The Connection Solution: Bringing Workers Together for Development and Insight
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza March 24, 2025“For a long time, employers have thought that loneliness wasn’t their problem to solve,” said Adrienne Prentice, founder and CEO of coaching platform Keep Company. “I would challenge everyone to say, ‘maybe we’re not paying enough attention,’ because loneliness is not only impacting the health of our individual team members, it’s impacting organizational health as well.”In 2023, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned of the public health crisis spurred by loneliness and cited a study that estimates that stress-related absenteeism attributed to loneliness costs employers $154 billion every year.Prentice was part of an expert panel during From Day One’s Washington, D.C. conference, on a new era of investing in humans. She and her fellow panelists believe employers can help alleviate the pain of loneliness. “A major ill of our society right now is our lack of community and connection,” Prentice said. “Church membership is down, we don’t know our neighbors. We’re not connected to each other. I think work has the opportunity to be the last frontier.” If connections are built in the workplace, employers can begin to close the gap.Forming Connections by Learning Together “The first time you learn something, it’s likely by observing the behavior of someone else. Your friend, your parents, your brother, your sister–whoever it might have been–demonstrate some behavior that you wanted to adopt in your own life,” said Victor Arguelles, the VP of global learning and development for Marriott International.This can be replicated in the workplace. When we observe how others work, think, reason, and problem-solve, we’re able to learn at a faster rate. Learning new skills and competencies both unites workers and levels the playing field, Arguelles said. “We know that people learn better when they learn from each other, when they find community, and where they can fail or succeed together.”Think beyond individuals or single teams and cast a wider net across the organization, said Matt Waesche, the chief learning officer at defence contractor BAE Systems. “Curate a group of people from all different parts of the company–people that wouldn’t normally find themselves in the same room. You can have legal sitting with engineers sitting with general managers that run a craft trade with someone that might run a very technical type of work.” The diversity of expertise, experience, and thought can yield novel results for both skill-building and community.“You have your people system and you have your work system, and if you want to improve your results, you really have to optimize both,” said Shannon Arvizu, sociologist and founder of Epic Teams, an organizational competency consultancy. She recommends peer coaching for this. Rather than hiring a third-party coach that produces a 20-page report on what a team lacks, “bring the team together to ask questions and co-create an action plan–teach everyone to be a coach.”Uniting Workers In PersonCompanies are calling workers back to the office, but poor planning has made for very public fumbles, like employees arriving to find insufficient parking and no desk to set their computer. Others have been ordered back to the office only to dial into Zoom calls for hours at a time or sit in an empty office, without managers or senior leaders.Journalist and From Day One contributing editor, Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza, moderated the panel about "The Connection Solution: Bringing Workers Together for Development and Insight"If you’re going to require workers to be in the office, panelists agreed, then make that time count. Ensure there are enough people in the workplace to make it a social occasion, and pull unique groups together to learn and grow together. This is especially important for young workers, many of whom graduated from college amid Covid lockdowns. They’re lacking workplace experience and hungry for interpersonal interaction.At mortgage lender Fannie Mae, VP and head of learning Michael Trusty gathers interns and campus hires for dedicated, in-person learning programs. It’s expensive, he said, but entirely worth it. If the company wants to retain those employees, then they have to create social networks. “One of my favorite metrics–and I bring this into conversations with our senior leaders–is when I go through the cafeteria, how many of our early career professionals are sitting together? It’s great to see it. People from data science with people from finance with people from business–they’re creating their communities.”Trusty also facilitates employee connections around the organization’s mission of housing affordability, connecting people outside the office. He takes finance professionals into middle and high schools to teach financial literacy. This kind of volunteerism–which the company encourages with paid time off–is a means of building camaraderie among workers.Learning opportunities can be interpersonal, not just professional. Arvizu described a relationship building exercise called the “journey line.”It goes like this: Give everyone a piece of paper and have them draw a line down the middle. Then ask, ‘what experiences have shaped who you are?’ If they’re positive and affirming, put them above the line. If they’re challenging, put them below the line. “No matter who you are, how old you are, or what background you come from, everybody will have a zigzag line,” she said. “Give folks the opportunity to share their stories and acknowledge them for their stories.”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.(Photos by Justin Feltman for From Day One)
The Secrets to Finding and Retaining Top Talent at a Time of Digital Revolution
BY Jessica Swenson March 18, 2025How can technology organizations attract and keep talent in an industry where employees have countless mobility options?Dan Domenech, interim chief people officer and chief talent officer for Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), spoke about some of HPE’s best practices for recruitment and retention at From Day One’s Houston conference. Sean McCrory, editor-in-chief of Houston Business Journal, moderated the conversation.Even with its enviable attrition rate of 3–5%, HPE’s innovation and growth mean that it is constantly hiring technical, sales, and customer experience roles across 40 countries. Open roles often receive hundreds of applications, even in niche business areas. There is typically a 50/50 ratio between internal and external hires, says Domenech.By embracing technology, the company has boosted its hiring capability and improved the candidate experience. In conjunction with a world-class talent acquisition team and external recruiting partners, HPE pairs the Phenom platform with a robust customer relationship management platform, an application status call center, and chat bots to provide a hyper-personalized digital experience for all stakeholders, says Domenech. Leaders also regularly review candidate feedback data to ensure an exceptional talent acquisition experience.One of CEO Antonio Neri’s top priorities in 2025 is internal mobility. Ten years ago, companies eliminated formal performance ratings to favor more frequent, informal performance management conversations. Unfortunately, this strategy did not give employees what they needed. HPE introduced quarterly success plan conversations to provide regular feedback, assess progress, and learn more about team member aspirations and development plans. The company leverages technology to support this process as well. Employees enter their existing and aspirational skill sets into HPE’s Workday-based career marketplace and use AI tools to be matched with mentors, learning opportunities, and new roles, says Domenech.Sean McCrory, editor-in-chief of Houston Business Journal, interviewed DomenechAnother priority for HPE is leadership development. They ensure that leaders know what is expected of them through a clear framework they call the Four E’s—engage, empower, evolve, and execute. Domenech also revealed a personal passion for promoting psychological safety in the workplace, which was identified in a recent Google study as “the number one characteristic of high-performing teams.” As HPE evolves its leadership model, the company ensures that leaders listen to the employees’ voices, are inclusive, and consider the team members’ best interests in their decision-making processes. Despite the recent trend of companies reversing course on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, Domenech does not anticipate any changes to HPE’s practices. Recently recognized by JUST Capital as America’s Most JUST Company (for the second consecutive year), HPE is a values-based organization that will continue to be unconditionally inclusive of its employees’ diverse backgrounds, ways of thinking, and contributions. “We know that we’re better together,” Domenech said. “We need those differences to thrive and provide that innovation and service to our customers.”A key consideration of HPE’s potential merger with Juniper Networks—beyond the typical risks of any merger—is the integration of Juniper’s 10,000 employees. HPE leadership is already planning how to onboard leaders and assimilate cultures, including an exhaustive culture study. The data shows that the individual cultures are more alike than different, enabling them to integrate the additional talent into existing HPE operations, capitalize on each company’s strengths, and maintain their values-based approach.The advent of AI technology in the organization prompted HPE to establish a governance council that ensures ethical, responsible AI use. Additionally, Neri wants all HPE employees to have what he calls a “minor in AI,” and Domenech’s team has been a key part of this initiative, he says. They collaborated with internal partners to facilitate AI education throughout the enterprise. They are now building a comprehensive training suite to provide more specialized knowledge to technology-focused leaders and teams.With a strong commitment to flexible working arrangements, HPE led by example during the pandemic by shifting to a remote model for anyone whose work didn’t require them to be on-site. The health and safety of on-site teams was paramount, and remote teams were provided the tools they needed to be successful outside the office. HPE has maintained its commitment to flexibility despite Neri’s belief that in-office innovation and collaboration are unmatched. He recognizes that the balance and autonomy afforded by flexible work is crucial to employee satisfaction and retention.When asked for one piece of advice for business leaders who want to retain and engage their existing workers, Domenech replied “It all starts with culture.” He encourages sustained focus on a mission-based culture that makes people enjoy coming to work, feel confident that they will have growth and development opportunities, and know they are a part of something great.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by Annie Mulligan for From Day One)
Developing Talent Across Generations and Rapidly Changing Technologies
BY Matthew Koehler March 17, 2025If the opening of 2025 could be defined with one word, it would be turbulence. From the street to the board room, the world is experiencing shake ups and changes, or turbulence, forcing everyone to adapt to rapidly changing realities.In these turbulent times, Daniela Proust, the SVP and head of people & organization at Siemens, focuses on keeping the company’s people top priority, and putting them first, especially “when there’s so much turbulence out there,” she said. “I think my role is to be the voice of our workforce, and to make sure that our people can thrive. We create a work environment where people want to be part of team Siemens, and that we help them navigate along the way.”At From Day One’s Washington, D.C. conference, Proust discussed Siemens’ people-first approach to workforce development and changes with Taylor Telford, corporate culture reporter at the Washington Post.Siemens, “a technology company in the B2B space” that’s been around since 1848, is huge and diverse. It has over 300,000 workers worldwide, with more than 45,000 in the U.S. alone. The range of jobs at the company cover everything from engineering, software development, and manufacturing. “We have a large manufacturing footprint. So we have to cover all of the different needs and the skill and capability building,” said Proust.The company’s success and competitive edge, says Proust, is based on its ability to “innovate” and reinvent itself over and over again,” she said. “I like to describe us as a living organism. [We] try to stay adaptive, agile, and focus on the things that we need to innovate and also how we need to foster and create our workflow strategies,” Proust said.Its advantage is being a large global company “in terms of workforce...that it’s almost like a playground,” said Proust. “You can try out so many different things. You can work in different industries, in different geographies, you can also move across different functions.”On this worldwide playground Proust says Siemens focuses on attracting the right talent while recognizing individual development needs. “Each and every one of us has a unique skill set, or almost like a backpack of skills and capabilities and experience,” Proust said. “What each and every one of us needs to continuously adapt is very different.”She highlighted the company’s My Learning World platform, launched about six years ago. The platform has become their “number one used platform or tool in the whole company,” offering more than 130,000 learning opportunities. “Our people just love to engage. They love to see what’s out there.”A Team by Team Approach to RTOAccording to Proust, flexibility extends beyond just remote work policies. “The conversation is much more dimensional than just that dimension, even though it matters.”Siemens implemented a global policy encouraging employees to be in the office two to three days per week, but defer to their teams in determining what works best for specific team needs. “Each team can design to what is most meaningful in their context,” Proust said. Preferences vary widely, though–particularly between office-based and manufacturing environments.Taylor Telford of the Washington Post interviewed Proust of Siemens during the fireside chat With approximately 150 locations in the United States alone, Proust emphasized that Siemens’ flexible approach has been successful. “We have very flexible teams, and this has worked for us. And when I hear other companies say, ‘Oh, people are not engaged or they are not coming back.’ I see the opposite.” She stressed the importance of team-level conversations to determine optimal working arrangements while meeting objectives.Within her own bailiwick as a people and organization (P&O) head, Proust “creates the forums in the space that these conversations take place.” She emphasizes the importance of first line managers alongside executive leadership. “Tone from the top is super important, and they play a critical role to develop the strategy of their area of responsibility, but where the true people experience sits is usually in your direct environment. It’s your direct manager, it’s the people you work with.” Being “conscious and strategic” about senior leadership appointments and how they support first line managers is also key.The role of P&O has shifted significantly over time. “It really shifted from being a service provider with shared services in the back end for the core processes of payroll, travel, whatever it was.” P&O evolved from service provider to business partner, helping with strategic workforce planning. More recently, she noted an even more fundamental change in organizational importance.“Over the last two to three years, we are the third leg of a stool. I’m in every conversation with the CEO and CFO, and the people conversation is always [at the] core of every business strategy conversation.” She stresses that people are “the highest value” in organizations, making talent and organizational capability essential components of business strategy discussions.But ultimately what matters most to their people, according to Proust, is work environment, flexibility, and benefits. “What I find interesting as a European, is this growing interest in the topic of child care and elderly care and support, when you have to provide for your parents and for your children.”Exploring Innovation Through AI ApplicationsProust says Siemens is uniquely positioned at the intersection of physical and digital domains. “We are building trains as an example. We are building factories so that vehicles get built, or beverages can be filled. We build digital factories as an example.” And of course, the company is combining industry expertise with AI capabilities.For Siemens, AI represents a significant business opportunity, from shop floor applications to supporting field technicians. As head P&O, Proust also considers AI's internal workforce applications, though she remains cautious about productivity claims.“What are the tasks that bring value where we as humans really bring the value to the table? How can we focus on those tasks? And how can we get rid of other tasks that can be done easily through the technologies that we utilize?”Matthew Koehler is a freelance journalist and licensed real-estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Greater Greater Washington, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.(Photos by Justin Feltman for From Day One)
The Role of Leadership in Supporting Employee Mental Health and Wellness
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi March 17, 2025When an employee faces a health emergency and is hit with a $1,000 bill, it’s not just a physical wellness concern—it quickly becomes a financial one. They may have to dip into their emergency savings, leaving them unable to cover their bills. At that point, it can also start to affect their mental health.Nate Nevas, head of benefits and health services at Pitney Bowes, says his company approached the benefits in terms of making all pillars of physical, financial and mental wellness equally strong for employees. During a panel discussion at From Day One’s Chicago benefits conference, Kim Quillen, business editor of the Chicago Tribune, led a discussion with company executives about how managers can provide employees with mental health and wellness support. Putting Mental Health at the ForefrontLeaders at Pitney Bowes started their commitment to mental wellness by holding conversations about mental health with efforts to destigmatize it within the company. By spreading the message of “it’s okay not to be okay,” it began hosting a series of internal webinars, workshops and providing resources on its website, said Nevas. Gillian Plummer, director of employee health and wellness at Quest Diagnostics says 35,000 employees at her company have taken advantage of health risk assessments. The top feedback they received was that employees are stressed about their jobs and finances. Quest Diagnostics applied this data to its vendor programs and adopted it into cultural changes within the company, says Plummer.Panelists spoke about "Employee Mental Health and Wellness: How Managers Can Be Empowered"Britt Barney, manager of client success at Northstar, says the company sought to create greater awareness of wellness for its employees by offering mental health sessions with vendors and holding health fairs onsite. These in person events allow employees to meet with people from vendors and understand their benefits.Empowering managers to provide information to their employees about available benefits and to introduce them to someone that can further assist can be an effective way to support wellness. “There’s not enough time in the day for benefits people to be answering these questions, but to empower managers as that kind of first person that gets the information, I think is really important,” said Barney.Employee Support ProgramsCompanies are approaching wellness as a team effort. Pitney Bowes has a program where employees serve as “wellness champions,” who stay updated on available resources to be able to assist others who have questions or need help, said Nevas.Quest Diagnostics has a similar initiative with its company ambassadors. These employees take part in putting up informative flyers around work, talking to their peers and “empowering each other to live their best lives,” said Plummer.The company also offers peer support groups, where staff across the country have been able to share their personal stories about wellness journeys like in weight loss. Plummer says Quest Diagnostics is focusing on taking a step back on being “corporate,” by pursuing a more humanistic feel in the work they do. For example, the company encourages walks during meetings to give space for people to back away from powerpoint presentations and clear their heads. Mérieux NutriSciences showcases the various benefits available in its monthly spotlight on benefits and programs, said Benefits Manager Talikia Kitchen. They inform employees about what benefits are free and how to access them. For the mental health spotlight, the company guides their employees through the Employee Assistance Program and helps them get in touch with wellness vendors. “With our spotlight program, we spotlight each benefit that we have and we let employees know it’s okay to use this. This is totally confidential. No one will find out. This is for you,” said Kitchen. “It’s to help to ease your mind and to let you know it’s okay to use your benefits.”Kitchen recognizes that mental health is just one segment to multiple pillars of overall wellness.A Manager’s Role in Promoting WellnessWhile companies can provide an exuberant benefits program, if the work environment or company culture is not at the same level, these benefits go to waste, says Matt Jackson, general manager and vice president of Americas at Unmind. “The organization is responsible for creating the talent brand that attracts the right people to your company. They’re not responsible for the culture. The culture sits within the individual teams, and the managers are the stewards of that culture,” Jackson said.Managers hold a lot of power and can impact employees’ mental health more than a significant other or therapist, Jackson says. This highlights the importance of training and equipping leaders to foster a supportive culture within the company. Taking a humanistic approach and understanding the struggles that people may be dealing with can be an effective way to approach wellness. Making the time to hold conversations and build rapport can open up more discussions about how employees are feeling, says Plummer. Even by noticing a change in behavior or reaction in employees and acknowledging it can foster a healthier environment where employees and managers can talk about things that may be negatively affecting them, says Kitchen. “We all sometimes have this crying moment because we’re alone and we’re by ourselves–but sometimes we need that person, even if it’s not asking or telling what’s going on, it’s just [having someone to listen],” she said. Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Tim Hiatt for From Day One)
How to Become a Skills-Based Organization on a Large Scale
BY Katie Chambers March 12, 2025Covid put healthcare professionals’ skills to the ultimate test and redefined how entire health systems are organized. This was certainly true at Memorial Hermann Health System. Lori Knowles, SVP and CHRO at Memorial Hermann said it was a time of “rapid-fire decision-making and precision.” Knowles spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Houston conference, interviewed by Jennifer Vardeman, Ph.D., Director and Associate Professor at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University of Houston. “People were exhausted, but they came together for the community and for each other in ways that changed the fabric of the organization and what we believed we could do,” said Knowles. As the biggest healthcare system in Texas with more than 34,000 employees, Memorial Hermann is moving toward becoming a skills-based organization, in which jobs and careers are remapped to focus on skills. The goal is to improve employee recruiting, retention, and quality of care.HR as a Problem-solverAs a fully integrated health system, Memorial Hermann encompasses everything from hospitals to outpatient care, physicians, urgent care centers, and health plans—all driven by its mission of community support. “We are non-profit. The only health system in Houston that is community-owned, so there are no shareholders. We actually give back to our community to the tune of about a half a billion dollars a year in community care,” Knowles said. Given the organization’s wide reach, Knowles wears many hats in her role, overseeing not only the usual HR tasks of total rewards, benefits, professional development, and employee relations, but also chaplaincy and “a centralized float pool” of 1,200 floating caregivers that fill in for regular employees when they are on leave. But the fact that Knowles wears a lot of hats is not unusual to someone in HR. She shares that especially post-pandemic, organizations have been looking to HR for guidance on many major workplace issues, including mental health, wellness, resilience, burnout, and even rules on mask mandates. “That gives us an opportunity to prove that we are more than just the traditional functions of HR, but we are true contributors to the business who can think on our feet, and can problem solve in real time,” Knowles said.Skills-based Professional DevelopmentMany organizational obstacles can be solved through skill-building, either by hiring for certain aptitudes or developing them within existing employee rosters. After Covid, the healthcare industry was facing a crisis, including a nursing shortage and a lack of clarity for long-term career development as workers experienced burnout. At the same time, Memorial Hermann was having to overhaul its job listings to comply with nationally accepted pay transparency standards.Knowles and her team decided to incorporate all these issues into one solution, redefining job descriptions in such a way that clarified pay and emphasized skillsets over years of experience, transforming the interpretation of the healthcare career track. “Let’s not just look at job duties and what experience you bring to the table, because the world is changing so fast. People don’t have 10 years of experience in AI, right?” she said. Lori Knowles, SVP and chief HR officer at Memorial Hermann Health System, left, was interviewed by Jennifer Vardeman of the University of HoustonThe leadership team created a new framework for the 2,200 different jobs at Memorial Hermann and tried to identify where there were gaps. “For example, what we found in our corporate offices is we had very few entry-level jobs–-everybody has to have at least two years of experience,” Knowles said.The organization used AI to scrape similar jobs across the country, identifying the 10 most prevalent skills attached to each job as well as the 10 most emerging skills, so that the company could understand both the current needs and the future framework for the role. This allows current and potential employees to visualize the pathway for growth and development, as well as helping HR better grasp succession planning and how to utilize the talent marketplace to create new teams. A focus on skills also takes the emphasis away from degrees, breaking down some barriers for talent that might otherwise feel excluded. Nurses, of course, need certain licenses. “But we are looking deeply at, do I really need a degree for everything? And if I do need a degree, do I need a master’s, especially if I have the skills that I can demonstrate [otherwise]?” Defining some roles, when able, by skills instead of certificates focuses on the true day-to-day demands of the business. “People are being hired in ways that are a little bit more attuned to the needs of the organization,” said Vardeman.Attracting the Next Generation of WorkersAs the population continues to age, so does the workforce at Memorial Hermann. Therefore, Knowles and her team must think ahead, providing employment models that are attractive to younger generations who may not want to spend their entire careers working difficult “bedside” roles, while also providing part-time flexible opportunities that might entice those of “retirement age” who still want to work, just not every day. The organization also provides a comprehensive benefits package that includes on-site personal counselors, elder care benefits, and retirement plans. To keep her employees of all different generations motivated, Knowles always goes back to the mission and value of the health system’s work. “What I try to do all the time is remind people that this is a noble profession. I’m famous for saying, ‘We’re not making peanut butter here, folks. We’re taking care of people’s lives for generations to come.’” 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 Annie Mulligan for From Day One)
Enhancing Workplace Culture by Prioritizing Growth and Engagement
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi March 11, 2025Six years ago, BMC Software was hesitant to survey employees and gather their feedback, says Lynn Moffett, vice president of human resources at BMC Software. The company didn’t utilize surveys because it didn’t know what to do with the insights. However, with the arrival of a new CEO, the company embraced a shift in approach.The new executive team pushed for a workplace that embraced interactions with employees that boosted the company culture. Since then, surveys have been a critical part of evaluating employee needs and driving improvement.During a panel discussion at From Day One’s Houston conference, executives spoke on how their corporations are enhancing wellness and workplace culture for its employees.Listening to Employee FeedbackSurveys are serving as a great way for companies to gauge how employees feel about their workplace and pushes the needle to bring change and improvements for the whole corporation. BMC Software’s employee survey measured how employees felt about career growth and development and by partnering with a technology vendor, the company was able to analyze the data and develop a sustainable strategy for the company to deploy, says Moffett.The vendor also helped the company understand how BMC’s initiative compared to other organizations. It found that many others are also focusing on career growth for its employees. BMC aimed to use the surveys to empower managers by giving them access to their own feedback and scores, opening up avenues to hold conversations with their employees, Moffett says. Managers were also trained and supported in having these discussions.Adrienne Adeshina, global head of learning and development for Ericsson, emphasized that the important part of utilizing surveys is actually taking action.Richard Robinson, system vice president of employee and labor relations at CommonSpirit Health, added that companies should reflect on whether any changes occurred since the last survey. When creating a survey, it should recognize the current issues at hand.“I emphasize with the leaders to still check in with employees to see if we moved the needle. And if not, is there something else we should start looking at? Because maybe whatever was drawing the issue at that time may not be driving it anymore,” Robinson said.Carver Edison is using survey data and connecting it back to an evaluation of how employees are engaging with benefits and financial programs, says Aaron Shapiro, the company’s founder and CEO.“That actually helps create context around different survey responses so we can help our clients really understand how the two are connected, how employee survey data actually then connects and translates to the decisions people are making,” said Shapiro.Investing in Employee DevelopmentNational University has started a credential-rich pathway initiative which allows students to gain more experience and connections in addition to graduating with a degree.“No longer are we living this three phase life where you go to school, you have a career and you retire,” said Eric Roe, dean and regional vice president for Texas at National University. “You have this multiphase life where you’re moving in and out of education.”National University is one of the first education institutions to embed an industry certifications into its degree program, Roe says. The university has embedded the Google project management and data science certificate. It also partners with companies like Amazon and Southwest Airlines and takes its leadership training program and incorporates it into the university’s initiatives.Nick Baily, CEO and co-founder of From Day One, moderated the session Adeshina says Ericsson has created a four-level learning plan for global critical skills that the company has identified that are used in the organization. Employees are then given the opportunity to focus on growing these certain skills through short term projects in collaboration with their leaders. These projects open opportunities to network, work with new people and experience a day in the life of someone doing the job more related to that skill, says Adeshina.Holistic Wellness: From Finances to Workplace Flexibility While many employers want to provide more financial stability for employees through raises, budgets always cause a barrier, says Shapiro. Financial wellness is a growing topic among corporations as a report from the Federal Reserve shows that “72% of adults are doing at least okay financially,” which is six percent lower than recorded in 2021.People often look for jobs to make more money, therefore employee retention begins to increase when workers are feeling comfortable with their income and not seeking new employment, says Shapiro. In the remote working space, wellness and productivity can either decline or improve with the different initiatives taken by leaders to ensure the workplace culture is still prevalent for remote workers. The National University’s Center for the Advancement of Virtual Organizations recently published a book titled, Winning in the Virtual Workplace, a framework for leaders on how to successfully lead a remote team.“It really starts with a leader centered in the framework around emotional intelligence,” said Roe. “You have to really be able to understand that employee and connect with them, but then you surround that with a structure that supports that remote workforce.”The framework encourages communication through check ins, maintaining accountability and providing positive encouragement. A communication feedback loop has to be developed to keep remote employees engaged, says Roe.The panelists agreed that what they see drives engagement is stability, flexibility, growth opportunities, and connection.The Importance of DEIAs some corporations are rolling back on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, others are still holding onto its initiatives to make sure that the sense of belonging remains a part of the workplace culture. “Ericsson hasn’t rolled back or changed anything. It’s always been a culture of inclusion and belonging, and that continues,” Adeshina said.Social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion is important for building the next generation of the workforce, says Roe. Supporting DEI helps create a workplace culture where individuals feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute—an environment that leaders are committed to maintaining.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Annie Mulligan for From Day One)
Making Talent Acquisition More Efficient, Inclusive, and Personalized
BY Carrie Snider March 07, 2025Competition for talent is fierce. How can companies rethink their hiring strategies?At From Day One’s Houston conference, panelists shared insights for organizations to better attract and retain the right talent. Moderated by Jennifer Vardeman, director and associate professor at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston, the discussion highlighted the future of hiring and what organizations can do to build stronger, more engaged workforces.Harnessing AI for HiringArtificial intelligence is transforming talent acquisition by making the hiring process efficient, says Naga Krishna Kadiyala, associate vice president of HR innovation and analytics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “AI is really making hiring faster, smarter, and easier,” he said.One key area where AI has made an impact is structured interviews. Kadiyala’s team recently experimented with AI-powered interview guides. They removed sensitive information from resumes, fed the anonymized data into their enterprise AI tool, and let the system generate personalized interview questions. This approach streamlined the process for the hiring team, who often lack the time to create customized interview questions. Meanwhile, an AI-powered scheduling agent negotiates interview times between candidates and hiring managers, reducing the scheduling process from weeks to days. “Our design principle is to have a frictionless experience, and technology should play a major role in reducing the burden in that process,” he said. By leveraging AI to handle repetitive tasks, the institution has seen an increase in highly qualified candidates applying and more candidates being presented to hiring teams.Looking ahead, Kadiyala advocates for broader AI learning across the workforce. “I’ll say, go bold with AI learning for all,” he said. “At the baseline, there should be training on how to use AI. It helps with future-proofing skills, and also with retention. And I think retention helps in attracting talent.”Look at Your Internal TalentOrganizations often focus on external hiring, but panelist Amber Rabo, vice president of learning and talent development at ABM Industries, encourages companies to tap into their existing workforce. “Look at your current workforce as your talent pool,” she said. While not every organization has sophisticated internal job marketplaces, ABM found success with a simple yet effective approach—sending out a newsletter with newly posted job openings. “It was just putting new jobs being posted into a little newsletter and sending it out to all employees so that they can see what opportunities are available for themselves,” Rabo said. “You never know what’s going to come out of it.”Beyond internal mobility, AI has opened new possibilities for workforce development and candidate engagement at ABM. Rabo’s team of instructional designers embraced AI early on, leveraging innovative tools to enhance training and job readiness. One standout initiative involves using AI-driven realistic job previews to address the high turnover rates in frontline roles.“Our core business is very much around janitorial services and buildings, stadiums, airports—you name it,” she said. “And it’s an extremely high turnover rate oftentimes because there’s not a real understanding of what the job’s going to entail on day one.”To bridge that gap, ABM is developing AI-powered job previews that give candidates an immersive look at what a typical day on the job is like.“It’s amazing to be able to literally depict what it’s like—a day on the job, say, at an airport, doing janitorial work at an Amazon facility, cleaning it up,” Rabo said. Providing candidates with this level of transparency helps set expectations from the start, leading to better retention and a more prepared workforce.Authentically Tell Your StoryEmployer branding is as much about education as it is about attraction. Panelist Holly Strople, global head of talent acquisition at Noble Corporation, understands this challenge firsthand.“I think Noble is a perfect example. Offshore drilling, right? We run into a lot of perceptions about our industry—what we do, how we do it—dangerous, dirty, you know, all these different things,” she said.The executive panelists shared insights on the topic "Making Talent Acquisition More Efficient, Inclusive, and Personalized"One of Noble’s biggest hurdles is simply getting people to recognize the company. “We’ve been around for more than 100 years. We are the only player in the industry that has kept the same name for over 100 years. That’s a beautiful story from an employer branding perspective,” Strople said. “Yet, the fact that we’re headquartered here in Houston and less than half this room has ever heard of us—that’s a challenge we’re up against all the time.”They launched an internship program as an early careers talent program. Now, Strople and her team are revamping their careers page, but she keeps pushing for the human element.“We’re sitting in meetings, talking about our fleet status report and doing profiles on our rigs,” she said. “And I continue to say, ‘Where are the people’s stories? When are we going to fly out to the rigs and interview these people?’”She added: “The only way we’re going to allow you all to envision yourself in our organization is if we show people who look like you, who have the same experiences as you, who come from the same places you do—and then tell their stories.”That authenticity must also extend to the hiring process itself. Details as small as whether a hiring manager keeps their camera on during a virtual interview or whether they’re distracted by their phone can make or break a candidate’s experience. “All of that contributes to whether or not somebody is going to want to come and work for you.”Research Potential Employee PopulationsMany employers struggle with hiring because they rely on outdated recruitment strategies, says panelist Dave Harrison, executive director of workforce development and government relations at Fastport.“The biggest problem most hiring efforts have is bad research and analysis on populations,” Harrison said. “We don’t understand the people we’re going after, and we’re trying to steal the same talent from the same competitors over and over again.” Compounding the challenge, companies are no longer just competing within their own industries, something that changed before Covid. “Hiring was already tough because every industry was competing for the same talent,” Harrison said. “And now, the talent pool and their attitudes have changed.”To attract and retain employees, organizations need to do a better job articulating career paths. Harrison shared how they helped one company do just that. “We helped UPS rebuild their registered apprenticeship program a few years ago. They had amazing jobs, great benefits, but still struggled to find enough people,” he said. “The biggest shift we made? We got them to change how they articulated career paths.”Rather than just listing job openings, UPS started sharing real success stories—employees who started in one position and climbed to VP roles. “We helped them frame it as a lattice, not just a ladder,” Harrison said. “They weren’t guaranteeing outcomes, but they were showing employees that they weren’t stuck in one role forever.”This approach is vital, especially for companies trying to expand into new talent pools. He gave an example of a rail yard near an urban area where not a single high school student from the surrounding schools had ever considered working there. “They completely changed their marketing strategy. Now, students are engaging with them online, and the first thing they’re introduced to is career pathway opportunities—told by people they can relate to.”At Fastport’s annual Veteran Ready Summit in Washington, D.C., they coach employers on effective veteran recruitment and retention strategies. “One of the first things we do is review their online presence. And they’ll show stock photos of some model in a uniform that’s completely unrealistic,” Harrison said. “Anyone who has ever served, even in a different branch, can spot the inaccuracy immediately. And at that point, you’ve lost them.”Instead, Harrison advises companies to be upfront. “You don’t have to know every military occupation code or the phonetic alphabet. Just listen. Veterans will tell you their skill sets—leadership, management, overcoming obstacles, soft skills. The exact skills you need all the time.”Successful hiring is all about building meaningful connections, offering clear career paths, and creating workplaces where employees see a future. By taking a more strategic and inclusive approach to talent acquisition, organizations can position themselves for long-term success in an increasingly competitive market.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Annie Mulligan for From Day One)
Employee Recognition and Rewards: How Managers Can Be Empowered
BY Carrie Snider March 05, 2025Recognizing employees for their hard work isn’t just about making them feel good, it’s a strategic tool that drives engagement, retention, and workplace culture. But what makes recognition truly meaningful?At From Day One’s Washington, D.C., five panelists explored how managers can be empowered to make recognition personal, timely, and effective. Steve Koepp, co-founder and editor in chief of From Day One, moderated the discussion.When we think about recognition, we often focus on the recipient—how great it will feel for them to be acknowledged. “What we need to remember, and what our data show very clearly, is there’s [also] a benefit to the giver,” said panelist Naomi Dishington, director of consulting and Workhuman. This is why peer-to-peer recognition is so powerful. It creates a ripple effect across an organization, strengthening engagement and shaping culture.“Every time I show up and give a moment or I nominate a fellow worker, I see a benefit,” said Dishington. “I see a boost to my engagement. I want to see what’s going right and call it out,” she said. However, meaningful recognition assumes that managers truly know their people. It requires consistent check-ins, whether weekly, biweekly, or at a set cadence, to understand employees’ preferences, values, and achievements. In a series of reports co-published with Gallup, WorkHuman found that one of the key elements that makes recognition meaningful and impactful is that it’s personalized.Generic awards can miss the mark—or even backfire. “If we don't know our people,” she added, “and we give out a team award and it’s all the same for each one of them, it can almost backfire.” When recognition is tailored, it sends a clear message: You are valued as an individual.‘RICE’ Framework for RecognitionRecognition isn’t just about rewards, it’s about reinforcing behaviors, celebrating achievements, and fostering engagement. That’s where the RICE framework comes in: Rewards, Incentives, Celebrations, and Engagement, according to Julie Gu, vice president of revenue in North America for Prezzee.“If you can make sure that you are rewarding action, then you’re incentivizing behavior. You’re celebrating the moments,” said Gu.The executive panelists spoke about "Employee Recognition and Rewards: How Managers Can Be Empowered"At its core, meaningful recognition has a personal touch. Whether it’s peer-to-peer, manager-to-employee, or colleague-to-colleague, personalization makes recognition more impactful. “The appreciation is what makes you feel good in the moment,” she added. “The personal message is what makes it memorable.”A well-thought-out reward isn’t just about the dollar amount, it’s about the connection behind it. Is it that the company gave an employee $5 towards something they really wanted? Actually, it’s less about the money and more about remembering that your colleagues paid attention to your interests outside of work, says Gu.By integrating the RICE framework and focusing on personal, meaningful recognition, organizations can build stronger, more engaged teams, where people don’t just feel appreciated, but truly seen.Mechanisms for Employee RecognitionLeaders and managers play a crucial role in shaping the workplace. A simple moment of recognition can make a lasting impact. “You are literally shaping someone’s day,” said panelist Boma Anyaogu, vice president of DEI at Compass Group.To make recognition effortless and meaningful, Compass Group has implemented multiple mechanisms, including its Voice of the Customer (VOC) program. “When a customer highlights an employee by name, we make sure that employee sees it,” she said. “We have recognition months so when something goes right, we allow the customer to highlight them. We do kudos, newsletters, and other simple ways to make recognition quick and easy,” Anyaogu said.One of the biggest challenges with traditional recognition programs is timing. Many managers have expressed frustration that recognition can take too long to process, often being saved for the end of a month or quarter. To counter this, Compass Group is shifting toward real-time recognition. “We’re trying to do things where we can capture it in the moment.”Effective Recognition StrategiesPanelist Sunita Braynard, acting head of total rewards at Under Armour, emphasized that recognition doesn’t always have to be monetary. Peer-to-peer recognition, in particular, is a powerful tool because it drives recognition and engagement, making people feel valued for what they do. Whether it’s a small acknowledgment of effort or celebrating moments that matter, recognition should be embedded in daily interactions. Timeliness and specificity are key.“When we say peer-to-peer recognition, we know that it’s more impactful when it’s timely, it’s instant, and it’s specific,” Braynard said. Recognition doesn’t have to be elaborate. Sometimes, a simple message can make all the difference.Companies can structure recognition in various ways, from instant peer-to-peer acknowledgments to more formalized programs. “If the company has a formal recognition program, then you can think about how to assign points to that particular achievement,” Braynard said. While instant appreciation can be as simple as a quick email or a shoutout within a team, larger contributions over time can lead to structured rewards, such as a project-based bonus. “There are multiple ways to do it, but the easiest is to recognize instantly, make it specific, make it meaningful—a heart-to-heart connection that really goes a long way.”Recognition shouldn’t be limited to work-related achievements, she added. Whether celebrating a birthday, a wedding, or the birth of a child, or offering support during a difficult time, recognition fosters a culture of belonging. “It’s about engaging with them so they start feeling that they’re not in it alone—that they’ve got people who have their back.”Diversity in RecognitionAccording to panelist Shabrina Davis, head of diversity learning for AADA talent acquisition at Amazon, flexibility in recognition is essential. “Employees want their leaders to know them and who they are. We shouldn’t have a rigid structure where leadership can’t make changes, adapt, or offer just-in-time recognition.” Instead, companies need to equip leaders with the tools to be adaptable, ensuring they can acknowledge employees in a way that feels personal and meaningful.Listening to employee feedback is another critical component. “Take the surveys and actually listen to the sentiment behind them,” Davis said. “Because if you make a mistake in your recognition system, it backfires.” Recognition should be driven by data and real employee preferences, not just assumptions from leadership.As a global company, Amazon recognizes that effective recognition varies across cultures. “Part of diversity is diversity of thought. The behaviors we reward in America may be very different from the behaviors we reward in China or Germany. A recognition program needs to be localized—we need to reward people where they are succeeding, and that may look different for every person,” said Davis.Beyond performance-based recognition, companies should also support employees in times of crisis. “At the enterprise level, companies can have mechanisms in place to support employees and their families during disasters, whether it’s war, wildfires, or hurricanes,” Davis said. “Giving managers the ability to make those decisions without question shows that you value employees not just for their work or output, but as human beings. That kind of recognition goes a long way in fostering inclusion and belonging.”Employees thrive when they feel valued—not just for their output, but for who they are. Whether it’s a simple “thank you,” a personalized reward, or a leadership-driven initiative, appreciation fosters stronger connections, higher engagement, and a workplace where people want to stay and grow.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.(Photos by Justin Feltman for From Day One)
Shaping the Dialogue: Delivering Meaningful Well-Being Support
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi March 05, 2025In a 2022 survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, results showed that more than 60% of people cited shame and stigma as the main obstacle to accessing mental health care.At Freddie Mac, the company utilizes storytelling to help destigmatize the need for benefits and reminding employees of the plethora of resources available to them, says Jennifer White, head of learning and leadership development.While people across the nation are struggling to care for their mental and physical health, it can be even more difficult to do so with the additional stressors within the workforce. During a panel discussion at From Day One’s Washington, D.C. conference moderated by LA Times reporter Faith Pinho, executives spoke on how leaders can foster cultures that support meaningful missions toward employee well-being.Vulnerability in the WorkplaceOne of the biggest challenges when it comes to communication around mental well-being is the stigma, says Nicole Wolfe, vice president of B2B partnerships at Rula. In order to combat this struggle, it’s important for company leaders to create a culture around transparency, honesty and vulnerability. Nicole Wolfe added that some of the discomfort around seeking help often stems from a lack of awareness of what resources and benefits are available as well.Owner and founder of Westcomm, Guy Westermeyer, says that using storytelling techniques in company campaigns can also help make information more memorable. Featuring the stories and voices of real employees and company leaders sheds the stigma around seeking help and lets them know it’s okay to use these benefits.“When you have stories coming from leaders it helps to show that vulnerability as well, and lets people know that it’s okay to use this benefit and to seek out support,” agreed White.“You have to be open and you have to talk about it regularly. It can’t be a once and done,” said Westermeyer. He also emphasized that companies need to “bust the myths” around mental health and use more relatable terms and scenarios that employees can see themselves in.Developing a Strong Company Culture of WellnessCreating a culture of well-being can be beneficial to employees who see direct actions and outcomes of promises that the company makes. This culture can be formed by holding conversations on how managers are demonstrating behaviors that are being asked for, whether leaders are celebrating employee milestones and more, said Carlee Wolfe, associate vice president of leader development and organizational effectiveness at Hyatt.For larger companies such as Hyatt, with offices and hotels across continents, it's important to evaluate what’s being offered to employees locally. From restaurant staff to housekeeping, the hotel corporation acknowledges the efforts from all levels of the company.Hyatt also celebrates Global Day of Gratitude, where employees across the world engage in spreading appreciation to others in the company and at home. “Not only is that something that reaches our entire organization, but you can really feel that walking through the halls or typing into chat or sitting in the back of the house and how people are working,” said Carlee Wolfe.Panelists discussed how they integrate well-being into their companiesA diverse range of options is valued whenever possible. Freddie Mac offers well-being support by having physicians, counselors and chiropractors on site for corporate offices, says White. It also provides caregiving leave, bereavement leave and well-being leave for employees. The company has developed a coaching program where employees can receive resources on improving their wellness habits such as sleep, time management, exercise and more.Measuring Employee Well-beingIn the hospitality business, like Hyatt, the company focuses on the idea of happy colleagues, happy guests. By evaluating the level of engagement through company activities and surveys, leaders can measure whether their employees are aligning with the well-being culture that is set up by the corporation.Carlee Wolfe said Hyatt sends out a colleague experience survey, which is built on company core values, leadership competencies and wellbeing. The data tells the team what the company can do to support employees and allows them to take action on what they see and hear is needed.“The thing that we really emphasize is the data becoming available at the manager's fingertips. We have data that goes to any leader that has five or more direct reports, so they’re able to look at how [they are] moving the needle on well-being,” said Carlee Wolfe.White also previously worked in the hospitality business at Hilton. During her time there, she said the company started a campaign that aimed to ensure employee well-being through comfortability. This meant looking at the uniforms and making sure they were comfortable and allowing staff to feel confident, so they could be “ready to be at work and do their best job.”In recent years, well-being has evolved beyond physical health, embracing a holistic approach to wellness–a shift that continues to gain momentum. Just five years ago, this broader perspective was far less common. Westermeyer highlights the strong connection between mental and financial wellness, an increasingly recognized priority for companies.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Justin Feltman for From Day One)
Learning Defiance When Compliance Is What We Know
BY Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza March 05, 2025In Sanskrit, Sunita means “good.”“As a child, I was known for being an obedient daughter and student,” said Sunita Sah, a physician, a professor at Cornell’s SC Johnson School of Business, and now, an author. “I did what I was told. I did all my homework as expected. And these were the messages I received, not just from parents, but also from teachers and the community: Be good, obey. Don’t question authority. Don’t make a scene. Be polite.”Being a good child, Sah was fascinated by defiance, and often wondered why others could do it much more readily than she could. Over time, she came to realize that compliance was equated with good, and defiance with bad. But she questioned whether that was actually true.At From Day One’s Washington, D.C.conference on a new era of investing in humans, Dr. Sah spoke in a fireside chat about her new book Defy: The Power of No in a World That Demands Yes. In it she lays out her decades of research on when people defy, when they comply, and how they decide.“Is it sometimes bad to be so good?”Sah took issue with the idea that compliance is good and defiance is bad. Take some of the examples she used in her book. In one study, “nine out of 10 healthcare workers, most of them nurses, did not feel comfortable speaking up when they saw a colleague or a physician making a mistake.” And “in another survey of over 1,700 crew members of commercial airlines, half of them didn’t want to speak up when they saw an error being made.”Journalist and From Day One contributing editor Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza interviewed Dr. SahThese are life and death situations. If we don’t defy then, when can we? “I just started to think, is it sometimes bad to be so good? What do we sacrifice by disregarding our values?”To defy is simply to act in accordance with your true values when there is pressure to do otherwise. “It is a positive, pro-social force in society, because every act that we do, every act of compliance, consent, dissent, defiance, every single act builds and creates the society that we live in. It affects our lives, our communities, our workplaces,” she said.Compliance and DefianceCompliance and defiance are not binary, but rather exist on a spectrum, Sah writes in Defy. On one end is a “True Yes.” Let’s say you’re asked to perform a task at work. You understand it clearly and it aligns with your values, so you do it. That is compliance that we knowingly and positively consent to. On the other end is a “True No.” That is, when you’re asked to do something at work and it doesn’t align with your values, so you don’t. That’s defiance that we positively consent to.The True Yes and the True NoThere are five elements of a True Yes: capacity, knowledge, understanding, freedom, and consent.Capacity refers to one’s mental capacity to make a decision. “You’re not ill under sickness or under drugs or alcohol, so you have the mental capacity.” Knowledge is the cold, hard facts of the situation. Next is understanding, or “a thorough grasp of the facts, the risks, the benefits and the alternatives. Freedom is the freedom to choose your response. “If you don't have the freedom to say no, you can’t have consent, it’s merely compliance.” Authorization is a conscious choice to say yes (consent) or no (defiance).In fact, a True No comprises the same five elements. A True Yes and a True No are just two sides of the same coin. “It does not matter whether you say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Sah writes. “What matters is that your decision helps you live in alignment with your values.”To be clear, “some people get to defy with far less consequences than others,” she said. The further you are from a dominant status or identity, the greater the consequences for defiance. When that’s the case, many people must make the calculation of whether it’s safe to defy. If it’s not, you can defer your defiance to another day.Learning to DefyDr. Sah signed copies of Defy for conference attendeesSah believes that anyone can learn to be defiant, and it’s not an inborn personality trait. But in order to get there, the way we think about ourselves must change. “If you think of defiance as being loud, bold, aggressive, violent, heroic, or superhuman, and therefore not for me–both of those things are wrong. Defiance can be quiet, value-based, and it can be unique to what’s comfortable for you.”From our earliest days, we’re wired to comply, so we need to retain those neural pathways, she said. We can learn to defy. Practice role-playing or scripting out moments where you’d like to be defiant. “We need to get our ears used to hearing those words, our mouths used to saying them.”“We can be compliant one day and we can be defiant the next day,” Sah said. “It’s not about not having the personality or being larger than life. It’s a skill set that we can all learn. So even if compliance is your default, it's not your destiny.”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.(Photos by Justin Feltman for From Day One)
Career Growth as a Competitive Edge: How Employers Can Attract and Retain Top Talent
BY Katie Chambers March 04, 2025Monica Green, global head of early careers and talent pipelines at State Street, encourages her new employees to take their development into their own hands. “I tell every new person that joins the organization, you’re going to have to meet at least 50 people within your first six months. I’m not going to prescribe it. It could be a coffee chat. It could be an elevator conversation, but I want to see that you’ve met 50 people, because as you build your network within your organization [it] will enable you to identify folks who can be your sponsor,” she said. She never wants workers to be shy about their goals. “Make sure people know what you want to do. You know it is your job to make sure that you are driving your career.” By establishing a culture of individual growth, Green says leaders can build a self-driven workforce eager to acquire talent from within. Today’s workforce puts a high value on career growth when evaluating both prospective and current employers. How can companies design equitable career development strategies that attract top talent, retain their best employees, and foster an inclusive workplace? Green and other leaders discussed these strategies during a panel at From Day One’s Atlanta conference.Making Career Growth a Competitive AdvantageModern candidates are looking for more than just the basics like wages, benefits, and pensions. An attractive total compensation package, says Eldridge Banks, VP, HR, at Kaiser Permanente, includes opportunities for career development. This can include anything from tuition reimbursement, skills training, or courses in emotional intelligence or cultural dependence. “Those things really make us understand how you can take your career to the next level,” Banks said.But you are not necessarily just offering skills training so that employees can switch to a new company–instead, development can lead to retention as workers find new ways to follow their passions within the same organization. “Retention is the new talent acquisition,” said Jason Burgamy, managing director, Americas, SHL.Development programs also need to keep in mind the unique challenges faced by today’s professionals, including increased pressure on middle managers. “How do we equip this critical segment of our population to deal with the pressures that we put on those folks, equipping them with the leadership skills, the technology skills, and finding ways to develop those people within their role quickly?” Burgamy said.Keeping such development at top of mind can keep its association with the current workplace stronger, encouraging retention. Melanie Moore, head of global talent acquisition at Honeywell shares that her organization has workers revise their individual development plan (IDP) every six months. “Once you have something written down, it makes it visual, it makes it attainable. And when you’re updating it twice a year, it just really keeps it fresh in your mind,” she said.Pathways For DevelopmentMany companies now offer a wealth of courses that employees can pick and choose from to build their own unique learning path. “At Honeywell, we have a system that we call Accelerator, and there are literally thousands of classes that are self-driven,” Moore said, citing courses in everything from communications to public speaking to business. Of course, during the day-to-day, learning might be the farthest thing from people’s minds. “When everyone at work is just trying to execute and do their jobs, it can be hard for some people in your workplace to think longer term,” said moderator Kelly Yamanouchi, reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That’s why organizations should actively encourage employees to take advantage of internal learning opportunities. Honeywell, Moore says, has one development day per month, during which everyone clears their calendars to participate in webinars and focus on their personal improvement.The panelists shared their ideas on "Career Growth as a Competitive Edge: How Employers Can Attract and Retain Top Talent"Green says her organization encourages employees to take their career growth into their own hands, “managing themselves up” through the company’s skills program, rather than relying solely on their supervisor for support. “Don’t wait for someone else to tell you, ‘Hey, you need to work on this.’ You should be taking that for yourself,” Green said. Volunteering for stretch assignments can help leaders recognize your potential too. In the same vein, Burgamy says, while mentorship and leadership are key, more and more organizations are recognizing that not all managers are cut out for helping their team members grow. “We all would like managers to do a better job of sharing feedback and articulating what an individual needs to do to develop their own skills. A lot of organizations are asking employees to take short assessments to better understand themselves, highlight what skills they need to develop, what kind of assignments might be leveraging their strengths, and which might be a stretch. [Then they can] seek input from a mentor or a peer or a manager to help them in that journey,” he said. To do this, Burgamy says, SHL offers a 15-minute global skills assessment that measures 96 skills across the working world. This allows workers to get a handle on their strengths and areas for improvement, and can help them decide what stretch assignments or new roles to pursue. “Then you start to aggregate that across an organization, and you have a view of your talent and all the skills, and how those line up against the strategic and operational priorities of the organization,” he said.Encouraging Organic NetworkingAll of this lead’s back to Green’s task for the early career professionals: share what you are interested in and meet as many people as you can. In other words, always be networking. And, Green said, “make sure you’re showing up as your best self.” She also encourages young employees to identify people within the organization who have the skills and pathway that they want, and to pursue them for support. “People love to talk about themselves! You can learn from them and most of the time they’re very willing to help you.” Organizations can nurture networking opportunities by setting up employee resource groups (ERGs). Moore encourages workers to join all employee networks, even if they don’t meet the criteria if it’s based on gender, ability, veteran status, or cultural background. “That’s a great way to meet new people [including] senior leaders,” she said. “Don’t sit at your desk and do your job. That’s never going to help you advance to the next level. Approach people and have your elevator speech ready.” Being your authentic self is key, Banks says. Letting colleagues and leaders get to know you as a full and unique human being will encourage deeper connection and investment in your growth and wellbeing. Ultimately, career growth is not a choice–it’s a necessity in today’s workplace. “The job that you’re in today will not likely exist, certainly not in the same form, in five years,” Burgamy said. “If you’re not developing, if you’re not expanding your views and your horizons on what your career can be, and building up those skills on a regular, consistent basis, there is a good chance that AI will take your job or there will be some other reason you’re looking for something different. You can prepare for it. You can own it. But it’s a good idea to start today.”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 Dustin Chambers for From Day One)
Authenticity, Listening, and Trust: Building Authentic Workplace Culture
BY Christopher O'Keeffe March 03, 2025“Culture, real culture for any organization, is the beliefs, processes, and behaviors that are acceptable by [the] organization,” said Lauren D. Williams, SVP of organizational culture and change management at Sirius XM.Williams and other executive panelists shared insights on cultivating meaningful workplace environments that foster belonging and trust at From Day One’s Atlanta conference. The panel quickly identified authenticity as the cornerstone of effective company culture. Williams emphasized the importance of staying “true to your DNA as an organization and what you stand for, what you believe in, your values, in order to make sure that culture is actually something that's successful.”Building on this foundation, Yulia Denisova, VP of talent and development for Fanatics, says clear communication is key. “Being clear in communicating that to our workforce, so that we don’t have unrealized expectations is crucial, particularly when organizations have diverse needs.”Ingrid Emmons VP, head of diversity, equity and inclusion for Aveanna Healthcare says there’s no singular macro culture. “Culture exists on the micro level, on every team, no matter how big or small. Our ultimate goal is to build micro cultures that create this overarching macro culture,” she said. Jon Lowe, the chief people officer of DailyPay, a financial benefits company offering earned wage access, spoke on how culture differentiates within a company.”Culture exists agnostic of the leadership team,” he said “I think every organization has culture, and I think that we as leaders try to shape what that culture is, but I don't think we own it. We try to lead it.” His observation highlights the organic nature of culture that develops, regardless or in addition to formal initiatives.The Importance of Effective CommunicationLaura Sherbin, managing director of research and consulting at Seramount, a talent services firm, highlighted the importance of truly understanding how employees experience culture. “When you actually ask employees, they’ll say it’s completely different based on their team, based on their work group, based on their identity.” Knowing what matters also helps boost inclusion, something that’s “not an agenda, it's a business imperative,” said Sherbin.Listening is key, says Williams, of Sirius XM. “Listen to understand and don’t listen to [just] respond,” she said. “[Employees] want to feel like they belong. They want to feel included. They want to feel seen, valued, heard and understood.”Understanding the experience of frontline workers is also imperative. Emmons says the best way to do this is truly stepping in their shoes. “Spend time doing the work that they do. Until you have that experience, I don’t know how you can truly understand their lived experience,” she said.Ernie Suggs, race & culture reporter at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, moderated the panelUnderstanding experience can help boost trust, which is critical. Trust forms the foundation for authentic connection. “The number one ingredient to a successful foundation is building this sense of trust. It’s all about allowing people to bring their best selves,” said Williams. At Sirius XM, she implemented their first volunteer day off, encouraging employees across 20 locations to give back to their communities, which helped foster relationships beyond daily work interactions.This initiative addresses what Emmons identified as a growing crisis in American workplaces. “What we know is that 12% of US adults say that they don't have a best friend, they don't have anyone to call from the emergency room. That is up from 3% in 2009," she said, citing the Surgeon General’s research about a loneliness epidemic.Even more troubling for employers, Emmons says that around 65% of U.S. workers tell us they experience no sense of community at work—a challenge that intensified during remote work but persists even in hybrid environments.Managing Cultural EvolutionAs organizations grow or undergo transformation, maintaining cultural alignment becomes challenging. Denisova shared Fanatics’ experience of evolving from a startup to a global enterprise serving “100+ million fans globally, in 180 countries,” while trying to preserve its entrepreneurial spirit.The company's solution was implementing “bold principles” throughout the employee lifecycle. “These are the principles that really tie us together, whether you’re a forklift operator in the distribution center or a software engineer in the Silicon Valley,” she said.Successful cultural evolution requires self-awareness, says Sherbin. “When you think of a merger or an acquisition, culture is often what sabotages that. The thing that happens before that, though, is a complete lack of self-awareness of what the cultures are.”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.(Photos by Dustin Chambers for From Day One)
Do the Right Thing: Building an Environment of Trust So Employees Can Deliver Excellence
BY Christopher O'Keeffe February 27, 2025“What makes our homes different, better, and special? It’s really rooted in the people who build our homes—our employees and our trade partners. It’s the fact that we not only encourage, but we expect and we empower them to make sure that we are delivering homes that meet the needs of our consumers,” said Kevin Henry, EVP and chief people officer at PulteGroup.Henry spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Atlanta conference, discussing the value of decentralized decision making based on trust. At PulteGroup, one of the nation’s largest homebuilders, trust is more than a value—it is an operational strategy.And, by all accounts, it's working. As a company that will deliver over 30,000 new homes in 2024 alone, PulteGroup has found that operational excellence is best achieved by giving decision-making power to those closest to the customer, down to the customer interactions themselves.Rather than adhering to rigid, top-down policies, PulteGroup enables employees to respond to customer needs in real time. “The flooring that people want, the colors that people want, the landscaping they prefer—we’re not legislating that from our corporate office in Atlanta. We are seeding those decision rights to the people interacting with on a regular basis."For Henry, trust is not given blindly but cultivated through servant leadership. “Leaders should be other-centered, focused on supporting and advocating for other people so they can be successful. If they’re successful, then we’re successful.” This philosophy is deeply ingrained at PulteGroup and reinforced at all levels of leadership.He cited Harvard Business School’s service-profit chain model as a guiding principle: “If you take care of your folks, your folks take care of your customers, and your customers take care of you. And then you can invest resources back into taking care of your folks. It creates a virtuous flywheel that keeps the organization thriving,” he said.Trust also means allowing employees to take calculated risks. “If you don’t have a culture of appropriate risk-taking, then everyone is playing not to lose instead of playing to win. You will rarely experience breakthrough performance.”Kevin Henry, right, was interviewed by From Day One co-founder and editor in chief, Steve Koepp The company cultivates a supportive workplace where employees can grow and learn from mistakes with confidence. “Growing up, I played baseball. You can strike out six and a half times out of ten and you’re still going to Cooperstown,” says Henry, referring to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He continues the analogy: “There’s no expectation that you’re going to bat 1,000 because nobody’s going to get everything right all the time. But you have to have a cultural context that says when you strike out, you know, dust your knees off, get back into the batter’s box.”One of the most significant ways PulteGroup builds trust is by integrating diversity and inclusion into its overall leadership strategy rather than treating it as a separate function. “I have never had a chief diversity officer in any of the organizations, because I have never wanted anyone in any of the organizations that I’ve led to have the ability to abdicate their responsibility for culture.”Instead, the company focuses on "valuing differences"—a term that extends beyond traditional corporate definitions of diversity. “Differences in background, circumstances, and beliefs are what make a team stronger,” said Henry. “We’ve got the entire organization rallying around a need for us to value differences, because that’s how we are going to be the most respected home builder in America.”For PulteGroup, trust also means investing in employees’ careers. However, Henry articulates a paradigm shift from the traditional ladder advancement framework. “We’re very intentional about creating career paths, but I don't think about a career ladder, where it's just a vertical path of progression. I think about a career jungle gym,” he said, referring to the lateral movements that modern successful careers often take.But, while the company leads with empowerment, they also have a perceptive and reactive structure to help amplify the individual needs and ambitions of the employees. “We have well thought-out and developed human resources systems. We have a lot of things that people can do on their own. We can see the salmon that want to swim upstream, and who’s going to invest in their own development.” And, once they identify those self-driven employees? “Then we meet them where they are, and provide them with some intentional focus to help them actualize their career interests,” he said. Ultimately, PulteGroup’s success is rooted in its ability to cultivate trust at all levels—from leadership to employees to customers. “You can’t be the most respected home builder if we’re not the most respected employer, because there’s a law of reciprocity between those two things.”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.(Photos by Dustin Chambers for From Day One)
Innovative and Efficient Approaches to Improving Employee Well-Being
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi February 26, 2025When the fires in Los Angeles, California sparked in January, many employees of S&P Global were impacted. In order to support its employees, the company looked into its retirement plan and offered its workers to use funds from their 401k plan to get what they needed to support themselves financially through a FEMA disaster relief withdrawal policy.As the world sees increased natural disasters, financial pressures, health challenges and more, employee well-being is a topic that needs to be talked about now more than ever. Well-being includes mental health, physical health and finances. During a panel at From Day One’s Atlanta conference, executives joined moderator and journalist Alexis Hauk for a conversation on how corporations are taking innovative and efficient approaches to improving employee well-being.A Focus on FlexibilityAfter Covid, many companies are working on having employees return to the office after years of remote and hybrid meetings. In this post-pandemic era, companies are facing the conflict of employees seeking flexibility in their work while management attempts to bring them back to work in person.Jan Goldstein, senior vice president of human resources at Gray Media Group works with broadcast journalists who are covering stressful topics about shootings, fires and disasters all while working under a tight deadline and having to look their best while doing it, she says.Under Gray Media Group, management and HR focuses on creating a healthy work environment and culture to encourage employees to come into the office and allow them to feel like they want to be working in person. The company currently has a hybrid model to allow time in person to build relationships and culture while also giving employees flexibility to work from home.Vitor Hugo Cid, global head of HR for patient care informatics at Philips says his company has been in the process of impending the push to return to the office over the last six months. Philips currently has a hybrid work model as well.It’s important to establish clear policies around hybrid, remote or in person work, he says. Some positions such as manufacturing roles simply cannot be done from home. To bring people back into the office, a change in mindset needs to occur, Vitor Cid added.“What we’re starting to do in this new approach is really think about intentionally creating moments that matter, [like] employee experience, so employees can be in the office and they can actually have those moments of creativity, conversation, building and networking,” he said.Philips has expanded its diversity and inclusion team to also incorporate well-being. It has implemented a mental health program that invites company employees to become mental health champions who can help others in the company. They receive training from mental health professionals to learn how to act as a guidepost for employees who may need mental health support. It currently has 500 volunteer mental health champions across 130 countries.Supporting Women’s HealthOvia Health is a unique family health benefits platform that offers women’s health services to employers. While in the workforce, women are impacted by very specific health challenges, including perimenopause, menopause and pregnancy.Von Miles, head of commercial strategy and growth for Ovia Health says since the company’s inception in 2012, it has served over 22 million family journeys. Ovia Health offers women education through articles, videos and support through health coaches.The top four areas of gap that the company identified through surveys from employers included parenting programs, flexibility and schedule, mental health and return to work programs, says Miles. “Feedback is so important, giving them the opportunity to speak to their employer to talk about what their needs and gaps are as it relates to their women's health journey,” said Miles.Measuring the Success of Wellness InitiativesGray Media Group hosts a multitude of events and campaigns for its employees to engage in including gratitude and appreciation campaigns where employees nominate another person they think is awesome to work with, a water drinking challenge and a safe driving pledge. Every month they do something different.Goldstein says she can measure how well the company’s efforts are doing by seeing how many people are actually participating and engaging in these activities. The company also matches employee donations that go towards a financial fund that is provided to them as a grant when an employee needs financial support during an unforeseen event.Financial Well-Being and Emergency SupportAccording to Tapcheck co-founder & COO Kayling Gaver, 14% of Americans are underbanked, meaning they don’t have access to traditional credit or finances. When employees are struggling with finances, it shows through absenteeism, low productivity and poor health, Gaver says.By implementing Tapcheck, an instant pay app, employees are able to access their wages immediately when they need them, as they earn their pay. “It’s a gig economy,” said Goldstein. “People can drive an Uber for an hour, download their cash, get gas money to keep driving all day. So having that kind of flexibility and urgent access to their earnings, I just think they're going to start to expect from us.” At Gray Media Group, Goldstein was able to implement earned wage access as well as cover the ATM fee for withdrawals.The executive panelists spoke about "Innovative and Efficient Approaches to Improving Employee Well-Being"Extreme weather phenomena are increasingly impacting employees across the nation. During these times, finances along with safety might be a concern for employees. From wildfires to snowstorms, employees are facing additional stresses in addition to their work lives.At Tapcheck, employers offered their staff an emergency fund to help them prepare for a snow storm that was approaching. The program was offered to them as a way to support employees and make sure they were able to stock their pantries and collect any necessities.Philips also has a crisis team that was developed during Covid that focuses on how to ensure employee safety.Using AI to Enhance WellnessCompanies carry a lot of information and data across various departments and sometimes that can be difficult and time consuming for people to navigate through. Artificial intelligence can be helpful in organizing this data and providing it to people. Tiffany Clark, vice president of people solutions & well-being at S&P Global says her company uses a generative AI bot to help employees find information about benefits. S&P Global has many benefit offerings that range from menopause, leave and financial support. The bots will also help employees interpret the information that is provided. Currently, the bot is still being monitored by an employee who is training it and reviewing its actions to make sure it’s providing accurate information. “I think technology is going to drive a lot that we see in the well-being space, especially when you look at those three points about, how do you educate, how do you get people direct access, and then how do you use that data to be able to drive the different decisions that you make as an organization?” said Clark. While AI is on the rise, it still requires human oversight. Clark clarifies that technology is meant to augment human capabilities, not displacing them. S&P Global has taken many steps in preparing and training the bot by testing its functions, conducting risk assessments with an AI council and forming a knowledge team that governs its AI policies, says Clark. “AI is nothing without the data. And so making sure that our data set is as clean as possible, that's one of the things that we've done to make sure that we're using AI responsibly,” said Clark.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.(Photos by Dustin Chambers for From Day One)
How to Evolve Your Benefits to Modernize, Reduce Costs, and Meet Changing Employee Needs
BY Christopher O'Keeffe February 17, 2025“ADT is a company that provides security systems and benefits are a form of security for our employees,” said Dan Pikelny, VP of HR at ADT on the immense benefit of good benefits. At From Day One’s Chicago benefits half-day conference, Pikelny spoke about the critical role benefits play in attracting, engaging, and retaining employees in today’s workforce.Pikelny emphasized that benefits manifest before the final offer is signed—they start with recruitment. “The first thing that happens is they have to become an employee. So you have to attract them. So when a company is interviewing an employee, an employee is deciding whether to join, they are giving up a lot of their time, a lot of their family, a lot of their talents, and they want something back,” he said. “They want to be compensated for that, but they also want a sense of security.” Leaders at ADT, a 150-year-old company, have focused on security for the entire duration of its existence so far. For employees, security isn’t just about break ins, but also “what happens if there’s an illness or retirement,” said Pikelny. However, ADT continues to evolve as an organization, and this evolution has required a new approach to human capital. “We’ve become a technology company, so the strategy of the company has literally changed, and as a result, the human capital strategy has changed,” Pikelny said. “The type of people that we need to attract and retain may be different from the types of people we had to attract and retain before.”Employee Listening and Engagement“Wellness programs are a good tool for engagement that a company can leverage,” Pikelny told moderator Karl Ahlrichs, HR leadership columnist and consultant. “It gives employees something to be part of that’s greater than them, as opposed to just the things that they produce—installed alarm systems, spreadsheets, code, PowerPoints or anything else.”ADT has developed a structured listening strategy to understand employee needs. “We use employee surveys at multiple points—after 60, 90, and 180 days of employment, during annual engagement surveys, and exit interviews. We even listen to what our candidates are saying during recruitment,” he shared. That is one input into a benefits strategy and “That’s how we identified the need for paid parental leave.”Journalist Karl Ahlrichs interviewed Dan Pikelny of ADT Experimenting and LearningIt’s important to try new things, says Pikelny, knowing that failure might be an outcome. One experiment involved linking 401(k) contributions to employee performance. “We made our 401(k) plan performance-based,” Pikelny said. “We very quickly heard loud and clear from our employees that they don’t want their retirements linked to performance. The following year, we changed it back.”The CFO’s Perspective on Benefits Spending“Benefits are an important part of the income statement,” Pikelny said. “But It’s difficult to measure things that don’t happen because you’ve got benefits, right? And so we need to communicate the value of the right benefits package to the CFO,” he advised. While indirect, to demonstrate the value of benefits, leaders at ADT are developing a turnover and flight risk model. “We’ve built a turnover model that identifies factors contributing to employee departures. Some of those factors are outside of benefits, like manager relationships, but some are tied to the Total Rewards strategy,” he said. “If we can connect work within our Total Rewards package to reduce attrition, that’s a metric leadership can appreciate.”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.
Balancing Cost Efficiency With Good Employee Outcomes in Benefits
BY Carrie Snider February 14, 2025If investing in benefits could improve employee retention by 40% in a year, how much would that be worth to your company?That’s what Jon Harold, head of sales and partnership success at SoFi at Work spoke about at From Day One’s Chicago benefits conference. Harold joined three other panelists, who talked about how to offer employee benefits in a cost-effective way. Patricia Garland, adjunct instructor, labor and employment relations at Loyola University, Chicago, and author of 33 Ways Not to Screw Up HR, moderated the session.SoFi at Work, which provides student debt and financial benefits to over 1,000 companies, knows how to get creative. Section 127, in place since 2020, lets companies contribute tax free to employee student loans up to $5,250. About 31% of companies now offer this, Harold says. Prompted by a shortage of healthcare workers, a Tennessee-based health system reached out to SoFi for assistance. “They were having a terrible retention problem with the nurses that they were bringing on,” he said. “Their hypothesis was, these nurses have student loans. Not many other hospitals offer this type of program. Therefore, if we roll out a program where we’re contributing to student debt, and we tier that after years of tenure, that will help with retention.”SoFi at Work helped them come up with a plan by putting it into real numbers. If they’re leaving after a few years, then the benchmark is six to nine months of that employee’s salary. That’s a quantifiable number. “If you’re able to save, let’s say, 100 employees based on that salary and that replacement cost, what would that be?” The cost of the benefit has to make sense within those parameters.Panelists shared best practices for cost-efficiency and utilization in employee benefits There’s more to consider in this scenario, Harold says. Their customer success team evaluated employee engagement, and the impact it had on student loans. “How much does it help paying off their student loan? How much are they saving on principal interest, the qualitative feedback, how it makes them feel?” Then of course, they look at actual retention. In this particular hospital, retention improved by 40% over 12 months, saving the hospital money and offering the nurses help paying their student loans. Harold expressed that benefits must be customized, and sometimes you have to get creative. It's not a one size fits all approach, because everyone has a unique set of problems. “You could be a manufacturing employee who is on the front lines on an hourly salary that is struggling to make ends meet,” Harold said. “Or you could be a lawyer who's working in New York City that has $3,000 a month rent and $1,000 monthly student loan payment. There are different problems to solve.” Flexibility Is KeyMost companies are already doing a ton for their employees, according to panelist Sean Hughley is the director of sales at Forma, a flexible benefits platform. They’ve got wellness programs, offer stipends, and much more. But there’s a snag.“The challenge we run into is typically, there’s less than 30% engagement in those programs, right? So they’re doing a lot, but it’s not actually extremely effective,” he said. Rather than setting a new budget, Hughley says, they can simply repurpose the programs the company has with a more efficient benefit.“It becomes a much easier conversation with your CFO when we’re saying, ‘I can take our programs that are getting 20% engagement, and I can boost them to about 85% engagement without spending a dollar.’” Not to mention that ROI is better with employee engagement, plus the health benefit of the employee who has something they actually want to use.Take a gym stipend, for example. A company may provide $50 a month to its employees towards a gym membership. But if only 20% of your employees go to the gym, they’re missing out on 80% of the employee population. It’s time to get flexible, the panelists agreed. “You can take that same $50, but now you transform that benefit,” Hughley said. “You provide holistic wellness.” Rather than stipulating what they can spend the money on, give them a choice. Gym. Child care. Clothing. Adoption.”It’s a consolidated and simplified way to enable organizations to offer more without the administrative headaches, he added. Plus, who doesn’t love choice?Listen to EmployeesAt Pitney Bowes, there is a diverse workforce, from hourly workers in mail sorting to corporate workers with specialized degrees. Communicating and providing benefits to such a varied group can be challenging, says Nate Nevas, VP, head of benefits and health services.Surveys can be helpful tools, but they decided to go a step further in helping their employees get the most out of their benefits. “For our last open enrollment, we went to a lot of our mail sorting facilities, and we helped people enroll one on one,” Nevas said. “We learned a ton about what’s important to them. For one thing, their employees typically went with the medical plan that has the lowest payroll contribution, regardless of what the plan design is.Pitney Bowes offers a flex vacation package, where employees can essentially buy a week of vacation. For a lower income population, you’d think this wouldn’t interest them, Nevas says. But they were very interested.“They only get about two weeks vacation a year, and a lot of them have family overseas. So, they don’t have enough time to go back home,” he said. “But by buying an extra week’s vacation, that gives them enough time to go back.”Those are things they learned simply by talking one-on-one with their people. You really need to get on the frontlines and keep your ears to the ground, Nevas says. “I think there’s not one way to hear feedback. You have to just constantly keep your ears to the organization and see what’s going on and talk to a lot of different people.”Education Equals EngagementThe Aspen Group is a multi-brand retail healthcare company with 23,000, including high-paid professionals (doctors, veterinarians, dentists) and a large group of hourly employees. Over 60 percent of the employees are women.“Within our largest brand, Aspen Dental, our dentists actually own their own practices. And so that creates its own challenges from the standpoint that we have a multitude of offerings,” said Cory Rose, SVP of people & total rewards.After inheriting an outdated benefits plan, Rose and her team set out to save money while improving the benefits offerings. First, they set up an association so they could become self-insured. They carved out corporate employees into one group, saving millions in 2024 alone.Their big focus now, Rose says, is educating employees. Rather than giving them blanket coverage, what do they really need? Rose heard that employees didn’t think the company offered mental health benefits, when in fact they did. So she made sure to educate the population about it.“We’re constantly looking at plan design, plan cost, and trying to make tradeoffs of what our people need, but also while pushing folks to understand how consumerism of healthcare works,” she said. “What’s interesting is that healthcare folks are usually the least educated about how the healthcare system works.” Rose says that an engaged employee who takes advantage of their health benefits is a healthy employee.“As a healthcare company, we need to take care of our people so they can take care of you. That’s something that we’ve really tried to ingrain into our plans into our programs, making sure that we’re keeping our folks healthy and safe on the front lines, so that they’re able to bring more care to more people.”Since their employee population is on the move all day, they don’t have time to read long emails. Instead, Rose said they offer more accessible texts as a way to educate people in a way that makes more sense to them.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.
When You Take Care of Yourself, You Take Care of Your Business
BY Tabitha Cabrera January 21, 2025The importance of well-being in the workplace has remained a focus of organizations around the globe, as William “B.J.” Warren, head of HR effectiveness at Bayer describes, “Pause, reflect, and recognize. It’s all right to take a beat. You have to take breaks.”Constance Jones of NBC 6 South Florida, moderated a panel discussion at From Day One’s Miami conference about “Cultivating Well-Being Through Workplace Culture.” How do you foster a workplace environment that your employees are excited to be a part of? The panel brought insight into that question with a variety of viewpoints but a general theme that workplace culture fosters well-being within the organization. The Three F’s of Creating a Sense of Community and BelongingWorkplace autonomy fosters a community environment as Kathleen Procario, VP of HR, North America, Bacardi, outlines the three F’s that build a culture of community and belonging at Bacardi. “We have something called the three F’s, which are our fearless founder, fearless family and founders mentality, and it’s ingrained in everything we do. It’s very rewarding to be working at Bacardi. It’s a place where we’re encouraged to be ourselves and really be authentic in our work.”Procario emphasizes that fostering a sense of connection to the organization requires employees to see community culture reflected throughout the business while also promoting individuality and authenticity in the workplace.Creating a Workplace that Promotes a Desire to be PresentAs with many large organizations around the globe, many employees find themselves spending more time at home, away from the office and co-workers, and using technology to bridge the lack of physical connection. What keeps employees connected not only to the people they directly work with, but also with the company as a whole? Fernando Casadevall, CHRO of World Kinect Corp., shares the importance of trying new things in the workplace to keep the environment fresh. It’s important to “create those opportunities where people can be seen, and maybe have opportunity for advancement as well–-seeing and working with each other and kind of sprinkling in some events, and then mix it up, right? You do something for a couple of months, change it up, because people just get bored of it, right? So you have to always be trying to change things around that, and maybe go seasonal, do things that are important. It’s not one size fits all for a company, because what’s important for us here in Miami is different for our employees in Singapore than it is in the UK, right?”Panelists shared their ideas on the topic "Cultivating Well-Being Through Workplace Culture," at From Day One's Miami conference Knowing where people are working is a major factor in bridging the gap between large spaces created by remote or hybrid work. Organizations need to be creative with what is important to their specific employees. Taking a survey of what is important to the company as a whole while pairing down to the individual to see what community building activities make sense for all. How to Make Every Worker’s Encounter with HR SatisfyingMaking HR more than just a logistic place for procedural points of contact within a company changes the willingness of employees to seek out those connections when it is needed the most. What moments matter to the employees sitting across from you and what can you do to foster a conversation centered around understanding. “For us it’s about looking at what are those moments that really matter for employees, where the interactions that they have with HR or the conversations that they have with people leaders are those about very meaningful things,” said Warren. “So even in the introduction, about if you lose a family member, or maybe you’re bringing someone new into your life, that’s the conversation you’re having and talking about those not where do I find my paycheck or how do I enter my performance goals? And so, we really focus heavily on first staying, what are those moments that matter?” he said. The Power of Food in the WorkplaceWho doesn’t like a free lunch but more importantly who doesn’t like a mental break in the middle of the day? Zak Kovat, director, people operations and talent at ezCater said “From our lunch rush report last year, we surveyed 5000 US office workers. 90% of them said that they’re more productive when they actually take a lunch break.” But they found that only around 38% of people take their lunch break–so offering it and encouraging it is an inclusive perk. Food might not always be the answer but often a snack paired with the company of a coworker might be. Promoting a Culture of Well-being in the WorkplaceEach of the panel members discussed what they do to make sure they are taking care of themselves in the workplace. Some of the practices of the panel members included, being intentional with breaks, yoga, going on walks, using technology like an Apple Watch as a reminder to move, weekly check ins on Sunday, participating in mini learning activities of 5-30 minutes, and doing things that you really enjoy. Jeff Williams, U.S. president and CEO of Aptia, says it’s important to ensure people are taking their time off. “Make them take time off, because not only are they going to do better, but the employees that you keep saying are two years away gives them a chance to step in and lead on behalf of those leaders, not just notionally, but really making quality decisions while those leaders are off. Make the leaders take the time, make the people step up and get some real experience as part of your succession plan.”There is life outside of work, and well-being can be brought into the workplace. It takes a conscious effort of awareness and practice not only for companies to promote well-being but for employees to feel good about participating. Tabitha Cabrera, Esq. is a writer and attorney, who has a series of inclusive children's books, called Spectacular Spectrum Books.
Developing Leaders Who Can Balance Productivity with Individuality
BY Katie Chambers January 14, 2025When Carlos Pardo joined Microsoft 20 years ago as an intern in sales, he knew his ultimate goal was to work in finance. So, he took a gamble and reached out to the CFO, Roberto Palmaka, and asked for a coffee meeting with the note, “I’d love to work for you one day.” Palmaka agreed. One coffee led to two, which led to three, and when a finance opportunity came up, Pardo was top of mind. Now as chief learning officer, Latin America at Microsoft, Pardo is responsible for helping workers navigate their own individual career paths and encouraging leaders to be as generous with their time, expertise, and resources as Palmaka, now a close friend, was to him.In managing a diverse and flexible workforce, today’s leaders need expertise well beyond their technical skills that got them into management roles. How can employers identify and develop leaders with the human insights, confidence and authority to make myriad decisions a day about the people they supervise? How can they set high expectations as well as embracing the individuality of team members? Pardo and other executive panelists tackled these questions at From Day One’s Miami conference.A Culture of Learning and CreativityEncouraging curiosity and professional development can help workers grow in a way that is unique to their own personalities and paths. At Microsoft, this is integral to the corporate values system. “Learning is a celebrated part of Microsoft’s culture and growth mindset,” said moderator Michael Butler, business reporter at the Miami Herald.“We look for everybody to be a learn-it-all versus a know-it-all,” said Pardo. The company promotes this through Learning Days, full days dedicated to professional development at whatever skill an employee chooses. Learning is also integrated into performance management systems, with the goal of having workers articulate lessons learned from both successes and setbacks.Along with encouraging learning, leaders should promote creativity to encourage individuality, in a way that is actionable and sustainable. “Most people think that creativity is about coming up with possibilities. It’s actually not just that. It’s at the intersection of possibility, constraint, and purpose,” said Steven Kowalski, principal, organization & learning evolution at Genentech. He suggests leaders “craft a purpose that’s both meaningful and durable and that has some tension in it.” Embracing Individuality and Fostering InclusionAI can provide transparency and empowerment when it comes to skills matching, career mapping, and professional development, driving employee engagement. Technology can help you understand the skills of current talent or potential candidates and match them with available roles within the organization, says Andrea Shiah, head of talent strategy and transformation at Eightfold. “When you give that transparency, suddenly your employees understand where they can go instead of having to know somebody or [already] understand roles across the organization,” Shiah said. “If you allow your employees to see that, they’re empowered to drive their career in whatever direction they want to go.”The executive panelists spoke about "Developing Leaders Who Can Balance Productivity with Individuality"This kind of transparency also has a marked impact on DEI. “Diversity really rises when it’s no longer who you know, but what you know,” Shiah said. Another way to foster inclusive leadership, says Abbe Partee, VP, head of certified learning and development at DHL Supply, is simple: “Understanding the importance and treating each of our people as humans.” DHL Supply makes this a core tenet of its leadership training program for frontline supervisors. “We’ve got such a diverse group in our workforce today that it’s really important that the people who lead the majority of our population know how to be good leaders and know how to be inclusive. Productivity is great, but that human side is absolutely first,” she said.Today’s multigenerational workforce poses unique challenges and opportunities. “This is the first time we’ve had five generations of people in our workforce,” said Rocki Rockingham, chief HR officer, GE Appliances. “Our frontline managers now need to be retrained and think differently about how they have workers who are Gen Zers or Millennials who want to work differently and who need different things and who have different expectations. When you create a learning environment, it has to be an environment where people learn the way they need to learn.”Supporting Long-term Career DevelopmentThese early career employees are especially invested in career development opportunities, so employers must keep innovating to attract and retain young talent. Partee says DHL Supply offers a platform called Career Marketplace, that shows employees all the training development opportunities and open roles in their area. “We also have extensive talent panels and employee development reviews,” she said. “We spend a lot of time each year talking about people and talking about their careers. How can we help them? How can we sponsor them to make sure that they can have a nice, successful space in DHL?”Genentech offers something similar, called Career Center. “This is founded on two core principles. One is [that] career development is actually part of your job, so you don’t have to sneak there during lunch or after work or before work. And then the career lab is not a place that’s focused on outplacement. It’s about positive internal development,” he said. Career consultants can meet with employees to discuss personalized next steps and guide them through internal learning and development initiatives.Microsoft too, Pardo says, offers internal mentorship programs, both as a way for younger employees to grow and for more senior employees to give back and share their talents. Optional projects are another “really powerful way to allow your employees to learn,” Shiah said, “in addition to just coursework.”Partee notes that junior employees need not just mentorship, but sponsorship. “A sponsor is someone who [speaks well] about you when you’re not in the room,” she said, noting that this is especially crucial for underrepresented groups who might need added support in those behind closed doors conversations. Employee resource groups (ERGs), Rockingham says, help expose diverse employees to those resources and empower them to follow up. “I encourage you [as leaders] to involve yourselves with different groups across your organization, because what it does is it provides exposure on a different level, so that you see people and that people see you,” she said.This all comes down, Kowalski says, to “a spirit of generosity.” Leaders and colleagues should be ready to support other people’s uniquely individual priorities, allowing everyone involved to grow. “To be a sponsor, to be a mentor, to be a coach means, in an organizational context, being generous with your time, with your wisdom, with your intuition, and with your social capital.”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.
Investing in Employees: A Key to Thriving in Uncertain Times
BY Katie Chambers January 09, 2025Many companies are trying to do more with less. But even as they work with tighter budgets, organizations still want to be able to support employees to boost engagement, increase retention, and promote professional growth. Investing in employees needs to stay top priority, no matter what.What are the most inventive, data-driven and budget-friendly ways to invest in your people, from innovative benefits, recognition, workshops, mentorship, and more? At From Day One’s Miami conference, a panel of leaders spoke about “Investing in Employees: A Key to Thriving in Uncertain Times,” in a session moderated by Paul Bomberger, independent journalist and former business editor at the Miami Herald.Managing Employee WorkloadTraditional ways of thinking about workload, says Ernest Paskey, practice leader, North America at Aon, are rooted in the industrial age, when physical output was key. For knowledge and service organizations, “We have to rethink what is true productivity. Is it the number of hours sitting at a desk? Is it the number of widgets [produced], or is it something different?” Paskey said.Making sure employees understand the “why” behind their work is essential to driving satisfaction and performance. “It’s important that we bring our frontline leaders along the journey of really understanding what the strategy and vision is of the company, and not just focusing on all of the activities,” said Elizabeth Wixted, global head of talent management & DEI for CSL Behring. This also means no busy work—only give assignments that are essential to the mission. “You need to be mindful of the work you’re putting on both yourselves and your teams. Clarity is kindness.”Executive panelists spoke about "Investing in Employees: A Key to Thriving in Uncertain Times"Technological advances that can minimize workload and increase productivity should be embraced, not feared, says Loren Blandon, global head of careers and organizational development at VML. “With generative AI, there are so many things that can be done in seconds that used to take us weeks,” she said.Paskey notes that post-pandemic returns to office are not quite reaching the proper balances yet, with employees spending most of their time on calls and Zoom meetings that could have been done from home, leading to feelings of stress and dissatisfaction. “What will bring them in? It’s [social] time, it’s happy hour, it’s lunch, it’s coffee breaks,” he said. “We need that collaboration and downtime to think through the chaos of our day.” Some panelists suggested using food and organized social gatherings as an incentive to come in, while other panelists said that the opportunity to work remotely can be used as a reward for high-performing employees.Supporting Career DevelopmentCareer development opportunities should come from within, says Dana Moore, VP, HR, people & culture, luxury & lifestyle Americas, IHG Hotels & Resorts, who cites IHG’s mentorship program as one of the central ways the organization invests in its employees. “We have something called a RISE program to put women in leadership, which catapults them through a general manager role, [and] teaches them how to be well-rounded in a general manager position. And we also have a mentorship program just within our discipline [of HR] for new mentees to come in who are looking to excel in their role,” Moore said. “It’s important to have someone to tell you which way you can go, and the things you need to learn to excel.”It’s also important to recognize that not all employees are looking to ascend the ranks, especially in these post-pandemic times when people are less interested in linear or traditional paths. “A lot of folks are no longer looking to their jobs for fulfillment,” said Blandon. But that’s not to say organizations should not still invest in their growth. Even as organizations are “flattening” with fewer managers, Blandon says, employees are still interested in salary increases, building skills, and having interesting, fun, and meaningful experiences.Organizations should respect such employees, says Moore, “because that is the foundation of your company. Those are the irreplaceable employees. They know all the processes, all the procedures. They have the most valuable knowledge that can’t be bought. We owe them some interest and some investment into making sure that they do stay in that role, because they are the ones who build us up and take care of us as we’re going up, hiring managers, and creating new directors.”Bomberger notes the challenging dichotomy of supporting younger generations who value work/life balance over leadership growth, while still ensuring that your organization is primed for evolution and a transition of power. “We have to be really clear in our organizations, in our company, what is ultimately the value proposition, and what do people come here to gain in terms of their career?” Blandon said. “You may be in an industry where you’re like, ‘Don’t come here for balance because it’s super competitive in a really innovative space and we move quickly.’ We have to be clear on what the true, authentic culture is and let folks opt in or out on whether that fits their life or expectations.” That clarity, Wixted says, should start in the job interview—understanding expectations from both sides and how they can or cannot be met.Building Workplace Culture for the FutureUltimately, leaders should set the tone for office culture, be it work/life balance or a return to office. “It’s so important, especially when you think about changing behavior, you have to have the right leadership and sponsorship that’s going to express, model, and reinforce the right behavior. If they’re not expressing or modeling the right behavior, you’re not going to get the outcome that you’re desiring,” said Stacey Finnegan, AVP, people advisory services, Genpact.Going forward, Moore says, “we’re always going to have to be malleable” and ready to respond to the demands and trends of workers. “If you aren’t able to provide what works for them, then they're going to look other places.” This includes developing attractive rewards programs and comprehensive benefits packages that incorporate women’s health, fertility, and family leave options that incorporate multiple generations and lifestyles.In this vein, we all must recognize that the world is constantly evolving. “We’re talking about the key to thriving in uncertain times, and I have to say, when has it ever been certain times? And will it ever be certain times again?” Finnegan said. “I think disruption is the new norm, and we need to embrace the disruption, whether it’s new generations coming into the workforce, whether it’s technology… We’re going to be dealing with this going forward, and all the ambiguity that it brings with it.”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.
How to Connect a People Strategy to a Business Strategy
BY Jennifer Yoshikoshi January 08, 2025Lennar Corporation, a housing construction company based in Miami has over 13,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of trade partners. How does it maintain a strong group of staff with diverse skills and talents? Drew Holler, chief human resource officer at Lennar, says what plays well in recruiting and retaining thousands of employees is promoting a personal connection to the business.Holler spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s Miami conference. He and moderator Tim Padgett, Americas Editor for WLRN spoke about how HR leaders can connect people strategy to business strategy to hire, train and retain employees.Developing an Emotional Connection to the MissionWhat attracts people to Lennar is the industry it’s in: housing. Holler says that because a majority of people have a home, people can relate to the industry through the personal significance of becoming a homeowner or having the goal of home ownership.“When you buy a home, it’s the biggest asset that you’ll ever buy in your life,” said Holler. “There’s this emotional connection to the business that really plays well and then it’s also as people understand the growth potential in this industry.”Tim Padgett, Americas Editor, WLRN, NPR News, right, interviewed Lennar Corp.'s CHROLennar is able to recruit and retain employees by maintaining this deeper connection between the staff and the company’s mission. It allows them to effectively bring in the diverse talent that is necessary for Lennar to function.The company is also known for building affordable housing across the nation in states such as California, New Jersey, Arizona and Texas. Much of the nation’s population can understand the struggles of rising housing costs. As Lennar works toward building more affordable homes, people can relate to the company’s social mission. “We really do feel like our role is helping America build a more healthy housing market and to do that, there are a lot of different elements. One huge element is more attainable housing,” said Holler.AI Drives Human CreativityLike most corporate companies, the use of AI technology has become more common and embedded into the work within the industry. Holler says in the HR sector that AI has allowed for mundane tasks to become automated, freeing up time for workers to put their creative focus on other things.“There’s been little pockets where I’ve seen this already, in our business of individuals that were very heads down, doing the same repeatable tasks, that now can put their head up a little bit, not all the way, but a little bit, and so now they’re spending 50% or more of their time really adding value,” said Holler.Lennar also uses AI to generate training videos based on HR Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). This process centralizes text based information into a video for people to digest in a different format.HR is transforming under the growth of AI technology and as the economy and corporate industry grows, Holler says it’s important to have the talented staff that will support the company in the coming years.Building a Social MissionLennar’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts directly blend into the work it does for consumers and staff by making sure that everyone feels included. Holler emphasized that there’s an existing feeling that everyone wants to belong and the company upholds this by connecting with its team, mission and work.“If you want to have a great workplace that's productive, you want to have a workplace that actually takes care of customers’ needs. You need to have engaged employees, and the best way to do that is to make sure they feel included with their teams and with their work,” said Holler.Lennar’s mission to serve communities that need affordable housing dives into this effort towards welcoming and including all people. The company builds single-family, multi-family homes as well as housing for rent. Holler acknowledges that the “life-cycle of a consumer,” can look different for everyone and the company strives to meet the needs of all types of people.“It’s an exciting time to be in this space. You have an opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives,” said Holler.Jennifer Yoshikoshi is a local news and education reporter based in the San Francisco Bay Area.