Embracing a New Paradigm of Women’s Leadership
BY Keren Dinkin June 18, 2024In the landscape of leadership today, there are still far fewer women at the senior levels than men—and it's not necessarily getting better.At From Day One’s May virtual conference, LeeAnn Mallorie, founder and CEO of Guts and Grace Leadership, spoke about a new paradigm of women's leadership, coaching, and training. “Since the pandemic, things may have gotten worse in certain industries and certain organizations. We know that there’s a gap. Sometimes it’s called the leadership cliff, meaning when you get to a certain level, it starts to be harder to get promoted,” Mallorie said.The business world continues to rapidly change, many women left the workforce during the pandemic, and this disruptive period can put diverse leaders at risk. Fortunately, it is also an excellent time for opportunities and advancement for these leaders. If we think about the old paradigm of leadership, where things were only done a certain way, this current level of disruption can also open the door for a different type of thinking. Mallorie says that with a new paradigm, we can bring ourselves to lead in a more holistic and resilient way.Mallorie says that women in leadership roles have fueled transformation during a volatile time. Research has also shown that feminine leadership embodies qualities that have been incredibly useful in times of change. Emotional intelligence, active listening, collaboration, creativity, and imagination shine through when women are fully activated in leadership positions. So then the question becomes, what makes the difference?LeeAnn Mallorie led the thought leadership spotlightThere’s a new paradigm of success in which women can be fully activated in the workplace, according to Mallorie. Per her 20 years of experience, when people are fully activated, they're more centered. “They’re feeling cared for in their 30s. They're the ones driving the innovation. Perhaps they’re building culture and leading visionary teams.”Under pressure, we often find ourselves in a different mode. Mallorie calls this an “old paradigm success model” where the internal dialogue sounds like, ‘I have to perform, and when I get there, things will be a certain way.’ With this mindset, women begin to plateau amidst all the pressure. There can also be a lot of resentment or burnout. During times like these, it’s important to look deeper and process how one can find their way through this state, says Mallorie.Effective coaching and training should focus on various things in order for women to move from surviving to thriving. First is advancing technical skills, like learning how to negotiate or get better at a tactical part of one’s job. The second is remaining conscious of bias.Mallorie discusses a third ingredient to help change the game: leading with grace. “We refer to embodiment, focusing on the self, working toward wholeness, working at the identity level,” Mallorie said. It’s about understanding other people’s traumas and motivations as well.“During the early career survival strategies, what’s getting in the way might be the baggage [like internalized oppression] that one is carrying,” she said. “I will often talk about dismantling the patriarchy within. As women in leadership, there's often something we’re carrying or performing to, or that has just become part of our DNA and trying to get into these types of workplaces. And when that’s not addressed, we don’t fully solve the problem.”There are four domains that leaders can focus on when coaching others, says Mallorie. These include, embody, empower, activate, and inspire. As an embodied leader, you must use your body, energy, and time in ways that serve yourself and others well. An empowered leader has a positive mindset, and she navigates her emotions effectively under pressure. An activated leader acts with integrity and purpose and takes healthy risks to serve her organization. An inspired leader shares her vision and naturally inspires others to follow her lead.By embracing a new paradigm of leadership that harnesses feminine strength rather than going against it and suppressing natural qualities in favor of patriarchal standards, we may find a new brand of leadership and new ways of working that can bring more growth and success.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Guts and Grace Leadership, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
How Leaders Are Evolving Their Approach to DEI
BY Keren Dinkin May 30, 2024In the midst of corporate austerity, some of the work around corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion has started to slow. At From Day One’s conference in D.C., a panel of leaders discussed how they are reframing their approach to DEI to push the ever-important work forward. David Yozzi, EVP, general manager, inclusive workplaces, at Texthelp says that technology can help push the work forward, making workplaces more inclusive than ever. Texthelp is an example of assistive technology that supports individuals with dyslexia, autism, or ADHD, even in the workplace. Resources are typically available in spaces like schools, but one of the common issues, Yozzi says, is that at the workplace, employees generally don’t tend to self-identify or ask for special assistance. “It’s either uncomfortable or they’re afraid of competition and [losing out on] promotions. There’s all kinds of issues,” said Yozzi.Kristen Parisi, HR Reporter at HR Brew moderated the panel discussion It’s important to build a culture that encourages employees to come forward, be vocal about their needs, and have the infrastructure available to assist them. “One of the most enjoyable and most heartwarming experiences is to actually see somebody become comfortable with raising their hand saying they have a condition or need some assistance,” said Yozzi. Vulnerability and being able to show up as one’s whole self is vital, agrees DeShaun Wise Porter, VP, global head of diversity, equity, inclusion & engagement at Hilton. True inclusion is grounded in two things: First, our ability to be vulnerable and say, “I’m not going to always get things right. But I’m going to try.” And secondly, our willingness to learn.Wise Porter shared how a well-meaning general manager wasn’t readily aware of how a team member in a wheelchair felt being attended to by colleagues with high stools at their regular celebratory events. In this context, true inclusion would have meant going to a more wheelchair-accessible venue. Upon realizing this, the manager took steps to make amends and create a more inclusive approach, and has since become one of the most inclusive leaders at Hilton.For Lara McLeod, inclusion, equity & belonging business lead at Robinhood, it’s all about incorporating social inclusion when designing products. At Robinhood, for example, their focus is primarily on democratizing finance for all.The panelists spoke to the topic, "DEI Will Endure, But Corporate Advocates Will Need to Reframe Their Approach"“In the vein of true inclusion, I really love to see true inclusion in products’ socially inclusive design,” McLeod said. “Being a Black woman, I find it really inclusive to think about how we can bring financial awareness and financial accessibility to communities that have often lacked that,” she said. Discussions around inclusion should always be granted space for feedback and follow through. La Vida Johnson, VP of DEI at Edelman, says that developing and implementing actionable DEI strategies with measurable, time-bound goals is key. With an Edelman client, for example, Johnson shared how they were able to pinpoint a gap in the selection committee for recognizing and engaging employees and how the existing committee wasn’t truly inclusive and needed better representation. Johnson told the organization, “This is an opportunity for you to really open this up, and I could just see their eyes wide open. It was an opportunity for them to really think about ways to be inclusive.” And so with that feedback, the organization made a change. Listening and responding is imperative to push work around equity and inclusion forward.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture
BY Keren Dinkin April 16, 2024When Betsy Kippenhan, VP of global talent acquisition at Comcast, moved from Denver to Seattle in July 2018, the first thing she did before checking into her temporary home was join a gym in the neighborhood. It was crucial that her relocation be as much a personal transition as it was a career transition.“Things have been going pretty well in my career. But my husband and I had two children, and I think that the part of me that was let go was my own well-being,” Kippenhan said. “So it was really about creating new routines. And I’m proud to say for the past five years, I’ve continued to add to those routines, whether it’s listening to a new audiobook or juicing every Sunday. I’ve found that far more important than my career.”Kippenhan spoke alongside three other senior leaders at From Day One’s conference in Seattle in a panel titled “Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show it Through Your Culture.” The panelists, in conversation moderated by Diana Opong, a reporter with KUOW Public Radio, discussed how organizations can avoid the “well-being washing” trap and translate their promises into meaningful action. But change, as they often say, begins at home. Each panelist began by outlining measures they take to ensure their own personal well-being.For Muhammad Umar, Divisional VP, talent diversity and change management at REI, well-being comes in the form of regular walks. Melinda Mansfield, head of business development at SecureSave, says for her, it comes from being able to prioritize important tasks rather than getting caught up in everything coming at you at once.But how does this translate into their roles as leaders? Should leaders be mandated to incorporate a culture of well-being from the top down? Umar believes the keyword here shouldn’t be “mandated” but “modeled.”“A leader’s role is to guide their teams both personally and professionally. But how do we start to talk about well-being on a regular basis so that it’s something that a leader models? A leader that I know puts everything that she does to focus on well-being onto her calendar publicly. This includes, ‘I’m gonna walk my dog for five minutes.’ She does that to make sure that she sets the tone of her team.” Mansfield agrees, outlining how crucial it is that managers show their commitment to well-being so employees are encouraged to value it themselves. Managers who send out emails on the weekends or late at night display a lack of work-life balance, even if they don’t necessarily expect employees to respond at those times.“I think putting things on the calendar so that everyone can see where you’re prioritizing yourself gives them permission to do it as well,” she said.The panelists discussed the topic "Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture" at From Day One's Seattle conference Andy France, corporate wellness consultant & head of enterprise accounts at Burnalong, says that leaders should simultaneously be encouraged to share authentic stories, not just of their successes but their struggles. “Because when people hear that, they resonate and feel comfortable speaking up,” he said. However, as we often see, there is a significant disconnect between the top management and employees. Middle management is thus expected to play a significant role in bridging that gap, or as Opong puts it, “to help employees balance hustle culture and their own well-being.”Kippenhan says this will only be possible when managers are equipped with the right training and tools. The expectation of a leader five years ago is vastly different from what it is today, the VP says. “We have frontline leaders who have been working with some of the same people for 30 years. And now, all of a sudden, they’re having conversations that they’ve never been asked to have before. We can’t just ask them to do something without giving them the tools and the how.”Umar adds that employee expectations have similarly evolved. More individuals than ever before are entering the workforce, expecting their leaders to have conversations about mindfulness and wellness.Meanwhile, France points out that the ever-compounding role of middle management professionals has led many to suffer from burnout. They, too, he believes, can benefit from resources dedicated to well-being and from somebody to talk to.Mansfield says that one of the key benefits of this top-down managerial approach is that it encourages workers to be more vulnerable and normalizes talking about mental health. “The stigma is less than where it was 10-20 years ago,” she says. “But it’s still something that employees might not tell the people closest to them, much less go to their manager and let them know they’re struggling.”A solution Kippenhan outlines to keep the conversation going is the concept of a check-in question. “In every staff meeting, we give people a chance to breathe and maybe share some things. Sometimes, they can be fun. Other times, they can be a little bit more serious. And obviously, people have the choice to share what they want and how much they want.”It’s equally crucial to keep track of how these questions have changed over time, says Umar. “I remember when I first used to ask those questions, people would have a very canned response. Now, I feel they’d be more honest.”He says this is a sign of the changing conversation around mental health and traction that organizations can’t afford to lose.Kippenhan further emphasizes a proactive approach to mental health. This involves getting every employee engaged at an early stage and preventing challenges from reaching a crisis point. Companies should take steps to ensure that their mental health benefits are available 24/7.Recent research finds that just one in three women in the workforce feels their employer is actually upholding its commitment to well-being. Similarly, people with disabilities may find their experience to be different from their able coworkers. So the question remains: While there are many common stressors, how can employers take an inclusive approach to ensure employees from across backgrounds are heard? For Umar, it starts by identifying the common stressors and building programs to address the many things that could occur. “We have a program at REI, which is pretty handy. It allows you to navigate the experience you’re going through and find a solution based on that. So you actually meet a person and talk about some of the stuff you’re going through.”It’s also crucial to have employee resource groups to avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach to well-being, says Mansfield. “If you’re having an issue that is inclusive to a demographic that you’re in or a certain situation, you’ve got groups and mentors and peers that you can go to, as well as the benefits your employer is giving you.”Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
How to Measure Employee Engagement and Spot Disengagement
BY Keren Dinkin April 09, 2024When we think about engagement, we think about all of the different ways that we track engagement consciously and subconsciously. In some ways, we track engagement by just realizing things, like who’s on camera during meetings online, who has a green dot next to their name, and who has a yellow dot next to their name. These are all of the different ways to subconsciously track engagement, but there are biases in each observation because context is key. Just because a person is off camera doesn’t mean they’re less engaged. They might be in a crowded spot or have a background that’s distracting, so they’ve elected to be off-camera. Or maybe their WiFi just isn’t as strong as it needs to be on that particular day.Regardless of the industry or nature of business, maintaining a high level of team productivity is crucial, and disengagement can be a significant obstacle. Learning to recognize the signs of employee disengagement early is key to preventing its negative impact. In a recent From Day One webinar led by ActivTrak colleagues, Gabriella Mauch, VP of Productivity Lab, and Javier Aldrete, SVP of product, the speakers discussed how boosting self-awareness and manager coaching can help address disengagement before employees check out.Gabriela Mauch, pictured, led the webinar alongside colleague Javier Aldrete (company photo)We’re making all these subconscious assumptions about engagement because we know that engagement leads to great results, says Mauch. But disengagement, on the flip side, leads to harmful attrition. As such, it’s important that we find better ways to track engagement so that we can drive to a healthy work environment. Mauch shares that only 23% of employees are fully engaged in their work, leaving over 75% of employees at risk of disengagement. This can cost organizations a significant amount of money, both from an attrition standpoint, a knowledge management standpoint, and the productivity they’re not necessarily getting out of their business. The benefit of addressing employee disengagement is the ability to get a better return on workforce investments. Organizations can see up to 40% improvement in employee churn and burnout rates, plus an opportunity to gain 15% to 25% in productivity when disengagement is addressed effectively, says Mauch. “So often, disengagement and quiet quitting is a function of that individual not being properly aligned to their work, not being properly coached by their manager, or not being properly guided by their leadership team,” said Mauch. It’s important to learn how to use insights to better inform leaders, managers, and individuals to be more thoughtful about productivity and more engaged in the work being done. As such, it’s important to have measurable indicators into our work environment. This means understanding when we have individuals performing with low focus, low working hours, and perhaps very passive participation. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual doesn't want to be working. Instead, there’s an opportunity to coach and guide the employee to work the right way, on the right things, at the right time. Mauch encourages employers to be thoughtful about employee behavior as a helpful indicator of engagement. This means observing things like people coming into the office, badging in, and leaving two hours later merely to show their faces. This could be because while they are expected to be in office, they might actually be more productive at home. The final thing to note is whether or not employees are making the impact you expect them to be making. Here are some questions to ask: Are they putting in the productivity that you would expect? Are you getting the output that you expect to earn, and are you ultimately getting the revenue that you would expect? By collecting insights on an ongoing basis, you can gain a level of understanding of engagement on an ongoing basis. Additionally, leaders need to identify the factors that are contributing to employee disengagement and quiet quitting in their particular context, as well as invest in measures to improve them.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, ActivTrak, for sponsoring this webinar. Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
How Generous Benefits Can Make a Difference When Salaries are Maxed Out
BY Keren Dinkin April 02, 2024For specialty retailer Backcountry, rewarding its workers goes hand-in-hand with enhancing the company’s adventure-driven culture. So benefits come in the form of adventure leaves, big employee discounts on outdoor recreation gear, healthy food, and even a dog-friendly workplace.In a fireside chat at From Day One’s Salt Lake City event, Benjamin Gross, chief people officer and general counsel at Backcountry, spoke with Mekenna Malan, editor at Utah Business on how generous benefits can make a difference when employee salaries are already maxed out. One thing that’s universal across industries is tremendous wage growth. At Backcountry, wages have increased by 30% since 2019, says Gross. They pay somewhere in the median for privately held e-commerce companies, he says. In terms of talent, what’s really important to them is coming up with a way to make employees want to not only join, but also stay with them. And so, they have a culmination of creative benefits specific to their workforce. One of the unique ways they make their employees feel happy is very simple: they allow people to bring their dogs. There are house rules, but ultimately, Gross notes that they have a big group of dogs in the office on any given day, sometimes even his own are included. The bring a dog policy aligns with Backcountry’s outdoors-oriented culture. For other companies, this could translate into something else that allows for an element of relaxation and fun in the workplace.Gross also shares how the shift to hybrid work caused a bit of distress for some, but they found a happy medium to make back-to-office work more bearable. “We have a lot of things we built into the schedule to be more flexible. We allow anyone to leave for a month, anywhere they want to go, as long as they’re available in mountain time hours, and do their work. We’re good with that, ” he said.Mekenna Malan, right, interviewed Ben Gross of Backcountry on the benefits that keep their workers happy and their culture strongThey also took a vote on having half-day Fridays versus every other Friday off work in exchange for longer work days, Monday through Thursday. They came to a 90% vote in favor of every other Friday off and have been doing that for three years now. Another thing that Backcountry focused on was a robust employee assistance program (EAP), especially amid the influx of mental health distress and FMLA leaves being filed. “For the first time ever in summer of 2021, we were getting more mental health-related FMLA requests than those for physical health issues.”In addition to finding a robust EAP system, Backcountry also requires all of its managers to be trained to identify mental health distress in their employees. The company’s EAP also has counselor benefits for employees and their families, too.Backcountry has also taken a gamified approach to benefits, with a “gold points” system. Every manager and director gets a new allotment of gold points to hand out each month. These could be for a work achievement or personal achievement, and they use a bespoke platform where everybody can build their points and everyone can see the leaderboard. The points can be redeemed for ski passes, gift cards, marathons, and the like.Gross says that a big part of it is really understanding your target market and your workforce. In the case of Backcountry, the dogs-allowed policy stemmed from an understanding that a lot of their customers have dogs, and their employees (who share the same backgrounds as customers) also have dogs. “So part of it is understanding your workforce and trying to tailor it the best you can,” said Gross. One way to check the temperature for this is through engagement surveys and climate surveys. At Backcountry, this is done four times a year. During their earlier days, it used to happen every other week—to really try and zero in on culture and what people want, he says. Culture is really important, Gross highlights. From the benefits to the general sense of belonging, these are all unquantifiable things that employees value, sometimes more than a higher paycheck. In the case of “boomerang employees,” Gross shares how some people leave Backcountry for higher salaries, only to return to their old jobs because the culture was unmatched.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Essential Skills to Drive Change Without Derailing Engagement
BY Keren Dinkin April 02, 2024Adaptability to change is an essential skill for every team, especially in today’s workplace. That’s why leaders need to understand the science behind change, enabling them to create more resilient and agile workers. In a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s March virtual conference, Kevin Knox, facilitator lead at LifeLabs Learning, discussed the neurological science behind change. From looking at the change curves, he offered a simple technique to minimize resistance and improve commitment and action amidst change.“I’ve led over 600 workshops with our various partners and clients around the globe. A common theme when I ask managers, senior leaders, or individual contributors what they’re biggest challenge is, is change,” said Knox.In the context of employment, change could be something as significant as a reduction in force, a reorganization, or maybe a merger and acquisition that will impact the way you work. It could also be something smaller, such as moving from one project to another, losing a team member, or hiring someone new. Change is one of the top skills that a great leader should be mindful of and capable of leading people through, says Knox.Whenever we are asked to do something we haven’t habitually done before, we have to give it more deliberate thought. When we’re used to doing something, we have fully formed neural pathways that allow us to do things easily. When we’re not used to something, it’s much harder since our brains have to create space in a deliberate way that wasn’ there before, says Knox. Whenever there is any sort of change that we’re up against at work, whether big or small, our brain has to do more mental work. However, what happens neurologically in the brain when we’re asked to change is emotionally experienced as loss. We don’t always acknowledge it in an explicit way with our teams, departments, and within our organizations, but change always comes with a sense of loss. Kevin Knox of LifeLabs Learning led the virtual thought leadership spotlight (company photo)“And so at LifeLabs, what we like to do in particular, is to help managers, leaders and senior leaders to understand how they might help their people, especially with the cognitive challenges that change invites,” Knox said.At LifeLabs, they use a heuristic for the various things the brain might be monitoring for, asking questions like, ‘what are people's certainty levels? Do they have appropriate levels of autonomy? Is their work meaningful? Do they know what the work they’re working on links up to?’ All these things are important things that we monitor, but when change happens, every single one of these areas is impacted at some level. However, junior folks or new people to the team tend to worry first about certainty and job security when it comes to change. More senior folks want to know what they don’t know, such as scenario planning. This includes things like the macroeconomic climate or product project deliverables.In terms of autonomy, the experience can change from person to person. Depending on the change, it could hit differently for the same individual depending on the context of the change.The brain, by default, is a predictive engine. It really wants to have a story, to know that story, and prescribe that story, says Knox. This is also known as bias. Some biases serve us, and some don’t. So if we celebrate a culture of change, we create a positive bias toward that, he says. “Don’t worry about the change, don’t worry about the loss, and just stay positive,” Knox said. Lastly, it’s very crucial to give space for people to grieve. Organizational grief is a real, tangible thing, Knox says. Whether it’s something negative, like layoffs, or something positive like an acquisition, there is something people need to process in that change, and that is loss. So, as we deal with grief, the best thing to do when people are grieving is to allow them space to do so. Give them space to cognitively offload in order to process the change fully.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, LifeLabs Learning, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Showing Care for Employees in a Growing Business
BY Keren Dinkin March 28, 2024Understanding what motivates employees is crucial for businesses looking to ensure their employees remain engaged and productive amid growth. At From Day One’s Seattle event in a fireside chat, Andy Schneider, senior vice president of people at Alaska Airlines, shared how they keep their employees engaged and motivated, even in times of change.One of the challenges that employers may face amid difficult times is losing their employees’ trust. For Alaska Airlines, employees didn’t feel like there was a lot of trust in them because the company was turning to outsourced talent to keep the lights on, Schneider says.Building Mutual TrustIt was a turning point for the business, which made it important for them to get the message across that they trusted their employees’ decision-making and that the company had their back. And so, they launched an empowerment framework that centered on decision-making and safety, such that employees were trusted to use their discretion in any given situation as long as they decided in favor of the guests.“We let them know that if they follow this decision-making framework, and they do something for the guests, whatever they need to do, we will have their back, [and] that they have the full right of decision,” said Schneider.Schneider says this empowerment framework acknowledges the fact that the employee has a better grasp of the situation than anyone else. And also that this kind of agility and autonomy works to improve customer experience as well.Showing Appreciation and CareThe airline industry was perhaps one of the most badly hit by the pandemic. Not only did many industry workers lose their jobs, but those left behind had to stay on the frontlines to facilitate critical travel.In the post-pandemic era, the resurgence of travelers left airline workers overworked. To support their workers, the airline instituted a care retreat for employees, which they started after the pandemic, says Schneider.Joey Thompson, reporter for the Puget Sound Business Journal, interviewed Schneider in the fireside chat “The whole goal behind the care retreat was to really let employees know that it was important for them to take care of themselves, and to take care of each other before you could even get around to taking care of guests,” shares Schneider. For Alaska Airlines, it was an experiential retreat with quiet areas to listen to soothing music and sounds, good food, and a sensory bar to help employees relax.Implementing Robust Development ProgramsTo keep up with demand and build a better pipeline, Alaska Airlines also implemented a pilot development program to offer scholarships to aspiring pilots. “One of the things people might not know is if you want to be a commercial pilot, you cannot get student loans for that kind of work. And that’s one of the problems, it’s very expensive to become a pilot,” said Schneider.In developing the program, the company birthed the Ascent Pilot Academy, a full pilot school that guides scholars from start to finish. “If you want to get there, there are ways to make it happen,” Schneider said.Finding the Right PeopleIt’s important to note that for frameworks of employee empowerment to work, you have to hire the right people. “We work to hire people who are people for others, and people that have a spirit of adventure,” said Schneider.This way, staff and leaders alike are aligned in their values of safety, care, and empowerment — almost creating a loop of understanding and compassion that allows everyone to work conscientiously toward common goals.Schneider also notes how important it is to establish clear lines of internal communication that leaders and employees can run to in times of distress. When you have a source of truth, such as your corporate values and communication channels, it’s much easier to cut through the noise even amid the challenges of a growing business.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Sleep Care Done Right: Transform Employee Health and Lower Total Cost of Healthcare
BY Keren Dinkin March 26, 2024Increasing healthcare costs and the rising burden of chronic conditions are projected to increase by 6% in 2024 compared to 2023. Interestingly, some of the most expensive chronic conditions are closely associated with sleep disorders. In a recent From Day One webinar, experts from Nox Health discussed how companies can enhance the overall health of their workforce by promoting sleep care.In this post-Covid workplace, the complexity of roles has increased, driven by an accelerating prevalence of concerns around behavioral and mental health. The general consensus, says Steve Cohan, EVP of commercial markets at Nox Health, is that we’re all facing a general kind of point solution fatigue.So, how do organizations improve the overall coordination of care? Promoting sleep care “as a kind of a soft approach to a very hard issue,” is part of the solution, says Cohan. “Sleep is the golden chain that binds health and our bodies together,” he says, citing a quote from English dramatist Thomas Decker.“If you look at the totality, about 50 to 70 million Americans actually have a chronic sleep-wake disorder,” Dr. Jason Ong, behavioral sleep medicine director shares.The most common disorder is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition where there are pauses in your breathing that cause a sleep disruption. This causes people to generally be very, very sleepy or fatigued during the day, he says.Chronic insomnia is another prevalent sleep disorder. It covers trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, and even waking up too early and not being able to get the full amount of sleep.Another common sleep condition is restless leg syndrome, a neuromuscular sleep disorder characterized by discomfort and a need to get up and move around. Circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders are also common. This is where there is a misalignment between your body's natural clock and the time when you're trying to sleep or trying to be awake.Dr. Jason Ong spoke during the webinar about sleep care (company photo)So, how do sleep disorders affect other chronic health conditions? And what are the consequences when you have one of these leading disorders? According to Dr. Ong, when you have sleep disruption, it affects the body and the systems within the body. With sleep apnea, for example, the body can suffer from elevated levels of cortisol and blood sugar, creating a cascade of reactions like heightened heart rate, blood pressure, and insulin levels, among others.“So if you take a look at all these things that happen when our sleep is disrupted, it affects hormones, it affects cardiovascular systems, [and] metabolic systems,” said Dr. Ong. “And so you can see how all together this can really exacerbate chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.”Many healthcare members with sleep disorders cost double that of the average member, while members with two or more chronic conditions cost 46% of total healthcare costs. And yet, sleep-related costs account for less than 1% of total healthcare spending. So what can be done?Cohan advocates for a whole-person approach. As people enter into a solution, the provider takes total ownership of the patient experience throughout all iterative steps from education, evaluation, testing, diagnosis, and then, importantly, value care.The patient is then only billed once they have a diagnosis.“So all of those iterative steps around making people aware, going through a very detailed evaluation, testing and diagnosis, including interaction with our sleep care specialists,” Cohan said. “Those all occur at no expense to the patient, no expense to the plan sponsor, only if the patient agrees to go on therapy, and then continues on therapy, is their billing incurred.”At the moment, there are certain barriers to members adhering to and persisting with their treatment, says Jennifer Lindskoog, Nox’s SVP of client success. The first is a lack of understanding that they may have a sleep disorder. Second, upon diagnosis, the processes are typically uncoordinated and unsupported by an underlying clinically integrated care approach, leading to limited adoption of care.For Nox Health, holistic care encompasses working with clients to build out an entire awareness campaign that’s not just dependent on a physician or on-site clinic referral.This also includes an easily accessible app that includes a simple 13-question checkup that enables a member to understand the duration, timing and quality of their sleep. From here, members with potential sleeping disorders are automatically made eligible for medical intervention through their health plan. The system will then pop up a schedule of appointments with a board-certified sleep physician, only for their area and the times available.This ensures the patient does not have to scroll through a list of physician appointments that may not even be for their area. From that physician's appointment, which is a visual telehealth appointment, the patient is often then recommended for a home-based sleep test with a very small kit that includes a device for diagnosing sleep apnea, insomnia, or restless leg syndrome.After this comes an interpretation and appointment with the patient with a clinician to explain the results of the sleep testing, along with the recommended treatment plan. The result is an end-to-end solution that makes sure patients are supported from the initial diagnosis to treatment, promoting better sleep care and overall health.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Nox Health, for sponsoring this webinar. Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Building a Data-Driven DEI Program in Today’s Landscape
BY Keren Dinkin March 01, 2024DEI has been making the headlines, which can be largely be attributed to the Supreme Court decision on higher education, which ruled that race can no longer be used as a component of how selections are made for college admissions.How does this apply in the context of employers’ DEI programs? What should organizations do to try and solidify their programs? Cheryl Boyer, director of diversity and inclusion services at Berkshire Associates, spoke about the ways to do this at From Day One’s February virtual conference.First, your DEI program should be aligned with your business priorities and objectives. Also, inclusion should be a priority. Programs and initiatives should be driven by (or at least assessed) by the data, she says. And those programs, including the data, should be reviewed annually to ensure they're meeting the organization's goals.Cheryl Boyer of Berkshire Associates led the thought leadership spotlight alongside colleague Thomas Carnahan (company photo)So, what does it mean to really look at your data? First, look at your current representation and demographics from an intersectional lens. Other items that you would have in your employee database that you could look at are age, levels within the organization, geography, and individuals with disabilities. You can also collect information on your LGBTQ+ community. All of these help assess where you are.You should also look at the entire employee lifecycle, such as recruitment strategies, hiring, performance and talent management, mentoring programs, development opportunities, promotion, and even engagement. All of these factors can help you find gaps and areas for improvement.Thomas Carnahan, manager of compensation services at Berkshire Associates, says that it’s important to consider the interrelationships of data. “Make sure that you're not treating every one of these data gathering processes as standalone,” said Carnahan.This is because a lot of the engagement information you can get from employees and customers is really telling when you look at the differences by race, gender, different demographic groups, organizational level, and more.If you’re not doing this, you’re missing an opportunity to draw characteristics and lines between aspects of your data. Performance ratings, for example, are associated with your engagement and your promotions. It’s essential to ask questions like “Do you feel comfortable raising your hand and pointing out mistakes?” and “Do you feel comfortable bringing concerns to your team to your supervisor?”“We know, from broad research on engagement surveys, that there are groups of people that feel marginalized in businesses and that they feel that they are not heard,” Carnahan said. “People tend to feel that way when they don’t match in some way, demographically with their manager.” When you look at the data and the connections in the data, you see a drastic drop off of highly qualified people not applying for promotions or providing important input or impact — because they don't feel comfortable.Building a strong, sensible DEI program hinges on data, as data can speak volumes about interrelationships between race, gender, and economics, and how the interplay of these factors impacts the workplace.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Berkshire Associates, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Getting Ahead of Attrition Through Career Equity and Recognition
BY Keren Dinkin February 08, 2024In the age of hybrid work and digital transformation, companies face the challenge of meeting rising employee expectations despite strained profits. Aside from wages, how might companies ensure that their employees’ needs are being met?At From Day One’s recent Atlanta conference, Jeff Cates, CEO of Achievers and Kumari Williams, VP of belonging and diversity at Workday, discussed exactly this. According to research from Achievers, the number of people who are job searching in 2024 is going up by 10%. For most people, the number one consideration is wage, which makes sense given today’s cost of living and expenses.How do we solve the wage problem when most organizations are actually looking to reduce wage increases this year? Research shows that on average, in the U.S., employers are looking at wage increases of about 3.9% in 2024 compared to 4.4% last year.Emotional salary supports retention. Two-thirds of individuals reported that if they felt supported and connected at an organization, they would take that over a 30% increase in wage.This cultural environment fosters a strong sense of belonging, increasing the likelihood of individuals pursuing long-term careers within their organization. Belonging creates the difference between ‘I work at an organization’ versus ‘I’m connected; I have a career at this organization.’Creating a sense of belonging is ultimately what helps create the stickiness that can help offset the lure of wages. For Williams, belonging is an output of inclusivity—and building inclusive spaces and inclusive leaders are the cornerstone workplace belonging.“It’s even a KPI for our organization. And so at the highest level in the organization, we are focused on increasing belonging, not just maintaining it,” she said.Williams, left, and Cates, right, led a thought leadership spotlight titled “Getting Ahead of Attrition Through Career Equity and Recognition, Using HR Tech” (photo by Dustin Chambers for From Day One)So, how do you create an environment where people feel connected and fulfilled? At Achievers, equity and transparency are vital in creating employee-friendly talent practices. “Individuals that report a feeling of career equity are two times more likely to not job hunt,” Cates said.One key area where they dialed in on transparency was performance ratings, where workmates were free to share performance ratings as well as their ratings from a potential standpoint and how they could do better, he says.It’s time to shift the idea of recognition from a reward to a sustainable practice that nudges people forward. It’s not just about using money (but you can, in small doses), but about using recognition to drive behavior, Cates says. It’s also important to use data to draw relevant insights regarding employee performance and how recognition can further propel that.“It’s really when we think about recognition that’s not tied to the monetary that we can drive behavior—and if we are going to use monetary rewards, then it should be used in very small doses,” said Cates.When you think about all the things you can do that drive behavior, such as recognition, gamification, and things that create a sense of accomplishment, it’s important to note that even micro-nudging or micro-rewarding can add up to help build positive habits. By helping to create habits and drive behavior, you can really drive scalable impact on how people feel. By accomplishing smaller tasks and micro-rewarding, you help people achieve a sense of fulfillment and action.It also comes down to leadership accountability. “Oftentimes, we’re focused on the message at the top of our organizations and making sure that our executives are aware of what we're trying to drive,” said Williams, “and it just doesn't permeate the layers in the middle.”For Williams, being intentional about how you drive accountability among leaders in the middle of the organization is essential so that they can carry the work forward. Most of your employees’ experience is shaped by your middle managers, not the executives, she says.Staying competitive in the job market and reducing attrition is challenging, especially now that employees are increasingly focused on finding better wages. However, the one thing that employees do value more than higher wages is company culture, particularly a sense of belonging where they see a path forward career-wise, where they’re being recognized, and feel that they are seen and heard.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Achievers, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
People, Place, Purpose: An Employer’s Role in Employee Mental Health
BY Keren Dinkin January 24, 2024For Nivati Founder and CEO Amelia Wilcox, the issue of mental health hits close to home. When she discovered that her sixteen-year-old was struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, she became acquainted with the difficult realities of mental health. “She had to undergo a whole year of intensive treatment outside of our home,” Wilcox said. “This was one of the hardest and most gut wrenching experiences that I have ever had, and it actually triggered some of my own issues with anxiety.” According to the American Psychological Association, 81% of workers consider mental health support an essential factor when looking for a new job. Even college students are looking for colleges with strong mental health support programs. Wilcox approaches the subject of employee mental health with a level of passion and empathy that can only come from someone who knows just how important it is. She spoke about the important topic in a recent thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s January virtual conference.A Brief Timeline of Corporate Mental HealthWilcox started with a simplified timeline of corporate mental health: How it started and how we got to where we are today. It all began in the 1930s with employee assistance programs (EAPs), which were a response to workplace alcoholism. Over time, EAPs became the industry standard for HR to have in place for employees, and they've seen little innovation or change in the last 90 years.Then, during the 2000s, EAPs were considered to be part of mental health support at work. That essentially checked the box for HR, and it was good enough for most companies. In the 2010s, in many offices, mental health benefits took the form of distractions like ping pong tables and video games. Things like onsite massage and nap rooms provided distractions from work to give the brain a break to refresh, and it worked for a while.Then came 2020, when the world was on fire. We learned that mental health is real; it affects everyone, and it needs some serious attention. But people still weren’t quite sure what to do about it. In 2021 and 2022 trends like the great resignation and quiet quitting became prevalent to a workforce that felt failed by their companies. Employees became less connected, less engaged, less appreciated, and ultimately overworked.“I know it’s controversial to talk about it, but what I think is really cool about this phase is that workers really started to revolt against the hustle culture and set their own boundaries,” Wilcox said.The Present and FutureThen came 2023, during which eggs reached upwards of $6 a dozen in different parts across the U.S.. Inflation peaked at over 8%, and employees started adding financial stress to the growing list of mental health challenges they were experiencing. During this time, some forward-thinking companies started to get ahead of quiet quitting by proactively addressing boundaries and culture in the workplace. For the past 90 years, mental health support at work has stayed roughly the same. Before 2020, the focus was mainly on pre-existing and diagnosable conditions. But over the last four years, we’ve seen that focus start to evolve very rapidly. It includes all of us; it’s not just people who have diagnosed mental illnesses—it’s everyone. The Road to RecoverySo, how do we shift work from being a source of burnout and mental health challenges to becoming a source of mental health support? Dr. Thomas Insel, who wrote Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, forwards some powerful methods to reverse the mental health crisis that we’re in the middle of.According to Dr. Insel, the road to recovery comprises three Ps: people, place, and purpose. With those three structures in place, people experiencing mental illness can experience the support and care they deserve. PeopleConnection and belonging are essential for everyone. In the workplace, that means employers have to find ways to foster this positive social interaction, and ensure the company culture is conducive to connection-building. For example, in “Blue Zones,” or areas where people consistently live to 100-years-old, one of the most common components is a strong sense of community connection and belonging. So, not only can this help with morale and employee mental health, but having that connection can help people live longer.PlacePlace is about the environment. It can be virtual or your physical environment in the office. It’s the space employees work, and has to be where they feel physically, emotionally, and psychologically safe. One of the best ways to build psychological safety is to promote vulnerability, leadership needs to be involved in this to have an impact. Leaders should be able to discuss their struggles and what helps them. That allows people to feel safe and start to open up. Purpose(photo from thought leadership spotlight session)All humans need to feel a sense of purpose. In the workplace, this translates to employees knowing what they do matters. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy has also defined workplace well-being as one of his top six priorities as surgeon general. His ‘five essentials’ framework aptly illustrates the correlation between the various factors that impact workplace wellbeing.Both the three P’s and the ‘Five Essentials’ tell a very similar narrative: the ultimate goal is to bring the workers’ voice back into the workplace. The bottom line is that the whole organization requires a cultural shift to put this in place and genuinely have a safe and supportive culture for mental health at work, says Wilcox.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Nivati, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. After having made her mark as a Top Rated Writer with over 2000 positive reviews in the extremely competitive Upwork space, and having been featured on various magazines and publications, Keren has now moved on to bigger and better with her own digital marketing agency aptly named Epic Owl. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
What We Can Learn From the Latest Trends in Employee Experience
BY Keren Dinkin December 21, 2023How do employees feel about AI coworkers? Does remote work make employees more productive? Will frontline workers ever love their jobs again? According to Marcus Wolf, senior employee experience scientist at Qualtrics, the answers to these pressing questions are found in five employee experience trends for 2024.Wolf spoke in a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s December Virtual conference, where he offered actionable tips on creating employee experience strategies. His findings are based on Qualtrics’ 2024 Employee Experience Trends Report, which studied responses of 37,000 employees from 32 countries.How Employees View AIThe first trend relates to employees’ evolving relationship with AI. “Employees would rather have AI as an assistant than a manager,” Wolf said. “Organizations will need to pay attention to where the technology feels like it’s an overlord and where it feels like it’s an enrichment for the individual.”The report indicates that most employees preferred AI that they could control and direct. This means there is a lot more acceptance for AI technologies in tasks related to writing, for instance, than for using AI to evaluate performance.Only one demographic, employees with disabilities, reported a greater level of comfort when being interviewed by an AI assistant. Wolf says this is because AI is perceived as offering non-judgmental interactions, which is especially crucial for a group that may have experienced biases in the past.What can organizations learn from these insights? “These findings may really help us understand how to begin to adopt these tools and think of new use cases for them,” Wolf said. “Think of which ones will be a lower effort to adopt and which scenarios may need more due diligence.”The Plight of Frontline WorkersThe second trend relates to frontline workers. “You might have seen some of the commercials in 2020 about how much companies and communities cared about our frontline workers,” Wolf said. “They’re not feeling the love lately, unfortunately.”Employees in customer-facing jobs, or those expected to be on their feet all day, report a lack of recognition, lower satisfaction with rewards, and fewer growth and development opportunities.At the same time, the cost of job switching is low. Combine this with career growth assuming priority and younger populations struggling to afford basic necessities, and companies may find it hard to retain frontline workers in the coming years.The solution? Listen to your people.“A whole population of burned-out people may cause that next viral video for bad customer interaction. And if we don’t know where things are bad, we can’t really prioritize the support,” Wolf said.The Missing Honeymoon PhaseThe third trend indicates that the “new-job honeymoon phase” is on the decline.In the past, fresh employees would rank higher on almost all metrics. But, according to the report, things have changed. Employees with less than six months of tenure have shown the lowest intent to stay at their organization.One reason for this is the deprioritization of onboarding processes. “CHROs are being tasked with other jobs. Processes that were created before the pandemic haven’t really been reviewed or refreshed,” Wolf said. “People get their laptop, but not much else when it comes to onboarding and training.”Austerity measures further reduce training resources and force already overworked employees to learn on the job.In this case, the key to success for organizations lies in thoughtfully redesigning onboarding processes. “Much like when we design with accessibility in mind, we improve the experience for everyone. By considering the onboarding journey, we can sustain and improve experiences for long-tenured employees.”Similarly, an organization that supports its employees with formal and informal development opportunities will see the most success in 2024.Marcus Wolf, Senior XM Scientist, EX, at Qualtrics, presented the thought leadership spotlight (company photo)Employees are Willing to ShareA surprising trend from the report, Wolf says, relates to “passive listening,” or the process of analyzing employee chats, instant messages, emails, group chats, or social media, to identify and close experience gaps.“I would have guessed that no one was ready to really reveal more. As it turns out, I was wrong. People are actually incredibly willing to let their companies use this information, so long as it’s to make their work life better,” Wolf said.As many as 72% of engaged employees said they were ready for their instant messages to be reviewed, and 80% were okay with sharing their emails. And while the numbers weren’t as promising for disengaged employees, Wolf believes they too can be won over.“We can bring people along for this journey as long as we make the benefits clear of what improving their experiences is going to be like and what barriers we’re going to be able to remove for them,” he said.That said, employees draw a clear line when it comes to social media. Organizations must respect this boundary or risk pushing employees to use other channels to maintain their privacy or stop sharing ideas altogether.The In-Office Vs. Remote Work DebateThe report’s final trend for 2024 relates to a question on every organization’s mind: What is the most productive work model moving forward?The report gives us a definite answer, which is the hybrid model. “Those with a blend of experiences, a couple of days in the office and a couple of days remote, are having the highest levels of engagement,” Wolf said.The reasons for this may include a need to socialize or create more pronounced boundaries between work and home. Alternatively, it could boil down to employees finding more purpose–a reason to get up and get dressed for the day.In 2024, organizations that have returned to completely in-office models must show more flexibility to boost employee engagement.“I’ve even seen organizations with warehouse and distribution centers figure out flexible and remote work policies for their employees,” Wolf said.It isn’t just enough to provide the hybrid schedule, however. “We need guidelines for leaders and managers to work with. Having a policy that speaks to flexibility doesn’t have the same impact as when your leaders and managers bring it to life by encouraging employees to take advantage of it,” he said.Wolf left the audience with some crucial advice–he urges leaders to focus on communication and follow through. Show employees that leaders keep the same commitments they expect of employees.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Qualtrics, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. After having made her mark as a Top Rated Writer with over 2000 positive reviews in the extremely competitive Upwork space, and having been featured on various magazines and publications, Keren has now moved on to bigger and better with her own digital marketing agency aptly named Epic Owl. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.
Charting a New Course: How to Nurture Career Growth by Showing Workers What’s Possible
BY Keren Dinkin December 14, 2023How can a company overcome the challenges posed by Covid and thrive once again? According to Ana Maria Sencovici, the chief talent officer at Royal Caribbean Group, the key lies in revitalizing career growth and development strategies.In conversation with Tom Hudson, senior economics editor and special correspondent for WLRN Public Media, Sencovici says that prioritizing intentionality post-Covid helped the cruise company navigate financial challenges, adapt to ever-evolving employee needs, and emerge stronger as a result.“We have a real constraint, which is our budget. And we need to operate within that,” she said. “So from a talent perspective, it’s prompting us to be essential, intentional, and super creative.”Intentionality centers on replatforming the talent ecosystem and reevaluating the organization’s foundations—its understanding of careers, roles, performance, and more, “with a keen eye toward what matters, what moves the needle in an evidence-based way.”Sencovici spoke at From Day One’s conference in Miami. During a fireside chat titled “How to Nurture Career Growth by Showing Workers What’s Possible,” she outlined a new five-destination program encouraging employees to explore their aspirations, see new possibilities, and launch their career journeys.Hudson and Sencovici spoke in a fireside chat at From Day One's Miami conference. The cruise industry struggled greatly during and after the pandemic. This period was characterized by port closures, financial trouble, and the need to rehire talent on a very limited budget. Now the Royal Caribbean Group has managed to surpass pre-pandemic measures. Sencovici said it began with the organization adopting an employee-centric approach. Through pulse surveys, the organization discovered that career development was the foremost pain point for its employees.“So we started where the employees were and thought, ‘let’s use that as the replatforming vehicle, as the channel and the delivery mechanism for all of this expectation-setting and development,’” she said.The Five-Destination JourneyWhat emerged is the journey of five destinations, a program designed to integrate various elements within the talent ecosystem. The first destination involves questioning how employees think about their careers, encompassing the basics of level-setting and performance.The next takes an employee-centric approach. It asks them to consider what they want. What are their aspirations and goals? The third is where employees think about what’s possible. It encourages them to consider the sea of opportunities available. Questions like, “What are the experiences that can be offered here? What are the skills that you can gain and the skills that will help you thrive, to set that foundation and educate, while at the same time inspire,” are asked, said Sencovici.This builds up to destination four, which invites employees to “chart a course.” Once the goals are set and the opportunities are laid out, what will they do with them? How can the organization give them the tools to achieve their goals?“One of the greatest skill sets to teach is learning how to learn,” Sencovici said. “How do we actually help integrate that from the beginning and teach people that muscle, so that no matter what skill is the next flavor of the month, we’ve invested in you to teach you how to learn.”These initial learning and development-centric steps bring us to the fifth destination: employees taking accountability. This is where feedback mechanisms come into play. It involves educating employees to pull feedback from the system to determine if they’re on track to achieve their goals.Key FindingsConsidering that career development was a pain point found in their pulse survey, Sencovici expected more employees to sign up for the program. However, her team didn’t necessarily get the expected reaction.The lesson she learned from this is to “never under-appreciate the mental bandwidth that is available to employees” who face many organizational demands.Despite the low participation, Sencovici maintained that not making the program compulsory—and offering employees a way to opt in and opt out at any time—is the right approach. “The very reason for putting this forth was to enable an ownership mindset. If we say ‘chart your own course,’ and then we mandate that, people are actually building the muscle of ownership,” she said.The second takeaway she offered to the audience and those tasked with making similar changes is to embrace resistance. “Resistance is always there. So, if you’re going through changes, you’ve got to acknowledge that and understand the benefit of resistance. And then infuse that into all the stuff we already know about change.”Looking AheadThe conversation also touched upon the Royal Caribbean Group’s trifecta proposal: a financial plan announced to shareholders and investors to help the organization recover from Covid losses over the next three years.How does the employee journey feature in this scheme? Despite financial restraints, Sencovici said the company has creatively integrated the career journey into its initiatives on a very limited budget. An example she described is the “Career Concierge,” an interactive video coaching session that takes employees through the five-destination journey. Because the systems are already in place, the organization easily interacts with employees at scale with little added investment.To wrap up the conversation, Sencovici outlined how this plan will evolve in the future. The first year was all about building the spine of the talent ecosystem. The goal for the following years will be to add muscle. The company will continue to provide the platforms, rituals, and habits that put employees in the driver’s seat. The goal is to develop a culture where employees feel empowered enough to invest in themselves.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. After having made her mark as a Top Rated Writer with over 2000 positive reviews in the extremely competitive Upwork space, and having been featured on various magazines and publications, Keren has now moved on to bigger and better with her own digital marketing agency aptly named Epic Owl. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.