Building a Thriving Culture Through Comprehensive Health and Wellness Benefits
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza May 07, 2025Employee wellness isn’t just any one thing, and it should be treated accordingly, says Stacey Olson, the global wellness leader at architecture firm Gensler. It’s intellectual, it’s physical, it’s environment, emotional, and professional—just as a start. So when employers plan for workforce well-being, each deserves attention on its own.Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean programmatically. HR is wont to think of well-being as a set of programs or apps, says Deborah Olson, who leads well-being strategy at biotech company Genentech. “I think few teams thoroughly examine their culture, their manager training, and the behaviors across their population, and I think even fewer take the opportunity to assess the well-being of their workforce so they know where there are opportunities,” she said during an executive panel conversation at From Day One’s April virtual conference.The leaders on the panel made it clear: HR alone can’t ensure the well-being of thousands of workers, nor should it try. At chemical company BASF, director of total rewards and operations Melissa Tuscano enlists “well-being champions”: a network of employees that care deeply about mental and physical health to be ambassadors for the wellness program, exemplars of care, and sentinels of well-being in whatever department they work in. “Because we’re such a large organization, there’s no way myself or any part of my benefits team can talk to everyone as much as we might want to,” she said.At education tech company BrainPOP, chief people officer Kavita Vora set up “wellness circles,” or therapist-led discussion groups focused on coping strategies related to stressors. Her hope is that employees leave the circles with fewer stressors than when they arrived. She’s been collecting feedback from participants and iterating as she goes.The panel discussion was moderated by journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza (photo by From Day One)“For example, our Latinx community requested a meeting based on things that were happening in the news. So we had one, but we also made sure that the therapist facilitating was from the same identity group, so they felt that they really had a safe space and an understanding facilitator,” she said.Consider Access and Care NavigationAt Keysight Technologies, an electronics design firm, benefits director Heather Ostrowski’s strategy is a comprehensive one. The company’s slate of benefits is impressive: Think debt counseling, bereavement care and funeral services, concierge help with childcare and eldercare, postpartum care, menopause care, mental healthcare, and diabetes management, on top of the Cadillac of healthcare plans.Her challenge is navigation. Currently her team is the go-between for wellness vendors and employees, but she wants to hand over the controls to the employees themselves. When workers have autonomy and access, health outcomes improve.Ostrowski has been forging direct relationships between workers and providers with webinars and forums. “We have a calendar where people can see what webinar or what communications are going to be coming out. By reminding people how to get there easier—it’s been helpful for employees to feel supported.”Beware of Burnout Feeling good about work means being recognized for a job well done. Employee recognition is part of the wellness program at BASF, says Tuscano. “When people feel recognized, they are in a good, psychologically safe place. They feel happy, right? They may feel appreciated. This is all part of being well and feeling well.”But the right things must be rewarded, panelists noted. There are many paths to burnout, says Deborah Olson of Genentech. There’s overwork and long hours and lack of autonomy when it comes to decisions or style of working. Workers may edge toward burnout because they care about the work, and employees sometimes recognize and reward bad habits, even inadvertently. “So many times we are saying, ‘thank you for working long hours,’ or ‘thank you for calling in on your vacation,’” Olson said. That, too, is employee recognition. “We have the best intentions, so we should be shifting into recognizing behaviors that we want to see continued.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by Parradee Kietsirikul/iStock)
Solving the Engagement Problem in Healthcare and Employer Benefits
BY Ade Akin May 07, 2025People who hit “play” on Calm’s Matthew McConaughey-narrated sleep story aren’t thinking about tackling mental health issues like depression or anxiety; they just want to fall asleep. Yet, Calm Health, the clinical arm of the Calm meditation and sleep app, is turning bedtime content into a gateway for mental health care, providing a stigma-free entry point for employees.“Calm launched with meditation, but sleep stories made the brand a household name,” Chris Mosunic, the chief clinical officer at Calm, said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Boston Benefits conference. Calm has managed to build brand affinity faster than it could hire celebrities to narrate dreamy tales, and U.S. users now make up 60% of its user base. However, use of its clinical programs delivered through Calm Health remains in the single digits. “Why is engagement in mental health tools so low, even when the brand recognition is sky-high?” Rebecca Knight, the event’s moderator and a Harvard Business Review contributor, asked. Mosunic points to visibility, discoverability, and stigma. “Employees don’t even know what’s available. They make snap judgments. And some demographics—Gen X males, for example—still shy away from saying they need help,” he said.Rebecca Knight, independent journalist and contributor at Harvard Business Review, interviewed Calm's Chris MosunicThat’s why Calm Health’s entry strategy leverages sleep: “It lowers the stigma. You can admit you can’t sleep without anyone batting an eye,” Mosunic said. According to a JAMA Network Open Study, digital tools increase therapy use among individuals already in care, but are barely used by underserved communities. Mosunic says Calm Health’s mission is to build clinical programs authored by psychologists who specialize in specific populations, and animate them with voices that resonate. “If you tell a nurse on a 12-hour shift to take a 30-minute walk, they’ll tune out. But if you speak their language, you’ve got a chance,” Mosunic said. Messaging matters when it comes to support. Your HR team might be well-versed in data privacy and compliance, but they might not be as adept at balancing protection with personalization, especially under Epic’s EMR firewall. “Employees don’t trust health plans or employers,” Mosunic said. “You need messaging that’s cool, not creepy.” This means hyper-targeting employees without overstepping boundaries. For example, an individualized email suggesting a sleep-based intervention for someone flagged with high blood pressure feels empathetic. Sending email blasts that employees should take advantage of their mental health benefits doesn’t.Looking Ahead: From Algorithms to OutcomesMosunic zeroed in on safety over hype when asked what role AI will play in redefining workplace mental illness. “We’re focused on closed-loop systems—algorithms trained and constantly evaluated against clinical outcomes, not open-ended chatbots pulling from the wild web,” He said. Mosunic says every personalization engine must pass clinician review before it’s rolled out, ensuring the solution is effective. Calm’s Chief Clinical Officer reflected on the parallels between physical and mental health as the conversation closed. “If your knee hurts, you see an orthopedist, not a dermatologist,” he said. Similarly, mental health requires a network of specialized, interconnected solutions.Calm Health views other digital mental health platforms as referral partners, not competitors. It aims to create a world where clinical notes flow seamlessly from self-guided modules into teletherapy and then in-person care as needed. “Look for vendors that play well with others—digital, in-person, and physical institutions alike.”The next frontier in employee mental health isn’t about flashy features, but creating ecosystems that make every intervention feel personal, safe, and stigma-free, says Mosunic.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Calm, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Ade Akin covers workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Rick Friedman for From Day One)
From Data Collection to Strategic Transformation, How People Analytics is Evolving
BY Lisa Jaffe May 07, 2025“People analytics has always been about combining a passion for change with a deep understanding of data,” said Miles Overholt, founder and CEO of Strategia Analytics. The HR profession has matured significantly, moving from fighting for a “seat at the table” to being core strategic partners, he says. “People analytics is key to earning and using that seat effectively.”Once seen as a peripheral function, people analytics has become a strategic cornerstone for navigating complex organizational challenges, from workforce transitions to AI adoption. At From Day One’s Seattle conference, a panel of executives reflected on this transformation and on how data is shaping HR in real-time.“During the Great Resignation, we didn’t just rely on instinct. We used data to guide leadership decisions,” said Becky Thielen, general manager of people analytics, at Microsoft.As companies navigate uncertain economic conditions, she says, there’s increasing pressure to deliver holistic, high-quality insights with speed and precision.Paige McGlauflin, reporter at HR Brew, moderated the discussion about "How People Analytics Can Give HR Leaders Insight Into Employee Experience and the Future of Work"For Shanthi Nataraj, director of economic research at Amazon, it’s not just about tracking data–-it’s about understanding the employee journey. “We look at all the inputs an employee receives, from their manager and peers to external pressures like the job market,” she said. “These shape behaviors and ultimately impact business outcomes. We don’t view data points in isolation.”Amazon’s internal feedback tool, Connections, allows for real-time sentiment tracking. But collecting data isn’t enough. “The key is closing the loop,” Nataraj said. “When employees see their feedback drives change, it builds trust and supports engagement.”Data is increasingly democratized. “We’re empowering HR to tell their own stories,” said Shannon Peterson, head of people analytics at Verizon. When she joined two years ago, the challenge wasn’t a lack of data, it was too much of it and with no unified view. “Our goal was to centralize, certify, and connect insights across the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to exit.”Verizon has also embraced AI. “We’re training systems to identify sentiment trends, draft communications, and provide tailored insights to leaders,” she said. These efforts are channeled through what she calls a “digital front door” for insights—streamlining access and decision-making.AI Is Great, When Used With CareAt Microsoft, AI tools like Copilot are transforming how managers engage with data. “Instead of mass communications, we’re shifting to targeted nudges,” Thielen said. “We’re enabling users to ask questions and get contextual answers instantly.”Still, AI adoption must be intentional, says Laura Luther, VP, health solutions account executive at Aon. Many mid-sized organizations don’t have in-house analytics teams or advanced infrastructure, she says. “Inventory how your vendor partners use AI. Focus on consolidating and aligning data practices to reduce risk,” she said. “Prioritize high-value, low-risk applications like customer service, and tread carefully with high-risk areas like healthcare data.”Verizon has responded to those concerns with a centralized AI certification process. “Every AI initiative is reviewed for legal and security risks,” said Peterson. “Transparency is critical. Two years ago, what we do with AI now would have seemed invasive -- but today it’s essential, and we’re doing it responsibly.”With massive amounts of data, prioritization and storytelling become essential. “Even with great analysts, storytelling is a separate skill,” Thielen said. “You need to communicate insights that resonate with the CHRO or a frontline leader. Otherwise, it doesn’t drive action.”Overholt agreed, underscoring the importance of context. “Data without context, both micro and strategic, isn’t useful,” he said. His work studying CEO successions revealed that when transitions are handled well, they preserve the organizational ‘core,’ or its culture and values. “Failures happen when that core doesn’t get passed on.”Dig DeepToo often, HR teams lean on simple metrics like participation rates or satisfaction scores. That’s not enough, says Nataraj. “Those are starting points. We need to ask: Did the program reduce attrition? Improve knowledge transfer?” Her team often applies economic models to assess impact, especially when controlled trials aren’t possible.Measurement should start early, says Thielen. “Don’t bring analytics in after the fact. Involve us during program design. It’s much harder to measure outcomes retroactively.”As organizations face continued volatility, real-time listening is becoming more vital. Microsoft, Verizon, and Amazon are all investing in always-on feedback systems, shifting away from static quarterly surveys. “A single snapshot isn’t enough,” said Peterson. “We’re building systems that evolve with the employee experience.”Whether it’s guiding CEO transitions, refining total rewards strategies, or addressing workforce segmentation, people analytics is no longer just about numbers. It’s about interpreting data in ways that inspire trust, empower action, and ultimately drive business outcomes.“At its best, people analytics helps organizations not only see themselves clearly, but navigate where they need to go next,” said Overholt.Lisa Jaffe is a freelance writer who lives in Seattle with her son and a very needy rescue dog named Ellie Bee. She enjoys reading, long walks on the beach, and trying to get better at ceramics.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Making Talent Acquisition and Development More Efficient, Inclusive, and Personalized
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi May 07, 2025In 2025, it will take an average of six months for an unemployed person to find a job, according to the Wall Street Journal. While many people seek employment, companies are now seeing an overwhelming amount of job applications and with such an influx of submissions recruiters are finding it difficult to keep up.As artificial intelligence has become a key tool in the world, companies must learn to evolve with technology and learn how to utilize it as a way to mobilize their work and increase efficiency. Using AI for talent acquisition and improving candidate experiences was the top discussion during an executive panel discussion moderated by KING 5 News anchor Jake Whittenberg at From Day One’s Seattle conference.Recruiting and Acknowledging Job CandidatesLHH is a company that specializes in supporting individuals and organizations with recruitment, career transitions, leadership development and more. It receives over 300 million applications a year from around the globe, says Erin Bogdanovich, vice president of innovation of LHH.A common dissatisfying factor in the job application process is being ghosted, only having access to a chat bot, not being acknowledged and never hearing back from a recruiter. With so many applications being submitted daily, AI has been serving as an effective way to give each candidate the acknowledgement and personal support that they need to find the right jobs for them, Bogdanovich says.Amazon also utilizes AI to help recruiters identify if one applicant’s skills can be applied to other open positions that the person may not have applied to. While technology can be helpful, Anthony Palumbo, head of talent acquisition for Amazon ads and IMDB, says it’s still important to maintain human interactions. “I think that the key is applying technology using high judgment, preserving candidate experience, but not eliminating the human aspect of what we do,” said Palumbo.Improving the candidate experience is the same as providing positive customer service. For many companies like Uber and Amazon, job candidates are going to be current customers. Jack Leitch, head of talent acquisition programs and enablement at Uber, said this is a “double edged sword.” In these situations, a negative job application process could impact how the candidate feels about the company and its services. “You have to kind of consider your impact on the business with what you do with your candidates,” he said.At LHH, Bogdanovich said the company has a candidate portal for any jobs they apply to. It shows them real time updates to their application and provides transparency to candidates.Finding the Balance With AIUsing AI can help speed up certain processes while also ensuring that customers and recipients of the service are still receiving quality care. Although the human aspect is still important, some processes can be better done by technology.Panelists spoke about "Making Talent Acquisition and Development More Efficient, Inclusive, and Personalized"Roz Francuz-Harris, vice president of talent acquisition at Zillow, says the best method is to provide options for people on when they want to see automated tasks and when they would prefer to speak to a real representative. For example, when you enter the Zillow career site and upload your resume, an AI assistant can recommend jobs that match your skills and later in the process an option to speak to a recruiter can be given as a choice. “It’s that duality. It’s giving me optionality, not one or the other. I think what makes AI so special is when it goes hand in hand with the human experience,” said Francuz-Harris.This human experience paired with AI can be useful to process tasks for technical jobs. These elements can slow down recruiters and lead to tasks getting held up because the manpower is not enough, said Carl Sanders-Edwards, CEO and founder of Adeption.By using AI for efficiency, it frees up more time for recruiters to think more strategically about how they can better engage with job candidates and recruit the right people with the best skills the company needs, says Leitch.Now that AI is able to complete more repetitive tasks which were formerly done by recruiters, those same employees now have to go through a transition phase to relearn how to focus on the more human parts of the job. In order to do this, they have to learn how to leverage AI technology and learn how to maintain human connection, says Sanders-Edwards.He also added that the most important skill in candidates is the “skill to acquire skills.” The ability to adapt and evolve to new challenges and learn from them is one of the most important qualities, he says.Francuz-Harris emphasized this when she said, “AI will not replace recruiters. Recruiters who don’t learn to use AI will be replaced.” With the rise of new technology, employees need to learn to evolve to changes.The message to not be afraid of technology was adopted by panelists during this conversation, echoing Francuz-Harris’s sentiments. “Don’t be afraid. You’re going to mess it up. We’re all going to mess it up and do the wrong thing. Do it fast, and then pivot if you need to,” said Leitch.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Pride Month Without Partners: As June Approaches, Corporate Support Recedes
BY Erin Behrens May 06, 2025As Pride Month nears and WorldPride prepares to mark its 50th anniversary in Washington, D.C., the celebration comes with a question: where did all of the corporate allies go?In years past, brands jumped at the chance to market themselves as allies during Pride Month. Companies like Nike, Target, and Apple poured millions into Pride campaigns, with Pride-themed products, promotional materials, and partnerships. In the month of June, rainbows could be found anywhere you looked, from social media to train cars and store shelves. While Pride had become a major corporate initiative, with Fortune 500 companies sponsoring parades and selling rainbow products, skeptical members of the LGBTQ+ community criticized these efforts as performative, and the term “rainbow-washing” gained traction in media.But this year, as the economic and political landscape has changed, those who doubted the depth of corporate commitment have been validated. Many companies are quietly, or not so quietly, stepping back from their rainbow-filled marketing efforts and broader DEI commitments. “Since Jan. 21, when President Trump signed an executive order calling DEI ‘dangerous, demeaning and immoral,’ companies have treated it like a dietary fad suddenly found to pose mortal health risks,” wrote Bloomberg’s Brad Stone.“I know that they’re facing tough decisions inside those organizations, and I don’t want to call them out,” Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride, told NBC News. “I want to call them in. We will remember who stood by us and who didn’t. When it was politically popular, they were lined up.” The Growing Shift in Corporate SupportIn New York City, home to an annual Pride March on Fifth Avenue and the host of WorldPride in 2019, companies such as Mastercard, PepsiCo, and Citi have scaled back or withdrawn their sponsorship of this year’s events, reports the Wall Street Journal. “Two-thirds of last year’s NYC Pride sponsors have agreed to renew their sponsorships, but the rest remain in negotiations to return, have scaled back their funding or have said they are not sponsoring this year,” writes Journal reporter Patrick Coffee. Some companies are even asking for their names to be taken off of promotional materials and event merchandise, out of fear of political backlash, says Eve Keller, co-president of United States Association of Prides. “It’s multilayered, and it’s all happening at the same time,” she said.The retreat from advocacy and financial support occurs amid a broader upheaval in the DEI landscape. Resistance to DEI, which has been growing for over two years, intensified when president Trump’s second term launched a crackdown on DEI across the government, academia, cultural organizations, and corporate America. Before the new legal threat, major companies like Walmart, Google, Target, Ford, Lowe’s, and Amazon had already scaled back their DEI efforts. These cutbacks included reductions in DEI spending, labeling, diversity goals, and partnerships with organizations that track DEI progress.But the backlash to DEI advancement has produced its own backlash. The consequences of companies stepping away from DEI are becoming visible. Target’s decision to scale back its DEI program, including support for gay rights, sparked a boycott that has taken a toll on in-store traffic, which dropped 9% in February and 6.5% in March compared to the previous year. While Target is still sponsoring New York City’s annual Pride march, it has taken a quieter, “silent partnership” role, according to Kevin Kilbride, media marketing manager for NYC Pride. The shift is part of a broader trend of companies pulling back from public LGBTQ+ support, which can weaken the visibility and impact that Pride sponsorships are meant to have. Meanwhile, Twin Cities Pride has declined Target’s sponsorship altogether. NBC News reports: “Andi Otto, the executive director of Twin Cities Pride, said he chose to turn down the company’s $50,000 sponsorship because he didn’t like the message it was sending to the LGBTQ community and communities of color.”Marching Forward, With or Without Corporate SupportIn contrast to the pushback, some companies have remained steadfast in their commitment to supporting the LGBTQ+ community. Levi’s, a longstanding ally, has continued its support, with product lines focusing on “queer joy through self expression,” and continued funding for Outright International, a global organization working to advance human rights for LGBTQIA+ people. Ben & Jerry’s, the prototypical progressive brand, has also maintained its visibility, professing LGBTQ+ Rights as an issue they care about. Other brands like Visa and Oreo have implemented and renewed Pride campaigns, emphasizing inclusion even in a more cautious corporate climate.The question now is whether the corporate world will eventually return to the visibility and support it showed in recent years, continue to retreat into quieter forms of advocacy, or withdraw from the conversation altogether. Some in the LGBTQ+ community may not view corporate involvement as essential, but it can signal broader public support and offer a sense of visibility and empowerment, much needed at a time when the Trump administration is slashing funding for research into LGBTQ health. In keeping with its opposition both to DEI programs and gender-affirming care for adolescents, the administration has scrapped “more than $800 million worth of research into the health of LGBTQ people, abandoning studies of cancers and viruses that tend to affect members of sexual minority groups and setting back efforts to defeat a resurgence of sexually transmitted infections,” the New York Times reported this week, based on an analysis of federal data.While the drop in sponsorships and LGBTQ+ supportive marketing is disheartening to the community and its advocates, Pride’s core message remains unchanged. Since the Stonewall Uprising in 1969, Pride has been more than a celebration. It has always been a movement rooted in resistance, liberation, and the ongoing fight for visibility, with or without corporate support.Erin Behrens is an associate editor at From Day One.(Featured photo: Vladimir Vladimirov/iStock by Getty Images)
Creating Connection in a Complex Work World
BY Lisa Jaffe May 05, 2025The pandemic changed how work happens, and the alterations continue apace. “Five years in, the challenges haven’t stopped, they’ve just changed,” said Joe Reimer, VP of HR for F5 Networks. Hybrid work has become a norm, but it requires fresh thinking to maintain connection across locations and workstyles.In today’s evolving workplace, connection is more vital than ever, but it’s also harder to maintain. Work and workforce have both changed, agreed Jennifer Olivas, HR director at Airgas. “That shift requires new strategies to stay connected,” she said during an executive panel discussion at From Day One’s Seattle conference. Reimer, Olivas, and three other executive panelists had a distinct definition of connection. They mentioned relationships, meaningful experiences in community, communication, building empathy, and integrating physical, emotional and social well-being.One shift has been the emphasis on mental health and well-being. “Stigma is still a barrier,” said Nicole Wolf, VP of B2B partnerships at Rula. “Especially in small companies, where it can feel more personal.” Leadership must model openness and ensure mental health resources are visible and accessible, she says. “Normalize small interventions,” said Tristan Orford, VP of total rewards at Sentinel One. Regularly reminding employees about existing resources can help prevent bigger issues from developing, he says. Mental health isn’t some silo to be treated as unique, says Jennifer Jones, a dietitian and director, clinical solutions architect for Noom. “It impacts everything, from stress to healing to weight loss.” At Noom, they’ve woven mental health support into all their wellness programs, says Jones. Olivas noted that Airgas trained its HR team in mental health first aid. “It helps managers recognize red flags and respond effectively,” she said. “That builds credibility.”Companies can foster good mental health by providing support to employees during “moments that matter,” said Reimer. Whether those are positive personal events or crises. “That’s when benefits feel meaningful.”Orford noted that many solutions don’t require new investment. “Often, the answer is already in the system. We just need to communicate it better,” he said.Wolf agreed, noting that their women’s ERG helped promote a postpartum mental health benefit. “A member connected with a therapist who spoke her language and understood her experience,” she said. “That created a real impact.” Still, she cautioned that ERGs need structure. Building Connection From the Top DownConnection doesn’t happen by accident. Leaders must be intentional. “Share stories, not advice,” said Orford. He said that when leaders speak honestly about what’s worked for them, it makes resources feel more relatable.Olivas emphasized regular, structured check-ins. “Intentional, uninterrupted one-on-ones build trust,” she said. “Some of our leaders even set goals around having them consistently.”Reimer said one simple question can open the door to deeper connection: “How are you doing?” He said good leadership today means seeing employees as whole people, not just roles. F5 operates with a hybrid model: 60% of the workforce has in-office requirements, and 40% are fully remote. Two years ago, they asked employees who live within 30 miles of an office to come in 30 days per quarter on their own schedule. “There was resistance at first,” he said. “But people adapted.”Journalist Diana Opong moderated the discussion about "The Connection Solution: Bringing Workers Together for Well-Being and Innovation"They strive to make office time worthwhile, emphasizing collaborations and building relationships, but Reimer also says that they work to ensure virtual connection also happens with those who are not in office. “We’re still learning how to run inclusive meetings and foster that shorthand communication online.”Online connection has value, too, says Jones. Noom offers anonymous online “circles” around topics like weight loss or chronic conditions. “They’re not tied to work or home life,” she said. “But they give people a safe space to share and support each other.”You May Already Have What You NeedCompanies often overlook the tools they already have. “Take stock,” said Wolf. “What’s in your benefits plan? Who on staff could volunteer? What support are you already paying for but not using?”Orford says his team found new value by combing through contracts. “When we switched 401(k) vendors, we found benefits we weren’t using that were free,” he said. They were marketed and employees are using them. Technology can also support well-being and connection. “AI can offload mundane tasks and improve efficiency,” said Jones. She described how Noom uses AI for food logging and body scanning, and how vendors can help employees understand health risks. “When used responsibly, this tech can be incredibly impactful,” she added.Connection isn’t just a perk. It’s essential to engagement, innovation, and retention. “People are craving connection in new ways,” said Wolf. That shift opens new doors for benefits design and employee engagement. In a world where work is increasingly fragmented, the companies that thrive will be those that treat connection not as an afterthought, but as a foundation.Lisa Jaffe is a freelance writer who lives in Seattle with her son and a very needy rescue dog named Ellie Bee. She enjoys reading, long walks on the beach, and trying to get better at ceramics.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Unmasking the Hidden SUD Crisis: The True Cost of Untreated Substance Use in the Workplace
BY Jessica Swenson May 05, 2025Substance use disorder (SUD) is often considered a hidden condition, but it is surprisingly pervasive. According to the latest data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 48 million Americans over the age of 12 are currently living with clinical SUD. Around 28% of this population is in the workforce, but fewer than 10% of those individuals are being treated, making the disorder appear less common.SUD is a chronic condition that, left untreated, gets progressively worse over time. In addition to the health problems it can cause, it can increase employer benefit expenses. At From Day One’s Boston benefits conference, Todd Fruchey, vice president of sales for virtual substance use treatment platform Pelago, shared how employers can proactively mitigate these costs.Health Impacts of SUDIn an employer health care strategy survey, Fruchey says, cancer once again topped musculoskeletal conditions as the “highest cost spend area for employers.” Many people don’t realize how closely aligned SUD is with cancer. Two of the top three preventable causes of cancer are alcohol and tobacco. By freeing people of substances like tobacco and alcohol early through preventive measures, says Fruchey, you can make a huge impact on the instances of cancer.There is also a direct relationship and multiplier effect between substance use disorder and other chronic conditions like diabetes and diseases of the heart, kidneys, or pulmonary system, Fruchey says, referencing data from recent NIH and CDC reports. These are disease states that employers are often actively trying to improve in their employee populations since they tend to be some of the highest-expense conditions. “In most cases, if there’s a comorbidity between substance use disorder and these other conditions, the spend pattern for that individual will double and it will chronically get worse,” he said. Resolving the substance use disorder is a critical step toward improvements in other chronic conditions and general health.Lack of TreatmentA 2024 Pelago trend report shows that 56% of employees think substance use treatment is important for their employer to offer, but only 14% reported that they had access to such a program, says Fruchey. Nearly every audience member self-reported that their company offers this service to their employees. If so many employers do offer the treatment, why are so few employees aware that they have access to it, and why do 9 out of 10 people experiencing SUD remain untreated? Perhaps they are not comfortable accessing it, Fruchey says.Todd Fruchey, VP of Sales at Pelago, led the thought leadership spotlight in BostonThe Pelago survey asked employees about their comfort level asking for help on topics ranging from work-specific to highly personal, calling out that that the comfort level dropped dramatically (to less than 35%) for problems related to substances and alcohol. “If you’re an employer and you’re trying to understand how to get more people engaged, you have to get past the stigma. You have to create a safe environment for employees to raise their hand and ask for help.” he said.How Can Employers Help?Fruchey offered a few key questions to start: Is substance use treatment included in your benefits program? Do your employees feel comfortable asking for help? Does your company have a recovery-friendly culture or employee resource groups to offer support without repercussions? Create an environment where employees feel safe asking for this type of help.Analyze your benefits program for any gaps in substance use treatment, he says. People fall on what Fruchey calls a spectrum of acuity, which dictates the level of support or care that they need based on their position within the disease state. You can review healthcare and pharmacy claim data to identify potential risks. If you see more high-impact claims, people may not be as involved in substance use treatment at the earlier phase of the disease.Learning how to assist employees in navigating the stages of change—from recognizing to admitting to addressing a problem—is crucial, Fruchey says. “We know that there are all kinds of positive results from getting somebody into recovery. They turn over half as much. They miss 14 less days of work. They spend $16,000 a year less on health care. If you can get somebody to engage in a program around substance use treatment, there are all kinds of benefits for themselves and their families and you as the employer.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Pelago, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at https://www.jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Rick Friedman for From Day One)
The Personalized Benefits Playbook: How Smart Companies Can Win with LSAs
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza May 02, 2025“We’ve had over 100 years to perfect our company’s culture, and we found that the wellness program is truly part of the strategic plan within our company,” said Whitney Ayers, wellness program manager at Garver, an engineering, planning, and environmental services firm founded in 1919.The program, which has become a cornerstone of the company’s benefits, includes a $300 health reimbursement employees can use at their discretion. Despite its importance, there were ways in which the company hadn’t modernized the program in decades. Chiefly, its administration, which Ayers was still juggling across spreadsheets, costing her hours on tedious, manual tasks, she shared during a From Day One webinar.Employers would send receipts to Ayers, who would log them in an Excel spreadsheet by employee ID, make a few (manual) computations for tax purposes, then forward it to finance—a process that was becoming increasingly untenable as the workforce grew from 450 to 1,300 workers over about seven years. “Finally, I was like, ‘man, I’m doing a disservice to the wellness program because I’m not able to spend quality time on the strategic planning of my program. I’m spending so much time on administrative work.” Verdino of Forma spoke with Ayers of Garver during the webinar about "The Personalized Benefits Playbook" (photo by From Day One)Garver’s insurance broker proposed a solution: a lifestyle spending account, or LSA. These are flexible, customizable, employer-funded spending accounts employees can use for a wide array perks largely determined by the employer. With theirs, Garver funds perks like home gym equipment, nutrition programs, and fitness subscriptions. “LSAs are about employees being able to access things that matter most to them and bring value to their lives in various ways,” said Amanda Verdino of Forma, the LSA platform Garver brought on to lift the administrative burden and polish the program. “They’re super personalized, where everyone can access what matters most to them in a way that feels really valuable and meaningful.”After the switch to an LSA, “the administrative burden went down to zero, which was amazing,” said Ayers. “I’m saving countless hours from having to do manual work, and it’s helping decrease human error.” Now, Ayers has time to focus work on cost-effectiveness and planning. When the CFO calls to ask exactly what the company is spending on health reimbursements, Ayers can answer right away, and in detail. “We have a 97.8% participation rate in our wellness program,” Ayers said. “We provide an insurance premium discount, and 97.8% of those employees earned that discount, not only last year, but also in 2023.” Garver also sees better health outcomes as a result of the improved program—which pairs preventative care with perks like the LSA that allow employees to get healthy how they want to.“With the introduction of the lifestyle spending account, just last year we were able to invest in our people and pay out $233,000 in health reimbursements. That’s a 110% increase,” said Ayers. “The engineers checked my math.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Forma, for sponsoring this webinar.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about business and the world of work. Her work has appeared in the Economist, the BBC, The Washington Post, Inc., and Business Insider, among others. She is the recipient of a Virginia Press Association award for business and financial journalism.(Photo by mapo/iStock)
Shaping Benefits to Be Competitive Everywhere in the World
BY Carrie Snider April 30, 2025Benefits used to be pretty cut and dry, but the modern workforce has realized something about themselves. They want a holistic approach that touches every part of their well-being.“You really have to give employees a plethora and a full program of benefits,” said Diane Young, head of global benefits at Teradata. Young spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Boston half-day benefits conference, interviewed by Callum Borchers, Wall Street Journal columnist on careers and work lives.These offerings should include physical, emotional, and social needs. Not only that, but each person is unique in what they need in each of those areas. “You could have somebody that you’re hiring who’s 21 years old or who’s 63 years old. What’s important to one person is going to be very different for somebody else,” she said. Benefits like well-being days, flexible time off, and birthday holidays are also ways to make employees feel valued and excited about joining a company, says Young. “It’s really meeting everybody where they are in their career and their stage of life.”Where You Work MattersOne thing the pandemic did was propel virtual and hybrid work into overdrive. The result? Much of the workforce now prefers virtual work. As such, flexible work arrangements are no longer just “nice to have”—they’re becoming a major competitive advantage.Diane Young, head of global benefits at Teradata, was interviewed“The best bang for the buck right now is definitely virtual work,” Young said. “If you’re giving the company and the employees the opportunity to work virtually, you can really hire the best talent. You’re not stuck to one location.” Especially for a company looking to compete worldwide, it’s a huge benefit.While many companies are pushing employees to return to the office, those that continue to offer virtual options stand out to potential employees. “For those companies that say you can work virtually flexibly, anywhere you want, it’s going to be a huge differentiator.” Still, there can be benefits from in-person, so she suggested that companies make sure they work around that to include the benefit of mentorship.“When you’re young in your career, it’s sometimes nice to have somebody sitting right next to you,” Young said. “You really have to have an open door if you’re working virtually.”Minimum Global Standards With operations in more than three dozen countries, Teradata uses global minimum standards to ensure consistency and fairness across markets.“A global minimum standard is basically saying, what do we stand for as a company, and what’s the minimum that we want to give to all employees?” Young said. “It is a guiding light. It helps us design benefits. It helps me say yes to benefits—and it also helps me say no.”One example is life insurance, which can vary wildly across the globe. Young said they used to offer life insurance benefits based on the country. But it can be complicated and inconsistent with that approach. “Let’s have a level playing field,” she said.Young highlighted the importance of balancing local regulations and competitive expectations while holding to company values: “I keep saying we’re one company—a whole employee in one company.”Culture Is Crucial for BenefitsEven the best-designed benefits package can fail without a strong, supportive culture behind it. Teradata has an unlimited paid time off policy, but it takes nurturing for that to work. “We have a culture of trust at our company, and because of that, we trust our employees. We trust them to take their time and not abuse it,” Young said. One key to it working? Leadership plays a key role. “If you see everybody working 60 hours a week and nobody’s taking a vacation, it’s not going to work.” Culture also matters when it comes to personal, meaningful benefits like pet bereavement leave. Even with unlimited PTO, recognizing a pet’s death explicitly in policy sends a message of empathy and care—qualities increasingly important to workers. They also offer the day off for an employee’s birthday.As Young emphasized, “It’s about designing benefits for the whole employee—and creating a place where people want to stay and grow.”Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Rick Friedman for From Day One)
The Brand Manager’s Nightmare: Is Every Purchase Decision Now a Political One?
BY Bill Saporito April 30, 2025Starting May 12, Avelo Airlines, a budget carrier, is scheduled to begin flights chartered by the U.S. government to fly from Mesa, Ariz., to El Salvador. The Boeing 737s will be carrying not vacationers but people, in shackles, who are being deported, destined for a known hellhole of a prison.Even before the plane took off, Avelo had touched down in a public relations fiasco. Avelo said it was proud to assist the government, yet all but stated that it needed the business. The company is a startup, an Ultra Low Cost Carrier (ULCC) that operates out of secondary airports such as Wilmington, Del. Avelo quickly became the target of a boycott by groups in Delaware, as well as Connecticut and California, where it operates, who accused the airline of transporting people who were being deported without due process. For that same reason, Connecticut’s attorney general, Will Tong, threatened Avelo’s tax breaks and subsidies.A higher-profile company, Tesla, has learned the cost of the controversy created by its CEO, Elon Musk, who spent $250 million to help elect Donald Trump president and then fired tens of thousands of federal workers in his role as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).The world’s richest man has lost some $150 billion in wealth this year as shares in his car company continue to fall. Tesla reported that its profits dropped 71% and revenue from car ales declined 20% in the first quarter as customers abandoned a brand once viewed as progressive and eco-friendly. But Musk’s ties to Trump have made the Tesla brand toxic. The used car market is flush with Teslas, as owners abandon the company. Tesla owners who can’t afford to unload them display bumper stickers proclaiming, “I bought this before Elon went crazy.”For other companies caught one way or another in the political crossfire—Target, Anheuser-Busch, Costco—it’s a year that offers lots of bad options concerning brand and reputational risk as America’s politics continue get more strained. And pained.Even America as a brand is in play, the golden door having been slammed shut, the world leader now becoming isolationist. The president of the U.S. dissing Canada, geography’s nicest neighbors, has set off a boycott by Canadian tourists that is already apparent in places like Las Vegas, New York, and Florida. Within this political maelstrom, companies are trying to figure out whether consumers are going to turn every purchase decision into a political one. As for me, I'm just trying to buy paper towels on the cheap. Does my cereal choice really have to be a commentary on the Trump Administration? Can’t a hamburger just be a hamburger? Increasingly, the answer is no.The Hazard of Getting Outside the Brand FitOf all the corporate jobs I wouldn’t want to have right now—other than DEI director—brand manager might be one of them. This used to be a fairly straightforward assignment. If you are in charge of say, Ivory Soap, your job is to make sure the brand speaks to purity, cleanliness and motherhood.But in our over-politicized world, virtue signaling and value signaling can trip over each other. And when they do, there’s trouble. We saw this happen, most spectacularly, when Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Lite brand decided to do a promotion with a transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. There was an actual brand fit—Bud Lite has a longstanding marketing presence in the LBGTQ community, just as it does in deep red areas. And given that Bud Lite had run some pretty insipid creative in the past (and I’m talking about you, Spuds MacKenzie), this promotion should have had a half-life of about 30 seconds.But Bud’s umbrella brand image of traditional American masculinity—all of it pulled by Clydesdale horses—was too much for MAGA America, which staged a loud boycott. Bud Lite’s sales tanked until the company counter-programmed with the reddest of red, white and blue advertising. Gay and trans people are still drinking Bud Lite, presumably, but you are just not going to see that highlighted as much. You can call A-B a coward for being bullied, but brands, and the companies behind them, adjust their identities at considerable peril. Consider what happened to BP, the British oil giant that tried to reposition itself as a green energy company. Then its Texas refinery blew up, revealing the firm’s horrible environmental record. Granted, oil companies did green energy pantomime during the Biden Administration, but they are suddenly oil-and-gas companies again, as opposed to the energy companies.And maybe that kind of honesty is preferable. Resource extraction is a dirty business. If you’re driving a gasoline-powered auto, maybe you shouldn’t expect chlorophyl from a hydrocarbon seller; just fill’er up, shut up, and drive.But if you want to know how to do down-and-dirty, there’s Waste Management, now known as WM, which has managed to raise trash removal to some kind of sacred environmental mission. WM’s communications all but scream, “We love garbage!” It’s a clear corporate statement that shareholders and other constituencies can understand.How Much Leeway Does a Brand Have?A company’s brand or trademark is often explained in terms of permission: What does your brand or logo allow you to offer customers? Being Budweiser gives you permission to market the beer made by a company founded by a German immigrant—that is now part of a Belgian-Brazilian conglomerate—as All-American. But Anheuser-Busch earned that permission over the last 100 years of brand communication. What it doesn’t permit you to do is engage in identity politics, at least not today.And not every brand-marketing failure is caused by controversy. In the 1980s the old-line retailer Sears, Roebuck bought Dean Witter, an old-line stockbroker. The reasoning was that consumers would gladly buy stocks where they buy socks. Because both firms were trusted, went the logic. But people didn’t shop for equities and power tools the same way, wouldn’t you know. Sears had neither mission nor permission to sell stocks.Costco, on the other hand, is an example of a company that had permission from its customers to freely reject the anti-DEI initiatives of the Trump Administration. From its beginning as a membership wholesale club, Costco was green, liberal, worker-friendly and an absolutely first-rate operation. Customers love the place because cheap groceries and merchandising magic are bipartisan. There was no red drain from Costco’s coffers, because the company and its culture were behaving in the way that co-founder Jim Sinegal had executed from the start.Target employees marching in the New York City Pride Parade in 2017. When Target stepped away from its DEI commitments earlier this year, a boycott broke out (Photo by Aneese/iStock by Getty Images) On the other hand, poor Target, the midwestern retailer that’s been a favorite of young families, managed to catch it from both the left and the right by trying to please both. Target’s decision to back away from its DEI program, which included supporting gay rights, infuriated the soccer-mom set as well as Black shoppers. The ensuing boycott has hurt in-store traffic, down 9% in February and 6.5% in March vs. the prior year, compelled CEO Brian Cornell to seek a meeting with Black leaders to try to repair the damage. The company pledged to buy $2 billion from Black-owned suppliers. But not everyone in the community is onboard.Then we’ve got Ben & Jerry’s, where the corporate owner, the Dutch conglomerate Unilever, just fired the CEO for being too political, even though the brand has a stated mandate to be socially progressive. This in the context of Unilever's decision to sell its ice-cream portfolio, which the company carefully assembled and artfully mismanaged. Co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield have offered to buy back the company and return the brand to its progressive roots. Set Chunky Monkey free! That might not matter to people who just want some chocolate ice cream. But if you are part of the company and its community, you care a lot, because the politics are part of the culture.That’s why nobody expects Patagonia to be anything but a fierce environmental steward, because that’s exactly the company that Yves Chouinard created. How fierce? In 2021, Patagonia pulled its business from the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort after a then-owner hosted a fundraiser for far-right, which is to say anti-green, Republicans.Essentially, Patagonia fired one of its prestige customers. You might label that decision as extreme, but it’s also an example of a company living up to its culture and mission. Over the long term, there may be way more value in reinforcing the mission than losing a customer.Bill Saporito is an editor at large at Inc. magazine whose work has also appeared in the New York Times and Washington Post. Previously, he worked as an assistant managing editor at Time magazine and as a senior editor at Fortune. He has written for From Day One on the power gap among labor unions, the myth of the “woke” corporation, and the perils of getting technology and people misaligned.(Featured photo: People take part in a protest on March 2025 outside of the Tesla centre at Park Royal in West London, as part of a campaign encouraging customers to boycott Tesla. Photo by Stefan Rousseau/Associated Press)
Supporting a Proactive Approach to Well-Being at Work
BY Lisa Jaffe April 30, 2025“The pandemic shed a spotlight on mental health,” said Jon Shimp, head of sales at Calm. “People are a little bit more forthright and a little bit more comfortable saying, ‘I might need some help.’”Now, post-pandemic, organizations are continuing to reassess how they support employees in a world that continues to evolve. Speaking at From Day One’s Seattle conference, Shimp offered insight into how employee well-being has shifted in the last five years, and how employers can meet workers where they are now.During the early days of Covid, organizations scrambled to provide access to care in any way possible. “Everyone grabbed everything off the shelf,” Shimp said, referring to the wave of benefit vendors that companies brought in to quickly address rising employee needs. That rush made sense in a remote-first, crisis-driven environment. But today, Shimp says, the landscape is shifting from reaction to reflection. Employers are stepping back to evaluate what’s working, any duplications and how to develop a more cohesive strategy.That early-pandemic rush to offer mental health solutions has, in many cases, led to “vendor fatigue.” Employers may now offer dozens of digital health tools, but that doesn’t mean employees know how, or why, to use them.Jon Shimp of Calm was interviewed during the thought leadership spotlight “If you’ve got 20 or 25 different point solutions, how do employees navigate that?” Shimp posed. The challenge isn’t just access, but also awareness, engagement and relevance. Personalization and clarity are critical, and making it easier to find care in a safe and welcoming way is the only way to succeed.Some demographics, such as middle-aged men, are historically less likely to engage with mental health solutions. “We don’t wake up thinking, ‘I should check my benefits for help with how I’m feeling,’” Shimp said. Addressing these gaps means meeting users where they are with approachable language, strategic outreach and even snail mail campaigns designed to reach the entire household.Not all employees experience mental health in the same way. There are distinct differences between cohorts, whether by role, demographic or geography. Frontline workers may face different stressors than corporate staff. Educational and manufacturing sectors have different baseline needs. Tailoring messaging, onboarding and support mechanisms is essential. Leadership, too, plays a role in creating a culture that supports mental health. “When leaders show vulnerability, it signals to their teams that it’s OK to feel down or to need help,” he said. He likened this transparency to conversations he has with his teenage sons to normalize emotional struggles and assure them they are manageable.From Crisis to PreventionOne misconception is that mental health support is mostly about acute care, therapy or psychiatry. But Shimp says that for most people, it’s more about prevention.“Two-thirds of our users are doing okay; they’re not in crisis,” he said. “But they are experiencing episodic issues like grief, stress, or life transitions.” Someone who just had a knee transplant may be upset about not being able to go for a daily run; a menopausal woman may have trouble regulating her emotions, and supporting them with tools to prevent decline is as important as treating a crisis.That’s where Calm Health differentiates itself. While the Calm app is widely known for meditation and sleep stories, Calm Health is a more comprehensive platform. It leverages the consumer trust built by Calm and adds a clinical layer designed for employers. At the core is personalization. “The ethos is the mind-body connection,” said Shimp. Onboarding is a guided experience supported by video, interactive prompts, and thoughtful design.Users are asked about their physical health goals like managing diabetes or weight loss, mental health status via clinically validated PHQ and GAD screeners, and life stages. Based on these responses, Calm Health creates tailored experiences.“If someone is diabetic, wants to lose weight, and shows moderate depression, we provide content related to all of those needs,” Shimp said. The app can even connect users to external benefit programs their employer offers, whether that’s a weight loss platform or access to therapy via a partner provider.This kind of tailored, preventive care, like a 5 minute meditation, can keep users grounded and reduce the likelihood of more serious issues later on. “Anything that introduces people to care early on is a win,” he said.When asked about return on investment, Shimp acknowledged that most ROI models in healthcare, especially in digital health, are hard to validate fully. “Most are based on cost avoidance,” he noted, like preventing joint replacement. “But did you help someone avoid surgery, or did they lose 50 pounds on their own?”Focus on engagement as a proxy for success instead, he says. Metrics like registration rates, completion of onboarding, and consistent app usage help Calm Health measure whether the platform is delivering on its promise.As mental health becomes a lasting component of employee well-being, the narrative is shifting from reactive crisis care to proactive, personalized support. The pandemic may have forced the conversation, but forward-thinking employers are now using the moment to rethink, refine, and recommit to the mental well-being of their people. “Anything we can do to keep someone from sliding down the continuum is a win–for them and for the organization.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Calm, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Lisa Jaffe is a freelance writer who lives in Seattle with her son and a very needy rescue dog named Ellie Bee. She enjoys reading, long walks on the beach, and trying to get better at ceramics.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Making Healthcare Work: Small Changes to Your Benefits Strategy That Deliver Big Impact
BY Stephanie Reed April 29, 2025“It’s very clear that employees aren’t just demanding better benefits, but they’re demanding a better experience from health care,” said Katie Blakemore, the director of events at Accolade.Post-pandemic, the prevailing reality is that thriving organizations offer comprehensive benefits. Yet, changes in healthcare spending challenge sustainability. The costs have reached an all-time high in 13 years, increasing by 8%. What tools, principles, and methods can pave the way to solutions with significant impact? Can benefits leaders find quality care while avoiding excessive costs projected to reach an increase of 9-10% in 2026? During a From Day One webinar, leaders from Accolade came together to share actionable tactics that address these key challenges. “What members, we believe, want most is simplicity and clarity,” said Kristen Bruzek, the senior vice president of service delivery at Accolade. Accolade, a healthcare solutions organization combining technology and care advocacy by physician-led teams, has refined modern care navigation. This effective strategy avoids complex delays and unnecessary spending, she says.AI is transforming healthcare navigation by revealing data patterns, reducing friction, and getting the right resources to employees faster—helping organizations spot gaps, predict risks, and improve outcomes. Ava, Accolade’s virtual assistant, answers questions, checks benefits, identifies local providers, and confirms basic claims, the speakers shared. The organization has seen a 6% increase in member satisfaction by engaging with Ava. Further, Accolade’s more complex AI-driven health engine picks up on at-risk members to deliver more urgent and personalized care team outreach. To demonstrate this process, consider a member flagged for diabetes or an issue concerning their mental health. The system alert will help care advocates immediately direct that member to the right primary care provider or behavioral clinician. By spotting at-risk employees as early as possible using data-driven insights, employers can avoid unnecessary costs and adverse health events for employees.Personalization and Human Connection Combining data-driven insights with hyper-personalization leads to greater employee engagement and utilization outcomes.Accolade introduces the virtual assistant as a quick self-service tool and provides more personalized onboarding via multiple channels to help members learn about their care options. Multiple channels let employers meet employees where they are. Members can engage with personalized support by several means: phone calls, video calls, or asynchronous messaging.Human connectivity holistically encapsulates and addresses concerns using a hyper-personalized approach. For example, Ava can pick up on specific details or keywords during a chat with a member that indicates they are physically or mentally at risk. Emotionally challenging and complex feedback alerts the system of that member’s position, says Bruzek. The virtual assistant then flags the member and coordinates a meeting with a nurse on their care team for more personalized guidance.Ferega spoke with Accolade colleagues on innovation in healthcare benefits (company photo)“We can recognize that and get them to an advocate or a nurse right away through the voice channel or digital if the member prefers to stay there,” said Liz Ferega, senior vice president of customer success. The human element remains essential alongside technology. HR leaders identify the most effective tools, channels, and benefits programs—and they’re the ones who can validate real-world impact, like fewer ER visits or improved chronic care. Only a human can truly judge whether a tool is both intuitive and educational, and HR leaders are best positioned to ensure AI reflects the user’s perspective accurately.“The care is higher quality from the start and being able to help a member get to that is critical. With that being said, the human connection will still be a core part of everything that we do,” said Ferega. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Accolade, for sponsoring this webinar.Stephanie Reed is a freelance news, marketing, and content writer. Much of her work features small business owners throughout diverse industries. She is passionate about promoting small, ethical, and eco-conscious businesses.(Photo by LALAKA/Shutterstock)
How Microsoft Innovates: An Inside Look at the Culture Behind Some of the Biggest Breakthroughs
BY Katie Chambers April 29, 2025Contrary to popular belief, “innovation” is not synonymous with “invention.” Instead, innovation is all the hard work that comes after invention to bring that idea to life. Tech giant Microsoft has long thrived on this energetic cultivation. Two veteran Microsoft engineers and entrepreneurs are offering a rare inside look at how one of the world’s most influential companies unlocks human creativity and collaboration. JoAnn Garbin, former director of Innovations at Microsoft and now founding partner of Regenerous Labs, and Dean Carignan, partner program manager in the Office of the Chief Scientist at Microsoft, co-authored The Insider’s Guide to Innovation at Microsoft. In a fireside chat at From Day One’s Seattle conference, they shared key lessons for anyone looking to thrive in an era defined by rapid change and innovation.The Joy of Innovation Despite living in unusual times, with the future of work seemingly powered by AI, Garbin and Carignan found throughlines about innovation that can help workers across a variety of eras and job descriptions. “We felt like there were core lessons that transcend time and technology and industry and role. It doesn’t matter if you’re in HR or in engineering or research, there are practices that everybody could benefit from,” Garbin said. One of these universal truths they discovered about innovation is team dynamics. “We discovered this incredible joy and collegiality in the teams that were innovating,” Carignan said. “And so that was our motivation: to make people better innovators so they could be productive, but also so they could be happier.” Innovation, Garbin says, is a fundamental human need. “We are builders. Since the dawn of humanity, we’ve been creating things. And up until the computer age, we were still creators and builders,” she said. But with today’s technological advances, we don’t all always get to participate in innovation in quite the same way. And whereas most businesses are “zero sum” and looking to be cost effective, Carignan says, innovators instead have a positive sum mentality in generating new and exciting things for their constituents.A Method to the Madness “Part of Microsoft’s secret sauce is that it has embraced innovation,” said moderator Cathy Duchamp, assistant managing editor at the Puget Sound Business Journal. And that innovation, the co-authors say, is “loopy.” Playing off the notion that tech creators may get pegged as “mad scientists,” they explored the loopiness of the innovation process. “There are all sorts of patterns in the innovation process itself that are iterative. You discover, you design, develop, you learn, you fail, you iterate,” Garbin said.But that’s not to say there is no structure in place. “There is a method to the madness. If there isn’t a method, you can’t teach it to people, and you can’t bring in new people and get them into the process effectively. So, you have to make it a structured, standard process,” Garbin said. Fortunately, the linear notion of work is highly familiar to those in the corporate world. HR leaders need to look for innovators who understand how to bridge the gap.“The best innovators that we found understood, ‘I’m in an environment that wants predictability and linearity. It’s my job to explain why things are going to be loopy and prepare the people I’m working with and anticipate when it might loop back and when it’s going to loop forward,’” Carignan said. “And so fitting innovation into a corporate structure, or any company structure, is hard and it requires a certain profile of person.”Building a Culture of Innovation Garbin and Carignan signed copies of their book for attendees Innovation cannot, and should not, be limited to creative or technological pursuits alone. “We found that the best innovators at Microsoft were thinking way beyond the technology,” Carignan said. “They would innovate their business model, their culture, their processes. And it’s that holistic approach to innovation that really leads to breakthroughs.” The co-authors call this systemic creativity “architectural innovation.” Carnigan shares an HR-specific example from Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. “Bing does the candidate-driven loop. They basically leave time in a recruiting loop for the candidate to reach out to people, connect, follow up, schedule a coffee, and they look at how [the candidates] use that time and whether they’re actually using it to learn, engage, and build relationships,” he said. “It’s a good indicator of whether or not they’re going to be innovative when they hire in.”Another Microsoft example: gaming arm Xbox hires for “culture adds” rather than “culture fits,” Carnigan said, acknowledging that each new hire will fundamentally change the organization’s DNA–and that’s OK. “Adding to it is way better than fitting into it,” he said. Xbox manages its culture the way it manages a product. “They say culture is something we need to proactively shape and create, so they have reviews, metrics, and targets. It's not as definable as a product, but they've invested in a team that takes it seriously and whose sole job is to think about where the culture is today and where we need to go with it,” Carnigan said.Best Practices for InnovationPeople are essential to innovation. In the innovation loop of “discover, design, develop,” the most successful organizations have people who take part in more than one part of the process. The co-authors identified different work personalities, such as pioneers, developers, settlers, and town planners. But a group’s ability to innovate is dependent, Carignan says, on another category: boundary crossers. “The discipline is different from the role,” Garbin said. “The trick is to connect all these people together.” Failure is key to a healthy innovative process, Carignan says, citing Microsoft’s failure to jump on the search engine bandwagon fast enough, leaving room for Google to take the lead. Learning from those mistakes, the team has taken on an early adopter approach when it comes to AI, establishing themselves as leaders on the cutting edge. The co-authors also described the concept of “re-hiring the team” at Xbox when there is a major business or technological shift. “They map [the change] down to every individual job description, and managers are then charged with going and having the conversation: ‘How do the new requirements of the organization map to your interest, background, skills, and passions?’ The vast majority see this as an opportunity to learn and grow, and become even more connected to the organization because they’ve been re-hired,” Carignan said. Ultimately, we are all innovators. “Innovation is everywhere,” Duchamp said, in all departments and across all roles. “90% of the money invested in innovation goes to technology,” Garbin said. “But 90% of the value created comes from everything around the technology: the business model and the people systems. So, the companies that figure out [how] to innovate with everyone, and bring all the roles, all the disciplines, all the parts of the business together, they’re the ones that really achieve monumental success.”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, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photos by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Optimizing Executive Leadership During Unprecedented Times
BY Christopher O'Keeffe April 28, 2025Companies are moving away from sink-or-swim onboarding for new CEOs and turning to strategic coaching with clear, measurable returns. As businesses face unprecedented challenges, from supply chain disruptions to talent shortages, providing support to bolster strong executive leadership has never been more critical. Leaving many organizations to find that traditional approaches to developing senior leaders are insufficient for today's complex business landscape.Leaders examined this shift through a compelling case study during a From Day One webinar about “Optimizing Executive Leadership During Unprecedented Times.” Sandra Davis, chair and founder of MDA Leadership, a 43-year-old firm specializing in executive development, shared insights into mentoring Holly Cooper, the recent CEO of Altumint, a public safety solutions provider. The firm brought in MDA during a critical growth phase for Cooper, helping accelerate her effectiveness as she integrated into her CEO role. Aldon Severson, MDA's director of client development, moderated the compelling discussion, highlighting how executive coaching has evolved from a remedial intervention to a strategic investment that accelerates leadership performance.The Three-Phase ApproachMDA Leadership’s coaching framework consists of three phases: awaken, align, and accelerate. The approach begins by establishing a relationship and building chemistry to understand both the leader and the organizational context. “The whole awakened phase was both about learning about Holly and about others' expectations” said Davis. This initial discovery process helps executives quickly understand what others need from them without relying on trial and error.In the “align” phase, the executive crafts specific goals based on business objectives and stakeholder feedback. The final “accelerate” phase focuses on execution and measuring results. This structured approach distinguishes professional coaching from casual mentoring, providing accountability and measurable outcomes that justify investment.Assessment as a Strategic ToolWhen Cooper stepped into the CEO role after serving as COO, she faced the challenge of building the right executive team to support rapid growth. MDA’s understanding in leadership assessment became central to her hiring strategy. “The individuals we brought in, after going through an assessment, were much higher-qualified candidates for the positions we were looking for than those we hired without any type of assessment,” Cooper said. She noted that middle managers hired without such assessments had significantly higher turnover rates, with most leaving within 12 months.Holly Cooper spoke with Sandra Davis and Aldon Severson of MDA Leadership (photo by From Day One)According to Davis, MDA’s candidate assessments are increasingly sophisticated, customized to specific roles rather than using a dated one-size-fits-all approach. Beyond hiring, Cooper also used assessments to evaluate existing talent, particularly longtime employees who had grown with the company since its founding.Navigating Board RelationshipsOne of the most challenging aspects for new CEOs is managing relationships with the board of directors. This dynamic requires different skills than executives typically develop on their way up the corporate ladder.Executives accustomed to having a single boss often find the transition to reporting to a full board, with diverse perspectives to be jarring. Cooper described this as one of her biggest unexpected challenges: “Having a board full of different people, personalities and their needs, is one of the biggest challenges…what are they going to ask for next and will I even get this thing done before they ask for the next piece?”Davis advises resilience in these moments, “Some of it’s about standing firm in what you know to be true and is needed for the organization. You and your team know the most about what’s needed to make this happen successfully.”Speed vs. DevelopmentTransparency around leadership development creates a culture focused on growth and positive change. Cooper emphasized the importance of being open about the coaching process: “Here was the key about being an open executive, letting my team know that I wanted the coaching to be the best version of myself for them so that I could serve them in the appropriate manner.”While fostering development takes time, business realities demand that executives get up to speed quickly. This creates tension between development and immediate performance demonstrating why executive coaching has become increasingly valuable.“Don’t forget about speed,” Davis advised. “Often people might take six months to figure things out. I think in many cases, we don’t have that luxury because who you have around you and who you surround yourself with, and their capabilities and trust and confidence have a whole lot to do with how well you perform.” Providing structured support accelerates a CEO’s understanding while delivering tangible results.As organizations continue to navigate complex challenges, executive coaching has evolved from a professional perk to an essential component of leadership strategy. Not only improving executive performance but also creating more resilient organizations capable of real time adaptation to an ever-changing business landscape. “Five years ago, it used to be ‘we don’t have time for anybody to develop. Let’s just find a really good person and put them in place,’” Davis said. “That’s really changed quite a bit now. There’s far more emphasis on the leadership development side and having the power of that behind a successful business.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, MDA Leadership, for sponsoring this webinar. Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photo by jacoblund/iStock)
The Action Catalyst: Unleashing the Power of Workforce Data
BY Ade Akin April 25, 2025Renya Spak did exactly what most of us do the last time she opened an email addressed “Dear valued customer.” She hit the delete button immediately. Spak, the chief growth officer at Well, used that familiar annoyance to illustrate a simple truth during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Seattle conference. Generic messaging won’t cut it if you want real employee engagement, she says.From Generic Emails to Magic Nudges“Ugh,” Spak exclaimed, recalling the last time she received a generic promotional email. “As a loyal subscriber, you may be interested in our latest generic promotion that has absolutely nothing to do with your preferences. Click here to learn more.”Spak then contrasted that experience with a hyper-personalized offer she once received from a running-shoe retailer. “Hey, Renya, we saw you’ve been buying running gear… want first dibs before they sell out?” That led to a click and purchase. AI-powered personalization has emerged as a powerful tool in the marketing world, but organizations have been slow to adopt its use when interacting with employees. “It’s painful to imagine that benefits and well‑being still feel like dial‑up in a 5G environment,” Spak said.A Three‑Step Framework for PersonalizationSpak laid out a simple framework to personalize employee benefits in ways that encourage engagement:The first step is leveraging people analytics. You already have the dashboards, the models, the culture,” Spak told the crowd. From pay‑equity studies to performance‑prediction algorithms, HR and people analytics teams have amassed data that makes it easy to treat employees as individuals rather than anonymous line items.Next, foster cross-functional collaboration. Employee benefits, HR, and analytics should be merged. This might mean partnering with your wellness vendor to create parental-leave policies for grandparents or exploring pet-care stipends, modern perks that meet real employee needs.Then deliver precision nudges. Spak says the hardest part of personalizing employee benefits isn’t building the programs, it’s driving sustained engagement. “When employees actually use those benefits, productivity improves, retention increases, and costs go down,” Spak said.Data‑Driven Personalization PilotsSpak shared three real-world pilots from Well’s customers to drive her points:Healthy-food coupons via Instacart Health, was the first example. Well identified employees who were likely to have limited access to healthy food choices by combining ZIP-code analysis with biometric data and claims. Employees who engaged with health coaches through their benefits packages earned coupons for fresh groceries delivered through Instacart Health. Participation soared because the solution and incentive met an urgent, personal need. Another example was from a logistics firm with a large Spanish-speaking workforce. They noticed low engagement when outreach was delivered solely in English or Spanish. A breakthrough emerged with a Spanglish version, which was received as more authentic and human. “We saw 2.5 times higher engagement in Spanglish,” Spak said, “because we spoke to them in their language—both literally and culturally.”Lastly, a healthcare provider struggling with 100% annual turnover among its phlebotomists and rising non-urgent visits needed a solution. Well combined clinical insights and opinions on telehealth, with claims data to identify clinicians who were open to virtual care and ideal times to reach them. The information was used to deploy personalized messages to team members, highlighting the convenience of telehealth and providing direct connections to familiar providers. Early engagement metrics exceeded expectations with a significant uptick in scheduled virtual visits and a drop in avoidable ER usage. These pilot programs underscore a compelling statistic: 93% of employees consider the ability to customize their benefits a must-have or nice-to-have; 72% say personalization increases loyalty, while 40% say it boosts job satisfaction, according to a recent MetLife study. It all depends on getting the right message to the right person, at the right time, in the right tone, with the right incentive.The Importance of TrustTrust is the foundation that allows organizations to turn workplace data into personalized engagement. Spak reminded attendees that while HR teams fret over data privacy, employees rarely raise concerns. In contrast, every Request for Proposal (RFP) process brings data‑governance questions. “People will share their data if it’s used for their benefit,” Spak said, echoing a recent Deloitte finding that 90% of workers feel the same.The data and technology needed to personalize employee engagement at scale are already available. The challenge is cultural—building cross‑team partnerships, establishing governance, promoting engagement, and moving beyond one‑size‑fits‑all communications. The payoff is significant and measurable for those willing to adapt: stronger employee engagement, healthier behaviors, and measurable results, says Spak.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Well, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Ade Akin covers workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photo by Josh Larson for From Day One)
Creating an Employee Experience That’s a Magnet for Today’s Workforce
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi April 25, 2025According to a Gallup study, organizations that have a strategic plan for employee development saw an 11% increase in profitability and were twice as likely to retain employees. “One of the most important factors in creating a high-performance workplace is instilling a high-development culture,” the study said.Across industries, companies are always aiming to increase fulfillment and sparking new initiatives to develop an effective work culture. During a panel at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference, leaders discussed how their companies are driving engagement, what challenges their organizations face and how employers can create more trust.Driving Engagement Oracle is committed to a culture around a growth mindset and “building that throughout the vein of the organization,” said Sid Deka, vice president of human resources. The company encourages continuous learning and provides employees with a safe space to experiment and drive innovation.Deka adds that by offering learning opportunities for employees of all levels to grow increases the feeling of trust that is developed within the company. It’s important for people to have authentic conversations with managers to plan out ways to improve and explore options for more opportunities, he says.Velocity Global’s Chief HR Officer Carol MacKinlay ties fulfillment in her organization back to empathy. She points out that it's important to remember that the team is human and leaders must be mindful about ensuring their employees are having the best experience while they’re at work.As companies implement new initiatives, transparency at all levels is necessary, says Sid Nayar, vice president of HR strategy, operations, analytics and talent at Freshworks. He also called for the necessity to have business leaders to own company shifts and transformations so “the onus is also on them to cascade it down.”Subadhra Sriram, Independent Journalist, Workforce Expert, right, moderated the discussion MacKinlay says the company is also investing in the growth and development of employees while they are with them. “There may be people here who have career paths that are outside the company, and that's okay. So we're going to develop you. We’re going to grow you. We’re going to tell you what you’re doing well, we’re going to get you to the next place,” she said.Velocity calls these employees “boomerang employees.” Although they may leave the company, there is an incentive plan to bring them back. Challenges in ManagementFreshworks is the first India-based SaaS company that was started from a small city in India and has grown to be successful. Nayar says that because of the company’s background, many of its first employees came from humble beginnings but since the company completed its initial public offering the leadership has shifted. Now, all senior executives are in the United States.“Our biggest challenge is defining who we are now.” Nayar said. “It was a company that about 10 years ago, was the people who had a chip on their shoulder. They were not tier one at your school. They came from humble backgrounds, built this company and made this a global brand.”Freshworks is currently working on how to develop the sense of belonging and identity for those workers as the company has gone globally successful.Kelly McMahon, vice president of organizational effectiveness at Equinix, says accountability, in a sense of pushing for strategic thinking, is a struggle that the company is currently trying to manage. She believes that when employees become accustomed to merely completing day to day assigned tasks, it impedes the company’s pace of work.“I think what we’re trying to sort of engender is a little bit more of a risk tolerance around experimentation,” said McMahon. “Let's put out a perspective and see what the response is, versus trying to build consensus.”Larger companies such as Oracle are seeing challenges with managing and strategizing engagement for multigenerational, multicultural and multiregional employees. Deka says the work environment is three dimensional and pushes the company to think of how to best engage with a diverse group of people in various ways.“Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication,” said MacKinlay, a quote she once heard from Velocity’s CEO. She’s referring to the company’s pursuit to simplify communication between leadership and employees. MacKinlay says 90% of her job is spent on communication issues and addressing challenges around communication is best done through providing clear and concise ideas.Building TrustCompanies are seeing that investing in building leadership skills in frontline managers is important to ensuring that down the hierarchy, employees are feeling engaged and trust is being built.Velocity is currently holding roundtables with all employees in small groups to obtain actual feedback on the programs they are implementing. The employee success team is holding 20 sessions around the world with different groups in various languages. “What it does is build trust and it builds a bond to be able to have the faces of the people who can actually affect change for the employees,” said MacKinley. From these meetings, the company is learning about whether their offered benefits match employee needs and if there are any “glaring things that the company has missed,” she said.Velocity is also kicking off an initiative that encourages employees to give anonymous constructive criticism. The idea behind this is to give people a chance to have an outlet to report issues in the workplace and push for others around them to improve.McMahon emphasized the need to invest in employee experiences the same way that companies do for customers.“Organizations who do this really well, map the employee life cycle, prospect to alumni, and then within that say, what are the moments that matter and how are we going to invest in repeatable, scalable, predictable experiences for employees that you know are going to meet their needs,” said McMahon.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
The Future of Work: AI, Skills, & What Leaders Need to Know
BY Christopher O'Keeffe April 24, 2025As artificial intelligence transforms the workplace, a common concern is emerging among businesses: What skills will define employee success in an AI-driven future? With many companies still unsure how to fully leverage AI, a sense of FOMO, or fear of missing out, is setting in, says Tigran Sloyan CEO of CodeSignal.Sloyan spoke about innovation happening at CodeSignal, an AI focused technical assessment and skills development platform, during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference. “AI is not just a buzz and not just a hype,” Sloyan said. “I strongly believe that AI is one of those transformative technologies, similar to what personal computers did, similar to what the Internet did.”CodeSignal has positioned itself at the intersection of AI advancement and workforce development offering solutions to a world reveling in a technological revolution. The company's platform enables organizations to evaluate current capabilities and build the skills needed for an everchanging AI-integrated workplace.Three Tiers of AI CompetencyRather than pursuing a one-size-fits-all approach to AI skills, Sloyan advocates for understanding the three distinct categories of AI competency that allow for successful integration of its tools.The first and most broadly applicable is simple AI literacy: understanding what AI can do and how to use it in daily work. “This requires pretty much no technical skill or competency,” Sloyan said.The second tier involves integrating AI into existing systems by connecting APIs and implementing new tools to existing operations. While more technical, these skills don’t require deep AI expertise.Only the third category, building and training AI models, demands specialized technical knowledge. Sloyan highlights that many companies often make a strategic error by over emphasizing the importance of this category. With many organizations spending disproportionate resources competing for a small pool of talent rather than focusing on widespread AI literacy, “Hiring AI engineers in today’s market is close to impossible,” Sloyan said. “Upskilling is really the only way to close that skills gap.”From Managing People to Managing AIThe human touch remains essential, especially within leadership roles that will evolve as AI becomes increasingly prevalent in the workplace. Sloyan rejects the notion held by many, that management skills would become obsolete in an AI centric workplace. Instead arguing that directing AI systems will demand many of the same skills needed to lead teams of employees.Sloyan spoke with Brenna Lenoir, SVP of CodeSignal, during the thought leadership spotlight“As a great manager, you bring intelligent people onto your team, you become more effective and you can accomplish more together,” he said. “If you have 50 AI agents working for you, you essentially become a manager of those AIs, but you still need what makes great managers great, which is understanding what the job is.”This perspective challenges the notion that AI will simply replace human work. Instead, Sloyan envisions a future where human expertise becomes even more valuable when amplified through directed AI agents.“Only managers that understand how to do the job themselves, even if they’re not going to have to do it themselves, can know how to ask the right questions, how to ask the right probing questions, as well as evaluate what they got back,” he said.The Future of Technical SkillsRethinking traditional approaches to technical roles with the lens of an AI competent workforce opens unprecedented possibilities for rapid growth within any given company. Sloyan says that AI will transform rather than eliminate the value of technical skills, creating accessibility to capabilities once reserved for specialists. “Three years ago, knowing how to write a simple SQL query would not produce much value,” he said, referring to a database programming language. “Today, if you understand just a little bit about writing a simple query, you can ask AI the right questions and get data within minutes that used to take a highly proficient engineer an hour to produce.”This dynamic creates what Sloyan calls an “exponential increase” in the value of technical knowledge; company-wide modest competence with AI tools can dramatically enhance productivity.For business leaders navigating this workforce transformation, the message is clear: rather than focusing on building expensive learning models or exclusively competing for scarce AI engineering talent, prioritize building a foundation of AI literacy across your organization. In the AI economy, companies with a focus on understanding the technology broadly may prove more valuable than those with a singular or hyper specific approach. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CodeSignal, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.
How Leaders Can Personalize Employee Recognition and Rewards
BY Carrie Snider April 24, 2025While data is a powerful tool for driving engagement, it’s most effective when paired with genuine human connection. Fleur Tang, vice president of human resources in biosciences at BD, highlighted the value of combining analytics with direct employee interactions to create a more complete picture of the workplace experience.“ In order to really understand associates’ needs, one big part is to really get quantitative feedback,” she said during a panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference. “But we are so very big on gemba—meaning that you go to where work happens.” By spending time with employees where they work, managers can uncover insights that surveys alone can’t provide.Employee expectations are shifting rapidly—so how can companies keep up? Has the role of recognition and rewards in the workplace ever been more vital and complex? Tang and four other panelists explored how companies can empower managers to lead with empathy, purpose, and personalization. Moderated by David Thigpen of UC Berkeley, the discussion illuminated the evolving responsibilities of today’s people leaders and offered actionable insights for organizations of all sizes.Recognition efforts, Tang says, must align with company culture and be rooted in purpose. “Let’s be clear about the behaviors we are trying to recognize. That should be absolutely aligned with the culture we are creating for the organization.” It’s not just about the reward—it’s about reinforcing the right behaviors and supporting long-term engagement and retention.Tang also emphasized the growing complexity of middle management. “I think middle-level people managers have the most difficult role nowadays,” she said. These managers must navigate top-down mandates while keeping their teams engaged and productive. That’s why BD has made a conscious effort to support mid-level leaders through initiatives like “second circle meetings,” where leaders one level below the executive team receive direct communication and context from the company president.Purpose, Recognition, and Well-BeingCertainly, effective recognition requires data—but not just from a single point in time, says panelist Florencia Porcaro, senior human resources director at Google.“Data is the guiding principle by which we make decisions,” she said. Google uses a variety of touchpoints—including annual, weekly, and initiative-specific surveys—to track the evolving needs of employees throughout their life cycle. “A single employee may have different needs at different times,” Porcaro noted, emphasizing the importance of understanding those shifts in order to personalize support.The panelists spoke about "Employee Recognition and Rewards: How Managers Can Be Empowered."That personalization takes many forms. For instance, Google’s annual benefits selection period allows employees to reassess their priorities and choose options that best match their current life stage. “It’s a moment to figure out what’s changing in my life, what I value more now,” Porcaro said. The company also offers funding to help make those choices more accessible, empowering employees to tailor their benefits in a way that supports well-being and engagement.Today’s managers face unprecedented challenges, from geopolitical shifts to navigating the AI era, all while being expected to coach, support, and scale teams effectively. Despite the growing demands, Porcaro noted that employees increasingly seek more than just monetary rewards—they want growth, fulfillment, and visibility.“We do things like design recognition programs tied to organizational OKRs,” she said. Top contributors have opportunities to present their work directly to vice presidents in open-floor sessions. “It creates experiences where employees feel seen, valued, and that their work is adding up to something bigger.”That sense of care and intentionality became even more evident during Covid, when Google rapidly mobilized to send Covid tests to employees’ homes. “That speaks loudly about a company thinking about the well-being and needs of a community.”Personalized ManagementWhat does employee recognition and rewards look like at a smaller company? Panelist Abhishek Budhraja, talent business partner (engineering) at Groq, says the company’s approach is to rely heavily on managers to meet each person’s unique needs.“Most people join startups because they believe in the mission—so the real magic happens when we align individual preferences, learning goals, and personal needs with the company’s direction,” he said.Budhraja emphasized the importance of recognizing employees as multi-faceted. “Take me—I’m a millennial, but also a parent and an immigrant. You can’t just look at one label and assume it tells the whole story. That’s why it’s in a company’s best interest to offer autonomy and flexibility, guided by empathetic managers who help individuals find what works best for them.”While tools and offerings have evolved, the fundamentals of good management remain the same. “Empathy, perceptiveness, and helping people feel connected to a greater purpose are still core,” he said. “Those are timeless.”He’s also seen how people’s choices can surprise you. “I’ve had employees turn down promotions because they weren’t right for their life stage. Or at Uber, we’d give two types of offers—one with more equity, one with more cash—and you couldn’t predict what people would choose. That’s why understanding where someone is coming from—and giving them a choice—is so critical.”The Affordability GapOne of the most persistent—and often misunderstood—challenges in employee benefits is the affordability gap: employees want to engage in benefit programs but simply can’t afford to participate.Panelist Aaron Shapiro, founder of Carver Edison, sees this gap firsthand in his work with companies of all sizes, from biotech startups to Fortune 500 firms.“A lot of times, lower-income employees get written off as not being interested in programs because they’re focused on other issues,” he said. “What we found in our data says that is not true at all.” Shapiro says participation drops when payroll deductions make programs inaccessible to those who need them most.This affordability barrier has a direct impact on retention. Many employees are seeking only modest increases in pay, but without support, even small gaps can lead to turnover.“Seventy-eight percent of people looking for a new job right now are primarily interested in just making more money,” Shapiro said, citing recent Federal Reserve data. “The answer was basically a 10% raise on average.” While that increase may not seem significant on an individual level, it adds up quickly for employers—and makes the case for more creative compensation strategies.Carver Edison addresses this gap through its product, Cashless Participation, which allows employees at public companies to join stock plans without upfront payroll deductions.“Last year that delivered about a seven-and-a-half percent raise to the average employee using our product,” Shapiro shared. “And what we found is that not only did 18-month retention rates go up by about 50%, but also click-through rates on simple things like emails were up 500%.” That kind of impact on both financial wellness and engagement shows what’s possible when companies think beyond the traditional benefits model.Customizing BenefitsAs companies work to improve employee engagement and retention, one truth remains clear: there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Customization is key.Panelist Jeff Hermosillo, northern California health solutions practice leader at Aon, emphasized that understanding employee needs starts with asking the right questions—and then placing the answers in context.“You survey, and you get as much information as you can,” he said. “But then you benchmark. Maybe you’re a tech company and want to know how you stack up. What your employees say matters, but context, comparing across companies or industries, helps you make sense of everything.”Aon’s employee sentiment study sheds light on generational preferences. “We tallied information across four generations and asked, ‘What are the most valued benefits?’” he said/ “Gen Z put health insurance first, followed by work-life balance, time off, career development, and retirement. Baby boomers, on the other hand, ranked retirement highest—and work-life balance came in fifth.”While preferences may differ, Hermosillo says there’s usually a shared core of value. “Even though baby boomers ranked health care third, they still care about it,” he said. “So you look to optimize the areas of common ground, then ideally provide some customization so people can choose what matters at their stage in life.”That personalization also extends to how rewards and recognition are delivered. “It’s like throwing a party—someone’s not going to like the meal or the venue,” Hermosillo said. “It’s the same thing with recognition programs. People have different preferences, and that’s okay. The key is understanding who you’re working with and having some flexibility.”Among the panelists, one thing was clear: the most effective recognition and rewards strategies are rooted in flexibility, empathy, and a deep understanding of employee needs. Whether it’s closing the affordability gap, personalizing benefits, or empowering middle managers with better tools and support, companies must move beyond one-size-fits-all solutions. By equipping managers to recognize their teams in ways that are timely, meaningful, and aligned with company values, organizations can foster a culture where employees feel truly seen, supported, and inspired to stay.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)
Calm Amid Chaos: How to Talk to Your Team About Uncertainty
BY Lesley Alderman, LCSW April 22, 2025Life can be unpredictable, and we don’t like it that way.Our brains were designed for certainty. Humans look for patterns in our surroundings to form useful habits and conserve mental energy. Always have: Hunting buffalo in the winter when the animals’ coats are thick. Sowing seeds in the spring before the rains. Buying our lattes from the same reliable coffee shop week after week.These days, a lot feels unsettled: Tariffs on or off? Financial markets up or down? Recession is possible, but who knows? The Trump administration’s disdain for DEI and ESG has upended workplace culture and hiring practices, leaving many employees confused or upset about their company’s values and practices.All this comes at a time when employee engagement is at a ten-year low. Just 31% of workers report feeling engaged, according to a Gallup survey released in January, well before the current administration began its rapid-fire changes. “Economic uncertainty remains a significant drag on the sentiment of workers as tariffs, federal funding and workforce cuts, and general business uncertainty disrupt investment and hiring plans,” wrote Glassdoor’s lead economist, Daniel Zhao in an April report.No kidding. And it could get worse. This just in from the Editorial Board at Bloomberg: “A financial crisis isn’t out of the question.”How can HR leaders and other managers respond? The first thing is to appreciate the physiology. Uncertainty rattles our nervous system. It creates a sense of ambiguity that our minds struggle with. “The stress of uncertainty, especially when prolonged, is among the most insidious stressors we experience as human beings,” said Aiofe O’Donovan, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychiatry at the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, back in 2020, when the pandemic was our biggest problem. Now impacting our psyches are the upending of global alliances, accepted health practices, and predictable weather patterns.Some workers are literally cracking their teeth from stress, dentists in Washington, D.C., have discovered recently. Even Slackmojis have taken a very dark turn.When our prediction-seeking brains are challenged with too many plot twists, we tend to feel threatened, scared, and overwhelmed. But there are proactive steps that leaders can take to restore some calm, promote needed focus on work, and reduce the long-term, unhealthy effects. Among them:Validate and EmpathizeHumans need to feel understood. If your workers are quietly panicking and seeking reassurance, let them know that their concerns are normal and understandable. Give them space to talk about their fears and listen to their perspective. You might see more tears during meetings or meltdowns over minor mishaps. When appropriate, remind workers about the resources the company offers, such as EAPs, employee resource groups (ERGs), mental health therapy of all kinds, and even subsidized gym memberships that might give them places to feel supported or just sweat out their anxiety. While being a careful listener may require extra effort, there’s a substantial upside: research finds that workplaces that promote candid communication tend to be more collaborative, have higher morale, and react to layoffs with more resilience.Communicate Regularly, With EmpathyKeep your workers well-informed. During uncertain times, “employees most want information about their job and the organization,” according to research by Kristine W. Powers and Jessica B.B. Diaz, academics at Claremont Graduate University. “They want psychological and instrumental support from their manager and clear, fast, and accurate communication.” If you’re making changes to programs, like DEI, explain why, as candidly as possible. If you’re keeping everything the same, tell them that, too. If your company is using silence to the outside as a strategy, then keeping your internal communications robust is even more important, writes Paul Klein, author of Change for Good: An Action-Oriented Approach for Businesses to Benefit From Solving Social Problems, in a recent Forbes article. “Use this as an opportunity to deepen your team’s understanding of the company’s purpose and impact. Develop internal newsletters, Q&As, and leadership briefings that reinforce your values. Employees are your most credible messengers. They need to know what you stand for, even if the world outside doesn’t hear as much as before.”Be prepared for pushback. Some employees might be upset that you are bending to the current political winds and may quit, rebel, or confront, as the Washington Post reported last week. Think honestly about the impact that might have on morale and staffing issues.Celebrate the ControllablesA powerful antidote to anxiety is agency. Help your workers focus on what is squarely within their control. Praise the value of their work and guide them to new projects or tasks that will give them a sense of mastery. Be clear about what they need to do and let them figure out how they can do it. And don’t be shy about asking for feedback on matters ranging from office layout, meeting scheduling, even party planning. If you have the resources, send out a survey soliciting advice on how a specific system might be improved. When workers feel trusted and see that their feedback matters, they’ll feel like significant members of a team rather than cogs in a wheel.Fact-Check Your Own FearsTo be a good leader, you need to have a grip on your sense of uncertainty. When faced with conflicting and frightening news, it’s common to panic or catastrophize. First, ask yourself, How likely is this to happen or How real is this threat? If your honest answer is likely, then turn to trusted sources. Talk to a good friend, colleague, or manager to gain perspective. If the threat is about the world order, consult well-reported, professional news sites for information rather than random posts on IG, X, or TikTok. One resource to help spot misinformation is Rumor Guard from the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit dedicated to teaching Americans how to discern fact from fiction and dispelling viral rumors.Take Ten—and Commend It to Your Team“Most of us are working with tired brains,” says Amit Sood, M.D., author of The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living. If you're getting caught up in the rapidly changing political rhetoric, take ten-minute breaks during your workday. Treat yourself to micro naps, mini nature walks, or a sound bath on Spotify—anything that will give your tired mind some time to rest and recharge. And please, don’t scrimp on sleep. This is no time to be running on empty. You need to be in good mental shape for yourself and your workers.Model Self-compassion and CuriosityWhile this might sound self-indulgent, research proves that workers who treat themselves with grace rather than punishment perform at a higher level, have less workplace stress, and are better team players. How does this look? Instead of tearing yourself down, ask: “What do I need to overcome this challenge? How can I grow from this experience? What support would help me move forward?” This is the advice of Kristin Neff, associate professor in the University of Texas at Austin's department of educational psychology, and the author of Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout. And apply the same level of curiosity and kindness to workers who are struggling with uncertainty, burnout, or any type of work challenge.Admit Your Mistakes and Clear the AirLeaders will make mistakes navigating the current unpredictability and they should admit their vulnerability, says Bill George, the former CEO of Medtronic and author of the classic True North leadership books. “Harvard is acknowledging it didn’t control the antisemitism on campus,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune last week. “So let’s put that one out there. Harvard leader Alan Garber is clearly doing that. I think clearly [CEO] Mary Barra at General Motors, who was trapped with the tariffs, right now is acknowledging some of the mistakes that they made, and they’re trying to adapt to that. So I think we do see many leaders now being more vulnerable. Some are not. They’re afraid of being vulnerable. But I think when you do that, then you kind of clear the air. You have to admit your mistakes. Any leader that won’t admit their mistakes is not a real leader.Keep Track of the Good and the GreatEven during difficult times, one can find positive events and ideas to appreciate. Focus on your accomplishments and help your employees do the same. Robert Waldinger, M.D., author of The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, shared a humbling story in a recent blog post: “During the An Lushan Rebellion [a major uprising against the Tang Dynasty in China, 755-763 A.D.], amid so much death and destruction, there was a poet who was trapped in a town that was being destroyed. He wrote a poem called ‘The View This Spring.’ The poem is just two lines.” It goes: The nation is destroyed, mountains and rivers remain. When you find yourself consumed by worry, zoom out to the bigger picture. Take stock of your wins and the beauty in your life and world. And help your workers do the same.Lesley Alderman, LCSW, is a psychotherapist and journalist based in Brooklyn, NY. 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 iStock by Getty Images)
The New Era of Workplace Giving: Meeting Donors Where They Are
BY Christopher O'Keeffe April 21, 2025While 94% of major corporations offer charitable giving programs, only about one in five employees participate in them. The lack of employee engagement programs often leaves corporations without a seamless solution for integrating charitable acts into daily workplace activitiesThis “generosity gap,” as philanthropy experts call it, represents billions in potential charitable dollars left on the table. This reveals a fundamental disconnect between corporate giving structures and employee expectations in today’s socially conscious global landscape.“Today’s workforce expects technology experiences to mirror what they encounter in their personal lives," said Sam Caplan, VP of social impact at Submittable during a From Day One webinar. “When a company’s giving program feels disconnected from their values, or when it’s just hard to navigate or engage with, we know that they’re much less likely to participate.” Submittable solves the long-standing problem of revolutionizing outdated technology and approaches that treat charitable giving as a separate, often cumbersome activity rather than a seamless extension of everyday work life, says Caplan.“When we force donors into unfamiliar paradigms, and then we kind of scratch our heads afterwards to say, why are we struggling with engagement? It’s because we’re forcing them to do things outside of their normal flow of life,” said Chris Battles, principal product manager at Submittable.New workplace giving technologies are making charitable contributions as simple as tapping a phone or clicking a button. Submittable’s platform lets employees accumulate donation funds through recognition programs, wellness challenges, or personal contributions, then easily direct those funds to causes they care about, all without leaving their workflow, the speakers shared. This especially matters in cases where timeliness matters, like during natural disasters, says Madison Silver, senior product marketer at Submittable.Small Acts of Generosity Build Company CultureThe business case for modernizing these programs extends beyond philanthropy. Companies report that well-designed giving programs boost employee satisfaction and retention, particularly among younger workers who increasingly expect employers to provide platforms that support personal social impact goals. In a global economy where talent acquisition remains challenging, the competitive advantage of charitable modernization becomes paramount to bottom line success.Industry leaders emphasize several key principles for successful program modernization. First, personalize the experience by offering flexible giving options that align with employees’ values and lifestyles. Next, remove friction by making giving as easy as buying coffee or sending money to a friend. Then, integrate giving with existing programs, connecting it to rewards, recognition, and other HR initiatives. Enable giving in the moment by providing tools that allow employees to contribute whenever they’re inspired. Finally, celebrate small contributions, recognizing that even modest donations can have a meaningful impact.“We’re turning everyday moments into opportunities for impact, and in doing so, we’re not just recognizing employees, we’re empowering them to become philanthropists,” Caplan said.As the boundaries between work and personal life continue to blur, particularly in hybrid work environments, companies that successfully integrate giving opportunities into the daily experience of employees are finding that generosity doesn’t need to be taught, it simply needs to be enabled.The most innovative organizations are shifting from treating charitable giving as a separate initiative to embedding it into the everyday work experience. This transformation aims to close the long-standing generosity gap that has challenged corporate philanthropy leaders for years.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Submittable, for sponsoring this webinar.Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photo by Ruslana Chub/iStock)