Bridging Business Goals with Human-Centric Hiring to Impact the Bottom Line

BY Jeanhee Kim | May 30, 2024

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Measuring the Impact of Your Leadership Development Programs

How do you measure the true impact of leadership development? Despite significant investment in leadership development, many organizations continue to struggle with quantifying its impact. As companies pour billions into cultivating future leaders, measurable indicators of return remain elusive Only 24% of organizations feel like they’re doing a good job of measuring the impact of their leadership development programs, emphasized leadership experts at a From Day One webinar. At Otter Tail Corporation, a Minnesota-based holding company with utility and manufacturing businesses, CHRO Paul Knutson transformed the company's leadership approach after joining in 2012. “The board had just gone through their long term strategy, and one of the three imperatives had to do with developing our talent,” Knutson said. “The talent at our leadership level was lacking, and those that had been in leadership roles were not staying as long as we had wanted them to.”The revamped program Knutson implemented identifies and connects high potential leaders across divisions empowering employees to solve real business challenges between previously unconnected avenues of collaboration. This cross-functional approach has generated unexpected bottom line benefits for Otter Tail throughout the frameworks of their enterprise, he says.  “We wanted to create a sense of belonging within the corporate enterprise, to create an enterprise mindset so that people within each company weren’t thinking only about themselves or only about their company,” he said. Fostering a culture where the norm is reaching out to colleagues in other divisions creates a denser organizational network that accelerates innovation and decision-making.Real Problems, Real ResultsAt Sundt Construction, a 135-year-old employee-owned builder with 4,300 employees, leadership programs directly tackle business challenges.“Our executive team identifies pain points from our strategic plan,” said Melissa Moreno, vice president, director of administrative talent development at Sundt. “They tell our leadership teams, ‘Here’s a problem. It’s your opportunity to solve it.’”Erik Williams of MDA Leadership spoke with leaders from Otter Tail Corp., and Sundt Construction (photo by From Day One)This approach produced tangible results when one team addressed field engineer training deficiencies. They created a boot camp program that has become an essential part of Sundt’s operations. “That program is now in its fourth year,” Moreno said. “Many of the leaders who developed it are now instructors, and over 130 field engineers have completed the training.”Enacting Measurement Principles Progressive companies using advanced measurement techniques can trace the ripple effects of leadership development across their organizations. By going beyond traditional surveys and tracking cross-functional collaboration among leaders, they’re seeing improved employee retention.“Your measurement strategy needs to match your program objectives,” said Erik Williams, principal consultant at MDA Leadership. “If you’re trying to break down barriers between departments, measure cross-functional interactions. If developing future executives is the goal, track promotion rates and succession readiness.”At Otter Tail, all leadership program participants reported spending more time developing talent on their teams after training, with 65% of their managers independently confirming this observation.Despite economic pressures, companies like Sundt Construction are doubling down on leadership development. Its strategic plan through 2035 includes continued investment in its leadership pipeline. “The outcome of these types of programs, where you get leaders, you give them the opportunity to develop, to accelerate their leadership capability, to stack hands with one another. And over time, those relationships continue to deepen,” said Williams.For organizations considering similar investments, the panelists offered practical advice. “Start with an effective assessment process,” Knutson said. “Self-awareness is the foundation of development.”Moreno emphasized the importance of manager involvement. “Definitely include the managers of the participants. Early and often, they need to understand how they impact the success of their employees going through this program, what the expectation is for them, and how they can help them throughout the process.”For skeptical executives demanding ROI evidence, Knutson offered his perspective: “Be clear about what’s not working and the cost of it not working. What’s going to happen if we don’t take care, if we don’t meet our needs, if we don’t fill this gap.” Especially today, leadership development may be less about creating individual stars and more about building networked teams equipped to navigate uncertainty together.“The organizations that thrive will be those that can rapidly assemble diverse perspectives around emerging challenges,” Williams said. “That doesn’t happen by accident, it’s cultivated through intentional development that connects people across traditional boundaries.”Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, MDA Leadership, for sponsoring this webinar. Chris O’Keeffe is a freelance writer with experience across industries. As the founder and creative director of OK Creative: The Language Agency, he has led strategy and storytelling for organizations like MIT, Amazon, and Cirque du Soleil, bringing their stories to life through established and emerging media.(Photo by Nansan Houn/iStock)

Christopher O'Keeffe June 09, 2025

Peace of Mind: How Employers Can Help Workers Get Their Final Wishes in Order

Have you thought about your end of life wishes? “As of 2025, 24% of Americans have a will, although 67% of Americans acknowledge that this is a very important document,” said Paul Fried, founding member of I Made the Arrangements.Fried spent a year and a half building a website focused on end-of-life planning. Through the lens of human resources, this kind of benefit, like offering a will and encouraging employees to document their plans, can create a meaningful partnership between employer and employee, he shared during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s Minneapolis conference. It also gives employers a way to approach support with compassion—recognizing that employees are whole people with complex lives. By offering a tool to ease the logistics of difficult life circumstances, companies can show care beyond the workplace.Paul Fried, founder of I Made the Arrangements, led the thought leadership spotlight The website includes features like a “wish capture,” where users can document their end-of-life preferences and share them as a PDF. It also offers a will builder with advanced directives. Employees can then designate a wish keeper, or someone who will receive access to these documents after the employee’s passing. The employees can write their own eulogy, obituary, or video eulogy, final thoughts, e-mail your children every year, and upload videos that can be synced with music. “While over six in 10 (63%) older adults say they have had an end-of-life conversation with a loved one, far fewer have made end-of-life preparations like preparing a last will and testament (36%) or a living will (33%),” according to Cheryl L. Lampkin in Thoughts on End of Life: For Most, Concerns do not Equate to Action. Moreover, less than half of the adults aged 45 and older who have not made these or similar preparations, say it is very likely they will.Most employees don’t leave jobs because of pay, they more often leave because they are not appreciated, Fried says. End of life planning support helps build a genuine feeling of appreciation and value for workers, says Fried. Employees might not remember how much their bonus was, or how many steps they took in a wellness app but they will remember the company and the employers that helped guide them through life’s most challenging situations. Fried created I Made the Arrangements with a clear goal: to take the stigma out of end-of-life planning and turn a traditionally taboo topic into something approachable and empowering. By offering creative, compassionate benefits like this, employers can do more than support their teams, they can strengthen employee loyalty, deepen trust, and improve retention by showing they care about the full arc of their employees’ lives.Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, I Made the Arrangements, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Tabitha Cabrera, Esq. is a writer and attorney, who has a series of inclusive children's books, called Spectacular Spectrum Books.(Photos by Travis Johansen for From Day One)

Tabitha Cabrera June 06, 2025

How to Shape Your Workforce for Peak Performance

David Bator, managing director at Achievers Workforce Institute still remembers his first encounter with José Morales. They met at an annual customer conference, where Morales, then executive director at Cineplex, shared a story that stayed with him. Over 22 years, Morales had risen through the company’s ranks, starting from one of the most unglamorous roles in the theater: scooping popcorn.“I asked him how many jobs he’d had in 22 years. And he said he’d had 10,” Bator said during a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s NYC benefits conference. His first job was scooping popcorn, and his second was teaching people how to. Bator says he went on to pry if Morales had any education that prepared him to excel at scooping popcorn and teaching others how, but, unsurprisingly, that wasn’t the case. Morales credited his ability to empathize, collaborate, and problem-solve, plus Cineplex’s ability to recognize these skills, for his rise up the corporate ladder. Morales developed his skills on the job because the opportunities were there—and because the company created space for growth. That, Bator noted, is the difference between employee engagement and employee experience: engagement is the outcome, but experience is what makes it possible.David Bator, managing director at Achievers Workforce Institute, led the session “Employee engagement is the commitment an individual makes to doing the job they’re paid to do,” he said. Bator went on to define employee experience as “the responsibility we all share to create conditions so that employees can be engaged in the first place.” Organizations can’t measure engagement without first building an environment that enables it, he says.  Bator’s four C’s of shaping employee experience challenge traditional notions of engagement by emphasizing connection, celebration, compensation, and choice as the pillars of an efficient workforce. Only 15% of employees think their organization effectively connects them to colleagues, despite the explosion of collaboration tools like Slack, Trello, and Google Docs. Bator urges leaders to make improving connections between employees a top priority. He recommends investing in platforms that provide easy access to people, skills, and resources, and regularly conducting meaningful manager one-on-ones. Bator notes that surveys compiled by Niagara Institute show employees are twice as likely to feel like they belong when connected to the rest of their team, and 28% say being connected gives them the confidence to tackle unexpected challenges. Celebration is the second “C” of employee engagement. It’s a catch-all phrase for recognition, award, and reward. Bator cites data from Achievers that shows employees who receive frequent, impact-driven recognition are more than three times more likely to be engaged, and more than five times more likely to feel they belong. The data also shows that workers who are recognized at least monthly are ten times more likely to recommend their manager and less inclined to job hunt even if their salaries lag behind market rates.“It’s better than nothing, but it’s worse than average,” Bator said, challenging the annual award status quo. When surveyed, 58% of employees reported annual awards felt repetitive, while 71% said the same people won each year. 58% wanted consistent recognition at least monthly. “What gets recognized gets repeated,” Bator said, citing data that reveals recognition tied to DEI programs led to a 300% increase in engagement. Bator says while employee pay matters, it’s not the sole driver of engagement. One survey shows 75% of workers would prefer a job that made them feel valued over one that paid 30% more. Only 53% felt fairly compensated for their roles, but that number jumped to 73% among employees who were recognized monthly. Bator coined the term emotional salary to include the daily moments that make employees feel seen, valued, and supported beyond what raises and promotions can provide. Choice is Bator’s final “C,” and he notes that while 21 to 26% of employees enroll in wellness programs, more personalized benefits shaped by frequent feedback drive 50% higher engagement and 88% increased feelings of value. “We’re leaving one-size-fits-all programs for an era of hyper-personalization,” he said, urging organizations to survey employees at least quarterly on what they need to thrive. Bator closed his presentation by returning to his popcorn anecdote about his friend José Morales of Cineplex. Morales has held over ten jobs with Cineplex over 22 years, from scooping popcorn to an executive role, because his employer recognized his open-mindedness, collaborative mindset, and problem-solving skills. “Our role in talent and HR is to create conditions so people can do the best work of their lives,” Bator said. Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Achievers, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. Ade Akin covers workplace wellness, HR trends, and digital health solutions.(Photos by Hason Castell for From Day One)

Ade Akin June 04, 2025