Transforming Employee Value Propositions: The Role of Well-Being
BY Angelica Frey January 02, 2025Well-being means something different to every individual. For Ebony David, VP of HR at Quest Diagnostics, a medical laboratories company, sitting is the new smoking. “[At Quest] we put a meeting in the calendar, tell everyone to put their AirPods in and take a walk,” said David.David and four other executive panelists spoke about “Focusing on Well-Being to Evolve Your Employee Value Proposition,” at From Day One’s Brooklyn conference, in a session moderated by Lydia Dishman, senior editor at Fast Company. Jim Gallic, SVP of well-being at Personify Health, a healthcare solutions provider, has a similar approach. “I work from home, and at the end of the day, I get out, walk around the yard or block, and come back through a different door,” he said. “That’s the break between home life and work life.” In a similar fashion, Ivelesse Mendez-Justiniano, chief DEI and Learning officer at NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest public healthcare system in the United States, follows the company-wide wellness initiatives: this month, it’s adaptive yoga; last month, it was plant-based eating. On the eating front, Katie Egan, general manager of DoorDash for Business, a food delivery and logistics platform, treasures the $20 credit for lunch: she places the order on her way to work, since she is usually booked in back-to-back meetings. “My lunch comes at 10:45—I get up at 5, and I am starving by 11:30, so then I grab my food between meetings, and I am not hangry, which makes me a better boss,” she tells Dishman. Ralph Nader, SVP and U.S. Head of Talent at IPG Media Brands, a global media and marketing services company, thinks that the flexibility behind the return-to-office policies adopted by his organization has been most helpful.Well-Being at Work TrendsIt’s disheartening that, four years after Covid spotlighted burnout and lack of motivation, we’re still navigating how to address these challenges. Yet, research from Gallup and SHRM shows that prioritizing well-being can boost productivity, enhance retention, and reduce absenteeism and healthcare costs. While Covid has been the greatest disruptor when it comes to talking about employee well-being, the conversation has evolved significantly in the last four years as well. “In terms of overall trends, if we look back to 2019, well-being used to be the doorknob conversation; now it’s the starting point,” says Gallic.Smart SpendingA key component is smart personalization. “How do I make it really personal: we did a lot of spending as organizations during the Covid years trying to figure out what worked and didn’t work. Exiting that, we said ‘it might be time to simplify things. How can we consolidate?’” said Gallic.“When it comes to spending money, we all have less to spend,” acknowledges David. “We all put our money where our mouth is,” she said, referring to their 2023 initiative that resulted in employees being able to get mental-health help in one hour if they’re in crisis and one week if they’re not in crisis.Panelists spoke about "Focusing on Well-Being to Evolve Your Employee Value Proposition"“People needed the benefit: when people were calling [to get mental-health services], they were put on hold, so you had people, if not in crisis, nearing it. It’s paying for itself,” she said, framing it as ROI.Mendez-Justiniano speaks in similar terms, with an emphasis on entry-level employees. “We started funding them through education—in the last year, we’ve been able to impact individuals at the very low end of the salary range, and we mentored these individuals, supported them in education, and the results are showing,” she said. “We had service aides that are now nurses, going from $40,000 to six figures. What’s best for the employee is going to have an ROI on our system.”Wellness in an Era of Return to OfficeVery early on in Covid, IPG Media Brands took the anxiety out of return-to-office policies, tabling the conversation altogether until at least 2021. “Then we really focused on the listening, asking what’s going to work, what’s not going to work,” said Nader. Different branches have different needs: tech-centric departments can thrive in remote workspaces, whereas client-services employees might itch to go back to the office.“It was a guideline, not a policy—if it’s enforced with the keycard, it reduces flexibility.” They landed on three days at the office. “We’re hearing from competitors who are going with five days at the office, losing their employees, who are coming to us looking for employment and flexibility.”“Mandates don’t work,” said Gallic. “It did not work when your parents told you to clean your room. What we’re seeing now—employers need to have that conversation, almost leader by leader, to see what works best: let’s be flexible for the work, let’s be empathetic, and let’s make it work.” As a result, his organization’s employees are clamoring for off-sites at their office locations in Providence and Minneapolis.Courageous ConversationThere are a number of best practices for leaders to foster a culture of well-being, and they start with conversations. “Honestly, get to know your team first—being in person helps for that. It does not take a lot of listening to get a sense of someone,” says Egan. “You’re building a product, I am building a program, and the best practices for doing that are the same best practices for a product team.” She recommends defining goals, testing, and iterating. “If it does not work, try something else. That requires a strong degree of collaboration.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Building a Workplace Culture That Prioritizes Well-Being
BY Angelica Frey November 06, 2024When it comes to well-being in the workplace, one can hardly generalize, as every generation has its demands. Boomers are gearing up for retirement, Gen X is sandwiched between childcare and eldercare, Millennials are starting their families and dealing with a housing crisis, while Gen Z is fresh out of school.“It’s not a one-size-fits-all, so if you don’t know what the population is looking for, you might be investing in the wrong places,” said panelist Stefanie Christmas, global head of diversity, equity and inclusion at Inizio, during From Day One’s Philadelphia conference.Still, there are some industry-wide areas that are demographics-agnostic. In 2023, The American Psychiatric Association found that the majority of the employers think the work environment is healthier than it actually is. More than 50% of workers strongly (21%) or somewhat (34%) agreed that their employer thinks their workplace environment is a lot mentally healthier than it actually is, and 43% reported worrying that if they told their employer about a mental health condition, it would have a negative impact on them in the workplace, reads the report.Well-being does not just mean wellness. “We’re looking at well being in the less traditional way: we’re looking at it through the lens of social, emotional, and financial wellbeing,” said Magdalena Dexter, SVP of communication and HR at manufacturing company Saint Gobain, which operates in 76 countries and has a workforce of 76,000 in North America alone. “Think about well-being holistically. It [encompasses] physical, financial, career growth,” Christmas said.When thinking about well-being and how to build it within an organization, the first question Tyler Zalucki, client executive at Marsh McLennan Agency asks is: “‘What is your feedback loop?’ and ‘How are you capturing the sentiment of employees and colleagues through a well-being lens?’”The panelist spoke in a discussion titled, "Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture," moderated by Lizzy McLellan Ravitch, Business Coverage Editor, the Philadelphia Inquirer“In our organization, the respective manager will fill out a survey and speak with individuals to capture their sentiment and aggregate it,” he said. Then, during their town hall, the CFO and HR Director offer solutions to what was shared. “This feedback led to changes like implementing paternity leave, increasing contributions to the 401(k), and making December 24th a full day off,” he said. “It reinforces the sense that ‘my voice matters,’ because if feedback goes into the ether, employees feel unheard.”Getting Specific With NeedsCora Claus, VP of HR at Burlington Stores, emphasized the importance of understanding the employee population: who are they? What do they need? What do they want? “I work for a retailer, largely female based, and for a long time we had a lot of them going on leave of absence, starting their families, and they’re not getting paid but a minimum wage,” she said. “We now are implementing policies: as you’re designing the policies, who are you writing them for?”Getting to know the workforce also means helping to clear away any misconceptions. Scott Thompson is the CEO of Tuition.io, which helps employees with financial education. The total amount of student-loan debt is close to $1.8 trillion dollars, and you might be surprised at who the most affected group is. “The fastest growing segment for student loans is 55 and up,” said Thompson. “That’s parents taking on debt for their kids.”In order to thrive at work, people need to feel included. “As we know, DEI is under intense scrutiny, but at its core, it’s about inclusion—making sure people can bring themselves to work in a way that feels comfortable,” said Christmas. “A lot of people say, ‘Bring your whole self to work,’ but many employees feel more comfortable bringing just 55% of themselves. How do we support that?” Christmas emphasizes the idea that for DEI work to work, “it has to be seen as everyone’s responsibility. This includes sponsoring events and encouraging leaders to show up. One impactful practice is having senior leaders participate in quarterly calls, asking questions, and engaging in the conversation.”Ultimately, a company can have the best programs, but if the leaders don’t buy into them, don’t lead with that and implement them, you really don’t have a culture of well-being. “You can put the best parental leave in place, but if a senior leader can complain that he has 3 people out, it’s going to send waves through the organization about how we truly feel about it,” said Dexter. “It’s not just about having the program, it’s about talking positively about it, showing examples of how important it is to take advantage of it.”Universal NeedsStudent loan debt has only become more challenging for borrowers, partly due to all the noise in the media. Efforts to improve the situation have unintentionally made it worse, as some employers diminished the importance of loan support, assuming it would be resolved under the current administration. “That hasn’t happened—and likely won’t,” said Thompson.“When we break down student loan debt by age segments, we see the impact. For example, a recent college graduate with $40,000 in debt faces a monthly payment of about $500 after taxes,” he continued. “At 25, I would not have been able to make that payment. And it doesn’t get easier over time; most people aim to pay off their loans in 10 years, but it often turns into a 21-year commitment due to the financial missteps that come with starting a career,” said Thompson.And while he is not suggesting that all companies need to contribute to loan payments—though that would be nice and certainly helpful, “offering assistance in understanding options and finding pathways to manage debt is a big win, with spectacular retention benefits,” he said. “It’s about meeting employees where they are and helping them move forward.”In many companies, the adage seems to consist of teams being told to do more with less, and that might be at odds with well-being. “When I think about my own organization, when I think about doing more with less, we have an AI tool that allows you access to compliance resources and will also write emails,” said Zalucki. Other resources include open office hours to ask questions and then do modules exactly on what one is working on that day. “Do the things you like and enjoy and iterate admin tasks,” he said. “At the end of the day, we want to spend more time with our family.”A similar mindset also steers employers and employees towards an 80/20 perspective. “For so long, our organization has been focusing on being perfect,” said Claus, noting that they changed towards 80/20. “Are we comfortable with 80? It’s that permission to be directionally correct so that we don’t spend too much time getting to false perfection.”This also requires leaders to understand the cycle of an organization. If Q4 is the busiest time of the year, for example, a slower Q1 should allow employees to take a break. “Don’t let them sprint through that, let them have moments to breathe,” said Dexter. “What can we deprioritize? What can we take off?”“It’s about how you’re showing up but also how we empower our team to have conversations that need to be had,” said Claus. She speaks about how frustration can pile up because we don’t have the courage to speak or there’s no safe space to do so or there’s no empathetic leader. They began coaching associates to handle conversations independently, teaching them to engage and leaders to respond with positive intent.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Efficiency and Worker Happiness: How to Find a Middle Ground
BY Angelica Frey November 04, 2024Dialogue is essential when addressing people-management challenges and sustaining a positive corporate culture, says Ginger Gregory, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief human resource officer of Biogen. “Treat people like adults, measure them on their outcome, [connect them in the office] sometimes, and let managers manage their own teams,” she said in a fireside chat moderated by Callum Borchers of the Wall Street Journal at From Day One’s Boston conference.Gregory encourages managers to make the right decisions for their teams, especially within a company that spans diverse roles, from frontline lab work to corporate positions. This reflects a more nuanced view on fairness, where fair no longer means the same for everyone. “We have people working labs, we have people working manufacturing, who have to be in the facilities,” she said. “We do manage it based on the role first, but those roles with more flexibility we encourage it. If you don’t treat people like adults, engagement drops,” she said.Biogen’s engagement hinges on its mission, in that it creates life-saving therapies, a process that sometimes takes years, and, due to the nature of the process itself, some products might not reach the finish line.“We’re very mission driven. Often, employees can see [patients] and see how products are developing,” said Gregory. This enables workers to see how their efforts directly contribute to meaningful outcomes and the impact they’re making. “We’re a team, and in the last 12 months we launched three new products. We’re keeping the patient story front and center.”For example, they offer products for muscular atrophy and multiple sclerosis, and they make it a priority to understand life from a patient’s perspective—not only in their daily work but also in what patients experience beyond the workplace, says Gregory.Ginger Gregory of Biogen was interviewed during the fireside chatA similar approach has positively impacted retention as well, which Gregory attributes to HR's specialized training. “When I started in this career, it was when McKinsey’s War for Talent paper came out: how do we develop talent? How do we get managers to care?” she said. At Biogen, managers are walked through conversations centered on thriving, both for themselves and for their direct reports.“Managers are getting much better at engaging in dialogues with people,” she said. Part of this effort involves orbit programs, where an employee tries out a slightly different function for a set amount of time. “That’s a short way we can get people to try out different things; managers need to know what people want, but they also have to be open to what happens,” said Gregory.Diversity, equity, and inclusion also remain a core value at Biogen. The company has stood firm on its beliefs and practices. “We haven’t rolled back anything. When I came to Biogen, we were already quite advanced, we had employee network groups, community labs, and more,” she said. “We have not changed our approach: inclusion is part of our cultural essential, and we have the backing of our Board and CEO, we believe it’s going to help us be higher performers.”Ultimately, the work being done at Biogen not only fosters a strong internal culture but also enhances the company’s overall mission. By prioritizing open dialogue and understanding the patient experience, Biogen reinforces the value of each employee’s contribution, creating a workplace where individuals feel valued and engaged. This alignment of purpose both inside and outside the company ensures that every effort is directed towards achieving meaningful impact in the lives of patients and the broader community.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
How Leaders Are Fostering Fulfillment Through Engagement and Recognition
BY Angelica Frey October 16, 2024When working from home became a mandate during the pandemic, leaders at Prezzee scheduled a meeting and sent the workforce a gift card so everyone could get a coffee and cake delivered. This was the beginning of their morning tea, a celebration of achievement and opportunity to connect as the workforce moved to virtual. “It’s easy to connect when everyone is [together], now you’ve got to do it when not [physically together],” said Tony Karp, president, North America, at Prezzee.For engagement to be impactful, the efforts have to be frequent, says Karp. “We found that the morning tea became the new water cooler conversation. Everyone scheduled it,” he said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Boston conference. Efforts can be more than morale boosters: they’re a way to shape company culture, and research shows that they are less about the actual material reward and more about what it conveys.As much as organizations can be excited about implementing new methods for recognition and rewards, there are several approaches to ensure the efforts resonate. Mike Dallas, the SVP, global head of employee experience at Manulife, says they rolled out a global recognition platform that enables employees at all levels across the globe to give and receive frequent and authentic recognition. The program, called podium, strived to “give people a podium,” he said. “We hope 75% of people give an award,” he said.Julie Haskell, managing director, head of employee engagement at State Street Corp, believes in the power of simplicity. “Simplicity can be the easiest way to recognize someone,” she said. “Sometimes we fail to just say thank you and good job. There’s not one of us that does not feel better when recognized in a quick way.” Additionally, the power of gratitude is cross-generational, which is a way to side-step the extra hurdle posed by generational differences.The panelists discussed the topic "How Leaders Are Fostering Fulfillment Through Engagement and Recognition," in a panel moderated by Rebecca Knight, contributing columnist at the Harvard Business Review Karp says the ‘how’ matters as much as the ‘what.’ “Sending an email is passé, 12-second videos are too much for anyone under 15. The value is less relevant than how you get it and where it comes from,” he said.Back to the BasicsFancy features don’t matter if basic principles of good management are overlooked. “You need to focus on the basics: how is your performance management system? Is it intuitive? How is your talent acquisition process? Your talent development?” said Angela Cheng-Cimini, SVP, talent and CHRO at Harvard Business Publishing.Sayar Lonial, associate dean, communications and public affairs at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, encourages people to really communicate. “I work at NYU, a very large university, and we try to support the thank-yous on a department level rather than top-down,” he said. “Department managers do a good job, and I have a lucky job of being in communications, so I hear the good and bad from our students and staff. We tell their story about how they made their community better.”Different Needs and FormatsNavigating a multigenerational workforce with varying needs requires diverse solutions. “At Manulife, we started with a framing set of principles that outlines the basics on how and where you work,” said Dallas. “From a recognition standpoint, we make sure all of our populations get recognition: when we have employee events, most have video components. [We see] where common points between cohorts are, and how to address people in celebrating or learning from those events.”Cheng-Cimini emphasizes the crucial role that managers play. “Are your managers skilled at expressing gratitude? All of us are busy, so we forget to pause and say thank you, and that is a skill that needs to be reinforced.” Another important point is asking the employee directly how they like to receive praise. “I know someone who hates public praise. Simply ask: how do you like to receive commendation? Do you want an email? Do you want a cash bonus? Do you like time off?” “And people feel included when you ask them!” Dallas added.The Importance of CommunityWorking in a major city, Lonial recognizes that employees come from all walks of life, and this directly impacts their relationship with their community. “Embracing that community—we need to teach students and employees that they live in a larger world than their job,” he said. “They’re not defined by what their job is, they’re defined by who they are…what you bring to the table is what is going to make that place a better place to be,” he said.Similarly, State Street is a big community, says Haskell. “One of the things we’ve learned is that we are really focused on skills-based volunteering. In a financial-service company, sometimes it’s hard to find a purpose,” said Haskell. She found out that a lot of their non-profit partners have trouble with skills her employees have, such as accounting and press releases. “I give back, I feel good, and I develop my skills.” When employees volunteer, they can fully display their skills. “People are coming out with skills that they have but don’t use on their day to day job,” she said.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Enhancing Holistic Well-Being With Comprehensive Benefits
BY Angelica Frey October 16, 2024There’s no universal solution for maintaining personal well-being, no matter your age, gender, background, or industry. During an executive panel at From Day One’s Boston conference, leaders shared how they prioritize their own well-being.For Barb Short, senior director of corporate social responsibility and engagement at Sanofi, practicing Akashic soul reading is helpful for overall well-being. Aravind Menon, senior director, HR, at P&G practices meditation. Other panelists cited social media purges and having a healthy sleep schedule as helpful tips for maintaining wellness. The panelists shared their tips during a panel titled “Enhancing Holistic Well-Being With Comprehensive Benefits,” moderated by Paris Alston, co-host, Morning Edition, GBH News.A holistic approach to well-being involves nurturing every aspect of an individual’s life, well-being benefits can foster a more holistically healthy workplace, leading to greater productivity, the panelists agreed.From Balance to IntegrationThe idea of work-life balance is becoming outdated in discussions of well-being, as it suggests a constant equilibrium that isn’t always realistic. “We talk about integration, because work and life are not always evened out,” said Hem Patel, VP of total rewards at Moderna. “We do a lot of focus groups, surveys, and hearing [sessions] from people about what they value, particularly as your demographic evolves and changes. We’re continuously listening.”Menon acknowledges that this dynamic is very culture-specific. “Asking someone with a family in the U.S. about what’s important will differ from what’s important for an Indian family in India,” he said. Where the U.S. is looking to prioritize things like surrogacy, adoption, and elder care, in India people are more concerned about getting help for their extended family. “What is a benefit for one might not count for the other. In Boston, we get free parking: it’s a huge benefit here,” he said.Jon Harold, head of sales and partnership at SoFi advocates for financial management. “When the pandemic hit, there were a lot of employees with unexpected expenses, and they don’t often teach financial education in school,” he said. “A lot of employees are looking to employers for that guidance. It can come in coaching, like financial planners, personalized tools, credit score monitoring, or content like webinars and articles.”For Short at Sanofi, the priority is building a culture of purpose. “I am working with my colleagues on that. We believe it is what creates a sense of belonging, and empathy that we all need,” she said.Different Pieces of the PuzzleDifferent needs emerge when you look at organizations that have more than a corporate workforce. At P&G, where 50,000 employees are manufacturers, there are a variety of needs unique to different work and lifestyles.“I was working at home, but a lot of folks were working on the line, and the big lesson there is that employees in manufacturing want work-life balance and flexibility. Their shifts are tough on the body, so they were asking for more flexibility,” said Menon. In response, the company restructured their shifts, and updated some of the factories, offering dining services, open areas, and even on-site gyms.The panelists discussed the topic "Enhancing Holistic Well-Being With Comprehensive Benefits"Moderna, having found itself evolving from a local company to a global leader in immunization, was coping with a lot of pressure. “[Employees] knew they were manufacturing a product that was saving lives, and every hour it did not happen, lives would be lost,” said Patel. “Having that level of stress is really something. Not long into the pandemic we introduced therapy sessions. We had parents working even longer shifts for the importance of what they were making.” Pride in the accomplishment had to be squared with the mental toll it was taking. “Biotech is a crowded space, so we wanted to make sure we were giving the best of the best in terms of benefits,” he said.Leadership Modeling BehaviorWhether there is a lifestyle spending account, benefits offering tuition reimbursement, or coaching, leadership is always at the forefront. And there is often a learning curve involved. “People want to do good but at some point you have to tie rewards to that,” said Menon “We have to get employees to tell stories to our leaders: personal touch, being there, reward is what we primarily focus on.”“Having them express themselves can bring them a long way,” said Short. “Compensation is not really what I hear about, what I hear about is the team they want to be on, who they want to work with,” she said. “We’re aiming to connect people across levels, geography, backgrounds, to ensure manufacturing and the corporate populations are all together.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Employees Have Higher Expectations for Career Development: How Companies Can Respond
BY Angelica Frey October 11, 2024Can companies rooted in tradition and rich cultural legacies adapt to today’s work culture and meet employees’ expectations? “One of the misnomers of longevity in companies is that they’re stuck in their ways,” Cindy Ryan, the head of human resources at MassMutual, told Harvard Business Review’s editor in chief, Adi Ignatius. “Companies with longevity are the ones that must be agile. We have to meet the changing needs of our policy holders and our employees.”Ryan spoke with Ignatius about workforce agility and development during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Boston conference. At MassMutual, one of the ways they stay agile is by fostering an environment where people are encouraged to learn and continually look for ways to improve and challenge the status quo.This creates an environment of learning and growth in which employees recognize that mistakes are part of the process and that their efforts are appreciated. “Whenever we do something, we often say, ‘How could we have done this better? How can we do this differently in the future?’ That’s a big piece of it,” Ryan said.This mindset directly impacts how leaders are trained, especially in the wake of Covid, which shifted employee and leadership expectations. “I think the pandemic put into perspective the things that were most important to [employees] and how they wanted to grow,” said Ryan. Post-pandemic, “most workforces are now dispersed, leaders must introduce new techniques and technologies into the way the lead as employee expectations are different. Setting clear accountability and expectations are key; coaching becomes super important,” she said.The Power of ConnectionTo help support workers through all the changes post-pandemic and support the desire for flexibility, MassMutual worked on a new approach to their hybrid schedule. Employees report into the office three days a week, with two anchor days and one day of their choice. Every Friday the entire company works from home. Additionally, each year there are three company-wide work-from-home weeks, and for four weeks out of the year, employees can work from anywhere, says Ryan.Cindy Ryan, head of HR at MassMutual, was interviewed during the fireside chat While workers appreciate the flexibility, they also understand the importance of connecting. “There’s power in community, power in celebrating, power in being physically together, there’s power in coaching,” said Ryan. “The piece that isn’t talked about enough is development as some of the most effective ways that people learn are through coaching and by learning from others. During the pandemic we were focused on running the business and now [development and learning] are a more important piece of the conversation.”Employee Well-Being Is Top of Mind Our leaders are encouraged to better understand the well-being of employees. “Leaders need to listen to what’s important to the individual, to understand employees have different needs,” said Ryan. “We’re meeting people at various life stages.”MassMutual offers a well-being wallet, a set amount of money per year for the employee to use for qualifying well-being related needs. Another way leaders can advocate for the well-being of their direct reports is to stress on the importance of PTO and encourage them to use the benefits that are provided.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
The Benefits That Employees Want to See Enhanced in 2024
BY Angelica Frey May 16, 2024What does a covetable benefit look like in 2024? Take the pharmaceutical company Moderna’s lifestyle spending account, a cherished benefit that Jeffrey Stohlberg, Moderna’s director of company benefits spoke about in a panel session at From Day One’s Boston Benefits conference. Moderna gives employees $300 a month to use on lifestyle-related activities or purchases. “In addition, if you commute to work in a sustainable fashion,” referring to walking or taking public transportation, “Moderna gives you an additional $100 a month,” said Stohlberg.What constitutes ‘lifestyle’ can differ, a gym membership passes muster, craft beer, not so much. But this is one case of companies encouraging and incentivizing employees in the pursuit of their well-being. When 80% of employees say that they’d stay in a company solely for their benefits, it’s imperative to figure out the ones that matter. “We work with individual employees on how it affects them,” says Britt Barney, head of client success at financial-wellness platform Northstar.To her, it’s about getting tactical with employees making sure it fits in their individual financial brand. “Make sure it’s customizable,” because an intersectional and individualized approach to benefits nurtures diversity and inclusion.At the security company Akamai, a recent survey revealed that most employees want remote work. “95% of our workforce stays working from home,” said Ken Wechsler, Akamai’s VP of total rewards. “Keep things that are good,” he said. For example, the company completely shuts down and institutes wellness micro breaks, where employees are encouraged not to check their phone, or required to appear on video during calls.At Moderna, about 70% of the workforce is in the office. “There is a big focus on collaboration,” said Stohlberg. “People have gotten Zoomed and Teamed out.” The company offers three mental-health recharge days, which employees are highly encouraged to fully take advantage of. Upon their return to the office, the benefit team routinely asks all employees what they did during their recharge days.Cost-Effective BenefitsEvery benefit has a financial implication. “Mental health is a very expensive service,” acknowledged Britt Barney. “Our number one claim is related to anxiety, mental health, and depression, with 42% of the employees children,” said Stohlberg. “It’s a significant issue, and partnering with a mental health vendor has been impactful.”The panel session titled "The Benefits That Employees Want to See Enhanced in 2024" was moderated by Rebecca M. Knight, Contributing Columnist at the Harvard Business ReviewMental health still has some cultural barriers to overcome. “The stigma was that young people were using therapy, [older people] not as much,” Stohlberg said. “Now, over the last few years, we’ve seen employees across the spectrum use therapy.” They offer 26 complementary sessions, and after those are maxed out, you can use the same therapist through BlueCross.Wechsler found similar success in offering complimentary sessions, “I was excited to say we offer 16 [complimentary] mental-health sessions.” His company has 90 employees who act as the point of contact to direct those who need it towards the EAP. The Allure of SemaglutideCompanies have started offering coverage for GLP-1 drugs. “The science of GLP-1 is a real thing, it’s not something that is going away,” said Brian Harty, head of total rewards at Accolade. “These are blockbuster drugs, not just in suppressing appetite, but also for addiction and heart health. The science of it, that’s what I am excited about.”Accolade currently covers GLP-1 drugs for diabetes, and does not cover it when it’s intended for weight-loss medication. There are doubts regarding whether it’s a worthwhile investment, at an estimated cost of $14,000 per year, per patient. “40% of Americans qualify for Wegovy, with a BMI > 27,” Harty said.“When you introduce it like that, there’s no way you can change [the cut-off] to a higher BMI.” For his company, it would mean investing millions.Moderna, by contrast, offers it for weight management and diabetes. “In 2023 we saw a spike related to weight loss management: We looked at claims data, and after mental health, obesity and weight management were the second drivers,” said Stohlberg. Not everyone who wants to manage their weight is encouraged to take semaglutide, though.Moderna also uses a virtual weight-loss management program, where employees can work with a physician specializing in weight loss. “It’s not a path to GLP-1s but [the physicians] can provide medication for that person.” “Why do people need drugs like this?” asks Barney, advocating for a holistic approach. “Weight [can be attributed to] stress and environment. Physical health is not just physical health.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Improving Employee Mental Health and Wellness Benefits
BY Angelica Frey April 09, 2024There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to improving mental health. At From Day One’s Boston benefits conference, a panel of industry leaders shared how they promote mental well-being in their own lives.Jodi LaMae, benefits principal, global total rewards at biotech company Boston Scientific, enjoys hot yoga and walking her dogs. Navin Vettamvelil, senior director of total rewards at software company SoftServe, tries to swim four times a week, which he considers underwater meditation. Other responses included boxing, daily meditation, Muay Thai, and cooking.Mental health benefits are no longer a nice-to-have. Recent research shows that 77% of workers are very (36%) or somewhat (41%) satisfied with the support for mental health and well-being they receive from their employers. In a 2024 survey of 50 benefits leaders across the U.S., 94% of respondents say offering mental health benefits is “very important” to prospective employees—nearly triple the rate of benefits leaders who said this a year earlier.“It’s imperative that we let employees know that mental health is just as important as physical health. A lot of preventive medicine is covered, but many charge for therapists,” said Shawna Oliver, the AVP and head of global benefits and wellness at Manulife. “It’s important to signal to your employees ‘we want you to do this.’ The minute everyone starts talking about it, that’s when barriers start coming down.”Despite the strides made in the workplace, misconceptions and stigmas remain. “As a vendor who works for hundreds of employers, I found that there’s a recognition that mental health and substance abuse are highly stigmatized,” said Yusuf Sherwani, CEO and co-founder of substance abuse management clinic Pelago. “These are not things that people choose. Specialized solutions can be very effective. The final piece is about promoting utilization—by [letting people know] it’s safe, and it’s confidential,” he said.The panel of speakers from left to right included moderator Katie Johnston, reporter at the Boston Globe, Jodi LaMae of Boston Scientific, Robin Berzin of Parsley Health, Yusuf Sherwani of Pelago, Navin Vettamvelil of SoftServe, and Shawna Oliver of ManulifeAnother strategy to support employee well-being is focusing on preventative care. “When it comes to life therapy sessions with a counselor, we put limits” offering three sessions a month or ten a quarter, says Vettamvelil. “Our real focus is about the prevention rather than the cure. If you can nip it in the bud, you can control things down the line.”Robin Berzin, MD, founder and CEO of holistic health company Parsley Health, agrees. A lot of people aren’t getting the right care, she says. “When I was in training, we created a revolving door between primary and specialized care,” she said. “When 60% of adults have a chronic condition, that does not work. At Parsley, we treat the root cause to see if we can slow down the revolving door.”She reports that 25% of their users have two or more conditions. “When we look at the mental health component, I want to ask why everyone is so anxious. It’s not all in our heads. We sit 11 hours a day. A sedentary lifestyle will cause anxiety, insomnia. We’re not a set of organs in jars.” Investing in mental health benefits has a significant impact on ROI.“A lot of times when we say we cover mental health care people look at me like it’s a money pit,” said Oliver. The reality is that it’s less than 1% of the budget, and on top of utilization going up, she reports that short-term disability dropped. “Benefits are not a silo. It’s our job as leaders to say it’s the entire package.”The panelists agreed that communicating benefits is equally important to the offerings themselves. “We have a team that ensures there’s info on mental health benefits in the rec room,” said LaMae. Manulife is now actively planning out mental health month initiatives, offering activities nearly daily, says Oliver. It’s also important to raise these discussions and prioritize well-being as leaders. “We have to talk about it, and say ‘Hey, I’m going for a walk to clear my head,’” said Oliver. “If it doesn’t start with you, it’s never gonna happen.”Holistic care should also be family-inclusive. Sherwani urges people to see mental health and substance abuse not just as an employee challenge, but as a family challenge. “18 months ago we expanded to adolescence, previously an underserved demographic,” he said. “In terms of promoting these programs, people can just put up their hands and know when to reach out.”Not all cultures have the same openness toward mental health as America. Americans abroad might need services that are not as widely offered in their current countries, like telehealth, says LaMae. “Promoting wellbeing is important: make sure employees know about their benefits and they know how and where to get care,” said LaMae. “Work with ERGs,” she advises, “sometimes people aren’t comfortable going to HR, but having employees that double as well-being champions [really helps].”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Walking the Walk: Best Practices for Supporting a Mentally Well Workplace
BY Angelica Frey April 03, 2024The conversation around mental health has drastically changed in the last four years, according to the Vice President of Talent at the mental-health platform Talkspace, Kaleigh Oleynik. Oleynik, a former middle-school teacher, asked for a show of hands from the audience: “How many of you were discussing mental health at work before the pandemic?” Some audience members raised their hands. But when surveyed again to find out who is presently discussing mental health at work, all hands went in the air. “This is a conversation that started before the pandemic,” she said, yet its significance has grown. She traces it back to an article that appeared in Harvard Business Review, which collected quotes from Lady Gaga and Prince Harry that normalized mental health talk.Oleynik spoke in a thought leadership spotlight with colleague Ryan Kellogg, Talkspace’s VP of partnerships & sales effectiveness at From Day One’s Boston benefits event. The speakers explored the intersection of employee well-being and crafting an organizational culture that inspires and uplifts. “What we’re very passionate about is customizing and catering through our virtual mental health options,” said Kellogg. “You really have to step inside the arena with your employees to make sure that they're digesting the information and that you’re catering to their needs.”For instance, it’s important for a user or patient to be able to address a need in real time, potentially pairing up with a licensed therapist within hours or days. Talkspace currently has 5,000 licensed therapists across 50 different states that have a very diverse background. 40% of their therapists specialize in LGBTQ topics, 40% focus on adolescent care, and 30% of them focus on BIPOC patients or identify as BIPOC, with 35 different languages being represented.“That’s very deliberate to ensure that if your employee is looking for mental health care, they’re being treated as the individual they are,” said Kellogg. Benefits-wise, Talkspace is focused on the continuum of care, which, other than the standard offerings in mental health, includes medication management and psychiatry.Talkspace colleagues Kaleigh Oleynik and Ryan Kellogg led the thought leadership spotlight on what it takes to walk the walk when it comes to a mentally well workplace Current areas of interest include women’s health and mental-health resources for the adolescent population. “Over the past year we’ve been very aggressive about partnering with different organizations that also focus on the well-being of their employees, so that we can leverage their network and vice versa,” said Kellogg.At the core of Talkspace walking the walk, is their internal-communications strategy. “During times of deep change, like restructuring, layoffs, or just macro trends that are changing, we focus on communication. That is the root of psychological safety,” says Oleynik.Communication rooted in consistency breeds safety. At Talkspace, every two weeks there is an all-hands meeting that starts the same way: a video introduction, a leader talking, and a deep dive into a specific topic. “I think that last part is actually the most important because we know when people are feeling concerned about the company or disconnected, they can start to feel powerless and a little bit like they’re operating within some sort of black box,” said Oleynik.Oleynik also prioritizes creating a safe space for questions, even on matters that might be complicated or confusing. “We’re a public company, so we have earning calls,” Oleynik continues. “They can be technical, but I mandate that everyone listens to them and then we debrief them: I always say there are no stupid questions.”Communication is more complex than it seems. “I’ve learned the hard way that just because I put out information, am very deliberate, look people in the eye, and have meaningful conversation, doesn't necessarily mean that they feel appreciated,” says Kellogg. It’s imperative to have conversations with everyone, and “rubbing elbows with every layer of your chain of command,” so that you can cultivate trust and ensure everyone feels seen.And sometimes there can be disconnect, where you feel you’ve had these great conversations, but that might not be reciprocated. In this case, to create a feedback loop, Oleynik is a fan of surveys. When they surveyed their employees, “It was really helpful to see where we felt like we were doing a great job of communicating certain things” and also find the spots that could be communicated more thoroughly.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talkspace, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Moving Beyond Pain: A New Approach for a Country in Crisis
BY Angelica Frey April 02, 2024One of Dr. Bijal Toprani’s physical therapy patients was a competitive ice hockey player, even through college. “He was even sticking with it into adulthood, playing in the rec league at New York’s Chelsea Piers,” she said in a thought leadership spotlight during From Day One’s Boston half-day benefits conference. But one day, this patient hurt his back at the gym. The pain became chronic and he needed a solution.“That had a cascading effect on his mental health,” said Dr. Toprani, doctor of physical therapy at Hinge Health, an online clinic for muscle and joint care. The patient was previously playing hockey every Monday among his friends, and skipping that weekly commitment led to isolation. A situation like this can lead to underperformance in work, too. “The patient said they might consider leaving their job because of pain,” she said.To better understand the issue it’s important to understand what chronic pain is. A shoulder strain or a broken bone can be resolved within a reasonable time frame if treated appropriately. “When we think of chronic pain, it’s pain that exists from months to years,” said Dr. Toprani.The people experiencing this pain can become desperate for relief, often turning to opioids. Currently, data shows that one in five people suffering from chronic pain gets an opioid prescription, she says. “Unfortunately, it’s easier, more convenient, and cheaper than finding a physical therapist.”Pain does not exist in a silo, and creates a series of comorbidities. Hinge Health’s 2024 State of Care report indicates that 44% of sufferers are also affected by anxiety, 32% by depression, 26% by a sleep disorder, 22% by obesity. It makes sense: thinking of pain does cause anxiety, it prevents you from falling asleep, and it hinders exercise, which, in turn, can cause weight gain. The costs accrued for musculoskeletal system (MSK) problems amounts to around $635 billion dollars, and it’s estimated that 48% of people don’t do anything about it, other than getting a cortisone shot.Dr. Bijal Toprani of Hinge Health led the thought leadership spotlight during From Day One's Boston Benefits event Physical therapy is considered the best first-line treatment, but remains underutilized. “Another barrier is the lack of understanding of benefits, and that’s specific to MSK care,” said Dr. Toprani. “You don’t know what’s in-network or what’s out-of-network.” Many people in pain believe that traditional PT is too expensive to pursue, and nearly 1/3 find it challenging to access physical therapists. For those who do see a physical therapist, many end up discontinuing their course of care for similar reasons.Physical therapy sits at the intersection of medical care and lifestyle change, and Hinge Health positions itself as a digital clinic specializing in joint and muscle pain, combining technology and traditional physical-therapy care. Chronic pain is more complicated and complex than “just doing exercises,” said Dr. Toprani. Only a small percentage of respondents used digital PT (10%) or a hybrid of digital and in-person PT (17%) in the past 12 months, but they are more likely to have a positive outlook on their pain compared to people who used traditional PT (72%).A digital interface solves another barrier: “48% of people say a digital PT program would make it easier to follow their care plan, and 43% say they need PT care that has a digital component,” said Dr. Toprani, citing Hinge Health’s 2024 report. The digital program is accessible outside of regular work hours, and offers a demonstration of exercises that encourages practice between sessions with a clinician.A MSK program with a digital component has other benefits: those who use Hinge Health report 68% average reduction in pain per participant, says Dr. Toprani, ultimately supporting a happier and healthier patient.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Hinge Health, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Leading With Purpose and Inclusion to Reflect the Next Generation’s Values
BY Angelica Frey October 12, 2023Dan Figurski has four children, three of whom recently entered the workforce. “While interviewing, they asked about the companies’ beliefs and DEI efforts,” he told journalist Delores Edwards, executive producer of Basic Black, GBH News during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Boston conference.“Pay did not seem to be high on their priority list,” Figurski, president of KinderCare for Employers, continues. “When I graduated, I only cared about pay. I had to pry it out of them.”While the story was told half in jest, it certainly drives home the point that for Millennials and Gen Z, pay isn’t as much of a priority as culture, DEI, L&D, and other aspects of organizations. Figurski is mindful of that in his line of work, where he oversees 30,000 educators, 90% of whom are under the age of 28. “If we don’t adjust the hiring process to meet incoming talent, we’re going to miss it entirely,” he reflects.Creating a Purposeful CultureCreating a purposeful culture involves different steps. “First, listen to your employees. Find out what they want and what empowers them,” said Paul Francisco, senior vice president and chief diversity officer at the financial services company State Street.“Make sure we understand who we are,” echoes Amy Van Aarle, executive vice president, marketing and communications for EF Education First. “It’s really about going deep. What do we do well?”For David Fineman, who is the global leader of workforce planning, people analytics and process enablement at the software company PTC, there’s a creative process behind the act of building a purposeful culture. “PTC also means ‘power to create,’” he says. “When you think about creating, you’re creating around different areas: services that benefit stakeholders, meaningful communities, training the next generation of employees.”The panelists discussed the topic “Leading With Purpose and Inclusion to Reflect the Next Generation’s Values” at From Day One's Boston event.“I think alignment is incredibly important, and it’s never perfect. You’re always coming together, coming apart,” says Van Aarle. The lack of perfect alignment can be offset by purpose. “Purpose is really important,” says Marissa Vargas, vice president of DEI at insurance provider Liberty Mutual. “At Liberty we even have a Chief Purpose Officer.”Finding the MotivationOnce it’s been accepted and acknowledged that money is not the first motivator, investing in growth and development becomes paramount. “How can they add skills and grow as professionals? How do people build on that technology base?” says Fineman.Learning and development also means accepting the fact that job hopping is no longer seen as a red flag. “Now, as people have the liberty to change jobs frequently, we have to think about talent mobility,” says Fineman.“Insurance is not always seen as the most glamorous industry,” says Vargas, noting that their challenge lies in attracting the newer generations, with Gen Z being the most eager to bring their whole self to work. “Another way is through letting them know of our commitment. We have a very active ERG, and that’s a great way to cross generations.”At the heart of all of this is transparency. “Everyone wants to politicize DEI, and what we do is stay focused on what matters,” says Francisco. “We have to think of this work as critical. It’s not a nice to have, it’s part of how we do business. We all want to make sure we have a way to put food on the table, but it has to be in a way that’s impactful and for the greater good.”Staying the CourseOne way to make an impact regarding attracting new candidates is actively broadening your talent pool. “Broaden the population of schools—HBCUs, technical programs,” says Fineman. This serves as a foundation for an already vibrant intern program, where “The first interview was not with a hiring manager, but someone who was testing for value. I was one of these ambassadors, and interviewed for that purpose.”This resonates with Francisco, who grew up outside of the United States. Once he moved stateside, he experienced a warm welcome, which led him to end up playing American football. “My experience, in terms of belonging, was just so impactful, that I wanted to feel the same upon joining the workforce,” he says. That was not the case.“I ended up creating a platform, talking about things we didn’t take for granted, and a sense of community we created throughout.” Ambassadors for culture are, in Francisco’s opinion, able to fill that void, and these can be embodied by middle managers, who are at the center of company culture. “I haven’t seen companies invest in them: how do we do that better?” he asked.Van Aarle comments on the obsolete nature of having all the answers. “When I first started managing people, you were supposed to have all the answers. But the truth is, you need a ton of help. I wish I knew that I didn’t need to know everything”And, on that note, Figurski advocates for “an environment where you can be wrong. Years ago, if I was wrong I was punished,” he says. “Now people understand it’s a journey. You have to meet people where they are.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
How an Iconic Brand Cultivates Its Workplace Culture for Modern Times
BY Angelica Frey October 05, 2023“I am in service of Main Street, not Wall Street,” said Christine Kinahan, Welch’s chief people officer. Kinahan was interviewed by Callum Borchers, workplace columnist for the Wall Street Journal during the opening fireside chat of From Day One’s Boston conference.Kinahan became Welch’s chief people officer after almost 15 years at Schneider Electric, and a year-long stint at product design company Shark Ninja. “When Welch’s came knocking, I had no idea what a cooperative was. I learned it was owned by 700 families.” This caused a drastic shift in mindset, but Kinahan is used to shifting gears.Kinahan is a polymath in the HR space. She has a master’s degree in political science from Villanova University, work experience wherever Schneider took her, including Rhode Island, Tennessee, Shanghai, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Southern France, and is certified to drive a forklift.Moving between states, countries, and continents taught her how different cultures approach work. She also came to understand the frustration frontline workers experienced when their bosses lacked understanding around what they do. “That’s the perfect case of why I learned how to drive a forklift,” she said to Borchers. “We were having so many issues in attracting and retaining talent and getting them to understand the test–you have to take a test for PIT (powered industrial truck). We were struggling with the recruiters on how to bring people in quickly.” The best way to understand this gap was to learn the skills that were a pain point.Kinahan and Borchers kicked off the event at the Artists for Humanity Center in BostonWelch’s is still dealing with talent shortage. “I think the talent shortage is still very real. We’ve been slow to adapt, we have to change the mindset of hiring managers to skills-based hiring more, lowering requirements more, investing in L&D more. I want to see more investment in technical schools,” she continues. “You don’t need the classic credentials if you have the requisite skills.”Kinahan recommends starting by understanding who your hiring managers are, and if they’re trained to hire correctly. What are the cultural differences in your company, from a value perspective, that you need to work out very quickly? She endorses the Who hiring method, saying it has helped her understand who people are.The hiring process moved to a scorecard model, which entails the core competencies, the values, and what’s needed for the job. “I tend to build a scorecard for very critical roles,” she says, acknowledging that it’s labor-intensive. She then expands it with the following criteria: What are we able to coach? What can be seen as a growth area? What are we able to accept that this candidate may not change in that area? “We’re hiring full-blown adults that have already materialized into certain behaviors that we might not be able to coach out,” she reasons. “There has to be that acceptable threshold.”A good start is accepting that making everybody happy is impossible, and adaptability is key. “Equity is so important, and taking the time to really listen, it’s important for us as leaders to be there and it’s important to show gratitude and appreciation to those workers who have to be on the line,” she said.“We’re also responding to the market of employees. It’s more of a gig economy, and some don’t want to work 12 months, some just want to do 8 months. We bring seasonal workers in, from a business perspective. Without that ability to adapt, we would be struggling for sure.”Still, she hasn’t felt this energized in quite some time. “Yesterday we spent all day with our sales team. We had about 30 people of all different levels, talking about what we wanted to focus on for the next few years—we wouldn't have been able to do that as effectively in a hybrid environment,” she told Borchers. “There were so many of those water cooler conversations, so many opportunities for us to get consensus and alignment,” she said. “We’re a CPG company, we have to be there to test it, see it, make it happen.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
The Future of Work Is Here: New Workspaces and New Workflows
BY Angelica Frey October 04, 20232023 marks important milestones in technology and workplace trends. LinkedIn is 20 years old, Google is now 25 years old, as is the iMac computer, which revolutionized the design of desktop computers and modern workstations.These anniversaries are important in understanding workplace trends, as they go hand in hand with technology developments. During a recent thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Boston conference, Matthew Confer, VP of Strategy at Abilitie, listed quiet hiring, AI, loud quitting, hybrid work, remote employees, non linear workdays, and boomerang employees as the trending topics in workplace trends, as found on TikTok.And, perhaps counter to the trends of asynchronicity and location flexibility as observed in the last three years, companies are mandating returns to office.“Zoom brought people back to the office this year and it was not lost on the media,” said Confer. As of 2023 only 30% of Americans work from home, the National Bureau of Economics Research reports. Full-time work from home now only applies to 12% of the workforce. 58.7% of Americans work full-time on site, and that is reflected in the search trends: lunch options, backpacks, and how to make a presentation.There’s less flexibility than in 2020, but there’s still flexibility within reestablished constraints. Companies are offering “work from anywhere” weeks, a set amount of time when you can work from anywhere, without it compromising your PTO. “This was rolled out alongside a more stringent requirement to be in the office,” said Confer.Matthew Confer of Abilitie led the thought leadership spotlight sessionBut while workers might be in the office physically, more and more of their tasks are taking place virtually, especially with developments in AI. ChatGPT surpassed 100 million users in two months. To compare, the telephone only reached this number of users 90 years after its introduction.At work, ChatGPT helps with tasks such as writing and refining an email, design ideas, searching for information and analyzing data, and drafting blogs. The language model is now sophisticated enough that it scored in the 97th to 99th percentile of the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking.In a survey of 31,000 people, 49% are worried about AI. Still, of those surveyed, 70% would still use it as a tool. It’s not all dire, it’s a matter of using it sensibly. “The buzzword of next year will be responsible AI,” says Confer.When it comes to delegating, AI could help tremendously in meetings. Meetings can spend too much of a company’s time (and dollars). “Over half of remote workers say that the vast majority of meetings just could have been an email,” says Confer.Shopify decided to cancel meetings with more than three people that were set up as recurring, requiring organizers to manually re-book these time slots if they were needed. They added a widget that would show an estimate of how many company dollars the meeting would cost. Organizations should think of how to implement AI in their stead if meetings are still important to the company. The technology could dial in, give you a summary of the meeting, and inform you of your priorities.“Technology is amazing, it moves unbelievably fast,” says Confer. “People are creative, and there's absolutely no idea and nobody has a prediction about what the ideal home office will look like in the future.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Abilitie, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Fostering an Inclusive Work Environment: Embracing Diversity in Every Form
BY Angelica Frey June 26, 2023Diversity is not limited to the identities that are visible upon first meeting someone. Kristen Carlisle, the VP and general manager at the benefits platform Betterment has been living with an auto-immune condition for the past ten years, something that had a considerable mental, physical, and financial impact on her. Dave Wilkin, founder of the mentoring and networking platform 10kc.com, grew up a gay, STEM-loving kid in a small town who would never have gone to college were it not for a scholarship. Timothy Fair, VP of DEI at Burlington, is proud of his religious identity. “I am deeply guided by an identity that’s usually invisible,” he tells journalist Lydia Dishman during a panel titled “How to Embrace Diversity of All Kinds in the Workplace” during From Day One’s June virtual conference.“Those principles have really guided the way I see the world and how the world sees me,” said Fair. Sometimes, being less overt about one’s own identity makes it also harder to connect to one’s own heritage and community. “I faced a little bit of discrimination around my heritage: if you don’t present a certain way, your own community pushes you back,” said Stacie deArmas, SVP of DEI at audience insight platform Nielsen.When it comes to diversity and inclusion, we're not always looking at the full, intersectional picture. There can be a lack of awareness around diversity that we cannot see. Especially when around 15-20% of the working population is neurodivergent; 21% have some type of disability; and an estimated 50% don’t have a college degree.It’s easy to overlook these aspects of one’s identity, as they require intentional inquiries that don’t arise from day-to-day small talk or surface-level conversation. “People need to remember that this is a discipline: most of us have been doing it a very very long time,” said deArmas. “I have a business card from 2002 where [this work was called] multicultural advocacy.”Beginning a Conversation“What we have to anchor ourselves in is that there are still a lot of places where you can still lose your job through these invisible barriers,” said Wilkin. “For me, as a white male that’s gay, I don’t need to come out unless I want to. Some people don’t have that luxury, they come out in every single meeting they walk into.” The questions to ask are: do people with invisible barriers have the mentoring, the sponsorship with colleagues who give them space to share mental health challenges? “Everyone has to be anchored in the fact that if you don’t create the spaces, people are not going to bring their skills of uniqueness to the table,” Wilkin continues.The full panel of speakers during the June virtual conference, from top left, moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company, Stacie deArmas of Nielsen, Kristen Carlisle of Betterment, Pragashini Fox of Thomas Reuters, Timothy Fair of Burlington Stores, and Dave Wilkin of 10kc.com (photo by From Day One)Fair concurs with Wilkin, adding that it’s crucial to actively bring people in. “One of the things that’s critical is having people across the organization see themselves as part of the diversity narrative,” he said. He sees the way we tend to dichotomize differences as a hindrance. “By virtue of doing that, we’re not allowing people with invisible identities to leverage the array of identities in a way that leads them to say “oh, I am X.” One question to ask is: “As it relates to your team, what are the voices that are missing?” asked Fair.Pragashini Fox, the head of talent and DEI, and head of HR for product at Thomson Reuters, says that the difference in talent acquisition in the past three years has mostly been about intentionality. Job postings have to have equitable language. “We implemented talent reviews with the CEO just to keep it top of mind,” Fox said. In addition, when it comes to neurodiversity and invisible barriers, they implemented internship programs for people with autism, even in high-school and university level.Leaders Buying into an Inclusive WorkplaceStacie deArmas encourages engagement with Nielsen’s diverse population through business resource groups (BRGs), the voluntary, employee-led groups that serve as a resource for members and their employers by fostering a diverse, inclusive workplace while aligning with the organization. “Through that, we have seen more openness in accessibility, a better understanding, where we can see the engagement occur more naturally,” deArmas said. “Improve engagement through opportunities that are deliberate; create engagement opportunities that are authentic and lead to the development of that leader.” This involves having allies explicitly invited, and Nielsen makes that clear for all their sessions. “That’s something we’re trying,” Fox adds, referring to Thomson Reuters’ efforts. "The feedback is that it’s hard to get others to opt in, and the reason I found is that they don’t attend out of fear." They are told that they don’t have to actively say anything, but limit themselves to listening. However, Fox also gave specific guidance on how it is fine to ask questions in the spirit of learning. “We’re starting to see these walls break down, with allies becoming sponsors,” says Fox. The Leading Role of BenefitsOn the benefits front, employers are facing a really big challenge, in large part because the macroenvironment has changed significantly. “One of the major challenges is identifying those needs and continuing to nurture them as the climate changes,” says Carlisle. For example, people are thinking a lot about student loans because the payment pause is almost up. “It’s hard to hit the masses, and the first thing is actually listening to the employee base,” she continues. “We suggest just regular surveys and focus groups and bringing in consultants—because it feels less about the boss having info about you—to really understand the themes, and how you can fit those needs.” If you reviewed your benefits five years ago and they had been proven to be great, the likelihood of them being obsolete and outdated is quite high. “It’s important to think them through on a regular cadence. Do it every quarter,” said Carlisle. Part of the challenge is balancing cost and coverage. “Work with partners, programs helping you center around a core theme with intentionality,” she said. This happens through empowering managers across the hierarchy. “We expect a lot out of managers,” Carlisle concludes. “That’s not a known skill, that’s a learned skill. Invest in the management layers: help them understand and promote values.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Exposing a Culture of Exclusion at the Most Prestigious Firm on Wall Street
BY Angelica Frey June 09, 2023Jamie Fiore Higgins believes that what helped her last for 19 years at Goldman Sachs, before she left and penned Bully Market: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs, was more than just a very strong work ethic and a head for numerical reasoning. Rather, she was also good at keeping her mouth shut, she told HBR journalist Nicole Smith. Higgins spoke with Smith in a fireside chat at From Day One’s November virtual conference, Making Your Company a Magnet for a Diverse Workforce. “Once I left, I did a lot of thinking and considering what I've been a part of,” said Higgins. “I did a 180—in this process, I did a 180 back to myself. I wanted to take that muzzle off.”Her main intention was not just to shine a light on the way these organizations wield their power from a methodical and company-culture perspective. She also wanted to spotlight “the dust bunnies no one wants to talk about. Although my setting was Goldman Sachs, the themes in my book transcend any industry and company,” she explains. “The most amazing part was the impact I could see on my readers—from Wall Street to medicine.”For her, it really started from day one. “They lock the doors,” she explained. This meant that, if an employee happened to be late, they were not allowed to come in unless the boss’s boss accepted some form of apology. In addition, being called upon during a meeting to provide an answer could result in an expulsion from that meeting if the answer happened to be wrong. “We’d be congratulated one day, disparaged the next day: this gaslighting situation was giving you a bad case of impostor syndrome.”Higgins noticed that the company excelled at convincing employees to fully identify with it, and to see their successes as defining markers of their identity. Examples of toxic behavior perpetrated within the company included her being told that she had only gotten promoted because of her gender; having her colleagues moo at her after she pumped for her fourth child—which, was, in itself, an act of defiance against the superior who had advised her not to breastfeed; and the fairly liberal use of racial epithets in meetings without any repercussions.Jamie Fiore Higgins was interviewed during the From Day One fireside chat (company photo)Even after 9/11, when Higgins and some coworkers witnessed the attack, while others never came back to the office, Higgins decided to stay. “My mentor Molly told me: respond, don’t react,” she said. “Knowing that I could only leave Goldman once, believing that phrase, I tried not to be impulsive. My impulse was that, but big decisions need to be honored with time and consideration: even though pressure was mounting, I had to be comfortable with the discomfort.” At the time, she realized it was more valuable for her to stay.She no longer believes in this rhetoric. “You’re an at-will employee,” she said, adding that she sees career as a pie consisting of many slices: compensation, challenge, fulfillment, and life. In time, she learned how to push back on the toxic attitudes. “The most important real estate is between your two ears,” she said. Still, Higgins does not see herself as blameless. She was, in equal parts, a victim and a participant in that culture. Her family history had led her to live with a scarcity mindset, so she stayed year after year, to reap bonuses and promotions. “The irony is [that] I wasn’t spending it,” she said. “I saw the bad things that money did to people. I had this aversion to the material part, yet [an] attraction to it.”Owing to the company’s structure, there was also harsh competition among women, and Higgins was, by her own admission, not blameless in that aspect. “If you bring one up, she’s gonna eat your lunch,” is how she describes the general antagonistic attitude. “All the women were crowding around the same four guys, because [the men] were the ones in power.” In fact, upon the release of her book, Higgins heard from the very same women whom she herself did not help. “I now get why what happened to me happened,” they told her.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Holistic Wellness for Women: Supporting Health in Every Life Phase
BY Angelica Frey June 09, 2023When Shauna Murphy Cour, the vice president of employer sales at Ovia Health, had her three kids, she was working for a tech company. From the outside, it looked like she had all the right benefits to support her journey through pregnancy and early motherhood.“I had 20 weeks paid leave, but the culture, at the time, had me sneak out of the back door [for family obligations and for doctors’ visits], I’d be pumping in the storage closet,” she told journalist Kelly Bourdet during a From Day One webinar on fertility and parental benefits titled “Why Fertility and Maternity Care Management Are a Perfect Pairing for Workers and Their Employers.”And while stigma for conditions such as mental health and fertility issues has decreased, the truth is that many still consider women’s health a niche benefit, even though it’s an extremely vast industry with different goals and facets. In the case of fertility, there is an overall lack of awareness on the matter, which is a missed opportunity in terms of proactive family planning and early detection.A platform like Ovia, a maternity and family-planning benefits solution for employers and health plans, allows patients to explore all paths to parenthood, including ART, adoption, and the collaboration with a gestational carrier. That’s where Cour eventually landed, and she currently leads Ovia’s sales team. “I was fed up with the lack of focus on women’s health.”A Proactive Approach, Before the Family-planning StageOvia’s platform includes preventive care, such as preservation, but it can also include the diagnosis and treatment of infertility. “In terms of treatment, most of us think of IVF, but there’s also medical treatments: drugs, IUI, it can also include donor sperm for male infertility, which involves 30% of infertility cases,” says Dr. Leslie Saltzman, Ovia’s chief medical officer.Other benefits also include gestational carrier services. That’s the competitive advantage of a platform like Ovia, an exclusive focus on fertility care as opposed to preventive care and assistance through early parenthood lacks understanding of what can happen downstream. “The thing about fertility service is that there’s all types of data: all types of medically assisted reproduction, including taking medicines, make pregnancies higher risk,” says Saltzman.It’s not an assessment based on gestational age, but it’s the result of the comparison of an unassisted vs an assisted pregnancy among women of the same age. Other higher-risk factors include: multiple gestation, preterm birth, preeclampsia, abruption, and C-section delivery. “We also see other types of risk factors: Black women using ART have higher rates of infant mortality,” continues Dr. Saltzman.The leaders from Ovia Health were interviewed by journalist Kelly Bourdet (photo by From Day One)Still, it all starts with preventive care and a proactive approach to reproductive health. “We’d prefer that a person with PCOS and endometriosis be diagnosed earlier, so they can learn how to best maximize their chances,” she explains. “And because these pregnancies are higher-risk, it’s good to have the resources.” Such an approach will, ideally, avoid using unnecessary technology, and prevent high-cost outcomes because people are supported through their pregnancy.Support in All Stages of Life“What happens, often, is that when you try to get pregnant, you try to jump into the deep end,” says Cour. “By that point, you should have been monitoring for many years, and we have women starting at age 18.” On the other end of the spectrum, last year Ovia added perimenopause focused care, which has historically been massively underserved, both in terms of research and science. “Like many things, we’re told to muscle through it,” says Cour. “That’s where we have people come in. We understand where they’re at, what they’re looking for. We’re that source that’s there.”This also means supporting patients in their day-to-day management of their fertility and family-planning journey. “It can feel dark and isolating, but after a few appointments, appointments happen very frequently,” says Betsy Akins, Ovia’s VP of client success. “It’s all based on your ultrasound schedule, and when you’re attending with someone else, it’s also difficult for their schedule.” This means it’s also important to be empowered to learn what benefits are readily available: sometimes you’re unaware that you have, say, 10 free sessions of therapy, or mental-health screenings. And, ideally, when people are aware of their suit of benefit, they can help their coworkers, by pointing out something that they were unaware of.Benefits as a Catalyst for Gender Equity in the WorkplaceMaking fertility benefits accessible is essential. Especially in an era where women’s representation in the workforce is lower than in the 1980s. “Now it’s about DEI and retaining talent: how do you make it real, so that’s tangible and quantifiable?” Cour asks rhetorically. That’s when fertility and family-planning benefits become huge: women start trying later, and might want to freeze their eggs to keep options open. “Having alternative pathways has become such an important benefit,” she says.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, for sponsoring this webinar.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Unlocking Our Full Potential: Breaking Free From Limiting Habits, Jobs, and Business Models
BY Angelica Frey June 05, 2023Would you believe that even the most accomplished individuals in their field deal with the feeling of being stuck?Adam Alter, the author of Anatomy of a Breakthrough: How to Get Unstuck When It Matters Most relays that Lionel Messi, perhaps the greatest living soccer player, is famously quite anxious. When he was starting out his coaches noted that while physically and athletically accomplished, he lacked temperament.Messi subsequently had to learn to quell his anxiety, and his solution might seem paradoxical. “He learned to start the game by not playing for the first few minutes,” Alter told journalist Lila Seidman of the Los Angeles Times during From Day One’s May virtual conference. “He spends the first 2-3 minutes just ambling around. If you plot the path, everybody is darting around. Messi is barely moving: it quells his anxiety, but he’s also tactically beneficial, he’s surveying the territory. When it comes time to play for the remaining minutes, he’s in a better tactical position.”At the core of Anatomy of a Breakthrough, is the idea that trying to counteract stuckness with frantic action is counterproductive.Stuckness is something that is extended or chronic. “It’s not the momentary frustration. Those crop up all the time,” explained Alter. Being stuck is something that plagues people in the long haul. In addition, Alter urges people to focus away from achievement alone.Rather, he is interested in the kind of positive outcomes that follow frustration, friction, and difficulty. “One of the interesting features is how many interesting paradoxes you encounter,” he explains. “When you’re stuck, you should do nothing. We tend to flail in the phase of stuckness. We’re well adapted to deal with physical stuckness, we're not adapted to deal with stuckness with emotional consequences. Before you do anything, grapple with the fact you’re in this provoking, lonely situation. There are paradoxes that apply to breaking free and breaking through.”Lila Seidman interviewed Adam Alter in the grand-finale fireside chat during the From Day One May virtual conference (photo by From Day One)This involves reframing how to view the feeling of difficulty. Difficulty typically awakens strong, negative emotions. “As a species, [we need to] recognize we’re in the position of stuck and failing,” he explains. “Those failures, as you mount them, become the source behind success.” In fact, the idea of succeeding quickly is a myth. “The deeper you dig, you start to see that no success comes from a vacuum: it’s important to view those failures as essential, and that in itself calms people down,” says Alter.Stuckness does not just plague individuals, but companies too. “When I was a grad student, when recruiters came to campus, they wouldn’t just go to the finance people,” recalls Alter. “A lot of these firms will say “show me the best Russian literature majors,” and pick from the non-overlapping fields.” This resulted in the recruitment of smart people who would learn on the job but would bring a different perspective to the workplace.In addition, some companies purposely cultivate conflict: there’s evidence that if you have an incompetent AI bot that influences your process, even if it’s not productive, it shakes things up. These bots unstick you faster. On a human level, Pixar has adopted a similar strategy: while the bulk of the work consists of creating and animating immersive worlds where water flickers and even the thinnest strand of grass moves at the slightest breeze, they purposely bring in conflict in their artistic process. They’ll bring in a storytelling expert who intentionally cares little about graphics and visuals, shifting the focus. “The black sheep will push back,” says Alter. “You should have one or two in your circle.”Getting unstuck also requires the act of reframing the way we perceive creativity. Creativity has two lenses, explains Alter. “One is the insight lens,” says Alter. “Insight is the one we most associate with the standard definition of creativity. Sure, some people have more insight than others, and this gives them more ideas. I find it an upsetting idea. It’s not supported by research,” says Alter. By contrast, the production lens says that creativity is a matter of circumstance, hard work, and a lot of sleep—and sleep is dramatically important.“We have this illusion that we think that our best ideas come first and the bad ideas follow,” of course, it’s not factually correct. Try asking people to list unusual foods to eat at Thanksgiving. “The first 10 ideas tumble out, the others take effort to come by, because all the obvious stuff is gone,” explains Alter. “There’s a reason the first ideas come easily: they’re not creative.” People erroneously think that the ideas that come after are inherently worse. “If you spend an extra 10 minutes, those are the divergent drives,” says Alter. “It’s not just persevering: when things get hard, that’s when the good stuff starts to happen.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
How Family-Forming Benefits Can Save Your Company Money
BY Angelica Frey June 01, 2023Picture this: Sarah and Zach are a heterosexual couple in their late 30s, and they’re nervous about how long it will take them to get pregnant, because Sarah has friends who had to undergo treatment. Thanks to her benefit portal, she decides to talk to a fertility coordinator, who introduces her to resources such as nutrition counseling and access to a wearable ovulation tracker. Sarah gets pregnant after 3 months and, thanks to her benefits, has access to prenatal yoga. In the end, she has a healthy pregnancy and delivers a healthy baby.In another case, Emily is a single mom by choice and wants a second child. During her first pregnancy, she needed a C-section, because the baby was breech. She assumed that, because she’d had one C-section, she would need one for her second birth. Emily used her benefits to get pregnant via intrauterine insemination using a donor. Then, after exploring her new company’s benefits, she scheduled a call with a midwife, who asked her if she wanted to attempt a vaginal delivery. Emily then worked with a doula, talked to her doctor, and changed her birth plan. She went into labor and had a vaginal birth. These are just two examples that Allen Niemynski, Account Executive for Enterprise Sales at the fertility and family-forming benefits platform Carrot Fertility, provided during a From Day One webinar, titled “How Fertility Benefits Can Save a Company Money.” He acknowledges that it might seem counterintuitive at first, as family forming benefits are notoriously expensive. But fertility challenges can result in frequent doctor’s appointments and medical treatments with side effects that lead to absenteeism and other expensive consequences. Fertility benefits can help lower overall costs by retaining valuable employees, helping meet DEI goals, and, by intervening early in the process with less invasive options, curbing high-cost claims. Retention always takes significant resources, as replacing and training a new employee can require six to nine months.In fact, what would have happened without access to these benefits? Many companies would have required that Zach and Sarah try getting pregnant for one year before covering assisted reproductive technology–first, intrauterine insemination, followed by IVF (in vitro fertilization). Each round of IUI costs $4,000, while IVF costs $21,000 per round, and many people require more. Preventative care allowed Zach and Sarah to get pregnant without intervention.In Emily’s case, C-sections increase costs; by avoiding a C-section, someone working at a self-insured company would save around $20,000–and would have a safer birth experience. Since education is still lacking, only 13.3% of women opt for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). That’s where robust pregnancy resources come in: talking to a doula reportedly reduces C-section rates when the alternative is medically safe.Allen Niemynski, enterprise account executive for Carrot Fertility, led the webinar (company photo)Fertility benefits allow employees not to use their insurance plan to access these resources, so employers save even more money when employees manage to grow their families without intervention thanks to preventative measures. Providing personalized care means, say, offering IVF if it’s right for the patient. In certain cases, though, IVF can cause more harm than good and have bad business consequences. Niemynski likens IVF to treating back pain with back surgery. “More than 66% of Carrot members selected non-invasive interventions over surgery as a first line,” he said. For example, one of the first-line resources is discounted access to an ovulation tracker, which measures five different parameters and identifies fertile windows. Here again, the need for education can come into play, as there’s a general lack of awareness that one can only conceive during a limited amount of time in a cycle.“In the last 10 years, fertility benefits were mainly focused in the tech sector, but that’s changing,” said Niemynski. “We’re seeing industries, across all sizes, embrace fertility benefits, and it’s because we really need to. One out of eight couples experiences fertility challenges.” Historically, fertility has been a taboo subject, but people have become increasingly comfortable with sharing their personal stories. Male infertility is also being discussed more and more: the sperm count dropped 60% in the last 40 years. Despite the misconception that most fertility challenges lie within women, 40% of issues actually start with men. “Everybody needs the option to start the family they want,” said Niemynski. Carrot’s benefits extend beyond fertility strictly speaking, and Niemynski favors the phrase “family forming.” Family-forming benefits can help companies reach DEI goals by providing options to the LGBTQIA+ workforce and by boosting equity, ensuring that all employees have access to high-quality care. Supporting a diverse workforce makes smart business sense, as diverse companies experience better business outcomes.Niemynski explains the case of Michael and Nick, a same-sex couple who want to adopt a child. Intending to adopt in the United States, they assume they’ll go through the agency route. But their benefit portal routes them to an expert, who lets them know about common costs associated with foster-to-adopt, agency, and independent options. Michael and Nick inquire about self-guided options and research platforms that operate without an agency. A self-guided route, through which the majority of costs are related to legal work, means that the couple can spend $10,000-15,000, as opposed to $30,000-60,000. They chose this option and welcomed their babies. A benefit package covering up to $20,000 for family forming would completely support this journey. Adoption-related family-forming benefits are crucial for the LGBTQIA+ workforce: 26% of same-sex couples adopt, but only one out of five companies offer adequate resources. In parallel to family-forming benefits, Carrot also offers resources for menopause, a natural part of aging. Since menopause is not a disease, it’s under-researched, and only 25% of OBGYN programs provide menopause training. Still, menopause has a significant impact on health. Changes in estrogen and progesterone affect the brain, the reproductive system, and other organs. These symptoms can also negatively affect life score, decrease productivity, and impair daily activities. 7% of women experience early-onset menopause, which carries the additional risks of osteoporosis, heart disease, and more. Take the case of Rebecca, the VP of finance at her company. At 49, she starts having hot flashes and trouble sleeping. One year later, symptoms worsen: she becomes fatigued during the work day and can’t sleep at night. Her GP says the symptoms are just a part of life. But during a work meeting that offers an overview of benefits, she learns she can find a doctor who specializes in menopause, as well as join a support group addressing the pros and cons of HRT. She starts treatment and finds that her support group is invaluable. “We estimate $10,000 in retention savings,” said Niemynski. “But for a senior leader like her, savings might be much higher.” There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to creating a suite of family-forming benefits, but Carrot does have one rule when it comes to connecting patients with resources: “No Google,” Niemynski said. “There’s a lot of terrible information that can lead you down a dangerous rabbit hole, and that will make people invest money in places that will not help them achieve their goals.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Carrot Fertility, for sponsoring this webinar.
Equipping Workers With the Skills to Thrive in Times of Constant Change
BY Angelica Frey May 25, 2023Alicia Lopez is a true embodiment of Cisco's core belief in “One Company, Many Careers” and the principle that “An Individual Owns Their Career.” Lopez holds the position of head of learning and careers at Cisco, but her journey within the company began in 1996 as an operations manager. Over the years, she has taken on various roles, including chief of staff, manager of business operation and director of operations leadership and intelligence.The software development company has a four pronged approach in its learning and development efforts, all focused on how people’s personal brands, networks, expertise, and experience apply to a career mindset. “Your career shouldn’t just be something when you’re looking for a new job, but it should be something intentional and nurturing,” Lopez told journalist Kelly Bourdet during the closing fireside chat at From Day One’s April Virtual conference.Personal brand is the first line of action. When one thinks about personal brands, it’s easy to associate it with something outwardly facing, such as LinkedIn and Twitter. But it’s more than that.“It’s important that you’re known in your team, but it’s also your legacy: what do you want to create, what do you want people to know you did?” said Lopez.Journalist Kelly Bourdet, left, interviewed Alicia Lopez, right, during the virtual fireside chat (photo by From Day One)Learning and development also places a lot of emphasis on career exploration. The exploratory phase is one of the five mindsets that Lopez discussed during the fireside chat. “We always want to make sure you’re running towards something, not running away,” she said. To that, internal mobility is highly promoted: for the first 60 to 90 days, open positions are solely advertised internally. After exploration comes the establishing phase. “For the best role, you shouldn’t go to the role where you have 100% the skill,” Lopez said. “You always have to move and learn something different.”Once someone establishes themselves, the next mindset is achievement mode. This one is focused on upskilling opportunities. The following step focuses on giving back, and after that, there is reinvention, especially in light of recent technological developments like Chat GPT. “Reinventing is an important space. How do you want to show up and create a different soundtrack?” said Lopez. “How do you want to ensure [that your skills] stay relevant?”This approach also actively helps people interview and optimize their resume “We give a lot of support, which is sometimes met with resistance—part of the pushback was ‘you’re gonna train them to leave us,’” said Lopez. But, “it’s our job to nurture them.” Lopez said.“What we need to acknowledge is that there’s a war on talent, especially in skillsets that haven’t been created,” said Lopez. “One of the things we’re testing is how we can do some reskilling. A lot of places can do upskilling, but how can we help you reinvent yourself when we know what leaders are going to say you need”For now, they utilize something that Lopez calls self-driven reskilling. “We’re offering a variety of learning opportunities, similar to a master’s program,” she explains. “From a cost perspective it’s a break even, but we get loyalty and following, and that’s priceless.”At Cisco, learning is at the forefront and reskilling is rapid. Recently, Cisco started Cisco Illuminate, a quarterly event for all employees. The company takes employees offline for these events. Past speakers include Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama, Robin Arzon. The last Illuminate event attracted 45% of the workforce. “What we found is that employees are canceling meetings and saying we’re going. Leaders are moving meetings,” said Lopez. The next Illuminate event will focus on teams in a hybrid workforce. “What we’re finding is that we still need connection when it’s relevant. We’re starting to see studies where career is impacted,” said Lopez. “We’re just paying attention, we don’t want to pull people together to have coffee together, we want it to be purposeful.”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.
Budgeting for Family Caregiving: Tangible Metrics that Drive Impact
BY Angelica Frey May 23, 2023Mike Quigg spends every day thinking about caregiving, and not just because he is the VP and head of strategy of the caregiving platform ianacare—where ‘iana’ stands for I am not alone. In fact, he told the audience of a From Day One webinar, he has been the primary caretaker of his mother throughout her 15-year journey with cancer. In this role, Quigg alternates between periods of well-being and more challenging times. “She is on medicare; it was my responsibility to sit through and understand the coverage and allowances, and understand what to do when benefits maxed out. Short and long-term planning,” he told Cara Obradovitz Flavin, national health and productivity consultant of the insurance service provider Alliant.Worker access to caregiving benefits directly impacts an organization. The burden of caregiving leads to increased turnover, absenteeism, decreased productivity, and people leaving the workforce, Obradovitz Flavin explains. “It’s difficult to quantify the need, but we know it’s there,” she acknowledged. “Making the business case for adding benefits is a little different: we have quantifiable success metrics for diabetes, nothing as straightforward with caregiving.” Statistics can offer some perspective: Starting in 2030, BCG reports, the United States will lose $290 billion in GDP per year due to the care crisis. By 2034, adults 65+ will outnumber children under the age of 18.Understanding Consumer Preferences in Terms of UXBenefit platforms that focus on a 100% personalized, 1:1 approach, as well as those that are 100% digital, both fall short in some areas. As for how to weigh the options, Quigg suggested “moving away from what we feel is best and moving to what consumer demands and data is needed. Human beings behave in ways that are tied to immediate gratification, and anything that causes friction reduces the likelihood a consumer will continue engaging with a solution.” Culturally and societally, we’ve come to expect a certain level of ease, and many innovations feed in the ability to self-serve. “People prefer chatbots and FAQs, convenience, and their own timelines,” he continued. “It might feel better to have human support, but solely focusing on that might ignore how consumers behave.” (Is this convenience-focused behavior good for society? That’s a question for another webinar.)A Multi-layered ApproachQuigg believes in a multilayered approach, which constitutes the user experience of ianacare: it’s the ideal third way between a one-size-fits-all approach and the frustrating multi-point solution that leads to decreased usage.Mike Quigg, the VP, head of strategy & growth for ianacare (company photo)“The way we look at this is aligned with considering consumer behavior and demand. What that has led us to put together is five unique layers, a combination of technology-focused intervention paired with on-demand, 24/7 dedicated support,” he says. “Both are important to appeal to the entirety of the population, no matter whether they prefer immediate access and self-solving or they run into more complex scenarios where an expert would alleviate the burden.” Just relying on one approach is insufficient and would drive away some participants and lower a program’s impact.The first layer is the patient’s social circle: when a loved one is diagnosed with a new condition, one of the things you hear is “friends and family.” It seems quite simple, but coordinating, communicating, and contextualizing what kind of help is needed is a burdensome task for caregivers. Often, they go without coordinating and communicating. This leads to a negative impact on financial, physical, mental well-being. “What we’ve done from a tech perspective is bring people’s support circles into the platform in order to communicate needs to the people who want to contribute,” said Quigg. “It’s a powerful tool: more than 90% of users tap into the personal network, and 90% of tasks are fulfilled by that group.” The second layer is the integration of local resources: ianacare compiled the ability to pull in, by zip code, tens of thousands of local resources that can help with food, lodging, financial and legal issues, finding care, and locating durable medical equipment. As of Q1, 2023, it points to 1.17M different resources for users.The third and fourth layers have to do with expertise, as literacy in health and caregiving across the US is dangerously low. “The average person is going to have a hard enough time following written instructions on a prescription bottle, not to mention benefits and the complexity of the healthcare landscape,” said Quigg. “We created a robust set of expert content to make sure people have the right info they need.” Finally, the fifth layer is a caregiver navigator.The Employer PerspectiveAn employer ought to understand how caring for both children and parents can be a significant burden. “Even employees who don’t have children can be burdened,” warned Obradovitz Flavin. Another challenge is finding maintenance and backup care: “I recommend that employers consider all the situations we talked about, so they develop inclusive policies, with an eye for DEI. it goes beyond child care and elder care.”The financial impact can be difficult to measure. “Presenteeism, absenteeism, decreased productivity, attrition, and retention all paint a good picture. Any measure that reduces distraction and the competing interests of an employee’s focus is going to lead to a more fully engaged and productive employee,” she continued.A good way to garner that data? Listen to workers. What are you and the HR team hearing? Why aren’t people coming back from leave?A well-oiled caregiving machine has both financial and time-related benefits. Quigg cites a study conducted by ianacare, Healthcore, and Jmir Publications to point out that caregivers save 200 hours annually, along with about $10,000 in personal savings, by tapping into local resources. Those savings of time and money reduce stress. “What you can see is that there was a statistically significant decrease in the amount of stress, anxiety, and burden that people felt,” said Quigg. “But I think outcomes are never going to be realized unless you can get people to actually use them.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, ianacare, for sponsoring this webinar.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.