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Empowering Employees: Cultivating Career Advancement From Within

“External hires are practical if you need to hire immediately. The market right now is booming because we have so much talent. But it doesn’t solve a long-term issue, and if we don’t address the long term issue, it’s soon going to become a short-term concern.”This was the warning from Steph Ricks, senior account executive and partnership development leader at education tech platform Strategic Education, at From Day One’s live conference in Washington, D.C. Failure to retain talent, failure to provide them with advancement opportunities, whether vertical or lateral or some combination of the two, is an existential threat to a company’s potential.At the event, Ricks and her colleagues in HR and talent development assembled for a panel discussion on how employers can create opportunity within organizations by boosting internal mobility. The consensus was this: democratize, market, prioritize, and measure.Opening Mobility Opportunities to AllUnless the direction of travel is upward, it may be tough for employees to envision the ways their career might go. Examples likely exist in their current company, yet many remain unaware of the multidirectional career paths that surround them.Workers have to be able to see what’s available, says Terri Hatcher, the chief diversity and inclusion officer at global IT provider NTT Data Services. To show employees what’s available, the company uses an AI-driven talent-management system that can turn employees on to open roles that suit their skills. Hatcher also hosts storytelling events. In one recurring series, women in the company tell their stories about their career growth. “Specifically,” she said, “they talk about the programs in our company and the tools they’ve used that have helped them grow.”A workforce development strategy, to be truly effective, must be democratic. By analyzing the demographics of workers advancing up the ladder at NTT, Hatcher discovered that some segments were being excluded, and it had become evident in the composition of leadership teams. The middle management layer was the bottleneck. “We noticed that people in middle management were not advancing, and women were not advancing, so we took hold of that. There is no way we’re going to be able to see a difference in senior leadership if we don’t see anything change in middle management.”Encouragement also has to come from people managers, not least because they have the influence enough to ignite or dampen a career. Hatcher found that even though training programs were open to all, and women knew that they could nominate themselves, they weren’t quick to do so. “You might open up a program to everyone, but you’ve got to really market that program to everyone,” she said. “Your managers have to be in on it, they have to be encouraging people to get out there and get engaged. Because sometimes people don’t feel like it’s for them for whatever reason.”Maryland-based medical network, Adventist HealthCare had run its emerging leaders program for several years to warm reception, but in 2019, Brendan Johnson, the organization’s SVP of human resources, examined the demographic makeup of the program cohorts and found that the program participants did not reflect the company’s workforce. So they opened the program to everyone in the company – all 6,000 of them.In a session moderated by journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, the panelist spoke to the topic "Creating Opportunity Within: How Employers Are Boosting Internal Mobility"“That completely changed the way that we made sure that everyone was aware of opportunities.” With that, leadership opportunities were no longer about who you know, but about how much you want to grow. Three years later, said Johnson, the demographics of the leadership program looked like the demographics of the workforce.Without clear expectations for high performance, leadership teams naturally sort themselves homogeneously, says Johnson. “If you don’t have a strong and very objective way to measure top performers, top performers end up being the people that look like your presidents and look like your vice presidents.”Knowing the right people and being exposed to new functions and departments can unlock tremendous opportunity. “I don’t think that any of us in this room would find our next opportunity by applying for a position,” said Ricks of Strategic Education. “I think it’s going to come down to our networks.”Carrie Theisen, the SVP of total rewards at Fannie Mae noticed that in her organization there were certain barriers to mobility, one in particular that the company had inadvertently erected: Pay grade bumps came only with promotions but as Johnson reminded us “not everybody wants to grow up and be a leader.” So Fannie Mae changed the pay structure so that individual contributors had the potential to make as much as people managers. To market opportunities, Theisen chose to link career progression with the company’s employer value proposition, live well, and build the employee experience in the service of advancement.Prioritize Internal MovesOne of the simplest tips came from Steph Ricks: give internal hires priority. She describes the standard practice as her former company, Wayfair. “When a [requisition] went live, we would interview anyone internal who applied for the role. If we weren’t satisfied, then we offered interviews to any employee referrals. If we didn’t find the talent we needed there, then it was open externally.”Theisen’s advice was to plan well into the future. “Succession planning is most effective when it starts at the top,” said Theisen. “We present our succession plans to our board quarterly. They include for every key role across the organization and the key successors. Are they ready now? Are they emerging?” She found that the board was eager to prioritize diverse representation at all levels, and this would be her contribution.Tracking movement and paying attention to changes over time, that’s how you get better at internal mobility, panelists said. At Adventist, Johnson reports quarterly to the board on internal versus external promotions. He aims for more than 40%, and in the last five years, he’s been able to report 50%–60% internal hires.And he has his own measures: “We shifted last year from measuring employee engagement to measuring employee fulfillment.” Engagement, he said, is about what the employee is doing for the company, hedging the question, “will you still be here in three years?” But by measuring fulfillment instead, Johnson hopes to shift the onus, and learn whether the company is doing enough to retain its workers.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | May 17, 2024
Elevate Employee Engagement: Smart Strategies for Thriving Teams on a Budget

Employees crave meaningful experiences. But with limited time and budgets, how can companies build more purpose into the work experience? Fifteen minutes at a time, says Ben Sampson.Sampson is chief evangelist of social impact and employee engagement at WizeHive, which offers software platforms for managing scholarships and workplace giving, as well as immersive volunteer experiences via WeHero. At a From Day One’s webinar, Sampson spoke to the idea of how turnkey volunteering can increase employee engagement on a budget. Kelly Bourdet of Apparata Media interviewed.Coming from a volunteer background, Sampson knew how engaging it can be to help others.  One thing led to another, and he eventually co-founded WeHero to help facilitate opportunities for employees to engage in volunteering experiences through their workplace. “We're constantly looking at what employees need,” he said. More and more, he’s learned that employees want to work for a company with purpose. They want to go to work and feel like it makes a good social impact. Some potential employees even ask about those opportunities during hiring. On the flip side, employees are also extremely conscious of their time. “How can we be time sensitive to get employees engaged in our companies, and give them a good experience of continuously engaging over and over again?” Sampson asked. In the past, companies would typically ask employees to go out and find their own volunteer opportunities, then spend time out of the office. While employees love giving back, putting the burden of doing all the legwork doesn’t fit within time constraints or even company budgets. The key, Sampson and his team have learned, is meeting the company and the employees where they are and giving back their most valuable resource: their time.Journalist Kelly Bourdet interviewed Ben Sampson of WizeHive during the From Day One webinar (photo by From Day One)Companies big or small, hybrid or in-office, local or global, all can better engage through impact experiences. Having WizeHive take care of the burden of logistics allows employees to enjoy the process of volunteering without a lot of extra time while maximizing their impact. “Bite size volunteer opportunities make a lot of impact,” Sampson said. “Maybe that's building a water filter for 15 minutes out of your workday, maybe that is answering a video call from someone that’s visually disabled that needs help finding the bus stop. Volunteering can be a great way for engaging employees in a low-cost mechanism.”At one company with an office and a warehouse, Sampson says the warehouse personnel generally didn’t have the time to participate in volunteer projects. So they set up a station where all employees could put together backpacks with supplies for kids during lunch or a break. Warehouse employees felt more included and engaged.“They even got to see the kids picking up the backpacks, so that was really special,” Sampson said. Even though the project took very little time and employees didn’t even need to leave the workplace to do it, the project still had a big impact on the community.One thing to focus on when rolling out opportunities is showing the clear path to impact. What will be the result of putting in their time? Virtual events are especially popular, Sampson says, as more people can participate in them and they fit most budgets. Sampson’s team can also help match people with specific skills to volunteer opportunities. Doing transcription work for the Smithsonian or Ancestry are just two examples of something people can do that have a clear path of impact—saving pieces of history and helping people connect with ancestors. Leadership buy-in is crucial for success, Sampson says. Companies where leadership is engaged and participating in impact projects correlate highly with employee participation and engagement as well. Mercedes is one company where the CEO works alongside employees during their volunteer experiences, connecting employees with leadership and allowing them to see each other outside the typical work setting.But sometimes getting that leadership buy-in can be challenging. “What is something the HR side can use to argue for the value?” Bourdet asked Sampson.To understand what’s most important to that leader, likely profitability for the company, then offering metrics or other reasons why volunteerism is the answer. If that leader is focused on employee retention, Sampson has a metric for that. “What are the costs of employee turnover? For a lot of businesses that we work with, it’s millions of dollars.” So, if employee engagement improves through these impact projects, it could save the company money. For one company they were working with, Sampson predicted a $26 million savings over 12 months, if done effectively. “There is so much positive emotion when people volunteer.” One employee who was able to volunteer for the first time told Sampson, “It’s cool that my employer has given me the opportunity to do this.” Now that’s employee engagement. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, WizeHive, for sponsoring this webinar.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Carrie Snider | May 17, 2024
The Benefits That Employees Want to See Enhanced in 2024

What 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.

Angelica Frey | May 16, 2024
ADHD in the Workplace: What You Should Know–and What Can Help

Pete came to our weekly psychotherapy session frustrated with work. He had just returned to his office, post pandemic, and found the new, open plan noisy and overwhelming. Pete, which is not his real name, has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and is easily distractible and sensitive to noise. He had trouble concentrating, was irritated by the constant chatter of colleagues, and, as a result, was feeling less productive.“Could you talk to your manager about getting some accommodations?” I asked.“No way!” he said. “That would be a career killer.”Pete’s wariness is not uncommon. A few of my psychotherapy patients with ADHD have confided in their managers, but most feel it’s unwise to do so. They fear they will be stigmatized and sidelined.Edward Hallowell, M.D., agrees with their concern. The founder of the Hallowell ADHD Centers and one of the leading authorities on the disorder, explained to From Day One: “We’re not there yet. Most corporate professionals think of ADHD as some kind of mental illness.”Given that ADHD is not well-understood in the workplace, how can employees speak up about their needs in a way that feels safe? And how can managers and HR leaders better understand how to respond to those needs–whether employees want to name their ADHD, or not? A well-accommodated employee is, after all, a happier and more productive one. “It’s in everyone’s best interest to remove obstacles to someone’s performance,” said Hallowell. Here’s what experts recommend:Know What It IsADHD is a neuro-developmental disorder characterized by symptoms of restlessness, impulsivity and difficulty sustaining attention to boring tasks. It tends to run in families and is often inherited from a parent. There are three types: inattentive (dreamy and distractible), hyperactive-impulsive (restless and talkative), and a combination of the two. Most adults with ADHD have the inattentive type. Though it was long considered to be a childhood disorder affecting mostly boys, research has shown that it persists into adulthood—about 30% to 70% of children with ADHD continue to have symptoms later in life.Ned Hallowell, M.D., a pre-eminent expert on ADHD (Photo courtesy of the Hallowell ADHD Centers)An undiagnosed adult may think of themselves as spacey, messy, or undisciplined—and they often suffer from low self-esteem. A recent study found that only 10% to 25% of adults with ADHD receive an accurate diagnosis and adequate treatment. “They are often inaccurately diagnosed with anxiety or depression, which are really just the fallout of untreated ADHD,” said Ari Tuckman, a psychologist in West Chester, Penn., who specializes in the treatment of ADHD. As Hallowell puts it: “It’s like driving on square wheels.” In dealing with tasks, you will make progress, but it may take longer.And That the Diagnosis Is On the RiseWhile children are still the most likely group to be identified with the disorder, the number of adult diagnoses has been rising for decades. The pandemic accelerated the trend: the overall incidence in adults (30 to 49 years old) nearly doubled from 2020 to 2022, fueled mainly by an increase in diagnoses among women, according to Epic Research, a medical-record software company. While it’s not clear exactly why women are being diagnosed more often, experts theorize that it may be due to increasing smartphone and technology use, which can amplify distractibility and stress, as well as a greater awareness that ADHD can be also be a women’s issue. As more adults are diagnosed, they—like Pete—often face workplaces that are not ADHD-literate.How It Affects Work Performance–But Not Always in a Bad WayPeople with the disorder may have difficulty with organization, time management and procrastination—all of which can make it hard to meet deadlines and work within teams. They find tedious tasks, such as scheduling and filling out expense reports, unusually challenging and have a different sense of time than others. “People with ADHD have more difficulty seeing time and feeling the future,” notes Tuckman,More than half (56%) of adults with ADHD said they believe the disorder “strongly impacts their ability to succeed at work,” according to a 2008 survey by McNeil Pediatrics. A more recent survey by Akili, a therapeutic-technology company, interviewed 500 adults with ADHD and found that employees with ADHD felt the disorder had a negative impact on their career.     And yet, people with ADHD often display qualities that work in their favor, notes Hallowell, who himself has ADHD. He sees the condition as a trait, not a disorder, that has positive benefits like creativity, humor, and spontaneity. “There’s more to it than most people realize,” he said. “ADHD is terrible term. We have an abundance of attention. Our challenge is where to put our focus.” People with ADHD can spend hours on topics that interest them and see details that others might miss, a trait sometimes called hyperfocus. Many successful people have talked openly about their ADHD, including Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, James Carville, astronaut Scott Kelly and JetBlue founder David Neeleman.How to Get DiagnosedIf you persistently miss deadlines, are chronically late, and feel like staying organized is a big effort, first ask a trusted friend or colleague if they find you more scattered than others. Then, make an appointment to see a psychologist or psychiatrist who specializes in treating the condition. There is no one standardized test—instead a professional will take a thorough history and may ask family members and friends to complete questionnaires about your behavior. You may be asked questions like, How often do you misplace items, feel bored and restless, or lose track of what needs to be done? If you meet the criteria, your doctor may talk to you about medication, therapy or coaching and, if needed, provide a diagnosis so you can receive accommodations at school or at work.Understand What HelpsMost people diagnosed with ADHD rely on medication to control their symptoms. Typical medications include stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall, which increase the levels of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine in the brain. There are also non-stimulant drugs such as Strattera. Stimulant medications that treat ADHD are the “most effective of medications in psychiatry,” said Tuckman, and help tame distractibility and impulsivity. About two thirds of people with ADHD diagnoses are prescribed stimulant medications, and that percentage has remained fairly consistent since 2013, according to Epic Research. Some people can help manage their symptoms by exercising regularly, getting proper sleep, and implementing strict organization and reminder systems. Or they hire very competent assistants.Once you are diagnosed and have figured out the best treatment, it’s like “getting fitted for the right eyeglasses,” said Dr. Hallowell. “Things come into sharper focus.”How to Make the Workplace More ADHD-FriendlySmall modifications can go a long way to helping people with ADHD perform better on the job. Tuckman suggests considering adjustments in the three domains described below. As an employee, you can make tweaks on your own or ask your manager for help. As for managers, if you have a worker who is struggling with organization and meeting deadlines, you could take the lead at putting these practices into place.Make distractions softer. Quiet spaces, headphones, and working on off-hours (say, early or late), can help mitigate the clatter of a bustling office. Often working from home is a good solution.Make important information stand out from the chatter. Putting assignments in writing, recording meetings, and highlighting deadlines can help workers whose focus is not great to stay on task.Bring the future closer to the present. Those who struggle with adhering to deadlines will benefit when big projects are broken into smaller chunks, and check-ins are on the calendar with frequent reminders of when tasks are due.So, Should You Tell Your Boss?If you have ADHD, you may be covered under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). However, you might not want to play that card unless you absolutely must, says Belynda Gauthier, a retired HR director and past president of Children and Adults with ADHD (CHADD). “The first time I did a presentation on ADHD in the workplace, I launched into detail about how the employee should approach his supervisor or manager and suggested that he might want to go directly to HR first. An audience participant interrupted to tell me that her HR office actually is the problem for her. Oops! I took this to heart, did some serious thinking, and revamped my presentation. I no longer recommend revealing one’s diagnosis until and unless it’s necessary.” Indeed, 92% of surveyed adults with ADHD believe that their colleagues hold misconceptions, the most common of which is “people with ADHD just need to try harder.” A better strategy might be to simply approach your manager with a positive attitude and a few solutions. “Be sure to tell them what you are good at,” advised Hallowell.Gauthier suggests something like: “I am really enjoying processing these widgets, and I think I’m doing a good job. I believe I could do an even better job if I could move to that cubicle that’s farther from the copy machine. So many co-workers use it all day and everyone stops to say hello.” Avoid the use of the word “but” to qualify your suggestions and don’t be whiney, she says.      Accommodations can help, but sometimes the best solution is finding the right job in the right environment with the right supports. “When I finally figured out I had it, it was a relief,” David Neeleman said in a recent interview with Forbes. “I was just really careful to surround myself with people that could complement my ADHD. I have people around me that help implement a lot of the ideas I have.” When you can turn your intense focus on something that truly fascinates you, ADHD can be a bonus rather a deficit.Lesley Alderman, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and journalist based in Brooklyn, NY. In her therapy practice, she works with individuals and couples. She writes about mental health topics for the Washington Post and has been an editor at Money and Real Simple magazines and a health columnist for the New York Times.(Featured photo by Valentin Russanov/iStock by Getty Images) 

Lesley Alderman, LCSW | May 15, 2024
Boosting Productivity in a Changing Workplace–and Workforce

A number of stressors are hindering the productivity of today’s workforce. Some employees still need help with the adjustment to working remotely or in a hybrid environment, says Millette Granville, VP of diversity, equity and inclusion at 2U.“People get a little antsy if they’re remote but three people on their team are in person,” she told moderator Krissah Thompson, managing editor of the Washington Post in a panel discussion at From Day One’s conference in Washington, D.C.“They’re thinking, ‘Do I have career growth? Can I move through the organization If I’m remote?’” More than ever, employees long for a sense of belonging, says Granville. “Research shows that employees that feel like they belong are going to stay longer, they're going to be more innovative,” she said.A recent survey at the cloud-based human capital technology and services provider Alight revealed that one in five of its employees had a behavioral health problem, while 75% were experiencing some degree of stress and anxiety. “We’re probably underestimating it, to be honest,” said Dr. Bipan Mistry, chief medical officer at Alight.Improving Mental Wellness in the WorkplaceTammy Kness, SVP of human capital management and communications at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), shared that the company kicked off a mental health awareness initiative called “How Are You Really?” several years ago.GDIT has a website with resources on how to have conversations with employees and colleagues about stress and anxiety. “It’s been really encouraging to see how just offering to talk about that in the workplace is increasing productivity and connectedness and community,” Kness said. “We’re just trying to destigmatize talking about mental health and sharing with our employees. It’s OK not to be OK, but it’s not OK to not ask for help.”The panelists spoke on the topic "Boosting Productivity in a Changing Workplace–and Workforce" at From Day One's D.C. conference A lack of access to healthcare providers, particularly in the mental health field, is an issue that prevents many people from seeing the help they need, says Mistry. “That’s where having some navigation services for behavioral health is really key,” he said. “And it’s not just the employee. We also have to think about the family unit.”Alight data shows that 20% of behavioral health guidance is for pediatric adolescent conditions. “So, let’s not forget about the element of the parental unit and how that affects productivity at work,” he said. Employees also need some flexibility in the workday so they can go to appointments when they find a provider.Remote and Hybrid WorkFlexibility is also the key to remote and hybrid work, says Kness. “One size doesn't fit all,” she said. Nearly half of all GDIT employees are on-site in a secured facility because of the nature of their work. That didn’t change, even during the pandemic. However, some employees were working remotely for years before Covid.She said the key is to have an approach that balances all these ways of working while keeping everyone connected. For example, GDIT’s employee resource groups now meet remotely to discuss topics such as mental health and inclusivity.“It has to be a very multifaceted strategy around investing in your managers, engaging your employees, being really intentional about your strategy, and building those communities,” Kness said.According to Granville, employers should also be aware of proximity bias which could lead to unequal treatment between in-person team members and remote ones.“If you’re the leader, you need to make sure you’re doing all the things you need to do to engage everyone in a way that’s impactful and meaningful to them,” she said.How to Keep Employees EngagedLiz Janssen, VP of talent experience and transformation at ICF says the company has been on a performance management journey over the past three years. “We heard our employees through surveys and focus groups say they want to connect what they do to the company mission, and that they want more frequent feedback,” she said. “They also wanted to focus on their career growth. That was the number one reason why people were leaving.”ICF responded by doing quarterly check-ins with employees rather than an annual review. If an employee or manager wants to have conversations even more frequently than that, they can make that request. In addition, managers have started talking to employees about how their work contributed to the firm’s overall success.“We test the effectiveness and our employees are saying it’s really helped a lot,” Janssen said. “We didn’t make it mandatory, but we’ve seen a growth and adoption rate of 50% year over year.”Michal Alter, founder and CEO of Visit.org, which helps corporations engage their employees, said one client came to them several years ago because morale was extremely low at the company following a merger.“We worked on putting together a larger global day of service,” she said. “That’s what we do, we work with nonprofits all over the world. And we create content for volunteering and different types of team-building learning opportunities.”That initial day of service had an outstanding 25% participation rate, says Alter. “That became the moment in time where everyone felt that they were coming together,” she said. “And from that point on, they saw the new beginning of the merged company.”The global day of service has not only become an annual tradition for the client. “Employees are now asking me to do it throughout the year,” Alter said. “That focus on the mission really brought everyone together to create a productive work environment.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.

Mary Pieper | May 14, 2024
Balancing Tradition and Transformation While Hiring Thousands of New Workers

Amtrak is seeing a new era of rail travel.With billions of dollars in new investments, the company has added over eight thousand employees in the past two years alone, with an expected four thousand additional workers for the rest of 2024.The rapid growth leads to an unexpected characteristic for the company: by the end of 2024, 50% of employees will have been there for less than three years.The new wave of workers ushered in requires a fresh perspective in managing, says Robert Grasty, Amtrak’s executive vice president and chief human resource officer. At From Day One’s Washington, D.C. event, Grasty spoke with moderator and Washington Post reporter, Lori Aratani, to discuss how he’s leading the new generation of employees in this age of railroad travel.Presenting Opportunity at RecruitingGrasty never thought he’d enter the transportation industry, let alone lead a major train company. The attraction, however, was the promise of an impactful career.“There’s a lot I didn't know about trains so it was an organization that I didn’t think I would ever go and work for,” Grasty said. “But when I think about the impact we’re having across the U.S., to make sure we are providing transportation and connecting with more people in more places, I became very excited.”The transportation industry can seem silo for some job seekers, but a company like Amtrak also leans on workers who can offer transferable skills across various industries. The trick to recruiting top candidates is identifying those skills needed at the right time, Grasty says.Robert Grasty, Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resource Officer of Amtrak spoke about the growth of the company“If you think about what we do, we bring a lot of different types of talent into the organization, from engineering to project managers,” he said. “We compete against companies like Google and Amazon for the same talent they’re getting from the IT perspective to all of the functional, corporate support areas.”At Amtrak, employee referrals played a large role in attracting talent to the space of transportation. Programs that reward employees for bringing talent through the door are typically more successful, with one case showing employee referrals correlated to a 30% hiring rate compared to the 7% average from alternative sources.“Through our strong referral program, we have employees who can speak on the different initiatives that have added value, not only to the railroad space but also to where we want to be and where we need to go in the future,” Grasty said.Leveraging Data to Make ChangeWhen Grasty first arrived at Amtrak, he realized the company was not utilizing the results from employee surveys to the best of its abilities.“What I noticed about employee surveys was that all the data that was in those reports was what we did and what was coming out of it never changed. The same thing we saw years ago is the same thing we’re seeing today,” Grasty said.When used correctly, data from employee surveys can tell a compelling story about workers’ experiences and can push leaders in the right direction of change. Grasty knew he needed to change Amtrak’s approach to employee surveys and leverage the data collected from the surveys to make impactful change.“We took the data that we got from all the feedback and created a strategy that aligns to what our employees are saying,” Grasty said. “We didn’t want the strategy to just be the strategy, we wanted it to connect to the people who do it every day out there on the front line.”The shift in utilizing data has been beneficial to Grasty and his team, who have seen improvement in employee engagement and synergy amongst different parts of the company.“Everyone understands the organization, where it’s going, and how we all connect and impact our company. So, for us, utilizing our data in the proper way is a big success for Amtrak,” Grasty said.Wanly Chen is a writer and poet based in New York City.

Wanly Chen | May 10, 2024
How to Provide Fertility Benefits Without Breaking the Bank

Infertility impacts one in every six couples who are trying to conceive, according to the World Health Organization. “That number is staggering,” said Jenny Carillo, president of Ovia Health, who spoke in a recent From Day One webinar.“We’re seeing the average age of people who are trying to initiate their family building efforts increasing,” she told moderator Lydia Dishman. “People are now trying to conceive in their 30s and 40s, when they’re becoming less fertile.”However, a new report from Ovia Health suggests only 15% of employees have access to fertility benefits. “This benefit is very difficult to justify in terms of return on investment, and the reason why is that it’s crazy expensive,” said Arturo Arteaga, the senior director of total rewards at VCA Animal Hospitals.However, employees now see providing fertility benefits as their employer’s responsibility, says Kim Duck, VP of global benefits at News Corp. “I think it’s ramped up very, very quickly, where it used to be nice to have and now it is expected,” she said.That discussion began in the United States, but Duck said she was surprised how quickly it spread to global employees. “It’s just exploding everywhere,” she said. The Case for Fertility BenefitsOffering fertility benefits can be a difficult decision for employers because it serves only a small group of employees, says Arteaga. “You have to balance providing that benefit for a few or think of something else that can impact more people,” he said.However, 80% of the employees at VCA Animal Hospitals are women, so “it is something we need to do,” Arteaga said.Lydia Dishman of Fast Company moderated the panel on providing fertility benefits without breaking the bank (photo by From Day One)Even if a company offers fertility benefits, employees who use them still need to spend a lot of their own money to access care, says Arteaga. “But just imagine if you didn’t have the company helping you,” he said. “It’s just impossible for the majority of people.”For companies with difficulty recruiting new employees, fertility benefits can be a big advantage, says John Von Arb, VP of total rewards for Essentia Health.“We rely on our benefits as an employer of choice, and things like that encourage and incentivize individuals to come to us or to stay with us as we move forward,” he said.Fertility Benefits and the Continuum of CareHistorically, women’s reproductive health has been viewed as fragmented stages, such as conception, pregnancy, post-partum, and menopause, says Carillo.However, “the reality is this is a continuum of one’s life, and these periods of one’s life are connected to one’s whole health,” she said. “So, if we think about it from a whole health perspective, we’d like to anchor to the thought of prevention. And when you think about prevention, you’re able to really think about what preconception care looks like.”Carillo said helping employees be in a healthier place so they can conceive naturally is cost-effective compared to assisting them with fertility treatment costs.Providing benefits for young families doesn’t end after conception, says Duck. Some News Corps business units offer 20 weeks of parental leave that is gender agnostic.Essentia Health offers childcare support for mothers returning to work. Von Arb said this support is not just for day-shift employees, but also for those on the evening and overnight shifts. “All of those go with the broader context of family benefits,” he said.Talking to Employees About Fertility BenefitsInclusive language and inclusive perspectives are critical when talking to employees about fertility benefits, says Carillo. It’s important to be inclusive to men and the LBGTQ+ population seeking these treatments.Sometimes the male half of a heterosexual couple is only tested for infertility after healthcare providers have exhausted all the options for the woman in the relationship, says Arteaga. “I think that’s a cultural shift we have to change,” he said.Fortunately, younger generations are more open than older ones when it comes to discussing infertility, according to Von Arb. “Nothing is off the table,” he said. “I do think that it becomes a little easier for us to address some of these issues as we move forward, and frankly to communicate them a little more effectively, as there’s not a taboo around them.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, for sponsoring this webinar.Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa. 

Mary Pieper | May 10, 2024
Navigating the Future of Business With Resilience and Innovation

When Amy Letke, national practice leader, HR consulting at Marsh McLennan Agency talks about innovative HR strategy, she points to one of her clients as a perfect example. This company has a workplace with harsh conditions that most of us would find unattractive. It’s a meatpacking company where employees often find themselves working in below-freezing temperatures and less-than-competitive pay. Yet its attrition rate is remarkably low.The client told her, “We’ve invested in our people, we’ve conducted leadership training, we’ve had to reorganize. We’ve [also] had to go back to our leaders and say, ‘You’ve got to like your people, to talk to them, and be compassionate to their needs.’” Letke shared this story in a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s D.C. event. By offering a holistic benefits package and engaging not just the employees, but also their families with a welcoming company culture, this organization convinced workers not only to stay, but to thrive in a very tough job.In a dynamic business environment, adaptation is essential to stay competitive. Organizations face unprecedented challenges and opportunities, demanding a blend of resilience and innovation. Letke offered an enlightening presentation on how to navigate and excel in this landscape, with insights, strategies, and actionable advice to thrive amid evolving industry trends.Workplace Challenges in 2024Letke says employers face three major challenges this year, each of which offers opportunities to be more effective with your HR benefits strategy. First, is attracting and retaining talent. The second, she says, is getting more done with less. And finally, the third is the rapid technological advancement happening.Covid prepared HR teams to deal with rapidly changing circumstances, she says. “HR teams have to be resilient. And we always are renewing and invigorating ourselves.” She offers several hallmarks of a resilient HR structure, including a coaching for leaders, a handbook that addresses time off and other work policies, up-to-date job descriptions, and a readiness to handle tough conversations, among others. By consistently analyzing your infrastructure and making sure the latest trends and policies are incorporated, you can stay ahead of any challenges coming down the line.Creating an Effective StrategyIn addition to staying on top of trends and keeping HR infrastructure updated, it’s also about attitude and company culture. “When we become a leader, we’ve got to realize what we’re signing up for,” Letke said. “It means we have to be compassionate, caring, [and] we have to listen.” This sometimes requires training, she says.Amy Letke,  National Practice Leader, HR Consulting at Marsh McLennan Agency led the thought leadership spotlight in D.C.Resilient infrastructure can create a resilient culture with exceptional supervisors. These leaders give the frontline workforce the support that they need and can often make an organization more attractive even when the pay is not as competitive due to budget cuts in a challenging economy. It also means that leaders should be held accountable for employee turnover, as their attitude and care should be driving the culture that inspires retention and loyalty.Workers satisfied with every element of the employee experience are happier and feel more successful, appreciated, and have a greater sense of belonging, Letke says. These elements include pay and compensation, purposeful work, culture, and flexibility. “This list shows how we as leaders can deliver care throughout our organization,” Letke said, and should be a guiding principle behind HR strategy.Having an Effective Benefits Strategy“Offering good employee benefits is just basic, everybody expects it,” Letke said, especially post-pandemic. So she encourages leaders to be more creative with their benefits strategy in order to stay competitive. A recent Marsh McLennan study showed that one in three employees would forgo a pay increase in return for additional well-being offerings for themselves and their families. “Being able to support your employees’ well-being is something we are seeing as an emerging trend, so thinking about those benefits is a way you can differentiate your company from others,” she said.Letke identifies four key areas of focus as opportunities to be more effective with your benefits strategy:Personalization: Give employees choices.Segmentation: Understand the different segments of employees and their needs. Centralization: To curb spending, there will likely be a centralization of tech platforms and human support options for HR teams. Empathy: Be there for your employees.A comprehensive benefits program incorporates the needs of every generation in the workforce, whose needs can look quite different. For example, Gen X might want remote work, flexible scheduling, caregiving benefits, and retirement planning, while Gen Z might prioritize student loan repayment, financial planning assistance, and training and development.Many workplaces have multiple generations represented among the workforce, so “managing to the needs of these generations is critical,” Letke said.Ultimately, HR success is about cultivating a mindset of innovation, Letke says. If HR has become a “check the box” compliance function, you’re doing it wrong. “Our job is to lead, inspire, and help others understand the impact they can make on the employee experience,” Letke said.Intention, compassion, and empathy is how winning organizations do it. A holistic approach to leadership that includes every element of an employees’ experience – both at work and at home – can make for a sustainable, forward-thinking, and highly attractive workplace.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Marsh McLennan Agency, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | May 09, 2024
Do Your Workers Feel a Sense of Belonging and Recognition?

Employees thrive and remain in organizations where they feel included and valued. Creating a comfortable space where everyone feels that they are heard and seen is crucial to recruitment and retention. During a panel discussion at From Day One’s conference in Salt Lake City, four experts offered tips and tricks on helping employees feel that they have a part in the conversation.For Emma E. Houston, chief diversity officer at the University of Utah, it starts with ‘hello.’ “One of the things that I make a habit of doing is saying, ‘Good morning, good afternoon, good evening.’ Because what is important is for individuals to be seen. So when you’re thinking about how you help people feel included, acknowledge their presence. Simply acknowledge their presence, and then the conversation can start from there. Just greeting someone on a regular basis, making that pause and making that acknowledgement that ‘I see you’ is one of the very first steps in creating a space of inclusivity,” Houston told session moderator Robert Gehrke, government and politics reporter at the Salt Lake Tribune.Matt Frisbie, chief marketing officer at AXOMO builds rapport in the workplace with stories, sweets (he prefers Snickers) and swag, which is appropriate since Namify manufactures branded gear. “The shortest distance between two people is a story,” said Frisbie. “We all have a story, we all have experiences that we can share. Ask open-ended questions and invite that [sharing], and try to get to their story.”Every Thursday at two o’clock, they walk the whole manufacturing facility with a box of snacks, says Frisbie. There’s everything, chips, Snickers, and healthy snacks, too. “But the point is actually to just walk in and smile, and say hello.”Weslie Porter, the director of culture and engagement for the state of Utah’s Department of Government Operations, shared a unique example of how different groups can have different needs, and they need to feel comfortable expressing those needs. He began by surveying attendees, asking who was right-handed [most of the audience], and who left [a few], and named scissors as one tool that is commonly engineered for right-handed people.“I have a left-handed friend,” he shared. They have to be very deliberate and strategic on where they sit when they go out to eat, he says. What’s interesting about this, as right-handed people, sometimes we think that things are just the norm. And so when we think about how we make people feel included, and feel welcome, we take a minute, and we realize that sometimes the norm comes from the majority.“And so the first step, specifically leadership, and even HR, when we're developing our job description, interview questions, whatever that might be, is to stop and realize, what about my experience is transferring into everything I do? And how do I get the different perspectives?” said Porter.The panelists discussed the topic "Do Your Workers Feel a Sense of Belonging and Recognition?" in Salt Lake CityWhat we can do is realize those perspectives will allow us to make better decisions. And more importantly, “it’ll allow our people to feel like they’re heard, they’re included, and recognized.” When they’re recognized, that’s when magic can happen, he says.Whitney Harper, the senior VP of people at Extra Space Storage, agrees. “I love the analogy of the left-handed versus right-handed. It’s imperative to “[create] those opportunities to listen to those perspectives, and to be open to that” she said.She adds that inclusive language is essential to creating an inviting and inclusive community in the workplace. Leaders need to ensure that “language is accessible to individuals to make sure that when we talk about DEI, we talk about inclusiveness, that we’re not using language that all of a sudden feels jargony.”Houston explained how the University of Utah has sought to achieve that goal, bringing stakeholders together to define what DEI meant for the school to create a consistent language. “We had 75 individuals in the room, creating the definitions of what we believe equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging access would mean at the University of Utah. So now we’re all holding ourselves accountable for what those consistent definitions are, and what the language is, and how we attach those to our values.”Porter has experienced how the language in job descriptions can impact diversity in the applicant pool. “When writing job descriptions, we have a tendency to use words that can mean different things that are bigger than they need to be.” Simplicity is key, he says. When the language is accessible and understood by all, there will be more applicants.He also touted Governor Cox’s initiative towards skill-based hiring, and his own experience being onboarded and welcomed as a completely remote employee. “We focus on the onboarding piece. Some of the data suggests that if you have that good onboarding experience, at the beginning, your attrition rate is going to go low, and [employees] are going to stay there longer for retention. So we really focus on that. In particular, those first couple of weeks are absolutely crucial to make sure that they feel that they can belong, and they can thrive. And we’re seeing some dividends getting paid.”Cynthia Barnes has written about everything from art to zebras from more than 30 countries. She currently calls Denver home.

Cynthia Barnes | May 07, 2024
The Google Firings: a Signal of a ‘Course Correction’ on Corporate Dissent

Corporate America’s historic experiment in free speech appears to be reaching a turning point. For a time, big employers showed a growing tolerance of workers speaking out on social and political issues–with even company leaders making bold pronouncements on emerging issues.In 2017, for example, workers spoke up about sexual harassment as part of the #MeToo movement. In 2020, they made their opinions known about racial justice after the murder of George Floyd. In response, many employers made changes to the status quo, updating hiring policies, investigating misconduct, setting up employee resource groups (ERGs), and holding discussions on world events. Some even formed “social issues working groups” to respond thoughtfully to emerging controversies.But the latest cultural flashpoint, the Israel-Hamas war, has not settled in quite the same way. Rather than spurring policy changes and public forums, the tension around this issue has prompted in-office protests and arrests. The politics that moved into the office in 2017 never moved out, but the tenor of today’s conflict–at least in the workplace–is different.In a signal event last month, Google fired 50 employees who took part in sit-ins to protest the company’s contracts with the Israeli government. Nine of them were arrested for trespassing. Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent out an email to staff declaring that work is not a place to “fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.” In another high-profile case, long-tenured National Public Radio reporter Uri Berliner accused the platform of imbalanced reporting on the conflict in a published essay. Berliner was suspended and later resigned.One implication of the corporate response is that the organizational embrace of dissent, especially on polarized issues, is reaching its limits. John Higgins, who researches and writes about employee activism, believes employers are giving the public an “X-ray” of their corporate culture. “I find it fascinating how [Google] created a corporate culture where a sit-in was the only way that the employees thought they could be heard, and the only management response they could imagine was to fire everybody,” Higgins told From Day One. “Everybody’s been talking about dialogue in organizations for decades, and that is not dialogue. That is a straight power play. The question is, where will this end?” The trend so far, notably among tech companies who earlier made a point of projecting their progressive values, is that “we’re seeing a course correction across the board,” Fortune editor-at-large Michal Lev-Ram told CNBC this week.Confrontations in corporate America are mirrored on college campuses, where disagreements have turned violent to the point of stealing media attention from the underlying crisis in Gaza. As students and faculty members demand that universities divest from their interests in Israel, as well as cut ties with organizations that do business in Israel, several universities have responded aggressively, which has affected not just students but also the people who work there.Nadia Abu El-Haj, a professor at Barnard College and Columbia University, believes that by asking New York City police to intervene with pro-Palestinian protesters on campus, Columbia’s administration lost the confidence of its own faculty. “That decision was the last straw: it galvanized faculty who otherwise not only had no involvement in pro-Palestine politics but in some cases actively disagreed with the students,” she said in an interview with the New York Review.There have been reports of faculty arrests at Stony Brook University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Virginia Tech, Washington University, and California Polytechnic Institute, not to mention student arrests across the U.S., which now number in the thousands. At Emory University, at least one professor was handcuffed, while a teacher at Dartmouth College described her arrest as “brutal.”Where Will the Crackdown Lead?“The firings at Google, I think, are a sign of the zeitgeist,” said Alison Taylor, a clinical associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of the new book Higher Ground: How Businesses Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World. In 2024, companies don’t need workers as desperately as they did just a few years ago. Job openings in the U.S. sank to a three-year low in March and quit rates declined as well. As power shifts from employees back to employers, many companies are clawing back power.Overall, the evidence is mounting that it doesn’t benefit companies to get involved in public discourse that’s going to split their stakeholders, Taylor told From Day One. “My strong impression is that people running companies are somewhat regressing because [getting involved] looked very convenient when it was Trump and climate change and immigration, but when it’s reproductive rights and Gaza, it is much less convenient.”“How quickly the pendulum swings,” wrote journalist and author Joanne Lipman in a post on LinkedIn. Lipman, who is currently a lecturer in political science at Yale, underscored the marked change in employer-employee relations. “Just a few years ago, in the wake of #MeToo and George Floyd’s murder, companies accommodated and sometimes supported protesting employees. Contrast that with today, when companies have had it with restive workers, and are cracking down on them instead.”Lipman has been a front-line witness to the about-face. As she continued on LinkedIn: “I happened to be at Google’s headquarters to give a talk on Nov. 1, 2018, the day of an historic company walkout to protest sexual harassment and workplace culture. The crowd was massive, permitted to assemble, and the company ultimately met some ... of its demands. A very different vibe last week, when Google fired 50 employees involved in a far smaller protest.”Of course, an exact comparison can’t be squarely drawn. The case could be made that employers can exert a greater impact on sexual harassment or discriminatory practices in their own workplace than on war overseas. The Economist made the case that even if major universities were to divest from their interests in Israel, the effect would be largely symbolic and have little to no effect on the actions of the Israeli government, Google’s Nimbus Project being an obvious exception.The events on college campuses and in tech-company offices reflect the coarser political climate writ large. Polarization in public is bleeding into polarization in the workplace. “The inability to seek out compromise and to seek out dialogue within Google is in itself a parallel process with the wider political discourse within the country,” said Higgins. ‘It Was Clear That Things Were Going to Get Pretty Messy’As early as 2018, Taylor was warning that the corporate-activism trend would not end well. “Scapegoating is inevitable,” she wrote for Quartz. By being outspoken advocates of one thing or another, companies were casting themselves in the role of public officials–and, alongside public officials, were blamed for polarization, terrorism, privacy violations, racism, and extremism. The problem is that businesses can’t necessarily do much about, say, terrorism.At the time, “short-term controversy around a political issue [was] a small price to pay for overall approval from the public and media,” she wrote. That’s no longer true. Backpedaling from overt involvement in public discourse, companies are now more likely to comment only on matters they can directly influence. But the precedent has been set, and workers are taking out their frustration on businesses. Transparency, once the mantra of companies and their publicly charismatic executives, has often been their undoing, especially when words do not reflect actions.How inevitable was this clash? Precipitating events, like the Oct. 7 attack in Israel, aren’t necessarily predictable, at least by business leaders. But if it weren’t this particular event, it would be something else, Taylor argues. “Once companies have opened up this avenue of activism, an avenue of leaders speaking up, an avenue of leaders taking positions on things, then it was clear that things were going to get pretty messy, pretty quickly,” she told From Day One.How Companies Might Better Handle Differences of OpinionBy firing the sit-ins, the message was clear, Higgins said: Don’t tell us anything we don’t want to hear in a way we don’t want to hear it. “What Google has reinforced is very traditional command-and-control.” In his estimation, the company would be better served to ask, How can we all live with our disagreements?“Businesses do not operate in a vacuum,” Higgins said, and they should stop behaving as if they do. Unless they are willing to engage with their workers–sans terminations and law enforcement–leaders will trap themselves in their own echo chambers and ultimately drive discontent underground. “People will become extremely skilled at telling senior management what they want to hear. Meanwhile, they will get on with doing what they need to do.” As the leadership team grows increasingly out of touch with its workforce, discretionary energy will be funneled into maintaining a placid façade rather than innovating. Volcanic activity, of course, begins underground.Taylor doesn’t envision a return to an earlier time in which battles over politics were fought only in the political arena, no matter how much employers may want it. “Younger generations do not see the world this way, and then [companies] opened up Pandora’s box. It’s pretty hard to go back to the way things were.”Companies would be ill-advised to dismiss the agitations of younger generations, who are the harbingers of change. “They tell you about what’s shifting in social attitudes, and that tells you what your customers are going to value,” said Higgins. Instead, workers and employers must become comfortable with disagreement.“If two people never disagree, it means at least one of them is not thinking critically or speaking candidly, and that means both of them are failing to learn from the exchange that might happen between them,” organizational psychologist Adam Grant told Anne McElvoy on The Economist Asks podcast in 2022. “I think a lot of us are taught to argue to win; I think what we ought to be doing is arguing to learn.”Coloring the culture wars is “binary bias,” in which the people who agree with you are good and those who don’t are bad. “I think that’s really interfering with progress,” Grant said on the podcast. Where there are only good guys and bad guys, compromise is as bad as capitulation—and neither side wants to be defeated.In his Free Press essay, Berliner lamented that “diversity of thought” was unimportant in the NPR newsroom. This, he argued, has cost the institution the trust of the public.It could end this way, Higgins estimates: Companies continue to sort themselves into “red” companies and “blue” companies and workplaces will become more homogenous and further entrenched in their beliefs. “By and large, people will increasingly join companies that align with how they view organizations fitting in the world: those companies which see themselves as having a social role and those that say, ‘We are explicitly not going to play that game.’”But the only way out, he said, is curiosity. “How this will end, I hope, is that if people are serious about engaging with collective intelligence, if people are serious about taking organizational agility seriously, they have to double down on learning how to walk toward contention and difference.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business, work, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, the Washington Post, Quartz, and Fast Company.[Featured photo: Tech workers from Google, Meta and Amazon protested against Big Tech supplying Israel with intelligence tools outside Google offices in Manhattan on April 16. Photo by Cristina Matuozzi/Sipa USA via AP Images] 

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | May 03, 2024
Cultivating a Strong Corporate Culture in a Changing Work Dynamic

Everyone waited for business to go back to normal following the pandemic. But the pandemic has created a ripple effect that may have changed the workplace forever. Take the tech industry, for example. Jennifer Christie, chief people officer of DocuSign, says that before the pandemic, tech talent was at a premium. But as everyone went remote and everything shifted, tech jobs were less in demand. Christie spoke about the changing work dynamic at From Day One’s conference in D.C. The biggest shift, she says, has been the relationship between employers and employees, especially trust and shared values. But there were other changes.“Loyalty started to increase a little bit because people didn’t want to leave during the pandemic,” she said. “But they also wanted a lot of flexibility that companies were willing to take risks to offer.”Now that people are used to not commuting, they’d rather not go back to commuting. Same goes for any other benefits that arose during the pandemic. Some companies are having to dial things back, and now there’s more labor to choose from. The power dynamic is shifting–but so are expectations. “We’re having a new relationship dynamic. And just like with any relationship, when all those things shift, you’ve got to kind of recontract.” Employers and employees are having those hard conversations and figuring out a balance.Hybrid work has emerged as one give-and-take between employers and employees. Moderator Taylor Telford of the Washington Post asked how businesses can create a strong culture in a hybrid environment. “What does that look like at DocuSign?” They looked at specific roles when deciding who should be in the office and when, reclassifying the roles as necessary. But to make it fair, if someone was hired specifically as a remote worker, they could stay remote until they changed roles. “We’re not going to bait and switch you right in the middle of this. We knew this was going to take a while to evolve, and we’re going to let that work it out.” About half of the roles are remote and the other half are hybrid, with a specific schedule of when they come in.“But what I think we’ve moved to is not obsessing so much about where someone works, but how people are working,” Christie added. Obviously, they didn’t want people coming into the office just to sit on virtual calls the whole time. The return to work needed to make sense. Focus on Progression Generally speaking, employers strive to retain employees. But if the number of people leaving is super low, that leaves no room for anyone else to be promoted. That’s why Christie says progression has become more important than ever.“Promotion is not always progression,” she said. “There has to be development and learning.” Rotation programs can be helpful in giving people a sense of growth and development without taking a new role or a promotion. Gen Z workers are especially craving this kind of development.“I think they’re just a sponge right now. Because they have missed so many opportunities to observe and to have mentors and just to learn organically,” Christie said.Jennifer Christie, Chief People Officer of DocuSign, right, was interviewed by Taylor Telford, Corporate Culture Reporter at The Washington Post Speaking of various generations of employees, paying attention to their different needs is important in all aspects of what the company can offer, from growth opportunities to benefits. During the pandemic, benefit offerings may have expanded and changed. Now that we’re post-pandemic, it can be hard to take away what people are used to having.“The multigenerational employee bases that we have is challenging,” Christie said. Some want student loans paid off, others couldn’t care less about a 401k, and others care more about family planning, and more people are looking for caregiver support. “It can be all over the map,” she added. At DocuSign, they’ve taken a core benefits approach of what most people want and offer a menu of options to personalize them as much as possible. Yet another way things have evolved in a way that hopefully benefits employer and employee.Empower the ManagersPerhaps the most unprecedented phenomenon to emerge from the pandemic has been the rise of the middle manager. As Christie said “They were our frontline or defense. They knew how their people were doing, they were the ones to flag to us when things were going wrong, especially because we didn’t have our eyes on people in the same way.”“Managers have to be more agile and meet their employees where they are. If their employees need someone who can connect with them on a more personal level, they’ve got to lean in and do that.” Other employees may need less personalization and more direction. Companies need to prepare managers so they’re ready, no matter how things may shift.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Carrie Snider | May 02, 2024
How to Keep a Hybrid Workforce Engaged and Productive

As of February 2024, more than half (54%) of employees in the US who can work remotely adhere to a hybrid schedule, and 27% are exclusively remote, according to data from Gallup.Yet many employers remain suspicious of remote and hybrid arrangements, fearing lack of productivity, weakening engagement, sagging performance, and lost opportunities for employee collaboration and innovation. Hoping to understand employee movements outside of their offices, some employers have invested in employee-monitoring software, capturing everything from hours worked to keystrokes.Yet privacy is a major concern for workers, and invasive employee monitoring can feel like Big Brother is breathing down their necks, rupturing trust and putting workers on guard.“It’s really important that we think about [employee productivity] insights not as a mechanism to scratch an itch of curiosity, but a mechanism to provide continuous improvement as it relates to the way that we work together,” said Gabriela Mauch, head of the productivity lab at workforce analytics software platform ActivTrak.Mauch understands why the itch is there. “This conversation started three or four years ago when [companies] abruptly transitioned from being a fully in-office organization to a fully remote organization,” said Mauch. “So many of us felt the pain of lacking visibility into the time worked and schedule adherence that are critical to running the business.”Yet many employers are asking the wrong questions, misinterpreting data, and failing to trust their workers to spend their time efficiently. During a recent From Day One webinar on engaging a hybrid workforce, Mauch and her colleague Sarah Altemus, ActivTrak’s productivity lab manager, talked about how employers can better and–more responsibly–use employee productivity data.Speakers from ActivTrak discussed the topic "How to Get Hybrid Right: The Cornerstones of Success" (photo by From Day One)Employers are susceptible to misuse of employee productivity data, and not just because they may want to obsessively monitor every click of a worker’s mouse.There is plenty of room for misinterpretation. For example, working long hours doesn’t mean someone is more productive or engaged, it could mean that they’re overloaded or barreling toward burnout. Likewise, a light schedule may not indicate laziness or disengagement, it may be a sign of underutilization. “These can quickly become attrition risks,” said Altemus.This has been a common struggle for employers, according to Mauch. “While we maybe had clear expectations of how we expect people to work, what we managed to struggle with is whether people are working too much or disengaging.”So some employers have responded by grabbing at details they hoped would illuminate those patterns. But a closer look doesn’t always make things clearer, and good information can get buried in the minutia of massive data reports. Shrewd interpretation of data at a higher level provides a more accurate picture. “The right information can help your managers act as coaches and provide guidance without infringing upon the comfort of your workforce who want to make sure that they still have those critical levels of privacy,” said Mauch.Altemus encouraged employers to examine productivity data at a higher level, in the form of general activity logs. “Think of it as just a glance around the office that you would otherwise get if you were in person,” she said. “How many employees are working today? How are productive hours tracking relative to goals? Is engagement and productivity trending up or down? Are there teams that are at risk of burnout, disengagement, or misalignment?”Better information can help managers categorize working time as productive or unproductive and make sure workers are actually signing off from work at the end of the day–not burning the midnight oil until they burn out. It can help managers avoid proximity bias that favors in-office workers over remote or hybrid workers for promotions and raises. And it can help leaders make the most of face-to-face time and office reconfigurations.To this end, Altemus recommended clear expectations. “The success of a flexible workforce requires clearly delineated responsibilities and communication protocols,” she said. And it needs a performance management strategy.Employers don’t set arbitrary guidelines for guidelines’ sake, said Mauch. “At the end of the day, the intent of company policy is not just to ensure that people are following it, the intent of the policy is to optimize productivity, take care of your employees, and retain them.”That’s when activity reporting becomes invaluable, she said: When you stop trying to answer the question, “Did people badge in and did people badge out?” and instead answer “Does my hybrid policy fully maximize my ability to engage and reach my productivity goals?”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, ActivTrak, for sponsoring this webinar. Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | May 01, 2024
Why College Prep for Teens May Become the Next Workplace Benefit

Employers offer a wide variety of benefits for the working parents of young children, from onsite childcare and paid leave to fertility and conception benefits, but what about support for parents of older children and teens? During the teen years, “There's a massive emotional strain between parents and teenagers that folks are way too familiar with. There's financial uncertainty,” said Jonathan Murray, head of Empowerly for Employers. And “college prep is a major source of stress for these parents and has a significant impact on workplace productivity.”Murray ticked off some compelling statistics from a survey of 1,000 working parents that Empowerly commissioned to explore the value of an employee benefit for college prep. A full 95% reported that they are nervous about their teen's future when it comes to college prep. Fifty percent of them said that college prep was a constant stress and 88% of the 1,000 parents said that they use time at work to help their teens with college prep. One in four of these parents admit to using from six to 15 hours a week.“It’s not surprising that parents are looking to employers to provide help, and looking to employers to provide college prep benefits,” said Murray. “It's the number two benefit that was requested by parents of teens,” after financial well-being, he said.I interviewed Murray and Theresa Shropshire, an enrollment expert and college consultant for Empowerly, about the compelling reasons for employers to support their workforce during these critical years in a From Day One webinar titled, How Employers Can Ensure Continuity of Care for All Families.As a working parent of a teen who just went through this process, I can attest that the high school years and the college prep and application process are unlike what I experienced myself as a teen college aspirant. The competition and pressure for teens to perform at a high level academically, athletically and even socially is astonishing. The private college counseling industry has boomed as overwhelmed parents seek to navigate these unfamiliar demands.Shropshire described the types of services college prep companies such as Empowerly now offer, which range from the familiar, such as helping students craft compelling college application essays, to the less well-known, such as helping students choose everything from courses, extracurricular activities, and selective summer programs beginning as early as eighth grade. “A lot of the parents that I speak with are actually first generation in the U.S. Or maybe they went to college outside of the U.S. The process here is very, very different. It’s not all about grades and test scores.”Journalist Jeanhee Kim interviewed Jonathan Murray and Theresa Shropshire of Empowerly during the From Day One webinar (photo by From Day One)Many of the services save parents’ decision-making time, such as counseling parents and teens on how and when to take advantage of early action, early decision, and regular decision college application options as well as evaluating and comparing costs and financial aid packages when a fortunate student is deciding among multiple college acceptances.While college prep is an emerging employee benefit, Murray described how the realization that teens need more support is beginning to permeate society. He pointed to the recent partnership between New York City and TalkSpace, the mental health app, to deliver free mental health care to teens from age 13 to 17.“It really hits to the heart of what benefits are truly for,” said Murray. “They’re the ability for an employer to step in and help their individual employees or their employee families with these large problems that impact them, impact their families, impact the organization, and impact the communities.”College prep services like Empowerly not only help teens, Murray says. “There’s benefits for the parents, and then downstream, that benefits employers and communities.”There are different options for employers as well, says Murray. He described tiers of benefits that begin at no cost to either the employee or employer. Empowerly would partner with employers to offer no-cost access to college prep resource materials, such as samples of successful college essays. Options then level up to one-on-one consulting between the employee and college prep service at a cost that could be borne directly by the employee or by the employer.He emphasized that Empowerly would work with employers to craft plans that satisfy the employers and provide real benefits to employees. “We can provide ROI on it. It’s just so highly bespoke based on the needs.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Empowerly, for sponsoring this webinar. Jeanhee Kim is an independent journalist who has worked for CoinDesk, Crain’s New York Business, Money magazine and Forbes Asia.

Jeanhee Kim | April 30, 2024
The Three Pillars of Wellness: Physical, Mental, and Financial

The three pillars of wellness–physical, mental, and financial–are like three legs on a stool. Lose one, and the whole thing tips over. For example, if an employee needs an emergency medical procedure and has a high-deductible plan with little savings, not only will their physical health suffer, but they will soon feel mental and emotional stress as well. Ideally, employers will have plans in place to provide support in all areas.Rather than thinking in terms of siloes, the more effective approach for benefits leaders is to see how three pillars support an employee’s overall well-being. In a recent fireside chat at From Day One’s April virtual conference, Nate Nevas, head of benefits and health services at Pitney Bowes, provided an inside look at how to provide individualized care for a diverse workforce.The Current Moment in BenefitsThe current state of the workforce is both “the best of times, and the worst of times,” said Nevas. There are external forces making benefits challenging, including a nationwide lack of available primary care physicians and the rising costs of healthcare.But on the flip side, the current embrace of technology is having a positive impact on the HR world. “There are some things now that are available to provide as resources to our employees that are fantastic, that five, ten, 15 years ago just weren’t available,” Nevas said. This includes app-based resources like virtual healthcare appointments, online professional training courses, and even group fitness classes.Moderator Jeanhee Kim, an independent journalist, notes that the World Health Organization recently stated we are now going on year five of Covid. “Covid strained not just our physical health, but also strained our mental health and the economy,” Kim said. In order to embrace the current moment, employers need to be ready to address each of these concerns among their workforce.A Holistic Approach to Mental HealthNevas says that physical, mental, and financial wellness should all be approached with equal importance, and employers need to recognize how they are all interconnected. “We don't look at one as being more important than the other,” he said. “They’re all equally important to create someone who is going to come in and be fulfilled, be able to do their job, and feel good about themselves as an individual.”Journalist Jeanhee Kim interviewed Nate Nevas of Pitney Bowes at From Day One's April virtual conference (photo by From Day One)Prior to the pandemic, Nevas says, mental wellness tended to fall on the back burner. But throughout Covid, the need for mental health support became apparent, and his team began to put it on equal footing with physical and financial concerns. “We started a concerted effort to destigmatize mental wellness, using the phrase ‘it’s OK to not be OK,’” he said. Pitney Bowes began offering internal webinars “not just as a check-the-box effort, but as a consistent conversation and making it an acceptable conversation.”Since mental wellness statistics can be harder to track among employees than, say, 401(k) participation, leaders can gauge success by reviewing webinar statistics to see which topics are most important and touching base with senior leaders to see what employees are saying.Providing Individualized CareFor a global organization like Pitney Bowes, the workforce population is diverse, from high-powered salaried corporate executives to hourly workers for whom English might not be their first language. To keep things fair and consistent, Nevas says, Pitney Bowes doesn’t offer different benefits to different types of employees, but it may emphasize certain benefits to certain employees based on their interests and adjust how it communicates about them. For example, retirement planning options may be more attractive to employees who are salaried, even if the same benefits are offered to hourly workers too.Much of it comes down to knowing your audience and meeting them where they are. Hourly workers don’t have company email addresses or computers, he says. “We provide benefit guides that are in multiple languages. We know which languages are spoken the most at certain sites, and we’ll do hardcopy handouts there,” he said. He also knows there are huddle in-person meetings at the start of every shift, so he’ll give team leaders important messages to relay at those gatherings. Important messages will also appear on screens onsite, and each location has an employee experience champion available to explain benefits and encourage enrollment.Knowing that net cash flow is also important to the hourly population, Pitney Bowes provides advance pay options, low contribution health plans, and even major appliance purchase programs to help these employees make the most of their paychecks.Saving Money by Providing Better BenefitsPhysical, mental, and financial wellness benefits don’t have to break the bank for employers. Nevas says his organization has a benefits hub with discounts on car rentals, groceries, movie tickets, insurance, and more, plus a partnership to help with student loan refinancing. These benefits do not cost the organization any money, but can save the employee money and give them special access to certain perks.Pitney Bowes also emphasizes the importance and availability of free, preventative care so employees do not get hit as hard by future out-of-pocket costs. This is especially crucial among their immigrant employee population, which Nevas notes has more of a cultural resistance to medical check-ups.And of course, employee turnover can be a costly hit to an organization for a variety of reasons, so providing attractive benefits is also a boon to retention, particularly during this time of the great resignation. For Nevas and his team, this comes down to providing genuine, individualized care with an eye toward advancement and longevity. “Our employee value proposition is that ‘We do the right thing the right way,’” he said. They emphasize not only physical, mental, and financial wellness benefits, but also career development in terms of professional resources and a clear pathway to promotion. “We’re going to help you grow. Once we get someone in the door, it's about who we are as an organization, and what we're able to provide as a company from a cultural standpoint, not just benefits, but the whole picture and your professional development.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | April 26, 2024
Why Investing in the Employee Experience Is More Important Than Ever

“We’re coming to times where promotions are not going to be as available. How can I make you feel happy here on a day-to-day basis, especially when a year may come where you may not see that next step?” This is the question Ashley Collado-Jaime, people operations manager at Medidata Solutions, posed to From Day One’s audience in a webinar about investing in the employee experience.With tighter budgets and fewer resources, people leaders face the challenge of creating more holistic and sustainable strategies, and more of them recognize measuring ROI goes beyond the scope of using metrics alone.Deborah Thomas, chief people officer at Somos, Inc., shared a similar approach to providing support and gathering feedback using focus groups, surveys, exit surveys, and more to understand the employee experience: “We engage employees in solutioning with us, and as we’re building these experiences, we leverage their voices every step of the way.”Employee engagement and satisfaction equally predict potential long-term success. More business leaders will consider investing in initiatives, with measurable and immeasurable results for key talent retention.Quantifying the BenefitsModerator Rob Catalano, chief engagement officer at WorkTango, a platform improving the employee experience and boosting retention using engagement software such as employee surveys, inquired about effectively requesting investment in experience initiatives.“Given the significance of today’s workplace where maybe it's hard to find those levels of investment, how do you approach the next steps? How do you approach securing a budget?” Catalano asked.Collado-Jaime says that survey metrics prove what strategies deliver results. The participation numbers must justify requesting additional investment in employee experience programs. When retention rates declined in groups with lower participation, the numbers correlated.Catalano of WorkTango led the conversation with Collado-Jaime of Medidata Solutions and Thomas of Somos, Inc. (photo by From Day One)“It goes back to the data looking at our retention rates compared to who was being recognized,” Collado-Jaime said. “We saw that with our retention rates within lower participating groups. Something is missing here and people aren’t feeling as appreciated.”Thomas builds on presenting numbers as evidence, discussing the effectiveness of benchmarking, and using employee survey metrics. By revealing how Somos financially exceeded its peer organizations, Thomas could request investment in DEI and other employee engagement initiatives. Sustainability of the Employee ExperienceInvesting in the employee experience has implications for the business, employees, and leaders.As companies continue to set goals amidst increasing financial constraints, open communication, engagement, and recognition are critical to meeting modern-day business goals. “There is a big wellness and burnout issue in organizations today for a lot of the things we just described, asking people to do more with fewer resources and higher expectations,” Catalano said.Collado-Jaime discussed Medidata Solutions’ quarterly manager roadshows to assist hiring managers in developing programs to boost team engagement. These roadshows incorporate training webinars and open communication channels. Feedback from the hiring managers throughout the process helps HR leaders improve programs and make new development and retention strategies.At Somos, Inc., the success of its career pathing program relies on testimonials from leaders. Based on employee survey data revealing that teams wanted to hear directly from their leaders instead of HR, Thomas shared how their recognition program revealed an opportunity to promote engagement through leaders fostering performance appraisal discussions within the program.Catalano noted how both companies adopted a more holistic experience inclusive of employees and leaders alike. This approach and leadership perspective helped build stronger, more engaged teams, thus cultivating a more sustainable business.The Qualitative BenefitsThe panelists discussed the usefulness of employee experience initiatives, irrespective of whether they can be proven ROI. Collado-Jaime emphasized that an employee with a positive experience allows that company to promote it as a specific experience that other companies may not offer.Thomas used DEI as an example of an initiative with benefits not easily proven ROI. She recounted Somos, Inc. celebrating Holi as a cultural recognition of their South-Asian employees and saw 75% of their participation. The quality of their experience is immeasurable through a business-oriented lens.The employee experience is pivotal to a sustainable business and yields more effective results than short-term cost-saving initiatives and measures. “We can have AI, technology, and all of those things,” Thomas said. “but ultimately people make those things happen.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, WorkTango, for sponsoring this webinar. Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.

Stephanie Reed | April 25, 2024
How a Leader Brings Clarity to Benefits Offerings

“Benefits, perks, compensation–they’re all taken into account when job offers are made. That’s how you remain competitive. We don’t have to offer every single benefit that’s out there. We just have to offer the right ones.” This is according to Lenka Sloman, the managing director, and head of total rewards at global advertising firm GroupM.Sloman joined the company in September 2023, taking over the company’s benefits offerings and finding ways for GroupM to remain competitive for top ad talent. During the closing fireside chat at From Day One’s April virtual conference, I interviewed the total rewards leader about her strategy for getting the best return on investment for GroupM’s total rewards.Sloman’s challenge will be to balance market demands with individual needs.Tracking the Most Popular BenefitsThere is no limit to the size of benefits packages today. Not only are there innumerable vendors and platforms, the breadth of options is ever-widening.Sloman has been watching the market for the most popular benefits and perks. Right now, it’s all about family planning. GroupM enhanced its family-building benefits recently, adding features like egg freezing, donor services, adoption, paid time off, and parental leave. The company even added milk-shipping services, “so if a birthing parent goes back to work and is traveling, they can pump their milk and have it sent to their homes, so the baby can continue feeding,” said Sloman. It can also be used for surrogacy arrangements.“This is critically important for our employees,” she said. “We want to make sure our employees don’t have to worry about taking time off because they have to take care of a child–or whatever the case may be. If we get it right, they can concentrate on bonding with their newborns or adopted children, and it balances with their professional lives.”And she didn’t forget about those workers who don’t have kids at home. GroupM even offers dog-walking and pet-sitting services. “Pets are part of the family too,” she said.Competing for Talent With Exceptional Benefits PackagesSo, how does Sloman stay abreast of what’s going on in the benefits market?The talent acquisition team gathers information from job seekers about what they’re being offered elsewhere–and this provides helpful intel. But Sloman puts more stock into the data gathered by benefits consultants. “Understanding the benchmarks and getting guidance from our consultants sometimes has a more accurate description as to what our peers are doing. That’s what we base our decisions on. Really, it’s an art, not a science.”Lenka Sloman, right, was interviewed by journalist Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza during the virtual fireside chat (photo by From Day One)Keeping up with what’s happening in the benefits workplace, learning to distinguish between must-haves and nice-to-haves, and annually reviewing GroupM’s utilization plan are the three steps she follows to make the company an employer of choice.When benefits are regularly refreshed and augmented, new hires will be interested and current ones are more likely to stay. But the annual review isn’t necessarily spring cleaning. “We don’t have a policy that says, if no one’s using it, we’re going to get rid of it. We will generally put it on a watch list to revisit it once a year to make sure the return on investment is there.”To keep ROI high, employees have to know what’s available so they can use it. Sloman is persistent in her comms strategy. She holds a weekly call with new hires to review their benefits and answer questions. Existing employees get their own call focused on a specific benefit, often selected for timeliness. These calls are heavily attended, she said. “In February, for example, we wanted to make sure everyone got their receipts for their FSA, so we dedicated time to remind employees.”Sloman keeps an eye on the market, careful to not fall into the trap of fads. Yet she’s also keen on individualization. Work-life balance looks different for every employee, and the way they want to achieve it will vary just as widely. To this end, Sloman likes to keep some perks as flexible as possible.“I think people-first culture and work-life balance right now are top priorities for employees. That’s something we haven’t had before,” she said. But that means something different to everyone. To some, flexible work isn’t an interesting benefit; they would rather have more time off to spend with their families. Others will prefer remote work. The point is that employees could pick and choose their work and benefits arrangements in a way that best fits them. That’s something they’ll likely stick around for.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, the Economist, the Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 24, 2024
Making Benefits More Accessible–and Meaningful

Nicole Cody became the vice president of total rewards at International Paper in 2020, right in the middle of the first year of Covid. “That was an interesting time to come into this space,” she said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s April virtual conference.Cody told moderator Lydia Dishman of Fast Company that the biggest spike in demand she has seen “is perhaps, not surprisingly, access to mental health providers and mental health care.”A majority of Americans say money problems negatively impact their mental health, says Will Peng, CEO and co-founder of Northstar, a comprehensive financial wellness benefit. “Financial stressors are very closely related to other pillars of well-being,” he said.Today’s workers want lifestyle spending accounts, which allow them to allocate benefit funds from their employers for wellness programs they need the most, says Megan Burns, benefits strategy and solutions lead for Forma, an employee benefits platform.Those programs can include physical wellness, social-emotional health, financial counseling, and whatever else the company deems eligible. She noted some studies indicate that by 2025, about 40% of employers will have some sort of lifestyle spending or customizable spending account in place. “It’s definitely become a really trendy benefit.”Stress Management and Mental HealthStress management has become a much-desired employee benefit in recent years, says Alecia Williams-Pierre, VP of total rewards at Atrium Hospitality.“We have been looking at implementing different webinars or meditations just as part of our culture to help associates be able to manage stress overall,” she said.Having access to mental health care providers is an enormous challenge, especially in rural locations, according to Cody.“So, when we were looking at how we could beef up our offerings, we looked at a provider network that doesn’t go through insurance,” she said. “They’re not part of a carrier’s provider network. They’re just mental health providers that get direct payments. And we found a way to process the claims through our insurance plan on the back end.”This arrangement allowed International Paper to get its employees access to care within days as opposed to weeks, says Cody.Helping Employees Manage Financial StressPeng says financial wellness is at the top of everyone’s mind right now because of inflation. “Everything seems to be really expensive now. It’s hard to walk out the door without spending more money than we hoped.”Northstar has a platform to help people manage their finances and provides one-on-one counseling, says Peng. He says creating a personalized plan for each individual life stage is the best form of support. For example, if an employee is starting a family, they must change their budget and decide on their benefits.The benefits and total rewards leaders spoke at From Day One's April virtual conference about "Benefits That Fit Individual Needs Without Busting the Budget" (photo by From Day One)“For what should be an exciting life event, oftentimes, we’re overwhelmed with a ton of logistical and financial decisions that we have to make,” he said. “So, it’s about creating those systems and guidance to help our people feel supported.”Lifestyle Spending AccountsDuring the pandemic, employees became more aware of the need to balance work and life, says Sarah Schutzburger, benefits and wellness manager for Samsung Semiconductor.“Employees would come to us saying, ‘What about this vendor? What about this support program? What about this resource?’” she said.As a result, Samsung Semiconductor recently implemented a lifestyle spending account so workers “can customize what’s valuable to them, and be reimbursed for those types of benefits,” Schutzburger said.Employees value lifestyle spending accounts because “they love choice and they love flexibility,” Burns said. Managing multiple benefits vendors can be costly and time-consuming for employers. However, lifestyle savings accounts are “sort of the easy button,” said Burns.More than 75% of the employers who partner with Forma repurpose existing budget dollars for lifetime savings accounts. “I would say the value is both from an employee’s appreciation of the benefit, administrative time, and direct financial ROI,” she said.Communicating With Employees About BenefitsBenefits only work if employees know and understand them, says Schutzberger. That’s why it’s critical for organizations to have “clear and concise messaging, using simple language to explain the benefits and their importance and avoiding jargon.”Companies should also “tell a story about the benefits,” Schutzberger said. Whether they are new parents or nearing retirement, “they want to know how they apply to them.”Williams-Pierre recommends organizations talk to their employees about benefits all year round using multiple channels such as email, webinars, and mailers.At Atrium Hospitality, communicating these options can be tricky, because benefits need to be discussed in various languages. “We have to have Spanish, we have to have French, we have to have Tagalog. And as our population grows and changes, we have to be more creative and be ready to meet the need.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa. 

Mary Pieper | April 23, 2024
Revolutionizing Mental Health in the Workplace: The Power of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies

With heightened isolation during the pandemic, mental health conditions like anxiety and depression saw an increase, leading to a surge in mental health care spending and usage. Today, ninety percent of the public state they believe there is a mental health crisis in the U.S., showing the continual relevance and demand for mental health care.Talk therapy or medications like antidepressants are commonly used in treating mental health conditions but studies have shown these treatments may not work for everybody. For example, in one study, researchers found antidepressants only worked for 15% of the participants.Sherry Rais, CEO and co-founder of Enthea is working to change the healthcare industry and revolutionize effective treatment. Enthea is currently the sole healthcare partner offering psychedelic healthcare as a workplace benefit and recently won the 2023 Global Recognition Award for being a transformative pioneer in the medical field.For Rais, Enthea is only the beginning of a well-needed change to the mental health care space. In a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s April virtual conference, Rais spoke about the promising results Enthea has seen and how psychedelic healthcare can be a win for both employers and employees.Gaps in Traditional Mental Health Care TreatmentsIneffective treatments, dangerous withdrawal symptoms, and relapses are all reasons for the need for change in traditional mental health care treatments, Rais says.“20-60% of people with a significant mental health condition are actually treatment resistant, so anything that we have to offer them from traditional methods, to talk therapy and antidepressants, won’t work on them,” Rais said.The National Alliance on Mental Illness estimates untreated mental illness can cost up to $300 billion annually, an expensive cost for employers, and can result in lost productivity, absenteeism, and turnovers.Sherry Rais of Enthea led the virtual thought leadership spotlight“Employers have improved their mental health offerings in the U.S., yet employees still say that they’re not getting the mental health care they need. There is this disconnect,” Rais said. “It’s like a broken system, we’re spending more but people are not getting better. This is where ketamine and psychedelic therapy can play a huge role for these treatment-resistant populations as they work differently.”Psychedelic therapy has been shown to bring promising results. A single dose of a psychedelic drug can have a long-lasting impact on mental health disorders like depression and PTSD. Additionally, people who undergo psychedelic therapy can see results in as little as one session.“We have a lot of people in the construction industry who deal with high rates of suicide, and a psychedelic drug like ketamine is one of the only substances that reduces suicidal ideation quickly,” Rais said. “A drug like ketamine is magical because it starts working in as little as six hours.”The Challenges to Destigmatize Psychedelic TherapyMaking psychedelic therapy more accessible requires a change in its reputation.Since the 1960s, ketamine has been a drug in clinical practices, proving valuable in the anesthesiology and critical care medicine fields. However, with the increase in recreational use in the 1980s, ketamine quickly became known as a party drug, dubbed “Vitamin K” or “Special K.”But it’s not just ketamine with the bad reputation: MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, and psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms, are both drugs used recreationally and have been outspokenly used by celebrities.These recreational uses are far different than psychedelic therapy, Rais says.“When we are talking about psychedelic-assisted therapy, it is the use of a high dose psychedelic in a clinically supervised setting with a trained therapist who administers the psychedelic and then does therapy with you while you are in this altered state where your brain has an increased neuroplasticity,” Rais said.To shift people’s views on psychedelic healthcare, Rais advises focusing on the benefits of these drugs. “Focus on patient outcomes and data because when administered in a clinical setting, we’re seeing results like people no longer needing to be on antidepressants after just a few sessions and that goes beyond any kind of recreational intent.”With key approvals from the FDA, psychedelic therapy is well on its way to becoming a changing force in the mental health care field, Rais says.“In the future, I hope that the stigma that’s still associated with psychedelics is removed, and people can talk freely and openly about psychedelic-assisted therapy,” Rais said. “I hope that it will be a basic mental health treatment that we will all have access to.”Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Enthea, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Wanly Chen is a writer and poet based in New York City.

Wanly Chen | April 17, 2024
Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture

When Betsy Kippenhan, VP of global talent acquisition at Comcast, moved from Denver to Seattle in July 2018, the first thing she did before checking into her temporary home was join a gym in the neighborhood. It was crucial that her relocation be as much a personal transition as it was a career transition.“Things have been going pretty well in my career. But my husband and I had two children, and I think that the part of me that was let go was my own well-being,” Kippenhan said. “So it was really about creating new routines. And I’m proud to say for the past five years, I’ve continued to add to those routines, whether it’s listening to a new audiobook or juicing every Sunday. I’ve found that far more important than my career.”Kippenhan spoke alongside three other senior leaders at From Day One’s conference in Seattle in a panel titled “Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show it Through Your Culture.” The panelists, in conversation moderated by Diana Opong, a reporter with KUOW Public Radio, discussed how organizations can avoid the “well-being washing” trap and translate their promises into meaningful action. But change, as they often say, begins at home. Each panelist began by outlining measures they take to ensure their own personal well-being.For Muhammad Umar, Divisional VP, talent diversity and change management at REI, well-being comes in the form of regular walks. Melinda Mansfield, head of business development at SecureSave, says for her, it comes from being able to prioritize important tasks rather than getting caught up in everything coming at you at once.But how does this translate into their roles as leaders? Should leaders be mandated to incorporate a culture of well-being from the top down? Umar believes the keyword here shouldn’t be “mandated” but “modeled.”“A leader’s role is to guide their teams both personally and professionally. But how do we start to talk about well-being on a regular basis so that it’s something that a leader models? A leader that I know puts everything that she does to focus on well-being onto her calendar publicly. This includes, ‘I’m gonna walk my dog for five minutes.’ She does that to make sure that she sets the tone of her team.” Mansfield agrees, outlining how crucial it is that managers show their commitment to well-being so employees are encouraged to value it themselves. Managers who send out emails on the weekends or late at night display a lack of work-life balance, even if they don’t necessarily expect employees to respond at those times.“I think putting things on the calendar so that everyone can see where you’re prioritizing yourself gives them permission to do it as well,” she said.The panelists discussed the topic "Does Your Company Genuinely Care About Well-Being? How to Show It Through Your Culture" at From Day One's Seattle conference Andy France, corporate wellness consultant & head of enterprise accounts at Burnalong, says that leaders should simultaneously be encouraged to share authentic stories, not just of their successes but their struggles. “Because when people hear that, they resonate and feel comfortable speaking up,” he said. However, as we often see, there is a significant disconnect between the top management and employees. Middle management is thus expected to play a significant role in bridging that gap, or as Opong puts it, “to help employees balance hustle culture and their own well-being.”Kippenhan says this will only be possible when managers are equipped with the right training and tools. The expectation of a leader five years ago is vastly different from what it is today, the VP says. “We have frontline leaders who have been working with some of the same people for 30 years. And now, all of a sudden, they’re having conversations that they’ve never been asked to have before. We can’t just ask them to do something without giving them the tools and the how.”Umar adds that employee expectations have similarly evolved. More individuals than ever before are entering the workforce, expecting their leaders to have conversations about mindfulness and wellness.Meanwhile, France points out that the ever-compounding role of middle management professionals has led many to suffer from burnout. They, too, he believes, can benefit from resources dedicated to well-being and from somebody to talk to.Mansfield says that one of the key benefits of this top-down managerial approach is that it encourages workers to be more vulnerable and normalizes talking about mental health. “The stigma is less than where it was 10-20 years ago,” she says. “But it’s still something that employees might not tell the people closest to them, much less go to their manager and let them know they’re struggling.”A solution Kippenhan outlines to keep the conversation going is the concept of a check-in question. “In every staff meeting, we give people a chance to breathe and maybe share some things. Sometimes, they can be fun. Other times, they can be a little bit more serious. And obviously, people have the choice to share what they want and how much they want.”It’s equally crucial to keep track of how these questions have changed over time, says Umar. “I remember when I first used to ask those questions, people would have a very canned response. Now, I feel they’d be more honest.”He says this is a sign of the changing conversation around mental health and traction that organizations can’t afford to lose.Kippenhan further emphasizes a proactive approach to mental health. This involves getting every employee engaged at an early stage and preventing challenges from reaching a crisis point. Companies should take steps to ensure that their mental health benefits are available 24/7.Recent research finds that just one in three women in the workforce feels their employer is actually upholding its commitment to well-being. Similarly, people with disabilities may find their experience to be different from their able coworkers. So the question remains: While there are many common stressors, how can employers take an inclusive approach to ensure employees from across backgrounds are heard? For Umar, it starts by identifying the common stressors and building programs to address the many things that could occur. “We have a program at REI, which is pretty handy. It allows you to navigate the experience you’re going through and find a solution based on that. So you actually meet a person and talk about some of the stuff you’re going through.”It’s also crucial to have employee resource groups to avoid taking a one-size-fits-all approach to well-being, says Mansfield. “If you’re having an issue that is inclusive to a demographic that you’re in or a certain situation, you’ve got groups and mentors and peers that you can go to, as well as the benefits your employer is giving you.”Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.

Keren Dinkin | April 16, 2024
Bridging the Human Connection Gap: How Technology Can Bring Workers Together

The sense of disconnection that Dave Wilkin felt while growing up was painful, but it became a powerful motivator that would change his life. “I learned the hard way that if you don’t have mentors, if you don’t have networks, and if you don’t have relationships–you just don’t get access to the same career or learning opportunities,” Wilkin told From Day One. “I was a gay kid in a really small town, and that’s a really tough place to be. How could I find people who were like me that I could aspire to be like?”Ten Thousand Coffees–or 10KC for short–a networking tech company that Wilkin co-founded and now leads as CEO, is how he hopes to rectify the connection deficit. It’s one that millions of workers experience, especially in the era of remote and hybrid work. Wilkin remembers how it felt to be isolated, imagining a career but with no way to get there. “It’s like sitting on an island all by yourself,” he said.Networks of close relationships grow careers, engage employees, boost morale, and keep workforces intact. According to a 2023 survey by Gallup, employees who have a mentor are 58% more likely to feel that their employer offers equal opportunities for advancement. Forty-eight percent of those who have sponsors feel the same way.Yet for Wilkin, it’s not good enough to leave such relationships up to chance, so he’s giving it a shot with a fast-rising technology: machine learning. His solution is 10KC, which adapts the tech that powers online dating matches to identify meaningful workplace connections, combined with a learning platform to make the most of those connections. The mixture produces connectivity at scale. The platform connects workers based on 50 factors, including skills, career path, location, time zone, interest areas, and affinity networks, then brings them together for productive conversation.The results are impressive. “We’ve decreased employee churn by 25% to 35% among our platform users, and we’re looking at tens of thousands of data points,” he said. Plus, 10KC has been able to increase participation in employee resource groups (ERGs) by two to three times. “A lot of HR and talent leaders think about mentoring and networking in its traditional formats–one-directional relationships where a mentor guides a mentee–but the new world of artificial intelligence and machine learning allows HR leaders to think about mentoring and networking in much more dynamic, personalized ways.”Dave Wilkin, co-founder and CEO of Ten Thousand Coffees (Photo courtesy of 10KC)Ultimately, Wilkin’s ticket out of his hometown of Lively, Ontario, was a full ride to the University of Waterloo. That marked a change in his life, not only because it was an exceptional education, but because it came with mentors and role models. “Those were the most game-changing people in my life because they helped me figure out what skills I needed to learn, what kind of programs I should study to get involved, and how to job-search.”No single relationship gave Wilkin his footing, but it was the sum of his mentors that made the difference. “There’s no such thing as a single mentor,” Wilkins said. “It’s much more dynamic than that.” It takes mentors, sponsors, peer-to-peer relationships, and reverse mentors, where a more junior employee supports one of their seniors, to create a network that propels a career.Preventing Those Missed ConnectionsThough Wilkin had to wait around for serendipity to bring in mentors, he saw a better way: Don’t leave it up to chance. Expecting workers to network on their own creates too many missed connections. With planning, companies can create proximity in distributed workforces.This can be especially important following a merger or acquisition in which two discrete organizations must come together to form something greater than the sum of its parts. And for leaders who travel, a smart network match can help them make the most of site visits. “The next time you travel, schedule a time to get to know your teams and have career conversations, rather than hoping that you bump into your colleagues in the elevator,” Wilkin said. “Find reverse mentoring opportunities so you can pick up new skills while on the road. Promote your practice area or simply learn who’s sitting in your company.”The Network Opportunity GapThere’s a distinct difference between the well-connected employee, who knows a lot of people by name (and maybe some office gossip), and the engaged employee, asserted Emily Dickens, head of government affairs for the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) in a 2022 interview with Gallup. “She’s happy, and she knows who to talk to in order to get things done,” Dickens said. “To really thrive and have a life well-lived, you have to have a work experience that is personal. You need to create relationships that outlast your time with the company. Unfortunately, this can be difficult for many professionals.”Traditional networking programs fail too many people. There’s a gender gap when it comes to mentorship and sponsorship. McKinsey and LeanIn.org’s 2023 Women in the Workplace report found that women are less likely than men to be “in the know,” and be able to access both mentorship and sponsorship opportunities at their company. Women are less likely than men to feel included in important company networks, according to SHRM’s Dickens.Another opportunity gap is based on seniority. Though internal mobility rates are up since 2021, according to LinkedIn, advancement opportunities are not evenly distributed. Workers at the manager and director levels are more than twice as likely as individual contributors to make a move within the company. Consider also that workers at the highest echelons are less likely to be female, less likely to be people of color, and less likely to be disabled.Taking the initiative in networking isn’t well-received in every workplace, said Wilkin. Skipping a level can get you in trouble, or at least earn you some suspicious looks. Asking around about other people’s jobs while seeking out sponsorship and mentorship can look like you’re trying to circumvent authority, leave your team, or conduct some (light) espionage. “If you’re a sales manager and you go above your boss to talk to somebody inside the company, you might get your wrist slapped,” he said. “There’s a lot of bias and barriers to networking inside of a company.”Yet companies that are too hung up on the norms of the hierarchy may be passing up major engagement and retention opportunities. Employees who have access to mentors and sponsors are twice as likely to be engaged than those who don’t, per a 2023 survey by Gallup. And according to LinkedIn, employees who make an internal move are 64% more likely than their non-moving peers to stay with their employer for at least three years. Beyond Mere Connection: Learning Skills and CollaboratingLately, Wilkin has been particularly interested in turning networking into learning communities. What if you could form a network of people learning skills independently, then bring them together for application and collaboration?“To reinforce a learning program, you might just think of pairing an intern to a senior leader to close that loop, but a more strategic talent and HR leader is looking at how they drive transformation through networking experiences,” he said. When a company can create a web of new managers or a web of workers adopting new AI applications, that new knowledge can be reinforced in a dozen new ways. “A network of relationships is where the majority of learning, talent, retention, career growth, inclusion all happen, but that has to be deliberate,” Wilkin said. “Using networks to help organizations become more innovative, retain their best colleagues, and be more efficient–it’s the next frontier of learning and development.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ten Thousand Coffees, for sponsoring this story.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.(Featured photo by PeopleImages/iStock by Getty Images)    

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 15, 2024