When Andrew Gold started at the mailing and shipping company Pitney Bowes, he couldn’t help but recognize the company culture was ahead of its time.

In the 40s and 50s, “Our CEO at the time wanted to hire people from our communities in the right match of what our communities look like,” Gold said. “He took a sales conference away from a hotel because they would not let our African American employees in. We’ve always had a really good, inclusive culture.”

Today, as senior vice president and chief human resource officer, Gold continues to build on the company’s strong work culture while improving the employee experience.

“We started looking at better onboarding, and making sure we have our benefits coming out in multi-language magazines for our employees,” Gold said. “The general culture for us has been good and we are trying to keep that because that has been a differentiator for us. It is one of the reasons I stayed along with ongoing development and opportunities.”

To maintain an authentic culture of well-being for employees, HR leaders like Gold must hold true to company values while adapting to changing times. At From Day One’s Manhattan conference, Corinne Lestch, associate editor at Forbes, spoke with leaders in a conversation on ways they have adapted to provide an authentic culture of well-being for their employees.

Listen First, Then Act

Companies who listen to their employees can reap many benefits. In a study of employee listening, researchers found employees who felt their voice was heard were 74% more likely to be engaged and effective at work.

Andrea Cooper, chief people officer at online therapy company Talkspace, reflects on the value of listening to employees as an HR leader and the benefits it could yield in ensuring employees’ continual engagement.

“Listening to our employees is not that kind of paternalistic role where we say, “We’re HR, we know what you need and we’re going to give it to you,’” Cooper said. “[Listening] says “Tell us and let’s design together and let’s make adjustments.” These adjustments might be big ones or little ones, but listening gets us much better outcomes from a creative solution perspective.”

Listening allows companies and leaders to understand what employees’ thoughts and concerns are and can provide valuable data on what may be needed to create a better work culture. From listening, companies need to make actionable changes that resolve employee’s issues and concerns, Kumud Sharma, chief people officer at money management company Betterment, said.

“If you’re listening to your employees through engagement surveys or employee’s 360 reviews, there are nuggets of knowledge in there and as long as you take them and address them head-on, you will have a great culture and a great environment,” Sharma said. “You ask employees three times how they feel about the manager or the company, but if you do nothing about it, you will never hear from them again. So, make sure that not only are you asking the right questions, but when you are given the answer, you do an actionable thing with that information.”

Creating a Safe Work Environment Through Example

In cultivating a healthy and safe work environment, researchers found that 88% of employees appreciate it when their leaders talk about their own mental health, suggesting that vulnerability and relatability may be qualities that employees seek from a manager when asking for help.

Normalizing these types of conversations should be something companies should strive for, Cooper said. “I think we need to normalize having these conversations and having leaders at all levels model that behavior..”

Through leadership examples, employees may find it easier to discuss their own mental health concerns and needs. This can help build an authentic culture where employees can show up as their whole selves, Cooper says.

“There’s a readiness and openness for mental health conversations. There is this drive to be real and bring who you are to work in a way that does not feel like you are punished or negatively impacted if you speak to it,” Cooper said.

Tailoring Work Environment to Fit Employees’ Needs

With over 12,000 employees across the globe, Sumita Banerjee, chief human resource officer at KDC/one, recognized the need to have a work culture that was tailored to each region and its cultural nuances.

“It is understanding the needs of our people wherever they may be in the world and meeting where they are. In Mexico, for example, we have about 3,500 employees, of whom 70% are women, and 50% of the leadership team is made up of women. So, there we are thinking about programs that women are interested in like talks on gender discrimination or women’s empowerment,” Banerjee said.

With a more personalized work culture, Banerjee said this can help to create a more authentic environment for local workers. Recognizing each culture as its own when cultivating a work culture can also aid leaders in developing ways to best support their workers.

“We need to think about how we are communicating differently. For example, we need to surround our teams with flexible ways of working but also think about childcare differently or think about how we are incorporating the families,” Banerjee said. “It is having a holistic approach for our people to see what they are experiencing outside of work and where they need support.”

Removing Barriers to Help

54.5% of the U.S. population have employment-based health insurance showing the large responsibility companies have in providing health care access to their employees.

At a time of a crisis or health issue, companies need to be able to quickly and effectively provide the help their employees need. To reduce delays in services or treatments, companies should provide upfront or easy-to-access tools for employees to utilize, Carrie Maltese, senior vice president of corporate HR at NBCUniversal, said.

“At the time of a crisis or a mental health concern, it’s too late to have to fill out 75 forms and talk to ten different people, so we try to cut out all of that noise,” Maltese said. “If an employee comes to us and says, “I'm experiencing some depression,” we allow them to go out on short-term disability leave, and it is approved automatically for 30 days, which gives them 30 days to work with or find a doctor. The other thing we did was offer ten free counseling sessions. Hopefully, the employees do not have many, but every new situation provides ten more free sessions with a qualified counselor.”

Wanly Chen is a writer and poet based in New York City.