Finding Purpose: What Older Workers Say They Want in a Job
BY Susan Kelly July 04, 2023The number of older workers is growing, prompting a closer look at what job characteristics are important to members of this experienced talent pool when they consider whether to accept a new position. Over the next decade, three in 10 Americans ages 65 to 74 are projected to be in the workforce, up from 26% of that age group in 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.“Gains in longevity mean that our younger workers are looking at extended careers, and that the five-generation workforce is likely going to be the norm moving forward,” Heather Tinsley-Fix, a senior advisor for financial resilience at AARP, said in a presentation at From Day One’s June virtual conference.To learn more about the employment concerns and priorities of an older demographic, AARP conducted a study of 2,000 U.S. workers ages 40 and up. For the vast majority of these workers, it turns out, a job means more than just a paycheck. The research found that work is very much a part of a person's identity, said AARP senior research advisor Lona Choi-Allum. An overwhelming majority of the survey’s respondents, 90%, said a job must offer meaningful work before they would accept the position.“Older workers see their jobs as part of who they are. A majority of older workers seek employment with meaning,” Choi-Allum told the conference, titled “Expanding the Way We Think About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”At the same time, workers are seeking jobs with flexibility. One-third of those polled said the pandemic made them realize the importance of work-life balance. “The pandemic really made people take pause, and really think about how work fits into their life, including re-evaluating their personal goals and retirement plans,” Choi-Allum said.This shift in attitude is most pronounced among workers in their 40s, with members of the group often serving as caregivers for children, aging parents, or a partner or spouse. “They're more likely to consciously slow down their life, and also take time to relax and figure out ways that they can reduce their stress at work,” Choi-Allum said. A sizable portion of this “sandwich generation,” 41%, who were caring for family members, reported feeling burned out.Nearly all older workers (88%) demand an easy commute before accepting a job, and 79% want flexibility in their work arrangements, the survey found. A majority (72%) of those age 40 to 49 want the ability to work from home at least some of the time, with 62% saying they want to be able to work remotely all the time. In the 50-and-up age group, 64% said they wanted to work from home sometimes, and nearly half (49%) wanted to work from home all the time.During the pandemic, many people worked from home for nearly three years, and they got used to that, observed Choi-Allum. “They realized how much they enjoyed it,” she noted. “It allowed them to do things like caregiving, in some situations. And it strikes me that that's not very different from younger generations in the workforce. Everybody really values that flexibility.”Money Still MattersDespite the growing importance of meaningful work and work-life balance, financial requirements such as job stability and competitive pay are still top considerations for accepting a new position, Choi-Allum said. Job stability was a “must-have” for 88% of older workers in the survey, while 87% cited competitive pay as a requirement.Older workers also want to grow professionally. The survey showed that 86% wanted the opportunity to learn something new, and 89% said being able to apply their skills and talents was a top job priority.Lona Choi-Allum and Heather Tinsley-Fix of AARP led the virtual thought leadership spotlight (photo by From Day One)Among the one in 10 people looking to return to the workforce from retirement, the main reason was because they needed the money, AARP found. “With the economy the way it is, and inflation, people are realizing that they did not have as much saved up as they thought they did,” Choi-Allum said. Retirees looking for work also said they enjoyed working, and it made them feel useful.Age Discrimination PersistsStill, some older workers report feeling held back or treated differently at work because of their age, the survey found. A majority believe that age discrimination persists in the workplace today, with 64% saying they've seen or experienced it on the job, Choi-Allum said. About one in seven workers report that they resigned from their job in the past five years, and topping the list of reasons for leaving was lack of appreciation by co-workers or management, she said.Nearly all workers agree that respect, inclusion and acceptance are central to fostering a positive work culture and their decision to accept a new job. “Older workers want a workplace that holds people accountable for their actions, where age does not limit their ability to work, that has good values and is free from discrimination,” Choi-Allum said.Editor’s note: AARP, who sponsored this webinar, has partnered with MindEdge Learning to create a skills-building platform for employers to upskill their employees regardless of age. The course catalog includes a range of high-demand skills as well as durable soft skills to enhance productivity and contribute to the growth of your workforce and company. If you’re interested in signing up or just hearing more about these courses, add your name to the Google form here.Susan Kelly is a business journalist based in Chicago.
Elevating Everyday Leadership: The Power of Team Coaching
BY Susan Kelly May 30, 2023A high-performing team that is delivering exceptional results most likely has a leader who took the time to stop and listen to its members, says Naysan Firoozmand, global head of coaching at corporate education provider Hult EF.Adopting a team-coaching approach, rather than leading through command and control, empowers employees, enabling them to generate their own solutions to business challenges, Firoozmand told From Day One’s May virtual conference in a thought leadership spotlight on the power of adopting team-coaching skills. “The team needs to be able to express their thoughts and ideas and ultimately take ownership of the solutions that they come up with, often leading to longer-term success, and increased psychological safety and well-being within the teams,” said Firoozmand.Team coaching, he said, develops communication and collaboration capabilities–two of the top skills that employers want today. “People will be equipped with the communication and leadership skills that won’t be superseded by the latest technology,” said Firoozmand, who has been working in the field of leadership development and behavior change for nearly two decades.The team approach differs from one-to-one coaching. Instead, managers focus on working with the group as a whole to unlock collective awareness and capabilities. Team coaching helps employees develop better ways of collaborating to deal with stress, eliminate ambiguity, and identify the group’s strengths and weaknesses, Firoozmand said. “There is a pivotal role around trust, enabling openness, and embedding an open dialogue,” he said. Managers with team-coaching skills, he noted, “know when listening is the answer.”Naysan Firoozmand, global head of coaching at corporate education provider Hult EFA team that is listened to feels significant and more competent, while suspending judgment allows ideas and dialogue to flow. Creating a safe and trusted environment where employees feel comfortable generating new ideas without fear of encountering an unhelpful critical voice is called ideational fluency, said Firoozmand.“Have any of you experienced hearing your own words out loud and realizing how different it sounds compared to when it was just sitting in your head? This is a necessary component of the team’s development, realizing what a terrible idea sounds like, but equally, what value an idea has to the team,” he told the audience.Asking questions is an inevitable part of what a manager who is using coaching skills will do, Firoozmand said. When asking questions, the purpose should be to fuel the curiosity within the team and explore ideas, rather than to gather information. “It’s thinking about the purpose behind the questions. The last thing you want to do is become a facilitator of the group. This is not the same thing as coaching the team,” he said.And while it’s often perceived as quicker and easier to answer each question from your team, resist that temptation, Firoozmand cautioned. “When the question comes many times from each member of the team, you need to listen to not only what is being said, but how and why,” he said.A business culture centered around learning and development will naturally foster workers who embrace progression and are receptive to new ideas, and this ultimately benefits the organization, said Firoozmand. When a coach can notice the subtle dynamics of what's going on in the team, it can be “incredibly powerful,” he said. “It’s really important that they get to know the individuals, so that they have an understanding of the nuances of individual contribution,” he said.Likewise, managers benefit from team-coaching efforts because they gain a skill set that will enhance their leadership and communication capabilities, as well as improve their ability to notice things across the organization that will help them to influence change. “Organizational change is rooted in behavior change,” he emphasized. If it’s time for the team to be doing something differently, then coaching is needed, Firoozmand said. “Quite often, the precursor to being able to do things differently is having the willingness to think things through in a way that you haven’t thought about before. It’s not about learning a new skill or a new piece of knowledge. It’s having a sparring partner, somebody who’s able to hold you to account, hold up the mirror and say, ‘Do you realize what you're doing and how you're doing it, and how that’s impacting both yourself and others?’ And for the person to be able to go, ‘I never really saw that. That’s really interesting,’” he said.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Hult EF, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Susan Kelly is a Chicago-based business journalist.(Featured photo by PeopleImages/iStock by Getty Images)
Is Your Company Inclusive About Career Growth and Leadership Advancement?
BY Susan Kelly May 23, 2023Corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts that gained urgency after George Floyd’s murder three years ago are losing momentum. As mass layoffs sweep across the U.S., evidence is accumulating: More workers in DEI roles (33%) have been laid off since late 2020 than those in non-DEI positions (21%).“Some of those are the very first roles to be cut,” said Meghan Pickett, leadership trainer at management training company LifeLabs Learning. The disproportionate rate at which DEI professionals are losing positions correlates with sharp declines in diverse hiring, according to Revelio Labs, which tracked attrition levels at more than 600 U.S. companies.Pickett, a Ph.D. candidate in industrial and organizational psychology, shared the troubling statistics during a panel on inclusive career growth and leadership advancement at From Day One’s recent conference in Chicago.Journalist Maudlyne Ihejirika, who moderated the event, said in the wake of Floyd’s murder, corporate America made many promises to embark on or expand DEI initiatives. “We subsequently saw an explosion of DEI officers across industries,” she said.Ihejirika began the conversation by asking, have the efforts of the past three years been successful in achieving career advancement for employees of color and propelling more of those employees into leadership positions?“The short answer, I think, is no,” said Pickett. After Floyd’s death, a lot of companies sought out LifeLabs’ “Behaviors of Inclusion” workshop, she said. Now, “that's starting to ebb a little bit,” Pickett said. “We're really having to push to say, ‘No, this is actually a core part of what we're teaching. It's embedded into what we teach in all of our content.’ So I'm seeing what used to be that commitment wane.”Jamie Adasi, head of inclusion, diversity, equity and allyship (IDEA) for hiring software provider Greenhouse, said she’s hearing about layoffs hitting DEI teams from colleagues at networking events. “I’m seeing lots of cuts,” she said. Still, companies that have ingrained DEI into their businesses and consider these values a competitive advantage have seen excellent progress, said Adasi. “It really does depend on where you're at and the vision and mission of the company and your leaders,” she said.Northern Trust's senior vice president, FaLisa Jones, said the 134-year-old bank’s commitment to DEI has produced measurable results. “Our hiring practices and our recruiting practices were scrubbed. We looked for biases. We ensured that career advancement, senior leadership positions, were more diverse,” said Jones.The bank demonstrated accountability through performance appraisals and oversight at the global, regional and business unit levels, she said. “Those are the things that are going to curb the temptation to go back to business as usual. Those systems that hold you accountable had to be concrete and in place,” said Jones. “We had strong systems already, and this was a lightning rod to make us enhance everything that we were already doing well,” she said.The key now is to make sure progress that has been achieved and sustained in career advancement for minorities and underrepresented groups, Jones told the panel. “We can't all of a sudden grow silent, just because we're comfortable now having a seat at the table. What are you doing with your seat to ensure that sustainability is happening and we're holding executive leadership accountable to what they said they were going to do?” she asked.Representation MattersJones zeroed in on why diverse representation in senior management matters. She told the story of being the only woman of color, representing her organization, on a panel at Howard University. “I got to see this beautiful room of excellence, of people of color, who were hanging on my words, and waiting in line to talk to me afterwards, just to figure out how I got where I am,” she said. With her title, said Jones, comes a responsibility. “There is a generation of people that are coming behind me,” she said. “I realized that it is up to me to do something with it.”Diverse teams are a business asset that adds different perspectives and prevents groupthink, said Mariana González, diversity, equity and inclusion leader for Schneider Electric’s North America operations. “There's ample research that shows that diverse teams are more innovative, they're more creative, they problem-solve in different ways,” she noted.Avoid Blurry FeedbackThe From Day One panel next tackled the problem of blurry language in performance evaluations. Panel moderator Ihejirika pointed out that a common complaint by employees of color is that their annual reviews or work evaluations typically leave them unsure of the assessments.The expert panelists spoke during From Day One's Chicago conference (photo by Tim Hiatt for From Day One)Use of so-called “blur words” that mean different things to different people can be problematic when providing feedback, said LifeLabs’ Pickett. She gave the example of her brother, who was told he was “not engaged” at his job. When pressed, the manager who made that assessment explained to Pickett’s brother that he was observed always doodling and fiddling with things. But her brother has ADHD, and fiddling is how he stays focused, she said.Women tend to receive blurrier feedback than their male counterparts, Pickett noted, citing a Harvard Business Review article on the subject. “I don't think it's an extreme leap to say that other minority groups are experiencing the same thing,” she said. Without effective feedback, people can’t improve and advance. “So it’s really important that we’re training folks to spot their own blurry language, but also to spot it in others,” she said.The panelists shared additional performance development tools used by their organizations: training on inclusive behaviors to emphasize meeting employees where they are in their life stages, requiring all employees to contribute ideas that support the company’s success, and asking people to provide anonymous upward feedback. The latter involves team members giving feedback to managers to help them develop their leadership skills.Taylor Amerman, who leads global social impact at IT services supplier CDW, said she spends a day getting to know each new person who reports to her during week one of employment. The new employees discuss how they like to work, what motivates them, and how they like to communicate. Amerman recommends that managers proactively create the time for feedback rather than wait until an issue arises.Addressing the NaysayersHow should companies go about setting goals to make sure that leadership grows more diverse and inclusive when people challenge goal-setting for DEI programs by comparing it to quotas or affirmative action? Ihejirika asked the panel.DEI programs, said Greenhouse’s Adasi, must measure progress from a baseline and have a clear vision for where they aim to be in one, two, three or five years, just as every other function within the business measures data and establishes those goals. “We literally look at our data monthly, quarterly, yearly. We refresh them, we report back to staff, we report back to the industry at large, our clients. We make sure that the accountability doesn't stop just within the HR function. This is every department’s work, to make sure this is moved forward. … What gets measured, gets improved,” she said. Without a “whole ecosystem” approach to goal-setting, “you’ll see what we have been seeing recently, which are the layoffs of those teams and really starting to de-prioritize DEI efforts,” Adasi cautioned.Social impact metrics are important, agreed Schneider Electric’s González, but she advised focusing on what she called process goals for achieving a diverse team. That means examining diversity partnerships to support a strong pipeline of job candidates that enables hiring managers to make the best decision for the organization. “We want to be careful of not driving the wrong behaviors or the wrong impression, because ultimately, we want the best people in these roles,” González said.Building a “pause” into employee development plans and training managers to have those conversations can help guide people to the next step in their career paths, said Pickett. Panelists also emphasized the importance of quality learning and coaching solutions for leadership over quick-hit, self-paced training modules, as well as rooting out the causes of measurable DEI gaps to be strategic about how to close them. Pickett said the mantra at LifeLabs is, “If you're not being intentionally inclusive, you're likely being unintentionally exclusive.”Susan Kelly is a Chicago-based business journalist.
Work Is Changing. Is Your Company Culture Keeping Up?
BY Susan Kelly May 11, 2023A strong company culture built on shared values is essential to the success of your team but difficult to define, let alone cultivate, says Mike Kaupe, global director of sales engineering for HiBob, a provider of HR platforms and analytics. Companies first need to understand why a healthy culture is so important, then they must go about the very hard work of creating it.Kaupe spoke during a Thought Leadership Spotlight at From Day One’s recent live conference in Chicago, a city known for its skyscrapers, blues music and deep dish pizza. While those elements have helped define the city’s culture, it’s richer and more varied than that, said Kaupe, who was immersed in different cultures as a child growing up in a U.S. Army family.“Culture is an accumulation of relationships that you cannot copy, and you cannot fake. You can't do it. It's unique to every business, every organization,” he told the audience.For companies striving to build a strong culture, the changing nature of work is making the challenge that much harder, even as it fosters creativity. Your employees may work from home, or in hybrid, flexible or dynamic arrangements. Communication is often through digital collaboration. Engagement is now a tool for shaping culture.Like that gooey deep dish pizza, the layers pile on. Mass layoffs, hiring freezes, the uncertain economy and slowing corporate growth, or none at all, have been added to the mix. Even companies that have been around for many years are re-evaluating their values in the face of these enormous challenges. Amid all the shifting variables, is it possible for an organization to maintain the values that its employees hold dear? “It's not easy. It's very difficult, and very, very challenging,” said Kaupe. “But it's not impossible.”Start By Being HonestThe first step is to be transparent, Kaupe advised. Employees may have different perceptions of their role in the company’s vision. At HiBob, sharing the context in which decisions are made has helped to bring employees on board with those decisions and “gave us permission to continue the mission,” he said.Embracing transparency has meant being inclusive, which has been key to earning employees’ trust, he said. The company looked for policies and procedures that created experiences of exclusion and removed them.“This transparency helped to build the culture of trust that we wanted, and that we needed, across the business,” Kaupe said.Kaupe led the thought leadership spotlight in Chicago (photo by Tim Hiatt for From Day One)What followed next was greater collaboration, as people felt empowered to speak their minds, share their thoughts and be vulnerable. “When employees perceive that their organizations are transparent, they engage better,” Kaupe said. “They have better job satisfaction compared to employees who believe that their companies are not being transparent. They believe that their companies may be hiding something. Why? Because there's a lack of trust.”At HiBob, because a culture of trust was developed, groups and teams started giving each other feedback on how well they were doing, what they were doing wrong, and how they could improve. The process led to a recognition that praising group achievements, and not just giving individual accolades, could help build trust. “This fostered some really cool group cohesion,” said Kaupe.“We've learned that trust, transparency and teamwork are the keys to putting your people first. It sounds like a no-brainer. But this is really, really difficult,” he stressed.The High Cost of Lost TrustKaupe argues that leaders who push their workers back into the office because they think people will be more productive in the workplace environment are directly at odds with employees who believe they are more productive at home. The cost is “quiet quitting,” in which employees may spend months getting paid for doing as little work as possible.Similarly, organizations that use so-called tattleware installed on computers to monitor their employees who work from home pay a price in lost trust. It’s a big cost to pay for that control, he said.“Cultivating culture must start with knowing what your employees really, truly value,” Kaupe said.HiBob has not been immune to the economic uncertainties affecting companies around the globe. As a result, said Kaupe, his team has a different perspective about work, greater insight and more empathy for what its customers are experiencing. The lesson learned is, “we grow through what we go through,” he said.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, HiBob, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Susan Kelly is a business journalist based in Chicago.
After the Hiring Boom: How to Upskill the Workforce You Have
BY Susan Kelly January 03, 2023As the new year begins, forecasts for an economic slowdown weigh heavily on the minds of managers. The hiring frenzy that followed the lifting of pandemic restrictions is cooling. Against this uncertain backdrop, a shift from recruitment to retention is underway. In fact, the current environment presents an opportunity for employers to bolster skill-development programs that will shape the internal mobility and career growth of employees, including those recently brought on board, for years to come. Or as From Day One panel moderator Bryan Walsh, editor of the Vox network’s Future Perfect section, framed the challenge: “What are we going to do with the people we hired?” In the conversation he moderated, “Anticipating the In-Demand Job Skills of the Future,” part of From Day One’s December virtual conference, experts shared strategies for helping workers develop the capabilities needed to be successful even as their roles within a company change and evolve. For Khairunissa Jivani, VP for the future of work, talent transformation and organizational effectiveness at Prudential Financial, three broad skills can help “future proof” careers: learning agility, business acumen, and taking a macro view, she said. Being agile means embracing continuous, lifelong learning, while business acumen involves staying focused on the company's purpose. Seeing the macro view lets employees connect the dots across different parts of the business to identify unique synergies or opportunities that might not be spotted without taking that step back. The marketplace is evolving so rapidly that students today will be applying for jobs that teachers and parents have not heard of yet, said Lindsey Dixon, assistant VP of innovation at NAF, a nonprofit that partners with industry to operate learning academies within high schools in high-need communities. Career awareness is a big focus for the organization, whose future-ready curriculum teaches young people relevant technical and soft skills before they head off to college, apprenticeships, or other training programs. Helping job seekers build social capital, the relationships that they can leverage to find employment, is another priority for NAF, which is taking aim at the social and economic disparities that continue to be reflected in the traditional labor market, Dixon said. “The hiring pools, the entry-level pipeline–if those aren’t diverse, you’re going to see that replicated at higher and higher levels of employment. So we’re working hard on that issue,” she said. Fostering a sense of belonging for newly hired employees is key, especially in today’s sometimes isolating hybrid work environment, to ensure employees are resilient, able to overcome challenges and setbacks, and ultimately grow and thrive in their careers, said Tamar Becks, VP of diversity, inclusion and belonging at information-technology firm CACI International. Agreeing with Dixon on the importance of social capital, Becks said CACI has focused on humanizing the workplace by providing career coaches and individual mentoring. The company also has changed its performance reviews to be future-oriented discussions meant to support what employees need. Similarly, Prudential is employing talent catalysts who focus on sharing enterprise-wide initiatives designed to move the company forward, Jivani said. These internal consultants bring perspectives and best practices from across the organization that can be adopted in other areas of the business to accelerate talent transformation. A deliberate onboarding process that resonates with entry-level employees who haven’t worked in a large organization before, as well as a culture of ongoing coaching, are approaches the company uses to address gaps in soft skills. The speakers offered their initial impressions on the potential impact of OpenAI’s ChatGPT on the workplace of the future. The artificial intelligence system's arrival is generating much buzz for its ability to generate written texts from simple prompts. The consensus: While machine learning is here to stay, with its potential to speed up work and replace some jobs or job functions, what humans bring to the partnership with machines cannot be replicated. “Whether it’s augmentation or automation, I think the important thing for us to continue to do is double down on our humanness and our human ingenuity–be really proud of that and figure out how to continue to elevate that,” said MaryKate Morley Ryan, a managing director at Accenture. The consulting firm offers a robust apprenticeship program to attract new talent that now accounts for 21% of all entry-level hires in its North American operations. Future uses of artificial intelligence will not mean students no longer need to learn to read, write, listen and speak, said Dixon. “Oral communication, the ability to listen and respond, is the top skill across all sectors,” she stressed. Hand in hand with effective communication is social awareness. “You can't just communicate the same way to the same people. You have different audiences, cultures, business needs,” Dixon said. Internship managers and hiring partners want to see workers coming into an organization who are excited about learning and resourceful enough to “look around, find a problem, and solve it yourself,” she said. Leadership, project management skills, and the ability to work with each other will become more important because machine learning cannot replicate those qualities, said Becks. “Things are going to change more and more, but it’s about our mindset, it’s about our attitude, and how quickly can you learn new skills,” she said. Susan Kelly is a business writer based in the Chicago area.
Being Mindful of Menopause to Create a Truly Inclusive Benefits Strategy
BY Susan Kelly December 08, 2022Since menopause is a natural biological process that affects every woman in midlife, why is it rarely discussed in the context of workplace inclusion? Because, declared Harvard Business Review, “menopause is one of the strongest and most discriminatory taboos still existing in the workplace. The mental and physical symptoms and their negative effects on women’s productivity are needlessly exacerbated by poor policies and persistent, outdated, gender- and age-related assumptions.” For some, the symptoms of menopause are mild. But for others, daily routines are disrupted as changing hormone levels take a toll, bringing a range of symptoms, from hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, and trouble concentrating to heart palpitations and urinary incontinence as pelvic muscles weaken. What’s more, symptoms typically last about seven years but can linger for as long as 14 years. About 20% of the workforce is affected by menopause at any given time, Brooke Bartholomay Quinn, chief customer officer for Carrot Fertility, said in a recent From Day One webinar focusing on the role of menopause in the workplace. Yet the issue is seldom on the radar screen of employers. Further complicating matters is a lack of dedicated medical providers who specialize in treating the condition, limited training on menopause care in residency programs for OB-GYN doctors, and conflicting research on the value of hormone therapy. Yet the situation could be changing. “As a society, we really are at a very critical juncture. People are starting to talk about this. Medical researchers are conducting long-term trials across multiple specialties. And women are pushing and advocating for better care and recognition of the symptoms in the workplace,” she said. Because the effects of menopause on both physical and mental health can reduce worker productivity and lead to increased turnover, creating an inclusive environment for those struggling with the impact of menopause can help ensure valued employees stay well and on the job, Bartholomay Quinn said. Carrot’s own survey of 1,000 women affected by menopause found most felt they went into the life stage unprepared, and symptoms interfered with their work. Just 8% said they received significant support from their employer. Nearly half considered changing jobs to find remote work so they could better manage symptoms, while 22% thought about retiring early. “Imagine having trouble sleeping for a year and how that would impact your daily energy levels and your overall mood, and for that matter your level of productivity,” said Bartholomay Quinn. Brooke Bartholomay Quinn, chief customer officer for Carrot Fertility (Company photo) For the average woman, the transition to menopause, known as perimenopause, begins between ages 45 and 55. The average age at which women enter menopause, defined as 12 consecutive months without a menstrual period, is around 51. Many women are senior leaders at their companies duing these years, noted Bartholomay Quinn. In one of the more surprising findings of the Carrot survey, 46% of respondents said their 50s have been the most difficult time of their careers, well ahead of the second-ranked 20s chosen by 25%. “This statistic alone shocked me,” Bartholomay Quinn said. A larger number of women also described menopause as a more challenging time in life than starting a new job, starting a family or getting a promotion. To better manage symptoms, many respondents said they took time off from work, often concealing the reason for doing so. Of those who took time off, 71% lost more than 40 hours of work and 30% lost over a month–an “astounding” figure, Bartholomay Quinn said. The Lack of Significant Support “You can see right away that the lack of conversation that exists around menopause means that individuals do not know what to expect or where to turn when the process starts,” said Bartholomay Quinn. “As someone who‘s been navigating this journey personally for the last several years, I can tell you firsthand that it has been an incredibly frustrating journey. I struggled to understand the symptoms and the impact of menopause on my mind, my body and relationships, and attempting to find adequate medical guidance for dealing with the symptoms and their long-term impacts, for me, has been the most challenging.” Nearly 60% of those in the Carrot survey reported their employer offered no significant support for menopause. A majority of the women said they did not feel comfortable talking to their employers or HR department about the issue. Of the 21% whose employers offered some support for menopause, flexible scheduling was the most common accommodation. How to Do Better Bartholomay Quinn offered several suggestions for employers to consider to improve the environment for their staff members experiencing menopause symptoms, while also boosting productivity and reducing turnover. They include providing education resources, a database of menopause care experts, and access to those providers through telehealth. Menopause mentors or support groups and private wellness rooms at workplaces are additional options. Respondents in Carrot’s survey expressed interest in the ability to work from home, flexible scheduling, time off, and access to medical care and support to manage symptoms. And with egg freezing now mainstream, fertility health care can be a part of the benefits program that can help people going through early onset menopause, Bartholomay Quinn said. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this webinar, Carrot Fertility. Susan Kelly is a Chicago-based business journalist.
An Inclusive Culture: ‘It Starts From the Top Down and Bottom Up’
BY Susan Kelly October 25, 2022Companies at all different stages of the journey are focused on creating a more inclusive corporate culture. But what elements within the workplace make an employer welcoming to a diverse labor pool? Representatives of five Midwest companies, each committed to increasing diversity and equity in the workplace, tackled that question during a panel discussion at From Day One’s conference in Chicago. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police became a wake-up call for companies across the country to re-examine their corporate values, and this was no truer than at Best Buy, based in the city, said Andrea Wood, VP of social impact for the consumer electronics retailer. “George Floyd happened right in front of us,” Wood said. Like other business leaders, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry publicly pledged to do better, committing the company to a path of systemic, permanent change toward the common cause of equality and justice. Best Buy has followed that statement with commitments to recruit, retain and promote diverse employees, and initiatives involving procurement and business investment, said Wood. The company reports progress on its commitments on a quarterly basis. The retailer has launched dozens of Best Buy Teen Tech Centers in marginalized communities across the country, which offer after-school programming in areas such as 3-D design, music production, and coding. Best Buy thinks about the program as a potential talent pipeline, Wood said. To foster community engagement through programs such as the teen centers, Wood said it was vital to ensure that Best Buy’s team reflected the communities it was trying to serve. “Being intentional about who you’re talking to, and who’s building those relationships, is really important,” she said. At Conagra Brands, improving communication within the organization is a current focus, using the tools of genuine listening and healthy debate, said Melina Barona, who helps lead diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at the packaged food giant. The company mined data from employee surveys to be able to identify those inclusive behaviors as priorities. “Something that seems so ethereal like belonging–there are ways to really measure this in a way that makes it meaningful and tangible,” Barona said. “Being intentional about who you’re talking to, and who’s building those relationships, is really important,” said Andrea Wood of Best Buy, center DL Morriss, a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, said one way that his law firm is tracking the success of its culture initiatives as they are integrated across the organization is through the Mansfield Rule certification process offered through the Diversity Lab. The certification measures whether law firms have reached at least 30% underrepresented lawyer representation in a number of its leadership roles. Underrepresented groups include women, ethnic groups, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and lawyers with disabilities. Hinshaw & Culbertson has exceeded the minimum standard, with its two highest governing bodies growing to 50% diversity in talent over the last five years, Morriss said. “I say it starts from the top down and bottom up,” he said. “It’s not just relying on your senior management to really move that initiative. But it is getting a collective sense of collaboration of grassroots efforts from so many of your staff, employees, attorneys at every level who care about these sorts of initiatives.” Panel moderator Zoraida Sambolin, a veteran Chicago TV journalist, noted that the umbrella of diversity is expanding to include neurodiverse populations and people with disabilities, and efforts to help these employees feel that they belong. Sambolin asked if companies are finding ways to “celebrate the differences and honor them.” Morriss said education initiatives at Hinshaw & Culbertson have addressed neurodiverse populations in the workforce. Destigmatizing neurodiversity and raising the level of conversation on the topic in a positive and affirming way can create more opportunities for diverse learners in the workplace, he said. Panelists agreed that statements from corporate leadership in support of diversity and inclusion must be followed by deeds, or an organization’s credibility is at risk. Without buy-in from a company’s leadership and core employees, all that is left is talking points, said Morriss. “If you don't have a real action plan, or you don't already have an action in place, it’s viewed as a platitude by your own employees or by the very community that you’re trying to stand with,” said Natasha Miller Williams, head of diversity, equity and inclusion for Ferrara Candy Co. Broadcast journalist Zoraida Sambolin moderated the discussion Visible diversity during the recruitment process is key to attracting talent, yet often gets overlooked by companies, said Pamela Pujo, a diversity advocate with Affirmity, which makes software for measuring and building inclusivity in organizations. This can be a problem at hiring events. “I know, just from personal experience, if I’ve gone to those type of events, and I don’t see anyone who looks like me, who I can relate to, then I’m not interested in that company,” Pujo said. Likewise, diversity at the highest levels of an organization is critical to employee retention. “If someone doesn't see someone like them in those roles, that they can aspire to, who they can reach out to, then more than likely, they’re not going to stay,” she said. For those leading the charge, working to develop an inclusive corporate culture can sometimes feel like going against the grain and has the potential to become discouraging, but there is a collective momentum of progress underway, Morriss said. “Be proud of that, and continue the mission,” he said. Susan Kelly is a Chicago-based business journalist.
Leveraging Technology to Solve the Hybrid-Work Disconnect
BY Susan Kelly October 09, 2022Smile Direct Club disrupted the orthodontics industry by demonstrating it wasn't necessary to make multiple trips to a brick-and-mortar dental office to get straight teeth. So it was fitting that the teledentistry company, which calculates it has saved its customers more than $5 billion on the cost of braces since its founding in 2014, embraced telecommuting in a big way when the pandemic struck. In spring 2021, Smile Direct launched a fully flexible virtual-work policy that allows its eligible employees–those not working in manufacturing or in its shops–to live and work from anywhere. Employees can go into the office if they want, work from home, or do a combination, working with their teams and leaders to choose the schedule. “As the pandemic played out, we had kind of a big aha moment,” said Michael Linstroth, Smile Direct’s senior director of culture and engagement, speaking at From Day One’s September webinar on mastering the tech-enabled employee experience. “We knew that we had to double down with that same approach.” Flexible scheduling has made it possible for the company to hire from a wider talent pool and has helped its employees achieve better work-life balance, Linstroth said. But Smile Direct knew it could not roll out the new policy without having the supports in place to ensure its success. Enter Achievers, a provider of employee recognition and engagement platforms. Smile Direct had already been working with Achievers, which it hired in 2019 as it was scaling up, to help foster a workforce culture grounded in appreciation and gratitude, Linstroth said. The platform facilitates frequent, meaningful recognition, celebrating special moments and accomplishments, he said. Pleased with the partnership, Smile Direct added more modules to the platform as time went on, Linstroth said, including a listening function in 2021 that lets employees provide feedback and has enabled the company to conduct its first full engagement survey. Results can be accessed easily, allowing leaders to create and implement action plans. Speaking on recognition and technology, clockwise from upper right: Cheryl DeSantis of Smile Direct Club, Natalie Baumgartner, PhD, of Achievers, and Michael Linstroth of Achievers (Image by From Day One) The recognition feature, which the company calls “Champions,” has been especially popular, quickly gaining a more than 90% adoption rate across Smile Direct’s workforce. “We had people hungry to give and receive recognition,” said Cheryl DeSantis, chief people and diversity officer at Smile Direct. “It became a flood where people were just like, ‘This is amazing, I can go in and I can share the greatness of the people that I work with.’” As the company transitioned to its fully flexible work policy, it introduced a program to guide its employees through the process called “Creating the Space.” This component helps virtual team members set boundaries and block off chunks of time during the week for wellness, for example, or to focus on finishing up projects on Fridays before heading into the weekend. Smile Direct is now testing a mentoring program through Achievers that it plans to launch later this year. The mentoring function will allow team members to connect virtually with new colleagues or catch up with old work friends. Fostering a sense of belonging is critical to attracting and keeping talent in the new business landscape, said Natalie Baumgartner, PhD, chief workforce scientist at Achievers. Employees who report a strong sense of belonging are three times more likely to be engaged, committed, productive and advocates for their company, she said. Yet almost half of remote workers fear missing out on events and opportunities because they are not in the office. “So what’s the secret sauce?” asked Baumgartner. “Well, there’s no question that one of the critical ingredients is technology–the type of technology that truly scales the experience of belonging and connection at work. The right technologies, used in the right way, help organizations to democratize a culture of belonging for all employees.” She shared results of a recent survey conducted by her organization that showed that 85% of employees whose roles make working from home possible said they preferred remote or hybrid work. Asked whether they had changed jobs in the last two years and why, respondents indicated work flexibility was the top motivator for changing jobs, beating out career progression and salary. “All of that means that there is high demand for roles that offer at least some flexibility. People are really determined to find work options that align with their needs. And they are simply no longer willing to compromise,” Baumgartner said. Achievers’ research demonstrated that organizations with employee-connection tools in place enjoy higher engagement and productivity because their workers can see they are being offered accessible and reliable ways to connect and bond, regardless of where or how they are working, she said. DeSantis agreed that fostering belonging is the key to attracting, engaging and retaining employees. When Smile Direct moved to its fully flexible work arrangement, “we knew very, very quickly that we were going to have to rely on technology to create those moments that matter,” she said. The company now leverages technology to celebrate personal milestones such as getting married and having a baby, as well as its employees’ professional successes. “We're super passionate about it,” DeSantis said. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this webinar, Achievers. Susan Kelly is a freelance business writer based in Chicago.
Transforming the Office From Obligation to Destination
BY Susan Kelly September 07, 2022Making the office environment a place that employees want to return to is a big part of the conundrum that organizations are trying to solve in the new world of hybrid work. By now, many of us have had the same thoughts after showering and showing up to the office, only to face a full day of Zoom calls: Why did I come here for this? I could have done this work from home, observed Nick Iovacchini, CEO and co-founder of Kettle, a hybrid-workspace technology company based in New York City. And yet the vast majority of employees do want to come back into the office, at least some of the time, and look forward to interacting with colleagues again in person. Almost 90% of employees in a PwC survey said the office is important for collaborating with team members and building relationships. Nearly 80% want to feel connected to the people and purpose of their team, according to data from Blueboard. To help employees avoid disappointment and get the most out of their time spent in the physical office, the workspace must evolve into a desired destination for purposeful activities, said Iovacchini, speaking in a thought-leadership spotlight at From Day One’s August virtual conference on Strategies for Communication and Collaboration in the Hybrid Workforce. The hybrid work model is the future, Iovacchini said. Most companies are embracing something other than the traditional nine-to-five schedule, and are investing a lot of time, money and energy to figure out who is working where, when, why, and with whom. Nick Iovacchini, CEO and co-founder of Kettle A majority of workers now say flexible scheduling is more important to them than salary and other benefits, according to research from Jabra. “That's big. That means people are now valuing their time more than money,” Iovacchini said. “We’re all viewing our time very differently than we did when we just put our heads down and went to work five days a week and commuted in, because that’s what you did.” Companies understand there is a high cost to having disengaged workers that results from lost productivity, and the cost to replace an employee is more than the annual salary–if a replacement can even be found, he said. Determining the shape of the hybrid workspace also involves real estate, facilities and technology considerations, and the expenses associated with those decisions. “So the power dynamics between employer and employee have shifted, talent is demanding new things, there are large economic implications of these changes, and the organizations that are able to adapt most effectively are going to win,” Iovacchini said. Because managing a hybrid workforce is largely uncharted territory, a playbook for how to create an effective, human-centric system doesn’t yet exist, and best practices haven’t been established, Iovacchini said. He proposed a framework modeled after psychologist Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At the base of Maslow’s pyramid, organizations are working out how to provide for the basic human needs of employees returning to office spaces, creating the policies, and communicating how it will all work. After the foundation has been laid, there is opportunity to involve levels of engagement and corporate-culture considerations, with the pinnacle being the achievement of balance between work and lifestyle, or what the hybrid format could be “in its greatest form,” Iovacchini said. Why Visibility Is Key As the hybrid workspace is being developed, building trust between employees and leadership through healthy transparency is key. Employees want clear visibility on the pathway forward, Iovacchini said. When people plan to come into the office, they want to know that they will have the experiences that they value with the people that they want to connect with in person. It is “incredibly important” that colleagues let their teams and organization know where they intend to be, when they have that choice, so that everyone can plan and organize themselves around what one another is doing, Iovacchini said. Employees returning to the office also seek clarity on where they are expected to be and where they are allowed to be. Intentional collaboration sessions that are meaningful and that people care about being present for should be prioritized over those that are nice to do but not worth planning an entire calendar around. “Keep an eye on thoughtful experiences in person,” he emphasized. “People really don’t want to come in and sit in a cubicle all day.” Teams don't always have to meet in the office, either, but can gather off-site for social engagement. He advises developing guidelines to ensure that important moments such as onboarding, mentorship, and promotion happen in person. Gathering Data From the Beginning Iovacchini suggests companies commit to gathering data while still early in the process of setting up hybrid workspaces, even if they don’t yet know how they will use the information. Whether for culture, real-estate efficiency, engagement, productivity or other performance indicators, data collected now can be measured against future progress. The performance of teams operating with full choice on when to work in the office can be compared to teams committed to a two- or three-day in-person experience, for example. The most effective approach could be adopted universally. “At the end of this, if we want to really use the information that we can collect to build compelling in-person experiences, we've got to commit to grabbing that data,” Iovacchini said. Managers face the task of helping their employees be successful and make the best choices with the new flexibility that they have. That requires effectively communicating expectations, he said, and an investment in dedicated leadership. Keep in mind that humans naturally self-organize, Iovacchini said, so “do your best to support teams coordinating” and then “get out of the way.” Navigating these challenges while meeting core business objectives can enable the flexibility and transparency that everyone wants, improve employee engagement, retention and collaboration, and reduce burnout. For those who have had the responsibility of shaping a hybrid work system placed on their shoulders, “lead from the front with transparency and empathy,” Iovacchini told the audience. “We really do think it’s do-able.” Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner who sponsored this thought-leadership spotlight: Kettle. Susan Kelly is a freelance business writer based in Chicago.
Autonomy and Connection: Yes, You Can Have Both
BY Susan Kelly September 02, 2022Helping employees stay connected to the company and each other while they work apart is the pandemic’s lingering dilemma. For organizations transitioning to a hybrid format after more than two years in a largely remote work environment, the adjustment brings with it the challenge of keeping dispersed teams of colleagues humming in sync even when people are working in the office on opposite days. Employees have come to expect more flexibility in their schedules, but also say they are having more trouble setting boundaries for when work ends and home life begins, according to Katrina Howchin-Tucker, global VP for people and performance at Kraft Heinz. The commute back home from the office used to provide that physical distinction, signaling when the work day was over. “People have found it hard to switch off in the new world,” she said. “The line between life and work has become incredibly blurred.” The packaged-foods giant recently moved to a hybrid format with a requirement that employees come into the office three days a week, regardless of location. The company is still figuring out just what that social and structural transformation entails, Howchin-Tucker said in a one-on-one conversation with Nicole Smith of Harvard Business Review at From Day One’s virtual conference on Strategies for Communication & Collaboration in the Hybrid Workforce “Communication and collaboration today is very much core to what we’re working on improving as we continue to grow as a company,” Howchin-Tucker said. Within the Kraft Heinz organization, teams under the new hybrid model are establishing their own hours through agreements with their managers, in response to employees’ need for greater autonomy in how they approach their work, Howchin-Tucker said. While everyone must come into the office three days a week, some teams are working in person on the same days, while others are opting for more flexible scheduling. A fireside chat with moderator Nicole Smith of Harvard Business Review and Katrina Howchin-Tucker of Kraft Heinz (Image by From Day One) After two years at home, people transitioning back into the office environment also are struggling with loss of privacy and concerns about confidentiality. Ultimately, though, Howchin-Tucker thinks autonomy and connection can go hand in hand. The trick is to keep the focus on performance, along with “giving yourself permission to know that we’re all transitioning,” she said. “I think autonomy is something we can all achieve. What I think companies are struggling with right now is, how do you appease everybody’s different definitions of autonomy?” Howchin-Tucker said. The veteran HR leader said her own view of how much time someone needs to spend in the office to be productive has evolved since the pandemic began. Thanks to technology, work from home can be incredibly efficient. Howchin-Tucker said she found sitting in front of a screen with messaging, videoconferencing and texting capabilities allowed her to be more accessible and respond far more quickly to co-workers. “I’ve realized that collaboration and connection, for me, actually was more effective in the last two years,” she said. On the flip side is a tendency for people’s networks in a hybrid model to become smaller and more insular, revolving around their immediate teams. To counterbalance this effect, Howchin-Tucker recommends people build time into their calendars to make informal connections with others, the equivalent of walking around the office floor and bumping into people to have a chat. To help employees get better connected with the overall Kraft Heinz strategy and culture, the company is stepping up its use of town hall meetings, sharing more information, and creating global mission statements that apply to every role and location in the organization. Making sure employees know they are appreciated is also key to the success of the hybrid model. “Recognition is very important right now,” said Howchin-Tucker. “As you think about community and collaboration and communication, to say ‘We know you’re working hard, despite the fact we may not see you every day in the office.’” One thing employees should not have to worry about is whether working from home will limit their career opportunities in the company. “We’re a very meritocratic organization, and your performance speaks for itself,” Howchin-Tucker said. Susan Kelly is a freelance business writer based in Chicago.
Family Matters: Parental Leave as a Long-Term Investment
BY Susan Kelly August 01, 2022The arrival of a new child is daunting for any working family. Navigating an unsupportive workplace, though, can be a deal-breaker for employees who are new parents. Working parents overwhelmingly (90%) would consider leaving their current employer for a job with better family benefits, according to a study from Ovia Health, a family-health benefits platform. The number has skyrocketed in recent years, reflecting a shift in how Americans think about integrating home and work life, Shauna Cour, Ovia Health’s VP of employer sales, told participants in From Day One’s July virtual conference, which focused on giving working families the benefits and flexibility they need today. The pandemic opened eyes to the types of support that employees feel they need, as parents struggled to balance work, child care and their children’s education all in the same space. To gauge how working parents were coping, Ovia Health surveyed nearly 3,000 people more than a year into the pandemic in 2021. The benefit that working parents wanted most? More paid family leave, the research found. At first blush, extending parental leave may sound expensive to an employer, but Cour asserted that this is a misconception, and said doing the math shows why. For a hypothetical employee making $75,000 a year and taking three months of paid parental leave and three months of unpaid time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the replacement cost is about $56,000. The total includes paid leave, lost productivity and paying a temporary worker, according to Ovia’s calculations. However, the average cost to replace an employee was one-and-a-half to two times the person’s salary pre-pandemic, or up to $150,000 to replace the person departing from an organization to gain extra family time. The pandemic may have stretched that calculation to three times the employee’s salary, Cour said. “When you really pencil it out, it’s a lot more affordable for you to extend leave,” she said. Shauna Cour, Ovia Health’s VP of employer sales (Photo courtesy of Ovia Health) A new parent who has had adequate time to prepare for a return to the workplace dives back in with more energy and goodwill. The next step in retaining these workers is ensuring the corporate culture is supportive, Cour said. Reflecting on a time in her career when she needed to sneak down a back staircase to pick up a child from day care, Cour emphasized that managers across the company must do their part to destigmatize parenting accommodations, whether the need is to work from home when a child is sick or to come in late after a doctor’s appointment. “If you've got a really difficult culture, and one that isn’t family friendly, your leave policies don’t matter, right?” said Cour. Flexible scheduling, hybrid work options, parental resource groups and return-to-work planning are benefit improvements that workers would like to see that can be achieved at minimal cost to the employer. “Some changes can be made without having a ton of budget attached,” she said. Flexibility can take many forms. The pandemic showed that working from home, en masse, can be successful. Cour advises employers to be thoughtful about what types of new situations, created out of necessity, are continuing to work well. For example, it may be that it’s not always necessary to travel to see a customer, or all meetings don’t need to be in person. For employees whose job functions don’t allow them to work remotely, there are still ways to offer flexibility. Shift workers can choose their shifts, or be allowed to come in late on a Friday morning. An afternoon off once a month may be an option. Ovia Health, for example, has incorporated a quarterly well-being day that gives employees some time off simply to focus on themselves. “For me, that has been huge,” said Cour. The Ovia Health study also indicated that 75% of women have made up their minds before they’ve had the baby about whether they plan to return to their jobs. For expectant moms, a clear picture of what is offered in the parental leave policy and what it will feel like to come back to work are key in making that decision, Cour said. Helping employees to understand their benefits and locate them when needed is another important but sometimes overlooked way to provide support to a workforce, Cour said. Simplifying the language to make acronyms and terminology understandable, creating a benefits checklist, and getting the word out about resources throughout the year–rather than only during open enrollment–makes signup less of a burden and improves utilization of great benefits. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, who sponsored this Thought Leadership Spotlight. Susan Kelly is a freelance business writer based in Chicago.
Cultural Intelligence: Bringing Inclusion That’s Natural Rather Than Forced
BY Susan Kelly June 21, 2022Talent management these days can feel like an endless cycle of attracting and welcoming new hires into the workplace, only to be followed by frustration when those employees leave just as it seemed they were settling in. The Great Resignation, which goes by many names, has seen record numbers of Americans quit their jobs over the past two years, even as employers spend billions developing programs to encourage them to stay. High on the list of reasons why workers move on from an organization is a feeling of not belonging, Keyla Waslawski, a VP of sales and marketing with the Cultural Intelligence Center, said in a presentation at From Day One’s June virtual conference on bringing more inclusive approaches to diversity. Waslawski advocates for a strategy that uses the framework of cultural intelligence to tackle the challenges of employee retention. That calls for confronting one of the thornier, unintended problems employers are coming up against: diversity fatigue. U.S. businesses spend an estimated $8 billion a year on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training, in hopes of unlocking the potential of those crucial goals. But some of those efforts are falling flat, because to employees they often they feel forced, uncomfortable or, worse yet, polarizing, Waslawski said. Keyla Waslawski, a VP of sales and marketing with the Cultural Intelligence Center (Company photo) “We recognize the importance of building the right culture, one that promotes inclusion, and yet we still see record high resignations, we still have managers who are burned out, we still see our talent leave as fast as we find it. As leaders, then, it’s up to us to change our approach so that we can build effective inclusion programs,” she said. Programs that focus on evaluation, rather than on bringing people together, increase feelings of polarization, Waslawski said. Initiatives that emphasize awareness and facts rather than adaptability and action can lead to mechanical, unnatural interactions between colleagues because they reinforce stereotypes instead of allowing unique individuals to get to know one another. Systematic inclusion, however, can be hard work. Burnout among managers often stems from efforts to bring together, in a productive way, a group of people who think and work very differently. Waslawski shared her own story of frustration involving a team member who never followed through with an approach to a project once it was agreed upon in a meeting. The employee would nod in agreement, then go in a different direction afterward. “It was driving me nuts,” she said. “I was expected to finish projects as the leader of the department, and I couldn’t seem to get on the same page as my team.” By researching the employee’s cultural values, Waslawski found that her team member preferred a chain-of-command hierarchy and was uncomfortable expressing an opposing view in a group. She asked her colleague after a meeting to follow up with an agreement in writing. “This simple change changed everything. It allowed her not to disagree in person, but in the safety of our one-on-one interaction,” Waslawski said. Waslawski drew upon her own cultural intelligence to solve the dilemma she faced when running her staff meetings. “I learned not how to manage those meetings differently, but rather how to leverage the different voices I had at the table,” she said. Cultural intelligence, said Waslawski, values the uniqueness and authenticity of the individual and supports belonging within a working group without forcing assimilation. It allows people to engage effectively with others from different cultural backgrounds, encompassing nationality, ethnicity, age, gender and even function. “To be a truly inclusive culture,” she said, “we have to approach our initiatives in a way that supports uniqueness and belonging simultaneously. If we want our talent to stay, we need to ensure our people are accepted and accepting.” Waslawski outlined four components of cultural intelligence: Drive: The motivation and confidence to engage with others who are different. Knowledge: The understanding of cultural differences. Strategy: Considering and preparing for cultural differences before an interaction. Action: Behavioral flexibility. “When pulling all four of these together, cultural intelligence allows us to build the foundation of an inclusive culture, where individuals and teams feel they belong as who they are, because it taps into what’s personal in each of us–our own motivations, knowledge, our values,” she said. A slide from Waslawski’s presentation (Courtesy of the Cultural Intelligence Center) To use cultural intelligence to retain talent, learning should focus on differences beneath the surface rather than on those that are obvious–such as skin color, gender and age–and tend to be polarizing. “If we focus on differences at the core, how we’re raised differently, even in our own homes neighbor to neighbor, it allows us to take a culturally intelligent approach and focus on who we are, not how we look,” Waslawski said. Build organizations by adding what’s missing from the culture, she advised, rather than bringing in people who fit in or add more of what’s already working. Leveraging the capabilities of cultural intelligence can develop unconscious inclusion that is flexible and focused on the needs of others, fostering an environment of trust in complex, multicultural situations, Waslawski said. The flexibility of the approach aims to move people beyond awareness and into action. Because it is malleable, cultural intelligence is a skill that is in each individual and can be improved upon. It’s an approach that does not need to be driven from the top down to succeed, and it is focused on development, not evaluation, Waslawski emphasized. Two decades of research shows that people with higher levels of cultural intelligence are more adaptable, make better decisions and negotiate more effectively, she said. The result is more innovation, creativity and sharing of ideas. “In other words, cultural intelligence allows us to unlock diversity’s promise to us,” she said. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Cultural Intelligence Center, who sponsored this Thought Leadership Spotlight. Susan Kelly is a freelance business journalist based in Chicago.
Earn and Learn: How Apprenticeships Can Close the Skills Gap
BY Susan Kelly April 25, 2022Ed Richardson thought he was at a dead end five years ago. Employed as a security guard after attending community college, he was looking for a way to continue his education and jump-start his career. Researching online, he spotted the apprenticeship program at Aon, the professional-services firm. “I couldn’t believe the opportunity. It said ‘no corporate experience, and we’ll put you through school,’” he said. “That’s the kind of opportunity I was looking for, and it made a lot of sense.” Richardson was hired as part of Aon’s inaugural class of apprentices, working 25 hours a week in the reinsurance-broking department while attending school 15 hours a week. After about two years of gaining knowledge through both his coursework and hands-on experience at Aon, he accepted a full-time position with the company as a broker. He now helps large insurance clients and government agencies transfer their risk into the reinsurance market. “I can’t believe I know half the things I know. I was just an apprentice a couple of years ago,” Richardson told an audience during a panel discussion at From Day One’s March conference in Chicago. “I've been enjoying every minute of it.” He also mentors new apprentices in the program, which has expanded into additional cities and states. Historical Roots of Apprenticeships Taking a cue from the skilled trades, professional apprenticeships are playing an increasingly important role in closing the skills gap in the corporate sector. Aon, Accenture and Zurich North America co-founded the Chicago Apprentice Network in 2017. Today, the network has grown to more than 70 companies, both small and large, including McDonald’s, Walgreens and JPMorgan Chase. Spanning sectors from finance, technology and consulting to retail and manufacturing, it is also expanding geographically, into the metropolitan areas of Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, Minneapolis, Houston, and Northern California. Speaking on apprenticeships in Chicago, from left: Richardson, Bridget Gainer of Aon, and Jim Coleman and Danica Lohja of Accenture Organizations in the network develop their own apprenticeship models. “We don't require everybody to run the exact same thing,” said Jim Coleman, senior managing director in Accenture’s Chicago office. “There are some principles which are really centered around giving people opportunity who are coming from a non-traditional background–giving them an opportunity to learn, giving them an opportunity to earn, and ultimately get full-time employment with your organization.” Accenture’s model draws participants from community colleges and non-profit organizations for a 12-month format that combines education, on-the-job training and coaching to offer a path to full-time employment with the company. Insurer Zurich North America began its program by offering insurance apprenticeships in partnership with Harper College, and has since added cybersecurity, IT, and other tracks. Apprentices earn a full-time salary, benefits and tuition coverage, and a promotion upon completion of the two-year program. Aon partnered with City Colleges of Chicago and the College of Lake County for a two-year program. Students take on roles in commercial risk, information technology, finance, human resources and other fields while studying relevant courses to earn an associate degree. To date, almost 1,500 apprentices have launched careers at employers that have joined the Chicago-based apprenticeship initiative. Bridget Gainer, global head of public affairs and policy at Aon, said the company had in mind two important goals, bolstering diversity within its ranks and retaining entry-level talent, when it started looking at apprenticeship models. The concept is common in Europe, and many senior employees within Aon began their careers as apprentices straight out of high school, she noted. It is also similar to a local tradition in which high-school graduates go to work at the Chicago Board of Trade or Chicago Mercantile Exchange and learn on the job. “We thought, if that model has worked for hundreds of years and it also works in the financial services sector in our own city, maybe we should give it a try,” Gainer said. Aon re-examined its entry-level positions to ask whether a four-year degree was really necessary for every function, or whether the practice of recruiting college graduates had simply become a habit. The company saw that certain skills could be learned on the job by candidates with aptitude and ambition. “One of the things that I would encourage everyone here to do is really think about what does your entry-level population look like, and how could it potentially look different?,” Gainer said. A key component of the apprenticeship experience is the connection that participants make with colleagues in their own organizations as well as those working in similar roles at other companies in the network. “It gives people experience and exposure to a corporate infrastructure that they may not have ever come across,” Gainer explained. How to Get an Apprenticeship Program Launched She advises companies thinking about starting an apprenticeship program to consider keeping the focus narrow at first to avoid becoming overwhelmed, and then let the momentum grow organically. A pragmatic approach could involve beginning with a handful of departments close to one leader who is spearheading the effort to make the recruitment strategy easier to execute. From there, cross-pollination within the organization starts to happen, as people become exposed to new opportunities on their own. “You might be surprised to see even where it goes,” she said. Lohja, who started as an apprentice, has been promoted three times Apprenticeships offer a way for an organization to support job seekers who may not have had the oppportunity to get a four-year degree. But companies gain more than the satisfaction of doing good in the community. For Accenture, a sprawling operation with more than 700,000 employees around the world, the need to bring new talent into the firm continuously to support its growth is a driving force behind the apprenticeship program, Coleman said. "It’s a great opportunity to give back and do something a little bit different, but more importantly, to feed your organization,” he said. Apprentices bring not just talent, but eagerness and commitment. About 90% of those who have come through Accenture's program in Chicago have received full-time offers from the consulting firm, and retention rates for apprentices in the company are “through the roof,” Coleman said. Accenture recently set a goal to hire 20% of its almost 5,000 new employees a year from non-traditional backgrounds. “The reason we’ve been able to scale the program is because it is not a philanthropy. Our philanthropy budgets are limited. Our ability to hire talent is unlimited,” Coleman said. “We need folks who can do the work, who are committed to doing the work, and who can do it really, really, really well.” Danica Lohja, part of Accenture’s first apprentice cohort in 2016, met the challenge. An immigrant from Serbia who settled in Chicago in her 20s, she earned an associate degree in computer information systems, then went to work managing suppliers for an appliance retailer. When her school later reached out to her about Accenture’s apprentice program, which was then just starting up, she was interested. Today, she calls the experience “life changing.” Hired as an analyst at Accenture in 2017, Lohja has since been promoted three times. As an apprentice, she participated in team-building and training activities and traveled for the company, while receiving a salary and full benefits. “This program has meant the world to me,” she said. “Today I am an associate manager and for me the sky’s the limit." Companies interested in starting their own apprenticeship programs can reach out to members of the Chicago network for how-to guides, case studies and more, and are invited to attend the group’s quarterly networking events, Gainer and Coleman emphasized. “Our commitment to this is deep, and our commitment to helping others do this is deep,” Coleman said. Susan Kelly is a veteran business journalist based in Chicago.