Tech-Driven, Human-Centered: Building the Future of Work

BY Gail Gonzales | June 28, 2023

While some employees fear layoffs due to AI, including HR professionals and recruiters, Jerry Aubin, the CEO of BountyJobs asserts that “leveraging technology is the best path to maximize the humanity of our organizations.” Humanity, connection, and empathy are not just what the incoming generation of workers want, it’s what they expect. Aubin led a thought leadership spotlight on the subject, titled, “Tech-Driven, Human-Centered: Building the Future of Work” during From Day One's Austin conference. 

While well-being and humanity were addressed during Covid, many companies resorted back to outdated norms resulting in a mass exodus of 50 million people from the workforce in 2022. A LinkedIn study revealed that 87% of Gen Z professionals are prepared to go elsewhere if another organization aligns with their values. A staggering 80% of employees are not fully engaged in their work and two-thirds are not feeling good about their well-being according to a recent Gallup poll. Aubin asks, “How can we possibly expect these people to bring their A-game to work?”

What Does Humanity In the Workplace Look Like?

Humanity isn’t built into a benefits package or stated in a company policy. Younger workers have cited open, transparent, ethical leadership as well as diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplaces in addition to empathy as top priorities. Managers need to know and genuinely care about what’s happening in employees' lives without being intrusive.

Aubin said it’s also about “doing everything possible to help [employees] succeed not only in the office, but when they're outside of them.” Empathy also comes in the form of flexibility. Aubin shared the story of an employee who had skills that were impossible to replace. He also needed to care for an aging parent out of state. This employee had already been working in a full-time remote position for the last three years. Despite all the time and effort he put into identifying solutions to ensure the organization wouldn't be impacted, leadership refused to budge on the requirement to stay in Austin. As a result, he walked–and decades of critical knowledge walked out with him.

Intentionally Blending Humanity and Technology

Technology simultaneously has the power to massively disrupt the way we do business, yet Aubin is sure that “these same tools are going to help us get to the core of what we need–and that is the human aspect of our most critical work.”

Jeremy Aubin, the CEO of BountyJobs, led the thought leadership spotlight in Austin, Texas (photo by Cassandra Sajna for From Day One)

Ethan Moloch, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, is promoting a helpful framework for using AI to accomplish some of the tedious work we don’t want to do anyway. “Several billion people just got free interns,” Aubin said. “The [technology] is smart...but at the same time, it must be trained. We have to figure out the best way to divide up the work between us and them.” Recent studies show that people achieved huge bumps in productivity by using AI tools while reporting significantly higher job satisfaction. 

Aubin decided to put one of these tools, ChatGPT, to the test after reading an article in HR Executive predicting that AI will make HR extinct. ChatGPT excels at language focused tasks just like the work that currently consumes the vast majority of time for knowledge workers like HR staff. Aubin began by asking the tool to compare a candidate's resume to a job description to see if they were a good fit. ChatGPT noted how the candidate had an extensive background including telemedicine even though it wasn't mentioned in the job description since telemedicine is a huge factor influencing health care right now. While the resume made no mention of the candidate’s willingness to travel, ChatGPT made the correct inference based on its understanding of the role that the candidate was a good fit for.

In another experiment, Aubin posed as an agency recruiter. He gave the same resume and job description to the system, but instead asked it how to improve the resume for a more compelling match to the job description. Concrete specific suggestions came back that “even my 18-year-old would manage to follow. If I were working at an agency and saw results like this from a brand-new intern fresh off the streets with zero training, I would be absolutely thrilled.”

Aubin is not advocating for AI tools to do all the work, rather, the tools can help us do our best work. Envision one of your internal recruiters. What will their day be like after they have trained an army of interns to handle some of the tasks that enable your organization to function? “My hope is that [the recruiter] will be able to focus her time on the part of her job that she actually loves–and that's being an ambassador for your company and creating and nurturing those relationships with candidates. No AI is ever going to replace the genuine human connections that make people feel seen, valued, and ultimately, in our interests, beg to be hired. How impactful might an outcome like that be for your organization?” asked Aubin. Ultimately, blending transformative technologies with the irreplaceable power of human connection is our best chance of providing the satisfaction and fulfillment employees not only demand but deserve.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, BountyJobs, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.

Gail Gonzales is a writer, brand strategist, and designer based in Austin, Texas. Her boutique agency, Evolve Your Brand, helps business owners who care about the positive evolution of people or the planet amplify their message.

Related Stories

The New Era of Workplace Giving: Meeting Donors Where They Are

While 94% of major corporations offer charitable giving programs, only about one in five employees participate in them. The lack of employee engagement programs often leaves corporations without a seamless solution for integrating charitable acts into daily workplace activitiesThis “generosity gap,” as philanthropy experts call it, represents billions in potential charitable dollars left on the table. This reveals a fundamental disconnect between corporate giving structures and employee expectations in today’s socially conscious global landscape.“Today’s workforce expects technology experiences to mirror what they encounter in their personal lives," said Sam Caplan, VP of social impact at Submittable during a From Day One webinar. “When a company’s giving program feels disconnected from their values, or when it’s just hard to navigate or engage with, we know that they’re much less likely to participate.” Submittable solves the long-standing problem of revolutionizing outdated technology and approaches that treat charitable giving as a separate, often cumbersome activity rather than a seamless extension of everyday work life, says Caplan.“When we force donors into unfamiliar paradigms, and then we kind of scratch our heads afterwards to say, why are we struggling with engagement? It’s because we’re forcing them to do things outside of their normal flow of life,” said Chris Battles, principal product manager at Submittable.New workplace giving technologies are making charitable contributions as simple as tapping a phone or clicking a button. Submittable’s platform lets employees accumulate donation funds through recognition programs, wellness challenges, or personal contributions, then easily direct those funds to causes they care about, all without leaving their workflow, the speakers shared. This especially matters in cases where timeliness matters, like during natural disasters, says Madison Silver, senior product marketer at Submittable.Small Acts of Generosity Build Company CultureThe business case for modernizing these programs extends beyond philanthropy. Companies report that well-designed giving programs boost employee satisfaction and retention, particularly among younger workers who increasingly expect employers to provide platforms that support personal social impact goals. In a global economy where talent acquisition remains challenging, the competitive advantage of charitable modernization becomes paramount to bottom line success.Industry leaders emphasize several key principles for successful program modernization. First, personalize the experience by offering flexible giving options that align with employees’ values and lifestyles. Next, remove friction by making giving as easy as buying coffee or sending money to a friend. Then, integrate giving with existing programs, connecting it to rewards, recognition, and other HR initiatives. Enable giving in the moment by providing tools that allow employees to contribute whenever they’re inspired. Finally, celebrate small contributions, recognizing that even modest donations can have a meaningful impact.“We’re turning everyday moments into opportunities for impact, and in doing so, we’re not just recognizing employees, we’re empowering them to become philanthropists,” Caplan said.As the boundaries between work and personal life continue to blur, particularly in hybrid work environments, companies that successfully integrate giving opportunities into the daily experience of employees are finding that generosity doesn’t need to be taught, it simply needs to be enabled.The most innovative organizations are shifting from treating charitable giving as a separate initiative to embedding it into the everyday work experience. This transformation aims to close the long-standing generosity gap that has challenged corporate philanthropy leaders for years.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Submittable, for sponsoring this webinar.Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photo by Ruslana Chub/iStock)

Christopher O'Keeffe April 21, 2025

What Trump’s Immigration Agenda Means for Employers

Do you and your team have a plan in place if ICE shows up at your office looking for one of your employees? It’s a shocking thought, but something that HR must now consider in our new normal.The new Trump Administration 2.0 is moving aggressively on new immigration policies, including significant changes to the immigration process. Yet we have plenty of experience from his first term to help guide us toward adapting to the new era.During a recent From Day One webinar, attorneys Matthew Hellrung and Matthew Meltzer, co-Founders and managing partners of Meltzer Hellrung Immigration Solutions, discussed what they see as the most likely immediate adjustments, as well as later developments, and the steps you can take now to ensure compliance and minimize disruptions to your immigration program moving forward.They offered an insightful and practical guide to how employers can adapt and anticipate the myriad changes to U.S. immigration policy to ensure access to a global talent pool.The State of ImmigrationPrior to the start of the new Trump administration, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS), had a 4% denial rate, U.S. Department of State (DOS) had a 20% denial rate, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was largely focused on arresting undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions or pending charges.“I-9 enforcement was focusing on employers that didn’t use E-Verify and employers that were suspected to have people who might not have work authorization, businesses that have historically unauthorized workers, like car washes, factories, or slaughterhouses,” Meltzer said.Actions Affecting Lawful Immigration PathwaysUnder the new administration, lawful entry into the U.S. has become even more difficult. Refugee entry, including pending applications, has been suspended indefinitely pending a 90-day review and report, stranding 22,000 previously approved refugees. And there is a directive heightening the already very high identification standards such that current unsettled approvals may be denied. This is a particular challenge for those coming from countries that don’t have as rigorous and standardized an ID system as the U.S., Hellrung says. Matthew Hellrung (pictured), led the webinar along with Matthew Meltzer (company photo)Asylum seekers, those who arrive at the U.S. border claiming a credible fear of persecution in their home country, unlike refugees who wait in their home country for approval, are also facing challenges. “Via the Constitution and the various immigration laws, CBP is required to accept those individuals to document who they are, to potentially interview them for their asylum claims, and then release them into the United States with a court date to plead their case for the asylum benefit that they’ve applied for at the border. As soon as Trump took office, essentially all asylum applications that were in process were halted,” Hellrung said. Reports indicate CBP no longer honors asylum claims at any U.S. Border, and the “CBP one app” asylum interview system was terminated a few days into the new administration, canceling 30,000 appointments. Humanitarian programs and parole, which are generally granted by executive order, are no longer available for Cuban, Haitian, Ukrainian, Venezuelan, Nicaraguan nationals seeking entry. Trump also ended Biden’s green card program reuniting families separated from children (enacted in response to the first Trump administration), and ICE is now allowed to invalidate anyone’s parole immediately.  Temporary Protected Status (TPS) has been partially rescinded for over 800,000 people. “[TPS] is temporary permission that allows folks coming from war torn countries, famine, and natural disasters to enter the United States for temporary period of time,” Hellrung said. “There are a lot of folks employed as Venezuelans [and Ukrainians] in TPS status. They do have the authorization to work. They pass the I-9 process.” He says the administration is likely to rescind most or all TPS designations in the next 18 months, impacting 14 nationalities. DOS has also made it harder for visas to be renewed abroad via Dropbox. And some moves have happened as political retaliation, such as the canceling of hundreds of Colombian visas after the country complained about deportees, and the looming threat of canceling F-1 student visas for supposed Hamas sympathizers, often conflated with those simply supporting Palestinian rights.  Hellrung says some of the more extreme measures may not come to pass, including the executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship. “It’s pretty clear in the Constitution that birthright citizenship is a right. We don’t think this is going anywhere.” But he warns to expect continued ICE harassment and arrests of green card holders and U.S. citizens as the officers work to meet their arrest quotas. Actions Affecting Undocumented ImmigrantsWhile most employers are less concerned about the actions affecting those who are in the U.S. illegally, “it can still have a significant impact if you are a supermarket or a place where people congregate publicly–a food bank, a health clinic.” Even if your employees are here legally, your clientele may not be, and ICE will often make their arrests at public gathering spots for easy access. ICE noncriminal arrests have increased tenfold, and ICE is now empowered to remove someone from the country immediately without due process.Meltzer advises employers to stay prepared regardless of their direct workforce or customer base. “I always remind all of my clients that you don’t know who your employees’ families are,” he said. “You can have people who work for you who are U.S. citizens, who are married to undocumented workers. You can have people who are U.S. citizens who are the children of undocumented people. The stress here is real for workforces, regardless of whether they’re not undocumented.”One of the biggest changes is that DOS has been ordered to create a registration process for all non-U.S. citizens and failure to register would be a criminal offense. Meltzer notes that this law has actually been on the books since the 1940’s but was never truly implemented until now. Immigration enforcement is taking top priority, as workers from other agencies like the IRS, DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security are being taken off of other criminal enforcement to focus on immigration instead. Most of these provisions against undocumented immigrants, Hellrung says, have lawsuits against them pending in the federal courts. What to Expect NextGoing forward, Hellrung warns employers to expect travel bans in over a dozen countries, while others will be expected to improve their security and information sharing so their citizens can still be allowed to travel to the U.S. plus delayed consular processing for visas. Employers may be impacted by increased barriers to immigration benefits, including higher income requirements for permanent residency and an increase in filing fees for humanitarian, family, and employment-based visas. There may also be termination of work authorizations for asylum applicants, parolees, and H-4, L-2, E-3D, and J-2 dependent authorizations.“You should know who these people are inside of your workforce and identify them because they are at risk of losing work authorization,” Hellrung said. “It would be a good idea to sponsor that person in the [visa] lottery if they qualify.” Plus, there may be termination of TPS designations and all humanitarian parole, affecting about 1.5 to 2 million immigrants in the U.S. with work authorizations. And a rise in inquiries, audits, and denials across all family and employment-based filings. Trump has mentioned a substantive change in the H-1B lottery system, making it more merit-based, but what that means exactly has yet to be determined. Currently, Hellrung’s clients are already experiencing increased site visits from USCIS and ICE, auditing I-9s, checking on H-1B and L-1 workers, or doing worksite raids for specific individuals. They also anticipate increased immigration coordination and enforcement by federal, state, and local law enforcement, since the “mass influx” designation allows the deputization of state and local agents. How to Stay PreparedIn the face of this daunting information, there are a few concrete ways Meltzer and Hellrung suggest employers can stay prepared: Centralize your company’s I-9 and immigration data. Adopt a system that allows for safe storage and quick reporting and adopt E-Verify or E-Verify+ if appropriate. Review your I-9 completion, storage, and audit procedures. A spot audit might be useful to understand your overall financial risk.File everything you can file now! This includes work authorization extensions, before the possible expiration. Initiate green card cases as long-term solutions and ask vendors to prioritize the fastest options, including EB-1, EB-2 NIW, and EB-2EA. And sponsor workers for the H-1B lottery if you can. Create a site visit protocol plan. Who will receive a government agent? Where will you put them? Do you know your employer rights? The latter, the ICE site visit, is the most daunting for many employers. Gather as much information as possible, including names, agencies, and badges. Know which parts of your business are considered public and which are considered private, which impacts whether a warrant is needed. Be ready to supply paperwork when asked. Meltzer advises to keep your cool “and don’t assume the government is going to do everything right.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Meltzer Hellrung , 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, On New Jersey, and CBS New York.(Photo by AnnaStills/iStock)

Katie Chambers April 16, 2025

Leading Transformation When There’s No Playbook

As companies continue to introduce change initiatives borne from both internal and external sources, it becomes more vital for leaders to have the ability to navigate teams through uncertainty while sustaining engagement and connection.“When we talk about transformation where there is no playbook, the previous rules about leadership and management and what you do, don’t apply,” said Carl Sanders-Edwards, CEO and co-founder of Adeption, during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Silicon Valley conference.Since the inception of desktop computing and its transition to the cloud environment, we have lived through multiple shifts in computing power and how work gets done. With the emergence of AI, we are in a new era of possibility that is again profoundly impacting jobs and workflow. Companies are leaning toward using AI to solve technical challenges and leaving more nuanced work for humans.Technical vs. Adaptive ChallengesTechnical challenges with teachable processes, a defined path, and known solutions are a bit clearer, but novel, or adaptive, challenges often haven’t been done before and have no known solution. The problem and the solution may be intertwined and need to be separated before progress is made; experimentation and learning will likely be required from everyone involved. A significant percentage of change efforts fail, Edwards says, because organizations treat adaptive challenges the same way they treat technical challenges. “One of the greatest things we can give the leaders and the people that we serve in our field is letting them know about the distinction between these two things, and there are different approaches for different types of challenges,” he said.Edwards acknowledges that success isn’t as linear as we may think; it isn’t as simple as taking data in, responding with action, and receiving a result. There is a hidden step between data receipt and response where the data is filtered through our mindset and influences emotion, which in turn influences our response. “We see the world as we are, not it as it is. And we're always projecting ourselves onto the world,” he said. Harnessing these unconscious mindsets is one key to effectively managing and resolving an adaptive challenge. This type of challenge appears resistant to teachable techniques because we are using prior experience and knowledge to solve something that is completely new. However, the overarching, high-level suggestions that come from our unconscious mindsets can help teams to progress on adaptive challenges.Carl Sanders Edwards, CEO and co-founder of Adeption, led the thought leadership spotlight Citing the example of a Silicon Valley company experiencing a decline in sales, Edwards outlined a few mindsets that might be helpful in that type of adaptive situation. A product expert mindset might focus solely on product perfection and attempt to make the product better. An achiever mindset may set goals and enforce attainment, promote training, or recommend more sales people. A transformative mindset may introduce new systems, while a marketing awareness mindset would avoid negative market impact by changing the product’s pricing model from subscription to consumption-based.Identify, Refine, and Apply Unconscious MindsetsWhen we have experiences, we create stories (good or bad) and those stories become a part of our unconscious mindset. By adding deliberate reflection and speaking with another person about it, says Edwards, we can refine that story to heighten our awareness, accelerating the ability to create and access these mindsets for future problem-solving.This is the origin of Adeption’s B3 leadership development methodology, which promotes habit-based learning in the flow of work. During his session, Edwards invited audience members to consider a challenge of their own through this lens and think about anything they might be able to do differently once the session ended:Be conscious. Reflect and make sense of the current situation you’re in. What’s important? What’s working? What isn’t?Be curious. Gain inspiration from other perspectives, ideas, and tools. Can any of the concepts learned today help with your challenge?Be better. Deliberately experiment with new ways of leading in response to what currently matters, learning from success and failure.Over 80,000 people have used this methodology to plan 500,000+ deliberate actions. Leadership struggles were reduced by 54%, 360° scores were impacted (others noticed an increased ability to empathize), and this method appears to accelerate progress on resolving adaptive challenges.It is helpful for people to understand their own unconscious mindsets and grow their range, Edwards says. Assessments are available for individuals to identify their predominant mindset, including an Adeption assessment that also allows users to “try on” other mindsets. People have seen new things that seemed to be hiding in plain sight after trying alternative mindsets.Edwards notes that the skill to develop skills is very important for future leaders. He said “I also think that the disruption that we’re facing now is not a doom and gloom situation. It’s actually a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create the type of leadership we need in this world.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Adeption, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight.Jessica Swenson is a freelance writer based in the Midwest. Learn more about her at jmswensonllc.com.(Photos by David Coe for From Day One)

Jessica Swenson April 15, 2025