation style is really directive and advice-oriented,” she said. On the other hand, coaching involves asking employees questions that get them talking so they can come up with a solution on their own.So how do you do it? You start by asking, “‘In this situation, what would you like?’ And then you repeat back what the other person said. And then you ask, ‘What will having that do for you?’ And then you repeat it, and ask, ‘What will having that do for you?’ And so you go through this process, over and over until you get the core of what someone wants.”The next step is exploration, which moves the employee from the problem that they’re spinning on and helps them brainstorm actions they could take to pursue what they want, says Choudhry. The manager does this through another simple set of questions, like ‘what options do you have to make progress toward that outcome?’These conversations can lead to some awkward pauses, but that’s expected because “this is a muscle to build,” Choudhry said. “When they’re staring blankly at you, it’s working because they’re thinking in a way that they haven’t in a long time.”Coaching is effective because “we help our direct reports by investing in their inner teacher,” she said. Rather than solving a one-time issue for them, coaching helps employees see patterns and behaviors so they can develop their own resources and best practices to navigate challenges, according to Choudhry.“We also empower them to trust themselves,” she said. “You’ll see your team members shift their ability to move more confidently and clearly in articulating next steps that they can take to really solve their problem and achieve their goal.”Choudhry says that fixing isn’t always the wrong approach, but it’s simply ineffective in certain situations. Coaching is better in many cases because “it leaves your teams feeling more empowered, understood, and valued.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, The Grand, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Manager Effectiveness: Defining It, Measuring It, and Improving It
BY Mary Pieper June 20, 2024Companies frequently promote employees to management positions because of their technical skills but find they need help with leading people.When they were in their previous roles, these individuals thrived because they had the correct answers, says Gretchen Jacobi, SVP and head of enterprise at General Assembly. Jacobi spoke on a panel about “Manager Effectiveness: Defining It, Measuring It, and Improving It” at From Day One’s Chicago conference.Once you’re in a leadership role, “it’s about how you guide your team to find the right answer, as opposed to giving them the right answer,” she told moderator Alex Maragos, anchor and reporter at NBC 5 News. “I think we need to focus on helping managers define the outcome they want from the team rather than telling their team how to achieve the outcome.”Preparing employees to become leaders is the key to their success, says Nicole Poole-McGill, senior VP for talent development for Digitas North America.“I’ve been in positions where we had the opportunity to prepare managers, or we saw that potential and their interest, and then put them in positions to manage people before they became managers,” she said. “It’s so helpful for them to come in just having some of that skill and getting the training so they can apply it as soon as they become managers.”New managers need specialized training in giving feedback and communication styles, says Poole-McGill. She also said one-on-one coaching can help them build relationships with their team and manage their performance. How to Measure Management EffectivenessAn organization’s culture plays a key role in how it measures the effectiveness of its managers, says Steve Holder, VP of solution advisory at Visier. “Different management skills, different attributes and different measurements are going to be driven by what your organization thinks is important,” he said.Visier builds manager effectiveness scorecards and dashboards that allow people to not only measure their peers, but also understand what they’re doing, says Holder. “The big one that always comes up is retention,” he said. “That’s a really easy one to throw on your management effectiveness card.”Executive panelists discussed manager effectiveness at From Day One's Chicago conference Diversity is a frequently overlooked metric for measuring management effectiveness, says Holder. “We know that diverse teams have better outcomes, productivity and collaboration," he said.Jaison Williams, the senior VP of talent management capabilities and culture for Expedia, says it’s crucial to understand how performance and productivity go hand in hand.“We’ve taken a look at how much we are spending in meetings as an organization,” he said. “We’ve been able to identify that we spend a large amount of time in meetings overall. And then similarly, we have found that people are collaborating and engaging with way too many people.”As a manager, “you are probably role modeling some of that behavior,” Williams said. “But being able to make a concrete change in how and where your team is spending its time using some type of business and organizational data can lead to much stronger manager effectiveness and organizational effectiveness.”Improving Manager EffectivenessThe manager of a team is much like a basketball coach, says Kristy Callahan, who leads the learning and development team at GE Healthcare.“If you figure out how to tap into the strengths of each individual, how do you string that together to make that collective pool stronger?” she said. Every player on a winning basketball team might not be a star, “but together they are bringing out the best in each other.”When there’s one outstanding player on a team, "How do you bring others up?" she said. “What is it that we all bring? We all have our superpowers. How do we tap into that?"Only 31% of managers have experienced formal development for upskilling or reskilling, says Jacobi. “The people who are now reporting to them need to make time for synchronous or asynchronous training opportunities that are going to make them more productive.”Managers must be clear that they are on a learning journey themselves, says Jacobi. “They are role models for the people below them,” she said.Being an effective manager is challenging in a hybrid workplace, says Poole-McGill. When employees were in the office all the time, connections occurred naturally as they gathered around the water cooler and chatted about their lives outside of work.With so many employees working from home at least part of the time, it’s harder to build connections. It’s possible to revive that sense of connection in a hybrid workplace, “but you have to be very intentional about that, and even strategic.”Williams said he finds it easy to connect with his direct reports as a senior leader, but his extended team, which is spread worldwide, is a different matter. Connectivity in the hybrid remote world is all about creativity. His executive assistant developed the concept of ‘Cups and Conversations With Jaison.’ “Once a month, she just blocks out my whole day and asks people on the team to sign up. It’s just a casual conversation about whatever you want,” he said.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Trust and Transformation: The Role of Coaching in Employee Development
BY Mary Pieper June 14, 2024Sarah Sheehan, founder and CEO of Bravely, says her most memorable coaching story involves a young woman of color who was having difficulty finding the confidence to ask her manager about getting a promotion or a raise.“She had put in the work over time and had done multiple jobs,” Sheehan said during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s May virtual conference. “This is a case where we were pretty sure on the coaching side that if she were to move forward and talk to her manager, that would propel her to a better place.”The end result was “that she did, in fact, get a promotion, much to her surprise,” Sheehan told moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company. “This is a great example of the huge gap where we often give coaching to the people in more senior roles, when really everyone deserves coaching, from your first job to the C-level.”Coaching is the most powerful resource a company can provide its employees because of its individualized nature, says Sheehan. Having a coach is somewhat like having “a work therapist, because what is impacting us in our personal life translates to our professional life and impacts how we show up at work.”Building a Relationship Based on TrustAny coaching relationship must be based on trust. The employee “has to believe you’re there for them and working with them, and really understanding what will be shared or not shared,” said William Agostini, senior advisor, strategic HR at SABIC.The employee also has to have faith that the coach “understands the realities of where they are,” Agostini said. Additionally, “coaches should not be projecting their own culture onto someone else. There are realities of different cultures and situations.”However, coaches also need to see and hear employees as individuals, versus whatever gender, age, or cultural label you might want to put on them, says Agostini. In addition, he recommends giving employees “the opportunity to give you feedback about your assumptions.”Building an atmosphere of trust pays dividends in terms of employee retention, says Isobel Lincoln, SVP of HR for Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield. Over the past two and a half years, every team member who received executive coaching is still there.“They come into it feeling like, ‘Wow, this is something really for me. I can transform personally and professionally,’” Lincoln said.The panelists spoke during a session titled, "Conscious Coaching: Guiding and Recognizing Talent with a Holistic Approach"Support from key stakeholders, including management, ensures that the employee receiving the coaching is getting feedback “which means that they're also helping to rewrite the script in whatever way they need to, whether it's just elevating and building confidence as a leader or changing some of those behaviors,” Lincoln said.Determining Who to CoachSean Allen, a SVP of strategy & talent solutions, at MDA Leadership Consulting, says he’s been asked to coach employees whose performance issues are so severe that they triggered an HR investigation. “That’s not what I would consider a good application of coaching,” he said.Coaching works best when it is designed to be more aspirational, says Allen. The goal should be to “create role models in change, and change champions,” he said. “But beyond that, from a macro perspective, one thing I know we really rely on is broad and objective assessment based on formalized high potential models. That’s important because objectivity talks to fairness in a way that washes out bias as much as you can, and gives everybody a fair chance.”This approach ensures companies invest in a diverse group of employees, says Allen. He said it also helps determine “who has what kind of ceiling and what kind of potential.”The Role of Mentors and SponsorsMentors and sponsors also have a crucial part to play in helping employees advance in their careers.Sarah Waltman, VP of global talent management and organizational development at Dentsply Sirona says that while coaches assist individuals along their journey, mentoring involves sharing your experiences with mentees. Sponsoring “is really about opening up some doors or finding some access to experiences that they wouldn’t otherwise have,” she said.Coaching, mentoring, and sponsorship can all take place simultaneously. However, an employee might switch lanes, such as going from coaching into mentoring for a little bit, and then returning for more coaching or entering into a sponsorship, says Waltman.Allen says that coaching, mentoring and sponsoring “can and should coexist in a complementary fashion to form a powerful ecosystem of development support.”“For example, as a standard practice we leverage something called the growth network inside of a coaching engagement,” he said. “That brings into play sponsors, mentors, people who are in real business situations with the leader and can give them feedback. So it’s not coaching in a vacuum.”Coaching Remote EmployeesEven though pandemic restrictions have ended, working from home has not for some coaches and the employees they work with.“For me, it’s actually been amazing to have the coaching contacts because even though I'm not in person with a lot of my peers and hires, having some of those coaching engagements has allowed me to get to know them,” Waltman said.But remote work also presents certain challenges for employees when they try to show how they have grown as a result of coaching, says Lincoln.“How can you support them to think through proactive ways for them to demonstrate this new mindset, this new leadership capability, and strategic thinking?” she said. “I think strong ownership and promotional campaigning in an authentic, positive way is something to be extra mindful of, because it’s going to take them extra time and effort to be able to showcase that change they’ve undergone.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Total Well-Being: Optimizing Benefits for a Diverse Workforce
BY Mary Pieper June 07, 2024AT&T has consistently championed employee wellness, driven by a team dedicated to the four pillars of well-being: mental, social, physical, and financial. So, when they introduced an on-site doctor for their workforce, it was no surprise given their forward-thinking approach.In a fireside chat, Stacey Marx, AT&T’s senior vice president of total rewards & HR technology, discussed the impact of Covid on corporate well-being and how the company continues to stay ahead in supporting their employees.“That really put a bright light on wellness,” she said at From Day One’s Dallas conference, in conversation with Lauren Crawford, reporter for CBS News Texas.Helping Employees Prioritize Mental HealthThe first step in improving mental health is destigmatizing it, says Marx. “It’s a simple start,” she said. “Talk about it, make it normal, whether that be everyday talk, in big town halls, or employee gatherings.”Once employees realize it’s OK to discuss their mental health, they feel comfortable sharing if they are feeling down, Marx says. She recommends offering online platforms and tools so team members can quickly find help, including virtual appointments with mental health providers.In addition to having an on-site doctor, employees appreciate virtual appointments because they only take up a bit of their time, says Marx. They also give team members in rural areas or other locations without easy access to in-person mental health treatment a way to get the care they need.AT&T also recognizes the importance of social health by giving each employee one day off per year to volunteer. “We encourage them to volunteer with their teams,” Marx said. “Everybody feels great. It’s fun. And we don’t have to take vacation or do it after work.”Caregiver Leave and Family PlanningCaregiver leave and family planning are two popular offerings for AT&T employees. “It is so important to take care of yourself and your family so that you can bring your best self to work,” she said.Stacey Marx of AT&T, left, spoke with Lauren Crawford of CBS News Texas at From Day One's event in DallasTheir leave policy especially critical for those in the sandwich generation, who have children still living at home and aging parents. AT&T employees can take up to three weeks of caregiver leave. Marx says the team members love it because they don’t have to use their vacation time if a loved one is sick or needs surgery. “Vacation time is a sacred time for you to rest and relax and recover,” she said.The company also partners with Maven, which helps young families from fertility education through each trimester of pregnancy and beyond. “Even after you return to work, it helps you have support,” Marx said.Determining the Benefits Your Employees NeedWith so many different benefits available, how can companies choose the ones that are best for them?“We found two cornerstones that you should think about when you’re thinking about well-being,” Marx said. “The first one is putting that employee first and really soliciting feedback, but it’s not just getting the feedback. It’s actually listening to the feedback.”The second step is gathering data. She said that data can come from employee surveys, which she calls the "first line of defense," and focus groups, where companies ask employees who use a particular benefit what they value about it.During annual enrollment, AT&T has robust Q&A sessions “where we get the HR team in the field with the employees to really get that feedback,” Marx said.Communicating With EmployeesIt can take a while for company leaders to feel comfortable talking to employees about benefits, says Marx. It’s best to educate them so they can answer questions from their team. When talking to their teams about benefits, leaders should use “simple, non-HR speak, so people can really find what they’re looking for,” Marx said.One of the best things AT&T has done is giving employees their own personal health care concierge, says Marx. There’s a phone number on the back of their insurance cards that they can call if they are in a challenging situation. “Maybe you got a scary diagnosis and you want to talk to somebody about what is the right next step,” she said. “This team will help you. That’s a real live example of how we put the employee in the center of all our wellness benefits and really design around them.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Building Upon Workplace Culture Through Recognition, Inclusion, and Belonging
BY Mary Pieper June 04, 2024Railroads are not traditionally considered an industry welcoming to female workers, yet at BNSF Railway, women are seeing a future in railroading.Kalisha Holland, chief diversity and inclusion officer and general director of talent acquisition at BNSF Railway, says that employee resource groups play a crucial role in fostering a culture of belonging. BNSF has 10 of these groups, but “we’ve taken it a step further,” said Holland during an executive panel conversation at From Day One’s Dallas conference.Holland and fellow panelists discussed the topic “Building Upon Workplace Culture Through Recognition, Inclusion, and Belonging,” where they shared best practices for workplace belonging.Creating Opportunities for AllIn addition to plentiful ERG offerings, BNSF Railway has diversity councils across its entire network that allow union employees and management to “team up to not only work together to spread the message of diversity and inclusion, but also share our initiatives, talk through our resources, and act as sounding boards for things that might go unnoticed,” she said.The diversity councils have made BNSF more welcoming for all employees, says Holland. She noted that “there’s not representation across genders” in the transportation field, so the company created groups designed to help women “feel like they are supported, giving them mentorship opportunities, making sure they have someone they can go to if they feel uncomfortable, or if they just want a place to unwind and give their honest feedback.”Holland said the goal is to “spread the message that people at our company all have an opportunity to reach their full potential and can come to work every day and be their authentic selves, know that they're valued, and that they are in a safe space.”The security field has traditionally been seen as male-dominated, but more than 73% of Allied employees are women. Part of the reason is the company’s emphasis on career development, says Kimberly Ardo-Eisenbeis, vice president of human resources and recruiting at Allied Universal Security Services.“We offer robust training for all of our employees,” she said. “You don’t have to be a security professional to start with us. We’ll grow you to be one.” Allied employees are taught an ‘I Care’ approach to leadership, which Ardo-Eisenbeis said “is really about meeting our employees where they’re at, being flexible, being responsive, being open.” For example, Allied offers flexible scheduling, which is “nice for our female population,” Ardo-Eisenbeis said.Attention to DetailInclusion also comes in the form of asking questions to get it right. Kaanji Irby, the director of diversity and inclusion for Signet Jewelers, is used to having her first name mispronounced. “I’ve been called everything from Kanga to Congo,” she said.That’s why she appreciated it when a leader she’s worked with began every introduction with, “Hello, my name is Rich, can you please teach me how to say your name?”The panelists spoke to the topic "Building Upon Workplace Culture Through Recognition, Inclusion, and Belonging" in DallasIrby told moderator Christine Perez, editor of D CEO magazine, that she likes to share this story because “we all feel a connection to our names. So being in a space and working alongside a leader who intentionally took that time to make sure that he established that connection, and as the leader set the tone for everyone that he communicated with, I think is a true example of creating an inclusive environment.”Getting Involved in CommunityArdo-Eisenbeis says that Allied Universal Security Services empowers employees to do volunteer work in their communities. For example, the Allied Midwest team developed its For You Campaign, in which employees volunteer at a local food band or school.“That creates a culture of belonging,” Ardo-Eisenbeis said. “They feel seen, they feel heard. They’re building in their communities.”Employees volunteering in the community can increase retention and productivity, but it's essential to do it year-round rather than have one big annual event, says Michal Alter, co-founder and CEO of Visit.org.Alter says Visit.org corporate partners typically do weekly events in the community, as well as monthly events to celebrate different observances and international days for ERGs or new employee onboarding.Visit.org regularly surveys participants in these types of events. According to the most recent survey of 40,000 responders, 70% said that the event “had a major impact on their sense of belonging to the company,” Alter said. “The second thing that we saw is that 90% of employees asked their employer to do more of these events.”Measuring the ImpactA genuinely inclusive environment goes beyond looking at race and gender, says Adrian Seligman, executive board member and CCO of the Top Employers Institute. The company has “started getting into other areas that are a little more difficult” because success is more challenging to measure.One of these areas is family-friendly policies, such as parental leave, which is less widespread in the United States than in other nations, says Seligman. He said South Korea is leading the way in this area, with new parents getting 54 weeks of fully paid leave.Making sure neurodiverse job candidates and employees feel welcome is also a crucial part of inclusion, says Seligman.“There are individuals who traditionally struggle with our standard recruitment processes who can really excel in some roles,” he said. “There’s just amazing talent out there, but how do we set up our workplaces to include talent like that?” This is the work the panelists continue to push forward.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
New Voices: Bringing a More Inclusive Approach to Workplace Belonging
BY Mary Pieper May 29, 2024When D.L. Morriss, the diversity, equity, and inclusion partner for the Chicago-based Hinshaw & Culbertson law firm was leading a team debriefing on a case, he asked a female attorney to take notes.As he ran quickly through the agenda, he realized he had assigned a woman this stereotypical role. “And I said, ‘Hey, you know what? I didn’t realize that I just did that,’” Morriss told moderator John Pletz, senior reporter for Crain's Chicago Business, during a recent panel at From Day One's Chicago conference.Morriss reassigned who would be taking notes during the meeting. “As leaders, you have to be willing to be vulnerable,” he said. “You’ve got to be willing to be wrong, and call yourself out on it. That authenticity is what I hope my team resonates with.”DEI is a Learning ProcessOne of the joys of working in the DEI space is that “you’re able to help people, understand what their values are, what they stand for, what their biases are, perhaps what they were raised with,” said Ekpedeme “Pamay” Bassey, chief learning and diversity officer for the Kraft Heinz Company. “They need to learn and unlearn and go through that process to become a more inclusive version of themselves.”DEI is not a destination but a continuous journey, says Melissa Healy, senior VP, employee belonging and participation lead at Leo Burnett.“There is no end game to diversity, or end game to belonging, or end game to inclusion,” she said. “I hope that everyone can start from a place and say, ‘I am a lifelong learner. I am continually curious.’”John Pletz, Senior Reporter for Crain's Chicago Business, moderated the panel of industry leaders Jeanette Kilo-Smith, vice president of diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging for Zurich North America, says that giving people grace is crucial, as they will inevitably make mistakes when it comes to enhancing workplace inclusion.“You can’t expect folks to go through whatever training or experience and then walk away with all the answers, because they won’t,” she said. “You’d be surprised by the common phrases that people say, they didn’t realize could be offensive to a group, or to a person. If I said some of them, I’m sure many of you would say, ‘Oh, I didn't realize that.’”Including All Generations of EmployeesToday’s workers span five generations, from the Silent Generation to Gen Z. “Whether or not you choose to learn how to engage in a respectful manner, there are people with different lived experiences, characteristics, backgrounds, of different ages,” Bassey said. “And if you want to have a community or an organization where there’s less friction and more productivity, there’s a reason to learn how to be a more inclusive leader.”Andrea Cooper, Talkspace's chief people officer, says that different generations can learn from each other. For example, Gen Z is “leading the way with mental health and therapy,” she said.“They’re talking about something that has always been kind of hidden or not allowed to be discussed,” Cooper said. “I think this new generation in the workforce is not willing to accept the silence on it.”The Importance of IntersectionalityIndividual factors such as age or gender are only a portion of someone’s overall identity, says Healy. “I’m not just a woman, right?” she said. “There’s so much more to who I am and what I bring to the table.”Intersectionality is “less about segmenting groups and more about recognizing those intersections,” Cooper said. “If I think about myself, I identify as a woman, as a mom, as a lesbian, as a sister. There’s so many different things, and being able to talk about all those things is a lot more multidimensional than the way it was 10-15 years ago.”Cooper says these conversations may not be easier, but in the long run they are more beneficial.Pushing the Work ForwardThe 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action programs has caused some concern within organizations, says Kilo-Smith. However, “We’re not taking our foot off the gas,” she said. “What we’re continuing to focus on is creating that inclusive culture where everyone feels that they can grow and that they can thrive.”Despite the Supreme Court ruling, “The sky is not falling” when it comes to DEI, Morriss said. “I think it’s only going to continue to grow. We’ve already identified numerous studies that show the power that comes from diverse teams only increases when you add other diverse demographics. And that innovation leads to higher revenue and product profitability that many of our corporations appreciate on a regular basis.” Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Boosting Productivity in a Changing Workplace–and Workforce
BY Mary Pieper May 14, 2024A number of stressors are hindering the productivity of today’s workforce. Some employees still need help with the adjustment to working remotely or in a hybrid environment, says Millette Granville, VP of diversity, equity and inclusion at 2U.“People get a little antsy if they’re remote but three people on their team are in person,” she told moderator Krissah Thompson, managing editor of the Washington Post in a panel discussion at From Day One’s conference in Washington, D.C.“They’re thinking, ‘Do I have career growth? Can I move through the organization If I’m remote?’” More than ever, employees long for a sense of belonging, says Granville. “Research shows that employees that feel like they belong are going to stay longer, they're going to be more innovative,” she said.A recent survey at the cloud-based human capital technology and services provider Alight revealed that one in five of its employees had a behavioral health problem, while 75% were experiencing some degree of stress and anxiety. “We’re probably underestimating it, to be honest,” said Dr. Bipan Mistry, chief medical officer at Alight.Improving Mental Wellness in the WorkplaceTammy Kness, SVP of human capital management and communications at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), shared that the company kicked off a mental health awareness initiative called “How Are You Really?” several years ago.GDIT has a website with resources on how to have conversations with employees and colleagues about stress and anxiety. “It’s been really encouraging to see how just offering to talk about that in the workplace is increasing productivity and connectedness and community,” Kness said. “We’re just trying to destigmatize talking about mental health and sharing with our employees. It’s OK not to be OK, but it’s not OK to not ask for help.”The panelists spoke on the topic "Boosting Productivity in a Changing Workplace–and Workforce" at From Day One's D.C. conference A lack of access to healthcare providers, particularly in the mental health field, is an issue that prevents many people from seeing the help they need, says Mistry. “That’s where having some navigation services for behavioral health is really key,” he said. “And it’s not just the employee. We also have to think about the family unit.”Alight data shows that 20% of behavioral health guidance is for pediatric adolescent conditions. “So, let’s not forget about the element of the parental unit and how that affects productivity at work,” he said. Employees also need some flexibility in the workday so they can go to appointments when they find a provider.Remote and Hybrid WorkFlexibility is also the key to remote and hybrid work, says Kness. “One size doesn't fit all,” she said. Nearly half of all GDIT employees are on-site in a secured facility because of the nature of their work. That didn’t change, even during the pandemic. However, some employees were working remotely for years before Covid.She said the key is to have an approach that balances all these ways of working while keeping everyone connected. For example, GDIT’s employee resource groups now meet remotely to discuss topics such as mental health and inclusivity.“It has to be a very multifaceted strategy around investing in your managers, engaging your employees, being really intentional about your strategy, and building those communities,” Kness said.According to Granville, employers should also be aware of proximity bias which could lead to unequal treatment between in-person team members and remote ones.“If you’re the leader, you need to make sure you’re doing all the things you need to do to engage everyone in a way that’s impactful and meaningful to them,” she said.How to Keep Employees EngagedLiz Janssen, VP of talent experience and transformation at ICF says the company has been on a performance management journey over the past three years. “We heard our employees through surveys and focus groups say they want to connect what they do to the company mission, and that they want more frequent feedback,” she said. “They also wanted to focus on their career growth. That was the number one reason why people were leaving.”ICF responded by doing quarterly check-ins with employees rather than an annual review. If an employee or manager wants to have conversations even more frequently than that, they can make that request. In addition, managers have started talking to employees about how their work contributed to the firm’s overall success.“We test the effectiveness and our employees are saying it’s really helped a lot,” Janssen said. “We didn’t make it mandatory, but we’ve seen a growth and adoption rate of 50% year over year.”Michal Alter, founder and CEO of Visit.org, which helps corporations engage their employees, said one client came to them several years ago because morale was extremely low at the company following a merger.“We worked on putting together a larger global day of service,” she said. “That’s what we do, we work with nonprofits all over the world. And we create content for volunteering and different types of team-building learning opportunities.”That initial day of service had an outstanding 25% participation rate, says Alter. “That became the moment in time where everyone felt that they were coming together,” she said. “And from that point on, they saw the new beginning of the merged company.”The global day of service has not only become an annual tradition for the client. “Employees are now asking me to do it throughout the year,” Alter said. “That focus on the mission really brought everyone together to create a productive work environment.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
How to Provide Fertility Benefits Without Breaking the Bank
BY Mary Pieper May 10, 2024Infertility impacts one in every six couples who are trying to conceive, according to the World Health Organization. “That number is staggering,” said Jenny Carillo, president of Ovia Health, who spoke in a recent From Day One webinar.“We’re seeing the average age of people who are trying to initiate their family building efforts increasing,” she told moderator Lydia Dishman. “People are now trying to conceive in their 30s and 40s, when they’re becoming less fertile.”However, a new report from Ovia Health suggests only 15% of employees have access to fertility benefits. “This benefit is very difficult to justify in terms of return on investment, and the reason why is that it’s crazy expensive,” said Arturo Arteaga, the senior director of total rewards at VCA Animal Hospitals.However, employees now see providing fertility benefits as their employer’s responsibility, says Kim Duck, VP of global benefits at News Corp. “I think it’s ramped up very, very quickly, where it used to be nice to have and now it is expected,” she said.That discussion began in the United States, but Duck said she was surprised how quickly it spread to global employees. “It’s just exploding everywhere,” she said. The Case for Fertility BenefitsOffering fertility benefits can be a difficult decision for employers because it serves only a small group of employees, says Arteaga. “You have to balance providing that benefit for a few or think of something else that can impact more people,” he said.However, 80% of the employees at VCA Animal Hospitals are women, so “it is something we need to do,” Arteaga said.Lydia Dishman of Fast Company moderated the panel on providing fertility benefits without breaking the bank (photo by From Day One)Even if a company offers fertility benefits, employees who use them still need to spend a lot of their own money to access care, says Arteaga. “But just imagine if you didn’t have the company helping you,” he said. “It’s just impossible for the majority of people.”For companies with difficulty recruiting new employees, fertility benefits can be a big advantage, says John Von Arb, VP of total rewards for Essentia Health.“We rely on our benefits as an employer of choice, and things like that encourage and incentivize individuals to come to us or to stay with us as we move forward,” he said.Fertility Benefits and the Continuum of CareHistorically, women’s reproductive health has been viewed as fragmented stages, such as conception, pregnancy, post-partum, and menopause, says Carillo.However, “the reality is this is a continuum of one’s life, and these periods of one’s life are connected to one’s whole health,” she said. “So, if we think about it from a whole health perspective, we’d like to anchor to the thought of prevention. And when you think about prevention, you’re able to really think about what preconception care looks like.”Carillo said helping employees be in a healthier place so they can conceive naturally is cost-effective compared to assisting them with fertility treatment costs.Providing benefits for young families doesn’t end after conception, says Duck. Some News Corps business units offer 20 weeks of parental leave that is gender agnostic.Essentia Health offers childcare support for mothers returning to work. Von Arb said this support is not just for day-shift employees, but also for those on the evening and overnight shifts. “All of those go with the broader context of family benefits,” he said.Talking to Employees About Fertility BenefitsInclusive language and inclusive perspectives are critical when talking to employees about fertility benefits, says Carillo. It’s important to be inclusive to men and the LBGTQ+ population seeking these treatments.Sometimes the male half of a heterosexual couple is only tested for infertility after healthcare providers have exhausted all the options for the woman in the relationship, says Arteaga. “I think that’s a cultural shift we have to change,” he said.Fortunately, younger generations are more open than older ones when it comes to discussing infertility, according to Von Arb. “Nothing is off the table,” he said. “I do think that it becomes a little easier for us to address some of these issues as we move forward, and frankly to communicate them a little more effectively, as there’s not a taboo around them.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, for sponsoring this webinar.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Making Benefits More Accessible–and Meaningful
BY Mary Pieper April 23, 2024Nicole Cody became the vice president of total rewards at International Paper in 2020, right in the middle of the first year of Covid. “That was an interesting time to come into this space,” she said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s April virtual conference.Cody told moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company that the biggest spike in demand she has seen “is perhaps, not surprisingly, access to mental health providers and mental health care.”A majority of Americans say money problems negatively impact their mental health, says Will Peng, CEO and co-founder of Northstar, a comprehensive financial wellness benefit. “Financial stressors are very closely related to other pillars of well-being,” he said.Today’s workers want lifestyle spending accounts, which allow them to allocate benefit funds from their employers for wellness programs they need the most, says Megan Burns, benefits strategy and solutions lead for Forma, an employee benefits platform.Those programs can include physical wellness, social-emotional health, financial counseling, and whatever else the company deems eligible. She noted some studies indicate that by 2025, about 40% of employers will have some sort of lifestyle spending or customizable spending account in place. “It’s definitely become a really trendy benefit.”Stress Management and Mental HealthStress management has become a much-desired employee benefit in recent years, says Alecia Williams-Pierre, VP of total rewards at Atrium Hospitality.“We have been looking at implementing different webinars or meditations just as part of our culture to help associates be able to manage stress overall,” she said.Having access to mental health care providers is an enormous challenge, especially in rural locations, according to Cody.“So, when we were looking at how we could beef up our offerings, we looked at a provider network that doesn’t go through insurance,” she said. “They’re not part of a carrier’s provider network. They’re just mental health providers that get direct payments. And we found a way to process the claims through our insurance plan on the back end.”This arrangement allowed International Paper to get its employees access to care within days as opposed to weeks, says Cody.Helping Employees Manage Financial StressPeng says financial wellness is at the top of everyone’s mind right now because of inflation. “Everything seems to be really expensive now. It’s hard to walk out the door without spending more money than we hoped.”Northstar has a platform to help people manage their finances and provides one-on-one counseling, says Peng. He says creating a personalized plan for each individual life stage is the best form of support. For example, if an employee is starting a family, they must change their budget and decide on their benefits.The benefits and total rewards leaders spoke at From Day One's April virtual conference about "Benefits That Fit Individual Needs Without Busting the Budget" (photo by From Day One)“For what should be an exciting life event, oftentimes, we’re overwhelmed with a ton of logistical and financial decisions that we have to make,” he said. “So, it’s about creating those systems and guidance to help our people feel supported.”Lifestyle Spending AccountsDuring the pandemic, employees became more aware of the need to balance work and life, says Sarah Schutzburger, benefits and wellness manager for Samsung Semiconductor.“Employees would come to us saying, ‘What about this vendor? What about this support program? What about this resource?’” she said.As a result, Samsung Semiconductor recently implemented a lifestyle spending account so workers “can customize what’s valuable to them, and be reimbursed for those types of benefits,” Schutzburger said.Employees value lifestyle spending accounts because “they love choice and they love flexibility,” Burns said. Managing multiple benefits vendors can be costly and time-consuming for employers. However, lifestyle savings accounts are “sort of the easy button,” said Burns.More than 75% of the employers who partner with Forma repurpose existing budget dollars for lifetime savings accounts. “I would say the value is both from an employee’s appreciation of the benefit, administrative time, and direct financial ROI,” she said.Communicating With Employees About BenefitsBenefits only work if employees know and understand them, says Schutzberger. That’s why it’s critical for organizations to have “clear and concise messaging, using simple language to explain the benefits and their importance and avoiding jargon.”Companies should also “tell a story about the benefits,” Schutzberger said. Whether they are new parents or nearing retirement, “they want to know how they apply to them.”Williams-Pierre recommends organizations talk to their employees about benefits all year round using multiple channels such as email, webinars, and mailers.At Atrium Hospitality, communicating these options can be tricky, because benefits need to be discussed in various languages. “We have to have Spanish, we have to have French, we have to have Tagalog. And as our population grows and changes, we have to be more creative and be ready to meet the need.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.
Inclusivity in Practice: Shaping Your Company’s Culture
BY Mary Pieper April 04, 2024Several decades ago, Sudha Solayappan arrived late for a networking dinner and was seated at the end of a long table. She was much younger than the others, and the two closest people to her were already engaged in conversation.“I felt very awkward,” said Solayappan, now the Head of Talent Operations and People Research at Intuitive Surgical, during a recent panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley event.Fortunately, another man at the dinner table asked her a question. “What was beautiful about it was that it was a very subtle question he asked, and it was a message to the person to my left as well that I need to be included, but without alienating that person,” Solayappan told panel moderator David Thigpen, a journalism educator at UC Berkeley.Solayappan says this instance was a powerful example of inclusion.The Power of ListeningListening is an essential skill at all levels of an organization to shape an environment of inclusion, says Janine Yancey, founder and CEO of Emtrain.“We’ve all had an experience where the direct line managers are the folks that really create the culture,” she said. “It has to start at the top. But there’s often a big gap between the top and the folks who are influencing day-to-day teams.”The key is to teach all managers to listen more than they talk, says Yancey. She said this involves gently asking simple questions that encourage sharing, such as, “What do you think about that?”Brian Little, VP of human resources at Intel, said the “fight to ensure the quietest voices in the room are heard” is a never-ending challenge, but “unconscious bias training has really helped our company.”For example, a manager once told him that everytime he spoke to someone on his team he experienced frustration. Little recommended unconscious bias training, and the manager realized the way he grew up was interfering with his ability to be a leader. This motivated him to change his behavior, says Little.Building Capacity to Create a Sense of Belonging Another critical step toward developing a culture where everyone feels welcome is building the capacity of each individual, according to Curran Brugger, VP of talent, development, and inclusion at Gilead Sciences.“Our people leaders and our employees generally are just overloaded,” she said. “There’s just so much coming at us.”This makes it difficult for members of an organization to find room on their plates to do the listening and engagement necessary to understand their biases, says Brugger. However, people can adapt to new challenges when they build and broaden their perspective.“You update your operating system over and over and over again, rather than just adding on lots of new operating systems,” Brugger said.The panelists from left to right included Brian Little of Intel, Curran Brugger of Gilead Sciences, Sudha Solayappan of Intuitive, Janine Yancey of Emtrain, and session moderator David Thigpen of UC BerkeleyThis is challenging for many employees from minority groups because their “natural style of being” conflicts with the culture of their workplace, says Solayappan. These individuals develop an “adaptive state” to fit in, but “it really is hard for them. It causes faster burnout,” she said.“How can we increase someone’s capacity when day in and day out that strain is there and they are feeling it? We should make sure that we create a climate where people are comfortable being who they are,” Solayappan said.Measuring Outcomes for InclusivityMany organizations measure their progress on inclusivity through looking at their people, and looking at retention rates, says Yancey. However, she said leaders should also look at social dynamics because they “can make or break you.”“If you have a basketball team with the greatest players in the world but they don’t work well together, they will lose,” Yancey said.She recommends companies begin measuring outcomes during inclusion training. For example, instead of just giving people examples of what allyship and creating opportunities looks like, Yancey advises asking them if their colleagues are doing this or if they have experienced it themselves.By asking those questions, “You’re getting some authentic feedback of what they see and what they’re experiencing in the trenches,” she said. “And you’re mapping it to a set of skills so you can measure those skills at scale and see where you’re strong and where you’re weak.”Company leaders should be aware that a decrease in inclusivity scores might indicate progress because employees feel they are in an environment where it is safe to give constructive criticism, says Brugger.“We’re trying some experiments, and we’re looking at what the data is telling us rather than thinking the data is giving us the answer,” she said. “I think that’s an important distinction on how we’re thinking about metrics.”Companies should consider the big picture when creating inclusivity goals, says Little.“It’s what we want to do in the world, the influence we want to have, how we change the world,” he said. “We will change the lives of a lot of people. There will be kids going to college that didn’t go to college before, there will be parents who all of a sudden will be able to pay all their bills, because if they work for us, they’re going to be doing OK.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.