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Revolutionizing Mental Health in the Workplace: The Power of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies

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

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

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

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

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

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 15, 2024
Workers Want Weight-Loss Drugs, But How Can Employers Pay the Bills?

When consumers see splashy TV commercials for weight-loss drugs, they often find the the pitch irresistible. But for HR and benefits executives, they may trigger an uneasy feeling. That's because the revolutionary weight-loss drugs like Wegovy bring with them both magic and mystery–the magic is how well they can work; the mystery is how to pay for them.GLP-1, or glucagon-like peptide-1, drugs have historically been used to treat diabetes. But the development of stronger drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic in recent years, and now the approval of Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound specifically for weight management, has led to a sharp increase in demand. That’s particularly true as more research emerges showing the drugs may also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and potentially bring other long-term health benefits. Yet the medications can cost as much as $1,000 to $1,500 per month–a price that few Americans can afford unless they have generous health-insurance coverage.And unlike expensive drugs for rare conditions, the potential number of patients for GLP-1s is vast. More than 40% of Americans have obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that is expected to reach 50% by 2030.Many doctors are thrilled about the potential for GLP-1s to change how obesity is treated, but that puts employers–where nearly half of Americans get their health insurance–in a tricky position. Here’s what employers need to know as they consider coverage for these drugs in the quickly changing landscape:High Costs, Low CoverageWhile employer health plans widely cover GLP-1s for the purpose of treating diabetes, coverage for weight-loss purposes is much more spotty right now. A survey last fall by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans found that 27% of 205 employers covered GLP-1s for weight loss and another 13% did not yet cover them but were considering adding coverage. Meanwhile, Willis Towers Watson (WTW), a global insurance benefits-consulting company that serves many large employers, found about 38% of employers it surveyed cover the weight-loss drugs. Those that do cover them are seeing significant cost increases. The retail price for Wegovy comes out to $15,000 to $16,000 per year, and after rebates and discounts from manufacturers, health plans still pay about $9,000 per year, says Cody Midlam, a director at WTW’s pharmacy practice. The cost per member per month for GLP-1s has doubled each of the last three years, according to WTW’s analysis, amounting to an extra $11 per member per month last year, or about 9% of all pharmacy costs.Companies are aware of the research showing the drugs’ effectiveness at tackling obesity. Yet while doctors say that helping people lose weight could lead to less cardiovascular disease, fewer mental health issues, and savings from avoiding knee replacements or other surgeries related to obesity, long-term data on clinical outcomes remains limited. With high employee turnover in many industries, it’s tough for these employers to factor in potential future savings in healthcare costs over the life of the employee.“Those outcomes take a very long time to manifest,” says Midlam. “It’s not something that’s easily measurable on a short timescale when plan decisions are being made.” Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. insurer, said his corporate clients see the benefits, but first have to deal with the short-term costs. “We’re very positive about the potential for another tool in the toolbox to help folks manage their weight. We recognize that has potential benefits,” Witty said in the third-quarter earnings call last year. “But we’re struggling.”Employers Meet the DemandDespite the high costs and headlines about some insurance plans scrapping GLP-1 coverage, plenty of employers see the upside to covering the new obesity medications. Ninety-nine percent of companies already covering GLP-1s said they planned to continue doing so next year, according to a fall survey from Accolade, a healthcare navigation and advocacy company. Employers reported that after they added GLP-1 coverage, they saw higher employee satisfaction, increased engagement in other well-being programs, and improvements in other or comorbid health conditions. Midlam of WTW says his firm’s corporate clients want to “avoid member disruption” wherever possible.Doctors agree that should be a priority. Dan Azagury, M.D., medical director for the Stanford Lifestyle and Weight Management Center, says GLP-1s have been a “game changer” for many of his patients. “If you stop it overnight, whether it’s insurance, or financial, or shortages, the rebound is ferocious,” he said. “So it’s really very frustrating that they encounter that situation.” Some companies have expressed concerns about the idea of paying for a drug that employees essentially have to take forever to maintain its benefits. But while side effects, including vomiting and gastrointestinal issues, can be unpleasant for some people, doctors like Azagury say they know how to help patients manage them, and that they are seeing more patients have a positive response to GLP-1s than to previous generations of weight loss medications. Holistic Care, Not Just PrescriptionsEven when employers decide they want to help their employees lose weight, there are still lots of details to consider. As companies approach designing their insurance plans for 2025 and beyond, they are trying to figure out how many employees are likely to use GLP-1 drugs if coverage is offered, whether there should be limits on who can get the drugs, and what kind of requirements they should use to prove the drugs are medically necessary. Most companies that cover GLP-1s use some cost-control strategies, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans survey. Many use prior authorization, step therapy during which patients must try lower-cost drugs first, or specific eligibility requirements.Typically, eligibility requirements have been tied to the standards on the FDA labels for these medications. But some employers are considering restrictions such as only covering the drugs for people with obesity but not those who are overweight, says Tracy Spencer, a pharmacy practice leader for benefits consultant Aon. If they add those limits, she warns that employers should be aware that could change or jeopardize the rebates they get from the drug manufacturers, so they need to predict whether the savings they get from limiting the drugs’ use will offset the loss of the rebates.Benefits consultants like Aon and WTW are also seeing employers shift the way they look at GLP-1 drugs to view them as one piece in a broader strategy to address cardio-metabolic issues.That might mean employers choose to cover the drugs for targeted indications, such as covering Wegovy not for weight loss on its own, but for people with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which Medicare recently announced it would do. It can also mean pairing GLP-1 coverage with required lifestyle modifications or participation in a virtual weight-loss or coaching program. Employers often have access to virtual health programs through their pharmacy benefit managers, and many have tried these to target diabetes in recent years. The biopharmaceutical company Moderna, which offers coverage of GLP-1s for diabetes and weight management, is one company that has tried this strategy. “In 2023 we saw a spike related to weight-loss management: We looked at claims data, and after mental health, obesity and weight management were the second drivers,” Jeffrey Stohlberg, Moderna’s director of corporate benefits, said at a From Day One conference earlier this year. So the company started using the virtual weight-loss management program Wondr Health, where an employee can work with a physician specializing in weight loss. “It’s not a path to GLP-1s, but [the physicians] can provide medication for that person,” Stohlberg said. Labcorp also announced in February that it would provide U.S. employees on GLP-1s with virtual care and medication management through WeightWatchers for Business. Other companies such as Omada Health and telehealth providers like Teladoc and Ro have launched similar offerings over the last year. Medical providers agree that a holistic approach is needed, but Angela Fitch, M.D., president of the Obesity Medicine Association and co-founder and chief medical officer of the obesity-focused primary care startup knownwell, worries that requiring a standard weight-management program for every person is another barrier and potentially a waste of money if the program doesn’t have solid evidence behind it.“You can offer lifestyle [strategies] in addition to medication,” she said, “but it should be driven by that shared decision making discussion with the clinician.” If insurers want to make sure patients are getting holistic care, she would rather have them require patients to get their prescriptions from a qualified physician who does a true evaluation so that solutions can be personalized. In her role with the Obesity Medicine Association, Fitch often advises employers on their health plan designs, so she understands that costs are a major concern for companies. But in her primary-care practice and others like it, she says her staff are “burning out” as they spend hours each day trying to navigate all the new and often strict and confusing insurance requirements for these medications. “We have got to deal with costs,” Fitch said. “But it should be transparent and flexible.” She worries that overly rigid restrictions are “adding to the bias and stigma of obesity” by signaling to patients that their weight is their responsibility to treat on their own. Her major advice is to view obesity with the nuance that people view other chronic conditions. “You do not need a GLP-1 management solution. You need a comprehensive obesity-care solution.”Abigail Abrams is a health writer and editor. Currently she is the senior manager of content operations for Atria. Previously, she was a staff writer on health and politics for TIME magazine. Her freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, and other publications.

Abigail Abrams | April 15, 2024
Which Benefits Provide the Best Worker Outcomes–and Return on Investment?

There’s no end to the list of benefits employers can offer now, from pet bereavement leave to baby bonuses and ketamine therapy. But the books have to be balanced at the end of the year, and company leadership isn't inclined to cut a check for anything that doesn’t demonstrate a return on investment. Caught between job seekers who expect competitive packages and the budget-conscious C-suite, benefits professionals have to make tough choices.During From Day One’s April virtual conference on finding benefits that support individual needs without busting the budget, five benefits leaders with decades of experience gathered to discuss which benefits provide the best worker outcomes–and return on investment.Vetting New Benefits OfferingsKimberly Young is the VP of global benefits at HR tech at Amentum, a government contractor for defense, security, intelligence, energy, and environment projects. The first question she asks to vet a new benefits platform is how it will integrate into the company’s existing tech stack; otherwise, the lift to simply implement it may be too great.“The biggest challenge is how to onboard new technology and integrate it with those existing portals related to payroll, your HR data system, and other feeds,” said Young. “Additionally, we look for ease of administration and implementation. The time and resources it takes to invest and implement new technology is high on the list.”Employers have to know that adding a new benefit or platform will be worth the time, says Devin Miller, co-founder and CEO of emergency savings platform SecureSave. The communications component alone can require a lot of time and resources, so “it has to resonate, it has to be easy to administer, and employees have to like it,” he said. “It has to be cost-effective, and then it has to be provable so that you can stand up in front of a management and say ‘this is the impact we’re having.’”Communicating With a Multigenerational Workforce“As benefits professionals, [communication] is an age-old struggle,” said Elizabeth Chappelear, North American head of strategic benefits at life sciences and biotech firm MilliporeSigma. “Employees don’t care about their benefits until they need them, so we have to make sure that when they do need it, they can find it.”Panelists agreed that the familiar challenge of communicating benefits isn’t made easier by the current makeup of the labor force. “This is the first time we’ve had five generations in our workforce, and that means different preferences,” Chappelear commented. Her team is creating home mailers at the same time they’re posting QR codes in the breakroom, hosting webinars and virtual benefit fairs, and building microsites. “We’re constantly challenging ourselves to evolve that communication to meet our employees where they are.”When Carrie Theisen revamped Fannie Mae’s benefits for the first time in more than a decade, communication was one of the first things she tackled. “I start with communication, because it’s just so critical,” said Theisen, who is the lending company’s SVP of total rewards.Theisen began by surveying all employees. She learned that more than three-quarters of employees were happy with the benefits package, but they also found that workers were requesting benefits that Fannie Mae already offered. “That told me that we had a good, solid package, but we just weren’t communicating it well.”Given the size of benefits packages now, total rewards leaders have to be marketers as well. Theisen’s strategy was to create a value proposition and a brand for their benefits, centered around a five-pillar graphic. “Then we looked to add a lot of low-cost benefits that we could implement quickly, then packaged those two things together. The new branding with the new benefits helped build excitement with employees, and it’s become a key differentiator for us.” In fact, their benefits satisfaction score went from 79% to 91% in a single year.Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza moderated the conversation among benefits experts from SecureSave, MilliporeSigma, Spring Health, Fannie Mae, and Amentum (photo by From Day One)For those who need to increase uptake, an immediately applicable benefit can be an easy avenue into broader benefits engagement, said Miller. That starts to tip the scales of the equitable exchange of the benefits–you just got to get them engaged in the process, and finding a broadly based appealing program is an important first step.”Expanding Benefits to Reach an Entire WorkforceBenefits that would have been rare differentiators a decade ago–like mental healthcare access and fertility treatments–are now common features of benefits packages. What’s the next evolution?The next wave is specialized programs for high-touch conditions, says Casey Smolka, head of actuarial analytics at mental health benefits platform Spring Health. By expanding healthcare into specialized programs, employers are able to support workers with often overlooked needs. And it can still be a cost-effective addition, he said. “Everybody has a really solid therapy program, but what are you doing for substance use disorder? It’s a really costly condition, and you may have only a couple of people who need the support, but if you don’t give them the support they need, the cost to your company and to the employee is astronomical.”Some benefits are retention-boosters. Smolka looked at Spring Health’s own workforce and found that those who engage with the company’s mental health benefits have a 22% higher stay rate than those who don’t.SecureSave’s Miller noted that access to benefits isn’t always equally distributed, with white collar workers often “soaking up” the bulk of the benefits budget. Perks aimed at hourly and low-wage workers–emergency savings programs, for example–can be a way to support workers at all levels, from the office to the shop floor.Some panelists acknowledged how challenging it can be to find the right constellation of benefits for some demographics–Young, for instance, is still looking for the right partner to serve Amentum’s LGBTQ+ community. Others talked about having to forgo some popular benefits–like student loan repayment and lifestyle spending accounts–because they’re just too costly.Yet all agreed that the most impactful provisions don’t necessarily have to be budgeted for. Fannie Mae doubled its parental leave from six to 12 weeks, added caregiver leave, catastrophe leave, bereavement leave, grandparent leave, plus added more vacation time and extended flexible schedules.“People want to make more money, they want time off, they want retirement, they want good health care. Those are the table-stakes components,” said Miller. “You want to strengthen those programs, and make sure that people use them and value them, but you really need something that is going to be impactful for your organization.”Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is an independent journalist and From Day One contributing editor who writes about work, the job market, and women’s experiences in the workplace. Her work has appeared in the BBC, the Economist, the Washington Post, Quartz, Fast Company, and Digiday’s Worklife.

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza | April 10, 2024
Sharing Their Truths: Working Parents Reveal the Benefits That Matter Most

Each year, HR leaders ask themselves: What benefits do my employees want? And what will provide me the most ROI? But many are left without answers.In a recent survey of 2,000 working parents conducted by Ovia Health, 62% said that their employers are not family friendly enough.The need for family friendly benefits is clear. Additionally, 94% said family benefits are a top priority and 73% said they would consider making a lateral move to another organization that offered better benefits and a family-friendly culture.In a From Day One webinar, Corrinne Hobbs, general manager and vice president, employer market organization at Ovia Health, discussed the results of the survey. Hobbs offered insight on current benefits offerings, where more support is needed, and what matters most to employees. Family Benefits That Match Today’s Culture“Women’s health benefits are one of the fastest growing segments within healthcare,” Hobbs said.  This is due to changing circumstances during and post-pandemic as more and more workers experienced shifting work-life balance due to hybrid schedules. It’s also due to the increasing range of types of families that need to be accounted for as lifestyles become more diverse. In this current marketplace, “employees have more control and more power than they have had in the past,” said moderator Siobhan O’Connor, chief content officer at Atria Institute. Therefore, it’s even more critical that employers make sure these specific needs are being served.While most companies do offer some family benefits, Hobbs says, there is often a disconnect between perceived needs and actual needs of employees. “There’s a strong push for employees to have better fertility benefits in their workplace. And 38% of respondents said that they’re looking for their employer to provide alternate family planning support,” Hobbs said. This is especially true with more and more single by choice or LGBTQIA+ parents in the workforce, and an overall trend of people waiting until later in life to have children. Unfortunately, many workplaces do not offer benefits to cover the costs of these services, which can be exorbitant.Siobhan O'Connor of Atria Institute interviewed Corrinne Hobbs of Ovia Health during the webinar on family-friendly benefits (photo by From Day One)Incorporating these benefits helps build an overall inclusive corporate culture and can be a way to help retain senior level female employees. Additionally, 83% of respondents said that perimenopausal or menopausal symptoms affect their ability to work, but only 1% receive benefits to help with those symptoms, says Hobbs. In order to “make sure that whatever you’re providing is equitable and inclusive all around,” a diverse range of age and gender must also be factors incorporated into a comprehensive benefits plan.Providing Better Family BenefitsWith family benefits top of mind for employees, Hobbs says there is a clear way forward for organizations looking to provide better care. The most important, according to respondents, is family leave. Hobbs advises: “Make sure that it’s paid, that it’s for at least four months, that it’s inclusive to both parents and that you don’t have to dip into your sick leave or your PTO before taking leave. That is a stress factor for many.” And employers must account for alternate pathways to parenthood, such as adoption, which might entail different costs or timeframes, she says.Hobbs says employers should not only plan for parental leave, but also for parental return. One way to do this is by setting up a return-to-work program to make it easier for parents to re-enter the workforce, noting that it’s a smarter investment than having to endure the cost of hiring someone new. Gradual part-time schedules can ease the burden on stressed parents, as can accommodating PTO policies, flex time, and hybrid or work from home options.Additionally, managers need to be prepped on how to work with returning parents. “A manager training program to ensure a family friendly workplace and ensure that people are able to bring their full selves to work without fear of repercussions is critical,” Hobbs said. ERG support groups can also provide a sense of community support within the workplace.Incorporating Digital Healthcare and AdvocacyOvia Health uses predictive analytics to power millions of members’ care and engagement with their health. Such apps can help provide crucial education about health symptoms, Hobbs says. For example, 85% of respondents said they don’t know much about menopause and how it may affect their performance. Ovia can help fill that gap through online resources, and also provide peer support groups. “We have a community wall where people with uteruses can talk about symptoms together and really feel a sense of community and commonality with others who are going through some of the [same] things,” Hobbs said. Finally, Ovia can also match employees with proper treatment.Using health assessments and surveys, Ovia gets to know its users and can provide highly personalized information to current, expecting, or potential parents. Health alerts will pop up based on users’ reported symptoms, and the app even provides proactive healthcare outreach to guide users through any bumps on their fertility journey.“Digital solutions offer round the clock access, education, and opportunities to really delve deeper into topics,” Hobbs said. “And they also come with advocacy, helping you navigate and understand these complex situations.” The app accounts for a wide variety of families and lifestyles, helping employers provide better care to a diverse workforce. “We have 50+ personalized clinical pathways and programs to support women and families, and then we personalize the experience for each member based on the dynamic health assessments and digital symptom report,” Hobbs said, describing the data-driven service as “person-centered care.”Hobbs says that while women have increasingly reached the upper echelons of the corporate world in recent years, women’s participation in the labor market is currently at a 33-year low. Having a family-friendly workplace can help ensure talented women stay on. “It costs upwards of $75,000 to replace an employee,” Hobbs said. By offering a diverse suite of benefits companies can retain top talent, encourage a more diverse workforce, and save money in the process.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, Ovia Health, for sponsoring this webinar. Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | April 10, 2024
Improving Employee Mental Health and Wellness Benefits

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to improving mental health. At From Day One’s Boston benefits conference, a panel of industry leaders shared how they promote mental well-being in their own lives.Jodi LaMae, benefits principal, global total rewards at biotech company Boston Scientific, enjoys hot yoga and walking her dogs. Navin Vettamvelil, senior director of total rewards at software company SoftServe, tries to swim four times a week, which he considers underwater meditation. Other responses included boxing, daily meditation, Muay Thai, and cooking.Mental health benefits are no longer a nice-to-have. Recent research shows that 77% of workers are very (36%) or somewhat (41%) satisfied with the support for mental health and well-being they receive from their employers. In a 2024 survey of 50 benefits leaders across the U.S., 94% of respondents say offering mental health benefits is “very important” to prospective employees—nearly triple the rate of benefits leaders who said this a year earlier.“It’s imperative that we let employees know that mental health is just as important as physical health. A lot of preventive medicine is covered, but many charge for therapists,” said Shawna Oliver, the AVP and head of global benefits and wellness at Manulife. “It’s important to signal to your employees ‘we want you to do this.’ The minute everyone starts talking about it, that’s when barriers start coming down.”Despite the strides made in the workplace, misconceptions and stigmas remain. “As a vendor who works for hundreds of employers, I found that there’s a recognition that mental health and substance abuse are highly stigmatized,” said Yusuf Sherwani, CEO and co-founder of substance abuse management clinic Pelago. “These are not things that people choose. Specialized solutions can be very effective. The final piece is about promoting utilization—by [letting people know] it’s safe, and it’s confidential,” he said.The panel of speakers from left to right included moderator Katie Johnston, reporter at the Boston Globe, Jodi LaMae of Boston Scientific, Robin Berzin of Parsley Health, Yusuf Sherwani of Pelago, Navin Vettamvelil of SoftServe, and Shawna Oliver of ManulifeAnother strategy to support employee well-being is focusing on preventative care. “When it comes to life therapy sessions with a counselor, we put limits” offering three sessions a month or ten a quarter, says Vettamvelil. “Our real focus is about the prevention rather than the cure. If you can nip it in the bud, you can control things down the line.”Robin Berzin, MD, founder and CEO of holistic health company Parsley Health, agrees. A lot of people aren’t getting the right care, she says. “When I was in training, we created a revolving door between primary and specialized care,” she said. “When 60% of adults have a chronic condition, that does not work. At Parsley, we treat the root cause to see if we can slow down the revolving door.”She reports that 25% of their users have two or more conditions. “When we look at the mental health component, I want to ask why everyone is so anxious. It’s not all in our heads. We sit 11 hours a day. A sedentary lifestyle will cause anxiety, insomnia. We’re not a set of organs in jars.” Investing in mental health benefits has a significant impact on ROI.“A lot of times when we say we cover mental health care people look at me like it’s a money pit,” said Oliver. The reality is that it’s less than 1% of the budget, and on top of utilization going up, she reports that short-term disability dropped. “Benefits are not a silo. It’s our job as leaders to say it’s the entire package.”The panelists agreed that communicating benefits is equally important to the offerings themselves. “We have a team that ensures there’s info on mental health benefits in the rec room,” said LaMae. Manulife is now actively planning out mental health month initiatives, offering activities nearly daily, says Oliver. It’s also important to raise these discussions and prioritize well-being as leaders. “We have to talk about it, and say ‘Hey, I’m going for a walk to clear my head,’” said Oliver. “If it doesn’t start with you, it’s never gonna happen.”Holistic care should also be family-inclusive. Sherwani urges people to see mental health and substance abuse not just as an employee challenge, but as a family challenge. “18 months ago we expanded to adolescence, previously an underserved demographic,” he said. “In terms of promoting these programs, people can just put up their hands and know when to reach out.”Not all cultures have the same openness toward mental health as America. Americans abroad might need services that are not as widely offered in their current countries, like telehealth, says LaMae. “Promoting wellbeing is important: make sure employees know about their benefits and they know how and where to get care,” said LaMae. “Work with ERGs,” she advises, “sometimes people aren’t comfortable going to HR, but having employees that double as well-being champions [really helps].”Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.

Angelica Frey | April 09, 2024
How to Measure Employee Engagement and Spot Disengagement

When we think about engagement, we think about all of the different ways that we track engagement consciously and subconsciously. In some ways, we track engagement by just realizing things, like who’s on camera during meetings online, who has a green dot next to their name, and who has a yellow dot next to their name. These are all of the different ways to subconsciously track engagement, but there are biases in each observation because context is key. Just because a person is off camera doesn’t mean they’re less engaged. They might be in a crowded spot or have a background that’s distracting, so they’ve elected to be off-camera. Or maybe their WiFi just isn’t as strong as it needs to be on that particular day.Regardless of the industry or nature of business, maintaining a high level of team productivity is crucial, and disengagement can be a significant obstacle. Learning to recognize the signs of employee disengagement early is key to preventing its negative impact. In a recent From Day One webinar led by ActivTrak colleagues, Gabriella Mauch, VP of Productivity Lab, and Javier Aldrete, SVP of product, the speakers discussed how boosting self-awareness and manager coaching can help address disengagement before employees check out.Gabriela Mauch, pictured, led the webinar alongside colleague Javier Aldrete (company photo)We’re making all these subconscious assumptions about engagement because we know that engagement leads to great results, says Mauch. But disengagement, on the flip side, leads to harmful attrition. As such, it’s important that we find better ways to track engagement so that we can drive to a healthy work environment. Mauch shares that only 23% of employees are fully engaged in their work, leaving over 75% of employees at risk of disengagement. This can cost organizations a significant amount of money, both from an attrition standpoint, a knowledge management standpoint, and the productivity they’re not necessarily getting out of their business. The benefit of addressing employee disengagement is the ability to get a better return on workforce investments. Organizations can see up to 40% improvement in employee churn and burnout rates, plus an opportunity to gain 15% to 25% in productivity when disengagement is addressed effectively, says Mauch. “So often, disengagement and quiet quitting is a function of that individual not being properly aligned to their work, not being properly coached by their manager, or not being properly guided by their leadership team,” said Mauch. It’s  important to learn how to use insights to better inform leaders, managers, and individuals to be more thoughtful about productivity and more engaged in the work being done. As such, it’s important to have measurable indicators into our work environment. This means understanding when we have individuals performing with low focus, low working hours, and perhaps very passive participation. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual doesn't want to be working. Instead, there’s an opportunity to coach and guide the employee to work the right way, on the right things, at the right time. Mauch encourages employers to be thoughtful about employee behavior as a helpful indicator of engagement. This means observing things like people coming into the office, badging in, and leaving two hours later merely to show their faces. This could be because while they are expected to be in office, they might actually be more productive at home. The final thing to note is whether or not employees are making the impact you expect them to be making. Here are some questions to ask: Are they putting in the productivity that you would expect? Are you getting the output that you expect to earn, and are you ultimately getting the revenue that you would expect? By collecting insights on an ongoing basis, you can gain a level of understanding of engagement on an ongoing basis. Additionally, leaders need to identify the factors that are contributing to employee disengagement and quiet quitting in their particular context, as well as invest in measures to improve them.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, ActivTrak, for sponsoring this webinar. Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.

Keren Dinkin | April 09, 2024
The Gender Penalty: Addressing Workplace Inequity

Studies show that despite recent movements for equal pay, no significant gender pay gap has been made in the last two decades. Women are still earning less than men, with some variance as high as 22%.But the discrimination extends far beyond just the pay gap: from childbirth to menopause, women are also discriminated against for their life choices and in some cases, life stages, with  42% of working women reporting facing gender discrimination at their workplace.In a From Day One webinar, Lydia Dishman, senior editor of growth and engagement at Fast Company, moderated a discussion among women in roles of leadership on how to achieve equality in the workplace.Studies show that women are 41% more likely to experience toxic workplace culture than men, underlining the need for a culture revamp in companies.According to recent research, one in three working parents stated they lacked access to a reliable workplace lactation location. The disparity shows that offering solutions is far more than checking off boxes, Teresa Hopke, CEO of Talking Talent said.“Having a pumping room is a checkbox. So even if we check the box and we get the right rooms and accommodations for people, that’s not going to move the needle in the way that we need to in terms of the systemic change that needs to take place,” Hopke said.For change, both workers and leaders need to be actively working to create the shift that they need, Hopke says.Speakers from Talking Talent and KPMG joined moderated Lydia Dishman in a discussion about the role of gender in the workplace (photo by From Day One)“There is some hard work that organizations need to do to create the right culture with the right mindsets, behaviors, conditions, and structures that will support women as they advance through their careers,” Hopke said. “There is also work that women need to do to articulate their needs and not suffer in silence when the load gets too hard.”When asked about allyship, seventy-seven percent of white employees consider themselves allies to women of color. However, far fewer replied to actively participating in allyship, with only 39 percent stating they confront discrimination when they see it, and 21 percent stating they advocate for new opportunities for women of color.“If you are not taking any of those ally actions regularly, you’re not moving things forward in a positive way,” Marcee Harris Schwartz, director of diversity, equity, and inclusion at KPMG, said. “We have to think about how we activate allyship whether that’s taking someone under your wing who comes from a different background or experiences so that it has an impact.”When asked about biases at work, 83% of employees stated that the biases they experienced were subtle and indirect. In one work case, Renu Sachdeva, head of client solutions at Talking Talent, found this to be true.“We asked leaders to pick people to actively sponsor who belonged to these identity groups. And when the results came back in, we found a majority of them had selected white women, the next most selected group was men of color, and the least selected group was women of color,” Sachdeva said.The findings weren’t surprising, Sachdeva says. Research has found that white people demonstrate a clear bias for other white people, affecting workplace processes from hiring to promotion. Challenging biases is key to moving allyship in the right direction, Sachdeva said.“If you’re talking about the majority, corporate America is usually white men in most organizations, so the highest level of comfort tends to be with white women because there’s a relational aspect to it,” Sachdeva said. “But with intentionality, we need to consciously choose to connect with [different] people to mentor, sponsor or be an ally to because that’s usually the group that gets the most overlooked and left behind.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talking Talent, for sponsoring this webinar.Wanly Chen is a writer and poet based in New York City.

Wanly Chen | April 08, 2024
How to Make Reskilling Part of a Corporate Culture of Learning

“You will never hire your way out of your skills deficit,” said Marcus Cazier, head of learning and development for the Americas at bioMérieux.In the next two years, researchers posit that half of your skills will be irrelevant – a pattern that’s expected to continue. So how can employers get ahead of this skilling cycle? Offering insight and advice for other people leaders, Cazier spoke in a panel discussion titled, “How to Make Reskilling Part of a Corporate Culture of Learning” panel at From Day One’s conference in Salt Lake City.The other panelists agreed with Cazier: some sort of training will always be required. “If you hire for specific [technical] skills, you ignore the connection points existing employees inside your organization have. Those skills you can’t hire for, they’ll have to be developed,” said panelist Trent Savage, chief human resources officer at Mountain America Credit Union. “The question is: which type of skill do you want to spend time developing?”Additionally, establishing that your company values challenges and growth will make your best team members want to stick around, boosting your bottom line in the long run.“Promoting a culture that looks internally to find people that want different opportunities, that will help with retention,” said Donald Erb, HR channel czar at CollegeNET.How Do I Start Developing a Culture of Learning?Once you’re firm on the 'why' of reskilling, the real work begins.“At Campfire, the culture of learning really starts with our leaders,” said Steve Arntz, CEO of Campfire. But instead of letting inspiration spikes die off with executives, Arntz says they train down: each leader trains another, going into perpetuity.“This starts with getting my leaders to instill their teams with the idea that we need to learn, develop, and grow together. We need to find solutions together. And guess what? As a leader, I'm here to connect you to the resources that you need.”Leaning on those employees that are already seeking out those challenges is the first step, Erb says.“You’ll draw more people in because [your] reputation is investing in growth,” he said. “People get frustrated when they’re not even asked if they’re interested in learning new skills – I think it diminishes motivation.”Ciara Hulet, Morning Edition Host, KUER News, NPR Utah moderated the panel on the topic of skill-building Career ladders should look more like climbing walls, Cazier says.“The agility and the willingness to be flexible to do what the business asks you to do, that goes a long way,” he said. “Going up might not always be the right move, you may need to go sideways first.”What if My Employees Don’t Want to?If you’re in the process of establishing a culture of learning, you may receive some pushback.Nate Miller, VP of learning and organizational development at Vivint, had first-hand experience when, as part of Vivint’s acquisition, installation and service technicians were asked to begin participating in revenue generation.“There was reluctance to add this selling skillset,” he said. “It drove attrition. These folks chose their paths because they didn’t want to sell.”Miller followed Erb’s earlier advice and found leaders who are naturally high learners and helped them frame experiences as growth opportunities rather than job requirements. Then, those who took the growth opportunities were rewarded.“We integrated selling and technical skills into our scheduling software, so when we assign jobs, the most lucrative installation opportunities align with the most skilled revenue generators,” Miller said.Vivint also cut out their performance improvement plans. “They were working from a place of fear,” he said. “We had to shift it from a place of fear to a place of opportunity and growth by reducing the amount of threat in the environment.”What Skills Do We Need?It’s simple: ask your people.“You’ve got a traditionally top-down focus when it comes to budgets and implementation,” Arntz said. “But the frontline workers and managers, they know which skills they’ll need to adapt. [It may be beneficial] to allow people to choose their opportunities, which [are then pushed through] programs and initiatives at the higher levels.”“Years ago, to develop someone meant to send them to a training,” Savage said. “Now it needs to be on-the-job and it needs to be connected to the needs of the business.”CollegeNET uses “Focus Ring,” a peer-assessment tool that asks employees to respond to prompts and then evaluate their peer’s responses. “These are folks playing the same role as you in the organization, and you see how they address particular product knowledge questions,” Erb said. “That’s learning an immediate skill.”Focus Ring goes further by grouping answers by how highly they were rated. “If we have groups that have eights and nines, they’re good candidates to become mentors,” he said. “They’ve demonstrated they have that particular skill.”The Future of Skill DevelopmentIf you’re interested in technology development, Savage says HR needs your help.“We’re close, but we’re not there yet,” he said. “Skills-based platforms don’t necessarily connect to development or to performance, so you must use multiple mediums [to tie your data] together. My hope is one day we get a more holistic look, because today we’re using Frankenstein technology.”In the meantime, Arntz predicts AI will be pivotal.“Engineers are using Copilot to write better and faster code,” he said. “Someone will build a Copilot for conversations, an AI assistant next to them during performance, expectations, and hiring. [When this is developed] it will enable our leaders to be more effective than they’ve ever been.”Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. When she’s not in Excel or writing an article, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.

Jacqueline Mumford | April 08, 2024
How to Solve the Challenge of Corporate Togetherness

“How can a company of three people beat a world leader, or take on big, established organizations?” asked Jim Wolfston, founder and president of CollegeNET.The answer is connectedness, says Wolfston, who led a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Salt Lake City event. “Connectedness to the mission, to the vision, to their teams, you’ve got to have that in an organization if you want to be the disruptor, not the disrupted.”But achieving this is harder than you might think, and it’s not just big corporations that struggle with it. In 2023, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy called loneliness (or disconnection) an epidemic nationwide.Initially, Wolfston thought the solution could be found in getting to know everyone’s name in his office. He sat down with his HR manager and flipped through the company directory, studying names and faces so he could properly greet people in the hallways.But personal tragedy showed him that connection was bigger than being on a first-name basis.“One of my colleagues who I knew for a long, long time, killed himself from loneliness,” Wolfston said. “I realized I wasn’t connected to people like I should or could be. We had to figure out some way to bring our people together, not just for motivation, or for innovation, but for decency, as people.”What he was searching for was a well-rounded approach to connection, something CollegeNET, as a higher education technology solutions company, had already figured out.Wolfston led the thought leadership spotlight titled, "How to Solve the Challenge of Corporate Togetherness and Shared Mission"“College application forms [do not encapsulate] the whole person,” he said. “We’ve become a leader in career services with what we call the Intelligent Mirror, a video program that allows you to practice how you come across and to improve how others perceive you. We also use asynchronous interviewing, which makes everything more efficient.” These innovative approaches to interviewing help people express their whole selves, while simultaneously honing their interpersonal skills.“When you ask questions, what you’re really doing is telling people what you value. You wouldn’t ask a question about something you don’t care about,” he said. “If the company cares about things like innovation, buy-in, motivation, the work you’re doing, they’ll ask those questions. That’s exactly what we’re doing.”The project is called Focus Ring. Participating employees are asked four questions: first, about what they’ve learned at work; second, how their work matters to other people in their company; third, if there was something someone in their company did for them that they appreciated; and finally, if there was something they did for someone in their company that they’re proud of.Once answers are submitted, participants evaluate the response scripts from six other employees. “When you answer these questions, you’re developing your articulation skills,” Wolfston said. “But when you evaluate, you get to learn [from your colleagues]. And you get to exercise the very important social skill of listening.”In practice, Wolfston says employees have shared everything from kind words to Java code they wrote to streamline a project.When you feel that you matter, your happiness increases, Wolfston says. Additionally, mastery of a subject or process can increase those feelings of happiness. The Focus Ring marries the two: mattering by asking participants to vocalize when they’ve felt important, and mastery by giving participants the opportunity to share something they’ve learned at work. And, of course, it nurtures connectedness.“This has created a lot of recognition,” Wolfston said. “It’s opened all of these possibilities for us.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, CollegeNET, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Jacqueline is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. When she’s not in Excel or writing an article, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.

Jacqueline Mumford | April 05, 2024
Cultural Transformation and Meaningful Work: Crafting a Fulfilling Workplace Experience

Crumbl’s mission is to bring people together by sharing their cookies. But how could they make that idea real to their employees? The opportunity came when a snowstorm shut down most of Utah and leadership asked employees to work from home. But this wasn’t a normal work day. Instead, on top of the workers' to-do list was to build a snowman. The contest was a catalyst for employees to create a memorable moment, says Josh Olofson, VP of talent and culture at Crumbl, who was one of five panelists discussing the topic of meaningful work at From Day One’s Salt Lake City event. “We really went for it,” Olofson told session moderator Mekenna Malan, editor of Utah Business. Crumbl asked employees to share photos on Slack, and the prize for best snowman was $1,000. Memory-building was the goal, not just for the employee snow day, but to bring that concept to better drive their work. “We wanted our employees to really feel how powerful that moment is.”It’s that act of integrating company values that helps nurture a purpose-driven workplace. How to keep that momentum going all year long? It’s probably something most companies are already doing—the key is to use them wisely.“One of the tools I think that is most often overlooked in our space is effective one-on-ones,” Olofson said. Leaders need to make sure they’re not being reactive during these meetings, but rather proactive. One-on-ones are an opportunity to be open and connect and plant the seeds for change. Of course, companies should share successes with each other, but as Olofson says, sharing failures is just as vital. Those one-on-ones are a great place to share those.The panelists spoke about nurturing a purpose-driven workplace at From Day One's conference in Salt Lake City“When you open yourself up as a leader and you’re willing to share your failures, then your employees are going to be less against change, because they’re not going to be as afraid to fail themselves,” he said.Where to Start? Start-ups have the unique challenge but also opportunity to create meaning and purpose in their company culture from scratch. Panelist Brooke Shreeve, chief people officer at Weave, said the trick was to go back to basics. “We did our first engagement survey, and we realized we had an identity crisis,” she said. What was Weave? They sat down and hashed it out and the result was Strategy on a Page: all the company’s vision and purpose at a glance. They rolled it out at a company meeting, and copies remain available at all times to every employee. “It’s on every desk, so it’s a reminder every single day on what we’re doing, why we’re here and what we’re trying to accomplish.”After the rollout, leadership offered continual updates of what they were accomplishing with those values in mind. The result? Focus. “It put everybody on the ship rowing in the same direction. And that is huge.”That’s the power of engagement surveys, and why leadership should not only read them but take action. While companies can’t do everything employees want, Shreeve says they choose specific items to address, and they share that with everyone. “That really has helped make a huge impact on our company.”Personalizing the Worker ExperienceIt’s astonishing to think that five generations of people are in the workforce, says panelist Dan Kwong, vice president of talent and Culture for Woodward. The wants and needs of each generation and each person is different. “The opportunity is knowing your people,” he said. “Who are your people? What do they care about? What are their needs? What are their values? How do they like to work?”Generally speaking, most people want flexibility and autonomy. But those things can look different depending on the employee. “There’s some give there. It does not have to be nine to five behind a desk.” And it’s especially important for HR to have space to really engage in and relate with folks, he says.Recruiting must also be more personalized, Kwong says. The key is looking beyond the resume, removing barriers, and setting employees up for success. Integrate company values in the recruiting process and continue it during onboarding, he says. “Even without telling that individual what the mission is or what the values are, they should be able to feel it. They may not have the words for it. But once they’re hired after a robust process, then you can share those words. It’s about connecting the dots.”After that, keeping lines of communication open is key, it’s important to discuss employees’ aspirations. What do they really want out of work and life? Especially since upward movement isn’t always available. “Growth does not always mean a promotion,” Kwong said. “There is growth. But it starts with that one-on-one conversation that starts with leaders role-modeling those behaviors.” Next comes building the structures, frameworks, and programs, Kwong says. It’s a Marathon, Not a SprintNurturing a purpose-driven workplace takes time, says panelist Daniel Allred, VP of human resources at ZAGG Inc.“It’s a process,” he said. “You can’t put in place corporate values tomorrow that are going to get you exactly where you want to be. But you do have to take steps today to get alignment behind, starting at the top with the senior executives.” The forward movement is the important thing to focus on, especially as things constantly change. ZAGG has experienced a lot of change as of late that wasn’t always handled well, says Allred. But they learned, and now they do things differently. They found that meeting regularly, monthly rather than sporadic, and transparency work best. “We put on the screen every single month exactly what we’re tracking,” he said. “We were very open and transparent about the hurdles we’re facing, where we fell on our faces and where we succeeded.”That regular, open communication has helped alignment fall into place. “It’s not a two month process. Sometimes that takes place over a year. And so acknowledging that continuing to push forward even when it gets hard and discouraging, that’s what’s really going to make the biggest difference.”The company recognized that managers needed a way to recognize team members, so they instituted the ZAGG Champion Awards, a gift card as a way to say good job. The hope is that as the employee enjoys the gift card with a loved one, they can connect the dots that they earned this reward for working hard on a project. Hope for GrowthKnowing what’s possible can help employees find meaning in their everyday work. For panelist Tracie Kalmar, head of human resources at ApplicantPro, the hope of growing in the company needs to start at hiring. “My favorite demographic to hire right now are women returning to the workforce after a break to raise their family or to go to college,” she said. Since there is a gap in their resume, they worry. But Kalmar offers hope. During the interview process, she shares how others have started in one position, but then grown into another position. So even before day one, potential employees can see where they could go. She continues this regularly by emailing open opportunities weekly, plus sharing internal promotions. “I love talking about it. I can actually say I see it happening. And it’s real.” Seeing those doors open for others helps new employees have hope and find purpose in what they are doing.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Carrie Snider | April 05, 2024
Inclusivity in Practice: Shaping Your Company’s Culture

Several decades ago, Sudha Solayappan arrived late for a networking dinner and was seated at the end of a long table. She was much younger than the others, and the two closest people to her were already engaged in conversation.“I felt very awkward,” said Solayappan, now the Head of Talent Operations and People Research at Intuitive Surgical, during a recent panel discussion at From Day One’s Silicon Valley event.Fortunately, another man at the dinner table asked her a question. “What was beautiful about it was that it was a very subtle question he asked, and it was a message to the person to my left as well that I need to be included, but without alienating that person,” Solayappan told panel moderator David Thigpen, a journalism educator at UC Berkeley.Solayappan says this instance was a powerful example of inclusion.The Power of ListeningListening is an essential skill at all levels of an organization to shape an environment of inclusion, says Janine Yancey, founder and CEO of Emtrain.“We’ve all had an experience where the direct line managers are the folks that really create the culture,” she said. “It has to start at the top. But there’s often a big gap between the top and the folks who are influencing day-to-day teams.”The key is to teach all managers to listen more than they talk, says Yancey. She said this involves gently asking simple questions that encourage sharing, such as, “What do you think about that?”Brian Little, VP of human resources at Intel, said the “fight to ensure the quietest voices in the room are heard” is a never-ending challenge, but “unconscious bias training has really helped our company.”For example, a manager once told him that everytime he spoke to someone on his team he experienced frustration. Little recommended unconscious bias training, and the manager realized the way he grew up was interfering with his ability to be a leader. This motivated him to change his behavior, says Little.Building Capacity to Create a Sense of Belonging Another critical step toward developing a culture where everyone feels welcome is building the capacity of each individual, according to Curran Brugger, VP of talent, development, and inclusion at Gilead Sciences.“Our people leaders and our employees generally are just overloaded,” she said. “There’s just so much coming at us.”This makes it difficult for members of an organization to find room on their plates to do the listening and engagement necessary to understand their biases, says Brugger. However, people can adapt to new challenges when they build and broaden their perspective.“You update your operating system over and over and over again, rather than just adding on lots of new operating systems,” Brugger said.The panelists from left to right included Brian Little of Intel, Curran Brugger of Gilead Sciences, Sudha Solayappan of Intuitive, Janine Yancey of Emtrain, and session moderator David Thigpen of UC BerkeleyThis is challenging for many employees from minority groups because their “natural style of being” conflicts with the culture of their workplace, says Solayappan. These individuals develop an “adaptive state” to fit in, but “it really is hard for them. It causes faster burnout,” she said.“How can we increase someone’s capacity when day in and day out that strain is there and they are feeling it? We should make sure that we create a climate where people are comfortable being who they are,” Solayappan said.Measuring Outcomes for InclusivityMany organizations measure their progress on inclusivity through looking at their people, and looking at retention rates, says Yancey. However, she said leaders should also look at social dynamics because they “can make or break you.”“If you have a basketball team with the greatest players in the world but they don’t work well together, they will lose,” Yancey said.She recommends companies begin measuring outcomes during inclusion training. For example, instead of just giving people examples of what allyship and creating opportunities looks like, Yancey advises asking them if their colleagues are doing this or if they have experienced it themselves.By asking those questions, “You’re getting some authentic feedback of what they see and what they’re experiencing in the trenches,” she said. “And you’re mapping it to a set of skills so you can measure those skills at scale and see where you’re strong and where you’re weak.”Company leaders should be aware that a decrease in inclusivity scores might indicate progress because employees feel they are in an environment where it is safe to give constructive criticism, says Brugger.“We’re trying some experiments, and we’re looking at what the data is telling us rather than thinking the data is giving us the answer,” she said. “I think that’s an important distinction on how we’re thinking about metrics.”Companies should consider the big picture when creating inclusivity goals, says Little.“It’s what we want to do in the world, the influence we want to have, how we change the world,” he said. “We will change the lives of a lot of people. There will be kids going to college that didn’t go to college before, there will be parents who all of a sudden will be able to pay all their bills, because if they work for us, they’re going to be doing OK.”Mary Pieper is a freelance writer based in Mason City, Iowa.

Mary Pieper | April 04, 2024
Change Can Be Daunting, But Here’s How to Turn Uncertainty into Opportunity

When Andy Cindrich was a 29-year-old school principal, he thought he was on top of the world, until he was suddenly let go from his job. “That was a huge disruption in my life,” Cindrich shared in a fireside chat at From Day One’s Salt Lake City event.The news came at the worst possible time, just as he was building a new home and expecting his second child. But by being open to new opportunities and finding his niche, he eventually landed at the renowned FranklinCovey, where he is now a leadership and effectiveness consultant, executive coach, and keynote speaker.In a conversation moderated by Steve Koepp, From Day One co-founder and chief content officer, Cindrich discussed his new book Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity, offering guidance on how to engage teams throughout the process and build the skills to pilot your team through the waters of disruptive change.Navigating the Discomfort of Change“The prism of change is a great way to look at how to make companies work better,” said Koepp. But it also makes many people uncomfortable. While it’s easy to see the navigation of change as a victory in hindsight, in the moment it can be discouraging. Cindrich notes feeling “a lot of fear and a lot of anger at how it happened” during his own transition out of school administration.It’s important for leaders to remember the emotional turmoil that change can cause, especially as they build a pathway forward. “When we get too focused on the process, when we forget the emotion that people experience when they go through change and we don’t give them a safe space, some psychological safety, to talk about how they’re feeling about the change, we’re not going to make progress,” Cindrich said. It’s important to guide teams toward the point of decision, Cindrich says, “where they can say, ‘I didn’t choose the change, it happened to me and I don’t like it. But I can stay within my circle of influence and work in ways that that I can own to make the change of benefit for me.’”This applies to something as minor as an internal software change, or as major as a merger or acquisition. It’s best to focus on what you can control and “own the change,” rather than let change own you, Cindrich advises. A culture that allows people to be vulnerable and share their best ideas can help make a successful change. The Four Zones of ChangeIn his book Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity, Cindrich identifies the four zones of organizational change: The status quo (prepare): Even during times of consistency, acknowledge that change can happen at any time and be ready for it. This can include professional development both individually and organizationally to prepare for forecasted trends. The disruption zone (clarify): This is the moment when change starts happening, and leaders should be in constant dialogue with their teams and stakeholders to provide information to make them feel secure and get them on board.The adoption zone (persist): In this zone, leaders not only must “stay engaged in the fight,” Cindrich said, but also help others persist in the face of obstacles. “This zone is where change goes to die,” he said. It’s where leaders might get frustrated if they don’t see immediate success or face too much friction.The innovation zone (explore): This zone is the most dangerous, Cindrich says, because the temptation is to return to the status quo and a sense of relief. But “what a horrific waste of resources” to go through all that change for nothing. Instead, Cindrich said, “In the zone of innovation, it’s all about inspiring ourselves and others to explore what’s possible because of what we just went through.”Cindrich signed copies of his new book Change: How to Turn Uncertainty Into Opportunity for conference attendees Franklin Covey itself has gone through significant change during Cindrich’s time with the company. No longer just the planner people, the company has transitioned from physical products to providing an online platform called “All Access Pass” that enables asynchronous learning in 21 languages for people all over the world. The company thrived by anticipating and embracing shifts in technology and culture.Common Reactions to ChangeImmediate reaction to change is often, but not always, negative. Cindrich elaborates on the five common responses to change. First, there are early adopters, the people who move toward the change. There are also those who minimize their reaction, people who wait, the most common response, thinking “this too shall pass.” And then there are people who resist and people who quit. Each of these reactions are useful, Cindrich says, and leaders can learn from each. And they should also prepare for each as they develop their transition strategies.Balancing Empathy and Speed“The pace of change is not getting less. It’s faster and more furious and more impactful than it’s ever been for a lot of reasons,” Cindrich said. It’s important to recognize that this is “just about people, it’s about being empathic to the way people are experiencing the change, and giving them some space to process it and get to a point where they can confidently commit to it,” Cindrich said.It’s tempting to have less empathy as a leader when you feel like your team is pushing back in the face of disruption. Cindrich says responding with patience and grace is key. “We have to have a sense that they’re making progress, asking great questions, trying to figure out what's possible for them and for their team and organization when they get to the other side of it.”Ultimately, it comes down to trust. “When you have a high trust organization,” Cindrich said, “what we find is that the depth of the disruption will be a lot less, and the time that it takes to get to innovation will be compressed.”Katie Chambers is a freelance writer and award-winning communications executive with a lifelong commitment to supporting artists and advocating for inclusion. Her work has been seen in HuffPost and several printed essay collections, among others, and she has appeared on Cheddar News, iWomanTV, and CBS New York.

Katie Chambers | April 04, 2024
Macro Chips: Building the Workforce of the Future in a Critical Industry

In August of 2022, the CHIPS and Science Act was signed into law by the Biden Administration in an effort to bolster America’s microchip manufacturing and return it back to the birthplace of the semiconductor’s. Despite the recent publicity and big investments in chip manufacturing, the U.S. isn’t known for producing the circuitry that makes much of our technology work. Nor do they have a workforce that is prepared to build those circuits competitively–yet.“One of the things to consider is that when semiconductor was offshored, it went to Asia. And so even in the semiconductor world, a lot of the people that do that kind of work are Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Malaysian,” said the head of the people team at Samsung Semiconductor, Rebecca McCathern.McCathern spoke about the semiconductor market with the editor-at-large of Fortune, Michal Lev-Ram, during a From Day One fireside chat in Silicon Valley.While Samsung is known for cell phones, televisions, and refrigerators, according to McCathern, “that’s an entirely separate division of Samsung from the semiconductor business, which is where our division sits." Within the semiconductor world, she says they are very much U.S.-based. And where other areas of the tech industry have seen major layoffs, the semiconductor business is dealing with the inverse problem.“With the offshoring that happened a few decades ago, semiconductors has been one of the areas where, as we look to have more onshoring of that talent, we have a serious talent gap,” McCathern said. The industry is continuing to grow because they need talent for both manufacturing and engineering. “There’s not enough talent in the U.S. alone, so we actually need to build that pipeline of talent coming up through the generations," McCathern said.Michal Lev-Ram of Fortune, right, interviewed Rebecca McCathern of Samsung Semiconductor about the pressing matter of the industryA 2023 report authored by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) says that “Since the CHIPS Act was introduced, companies from around the world have responded enthusiastically, announcing dozens of new semiconductor ecosystem projects in the U.S., totaling well over $200 billion in private investments.” Semiconductor projects will create tens of thousands of direct jobs and will support hundreds of thousands of additional jobs throughout the economy, according to the report.Right now, Samsung is staffed mostly by people who are not from the U.S., “over 50% are from a country that is not the U.S. And so when we go looking for talent, we don’t find it." Semiconductors aren’t currently a major focus for engineering students but it needs to be. McCathern says they are building out that pipeline by working with diverse groups, like the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Society of Women Engineers, to encourage college students to pursue a career in semiconductors. They’re even talking to highschool teachers and administrators about the semiconductor career path, so they can better inform their students. “We’re really trying to get into the K-12 minds to start building that pipeline of potential talent earlier. And that will help us with our diversity pipeline as well.”According to SIA’s report, the investments in chips and the effort to fill out the industry by companies like Samsung are long-term plans. But on its current trajectory, semiconductor manufacturing is set to fall short some 67,000 roles across the industry by 2030 in the United States.“That isn't line manufacturing. It’s working on the robots that work on the line, all the way through advanced engineering. And it’s a gap across all of the semiconductor companies,” McCathern said.She points out that even though they have their competitors, they’re working across the aisle because the talent shortage doesn’t just affect the competition. “We do partner with each other to create solutions, because Samsung is not going to solve this problem by ourselves. But if we can work with all of our other semiconductor competitors and partners to build up that pipeline of talent, it’ll help us all.”The lack of manufacturing in the US not only raises economic questions, it also raises national security concerns. Being reliant on other countries puts the U.S. at risk. McCathern says if the U.S. continues to be too reliant on another country’s supply chain, the risk will only increase.However, the energy around semiconductors is starting to spur movement and interest in the pipeline of workers coming up. “When we went to universities last fall, we had ten times more people in line for our booths at the universities that we target than we’ve ever seen,” McCathern said.As with all things, AI plays a big role in semiconductors, and will likely play bigger roles in the future. Samsung is starting to build into those skillsets, too, which aren’t going to all be engineers and researchers, bachelors, masters, and PhD students. McCathern says they need people with technical skills, but they don’t have to be engineers.“We’re working with even the junior college level to build out the skills for these manufacturing roles. It’s a little bit like going into plumbing or electric or automotive. It’s the same sort of skill-building where you need to be technical, but you don’t need to be a full blown engineer.”Matthew Koheler is a freelance journalist and licensed real estate agent based in Washington, DC. His work has appeared in Greater Greater Washington, The Washington Post, The Southwester, and Walking Cinema, among others.

Matthew Koehler | April 03, 2024
Finding Fulfillment: Creating Meaning in the Midst of Uncertainty

No longer does the workforce subscribe to the idea that their job is just a paycheck, or that they’ll loyally stay for years no matter how they’re treated. What do modern employees want more than anything? Meaning.Yet, here’s the challenge: everyone interprets meaning differently. According to Jennifer Feri, VP of HR at VMware, a panelist at From Day One’s Live Silicon Valley event, some seek opportunities for growth, while some prioritize flexibility, and still others aspire to be actively involved in decision-making processes. In short, they want to be treated like humans.“No person wants to come into or work at a workplace where they’re thought of as a widget, a number, or a transaction. Forget it,” said Feri. Feri joined a panel of four other industry colleagues in a session moderated by Michal Lev-Ram, editor-at-large of Fortune.The question is, how can organizations bring meaning to what they do? For Feri, meaning was best illustrated by her boss, who knew what she needed and delivered it in a meaningful way. When Feri wasn’t promoted to VP, she was crushed, but her boss helped pick her up off the ground. “She knew how important it was to me. She knew what my skill set was. And she knew where I needed to develop,” Feri said. “She took an approach that is completely human centered and individualized to me. She made sure that she put me on projects and initiatives that not only helped me build my executive skills, but it helped highlight them for others.” The promotion came, and Feri’s boss waited until she was on vacation to tell her, because she knew Feri would want to celebrate the news with her family around her. “That is human-centered leadership,” Feri said.People Over ProfitOf course, companies need to make a profit to keep running. But should profit come at the expense of people? Not if organizations want to retain talent.Panelist Melissa Adams, executive vice president of human resources at Duarte spoke about a hard decision their company made that showed employees they cared about them as people. For many years, the company had provided services to an anchor account that brought in millions. However, leaders questioned the true cost of those clients.“The human toll of running this event was huge,” Adams said. Negative stories abounded from the annual event itself, plus the time leading up to the event. So they made the decision to set a boundary and no longer work with the client. The result was less stress, less burnout, and employees who were grateful. “It resonated with our employees,” she said. “They knew that we had their back.” Another result? They made up the revenue in other ways, plus they retained talent in the process.  “That was a real example of people over profit,” Adams said.Connect the MeaningProductivity is something you do, and meaning is something that you feel, says Geoff Boraston, VP of organizational development at Granite Construction. These two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive, he added, but you can help to connect the meaning. “We used to put out these project information sheets, which were very engineering-esque,” he said. To bring more meaning to the information sheet, instead they focused on how the project was reducing commute time or connecting communities.The panelists spoke to the topic "Making Work Meaningful in an Uncertain World" Realizing where your company’s value lies makes all the difference in bringing meaning to the work, says Boraston. “We don’t have proprietary technology, proprietary manufacturing, or any particular intellectual property. We have access to the same labor pools, and the same materials and means and methods as every other company. So our difference, our competitive weapon, is our people.”Decreasing BurnoutPanelist Christine Schmidt, people analytics evangelist and platform & data go-to-market strategy at Rippling looks forward to going to work on Monday morning. That, she says, is a huge indicator of whether a company has created a meaningful place to work. Because workers don’t feel burned out. “Nobody goes into the HR profession to do paperwork,” Schmidt said. “Nobody chose it to do all the compliance stuff, it’s one of the most painful parts of the job. It takes away from the type of work that got you into the profession: the meaning, the development, the connection, the strategic advisory.”That’s why Rippling seeks to automate and make those processes as pain-free as possible. For example, within 30 seconds of Schmidt accepting her position, she had seven helpful emails explaining benefits enrollment, 401k enrollment, technology, and more. That automation freed up people’s time so they could focus on creating more meaning and connection. “If you think about what creates meaning for people, it’s not just, ‘are they going to climb the ladder?’ No,” Schmidt said. “It's about, ‘Are they going to develop as a human? Are they going to develop skills? Are they going to earn the respect of their colleagues, and do they feel like they are contributing in a meaningful way to whatever the organization is doing?’” There will always be those “pebbles in your shoes” at work—the things you don’t want to do, she says. But keeping them to a minimum will help decrease burnout and allow time to focus on meaning.In and Out of OfficeThere are many approaches to developing meaning, and for panelist Katherine Ovadia, VP, global head of people at One Planet, connecting in and out of the office makes a difference.“I believe that being in an office really helps build that sense of community,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to instill feeling good about where you work, about the experience, and about doing it together. It’s a beautiful, connected space.”But looking outside the office is just as important. At One Planet, they help to foster meaning to employees by facilitating service days and even service trips. For one trip, they sent five employees to the Gambia to work with a women’s organization. “Being able to like to bring that outside world into the company is so important,” Ovadia said.Carrie Snider is a Phoenix-based journalist and marketing copywriter.

Carrie Snider | April 03, 2024
Walking the Walk: Best Practices for Supporting a Mentally Well Workplace

The conversation around mental health has drastically changed in the last four years, according to the Vice President of Talent at the mental-health platform Talkspace, Kaleigh Oleynik. Oleynik, a former middle-school teacher, asked for a show of hands from the audience: “How many of you were discussing mental health at work before the pandemic?” Some audience members raised their hands. But when surveyed again to find out who is presently discussing mental health at work, all hands went in the air. “This is a conversation that started before the pandemic,” she said, yet its significance has grown. She traces it back to an article that appeared in Harvard Business Review, which collected quotes from Lady Gaga and Prince Harry that normalized mental health talk.Oleynik spoke in a thought leadership spotlight with colleague Ryan Kellogg, Talkspace’s VP of partnerships & sales effectiveness at From Day One’s Boston benefits event. The speakers explored the intersection of employee well-being and crafting an organizational culture that inspires and uplifts. “What we’re very passionate about is customizing and catering through our virtual mental health options,” said Kellogg. “You really have to step inside the arena with your employees to make sure that they're digesting the information and that you’re catering to their needs.”For instance, it’s important for a user or patient to be able to address a need in real time, potentially pairing up with a licensed therapist within hours or days. Talkspace currently has 5,000 licensed therapists across 50 different states that have a very diverse background. 40% of their therapists specialize in LGBTQ topics, 40% focus on adolescent care, and 30% of them focus on BIPOC patients or identify as BIPOC, with 35 different languages being represented.“That’s very deliberate to ensure that if your employee is looking for mental health care, they’re being treated as the individual they are,” said Kellogg. Benefits-wise, Talkspace is focused on the continuum of care, which, other than the standard offerings in mental health, includes medication management and psychiatry.Talkspace colleagues Kaleigh Oleynik and Ryan Kellogg led the thought leadership spotlight on what it takes to walk the walk when it comes to a mentally well workplace Current areas of interest include women’s health and mental-health resources for the adolescent population. “Over the past year we’ve been very aggressive about partnering with different organizations that also focus on the well-being of their employees, so that we can leverage their network and vice versa,” said Kellogg.At the core of Talkspace walking the walk, is their internal-communications strategy. “During times of deep change, like restructuring, layoffs, or just macro trends that are changing, we focus on communication. That is the root of psychological safety,” says Oleynik.Communication rooted in consistency breeds safety. At Talkspace, every two weeks there is an all-hands meeting that starts the same way: a video introduction, a leader talking, and a deep dive into a specific topic. “I think that last part is actually the most important because we know when people are feeling concerned about the company or disconnected, they can start to feel powerless and a little bit like they’re operating within some sort of black box,” said Oleynik.Oleynik also prioritizes creating a safe space for questions, even on matters that might be complicated or confusing. “We’re a public company, so we have earning calls,” Oleynik continues. “They can be technical, but I mandate that everyone listens to them and then we debrief them: I always say there are no stupid questions.”Communication is more complex than it seems. “I’ve learned the hard way that just because I put out information, am very deliberate, look people in the eye, and have meaningful conversation, doesn't necessarily mean that they feel appreciated,” says Kellogg. It’s imperative to have conversations with everyone, and “rubbing elbows with every layer of your chain of command,” so that you can cultivate trust and ensure everyone feels seen.And sometimes there can be disconnect, where you feel you’ve had these great conversations, but that might not be reciprocated. In this case, to create a feedback loop, Oleynik is a fan of surveys. When they surveyed their employees, “It was really helpful to see where we felt like we were doing a great job of communicating certain things” and also find the spots that could be communicated more thoroughly.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Talkspace, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Angelica Frey is a writer and a translator based in Boston and Milan.

Angelica Frey | April 03, 2024
Responding to Chronic Labor Shortages: How a Healthcare Giant Takes Innovative Approaches

Labor shortages persist at historic levels in 2024, with 1.7 million workers missing compared to February 2020. This was the focus of a fireside chat featuring Heather Brace, the chief people officer at Intermountain Healthcare, at From Day One’s Salt Lake City conference. Interviewed by Lauren Gustus, executive editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, Brace discussed how the organization is responding to these chronic labor shortages.At the height of the pandemic, Brace says Intermountain had 6,500 job openings. As the largest private employer in Utah, this figure was overwhelming. Keeping hospitals and doctors’ offices fully staffed with locals became near impossible.“We saw an explosion in all types of travel agency workers, particularly in nursing and other clinical jobs,” she said. These travel nurses cost Intermountain two to two-and-a-half times the standard nurses’ salary, Brace says.“They took advantage of things the industry hadn’t responded to appropriately,” she said. “When I look back, before the pandemic, I can see our nurses wanted a different type of wage structure. They wanted flexibility. They wanted autonomy. We had the opportunity to respond to that before the pandemic, but we’re a very traditional thinking industry. The mindset was ‘well, this is always worked for patients.’”But this pivot was overwhelming enough to force change.“We have doubled down on the remote strategy,” Brace said. “With the understanding that clinical people can’t often be remote, we acknowledge that one size fits all doesn’t work when it comes to remote work models.”Lauren Gustus of the Salt Lake Tribune, left, interviewed Heather Brace of Intermountain health, right, in a fireside chat With mobility came a need to rethink compensation.“We’ve increased wages almost 40% year over year,” she said. “With remote work sticking around, especially at Intermountain, people can move anywhere in the country and provide services to any organization. This means we’re now competing with California, Colorado, and all the surrounding states when recruiting. Utah has not been known for the best compensation in the nation, and now that’s being challenged.”The biggest impact to hiring, though, has been what Brace calls a “redesign of work.” “We’ve put a greater emphasis on mental health, ‘how do we take care of our people in the same way we’re taking care of our communities?” she said.Alongside mobility and higher wage, the answer was in implementing skill-based learning, recruiting diverse team members, and creating a sense of belonging.“We’ve developed a partnership with refugee organizations here in the valley, in addition to community and technical colleges,” Brace said. “We don’t have to spend operational dollars to train people to do work inside of our organization. Instead, we put them to work, and then it changes the trajectory of their life. We have so many educational programs that we can then use to continue to help promote someone.”Bringing folks from non-traditional pathways into healthcare has also boosted Intermountain’s diversity efforts. Amidst heated legislative battles over DEI programs in Utah, Brace says Intermountain will continue to hire people who represent the communities they serve.“It’s not only good for our organization, but it’s good for our patients,” she said. “It also creates a sense of belonging. Our intent is to nurture an inclusive environment where you can speak up, dress appropriately to your culture, and be able to thrive and grow. We’ve found a lot of success in that.”All the above has served to fill nearly 2,000 of the pandemic job openings. Despite the ever-present hurdles in the world of recruiting, Brace says she has a lot of hope for the future.“My teenage boys really believe that the world is their oyster,” she said. “I think we’ve got to take that on as human resource professionals; if we lean into it, it’ll be different, but it’ll all work out.”Jacqueline Mumford is a writer and Master of Accounting graduate from the University of Utah. When she’s not in Excel or writing an article, she loves to run, play Candy Crush, and read novels.

Jacqueline Mumford | April 02, 2024
Essential Skills to Drive Change Without Derailing Engagement

Adaptability to change is an essential skill for every team, especially in today’s workplace. That’s why leaders need to understand the science behind change, enabling them to create more resilient and agile workers. In a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s March virtual conference, Kevin Knox, facilitator lead at LifeLabs Learning, discussed the neurological science behind change. From looking at the change curves, he offered a simple technique to minimize resistance and improve commitment and action amidst change.“I’ve led over 600 workshops with our various partners and clients around the globe. A common theme when I ask managers, senior leaders, or individual contributors what they’re biggest challenge is, is change,” said Knox.In the context of employment, change could be something as significant as a reduction in force, a reorganization, or maybe a merger and acquisition that will impact the way you work. It could also be something smaller, such as moving from one project to another, losing a team member, or hiring someone new. Change is one of the top skills that a great leader should be mindful of and capable of leading people through, says Knox.Whenever we are asked to do something we haven’t habitually done before, we have to give it more deliberate thought. When we’re used to doing something, we have fully formed neural pathways that allow us to do things easily. When we’re not used to something, it’s much harder since our brains have to create space in a deliberate way that wasn’ there before, says Knox. Whenever there is any sort of change that we’re up against at work, whether big or small, our brain has to do more mental work. However, what happens neurologically in the brain when we’re asked to change is emotionally experienced as loss. We don’t always acknowledge it in an explicit way with our teams, departments, and within our organizations, but change always comes with a sense of loss. Kevin Knox of LifeLabs Learning led the virtual thought leadership spotlight (company photo)“And so at LifeLabs, what we like to do in particular, is to help managers, leaders and senior leaders to understand how they might help their people, especially with the cognitive challenges that change invites,” Knox said.At LifeLabs, they use a heuristic for the various things the brain might be monitoring for, asking questions like, ‘what are people's certainty levels? Do they have appropriate levels of autonomy? Is their work meaningful? Do they know what the work they’re working on links up to?’ All these things are important things that we monitor, but when change happens, every single one of these areas is impacted at some level. However, junior folks or new people to the team tend to worry first about certainty and job security when it comes to change. More senior folks want to know what they don’t know, such as scenario planning. This includes things like the macroeconomic climate or product project deliverables.In terms of autonomy, the experience can change from person to person. Depending on the change, it could hit differently for the same individual depending on the context of the change.The brain, by default, is a predictive engine. It really wants to have a story, to know that story, and prescribe that story, says Knox. This is also known as bias. Some biases serve us, and some don’t. So if we celebrate a culture of change, we create a positive bias toward that, he says. “Don’t worry about the change, don’t worry about the loss, and just stay positive,” Knox said. Lastly, it’s very crucial to give space for people to grieve. Organizational grief is a real, tangible thing, Knox says. Whether it’s something negative, like layoffs, or something positive like an acquisition, there is something people need to process in that change, and that is loss. So, as we deal with grief, the best thing to do when people are grieving is to allow them space to do so. Give them space to cognitively offload in order to process the change fully.Editor's note: From Day One thanks our partner, LifeLabs Learning, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.

Keren Dinkin | April 02, 2024
How Generous Benefits Can Make a Difference When Salaries are Maxed Out

For specialty retailer Backcountry, rewarding its workers goes hand-in-hand with enhancing the company’s adventure-driven culture. So benefits come in the form of adventure leaves, big employee discounts on outdoor recreation gear, healthy food, and even a dog-friendly workplace.In a fireside chat at From Day One’s Salt Lake City event, Benjamin Gross, chief people officer and general counsel at Backcountry, spoke with Mekenna Malan, editor at Utah Business on how generous benefits can make a difference when employee salaries are already maxed out. One thing that’s universal across industries is tremendous wage growth. At Backcountry, wages have increased by 30% since 2019, says Gross. They pay somewhere in the median for privately held e-commerce companies, he says.  In terms of talent, what’s really important to them is coming up with a way to make employees want to not only join, but also stay with them. And so, they have a culmination of creative benefits specific to their workforce. One of the unique ways they make their employees feel happy is very simple: they allow people to bring their dogs. There are house rules, but ultimately, Gross notes that they have a big group of dogs in the office on any given day, sometimes even his own are included. The bring a dog policy aligns with Backcountry’s outdoors-oriented culture. For other companies, this could translate into something else that allows for an element of relaxation and fun in the workplace.Gross also shares how the shift to hybrid work caused a bit of distress for some, but they found a happy medium to make back-to-office work more bearable. “We have a lot of things we built into the schedule to be more flexible. We allow anyone to leave for a month, anywhere they want to go, as long as they’re available in mountain time hours, and do their work. We’re good with that, ” he said.Mekenna Malan, right, interviewed Ben Gross of Backcountry on the benefits that keep their workers happy and their culture strongThey also took a vote on having half-day Fridays versus every other Friday off work in exchange for longer work days, Monday through Thursday. They came to a 90% vote in favor of every other Friday off and have been doing that for three years now. Another thing that Backcountry focused on was a robust employee assistance program (EAP), especially amid the influx of mental health distress and FMLA leaves being filed. “For the first time ever in summer of 2021, we were getting more mental health-related FMLA requests than those for physical health issues.”In addition to finding a robust EAP system, Backcountry also requires all of its managers to be trained to identify mental health distress in their employees. The company’s EAP also has counselor benefits for employees and their families, too.Backcountry has also taken a gamified approach to benefits, with a “gold points” system. Every manager and director gets a new allotment of gold points to hand out each month. These could be for a work achievement or personal achievement, and they use a bespoke platform where everybody can build their points and everyone can see the leaderboard. The points can be redeemed for ski passes, gift cards, marathons, and the like.Gross says that a big part of it is really understanding your target market and your workforce. In the case of Backcountry, the dogs-allowed policy stemmed from an understanding that a lot of their customers have dogs, and their employees (who share the same backgrounds as customers) also have dogs. “So part of it is understanding your workforce and trying to tailor it the best you can,” said Gross. One way to check the temperature for this is through engagement surveys and climate surveys. At Backcountry, this is done four times a year. During their earlier days, it used to happen every other week—to really try and zero in on culture and what people want, he says. Culture is really important, Gross highlights. From the benefits to the general sense of belonging, these are all unquantifiable things that employees value, sometimes more than a higher paycheck. In the case of “boomerang employees,” Gross shares how some people leave Backcountry for higher salaries, only to return to their old jobs because the culture was unmatched.Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.

Keren Dinkin | April 02, 2024