Building Connections, Shaping Culture: Elevating the Employee Experience
BY Stephanie Reed March 14, 2025“The equation seems to be: happy employees equals higher productivity, efficiency, low turnover, higher retention, and more profit,” said Mihae Ahn, VP of marketing at LineZero.Undoubtedly, the employee experience and the customer experience are interconnected. Organizations with engaged workers perform 147% more effectively than their competitors and see a higher ROI.What is the key to organizations creating happier and highly engaged employees? Communal support, Ahn says. “When we feel connected to others in our lives, we are happier. When we are connected to our colleagues at work, we are happier at work,” she said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Washington, D.C. conference. Indeed, Forbes underscores how there is a “highly emotional component” to keeping employees happy and fully engaged. Employees desire to be recognized, heard, respected, supported, and valued. HR leaders recognize the importance of supporting the humane component of organizational success. Investing in the employee experience is now a top priority, as disengaged employees can threaten a company’s success. In today’s hybrid workplaces, leaders must foster inclusive cultures that support a multigenerational workforce with diverse skill sets.“How do we make sure that our people feel connected, and they feel like they are part of a community where two-way engagement dialogs happen?” Surprisingly, or, perhaps as expected with the rise of AI, technology is a powerful tool to bridge communication, cultural, and skill gaps in modern-day workplaces. Instead of further stripping away humanity in the workplace, newer technology can create more inclusivity and interconnectedness. Companies investing in the digital employee experience, in particular, are also driven to integrate the latest platforms, software, and tools to enhance their competitiveness, says Ahn. A Digital Employee Experience Hub Ahn emphasized that building genuine community support and connections in the workplace is key to enhancing the employee experience. LineZero is an employee experience and change management consulting company that partners with top digital platforms to help clients strengthen internal communication, assess data, and create engaging company cultures.LineZero consultants are adamant about ensuring that the digital employee experience tool they suggest to clients leads to the desired business outcomes and justifies the buy-in. “We have a deep understanding of whatever tool, whatever technology that you propose and present to your business. It has to have a very clear purpose. It should not be redundant. It has to be cost-efficient,” said Ahn.For example, such new technology helps objectively filter employee data, enhances communication, introduces new ways of gathering and providing reviews and feedback via online forums and channels, and helps managers and team leaders directly support employees in their unique professional journeys.Hence, digital employee experience tools are vital for internal communication among frontline, remote, and hybrid workers. Many organizations achieve considerable success using AI-powered digital tools and platforms.Ahn references Workvivo by Zoom as an effective digital employee experience hub. Workvivo integrates engagement by awards, surveys, and employee recognition programs; internal communications using online chat, podcasts, live streams, and smart activity feeds; and employee listening using advanced analytics and data-driven employee insights.The Necessity of Human Connection The necessity of human connection is ancient, Ahn says. Belonging to a group as hunter-gatherers strengthened the likelihood of human survival because of communal support.On the other hand, social isolation lowered a person’s chances of survival because of a fundamental lack of support. Therefore, the body still perceives isolation or ostracization as a threat. The sympathetic nervous system activates under those threats to help us cope with any immediate danger.Today, this weakens decision-making and critical thinking, increases anxiety and depression, and ultimately reduces employee engagement, efficiency, and motivation in the workplace.“Yes, a lack of sense of belonging can create all these negative consequences,” said Ahn. “But when we do a good job creating a sense of belonging, then the many benefits come out of it.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, LineZero, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.(Photo by Justin Feltman for From Day One)
Optimizing Hiring: From Obstacles to Effective Solutions
BY Stephanie Reed March 10, 2025To effectively enhance talent assessments, organizations must first identify any gaps that currently exist or could emerge in the future. Recognizing these gaps sets the stage for exploring external resources that can provide solutions.“We asked questions like, ‘What historical challenges have our stakeholders experienced that we haven’t been able to get exactly right,’” said Generi Wilson, talent acquisition program manager at Greenhouse.“‘What do we want to accomplish in X amount of years, and what's stopping us from achieving them?’” Wilson recalled how Greenhouse approached improving their hiring practices. These fundamental questions helped the organization determine the business need for an interview intelligence tool.At From Day One’s February virtual conference, Wilson led a thought leadership spotlight about “Optimizing Your Hiring Process: From Challenges to Solutions.” Greenhouse is a hiring platform that helps businesses improve their hiring processes. Wilson draws on both client experiences and the organization’s own journey to develop a more structured approach to hiring.Demo Interview Intelligence ToolsAfter pinpointing any gaps or focal points, it’s important to explore external resources created specifically to address those challenges to achieving your business goals, says Wilson.Generi Wilson of Greenhouse led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)For example, Greenhouse determined it needed ways to cut the length of its interviewing sessions, and it wanted to help their hiring managers make more informed and unbiased decisions.The company noted the growing popularity of business tools using AI to optimize tasks and filter objective data. Leaders at Greenhouse proceeded to schedule demos with different vendors supplying interview intelligence tools. Then they used a rubric to determine which vendors were more aligned with their business goals.The pitch to stakeholders determines a new tool's successful integration. The approval of stakeholders influences how the rest of the organization reap the benefits of those new tools.Discussing the benefits of interview intelligence tools and how to measure their success will be more successful when determining what information segments of your audience find most important. “So for example, what’s top of mind for a senior leadership team member might be different from what’s important for an individual contributor to know,” she said.Integrating New ToolsChange management will help fully integrate the new tools into an organization. Two-way transparency was essential to Greenhouse’s change management: providing support and data to address concerns or misconceptions, says Wilson.“The first step in that process was to identify all of our stakeholders beyond senior leadership, and mapped how they would be impacted,” Wilson said. “Once we understood what would be changing for them, we created robust enablement resources to help our audience perform the new tasks that we were asking them to do.” Available resources include tutorials, FAQs, and live demos.Then, they launched a pilot program to verify the success of the tool before fully integrating it into daily operations. Leaders kept track of the user experience with the chosen tool, BrightHire. Bugs, missing workflows, user sentiment, and usage helped measure its overall impact.After notable improvements, Greenhouse increased the pilot from 2 to 10 roles: the results were that 70% of departments were represented in the hiring teams and 60 interviewers used BrightHire to record their interviews. “By rolling out roles one by one, folks were able to experience BrightHire in a controlled environment, but also share success stories with other people on their teams who haven’t gotten the chance to use it just yet.”A Final Structured Hiring Process Wilson's description of how Greenhouse developed a structured hiring process is particularly insightful because the organization applies the same strategies they recommend to their clients. “This is a huge differentiator for us because it means we get to practice our own mission internally every day,” Wilson said.“Now, structured hiring is at the core of everything that Greenhouse does.”Greenhouse’s structured hiring process begins with defining the role requirements and the skills candidates should possess before a job is posted. It also focuses on building diverse and inclusive talent pipelines, ensuring that all candidates have an equal opportunity to showcase their skills.BrightHire has been instrumental in achieving these outcomes with benefits like generating AI notes for interviewers and providing transcripts of the interview in a question-and-answer format to help interviewers create more objective feedback.Greenhouse found success in improving its hiring processes: feedback from surveys reported that 75% of Greenhouse interviewers confirm BrightHire provides clarity, 90% say it saves time, and 100% recommend using BrightHire, says Wilson. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Greenhouse, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses(Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen/iStock)
Caring Smarter: Why Cost-Effective Caregiver Support Is Good for Business in 2025
BY Stephanie Reed February 10, 2025“When employers and I are talking about how to define ROI, the question actually starts with you,” said Jess Brown, VP of marketing at Cariloop.“Are you trying to decrease leave claims? Are you trying to decrease retention of working parents in the workforce after they return from leave? Are you trying to be ranked as a number one employer in your segment?” she asked during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s January virtual conference.The inquiry into ROI arises out of employees’ need for effective care benefits as the costs of American employer-sponsored healthcare are expected to increase by 9%. This will cost over $16,000 per employee by 2025.However, Brown urged organizations to consider what is more detrimental to their long-term financial stability and productivity. For example, caregiving employees often take leave to care for their families, but many eventually need time off for their own health. Some are even forced to leave their jobs entirely. This leads to higher costs for organizations, which must recruit, interview, and train new talent—while also facing productivity losses when key employees are absent.Brown emphasized that providing effective caregiver support isn’t just a benefit for employees, it’s a practical, sustainable strategy that helps companies retain talent and manage costs.Effective Caregiver Support Solutions Effective caregiver support includes predictable and flexible solutions outside of the reimbursement model, which has substantial costs. Brown advised organizations to assess potential benefit providers for reliable models that protect rather than drain their budget. “And when it comes to predictability and flexibility, some bold questions I would ask are, ‘how can you guarantee that we will not face unexpected overages from misuse and fraud?’” Jess Brown, VP of marketing at Cariloop, led the session (company photo)She also encouraged employers to inquire about customizing the parameters around programs based on company goals. “Some employers say, ‘Jess, I want this to be used only during work hours, only for child care, only when regular care isn't available.’ And some employers say, ‘Jess, I just want them to use it because the reason we're implementing this program is just to satisfy a desire and a need for general caregiving support.’” Effective caregiving programs should address employees' rising costs and navigation challenges while ensuring HIPAA compliance. A proactive, sustainable approach involves investing in innovative solutions, including licensed coaches who provide comprehensive caregiving support.Lastly, Brown emphasized that caregiving support has to be integrated into the employee experience. She advised employers to ask providers, “[H]ow they track and record for preventing leave claims for working caregivers and how they measure that on an ongoing basis, and then how they can embed their support overall into the caregiving journey.” How can companies confirm ROI? After identifying their unique goal, what caregiving solution achieves that goal, and gathering the data that aligns with it, they can choose providers who integrate that data into their offers and programs. “So when people come to me and say, ‘Jess, how do you prove the ROI of your caregiving benefit?’ I need to say, ‘First, I need to understand why you want a caregiving benefit.’” Ongoing Care Support Trends Cariloop provides inclusive caregiving benefits, combining expert guidance from Care Coaches, digital tools, and a supportive care provider network to assist caregiving employees.Gathering data from their clients, Cariloop has identified the most significant concerns workers experience in their search for adequate caregiver support benefits.In 2024, one trend observed was that 71% more clients requested consultations with Cariloop to explore health insurance options amidst increasing premiums. Next, 73% of their services were requested to find daily, affordable child care for working parents. Lastly, many clients requested information on Medicare and Medicaid to help those they cared for gain access to services after pandemic assistance policies ended. “And now we enter 2025. And quite frankly, it's time for change,” Brown spoke about the need to shift trends and invest in more effective solutions in the new year. “The child care, the caregiving problem as a whole is a detriment to the business, a detriment to our employees’ lives. And we need something that is more predictable and affordable and scalable and flexible for our workforce. And that’s what’s happening right now.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Cariloop, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.(Photo by lithiumcloud/iStock)
Redefining Skills: How Skills Assessment Data Can Give You The Strategic Advantage
BY Stephanie Reed January 28, 2025Organizations are embracing AI and cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize skills assessment, unlocking powerful insights that drive competitive advantage. With 90% of companies expecting a major shift in required skills within the next three years, staying ahead has never been more critical.Using new technology, organizations can effectively diversify their skills assessment data collection. More efficiently than before, companies can identify leadership and talent skills for talent acquisition, personalized learning, reskilling, succession planning, and internal mobility.During a From Day One webinar, a panel of talent and learning and development leaders shared their experiences of implementing a variety of skills assessments to measure skills, reskill, and improve employee performance.Using Assessments to Propel Workers ForwardLucy Beaumont, a solution lead, manager and leader at SHL, shared three ways most organizations collect data The first is using a form of self-report, manager report, or 360 assessment to obtain subjective data. Next, AI data assessments quickly and objectively sort and analyze internal data to measure and summarize employees’ current skills, skill gaps, and potential. Lastly, personalized behavioral assessments thoroughly uncover an employee or leader’s current strengths and skill gaps.Erin Freshwater, head of learning, talent, and organizational development at Hormel Foods, described the company’s innovative approach to collecting personalized skills assessment data. “Fom our leadership pipeline perspective, it’s been really important that we understand what are the skills that our leaders have in order to lead our teams and our organization into the future,” Freshwater said.Hormel Foods takes their officer-level group through 8-hour-long simulations. Then, psychologists assess their leadership skills. They identify the group’s skill gaps, assess them, give feedback to leadership development, and implement them into development programs for future company leadership.The panelists discussed "Redefining Skills: How Skills Assessment Data Can Give You The Strategic Advantage" during the webinar (photo by From Day One)Stephanie Ketron, head of learning and development director at Westgate Resorts, spoke about using data-driven and personalized assessments. First, the company assesses an employee’s inventory of skills. After their skills are rated, they proceed to individual curriculums based on their skill sets.Leaders then review an employee’s skill gaps identified through their individual assessment and design a personalized development plan tailored to their needs. Ketron emphasized the importance of avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach, noting that even employees in the same role may possess different skill sets.Westgate Resorts has seen this data-driven and personalized skill assessment approach achieve positive business outcomes. However, traditional self-report assessments still create efficient data that can be combined with data from other assessments later on.Julian Allen, director of global talent management at MiTek, discussed the continuing effectiveness of 360 assessments. After creating a strategic plan with company leaders, MiTek refers to external resources to pinpoint the skills needed to achieve business outcomes. Then, by using 360 assessments, they create individual employee development programs to learn the necessary skills.The personalization of these programs is evident, initially only for employees to progress in their internal mobility without input from managers. Now, MiTek is shifting to using 360 assessments for overall talent planning.Ultimately, companies using a variety of assessments improve their hiring processes, Allen says. “So be that job simulations, personality assessments, and multiple different tools that are out there, I think that gives us additional data to make an informed decision,” he said.Skills for Future-Proof JobsWhat are other factors employers consider when determining the specific skills employees should learn? How are employers building roadmaps for employees to learn those skills to advance in their careers?SHL provides data-driven insights to help organizations enhance their hiring, development, and talent mobility strategies. Drawing from client feedback, SHL highlights that reskilling is a critical need across all industries. Beaumont says that reskilling has become a common priority for SHL clients, particularly as industries evolve and integrate new technologies.“As soon as you start your job, it’s going to change and you’re going to have to learn something new. And then from an L&D perspective, we’re just constantly trying to get people up to speed. Whether it’s with new technologies or new ways of working,” Beaumont said.Soft skills are still relevant. However, they are developed differently. Ketron expressed how emotional and cultural intelligence or interpersonal relationship skills are crucial. Yet, these skills aren’t quantifiable. “I think sometimes those are a lot harder as a skill set to kind of measure and determine, and we put very clear behavioral identifiers to those,” she said.Paul Jung, senior director of people experience at Optum, emphasized the significance of technological skills in the healthcare organization. Their clinical key talent group sets a precedent for existing and incoming talent.Using AI, Optum assesses the entirety of company data to identify skill opportunities and gaps, aligning them with business goals, and creating talent pipelines. As AI serves an integral role in managing mass employee data, personalization and a humanistic approach to other skill development remains a necessity. “They don’t want the machines to tell them where they should go next,” Jung said.For example, at Hormel, employees work with a coach for 6-9 months after completing their behavioral assessments. This has proven effective for the company, Freshwater says. Therefore, data-driven skills assessments with peer and leader mentorship for soft skills continue to achieve better business outcomes.Moderator Lydia Dishman, senior editor at Fast Company, summarized using hard data with human mentorship to redefine skills and boost development. “You do need the human component, but you do have this partnership with artificial intelligence in order to put whatever you’re doing up a notch,” Dishman said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, SHL, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
How Workers Can Make Their Money Go Further With HSA and Limited Purpose FSA
BY Stephanie Reed December 31, 2024An emerging but underutilized strategy involves pairing a health savings account (HSA) with a limited purpose flexible spending account (LPFSA) to save on future healthcare costs. This approach allows employees to maximize the benefits of their health and retirement investments.“Why folks often wish to pair an LPFSA with an HSA is that many folks are using the HSA like an IRA, because they’re saving it for the future,” Michael C. Eldredge, HSA product manager at Inspira Financial, said during a From Day One webinar. In collaboration with the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), Inspira Financial released findings that employees who own both an HSA and an LPFSA invest about $3,419, yet, 30% don't withdraw from their LPFSA. 64% of workers with both accounts also still withdraw money from their HSA per year. The information sheds light on how workers with both accounts are missing significant cost-saving opportunities, and not using their LPFSAs to their fullest potential. Employers can support their workers where a major concern is securing future care benefits by informing them of this strategy. Stretching Your Healthcare Dollars Inspira Financial is an organization committed to providing health care, retirement, wealth, and benefits solutions to support the employee health and wealth journey. Their collaborative report with the EBRI outlined several ways workers can achieve maximum financial healthcare benefits. One way to maximize long-term savings is to set aside an amount that optimizes growth over time in a health savings account. Every dollar contributed reduces taxable income, and funds can grow tax-free. For example, investing $1,000 per year in an HSA could grow to over $165,000 in 40 years, while contributing less significantly reduces the total savingsMichael C. Eldredge, HSA product manager at Inspira Financial, led the webinar (company photo)Another particular advantage, Eldredge notes, is that LPFSA funds can cover preventive care that isn't covered by an employer’s health plan such as dental and vision or care for chronic health conditions. This means workers can save more by not withdrawing from their HSA accounts for those procedures. “It’s an awareness point to make sure folks realize they don’t accidentally spend from the HSA, for let’s say an online bill payment or something like that when they could have done it from the LPFSA.” Unused LPFSA funds are also carried over the next year and often have a grace period so workers have the chance to use all of it instead of losing what’s left of it. A noticeable trend with Americans who invest in HSA/FSAs alone strategize pre-tax savings to determine estimations for future medical care and copays, according to the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA). Inspira estimates that on average, men must save $184K for health care expenses in retirement, women must save $217K, and couples must save $351K. Undoubtedly, these are estimates that Americans with both accounts base their strategic planning on. This reflects a growing mindset shift occurring as more workers learn the value of HSA and LPFSA in avoiding paying more out-of-pocket and maximizing reimbursement. American Use and Perception of HSA/FSAs A 2023 CHPA study revealed that only 1 in 5 Americans have an HSA or FSA, and most are unfamiliar with their purpose. As a result, many without these accounts were unaware of the 2020 legislation that made over-the-counter medications and menstrual products eligible for reimbursement through HSAs and FSAs.Half of American workers with HSA/FSA accounts plan to invest less than $2,000 annually, unaffected by the 2020 legislation expanding eligible reimbursements to over-the-counter medications and menstrual products. Instead, 81% of workers with these accounts are focusing their investments on reimbursable medical expenses and preparing for high-cost medical and dental needs.While most American workers, both those with and without HSA/FSA accounts, agree that more healthcare expenses should qualify for reimbursement, this sentiment alone isn’t motivating them to contribute more.Employers can leverage this opportunity to educate workers about the potential to reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs by combining HSAs with LPFSAs. Eldredge highlights that when employees understand how an LPFSA can preserve HSA funds by covering eligible dental and vision expenses with tax benefits, they can better plan for maximum reimbursement and long-term savings.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Inspira Financial, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.(Photo by Panuwat Dangsungnoen/iStock)
Winning Strategies for Delivering an Inclusive Employee-Engagement Experience
BY Stephanie Reed December 18, 2024The integration of new technology has transformed HR, enabling people leaders to shift their focus from traditional desk tasks to using this technology to build more inclusive and genuinely engaging workplaces.Sloan Kendall, head of global partnerships at Blink, and Caroline Mikhail, director of advisory services at LineZero, spoke in a thought leadership spotlight about winning strategies for delivering an inclusive employee-engagement experience at From Day One’s November virtual conference.The Five Engagement StrategiesThe first key strategy is leveraging technology to create an inclusive experience. Newer technology should meet employees where they are, provide easy authentication, and be highly personalized.For example, Blink helped a transportation company improve communication with their non-tech-oriented frontline workers using a mobile app with manager-led activation, says Mikhail. This successfully executed and personalized solution accommodated employees who have access to mobile phones instead of computers.Caroline Mikhail, director of advisory services at LineZero, spoke during the thought leadership spotlight (company photoThe second strategy is utilizing the strengths of a multigenerational workforce, as the social skills and technological knowledge of each generation differ from one another. Reverse mentorship programs facilitate younger generation employees sharing modern tech knowledge with older generation employees. Further, they learn valuable social skills from older employees.A workforce with diverse and inclusive skill sets enables leaders to use modern social tools, like short-form videos, to share information and provide feedback effectively. This approach ensures that socially and culturally relevant communication channels are accessible and beneficial for all employees.A third key strategy is to develop authentic connections in the workplace. When combined with technology, it cultivates more authentic employee engagement.Shadowing programs are ways for company executives and leaders to meet employees within different departments and learn about their daily responsibilities. Posting videos of the experience, featuring different employee experiences each time, encourages participation and enhances employees’ connection to one another.Other mentorship and development programs further facilitate direct communication between leaders and employees. Mikhail shared how an executive created a skill-sharing channel to recommend books and create discussion among employees. Such programs and initiatives, enhanced by new social mediums using technology, provide enriching and unique engagement where employees feel authentically seen, understood, and appreciated by their leaders and peers.The fourth strategy is to embrace champions as workplace ambassadors. Champions further help employees adapt to new technology and communication channels by answering questions and explaining the advantages to employees and the organization.The fifth key strategy is data-driven iteration. While traditional data remains essential for informed decision-making and improving financial outcomes, leveraging technology to filter and display diverse employee data on dashboards enables leaders to better strategize around engagement and development.They can obtain data on individual employees and teams and access summarized data revealing specific trends, helping people leaders create relevant solutions and development and mentorship opportunities. More inclusive datasets also inform leaders on the ways new tools are used so they can shift to more intuitive approaches that reap the most benefits.Inclusivity MattersInclusive solutions sustain hybrid workplaces. Frontline workers aren’t working at desks on computers and may not see their supervisors, managers, or people leaders on a day-to-day basis.Making technological innovation accessible to all employees drives better business outcomes by addressing the unique needs of both teams and individuals.Inclusive engagement fosters stronger peer connections through improved internal communication, boosts productivity by delivering role-specific solutions, and increases employee visibility through diverse social engagement channels.Kendall highlighted the partnership between Blink, a mobile-first employee experience and communication platform, and LineZero, a consultancy specializing in employee experience and change management. Together, they aim to help organizations strengthen connection, culture, and communication in the digital age.“Together we’re really setting up to deliver an experience that enables organizations to empower their employees to better communicate, to engage, and to access relevant systems and tools all in one centralized application,” said Kendall.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, LineZero, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
The Connection Cure: Reviving Inclusion and Restoring Belonging in a Divided World
BY Stephanie Reed December 17, 2024In 2024, 52% of workers say that increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a good thing—a 4% decrease from 2023. Meanwhile, 21% of workers say DEI is a bad thing, a 5% increase from last year. Workers’ perceptions of DEI and its significance have shifted.What has contributed to workers starting to see division rather than belonging with DEI? Teresa Hopke, CEO of Talking Talent shared her insights during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Brooklyn conference.Hopke discussed several important factors contributing to a shift in the perception of inclusion. The biggest factor is not prioritizing more inclusive connections, she says. Organizations must redefine what inclusion is and bridge the gaps in workplace connections to restore confidence in DEI. Because DEI, Hopke emphasizes, will always improve rather than harm business outcomes.Inclusion and Belonging StrategiesHow can business leaders redefine and optimize DEI to become more inclusive? How can DEI strategies restore belonging in the workplace and continue to help marginalized employees authentically achieve professional success? Hopke shared three strategies for fostering inclusion and belonging within the workplace. First, creating connection circles, a structured group or gathering designed to bring together people from various levels, positions, and cultural backgrounds within an organization, helps unite workers.Next, the Human Library methodology offers a unique, voluntary approach where individuals “check out” an employee to learn about a topic or experience they are unfamiliar with. The employee, possessing specialized knowledge, shares insights and teaches them about that subject.Hopke led a thought leadership spotlight about "The Connection Cure: Reviving Inclusion and Restoring Belonging in a Divided World"Finally, reverse leadership programs involve a reverse mentorship approach, where leaders gain insights from employees at different professional levels about the experience of belonging to an outgroup within the organization.These are authentic solutions promoting connection and understanding among different groups, says Hopke.Becoming More Connected, Not DividedRestoring connection within the workplace is at the heart of Talking Talent, coaching leaders at organizations on how to create and strengthen their DEI initiatives.The company offers several solutions, from safe communication practices to “helping systematically oppressed and underrepresented groups into senior leadership roles.” Its coaching solutions have led to positive business outcomes: 75% of their clients have won awards and occupied top league tables for DEI.However, outside of Talking Talent, one drawback of DEI that organizations have observed is employees feeling categorized and labeled. The compartmentalization can make workers feel ashamed and ostracized. For example, Hopke discussed how society normally perceives white men as the group historically embodying the status quo, yet this doesn’t account for white men who didn’t attend prestigious colleges, are neurodivergent, or aren’t heterosexual.This may explain the growing disconnection that white men feel from DEI efforts. A study from the Pew Research Center shows that 47% of white workers believe DEI practices hurt white men.Furthermore, Hopke emphasizes that DEI practices can tokenize marginalized groups and their experiences, also contributing to decreasing positivity toward DEI. “We also have to make sure that we’re not using connection and thinking of it as a fluffy term. It actually can create change in your organization,” she said. This is because connection is a biological need and addressing this need creates better business outcomes.“I am going to guess that there isn’t one business problem you have in your strategy that can’t be solved with more connection, whether it’s client-facing, whether it's market-facing, whether it’s internal—connection is the cure,” she said.So, how can organizations make the work around belonging prioritize connection rather than division? Hopke says to focus on what unites people rather than divides them and engages them in cross-cultural dialogue. People stay at organizations when they feel authentic belonging and connection.“We have to make this about everyone,” she said. “We can’t use shame, we can’t use labels, and we can’t put people into categories. We need to create cultures where everyone uses empathy, understanding, and curiosity to connect with each other.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talking Talent, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses
HR’s Influence on Revenue: Navigating the New Employer-Employee Relationship
BY Stephanie Reed November 26, 2024Successful organizations that consistently exceed revenue goals thrive by aligning with employee expectations .A thriving company nurtures the employee journey, focusing on various aspects of well-being and engagement to support personal and professional growth.This puts HR leaders at the forefront of helping employers and employees form an evolved relationship where their respective professional goals are more compassionately and collaboratively achieved.During a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Austin conference R.W. Holleman, head of enterprise sales at Rain, a company offering earned wage access programs to employers, spoke on how a holistically symbiotic relationship between employee and employer is crucial to achieving higher revenue goals.Cultivating Authentic Value“We all know the cost of turnover. The impact of disengaged employees and the ripple effect that has on the bottom line, right?” Holleman asked the audience. He elaborated on how companies failing to address the root of modern-day disengagement see a cultural decline that further leads to a decline in revenue.Employees are no longer satisfied with just a paycheck and guaranteed work hours. They seek meaningful support, recognition of their value, and a sense of purpose in their work. Consequently, HR executives confront the limits of traditional talent management. The conventional view that employees are satisfied with consistent financial compensation and set work hours alone is outdated.“You’re not just managing people. You’re shaping your HR and you’re shaping the future of the business,” Holleman said. “If you don’t help with that, the business might not survive, right?”What can employers provide of authentic value? Holleman cited security, flexibility, and belonging as vital to maintaining employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction. Data from McKinsey & Company confirms this. Companies resolving significant drivers of disengagement, including an unsafe environment and a lack of career advancement and workplace flexibility, can annually save up to $56 million.R.W. Holleman, head of enterprise sales at Rain, led the thought leadership spotlightResolving several major drivers of disengagement supports retention, reduces absenteeism, and boosts productivity. Companies then experience an increase in revenue.A Positive and Supportive CultureThe same study by McKinsey & Company showed that employee disengagement exhibited by workers with lower well-being can cost a median-size company between $228-355 million a year in lost productivity. In 5 years, that adds up to about $1.1 billion in lost value.It underscores how HR executives now occupy a unique position. They can be more influential to companies achieving sustainable financial success through leveraging comprehensive benefits and programs that support employee well-being. Going beyond the scope of traditional HR work is to pioneer the cultivation of positive and supportive modern-day workplace environments conducive to success for employers and employees.One way to foster a positive culture is to consider more inclusive benefits that better support employees’ overall well-being. Inclusive benefits empower workers, contribute significant value to their lives inside and outside the workplace, and help them thrive.For example, Rain gives employees instant access to 50% of their earned wages, providing financial flexibility. This benefit eases the stress of immediate financial burden, helping employees focus more on their careers. The program is also a win for employers because of its simple process: companies who access Rain’s program complete an EWA adjustment file and withhold the accessed wages from employees’ checks.“What makes that powerful? What I’m talking about is not technology or automation, right? It’s about meeting the human need for stability and security,” he said. By authentically addressing employees’ concerns and providing relevant solutions, employees feel more valued, optimistic, engaged, and committed to performing at their best.Other benefits like inclusive healthcare coverage, care benefits, wellness programs, skill development, work projects, and continuing education improve employee well-being and strengthen positive connections between employers and employees. “By recognizing the importance of the human element and giving employees the support they need, you’re not only driving engagement, you’re driving revenue,” he said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Rain, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses
Boosting Productivity and Engagement: How HR Can Show Workers the Way
BY Stephanie Reed November 19, 2024A 2023 study conducted by Harvard Business School with the Boston Consulting Group found that consultants using AI to solve realistic and complex tasks completed work 25.1% more quickly. The completed work was also 40% higher quality than the control group. With the help of robust technological advancement, organizations are forging new ways to boost productivity and engagement.During an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Philadelphia conference, HR professionals and business leaders shared insights on adapting to the digital era, empowering employees, and crafting unique strategies to drive positive business results.The HBS study highlights how organizations that successfully combine generative AI with human work in knowledge-intensive fields experience significant boosts in productivity. Such new technology is also seen transforming workplaces across multiple industries.For example, Cindy Alisesky, VP of talent acquisition, onboarding, and digital talent solutions for GSK, shared that the company integrated Microsoft Bookings to support admin work. This tool gave leaders back time for important conversations to achieve better business outcomes. GSK also integrated a new internal ChatGPT called GiGi, improving time efficiency and allowing recruiters to focus on other productive tasks.Jason Radisson, CEO and founder of Movo, shared the significant ways technology is used to organize frontline employee schedule preferences to improve productivity. He highlighted how improved work allocation sees a 30-40% employee productivity increase.Radisson highlighted that using technology to assign work to frontline employees is a game changer, allowing them to take on the jobs they want faster and with less bureaucratic procedures. This new ease and flexibility over their work has substantially improved the productivity and career trajectory for frontline workers.Tonia McMillan, vice president of HR strategy and shared services at Amtrak, spoke about the company’s Extra Board for frontline managers with open availability to complete different roles within the company. The system gives managers opportunities to work in other areas and develop new skill sets that will be advantageous when being considered for promotions.Panelists spoke about "Boosting Productivity and Engagement: How HR Can Show Workers the Way"While many workplaces are reaping the benefits of innovative software and generative AI, these technologies have yet to be fully integrated across all industries, leaving some still missing out. However, that may change by 2030 where tasks adding up to 30% of work hours could be automated because of the widespread trend of generative AI use.Learning, Development, and EngagementAriella Cohen, Deputy Managing Editor, News at the Philadelphia Inquirer, moderated the sessionStreamlined workloads free up more time for employees to take on new roles and learning opportunities. As software and AI handle complex, repetitive tasks, organizations can refine and reshape HR models, fostering more engaging and fulfilling workplace cultures.HR leaders are establishing more projects, initiatives, and programs to support skill development and maintain employee engagement.Jamaal Sebastian-Barnes, VP of talent and culture at Bristol Meyers Squibb, spoke about the launch of a new skills-based platform where employees within the organization can apply to work on different projects. They also receive training to fulfill new roles posted on the platform. This supports internal mobility as employees can advance from part-time gigs into new full-time roles within the company.Finally, Nicole Boyko, senior workforce transformation consultant at Perceptyx, emphasized the effectiveness of nudging to boost and maintain employee engagement. Using multiple listening channels and chat channels to gather employee feedback is crucial to boosting engagement, Boyko says. Managers at Perceptyx use insight from those channels with company data to strategize employee development.Changing listening strategies with new objectives to encourage participation, having discussions about employee feedback, and delivering changes using the feedback combined with accurate data as quickly as possible creates positive behavioral changes. Acknowledging the feedback, and incorporating the insight gained into action planning to facilitate coaching, leadership development, and more improves engagement. The process reinvigorates trust and confidence among workers.Undoubtedly, the integration of new software and generative AI supports HR professionals in creating newer and more dynamic programs, policies, and strategies to boost company productivity and culture.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
Embracing Change by Evolving Employee Mindsets and Skill Sets
BY Stephanie Reed November 18, 2024Technical innovation is continuously streamlining processes and departments, from customer service to daily operations and paperwork, leading to the creation of new roles and a transformation of the modern workplace. As a result, this opens up new opportunities for HR leaders to develop holistic talent management programs and employee development initiatives.At From Day One’s Denver conference, Judith Almendra, group vice president of people and culture at TTEC, shared her perspective on incorporating holistic change management solutions to help employees adjust to new roles and continue to professionally evolve amid these changes.“I think it is very important for us to have to make sure that nobody’s filling in the blank with thoughts that may be counterproductive to what we’re trying to achieve, which is truly driving the business forward with our people-centric mindset,” Almendra said to moderator Elizabeth Hernandez, reporter for the Denver Post.TTEC is an international customer experience company blending human and AI interactions, providing organizations with effective customer service. The technological advancements help deliver effective solutions that can reduce the employee workload.With a reduced workload, employees then have opportunities to build other skills for other roles and achieve new career goals. For example, in 2020 the organization launched its Rewire initiative, where leaders meet and restrategize processes, people programs, and more for holistic business outcomes, says Almendra.TTEC also launched Rewiring for Success, an effective change management solution where employees can ask questions about their career prospects and get information from company leaders.“Change can drive a lot of anxiety in a lot of us, right? It can be intimidating,” Almendra said. “What does it mean for my job? Is my job at risk? [These] were some of the questions that we were getting early on that we were trying to make sure we could address in a timely and very proactive manner.”New Skills, New OpportunitiesAfter evaluating their career trajectories, employees at TTEC move forward by reinventing their skill sets or mastering new ones. Their program called I Aspire offers employees a space to share their career goals and aspirations and have TTEC facilitate their new skill development. By engaging with leaders who act as mentors, employees create new career trajectory goals and advance into new roles within the organization.Almendra recalled her career trajectory with appreciation. She is the first generation of her family to receive an MBA, and was initially an accountant. However, she faced challenges finding finance roles. Almendra needed to adapt to change and eventually joined TTEC, where she was encouraged into different roles, like communications and talent management, until landing her current role in people and culture.Judith Almendra of TTEC spoke with Elizabeth Hernandez of the Denver PostHR employees ultimately benefit from acquiring new skill sets as the modern workforce continues to transform. Taking opportunities to learn new skills and working with a mentor will open new doors, says Almendra. “I think continuous learning is so important in today’s environment, to stay relevant, to stay competitive, to stay fulfilled. We just cannot afford not to learn.” Achieving a Unified VisionHow can companies align on a shared vision of success amid workplace and culture shift? And how can leaders foster employee growth and drive expansion while staying focused on business goals? asked Hernandez. On their talent platform, TTEC Talent, leaders record their goals onto the platform and refer to Rewire to confirm they align with the company's goals. Continuing to adopt a more organic approach to business strategy, leaders from each group are encouraged to meet, define their top priorities, and list three things they can do to achieve positive business outcomes, says Almendra.With fewer rigid priorities or fixed meet-up schedules, and by leveraging a range of engaging programs and initiatives, leaders gain greater flexibility, tools, and support to achieve personal goals while driving positive business outcomes. These shifts reflect the evolution of HR, the adoption of a more adaptable employee mindset, and the expansion of skill sets to shape and thrive in new, dynamic roles.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
The Role of GLP-1s in Employee Benefits
BY Stephanie Reed November 12, 2024Companies that offer inclusive care benefits are not only seeing higher retention rates but are also attracting job seekers who prioritize well-being over just a high salary. With obesity on the rise in the U.S., leading to increased rates of cardiovascular disease and Type 2 diabetes, employees are looking for workplaces that support their health holistically, recognizing that inclusive benefits can be life-changing.The prevalence of chronic disease presents a challenge for employers over increasing healthcare costs. 60% of employers expect healthcare costs to surge over the next three years. Yet, it is critical to offer comprehensive care and wellness for higher retention.The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) found that workers would choose a job with benefits over a similar job providing 30% more salary but with no benefits. Consequently, employers also face more competition with other companies that provide more inclusive healthcare benefits.The growing off-label use of GLP-1 drugs, originally approved for treating Type 2 diabetes, has fueled discussions around treatments for cardiometabolic diseases. However, cultural misuse has also associated these drugs with rapid weight loss management.What are the potential risks and benefits associated with including FDA-approved weight loss drugs in care benefits? Is there an ROI of covering weight loss medication?The Reality of CardiodiabesityDeanna Critchley the AVP of Cigna led the sessionDeanna Critchley, area vice president at Cigna, provided insight into the reality of cardiodiabesity management at From Day One’s NYC half-day benefits conference in a thought leadership spotlight.There are several factors to consider when adding FDA-approved weight loss medications such as Wogovy into care benefits. While GLP-1s are automatically covered to treat Type 2 diabetes, weight loss drugs such as Wogovy are considered add-ons or buy-ups, which affects claims costs.Currently, there is no evidence suggesting a decrease in cancer, stroke, heart attack, or other emergency room visits by taking these prescriptions alone.Secondly, drugs such as Ozempic and Wogovy generally have to be taken for an extended period of time, or even a lifetime. People gain back ⅔ of their weight within two years of stopping.Cigna conducted an internal study and found that 66% of people on weight loss medications stopped taking them within 6 months due to rapid weight loss, social pressure, and significant side effects from taking the drugs.This further presents the risk of employers facing increased medical expenditures without guaranteed positive results. It can become unsustainable to find it as pharmacy claims rise. “That’s where we’re still looking at the longevity of this to see if it’s worth you as an employer covering these drugs if they’re not even going to continue taking it.”But if employees are more likely to choose a job that covers weight loss medications, companies face undeniable pressure. “You have to actually consider your benefit philosophy, how you cover it, and what type of population you have,” Critchley said.“Do you use it as talent acquisition? Are your competitors offering that? Do you offer lifestyle management programs and that’s part of your well-being philosophy?” she asked.The benefits of investing in weight loss supplemental coverage, then, lie in having long-term employee populations, the ability and foresight to invest in long-term cost avoidance, and incentivizing customers to enroll in holistic weight management programs.Utilization Management Is KeyCritchley recommended that employers not yet covering weight loss medications should first confirm with their carriers whether utilization management measures are in place. This safeguard helps ensure that GLP-1 drugs are prescribed only to individuals with diabetes.At Cigna, their utilization program confirms clients with Type 2 Diabetes and asks if they would consider taking Metformin, a more affordable and generic prescription drug similar to Ozempic.Cigna Healthcare has developed several solutions, including RxClaimsConnect, which automates claims processing for clients with documented Type 2 diabetes. For self-funded clients offering weight loss coverage, Cigna provides access to EncircleRX, a program equipped with safeguards to ensure the appropriate individuals qualify. Eligible clients must have a BMI of 30, or 32 with two additional co-morbidities. The program also includes a cost cap or a pricing guarantee.More importantly, it includes required enrollment and ongoing engagement with a lifestyle modification program. Nutritional counseling and exercise programs are required management systems in place. This demonstrates the effectiveness of integrated and holistic healthcare as effective and inclusive care benefits.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Cigna, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
A New Model for Inclusive Engagement, Built on Trust and Innovation
BY Stephanie Reed November 11, 2024Most people picture farmers on tractors plowing fields as part of traditional agriculture. However, now the use of iPads, drones, and AI can map fields and direct smart tractors. These solutions are easing the workload of farmers and attracting non-traditional talent.At From Day One’s October virtual conference, Courtney White, head of human resources at BASF, discussed several of these modern-day farming solutions that redefine agricultural work. His goal at BASF is to attract a wider scope of talent into the agricultural industry.“We think that this notion of feeding the world is amazing in itself, but a lot of folks don’t think about it that simply,” White said. “They don’t think about the technology that goes into it and the fact that we need people from a variety of backgrounds in order to deliver what we refer to at BASF as solutions to do the biggest job on Earth.”White discussed BASF’s employee engagement model, emphasizing that a foundational culture of trust is essential for sustaining productivity. Data and science-driven innovation opens up fresh opportunities to engage and attract both internal talent and non-traditional external talent, says White.Trust and an Employee Engagement ModelBASF’s effective employee engagement model comprises six fundamental values: safety, reward & recognition, development, empowerment, inclusion, and purpose.Courtney White of BASF was interviewed by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton of the Denver Post (photo by From Day One)White reflected on an experience with a millennial employee, engaging with and navigating through their generational differences according to those values. “[H]ow do we lean into the freshness of what each generation brings to the table, and then where we have differences, the question is, how do we work through them?”Lastly, establishing rapport through transparent communication is the foundation of trust. White stressed that ambiguity challenges trust, making it essential to communicate with others. This employee engagement model upholds inclusivity, development, leadership, productivity, and trust.Sustainable Agricultural InnovationBASF is an organization combining scientific models with innovation to create sustainable solutions. Its services include agricultural innovation to help farmers overcome environmental and economic challenges while producing more sustainable food.By 2030, the organization will have implemented more than 30 major research and development projects providing seeds, crop protection products, and digital services for sustainable agriculture solutions, says White. The organization projects that farmers will have to feed 9.7 billion people by 2050 and that further digitalization will be necessary to achieve this.Some other examples of digitalization include a Smart Spraying Solution that “recognizes weeds and allows a precise application of herbicides, which maximizes productive land use and reduces the environmental impact by lowering the volume of herbicides applied.” BASF has also invested in indoor growing systems like hydroponic systems for growing lettuce in any location to avoid long transport distances and cut CO2 emissions.Modernizing agricultural work via digitalization involves the contribution of the non-traditional worker: this is why investing in the innovation pipeline through engagement and inclusivity is crucial to the organization.The company invests in externships and works with youth leaders to inspire people to consider agricultural work. Externships invite non-traditional talent to spend a week learning about agricultural innovation at BASF. Then, they are offered roles.Next, by engaging youth leadership in groups such as Agricultural Future of America (AFA) and Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Related Sciences (MANRRS), BASF invests in the innovation pipeline as early as elementary school and extends to college students.“They have the tagline, we’re changing the face of agriculture,” White said of one group he works with. “And I appreciate that so much because I think behind it comes this great spirit of, how is it that we can be a part of the change that agriculture is going through?”Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
The Importance of Giving Workers New Opportunities Within Their Companies
BY Stephanie Reed October 31, 2024Intuitively, business leaders and HR professionals know it’s important to offer their workers career mobility within their companies. And it turns out research underscores the benefits to both workers and employees. According to McKinsey & Company, internal mobility in the form of advancement and other opportunities leads to less turnover and more engaged employees.What strategies, programs, and policies are organizations creating to support their employees' career trajectories? How are organizations creating a culture where employees are encouraged to learn other skills and transition into other positions within their companies?From Day One’s Boston conference last month featured a panel of business leaders sharing successful strategies they’ve implemented in their organizations to support internal mobility.Career Growth as a Collaborative Effort“How much onus is on the individual employee, versus the employer, to seek out ways to advance,?” asked Katie Johnston, moderator and reporter for the Boston Globe asked the speakers. Anne Feeley, global talent and success leader at the health-sciences company Revvity, replied that initiative from the employee and employer is equally necessary.Feeley said that at Revvity, employees are encouraged to ask about advancement opportunities. The company also has an established, annual talent review to strategize individual career development. During the review, their HR partners discuss who has shown interest in other positions within the company. “[W]ho are those personalities who could try new things? And then we really focus 11 out of the 12 months on developing them and progressing those opportunities for them.”Showing this consistent attention to advancement is crucial, according to another McKinsey & Company report: 70% of employees believe work defines their sense of purpose. Company leaders and managers must match the aspirations of their workers by facilitating programs to help workers find meaning and purpose in their careers. Or they risk losing them.Jason Cerrato, VP of talent-centered transformation at Eightfold, a talent-intelligence platform, described Eightfold Talent Management, which allows employees to see how their skills can be used in other positions and identifies career openings needing to be filled. Eightfold Talent Management blends employee initiative with organizational guidance and leadership.Stephanie Ricks, director of corporate development and technology partnerships at Strategic Education, discussed the company’s educational platform Workforce Edge, where workers can browse a library of certifications, degree programs, and courses. Workforce Edge is an innovative solution to underutilized tuition-assistance programs, providing educational and training resources that company tuition-assistance policies often don't cover, Ricks said.Shardé Marchewski, global head of DEI and social impact at the furnishings company Wayfair, discussed a program called the Career Jungle Gym where employees can seek new positions. Wayfair has also generated an internal-mobility pool where current employees are considered first for newer positions before searching for talent externally. Marchewski explained that in addition to allowing employees to create their career paths, underrepresented employees have experienced more opportunities to apply to different positions.Maintaining EngagementWhat if an employee is happy with their role? What if an employee has already obtained a PhD and is at their highest skill level? In what ways can an organization keep them engaged? Alexandra Kiniry, the regional head of talent acquisition at the industrial and consumer-products company Henkel, recommended providing those employees with opportunities to mentor or lead special projects. “I had one woman on the team 42 years with the company, another gentleman 30 years, and same kind of thing,” Kiniry said. “Just always engaging them in things, in departments that touched our department, or, like I said, that mentorship.”Feeley shared how Revvity created a “gigs” program where employees spend up to 12 weeks on a project for skill development. Revvity also launched a scientific forum where employees can learn more about their field and receive guidance on their career trajectories.The goal is to cast a wide net for internal talent to collaborate with managers and leaders for their career trajectory. Employees take the initiative to inquire about other positions, different skills, and special projects that contribute to feeling purposeful within their organizations. Then, by collaborating with managers and leaders on special projects and mentorships by utilizing mobility policies, employees feel a sense of purpose, self-direction, and support within their organizations.Jason Cerrato, VP of talent-centered transformation at Eightfold, shared insights on the importance of internal mobility LinkedIn News reported that workers who move internally are 64% more likely to stay at an organization longer than three years. Internal mobility is a sustainable strategy for employer and employee success. “The people that are leaving are often saying, ‘I didn’t know there was a path,’ Cerrato said. “So all the things we’re talking about today are finding ways to both make that more transparent as well as create a broader audience for inclusion.”Stephanie Reed is a freelance writer focused on news and marketing; Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting ethical and eco-conscious businesses.
Learning to Lead From the Inside Out, a Step-by-Step Approach to Transforming Leaders
BY Stephanie Reed October 30, 2024Hans-Werner Kaas, co-author of The Journey of Leadership, believes today’s leaders must become more vulnerable, self-aware, and humanist. Kaas has helped guide more than 500 CEOs internationally to achieve authentic self-development and actualize their professional goals of running successful organizations as the co-dean of McKinsey & Company’s CEO leadership program “The Bower Forum.”The Inside Out methodology used in the program equally upholds personal and professional integrity. This methodology upholds self-awareness as evolved and palpable leadership resulting in a more engaging and ethical company culture and sustainable organizational success.In a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s September virtual conference, Kaas emphasized that adapting to today’s climate calls for collaborative and human-centered strategies.Our society has evolved past the outdated notions that one person, the tunnel-visioned “imperial CEO,” has all the answers or will be the smartest in the room, Kaas says. Accordingly, it’s essential to align with evolving needs where personal transparency, integrity, and values drive effective leadership, foster meaningful connections both within and beyond the workplace, and create a greater impact in inspiring others.More meaningful goals and solutions are created with honest dialogue. People connect more deeply with a leader who openly shares their journey toward personal and professional fulfillment.Kaas cited the importance of self-assessments, such as CEOs reflecting on their respective sense of belonging to determine if they create that sense of belonging for people around them. “How do you show up?” Kaas asked.Leading From the Inside OutThe Bower Forum involves 3-5 CEOs seeking guidance from mentors such as Kaas, co-author and colleague Ramesh Srinivasan, and other former CEOs. It consists of a two-fold program combining internal and external sources and factors.First, the attendees are asked to describe their personal and organizational progress. Before arriving at the forum, they are also encouraged to bring feedback from their executive teams, mentors, family, or friends on their emotional outlook, self-awareness, empathy, vulnerability, and humility.After attendees share their current stage in their leadership journey, they participate in a listening and immersion exercise. During this exercise, they listen to their peers’ stories, exploring the experiences and motivations that may have shaped specific behaviors or thought patterns in each individual. Their peers brainstorm solutions to those existing behavioral and thought patterns that may prevent them from achieving the kind of leadership they aspire to.Hans-Werner Kaas, the co-dean of the CEO leadership program “The Bower Forum,” spoke during the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)Next, Kaas helps develop ways for the attendee to self-actualize their vision of becoming the leader they want to be for their executive team and organization. The emphasis is on the humanistic aspect of achieving their vision: “Because leadership change starts with yourself,” Kaas said.Attendees proceed to create a commitment plan: a roadmap of how they can effectively take charge of their personal lives and then show up for their teams and organizations with the same commitment to authenticity, well-being, and their vision of success.The Bower Forum incorporates several elements of the self-assessments found within the book “The Journey of Leadership.” For example, at the end of every chapter in the book, there are questions for self-reflection where readers can pinpoint their current position in life, where they want to go, and who they want to be.The book also contains examples of renowned industry pioneers incorporating more vulnerable leadership. Mark Fields, former CEO of the Ford Motor Company, initially experienced dissent in Japan and sought a listening and immersion session from his peers and mentors to gain more perspective of Japanese culture and empathy and understanding of the executive team questioning his leadership.The Bower Forum has run more than 145 programs over 12 years with CEOs in business and non-business sectors, gaining unique insight and comprehensive leadership guidance contributing to the success of “The Journey to Leadership,” says Kaas.What sets the program and book apart from other leadership coaching is the strong focus on human-centered leadership. This marks a monumental shift from the traditional, authoritative CEO model to one centered on empathy and connection. “No surprise, the change, and the transformation always starts with ourselves. But it’s also the hardest thing to take a step back.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, McKinsey & Company, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
Power Practices to Understand Employee Needs Actively and Equitably
BY Stephanie Reed September 10, 2024Investing in the employee experience is a sustainable business strategy to boost retention, engagement, and productivity. Authentic feedback from employees is essential to address their needs and ambitions. “People don't just want to be heard, they want impact,” said Shawn Overcast, the chief insights officer at Explorance during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s August virtual conference. “And through transparent action planning and follow through, employees learn that they can speak their minds freely without repercussions,” she said.Evolving technologies and AI are tools that can help amplify the employee voice. They provide engaging methods of gathering personal and organizational feedback from workers without bias or breaching data privacy. The shift from workers just taking surveys to having opportunities to discuss their experiences in survey comments, feedback channels, and social websites generates valuable insight into organizational transformation.Overcast spoke about People Insight solutions, showing how Explorance’s AI voice of employee solution, called MLY, helps their clients compile and organize diverse and unstructured employee feedback.With the summarization and alerting of frequent and in-depth feedback and perspectives, MLY is a tool for managers and employers to reassess their HR strategies, identify the role of leadership, pinpoint retention risks, and create action plans.Shawn Overcast of Explorance led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)Explorance helps organizations measure employee needs and expectations through scalable automation tools and a continuous feedback-gathering process, revving the insight-to-action cycle. By supporting the employee journey, organizations improve recruitment, engagement, and overall performance.To actively understand employee needs and drive action, Overcast suggests defining a clear strategy and purpose for employee listening, initiating a focused and structured action-planning process, and empowering employees. Actively understanding employee needs involves deliberate engagement and effort to take action.With more opportunities to provide qualitative feedback through discussion forums, survey comments, and social websites, employees can become empowered knowing that their feedback drives organizational change.To fairly understand employees, ensure objectivity using clear and predetermined criteria to make decisions, leverage several listening tools and channels, leverage AI solutions to remove bias, and become more aware of cognitive bias in your listening strategy.“Cognitive biases can lead to unintentional decision-making, and biases can be really tricky,” Overcast said. “They often sit beneath the surface. They’re beyond our conscious thought, and this can impact our ability to analyze data fairly and to take fair and equitable action.”For example, a people analyst in the retail hospitality industry used MLY to go through 10,000 comments sorted into different departments by sending automated relevant insights to managers. Included in the comments were employees’ recommendations to solve specific issues. The people analyst forwarded these to managers.“So often we task the analyst with identifying best practices for responding to the feedback, but the people who know best how to improve employee engagement in your organization are your employees since they’re the ones experiencing it,” Overcast said.Engagement and exit surveys are beneficial for benchmarking, tracking trends over time, and identifying areas of opportunity, Overcast says. However, multiple qualitative insight channels highlight distinct perspectives: respondents express themselves more frequently and constructively across multi-channel listening tools and platforms.The incorporation of AI is a quick solution to the often time-consuming process of HR personnel reading through thousands of comments on any online channel. AI quickly organizes and contextualizes unstructured online feedback into sources of specific and relevant employee experience data without bias. The feedback can guide action to close skill gaps, support upward mobility, and develop managers and people leaders.Using technology and an empathetic approach to surveying employee well-being, Explorance utilizes the employee voice to help clients create solutions that authentically address concerns, says Overcast. The opportunity to influence change is the underlying role of the employee voice: “It’s about the belief that if I have something to share, it will be listened to and it will result in change.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Explorance, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
Effective Caregiving Benefits: Creating a Culture of Compassion and Engagement
BY Stephanie Reed August 14, 2024Organizations experience a significant loss in productivity and finances when caregiving workers struggle. The National Library of Medicine reported that caregiving needs can reduce productivity, and cost employers more than $5,000 annually per employee. Leaders are recognizing the necessity of inclusive caregiving benefits and workplace cultures to support employee well-being.At From Day One’s July virtual conference, Carolyn Romano, VP of product at Torchlight, a LifeSpeak company, spoke on how organizations who request their services to support their caregivers are seeing results.Economic conditions have emphasized the ongoing necessity of policy reform and intervention to support working caregivers. Torchlight contributes to caregiving reform and intervention using a more contemporary, yet compassionate approach to help employers find and provide optimal resources.Successful caregiving initiatives include policies that offer flexibility, accessible leave, and remote work options, Romano says. They should also include mental health support, elder care, discrimination protections, and more to take all aspects of caregiving into consideration.When Romano suddenly experienced a family emergency, Torchlight gave her the support she needed so she could spend three weeks caring for her recuperating mother. “And it’s part of why I feel such a sense of loyalty and appreciation for where I work,” she said.Carolyn Romano of Torchlight, a LifeSpeak company, led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)Torchlight provides caregiving solutions at every stage of life including family planning, parenting, childcare, care for children and adults with complex needs, eldercare, end-of-life, and bereavement. What sets the organization apart is how they offer solutions for diverse situations: care coordination is only the tip of the iceberg – it’s not the central component of their solutions.Instead, Torchlight prioritizes a digital-first approach to comprehensive caregiving support while still upholding integrity and a compassionate approach to employee well-being. With over 2,000 expert guides, videos, and self-help resources with personalized recommendations, clients become equipped with the knowledge to make decisions and find specific caregiving solutions.Another major focus is on creating events and community engagement by hosting live webinars and Q&As to support community engagement in the workplace. Finally, is care coordination which involves finding and vetting service providers and resources for childcare and eldercare.Diverse Solutions for Today’s WorkersCaregiving is critical for several stages of life and requires diverse resources and solutions. For children and adults with complex needs, support involves assistance in navigating complex systems and high-stakes decision-making. Eldercare services support appointments, daily living, finances, and treatment coordination. Bereavement services should aim to support caregivers once their role as caregivers ends.To address these complex caregiving situations, Torchlight Parenting and Caregiving offers inclusive solutions such as virtual and on-demand fitness, nutrition, and mindfulness programs, digital expertise and one-on-one comprehensive guidance for parent and caregiver support, and digital cognitive behavioral support for workers struggling with substance abuse.Romano described several ways other businesses can begin developing the most inclusive and innovative solutions for employees. She suggests adopting an innovation mindset, prioritizing the impact, shifting the perspective of caregiving benefits as fundamental to a successful business strategy, removing fear from decision-making, and strengthening the ability to manage uncertainty.Embracing modern and diverse solutions has the most valuable impact, says Romano. “Being able to provide a mix [of digital resources and human support] and allow people to find their own balance point for how they want to get questions answered, solve caregiving problems, and get to the root, is really important.”Editor’s Note: From Day One thanks our partner, LifeSpeak, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
How to Attract, Screen, and Manage Your Talent in Today’s Hiring Landscape
BY Stephanie Reed July 17, 2024Companies are more focused on retention and internal mobility than ever. From this focus, hiring talent externally has become more convoluted. The technical complexity of job boards generates a large pool of applicants who are not necessarily matched with the right jobs. So how can businesses optimize their search for qualified external talent within these talent pools? Heidi Barnett, the CEO of ApplicantPro, shared critical methods of optimizing the recruiting process during From Day One a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s June virtual conference.Knowing who you are as a business provides valuable information for sourcing. It’s imperative to clearly define who you are as a business, including your values, unique attributes, and what customers and employees love about it, says Barnett.ApplicantPro empowers businesses to streamline their hiring processes by posting jobs across multiple job boards, conducting thorough applicant screening, and offering guidance to hiring managers. One of ApplicantPro's key insights draws a parallel between job boards and search engines.Heidi Barnett, the CEO of ApplicantPro, led the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)By understanding that job boards prioritize higher visibility based on relevancy, businesses can develop more effective recruiting strategies, says Barnett. For example, job boards such as Indeed are optimized for the search of job seekers – not companies. To give job seekers the most results catered to their needs, Indeed provides visibility to newer jobs, jobs with more reviews, and higher click-through rates. “So their core focus is on candidates and candidate flow, not on companies that are posting jobs," she said.Reaching more applicants isn’t necessarily a disadvantage either. “What we’re going to want to do is cast the widest net: allow more people to see the jobs so they have interest. And then on the back end, we’re going to search for quality. And we're going to make sure that, not that we don’t have this huge influx coming in, but we’re focused on quality.”Barnett provided several job ad optimization strategies tailored to draw in the ideal talent from vast talent pools. First, include your salary. Otherwise Indeed creates an estimation that may not accurately represent your business. Next, close the job position if it hasn’t been filled within 21-30 days. Instead of reposting it, which will make Indeed block your traffic, rewrite its contents so that it will be recognized as a new job.Finally, prioritize the disposition of your candidates: by reviewing and engaging with your candidates, Indeed offers you more visibility and you get to screen candidates more efficiently. Barnett also advised businesses on what not to do, such as using redirect URLs in your ad that will take applicants away from your job post.Screening Tools to Identify Key TalentEffective screening tools can help identify top talent. Barnett recommends open-ended screening questions with multiple response options to gather comprehensive information from candidates. This approach allows a more thorough evaluation of applicants' skills, qualifications, and potential match for the organization.Candidate matching has also emerged as a valuable tool for businesses to identify and interview top talent quicker than before. AI-powered candidate matching tools assist in analyzing job screening questions, resumes, and years of experience. This newer technology streamlines recruiting, allowing businesses to make informed hiring decisions more quickly and efficiently.Pre-employment assessments also serve as a valuable tool for identifying candidates, says Barnett. These assessments provide additional insights into a candidate's alignment with the desired qualifications, offering a more comprehensive understanding of their suitability for the position. This allows organizations to make informed hiring decisions, increasing the likelihood of selecting qualified talent.Lastly, video interviews are a transparent method to gain insights into applicants' personalities and assess their potential suitability for your organization's culture and values.Using these strategies, businesses can effectively “make sure that you’re not only getting these positions filled, but navigating all of the different quality challenges,” she said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, ApplicantPro, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
Consistent Reflection and Coaching: A Proven Method to Genuinely Support Employee Well-Being
BY Stephanie Reed July 02, 2024The high costs associated with employee burnout and turnover demonstrate the need for a more effective and holistic approach to well-being. Genuine investment in employee well-being yields better outcomes: Gallup reported that employees who feel supported by their workplaces are 55% less likely to watch for other job opportunities or actively search for jobs and 68% less likely to feel burned out consistently.During From Day One’s Manhattan conference, Anita Hossain Choudhry, co-founder and CEO of The Grand, spoke about a new approach to employee well-being and cultivating an engaged workplace culture. This approach involves measuring, addressing, and enhancing employee well-being, while encompassing all aspects of wellness: physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, social, environmental, intellectual, and career.The Grand coaches leaders to help achieve clarity and self-awareness to reach their personal and professional goals. Choudhry strives to create a work environment that fosters a learning and authentic growth mindset, rather than solely highlighting performance.Understanding the self and what we need within our environments and communities to achieve greater success and well-being requires reflection, intention, and connection, Choudhry said.“Only when we reflect and take the time to learn from our experiences do they become a source of growth. If you’re not doing that, you’re missing out on 70% of your learning.” she said. “That’s why at The Grand, we believe it’s really critical to have reflective practices so you can better understand where you are and where you want to go.”Anita Hossain Choudhry, Co-founder and CEO of The Grand led the thought leadership spotlight in ManhattanThe keys to fostering individual self-awareness involve managers helping employees achieve clarity through meaningful discussions of the areas of their lives they wish to improve, using shared language to define and measure well-being goals effectively in direct reports, and taking every individual’s unique journey into account to allocate resources more efficiently. Upon reflecting on where one is and wants to go, it’s essential to create intentions based on those reflections and also to experiment. It’s critical to move from a performance-based mindset to a growth-learning mindset, says Choudhry.“A lot of times at organizations it doesn’t feel safe to flex and experiment because we always have to perform,” she said. “The opportunity that we have is to create safe spaces where people can experiment. [We need to] make that the norm and give them permission to do that.”Shifting from strictly performance-focused coaching to reflective and growth-oriented coaching, helps employees become emotionally resilient, self-aware, healthy, and more engaged with others. This holistic support of individual growth leads to more successful business outcomes: higher performance, retention, and engagement.Achieving well-being requires a comprehensive approach accounting for all aspects of life. It includes investing in experiences that encourage personal and professional growth. Evolved reflective coaching techniques are crucial in the modern-day workforce as employees prioritize fulfillment in their careers without compromising other facets of their lives.When employees struggle with well-being, business performance and employee satisfaction dwindle. Business costs also rise to compensate for higher turnover. When employees achieve higher levels of well-being, they use fewer sick days, experience less burnout, are more engaged at work, and perform more efficiently.“Our future vision is really to make sure that no one will have to walk through life alone. And everyone will be able to understand their strengths and use it to become the grandest version of themselves.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, The Grand, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
The Secrets to Boosting Remote-Team Productivity and Performance
BY Stephanie Reed June 12, 2024To attract talent, employers need to offer remote and hybrid work, yet also need to create innovative arrangements that work for both the individual employees and the organization. Employees tend to think they're more productive working from home, yet research indicates that's not always the case. How to bridge the gap and ensure optimal performance?“Leaders need to know how to support these distributed workforces in ways that don’t just ensure that they’re physically at work every day, but that they’re performing their best in a sustainable way,” said Sarah Altemus, productivity lab manager at ActivTrak. “This will be a real differentiator for organizations,” she said during a From Day One webinar.ActivTrak provides interactive dashboards and modern software to help employers and managers gain insight into maximizing remote and hybrid workplace productivity. These tools help measure utilization, identify signs of individual burnout, summarize daily and weekly goal progress, and develop more balanced workloads.Leah Ivory, solution consultant at ActivTrak discussed key dashboards and reports that provide employers and their managers with the tools to identify key results areas, measure individual productivity, measure team utilization, and spot opportunities to reestablish workload balance and engagement.ActivTrak’s software integrates direct email communication to foster coaching discussions among managers and individual team members to strategize performance plans and solutions to engagement challenges.Their one-stop dashboard provides a 30,000-foot organizational and team management system using graphs and charts that can be broken down by department, region, or group. It should be referred to daily to track engagement levels in real-time and over the previous 30-day period to measure goal progress. Users can also see team productivity metrics for every member and weekly utilization trends. Other insights include workload balance reports, coaching and personal insights, and more.These innovative tools help strategize high productivity in remote and hybrid settings. In 2024, most businesses have adapted to offering remote and hybrid work to keep talent. However, without referring to data there is no assurance that investing more in remote or hybrid work policies will be sustainable.Employers often omit key insights by looking at traditional outputs that deliver results like production, revenue, and quality. Altemus says that insights into the inputs, like how employees work, how to use technology, how processes are adapted, and how training influences behavior, offer valuable insights into optimizing remote and hybrid work performance combined with output insights.Sarah Altemus of ActivTrak led the From Day One webinar (company photo)“What happens when we don’t track the inputs is we put ourselves in a position where maybe we overhire, and when we overhire, we’ll have low utilization elsewhere in the organization. We buy technology that goes underutilized and have higher technology costs as a result of it.”Analytical tools revealing personal insights get to the root of the inputs: they identify who is overworking or underworking, who works better and where, and more information that gives employers and managers the opportunity to address the oncoming burnout or disengagement of a team member. Goals can be restructured and more personalized to improve productivity.The ability for managers to access the personal insights of every individual team member presents a highly personalized one-on-one coaching opportunity to strategize a performance plan supporting their upward mobility based on their projects, location where their productivity is the most efficient, or restoring their workload balance.“We’re really committed to being an employee-centric tool, empowering employees with their own data or providing the right level of information to the right level of people in the organization. We’re making sure that executives have access to the data they need for decision-making and managers are able to be effective,” said Altemus.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, ActivTrak, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.
The No-Cost Solution to an Expensive Problem: Employee Turnover
BY Stephanie Reed June 11, 2024Employee turnover is too expensive for businesses not to find alternative solutions. The Society of Human Resources Management reported that it costs up to 9 months worth of an employee's salary to replace and train someone who leaves their position. On a broader scope, it’s a prevalent issue causing businesses to lose a trillion dollars yearly according to Gallup.R.W. Holleman, director of strategic accounts at DailyPay, cautions that employee turnover is equally detrimental to a company’s financial stability and employees' successful workplace engagement. “The cost of employee turnover is not just a concern for HR departments,” Holleman said in a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Dallas conference. “It’s a substantial burden on the financial health of the company, impacting the productivity of every single employee.” How can businesses stop spending more money, plunging deeper into debt, and begin reducing employee turnover? Holleman highlights a key employee benefit that addresses the leading cause of workers leaving their positions and offers a direct solution. Earned Wage Access: Solving Financial Burden Financial hardship is the leading cause of stress. In 2020, Purdue University cited survey results from CreditWise, revealing that people experienced more stress and anxiety over finances than work.. However, bonuses and pay increases aren’t an immediate solution for businesses nor employees. Businesses taking out more loans increases financial burdens and does not solve the core of the economic hardships of employees: the need for quick pay. Without access to quicker pay, workers must look for other side hustles and careers that provide same-day access to the money they need. “It’s not necessarily how much they have or how much they’ve earned. It’s about the access to the funds when you need it the most,” Holleman said.R.W. Holleman of DailyPay led the thought leadership spotlight in Dallas “The American worker is being challenged like never before to pay those bills on time. They don’t wait. They’re bouncing from job to job. They’re taking on gig jobs.”The solution is to provide Earned Wage Access (EWA), where employees access their pay as they earn it. EWA does not require taking out loans and is not an advance. It is money employees have already earned, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses and an inclusive benefit for all employees. An impressive 95% of DailyPay clients who previously relied on payday loans reduced their use or stopped altogether, and 97% of clients experienced less overdrafting, saving more than $600 yearly, according to research done by DailyPay. Other notable statistics include reducing turnover by up to 73% and 73% of participants citing they feel more confident managing their finances overall.An Empathetic Solution “Think of a time [when] you were at a grocery store. Have you ever had your card decline?” Holleman asked. “We’re managers, directors, VPs, executives–we got our life going and figured it out. But what about others,” he said, citing other life stages like college, where financial security is less common. The strain on all resources when organizations have to replace employees is apparent: advertising, reviewing applications, interviewing, recruiting, onboarding, and training costs money and time. Consequently, the employee workload increases with a loss of expertise from occupied managers, risking customer relations and creating an environment of uncertainty among teams. EWA exemplifies a win-win situation: it provides financial wellness that sustains employees, helping them stay committed and engaged in their current positions instead of taking more sick days or switching to gig jobs entirely for quicker pay. EWA saves businesses from spending around $45,000 to hire and train a replacement for a previous employee making $60,000 yearly.“It empowers them and provides them the flexibility they need over their finances. So they can bring the best version of themselves to work. And in turn, it can help your company be the best version it needs to be.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, DailyPay, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.